The Asahi Shimbun newspaper announced on Thursday that it will serialize a sequel novel for Osamu Tezuka’s classic Phoenix (Hi no Tori) manga based on an outline Tezuka wrote himself.
According to Tezuka Production employee Hajime Tanaka, Tezuka wrote the manuscript in 1988, after receiving a proposal for a planned musical based on Phoenix.
Naoki Prize-winning author Kazuki Sakuraba (Gosick, Fusé: Memoirs of a Huntress) is writing the novel, titled Shōsetsu Hi no Tori Daichi-hen (Novel Phoenix “Ground”).
The novel is planned to begin serialization in April in the newspaper’s “be” excerpt on Saturdays, and it will feature illustrations by Seitarō Kuroda.