ninteen anime eighty-one part one

 

Hey gang, earlier this year during the online Anime North convention, I delivered a virtual presentation all about what Japanese animation was like forty years ago, back in 1981. Well, those convention panels, even online ones, move pretty fast. If you aren’t careful you’ll miss something. I know I did! So that’s why today here at Let’s Anime we’re going to take that presentation and turn it into a column that we all can enjoy at our leisure.

Of course, 1980 was a big year for Japanese animation; big movies, big franchises, big shows. But if you thought 1980 was packed with cartoon goodness, well, you hadn’t ain’t done seen nothin’ yet. 1981 made 1980 look like a quiet Sunday at Grandma’s. Don’t believe me? Just look at what we’re looking at first.

 

1981 had no idea this show was going to become a massive international success. King Of Beasts Golion was one in a long line of Toei super robot cartoons built around a toy – they literally designed the toy first and the show was written around its five combining lion mecha robot beast fighters. Golion came and went in Japan without making too much of an impact, but when World Events Productions localized it as Voltron, it was exactly what North American kids were looking for. Voltron and its various sequels, reboots, and remakes continue to loom large in our collective memories.

   

Meanwhile, American televangelist Pat Robertson was looking for a way to sell Bibles in Japan, and the ad agency he hired told him “make a cartoon.” Tatsunoko was contracted and the result was Anime Oyako Gekijo, or as it was called on CBN Cable, Superbook, the story of three children and a time travelling robot experiencing bible stories. Superbook aired on cable and broadcast TV, was released on home video several times, and currently exists, like the Bible itself, in several different versions. We’ve written about Superbook and Flying House and Superbook II before!

 

 

Speaking of co-productions, the legendary Greek epic of Ulysses got an anime makeover in Ulysses 31, a TMS-DIC co-production updating the Homeric epic to the 31st century. America didn’t get this show until a few years later but those who saw it were dazzled by the sweet Osamu Dezaki animation, which blew away pretty much everything else on the TV.

 

Over on the cable channels you might have been watching Nickelodeon when they aired MK Company/Visual 80/Toho’s Meiken Jori, or as we know it, Belle & Sebastian. Inspiring live-action films and Scottish indie pop bands, this adaptation of the 1965 French novel is about a boy and his dog and another dog on a journey through the Pyrenees as they elude the cops and search for mother. I’d say this one’s long overdue for a North American DVD release.

 

Can a gloomy abandoned girl find happiness again in the paws of a ridiculous stray dog? Find out in Ohayo Spank! This 65 episode TMS series was based on the Nakayoshi manga by Shunichi Yukimuro and Shizue Takanashi, and found success in Japan and Europe. Sadly, Hello Spank’s only North American foothold was an English-narrated promo reel and a children’s plastic chair.

 

The Robinson family gets marooned on a mysterious island in the Nippon Animation World Masterpiece Theater adaptation Swiss Family Robinson – Flone Of The Mysterious Island, based on the novel by Johann David Wyss. The 1981 anime series adds a Robinson daughter to the cast and you can watch it in English on Amazon Prime, if you want to know if they ever get off that island!

  

Another western literary adaptation is MIC’s Little Women teleseries, one of the many times Louisa May Alcott’s novel has been translated into anime form. This version lasted 25 episodes and was dubbed by Sound International Corporation, the same people that dubbed Honey Honey and Leo The Lion. Did it exist in America beyond a few VHS tapes?

  

The Three Musketeers battle again, this time as dogs, in Dogtanian, a co-production between Japan’s Nippon Animation and Spain’s BRB International. Enjoyed by children worldwide – there’s even an Afrikaans dub and an Albanian dub - one version of the English voices were provided by Americans living in Madrid.

 
 

Meanwhile over in Scotland, let’s say hello to Hello Sandybell, the Toei series about the young Scots girl with an enormous dog and a cottage surrounded by flowers. Will she finally be reunited with her mother? Will her romance with the handsome rich kid who lives in the castle up the hill finally be realized, or will her rival Kitty win out? Watch the show and find out. Fair warning: this show features a character named “Mark Brunch Wellington.”

