Compile Heart breathes life into Osamu Tezuka’s manga with the DS

In Japan, the DS is ubiquitous and manga is one of the most popular ways to kill time on the subway. Why not mash the two ideas together? Compile Heart is testing the waters with a work from the creator of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka. And no, this doesn’t have anything do with a robot boy who wants to be a human. They snapped up the rights to Hi no Tori (Phoenix), a time-jumping tale that deals with characters searching for immortality by finding the fiery bird.

Compile Heart’s Nintendo DS adaptation will update Hi no Tori with sound effects, stylus scrolling and a useful bookmark feature for short reads. The DS cart packs in between four to five volumes of manga, but it is unknown which tales will be part of the package. Since Phoenix is not a consistent narrative Compile Heart has the flexibility to pick which volumes they want to add in DS de Yomo Series: Hi no Tori.

Notice the title? “DS de Yomo Series (Read On DS Series)”. Compile Heart undoubtedly has more manga to DS adaptations planned in the future. DS de Yomo Series: Hi no Tori comes out in May 2008.