Mai, the Psychic Girl (舞, Mai) is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuya Kudō and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. It was serialized in Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1985 to 1986, with its chapters collected in six tankōbon volumes. The story follows Mai Kuju, a 14-year-old Japanese girl with powerful psychic abilities. She is being pursued by the Wisdom Alliance, an organization which secretly strives to control the world. The alliance already controls four other powerful psychic children, and it has hired the Kaieda Intelligence Agency to capture Mai.

Manga

Mai, the Psychic Girl is one of the first manga series to be fully published in English. It, along with The Legend of Kamui and Area 88, were published in North America by Eclipse Comics and Viz Comics in a bi-weekly comic book format starting in May 1987. As it was one of the forerunners of manga popularity in the West, Mai was chosen for localization due to its middle-ground artwork: neither “too Japanese or too American.” It was presented in the “flipped” format that was the norm with early localized manga. Mai proved popular enough that second printings were needed of the first two issues.

In 1989, Viz publications released a four-volume collection of Mai, the Psychic Girl. The collection featured a brief nude scene that had been edited out of the comic book edition. This was one of the first manga to be released in the “digest” format that serialized manga series are printed in, when they are collated into a collection. The series was later re-released in three volumes as Mai, the Psychic Girl: Perfect Collection.

Film

Beginning in the late 1980s, new wave rock band Sparks attempted to make Mai, the Psychic Girl into a musical, with interest from Tim Burton and Carolco Pictures, who purchased the film rights in August 1991. Carolco hoped Burton would start production in 1992, but he chose to work on The Nightmare Before Christmas and Ed Wood for Disney. The option on the film rights eventually expired, and Burton dropped out. Francis Ford Coppola later developed the property in the 1990s. In June 2000, Sony Pictures Entertainment started on a new different project with Kirk Wong attached to direct. By February 2001, a script had been written by Lisa Addario and Joey Syracuse for Sony’s Columbia Pictures. The release of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, a radio musical by Sparks, in August 2009, was informed by the six years the band spent trying to get their Mai, the Psychic Girl produced. The album generated new interest, and gained a “second wind”, vocalist Russell Mael explained. “The music is all ready and we are hoping that this still might see the light of day”. In 2010, Burton expressed renewed interest in adapting the property.

Mai, the Psychic Girl
First volume cover
舞 (Mai)
Manga
Written by	Kazuya Kudō
Illustrated by	Ryoichi Ikegami
Published by	Shogakukan Media Factory
English publisher	NA Viz Media
Imprint	Shōnen Sunday Comics
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Sunday
Demographic	Shōnen
Original run	1985 – 1986
Volumes	6