Publisher Digital Manga launched its latest Kickstarter campaign, this time aiming to fund Osamu Tezuka’s short story shoujo manga collection Storm Fairy. The Kickstarter has a goal of $14,200—it’s already past the $10k mark at the time of this writing—and once it hits the $26,000 stretch goal Digital Manga will be able to reprint Unico.
Storm Fairy consists of three shorts, the first of which takes up half the book. Here’s Digital Manga’s full synopsis:
Once upon a time, an Empress flees her burning castle to the nearby forest where she encounters a forest fairy. A deal is struck where in exchange for the fairy’s favor, the Empress must give up the face of her next born child. Thus, two girls’ lives become entwined: one has to wear a mask to hide her disfigured face, the other born with the face of the first. One night, a malcontent discovered Princess Ruri’s curse and steals her mask to put his own daughter on the throne. Ruri, now on the run, meets a samurai Tonosuke who decides to care for her. Hakobe, the fairy born with Ruri’s face, finds out the princess is on the run and decides to help her win back her kingdom, but little does she know, she wears the face of the one she’s trying to save…
The second short story, “Kokeshi Detective Agency,” has a similar tone and feel to young adult book series Encyclopedia Brown. Fearless little Paco goes around solving spooky mysteries because she is not afraid of things that go bump in the night while her dog friend Waco does his best to protect her. In the third short story, fairy Pink from the realm of beautiful sunsets morphs into whatever she wants so she may help those who are unhappy and in need, but King Brown and Sepia from the realm of thunderstorms do their best to make people miserable.
Additional stretch goals include the rights to higher quality colors for Unico, and a print release for Tezuka’s Crime and Punishment.