 

 

1981 was a big year for romantic European gals. MIC’s Honey Honey, based on the manga by Hideko Mizuno, is literally chased around the world because her cat Lily happened to swallow the priceless gem the Star Of The Amazon. It seems Princess Flora of Austria promised to marry whoever retrieved the jewel, which she had inserted inside a fish, fulfilling some no doubt whimsical Central European tradition. A crew of ethnic stereotypes and handsome masked thieves track Honey from Austria to Germany, France, England, Spain, Italy, Iraq, Japan, Norway and Russia only to wind up in New York City. This 29-episode shoujo comedy was dubbed into English by Sound International, aired in the US on Pat Robertson’s CBN Cable, and has only had a few sporadic home video releases.

 

And in modern day Japan, the glamourous young teacher Miss Machiko is forced to endure a constant parade of sexual harassment from her elementary school class in a Studio Pierrot anime series that lasted 92 (!) episodes and inspired eight (!!!!) different live-action versions, all based on eight volumes of Takeshi Ebihara manga, because Japan loves this kind of thing, I guess. Don’t take my word for it, watch it for yourself on Crunchyroll!

  

Japan also loves pro wrestling and Tiger Mask II delivers the kind of powerful masked grappling that inspires millions of fans, and also inspires Tatsuo Aku to don the titular mask and become the second Tiger Mask in this sequel to the early 70s Toei hit, which was based on the popular manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Naoki Tsuji, and which also inspired real-life wrestlers, as well as a legacy in the ring and on TV that lasts to this day.

 

The 65 episode Tatsunoko series Dash Kappei stars diminutive high school sports champion Kappei and was remarkably successful in the ratings, maybe because of Kappei’s panty fetish. Nope, not kidding.

 

Etsumi Haruki’s Jarinko Chie, or Chie The Brat, or Downtown Story as TMS would have you call it, is the story of a short-tempered Osaka girl named Chie and her ne’er do well gambling father, as Chie valiantly attempts to get Dad meaningful employment and a reconciliation with mom.

 

Kenichi’s best friend is the little ninja Hattori, who has amazing ninja powers but is deathly afraid of frogs. Based on the manga by Fujiko A. Fujio, the Shin-ei anime series Ninja Hattori-kun lasted an impressive six hundred and ninety-four (694!!) episodes.

 

You might know Akira Toriyama for Dragonball, but his first manga success was Dr. Slump, the tale of a fumbling genius inventor and his greatest creation, the robot girl Arale. Toei’s cartoony, colorful, crowded, and crazy Dr. Slump anime series ran for 243 episodes, ten movies, a 1997 remake, and at one point crossed over with this series ---

 

Queen Millenia is based on the Leiji Matsumoto manga of the same name which was serialized one page a day, five days a week, for 1000 days, in the Sankei Shimbun and Nishinippon Sports newspapers. That was the plan, anyway. Toei Doga would animate 42 episodes about of the discovery of La Metal, the 10th planet, which not only is on a collision course with Earth, but whose advanced civilization sends a queen to secretly rule over Earth every thousand years. What happens when La Metal’s queen sides with the Earth people? This mashup of the Princess Kaguya tale, the kook-science works of Immanuel Velikovsky, and the film When Worlds Collide would be edited together with the 1978 Captain Harlock anime and be shown in America as “Captain Harlock And The Queen Of 1000 Years.” And as mentioned, there was that crossover with Dr. Slump.

Over at Tatsunoko, the Time Bokan series continued with the fifth installment Yattodetaman, as Princess Karen and her robot guardian Daigoron travel back in time to 1981 to recruit Wataru Toki and Koyomu Himekuri in a quest to capture the immortal fire-bird Phoenix - no relation to Tezuka's Hi no Tori.

 

Prince Mito and his loyal retainers set out in the super robot Daioja to inspect the galactic empire in this fifty-episode Sunrise sci-fi update of the popular Mito Komon jidaigeki television series.

