With Unico: Lost’s release and Unico’s 50th anniversary being hot topics right now, I wanted to do something special and share with fans around the world. I contemplated all sorts of things, but one idea kept popping up in my head.
Interview someone!
But I’m just a fan. I don’t want to bother anyone.
Ask anyway! You never know until you ask!
Well, I took a chance and reached out to Unico series author Samuel Sattin near the end of April for a quick interview. He’s super busy, so I came up with a handful of questions beforehand as to not take too much of his time. (I still hope it wasn’t too much trouble!) As you can tell by the post, he agreed and I’m grateful for the opportunity and happy to share with you all. (Hopefully I made a decent attempt at interviewing. Haha!) Enjoy!
※ This interview was conducted through email because of the time difference and busy schedule.
Interview:
— Your journey with Unico these past couple of years has been quite exciting! From being able to pitch an idea to Tezuka Productions, to the Kickstarter, and now a full book series with Scholastic. Looking back on everything leading up to this point, do you ever reflect on where it started and where you’re at now?
It’s an interesting question… I often want to try and look back to absorb the breadth of the journey, but every time I try to do I realize that I’m still smack in the middle of it! I’m in the final stages of editing book 5, for example, and there’s still a great deal of work to do before this adventure reaches its end. And when I say adventure, I don’t mean just for Unico, but for me as well. As I often tell those who ask, writing Unico: Awakening has been the highlight of my creative life thus far. So until I hold book 8 in my hands, I don’t think I’ll be able to look back. When I do, I wonder what I’ll see.
— This year is Unico’s 50th anniversary, and everyone is celebrating the little guy. Do you have any early memories of Unico before you were involved with the project? I think you once mentioned something about “Unico in the Island of Magic” in another interview.
Yes, it’s Unico’s 50th anniversary indeed, and I believe that might stretch into next year, I’ve been told, due to the peculiar timing of his creation. It’s very exciting to see.
As for early memories, I do have one, but I would have to circle back around to it years later. You see, for a long while, I kept remembering this film I had seen in the theaters as a child, with a scary mechanical dragon, a wizard that turned people into puzzle pieces, and a tiny, powerful unicorn. But despite searching, I never discovered what that film was, and eventually thought I must have just imagined it.
Years later, about fifteen years ago, more or less, I found myself coming across Unico and the Island of Magic, and it all came rushing back. Not only had it been a film I’d seen as a child, but it was one that was so interesting, beautiful, and frightening that it occupied my imagination for literal decades.
When I got the opportunity to work on Unico: Awakening, this discovery felt even more serendipitous. In a way that’s perhaps similar to Unico himself, a memory had escaped me, only to be relocated in a more meaningful time of my life.
— The third volume, Unico: Lost, will be out July 7, and fans are excited! Can you tell us more about it and what you hope readers will take away from this new adventure?
I’m so glad to hear that. And I’m quite grateful to readers such as yourself who helped bring this project to the point it’s at today.
I think that Unico: Lost will be the point where the doors to the story are blown wide open. Up until this point, we’ve followed Unico as his memory is twice-now reset. The West Wind has been attempting to help him escape his cursed cycle, and has enlisted the help of others to do so. But book 3 is the first time that Unico begins a journey without his memory being erased. From here on out, readers will begin to see that the world he inhabits is more mysterious than previously thought–not to mention dangerous. And Unico himself is going to need all the help he can get.
— Since Unico is a character created by Osamu Tezuka, what do you find most challenging about writing the Unico series? What are the parts you enjoy?
The most challenging part about writing Unico has always been balancing the responsibility of working with Tezuka-sensei’s legacy with reimagining it for a new generation of readers. I’ve been asked a lot about how exactly we handle that kind of pressure. Speaking for myself, I handle it by doing the best work I can possibly do, and making sure to do so in accordance with Tezuka Productions and the series co-creator, Gurihiru. The goal, for me, is to try to make something that Tezuka-sensei himself would have enjoyed. The God of Manga was a true proponent of collaboration, and believed manga itself to be an international language. I suppose that engaging in this process, then, the process of translation, revival, and reimagination, is what I enjoy most.
— In the first two volumes, we’ve gotten to meet several new characters not in the original manga series, like Iver and Halian. What is your process for developing and incorporating these characters into the stories?
In my opinion, one of the great things about Unico, and Tezuka-sensei in general, is that the story is simultaneously phenomenal in its conceit, and open to both expansion and reinterpretation. If you think about the Unico films, for instance, they introduced wholly original characters that were not found in the original manga. But those characters all seemed to fit into Unico’s universe without issue, both tonally and thematically. That is what I try to keep in mind. If I am going to create new characters, there needs to be very good reasons to do so, and they need to be memorable enough to earn their place alongside Unico himself.
— And speaking of characters, do you have a favorite Unico and/or other Tezuka character? There’s so many, it’s hard to choose!
Oh my, yes, it’s very hard to choose. In Unico: Awakening, I have my favorites… Though I typically don’t share those thoughts publicly, for certain reasons having to do with the story. Maybe that will change when the series comes to an end. But as for other Tezuka characters, off the top of my head I’m partial to Triton, Garon, Ambassador Magma, Professor Ochanomizu, and so many more (it really is difficult to choose, isn’t it?).
— Has working with the Unico series changed your perspective in any way? Like about people, life, the universe? Or even Unico and the series itself?
Oh yes. Very much so. Though as to how, exactly… I believe I’ll have to wait and see. Unico is about a lot of things–time, memory, love, hate–but I often think about it as a story about why we do the things we do, particularly when it comes to helping others, and doling out kindness in a world that might not necessarily appreciate or reciprocate. Unico does good things not because of who he once was, but because of who he is, at any given time, with or without his memories intact. I think about that a lot. And I’ll continue to.
— I know working on Unico is a major focus right now for you, but what other projects are you working on that you’d like to share? Anything fans should keep an eye out for?
I’m currently working on a cybernoir series for Viz Media called LYNX, which is out on August 8th of this year. And there are definitely some other…fascinating things happening as pertains to special, potential Unico-related works. More to come, for sure. More to come…
— And finally, if Unico was playing in a Dungeons & Dragons campaign, do you think with Unico’s high charisma he’d befriend a Beholder?
Ha! What a great question. I believe that a Beholder would be so absolutely and fundamentally disturbed by Unico’s trustworthy nature that it would either, a) go full Venus and make turn its life mission into destroying the little creature, or b) run away in existential terror to hide in some Eldritch pocket universe.
Many thanks to Samuel for squeezing in some time to answer my questions. Hopefully I can bug you in the future with more in depth Unico questions, especially when more books are out!
If you want to check out more of Samuel Sattin’s work, follow the links below!
– samuelsattin.com
– Samuel Sattin on Amazon
– Samuel Sattin on Barnes & Nobles
– Samuel Sattin on Booksamillion.com
He’ll also be starting his book tour beginning June 26 at Kinokuniya, so if you’re in the San Francisco area, definitely stop by to get an early signed copy of Unico: Lost!
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