Coming Soon: Astro Boy, Tezuka Manga for the iPhone

Thanks to a recent press release and a tweet from Frederick Schodt (author of The Astro Boy Essays , manga scholar and translator), I got wind of a new way to read and enjoy stories by the Godfather of Manga, Osamu Tezuka. Developed by D'Arc Inc. in conjunction with Tezuka Productions, Astro Boy Weekly magazine aims to deliver new some of Tezuka-sensei's most beloved comics creations to iPhone users all over the world.

While not live yet, Astro Boy Weekly is due to debut in the iTunes App Store sometime in the next few weeks, both as a free sample, and in 100-page weekly installments for 99 cents each. You can get a taste of what's in store at this preview site for Astro Boy Weekly magazine.

While I haven't yet had the chance to download and sample the first issue for myself, the sample shots on the website do give readers an idea of the reading experience on the iPhone. Besides being able to see whole pages, readers will be able to zoom into individual panels for easier reading. Regular subscribers will also be able to archive past issues of Astro Boy Weekly on their phone and access them through one application.

At an October 20 news conference, Yoshihide Kinokawa, a director at D-Arc demonstrated the application. Kinokawa expressed high hopes for its success in English-speaking countries based on renewed interest in Astro Boy with the release of the animated feature-length movie from Imagi Studios.

"I hope people who saw the movie will want to read the original," Kinokawa said. The companies plan to expand the service to other countries gradually.

Schodt also offers a testimonial on the Astro Boy Weekly website:

"I've always hoped more people could enjoy Tezuka's manga, but until recently there have been many obstacles. Tezuka's works have been hard to read without an understanding of Japanese and hard to obtain outside of Japan.... With this wonderful new service we can now enjoy reading classics by the master manga artist on our mobile devices. We can read them any time of day, all over the world, any place."

In addition to Astro Boy, Astro Boy Weekly will also feature chapters from other Tezuka tales, including Black Jack, Dororo, Phoenix, Adolf and Buddha.

To fans who are already familiar with the Tezuka manga that has already been published in English and is hungry for more, the obvious question is: will Astro Boy Weekly be bringing us new Tezuka stories that haven't yet been published in English, such as Kimba the White Lion (Jungle Taitei), or titles that were previously published in English but are currently out of print, such as Princess Knight (Ribon no Kishi)?

I threw that question out to Schodt, hoping to get his perspective on this tantalizing possibility. He responded to my question via email:

"I am not sure. The developers, D-Arc said, however, that they want to bring out the works of other artists as well, and (in what was particularly interesting to me), also to stream to other platforms in addition to the iPhone."

I also asked if these versions of these previously published Tezuka stories were new translations or the translations used in editions of these stories published by Dark Horse (Astro Boy), VIZ Media (Phoenix) and Vertical (Dororo, Black Jack and Buddha). Here's Schodt's reply:

"The titles being broadcast are pixel-perfect versions of the U.S. published versions, meaning that Tezuka Productions has some sort of agreement with the U.S. publishers (VIZ, Dark Horse Comics, Vertical), which allows this. The U.S. publishers names are currently listed in the credits page on the application."

In the meantime, Schodt has already had a chance to download and test drive Astro Boy Weekly on his iPhone.

"I have the application on my iPhone, and it is quite cool. It allows for page viewing, and also for a "frame mode," which means you can forward panel by panel. It uses the iTouch/IPhone finger swipe for page turning and illustrations can be enlarged with the two-finger spread. When the iPhone is horizontal, it's really quite fun."

I'll be on the lookout for the release of the first issues of Astro Boy Weekly and will be giving it a test drive once I do. In the meantime, enjoy the preview, and chime in with your reactions below. Would you pay 99 cents per week to enjoy Tezuka manga on your phone, or are there reasons why you might not at this time?

Just for fun, here's a list of 15 Tezuka manga that have been published in English (so far). Stick around, there's likely more news to come on this soon.

Image credit: © Tezuka Productions, © D'Arc Inc.