Megumi

[Sapphire]

The Japanese government's Headquarters for the Abduction Issue is producing an anime version of Souichi Moto's Megumi documentary manga about Megumi Yokota, a Japanese girl who was abdupted by North Korea in 1977 when she was 13 years old. The government plans to not only release the 30-minute anime on DVD soon, but also on the Internet in a free download. It will be presented in several languages including Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. The government already distributes Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story, a 2006 American documentary film, for free to Japanese classrooms.

North Korea kidnapped at least 13 Japanese residents during the 1970s and 1980s, purportedly to train operatives on how to act Japanese. While five have returned to Japan, North Korea claims that most of the others died in North Korea. North Korea returned what it claimed were Yokota's remains in 2002, but the Japanese government determined in 2004 that the remains belonged to two other individuals.

Yokota's father and mother created the original concept and oversaw the manga that Moto drew in Manga Action magazine from December of 2004 to July of 2005. Megumi is the second manga that Moto drew about an abductee. His first was Dakkan (Return), a manga about abductee Kaoru Hasuike.

This sounds awesome and perhaps possibly Grave of the Fireflies level controversial and profound. I totally want to watch!