 

Also from Sunrise, Fang Of The Sun Dougram documents the guerrilla rebellion of planet Deloyer from the corrupt Earth Federation and its puppet government. Created by Ryosuke Takahashi, this real robot series featured mecha designs by Gundam’s Kunio Okawara, and toys and model kits of this series’ mecha would appear in North America both badged as “Robotech” and under the Dougram brand, while Dougram manga by Yoshihiro Moritou would see print in Kodansha’s Comic BonBon, not to be confused with the completely different Dougram manga by Yu Okazaki, which was running at the same time in Adventure King, make up your mind Japan.

 
 

Robot mayhem continues from TMS with God Mars! Earth is attacked by the Gishin space empire, led by the dark emperor Zule. Our only hope is Crasher Squad member Takeru Myojin, who it turns out is actually a Gishin space alien with ESP powers and a six-god combination super robot that doubles as a planet-destroying bomb sent to demolish the Earth! Based on the manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, TMS’s God Mars ran for 65 episodes of colorful, science fictiony, very not-real robot action, and you can watch it right now streaming for free on Tubi.

Speaking of unreal robots, Sengoku Majin Goshogun is all about how the shadow illuminati Dokuga, secretly ruling the world for Lord NeoNeros, comes under attack by Good Thunder and the GoShogun team, using Beamler energy to battle for the fate of humanity! Ashi Pro’s Goshogun only lasted 26 episodes but its mix of colorful action and fun characters captured enough fans to get a compilation film and a sequel OAV. Portions of the show were dubbed into English as “Macron 1,” the television broadcast version of which contains music video segments featuring covers of popular 80s tunes. The Japanese series has been released in North America by Discotek and is streaming on Retrocrush.

 

Hiro Taikai finds a gold cigarette lighter that instead of helping smokers to get lung cancer, is actually the transforming sentient super robot Gold Lightan, sent to defend the Earth from invasion by the Mechanic Dimension. This Tatsunoko series lasted 52 episodes and is streaming on HIDIVE!

 

From the studio that brought you Little Women and Honey Honey comes Galaxy Cyclone Braiger, the first in Yu Yamamoto’s J-9 series. In the lawless Asteroid Belt, four outer space commandos for hire use their expanding plasma super robot Braiger to defy the cult-leader crime-lord Khamen Khamen, who plans to blow up Jupiter. Will he succeed? Get the discs from Discotek and find out!

 

Rumiko Takahashi’s outer space high school comedy Urusei Yatsura concerns itself with the tumultuous relationship between the space princess Lum and the Earthling reprobate Ataru, except when it focuses on their equally wacky friends and neighbors. Urusei Yatsura came to TV in 1981 courtesy Studio Pierrot, and its mix of girls, gags, and galactic shenanigans would last 218 episodes, spawn six feature films, appear in a Matthew Sweet music video, and generally obnoxious-alien its way into pop culture legend. The series was released in English by AnimEigo and the pilot was dubbed into English on two separate occasions.

That’s an awful lot of anime TV shows! Join us next time when we head to the movie theater, buy a ticket, some soda, a large popcorn, and some Twizzlers, and also take a look at the Japanese anime theatrical films of 1981!

-Dave Merrill

Thanks for reading Let's Anime! If you enjoyed it and want to show your appreciation for what we do here as part of the Mister Kitty Dot Net world, please consider joining our Patreon!

how many Little Women?

In your work in the field of Japanese cartoons you may occasionally uncover examples of any one of the several versions of anime based on Little Women, the seminal American novel by Louisa May Alcott.  But wait, you ask. How can you tell all these iterations of Little Women apart?  Well, we here at LET’S ANIME have compiled a handy guide to allow you to instantly identify and categorize Little Women by year, studio, English dub version, and hairstyle. 

Yes, not only are there three separate ‘Little Women’ anime, but all three were dubbed and released in the United States to a perhaps confused but mostly indifferent audience. What’s more, these three releases all give us the same basic snippet of Little Women storyline, frustrating the needs of those required to write a book report on Little Women but can’t be bothered to read the book.  

