Space was the place in 1965! America and Russia both sent probes to the Moon and Mars, while both astronauts and cosmonauts ventured outside their space capsules for the first time. Meanwhile on TV screens, Tatsunoko's first-ever series Space Ace arrived... from space! Based on Tatsuo Yoshida's manga, Space Ace is a boy from the lost planet Parum who was separated from the rest of his people and landed on Earth. Found by Doctor, uh, Tatsunoko, Space Ace uses his amazing Parum abilities of having a stretchy body, a silver energy ring, and a platinum ray to help his new friends and the Earth. Ace replenishes his energy by chewing special energy gum - candy company Kanebo Harris (now Kracie) was a sponsor, and Ace also appears in the bubble gum commercials that air during the show. Tatsunoko pitched Space Ace to American syndication, but nobody in the US took the bait. I've long heard rumors of an English pilot for this series, but so far all that exist are rumors.
Meanwhile in '65, the TCJ crew responsible for Tetsujin-28 aka Gigantor were hard at work bringing Space Boy Soran to Japanese TV, where it would air from May 1965 until March of 1967. Soran is the son of noted scientist Dr. Tachibana who designed a super bomb and then fled with his family to outer space, as one does. Only Soran and his sister survived the crash of their spaceship. Soran was raised by space aliens who rebuilt him into a cyborg and he returns to Earth years later with super powers and a sidekick, Chappy the Space Squirrel, to search for his sister and also to battle evil, of course. Was Space Boy Soran's space squirrel adventure a little too similar to Osamu Tezuka's "No. 7" manga, and did Soran's production cause Tezuka to forestall production of a No. 7 anime series and instead retool the concept into Wonder 3? Only Galactic Command has the answers.
TCJ's Super Jetter is the story of Time Patrolman 723567 who flies from the future in his time-ship Ryusei-go (“Shooting Star”) in pursuit of the criminal Jaguar. Trapped in the 20th century, Super Jetter finds himself using his future powers to battle for justice! This series was commissioned by TBS as an original work rather than adapting an existing property; after TBS found out they'd inadvertently sold all the international rights to Eight Man to ABC Films, they wanted another show they could control exports of. Super Jetter was created by Fumio Hisamatsu, who also did manga for Ultra Seven, Godzilla Vs Mothra, Mighty Jack, UFO Warrior Daiapollon, and Yatterman. The series was originally in black and white but 26 episodes were remade in color for export, screening in Mexico as "El Hijo de Meteoro."
Also from TCJ, starting in June of 1965, was Planet Boy Papi, the story of the boy from the planet Clifton sent to Earth to sell Glico candy - the show was the second after Tetsujin-28 to air in "Glico Theater" time slot - and fight evil with his powerful Metalizer pendant and the help of a top evil-fighting combo made up of an Arabian wizard, a professional wrestler, and a little girl. We here at Let's Anime were deeply affected by Prince Planet in our youth, and subsequently have written extensively about this series and its English language release as Prince Planet, which was dubbed by Miami's Copri International Studios and syndicated by American International Television.
Toei's Space Patrol Hopper was sponsored by Daimaru Department Store and later was retitled Patrol Hopper: Space Kid Jun. The titular Jun is an Earthling who got caught up in a conflict involving space aliens. Injured, Jun was rescued by planet Hopper's Space Patrol. The Hopperians, or Hopperites, or Hopperutians, whichever, those guys rebuild Jun as a cyborg using their scientific power, and he becomes a member of their Space Patrol, fighting to protect peace in the universe and on Earth. The terrific Yasuji Mori character designs are all over this show, which is peak mid century design throughout its 44 episodes, airing from February to November 1965.
The year's only Japanese animated theatrical release was also an outer space adventure. Gulliver's Space Journey is a Toei film about a homeless boy named Ted; he and his friends come across Gulliver, you know, the one from Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels. Our modern Gulliver is about to take off in his rocket ship to the Hope Star, which has been conquered by robots! Gulliver's Space Journey has an all-star pedigree. The film's screenplay is by Shinichi Sekizawa, who wrote the lost film "Fearful Attack Of The Flying Saucers" as well as cinematic milestones like Godzilla Vs Mothra, Latitude Zero, Destroy All Monsters, and Jack And The Witch. Gulliver's music is by Isao Tomita, who would also score Jungle Emperor for Tezuka's Mushi Pro.
