Eight renowned manga artists will draw up new cartoons featuring heroes and heroines from their signature works and donate the royalties to Tohoku's reconstruction, one of them said.
The "Heroes Comeback" project is the brainchild of cartoonist Fujihiko Hosono, who said the artists include such big names as Rumiko Takahashi, creator of the "Urusei Yatsura" series, Masami Yuki and Sensha Yoshida.
Leading off the project, Hosono's freshly drawn cartoons will debut Monday in the weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine.
In the story, "Fujita," the protagonist in Hosono's "Gallery Fake" — a story about the art world that was completed in 2005 — will return to a scene set in the Tohoku region following the offshore earthquake and devastating tsunami of March 2011.
The other artists are currently choosing characters for the project, according to Hosono.
Hosono said that after their debut, the cartoons will be published in various manga journals published by Shogakukan Inc.: Big Comic Spirits, Shukan Shonen Sande (Weekly "Shonen" Sunday), and Gekkan Shonen Sande (Monthly "Shonen" Sunday).