Who are the titular Little Women, and why? Responsible eldest Meg, tomboy writer Jo, demure piano diva Beth, and girly-girl Amy survive as best they can in 1860s New England, enduring financial difficulties, repercussions of the Civil War and a challenging adolescence as they become what we know today as “teenagers” but that the Victorian period had no name for.

The ink was barely dry on Alcott’s original Little Women when the first of several Japanese translations appeared in 1906.  When Japanese animation titan Toei decided to produce a series of TV specials based on Western literature in the late 70s, Little Women got the nod along with Les Miserables, Frankenstein, Call Of The Wild, the literary fantasia Arsene Lupin Vs Sherlock Holmes, and a Dracula that adapted Marvel’s comic book rather than Bram Stoker’s novel.  

Yes, that's $29.95 for an hour long VHS tape your kids will watch once, and no, I don't miss the 80s

Toei’s Little Women, a 67-minute special on the Fuji TV network, aired May 3 1980. It starts right where the book does, a Christmas for the March girls that promises few presents and no Father. Dubbed by our Robotech pals at Intersound, this Little Women was packaged by Harmony Gold and found its way to American video stores thanks to Vestron Video’s Children’s Video Library, who also brought you Rainbow Brite, the Hugga Bunch, and the Glo Friends.  This Little Women wraps up with Jo cutting her hair to get money to buy a watch fob for a guy who buys her a comb. Well, not that last part.

Hot on the heels of the Toei telemovie was Movie International’s 1981 version, which is titled Little Women: Four Sisters Of Young Grass. I’m sure there’s a good reason they wanted to invoke lawn imagery in the title, but so far the logic escapes me. MIC farmed the animation out to Toei and there’s a distinct similarity in the two productions, especially in the character designs which sometimes show a family likeness.  Jo is almost completely different, however; sporting a new hairstyle and an adult look at odds with the story’s intent.  MIC’s series ran from April until September of ’81. With episode titles like “Christmas Eve At The March Home”, “Angels In Boots”, “Jo’s Boyfriend”,  “Beth’s Makeover”, “Jo Vs Amy”, “Meg is Caught In A Trap”, “Trouble In Raleigh”, and “Don’t Die, Beth”, you can see which story arcs the series focused on. 

Along with MIC’s Honey Honey and the Mushi Pro Tezuka series Jungle Emperor Go Leo, Little Women was dubbed by SONIC International, a since-vanished Florida production house. Like Honey Honey, Little Women made it onto a series of Sony home video tapes that may very well be lurking in the thrift stores and used bookshops near you.  If MIC’s Little Women ever made it onto CBN Cable along with Honey Honey and Leo, it got past us because we didn’t catch it.

"Angels In Boots": not the 1969 biker gang exploitation picture. (pic courtesy _D_)

It would be six long, Jo-free years before Little Women would again be animated in Japan. Nippon Animation took a ground-up approach to their 1987 World Masterpiece Theater series Little Women In Love, throwing out the Toei character designs and retooling courtesy Yoshifumi Kondo, who directed the lovely Whispers Of The Heart and would character design for Only Yesterday, Grave Of The Fireflies, and Princess Mononoke before his untimely death in 1998.  Nippon’s series is the most successful of the bunch, featuring period-accurate hairstyles, clothing, and architecture combined with good animation and scripts that stick close to Alcott’s original. The series ran 48 episodes and garnered a sequel, Little Women II: The Wrath Of Aunt March. I mean, Jo’s Boys.  Japanese audiences also got the entire series in English on specialty Japanese cable channels. Americans, however, got one measly VHS release of this series, which again features that first episode where the March gals are facing a poor Christmas. Saban provided the English dub. 

It's a Little Women Christmas with what appear to be Satan's Zombie Dolls

But is this all there is to the story of Little Women in Japanese animation?  No sir. The TBS series “World Mukashibanashi Manga” (Manga Folktales Of The World) devoted an episode to Little Women in October of 1977. 