Key Gulliver animation was by Yasuo Otsuka, with in-betweening and certain scene concepts by Hayao Miyazaki. Ted's voice actor is Kyu Sakamoto, the first Japanese singer to hit number one on the US charts with his hit song "Ue o Muite Arukō", or, as it was incongruously renamed in the States, "Sukiyaki." The English language version, retitled Gulliver's Travels Beyond The Moon, would be released in US theaters by Walter Reade - Continental in 1966, with new music by Milton & Anne Delugg and Darla Hood from "Our Gang" voicing the Princess. The film would continue to play US theaters through 1975, and would be the last Japanese animated film to hit America until 1971's The World Of Hans Christian Andersen.
A more earthbound series from Toei's 1965 stable is Hustle Punch, which might be the closest Japan ever got to the Hanna Barbera style zany talking animal slapstick comedy adventure formula. Punch (a bear), Touch (a mouse), and Bun (a weasel) all live in a scrapyard and battle the evil plans of Professor Garigari, a wolf who wants to build his own city over their hometown. This TV show delivered rollicking fun from November '65 until April '66. Hustle Punch creatives Yasuo Otsuka, Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki would later bring this sort of chaotic amusement to human-being shows like Lupin III.
Fujiko-Fujio's Obake no Q-Tarō becomes animated in a 1965 series broadcast on TBS and produced by A-Production and Tokyo Movie, who would later become TMS. Q-Tarō is a friendly, sometimes timid ghost somehow attached to the Ohara family. Our ghostly star is voiced in a breakout role by the protean talent of Machiko Soga and lives, if that's the right word, to cause mischief. This is much to the chagrin of elementary school student Shōta Ohara, Q-Tarō's best pal. The success of this goofy ghost's adventures caused what was called a "Q-Tarō Boom" which would later inspire, among other things, the ghosts in Pac-Man. The Fujiko-Fujio team would also create Ninja Hattori-kun, Kaibutsu-kun, Perman, and Doraemon, which is to say they're behind some of the most popular cartoons in Japan, and in some cases, the world. The 1971-72 Q-Tarō series was broadcast on some US television stations as "Little Ghost Q-Tarō."
Perhaps the biggest star of 1965 was Mushi Pro's Jungle Emperor. Based on Osamu Tezuka's 1950 manga, the TV series was the first color animated series produced for Japanese television. The story of (stop me if you've heard this one before, Disney) how the son of the king of the jungle returns to regain his rightful place as leader of the animals, this show was animated by Tezuka's Mushi studio and began airing in October of 1965, Wednesdays 7-7:30pm on Fuji-TV. The animation may have been simplistic, and the character designs cartoony even by Tezuka standards, but the epic scope of the series, punctuated by Isao Tomita's grand soundtrack, elevates Jungle Emperor into legendary status.
NBC Films helped to finance the production and exported the series to America as "Kimba The White Lion." Consequently, the series episodes didn't feature continued storylines, violence was toned down, and as the corporate history states, "particular care was taken in the depiction of black people." Absent NBC financing, Mushi's 1967 sequel series "Go Leo" was more faithful to the original manga storyline. Go Leo featured continued stories and more violent content, and subsequently did not air in America until 1982.
1965 brought us some impressive milestones, but also some confusing missteps, in the shape of Mysterious Thief Pride. Otherwise known as Dr. Zen And The Magic Machine, this weird Tele-Cartoons Japan series of five minute shorts stars the titular thief Pride and his canine companion. Pride & Co. commit zany robberies while being pursued by boy detective Doublecheck, his big pal Broken, and their honeybee fairy friend Honey. Airing on Fuji TV at 6:10pm, this series was in black and white, but was colorized and dubbed for export under the "Dr Zen" title. It's unclear if this series ever made it to air on North America. And why would it?
1965 continued anime's path towards lucrative property licences and blizzards of toy tie-ins, into increased international audiences and full color productions, a year 1966 and 1967 would build upon in new and exciting ways. Other shows of 1965 include warring-states period boy ninja Fujimaru Of The Wind, the Tezuka cyborg Big X, the live-action/animation hybrid Bibi The Alien, and of course Wonder 3, the Tezuka adventure of a bunny, a duck, and a horse, sent here by Galactic Control to save or destroy the Earth.
Sixty years later, what remains of 1965? They're making another Jungle Emperor. You can still buy Obake no Q-Tarō merchandise, TCJ still exists as Eiken and still has animated shows on the air every week. Sponsors still build ad campaigns around TV animation and studios like Toei, TMS and Tatsunoko continue as major players in the biz. 1965 helped build the pipeline that fed the superhighway that laid the rails that blazed the trails that brought us to today, a world where kids of all ages around the world still watch Japanese animation. Next up: 1975!
-Dave Merrill
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