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Manga Summaries

Twin Knight (Good Friend)

Although The Twin Knights (1958-59) is a follow up to the original Princess Knight [Shojo Club] (1953-56), in a strange way, it owes much of it’s existence to a little-known work of Osamu Teukza’s known as The Kokeshi Detective Bureau (1957)

Leo the Lion Cub (First Grader)

With the success of the 1965 anime television series, Osamu Tezuka also decided to revisit Jungle Emperor (1950-54) in manga format – only this time for a much younger audience. Not truly a sequel, the 20 short stories, collectively known as Leo the Lion Cub (1965-67), were simultaneously published on a monthly schedule by Shogakukan in both Kindergartener and First Grader from April 1965 to March 1967 and (presumably as the readership got older) in both Third Grader and Fourth Grader from May to November 1966.

Jungle Emperor (Manga Shonen)

Originally planned as a one–shot manga entitled Mitsurin Taitei [密林大帝] – literally “Dense Forest (i.e. “Jungle”) Emperor”, publisher Kenichi Kato convinced the young Osamu Tezuka to expand on his original story idea and offer it as a regular four–page feature in the monthly Manga Shonen.

I.L (Big Comic)

Following hot on the heels of Swallowing the Earth (1968-69), Tezuka’s next project, I.L (pronounced “Aye-El”), was originally intended to a more straight-forward "comic for men" (as the name of the publication branded itself), however eventually became more of a "fairy tale for adults" instead.

Dororo (Weekly Shonen Sunday)

Just as Tezuka felt the realism was becoming too much for a shonen periodical, the opportunity to start the ambitious sci-fi series Norman (1968) came up with a different publisher, and Tezuka’s enthusiasm dropped substantially. Ultimately, at the request of the editor, he suspended publication of Dororo (1967-69), leaving the series with no ending.