Manga Folktales featured a variety of stories and fairy tales obscure and famous – Jack & The Beanstalk, Alibaba & The 40 Thieves, Beauty And The Beast, Why The Sea Is Salty, Gifts Of The North Wind, Cinderella, Wizard Of Oz – and in English (and Spanish) they show up in the cheap DVD bins from time to time. Did their Little Women get an English version? Is there yet another dub of yet another anime Little Women out there? How much Little Women is too much Little Women?

 

-Dave Merrill

Thanks for reading Let's Anime! If you enjoyed it and want to show your appreciation for what we do here as part of the Mister Kitty Dot Org world, please consider joining our Patreon!

Kokusai Eiga-sha Part Two: International Movies

(Where were we…let’s see.  BRYGER, yes, HONEY HONEY, all right,  ACROBUNCH, sure, NANAKO SOS... okay... BAXINGER!

1982 would see the return of the J9 in GINGA REPPU BAXINGER or “Galactic Gale Baxinger” as the toy helpfully puts it. 600 years after the climax of BRYGER, the fragile peace of the fifty-planet Solar System is being disrupted by revolutionaries who may be in league with invaders from another star. To defend the government, aristocrat Diego “Don Condor” Kondo invokes the spirit of the first J9 team and sets up the Galactic Whirlwind Baxinger, a 250-man team of outer space biker commandos ready to troubleshoot disaster wherever it may appear. Together with Shtekken Radcliffe, firearms expert Mahoroba “Billy the Shot” Shiro, melee weapon stylist Lily “the Butterfly” Mineri, and supercool samurai Samanosuke “Slugger Sama” Dodii, they pit the expanding-plasma combination super robot Baxinger against all comers.  The story of BAXINGER loosely follows Japan’s late Tokugawa era, when civil war erupted between factions who wanted to see the Emperor restored to full power and those who supported the Tokugawa government, which recruited an army of wandering samurai to defend the capital. Known as the Shinsengumi, their exploits would inspire novels, films, TV drama, manga, video games, and the occasional anime series (GINTAMA, RURONI KENSHIN). 

BAXINGER doujinshi circa 1983

The fate of the Shinsengumi looms over BAXINGER; obviously the Tokugawa shogunate no longer rules Japan, so you already know this one isn’t going to end well for our heroes. The conflicts between different factions within the Solar System become increasingly Byzantine and self-serving, the Bakufu government finds it harder to maintain any authority, and J9-II is caught in the middle. Like BRYGER they find themselves overwhelmed by events, but their honor as 28^th-century samurai keeps BAXINGER’s heroes from fleeing the Solar System, instead choosing to meet their fate head-on.  Reflecting the show’s feudal roots, the costume design and general look of the show is colorful, ornate, almost Byzantine; the K. Kazuo character designs are typically classy, and we’re given a great theme song and what may be the best ED song of all time, Naomi Masuda’s “Asteroid Blues”.  The Baxinger robot itself is almost Art Nouveau in its impracticality; buy one of the Takatoku toys and then see for yourself how the chest plate prevents arm movement.  BAXINGER ran from July ’82 until March of ’83, and it would be April before the next incarnation of J9. In the meantime Kokusai Eiga filled the gap with a mission to outer space. 

Farewell, BAXINGER!

MISSION OUTER SPACE: SRUNGLE (“Akudaisakusen Srungle”) ran for a full year as a sort of combination A-TEAM and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. The Srungle team is known as “The Gorilla Force”; they’re a gang of specialist operatives piloting what could charitably be called the least attractive super robot machines ever designed, in order to battle the evil criminal organization known helpfully as “Crime”. This all takes place in what’s called “Outer Space Zone”, a giant stretch of the cosmos that’s been given gravity and atmosphere. Humans have colonized a large city and several asteroids within the Zone, which is governed by “Galac Space”. Civilization itself hangs in the balance as the Gorilla Force – Captain Chance, Jet, Super Star, Sexy, Baby Face, and Bill Bixby as The Magician – battle the machinations of Crime. 

