200 Volumes of 'Osamu Tezuka Bunko Complete Works' to be Made Available Digitally

Japanese publisher Kodansha announced it will make the Osamu Tezuka Bunko Complete Works manga collection available on digital platforms. Kodansha first announced this collection in 2008 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka's birthday. Between October 2009 and May 2012, 200 volumes of Tezuka's manga were published as part of this collection.

All 200 volumes will be made available over a period of 10 months. The first batch made available on May 29 includes:

• Black Jack (12 volumes)
  
• Ribbon no Kishi (2 volumes)
  
• Dororo (2 volumes)
  
• Lost World and Metropolis (1 volume)
  
• Kitarubeki Sekai and Faust (1 volume)
  
• Atomcat (1 volume)
  
• Atom Konjaku Monogatari (1 volume)
  
• Shin Takarajima (1 volume)

Bunko edition releases contain considerably more pages than the standard manga tankobon releases, allowing for more material to be printed in a single volume. This format is widely used in republication of manga whose tankobon volumes may be out of print.

Apple's iBookstore, eBook Initiative Japan, Amazon.co.jp, Yahoo! Japan Bookstore, and Rakuten's Kobo are among the platforms which will publish these volumes digitally.

Source: Comic Natalie