In late April, Osamu Tezuka 's "sex education" manga Yakeppachi's Maria will be available for purchase in print as it originally appeared in 1970. Originally serialized in Akita Shoten 's Shōnen Champion magazine, the story follows a rowdy boy named Yakeppachi whose ectoplasm brings his father's sex doll to life.

Yakeppachi's ectoplasm left his body while he was in a trance and entered the doll, now named Maria. Maria's personality mirrors Yakeppachi's own and the two begin attending school together, throwing everyone into a tizzy except their classroom teacher Akita who accepts the supernatural occurrence. Maria's newfound attention gets the pair in trouble with a juvenile gang.

Tezuka described Yakeppachi's Maria as a work borne from his "resentment and doubts" of the medium as the industry reflected on what subject matter was and was not taboo. Other creators were continuing to push the boundaries with more graphic sexual content and violence. In response, Tezuka penned Yakeppachi's Maria as a criticism of "over-abundance of erotic and violent scenes."

The reprint is available to purchase online, and includes both volumes at B5 paper size in color, extra pages not included in the original release, and extra full-page illustrations. fukkan.com lists just 54 copies in stock.

Yakeppachi's Maria was previously offered as a reward tier for Digital Manga's Wonder 3 Kickstarter and is available for purchase in a digital only format.

Publisher fukkan.com prepared the new edition to celebrate what would have been Tezuka's 90th birthday. Fukkan has previously released new editions of Tezuka's Astro Boy , The Book of Human Insects , Ayako , Cleopatra , and I.L manga.

Source: Comic Natalie, Fukkan.com