ALTERNATE TITLES
WAS IT DUBBED IN ENGLISH?: No
INDEPTH
He ventures forth, making his way around red brick buildings. He hears commotion of trash cans down an alley and looks around the corner to see a big scrawny dog chowing down on garbage. The unicorn is hungry and attempts to get some cheese that is near the rubbish. The dog quickly barks and scares him off. The unicorn runs off with a yell, but is spotted by a hawk who try to pick him up, but he's too big. The unicorn runs from the pursuing hawk and then hides down in some tubing and attempts to catch his breath.
Meanwhile, a mouse is trudging wearily down the same tubing carry a small sack. He looks weary and downtrodden and talks aloud to himself. When he sees the unicorn from behind he yells and shouts, "Neko!" (cat >^_^<) When he looks out the hole he has hidden in, the unicorn turns to look at him and the mouse realizes he isn't a cat. The mouse comes down and picks up his sack and recollects the nibbles of food that had fallen out. The mouse who is kind hearted sees that the unicorn is hungry and gives him a piece of his food. He's about to leave when the unicorn shouts that he wants more. Sighing, the mouse gives him another nibble of food.
The mouse then talks to him while he finishes his food. The mouse seems to find out that the unicorn doesn't know where to go for the moment, so the mouse leads and pushes him through tunnels to his home.
At the doorway of his home, the mouse yells for his kids who come scampering for food. They attempt to eat the unicorn, not realizing he's not the food. Finally the father mouse gives his kids the cheese food out of his bag to them. They quickly eat it and cry when there is no more. The father mouse sighs and laments about the fact that food is hard to find. His kids attempt to eat his tail, but find out it isn't food either and continue to cry.
The unicorn feels sorry for them and guilty for eating some of the food that was meant for them. He sheds a tear as his horn lights up, and then suddenly a big cupcake appears, and the baby mice don't even question where it came from and immediately starts eating it. The father mouse is amazed and doesn't know how it appeared or if the unicorn did it or not. The unicorn gives his head a little pat and shakes his head, knowing he had done that unconciously. The father mouse sits down sadly though, knowing that the cupcake won't last long. He tells the unicorn about the liquid waste and sewage that a nearby factory spews out 24/7. The factory is nothing but chimney stacks that constantly spews out pollution making the entire nearby countryside and town polluted, dark and dying. The father mouse and the unicorn look at the factory from the hole that leads outside. The father mouse questions about what the unicorn is going, what he doing and/or where is his home. Sadly the unicorn answers that he has no home to go/he doesn't know where he's heading. The father mouse knowing that the unicorn is still a child feels sorry for him, so he leads the unicorn up through the building until they come out into the open of a bedroom. In there is a little girl asleep.
The father mouse squeaks at the girl who wakes up and talks back to the mouse. She spots the unicorn and beckons him to come in. However as she sits up she coughs painfully. The father mouse comments to the unicorn that the little girl is very sick. The little girl, who's name is Chiko, seems to know what the unicorn is, and looks through the books next to her bed. Sure enough she finds a beautiful illustration of a unicorn in her book and identifys the unicorn as that animal. The unicorn says unicorn to himself and then suddenly remembers and declares that his name is Unico. The father mouse comments about something at this point (about what I don't know, probably where he's going to stay) and Unico sadly replies.
Chiko quickly gets up but just as quickly falls down to the ground and attempt to get her breath back. The father mouse squeaks around her in worry as Unico also looks on in worry. Chiko pulls herself up and gets into a wardrobe and pulls out a basket and pillow. She sets it up for Unico as she coughs. Unico lays down on the pillow which is very soft and bouces slightly up and down. The father mouse smiles and says a comment to Unico to the effett of, "You've got it made now, Unico."
Someone is walking outside and Chiko quickly tells Unico to hide under the bed as she puts the basket there also. Chiko quickly gets back to bed.
In steps an old white haired, tired looking man with patched up clothes. He seems to be Chiko's grandfather as she exclaims "Ojisan!" and gives him a hug when he comes to her bed. Ojisan comments about the factory and its pollution still going as he looks out the window. He seems to be a very broken man and sits down holding his head. As he's looking at the ground he notices something sticking out from under Chiko's bed. It's Unico's tail, and Ojisan picks him up by it. Ojisan tells Chiko she shouldn't have animals in the house since she's so sick. Ojisan throws Unico out the window into the rain. Unico sadly looks at the window and starts walking away.
Ojisan doesn't seem to see Chiko leave the house as she yells for Unico. She get almost to Unico and falls down outside. Unico walks up to her and she hugs him, begging him not to go. She coughs and collaspes some more, and Unico disappears from under her. She shouts for him, but he disappears from across from her. She then finds herself falling and falling into darkness.... Chiko wakes up in bed, seeing Ojisan next to her bed washing his hands. She quickly asks Ojisan where Unico is, and Ojisan pulls back her covers to reaveal that Unico is right next to her. He says that Unico found him to get Chiko out of the rain, since she had passed out outside (that's why she felt like she was falling into some blackness). Chiko shouts, "Arigatoo , Unico!" (Thank you, Unico!) Ojisan chuckles with pleasure and pats Chiko as he leaves her room, having decided to let Chiko keep Unico with her. Chiko chats on and on with Unico until she's sad about the fact that she wished she wasn't confined to her bed. Unico's horn lights up and he turns into a full grown unicorn to Chiko's amazement. Unico goes running outside with Chiko on his back and then Unico sprouts wings and they go flying through the sky and manage to find some clear skys beyond the pollution. Chiko is very thrilled and happy to fly through such gentler skies. A blue and white spirit is flying through the sky and spots them, and say, "Unico!" She attempts to follow them as they avoid pollution clouds, but the spirit gets caught in them. Soon Unico and Chiko get caught also. An evil voice laughs at their attempts to get free. Eventually the spirit does. She then thinks back to the past. She is the West Wind. Long ago the goddess of love and beauty, Venus, became jealous of a mortal girl named Psyche, whose beauty and kindness where threatening Venus' fame of renowned beauty. Psyche has a pet, a little unicorn named Unico, and Venus sees him as Psyche's source of good luck and is jealous of the happy pair. Venus sends a butterfly spirit to go capture Unico. The spirit disguises itself as Psyche and captures Unico into a bag. Venus then sends for West Wind and orders her to take Unico away forever (I'm not for sure what Venus' punishment for Unico is). West Wind can not be cruel to Unico and instead runs away with him from one time era to the next. So, West Wind and Unico had left Greece/Rome and the other places they had been before and were now in modern times this time around. The constantly have to travel time so Venus will not find Unico.