SRUNGLE somehow overcomes its difficulties and delivers 50 episodes of a complex plot, nutty cameos (Pac-Man, Gundam, Edvard Munch’s THE SCREAM), and increasingly unattractive robots to conclude via showdown with the Emperor Of Darkness and a giant space brain. A more detailed overview of SRUNGLE can be found at the Roketto Panchii blog , well worth a read to flesh out the SRUNGLE universe.  American audiences were treated to a “Robotech” style mashup of SRUNGLE and Ashi Pro series GOSHOGUN, dubbed and broadcast by Saban as “Macron 1”, in which characters from one show did their thing, characters from another show did their completely separate thing, and occasionally they spoke to each other via cross-dimensional television.  Merchandise-wise, SRUNGLE toys were made by Clover (who also had the Gundam license for about ten minutes) and Poplar, who specialized in cheap dime-store stuff. Both companies went out of business after attempting to merchandise SRUNGLE. 

SOOOOOOLAR WIND...

Next up at bat for MIC was the third J9 series, GINGA SHIPPU SASURAIGER. “Sasuraiger” comes from the Japanese “sasurai” or “wander”, and that’s just what the heroes of J9-III do – wander through the Solar System in their giant robot/space locomotive to fulfill the conditions of a cosmic wager. A century or so after the events of BAXINGER, disowned rich kid/computer genius Bruce Carl Bernstein – aka “IC Blues” – finds himself on the pleasure asteroid J9-Land making a gentleman’s wager with Max Girth, head of the “Bloody Syndicate”.  If Blues can travel to all fifty planets of the Solar System in one years’ time, he’ll get everything Max owns – but if he fails, all Blues gets is a bullet in the head.  Luckily Blues has an ace up his sleeve – the 23 meter tall transforming giant robot “Sasuraiger” and a crew to pilot her on this crazy gamble. Harmonica-playing gunslinger Rock “Straight-shooting” Anrock,  mechanical genius Beat “Otoboke” Mackenzie, sexy secret agent turned super thief Birdie “Kimagure” Show, and young lovers Jimmy Kenzo and Suzie Chan join IC on his wild ride around the planets, leaving Blues’ signature on prominent planetary landmarks while dodging the efforts of an increasingly desperate Bloody God.  Refereed by Joanna Carlisle, who owns the largest news syndication service in the System, the outrageous bet also catches the attention of Detective Chief Orlen, whose duty demands he track down IC Blues but whose personal feelings about the case may differ.

SASURAIGER’s light-hearted tone, evident from the first bars of the cheery theme song, sung by MOTCHIN aka groupsounds guru Ai Takano, is a real change after the sturm und drang of BAXINGER’s climax.  There is, however, excitement aplenty as Blues and company challenge Bloody God’s thugs across the System, and is that our old friend Khamen Khamen over there enjoying godhood? It just might be! Reports vary as to whether or not it was dubbed into English as “Wonder Six” and/or shown in Indonesia, but no direct English-language evidence has surfaced other than Enoki Films’ promotional material. Takatoku marketed a whole line of Sasuraiger toys including a train-to-robot transforming Sasuraiger confusingly labeled “Batrain”.  SASURAIGER would wrap up in January ’84 and MIC would start planning their next J9 series – “Ginga Ninpu Onsengar” – but subsequent events would prevent its production.

Kokusai Eiga would produce one more SF robot anime – not another J9, but a completely new show that broke with tradition both visually and thematically. CHO KOSOKU (“Super High Speed”) GALVION wasn’t anything like MIC’s previous series –less aliens, less emphasis on cosmic storylines, as far as I know, no attempted godhood – just two hard-luck ex-convicts pressed into service as drivers of a super sportscar that can turn on a dime AND turn into a fighting robot. A couple hundred years from now, sexy billionaire Midoriyama Rei realizes the best way to fight the nefarious SHADOW conspiracy is with her own secret organization called CIRCUS. She recruits Mu and Maya right out of federal prison for two reasons: they’re excellent drivers, and they’re really desperate to get their sentences reduced.  GALVION escaped the J9 space-opera style with up to date mechanical design by Koichi “Gunbuster” Ohata and character designs by manga artist Yoshihisa “Yu” Tagami, whose work we’d later see in DIGITAL TARGET GREY.  Today the look of the show is patently 80s, but it’s the first MIC show that didn’t rely on capes, swords, elaborate headgear, “expanding plasma”, or any of the other fantasy trappings of their previous SF series, and the “Lonely Chaser” OP theme sung by Riyuko Tanaka positively vibrates with mid-80s drum-machine beats and ersatz Eddie Van Halen guitar licks. 

