Yuniko

Yuniko's magical power to give happiness to everyone around did not go unnoticed. The gods saw that with Yuniko all people on earth would soon become happy, and this would violate the laws of the universe (after all, deciding who to be happy and who does not, follows them, the gods, and not some unicorn at all) - and they order the West Wind Fairy carry Yuniko to the hill of Oblivion - a place from which no one has ever returned. But the good West Wind Fairy pities the kid and decides to hide him from the wrath of the gods. When the gods learn that the Fairy of the West Wind has disobeyed them, they order the Witch of the Night Wind to grab Yuniko and immediately throw it at Oblivion Hill. To protect Yuniko from the gods and the Night Wind, the West Wind Fairy is forced to transfer a little unicorn from one place to another until he uses his magic power. But since there is not a single creature in the world that doesn’t like Yuniko to sympathize, the Fairy has to endure him very often, erasing all his memories of acquired friends.

For the first time, Yuniko appeared on Tezuka's comic stripes as a symbol of the struggle for ecological cleanliness on the planet. The original manga came out in a magazine from the Sanrio Ririka (Lyrics) publishing house from 1976 to 1979 , and then reprinted in 1984 in a children's educational magazine.

Pilot Edition

In 1979, after the last manga head came out, Yuniko made his debut in the short (20 minutes) anime Kuroi Kumo Shiroi Hane (“Black Cloud, White Feather”), which was supposed to be a pilot episode of the future series (supposedly in 26 episodes) and It was released immediately in DTV format. The plot revolves around Yuniko’s friendship with a little girl named Chiko, who became ill because she had to breathe air polluted every day because of her city’s Main Factory. At the end of the episode, Yuniko cures her, turning into a big unicorn and destroying the Main Factory.

Yuniko (Yuniko's Incredible Adventures)

Although the idea to make the series failed, Yuniko nevertheless returned to the blue screens in 1981 in the full-length film “Yuniko” (“Yuniko’s incredible adventures” - in American dubbing). The director was made by Osamu Tezuka himself, and the studio Sanrio, known to all the world as the parent of Hello Kitty, took on Yuniko

The premiere of the first full-length animated film about Yuniko took place on March 14, 1981 in Japan. “Uniko” was one of the few animes in which the “musical” genre was used in imitation of the Disney feature films. Together with Tezuka, the director of this work was Toshio Hirata who later decided to direct the Barefoot Gene . The story tells about the very first journey of Yuniko after the gods decided to send him into exile, and about his first friends, whom he gave happiness to - the imp (who dreamed that he grew the horn like an adult devil) and Chao / Katie (which he turns in a real girl).

Characters

• The imp ( j . 悪 魔 く ん Akuma-kun ) , "Beelzebub" in American dubbing.

The imp persistently rejects all attempts by Yuniko to make friends with him, but he understands that now, when a creature who considers him to be his friend appeared, he can no longer be so lonely. They become real friends when the imp rushes into the water to save the sinking Yuniko, although he knows perfectly well that sea water is deadly for him. After a miraculous rescue from the roaring waves, Yuniko and the Devil are firmly attached to each other, but the West Wind Fairy is forced to take Yuniko, as he made her new friend happy and the gods immediately noticed it, following the Witch of the Night Wind.

• Chao ( Jap. チ ャ オ Chao ) , "Katie" in American dubbing.

Yuniko's next friend becomes Chao, a little black and white cat who dreams of a witch’s career. Yuniko and Chao meet a lonely old Grandmother, which Chao mistakenly takes over as a witch and thinks that she will teach her witchcraft and turn her into a person. When Yuniko turns Chao into a real girl, Chao thinks that it was Grandmother's witchcraft (Yuniko does not dissuade her from this, hoping that Chao will help a totally feeble Grandmother to do housekeeping in gratitude for that). But Chao doesn’t like homework - like all cats, she’s very lazy and narcissistic. For that she has to part with her new look. Yuniko reveals to her the truth of her transformations and Chao becomes very ashamed of her behavior, and she tries to help Grandma as a little kitten. Chao again becomes a girl when she rushes to save the life of an old woman, forgetting that she is just a helpless kitty.

