Now, Toriyama’s newest work titled Lord Wu of Delicious Island (Oishi Shima No Wu Sama) is available for limited release.
How limited? Well, your best chance is to become a primary school student participating in an environmental study group in Anjo, Aichi Prefecture.
Lord Wu of Delicious Island follows a steampunk kind of guy and his frog friend who have eaten nothing but synthetic food their entire lives.
One day they crash land on a completely self-sustainable island ruled by the golden-rabbit god Wu. Under the guidance of Wu we all learn about the deliciousness of agricultural produce and the fun of farm work.
The full magazine itself contains a two part story; a ranking and listing of all of Japan’s “Bio Resource Points” (municipalities with high portions of land designated for nature and agriculture); and a survey.
The story came about from Akira Toriyama’s support of the Rural Society Project, an NPO set up by his friend and works to create educational activities related to agriculture and the environment.
In June of 2012 the Rural Society Project and Toriyama approached Anjo city about handing out the readers for free to students. The city responded “hell, yeah” and the collaboration was underway.
With the announcement of Lord Wu of Delicious Island’s completion last February, environmental study clubs suddenly sprang up all over the city. The municipal government was also inundated with calls asking how to get a copy.
At the time all requests from other parts of the country for a booklet were refused with disappointed fans being told “these are intended for the children of Anjo.” However, now they are available across the country to other environmental/agricultural groups for 315 yen (US$3) and individuals for 400 yen by ordering from the Biosphere website.
There don’t seem to be any plans to distribute them internationally. Any Toriyama fanatics outside Japan will just have to scour internet auction sites for a copy sold at an exorbitant price.
Source: MSN news (Japanese)
The Rural Society Project: Biosphere (Japanese)
Lord Wu of Delicious Island: A 10 Page Sample (Japanese/pdf)