The evil voice from the factory continues to laugh at the destruction its unleashing as the brick stacks continue to spew pollution. Unico is back to normal, and Chiko is back in bed and she's even worse than before. Ojisan is at Chiko's bed side wailing and then starts praying. The mouse father is also in the room next to Unico and yells that if only the factory was gone, Chiko could get better. Unico gets a very determined look on his face and shrinks to a very small size and sprouts transparent almost butterfly like wings. The father mouse doesn't see this and shouts for Unico. Unico flies out the window and past the town's clock tower and heads straight for the factory. Unico gets to the factory and surveys the chimney stacks. He then flies down and goes back to normal size and dives into the pollution waste that surrounds the factory. He drills with his horn into the factory. Soon all the waste is draining down the tunnel Unico is making and he surfaces right inside the factory. The factory gets flooded with it's own pollution liquid waste and everything begans to tumble. Unico flies around and breaks stack after stack with his horn. Soon the whole factory collapes and immediately the sky around the town and countryside starts to clear up. Ojisan who is outside, sees this miracle start to happen and runs happily to Chiko, even tripping and falling as he gets inside the house. He sits her up and hugs her and tells her to look. She tries to smile but is still as weak as before, if not worse than before. Ojisan quickly lays her back down, noting his mistake of moving her and quickly runs outside to get Chiko some help. The mouse father with his children around him sit on the floor in Chiko's room and sadly look down in despair for Chiko. Meanwhile, Unico is flying back to Chiko when a draft of wind catches him and he falls with a plunk back onto the ground. West Wind appears standing in front of him saying that since he had done what he wanted, it was time for them to go. But Unico keeps on protesting even after she picks him up that he has to see if Chiko has become better or not and if not, he wants to still help her, and then when she's well, he will leave with West Wind. West Wind slowly stops and puts Unico back on the ground. She then makes a bouquet of purplish-pink flowers tied with a sky blue ribbon appear. She explains that they will heal any ailment. Then she disappers. Unico appears at Chiko's bedroom door and the mouse father asks where he's been. Unico puts the flowers next to Chiko and walks out and says good bye. The mouse father wants to know why he's saying good bye and leaving, but then notices that the flowers are starting to sparkle. He watches in amazement as the flowers sparkle and glow so intensly that the white glow fills the entire house. The light fades and slowly Chiko opens her eyes. She sits up, discovers she feels fine and then gets up out of bed and realizes she can walk without coughing and then jump around with joy! The father mouse and his children also start jumping with joy. Chiko notices the flowers and picks them up and hugs them. But she notices that Unico isn't there. She quickly runs out of the house to tell Unico the good news and thank him. She shouts for Unico yelling, "Unico! Doko, Unico?!" (Unico, where are you Unico?!). But Unico is in West Wind's arms and they fly off into the pink purple and blue sky of sunset, as he watches her become a speck. Chiko doesn't see them disappear and continues to shout for Unico. The mouse father sits outside and sadly thinks about Unico and looks up to the pink sky as a light streaks across. Unico wakes up. He finds himself in another cold and foggy place, but its worse than the last forest, this is a barren wasteland. He sits up and shouts for anyone to be there. He cries, but then slowly pushes himself up and starts walking, with apparently no destination in mind....
THE END
EXTRAS AND OTHER INFO This movie was based on the Unico manga story titled "Black Rain and White Feather" by Osamu Tezuka.
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Unico: Black Cloud, White Wings
Black Rain and White Feather
Unico Pilot Film
Tanpen Unico
Unico: Short Story
The Goddess Venus is jealous of the beautiful human girl Psyche and blames her pet unicorn, Unico, as Psyche's source of good luck that keeps her from the harm of the goddess' cruel intentions. Unico has the amazing power to make anyone he meets happy. Whether it's because of his personality or the powers of his horn, no one knows. Venus has Unico banished, and the West Wind now takes Unico from one place and time to the next. Taken to a heavily polluted city, Unico meets a sickly girl named Chiko who is suffering because of the pollution of a nearby factory that darkens the entire sky. Unico then is determined to cheer her up, cure her, and destroy the nearby factory.
A lone baby unicorn walks through a foggy, dark forest of dead trees. It's a desolante place, but a town lays right in front of his path.
© 1976, 1991 SANRIO CO., LTD. / Tezuka Productions Co., Ltd.
SANRIO / Completed in April 1979, Released by Toshiba EMI in 1989/98(?) / 26 minutes / In color
This movie was actually the first Unico movie ever made, with its production finished in April 1979, meant for a theatrical release. For unknown reasons, the film received very little publicity and was not released in theater even though it was well animated and later was thought to be the best Unico movie. After Osamu Tezuka's death in 1989, the movie was finally released on video.
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