Mu and Maya from GALVION

GALVION held promise, but its February-to-June, 22 episode run was cut short by the bankruptcy of MIC’s chief sponsor, Takatoku Toys. You’d think with the license to produce toys for a hit like MACROSS, Takatoku would have been in good financial health, but subsequent licensing decisions – among them DORVACK, ORGUSS, and the J9 series – were not popular enough to keep the company afloat. When the money ran out GALVION’s story wasn’t anywhere near finished.  Episode 22 wrapped the show up with a 35-second bit of narration and that would be the last we’d see of Mu and Maya and the Circus-1. The show has never been released on any home-video format – not VHS, not Beta, not Laserdisc, certainly not DVD. The physical whereabouts of the original film may be a mystery, so episodes taped off-air and passed from otaku to otaku may be all we ever see of GALVION. And that’s a shame. It’s a fun show with an interesting character mix and lots of noisy, transforming-robot action. 

Futari Daka pops the clutch and tells the world to eat its dust

One last MIC series remained on air after GALVION’s premature end - FUTARI DAKA or ‘Twin Hawks’. This motorcycle racing drama was based on the Shonen Sunday manga of the same name by Kaoru “Yattaman” Shintani, who earlier had provided character designs for 1980’s GOD SIGMA and would later bring us PHANTOM BURAI (script by Buronson), QUEEN 1313, and something called AREA88. Sunday’s publisher Shogakukan was a sponsor of the anime series, which may explain its survival in a post-Kokusai Eiga world. FUTARI DAKA deals with bikers Taka Tojo and Taka Sawatari, who share a first name and a bitter rivalry both on the course and off.  The OP mixed live motorcycle race footage in with its anime, was set to the catchy “Heartbreak Crossin’” by Takanori Jinnai, and though it failed to save MIC from oblivion, the show found new life on French TV five years past its cancellation date, which was June of ‘85.

the titular Twin Hawks of FUTARI DAKA

The ultimate fate of MIC – laid low by lack of a toy sponsor – serves to highlight an uncomfortable truth about Japanese cartoons. Most of these anime shows we obsess about are, let’s face it, 25-minute infomercials designed to sell toys, model kits, stationery, games and other licensed product. The product licenses keep the money flowing; without money, you don’t have your anime shows. The increasing value of the yen versus the dollar, spurred by the Plaza Accord of 1985, meant that exports from Japan got more expensive. Overseas markets were hit by sticker shock for Japanese goods and products like consumer electronics, cars, and most importantly anime TV series and toys from same.  1985 saw a contraction in the number of anime TV shows (34 in 1984, 20 in 1985), a revenue-hungry industry moved into the burgeoning home video market with direct-to-video OVAs independent from toy license financing, and the kids who grew up with super robots, science ninjas and space battleships aged out of the cartoon-watching demographic and into dating, college, and watching the bubble economy pop.

MIC’s exit from the anime production world was but one element in a larger drama; a drama that would have echoes 25 years later as another cash crisis rocked the industry. Crowded by larger studios even in the best of times, ultimately laid low by market forces beyond its control, through it all Kokusai Eiga-sha produced series that were unique and entertaining and that still have fans around the world, fulfilling their mission statement with a truly international legacy. The license for many MIC series is currently held by Enoki Films.  Hey fellas, let’s get some ACROBUNCH or HONEY HONEY DVD action going on here, I’m just saying, hint hint. 

-Dave Merrill

Thanks to Jane E. McGuire and C/FO MAGAZINE VOL. 2 NO. 10 for their assistance with the J9 portions of this article.

Thanks for reading Let's Anime! If you enjoyed it and want to show your appreciation for what we do here as part of the Mister Kitty Dot Net world, please consider joining our Patreon!