Then she meets with the mysterious “Master of the Forest” who calls himself “Lord Phantom” who enchants the ingenuous Chao and invites her to her castle. Chao, being under the influence of berries enchanted by the Lord, meekly fulfills all his requests and drinks wine to an unconscious state. Yuniko arrives to rescue her and sees the true face of the “Lord” who is certainly no Lord and not the owner of the forest, but a bloodthirsty demon (Big Akuma). The manga further explains that this demon suffered from mania of bloodthirstiness and he was pleased to kill innocent animals. In Chao, he recognized the cat from the very beginning, and he wanted to kill her in a particularly sophisticated way. The anime doesn’t tell us that - the Lord simply ties the bewildered Chao with chains to the highest tower of the castle, intending to sacrifice her.

Yuniko (with the help of the imp who had flown to his friend) saves Chao. The lord opens his true guise of a giant demon to everyone and kills Yuniko, cutting off his horn. But sincere tears of friends and the Devil's horn, which he gives to his friend, resurrect Yuniko and he turns into a cross between Pegasus and Unicorn. Yuniko kills the demon and frees the forest from its oppression. In the end, the West Wind Fairy takes Juniko away from friends forever. In the manga, it is additionally reported that Fairy erased him all the memory of what happened.

Music

All the songs of “Yuniko” were performed by the singer Iruka , who voiced the role of the Fairy Tale Woman (voiceover). The exception was only a short Chao no Kuroneko no Uta (Song of the Black Cat Chao) performed by Seyu Chao Kazuko Sugiyama.

The rest of the songs such as Unico no Teema (Song about Juniko), Hontou wa Sabishikute (song representing The Devil), and Majo Neko Chao ( Chao Cat-Witch) were performed by Iruka. In the English dubbing, the sung songs changed the whole text and even the meaning, and the vocals were cut out in the final song.

Yuniko on the island of magic

Mami Sugino directed the second feature film about Juniko. On the "Island of Magic" was released July 16, 1983.

The plot tells of the adventures of Yuniko after the Westwind Fairy leaves him on a strange Island called the Isle of Magic. Yuniko does not remember anything at all about his past, and again tries to find friends for himself. So he meets a good girl, Cherie, whose brother entered the service of the evil sorcerer Kuruku. Kuruku wants to turn everything living on this earth into silent dolls and then take command over the newly-made army of soulless puppets.

Toby (as Brother Chery’s name is) has a magical flute that can lure any living thing and turn it into a submissive puppet. After Toby's flute turns the whole family and friends of Chery into marionettes, Juniko and Chery go on a trip to Kuruku Castle to find and stop the insane sorcerer.

In their travels, they meet the old Trojan Horse, who tells them the truth about Kuruku's past - it turns out that Kuruku was once a puppet that was forgotten and thrown away by the owners. Kuruku’s resentment and hatred became so great that he came to life and began to rage on the Isle of Magic.

Yuniko realizes that Kuruku is just a lonely abandoned being who has never had friends, so he is able to break his spell. But since Kuruku’s hate is the only thing that made him alive, he becomes a puppet again, and Cherie leaves him, promising to take care of him. But as soon as peace and happiness reign on the Island, the Fairy of the West Wind takes Yuniko away from the wrath of the gods.

It is noteworthy that, unlike the first full-length, the second is not a manga version, but an independent history.

Saving our fragile Planet

Yuniko played a leading role in another anime. They became the short film “Saving Our Fragile Planet”, in the Osamu Tezuka Museum and in the “Osamu Tezuka World” in Kyoto . Like the very first short film about Yuniko "Saving our fragile Planet" tells us about the environmental problems of our Earth.

Yuniko, Astro Boy , and other characters created by Tezuka go into the past to tell people that they have chosen the wrong way of dealing with the nature of the Earth. The roles were voiced by popular seyu - Yuniko speaks in Akiko Yajima’s voice, when, as in full-length films, he was voiced by Katsue Miwa .

• Yuniko sometimes appears on the Black Jack series.
• Yuniko also appeared in the early manga of Astro Boy, serving as a model for Dr. Tenma for his new invention, the mechanical unicorn.
• Yuniko can still be seen in short moments from games dedicated to Astro Boy on the platforms Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance

• Unico In The Island Of Magic (English fan site)
• Kawaii Unico (English fan site)
• English dubbing list

• Manga "Yuniko" (English) in the encyclopedia site Anime News Network

• Anime "Uniko" (English) in the encyclopedia site Anime News Network
• Anime "Uniko" (English) in the database AniDB