menko the gathering

I'm too young to have experienced this first hand, but kids in the 40s and 50s and 60s engaged in a game called 'card flipping' whereby Kid A would put a baseball card on the ground and Kid B would in some fashion hurl a baseball card of his own at the first baseball card on the ground in an attempt to flip the first card over and thereby "win". This is what we did before video games, apparently.

At any rate Japanese kids did the same thing with cards known as "menko cards". Squatter and heavier than American baseball cards, menko cards were imprinted with a bewildering variety of subject matter - ballplayers, wrestlers, judo champions, horses, rockets, spacemen, and - oh yeah, Japanese animation characters. They would hurl these cardboard squares at each other, not realizing that forty years later some goof with a blog would post pictures of them. The fools!

I bought these cards years ago at an Atlanta Fantasy Fair from Flaming Carrot cartoonist Bob Burden, who, when not drawing the looped-out adventures of the Strangest Man Alive, would man a dealers room table crammed with amazing stuff he'd culled from attics, junk stores, and yard sales across the nation. When I grow up I want to be Bob Burden. Anyway, here they are!

Alakazam The Great battles a giant scorpion in his quest to Journey To The West in this still from the 1960 Toei film of the same name, which of course was called Saiyuki in Japanese, is based on an ancient Chinese fairy tale about the Monkey King, and was the basis for anime as widely varied as Dragonball, Midnight Eye Goku, and SF Saiyuki Starzinger. Alakazam was voiced by Peter "Speed Racer" Fernandez in this film, which was released letterboxed on laserdisc by Orion Pictures, before they vanished.

Meanwhile, the Tezuka manga character-turned-anime Cyborg Big X looks on with trepadation as bands of Scotch tape wrap around the midsection of his menko card. One assumes this card saw lots of action in the streetcorner battlefields of the Menko Wars.

Cyborg 009 and the curious 60s toddler-style Cyborg 007 are on the retreat from both a giant spider robot and their miscolored uniforms on this kinda neat looking card. Menko cards are not known for their printing excellence or their attention to the finer points of character design. Personally, I love the fuzzy off-register printing.

Here Kimba The White Lion bites what appears to be a very skinny hyena as legions of jungle animals charge towards the scene. I get the feeling this card was more or less traced from the opening credits of Jungle Emperor. Oh, like you've never done this.

More cards to follow in Menko, Part Two!

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The hot new entertainment trend for 1977 - "Anime"!

J'ever notice the continual parade of new anime fans who have the idea that Japanese cartoons are some brand new thing that only recently impacted American pop culture? Because if THEY just found out about it, it HAS to be some hot new trend! Right? Wrong. As evidence to the contrary allow me to present... Cool Robot Toys of The 1970's, namely, Shogun Warriors.

In the post-Star Wars toy world everybody scrambled to find science-fictiony properties for America's toy-hungry children. Some bright executive at Mattel must have, I dunno, gone to Japan or something, because the mid 1970s reaped a bountiful harvest of brightly colored metal and plastic spaceships, heroes, robots, vehicles, and unidentifiable THINGS to amuse Japanese children. The idea of shipping these things across the ocean for American kids is not a complex one; Japan had been supplying toys and cutesy ceramics for years (not to mention radios, motorbikes, cars, etc) to their roundeyed cousins.

As one of those American 70s kids, I found the impact of Shogun Warriors to be swift and powerful. We couldn't tell Great Mazinger from the Great Pumpkin, but boy, we knew cool toys when we saw them. The giant two-foot plastic robots shot their fists across the room, the smaller diecast robots shot their fists and transformed and raised a big bruise if you hit somebody with them, and all of these toys simply looked fantastic - this was a level of creativity and design in children's toys not seen since the mid 60s, if even then.

Most of the toys came from various Toei robot anime series - Getta Robo G, Raideen, Great Mazinger, Danguard Ace, Gaiking, Daimos. Some toys were culled from the outlandish vehicles seen in Toei's live-action "sentai" programs like Gorangers or Message From Space. But we didn't care then. We would care later. Later Jim Terry would use the popularity of Shogun Warriors as an impetus to produce a package of episodes of 5 different Toei animated SF series under the title "Force Five". Showtime cable would air compilation films and they just cut to the chase and titled them "Shogun Warriors." I bet Mattel was pissed.

Plenty of ancillary merchandise like coloring books and puzzles produced a Shogun Warriors experience un-marred by any actual context. Mattel took the Japan theme one step further by producing giant plastic fist-shooting toys of Godzilla and Rodan just for the American market. Marvel Comics even produced a licensed title based on some of the robot designs, treating Americans to the spectacle of Herb Trimpe illustrating robots originally drawn by Leiji Matsumoto and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko.

Nowadays Japanese robot toys are valuable collectors items. The reissues of the giant two-foot fist-shooting robot are much too expensive to allow seven-year-olds to have their way with them, and toys that shoot tiny missiles might as well have giant labels that say WILL POKE YOUR EYES OUT. But for a brief shining moment in the mid 70s, American and Japanese children were united in brightly colored die-cast plastic Japanese cartoon play-value.

-Dave Merrill

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merry SSX-Mas!!

Even in deep space as the mighty space battleship Arcadia ventures deep into the unknown reaches of the universe, the burning desire for freedom raging within Captain Harlock and his spaceship engineer pal Tochiro Oyama...

... even in deep space, Christmas is still a time of joy and wonder for children of all ages, as we find that the magic of the season can turn the bulkheads of a pirate ship into a scene of holiday festivities.

Tochiro, Tadashi, and the little girl Revi show just how casual interstellar travel has become by decorating a Christmas tree while plying the empty wastes between planets in this scene from 1982's Eternal Orbit SSX episode 10 - "Snowfall In The Sea Of Stars". Also, Tochiro imagines himself as Santa Claus, which is cute.

Even the evil space invaders the Illumidas are getting into the Christmas act, as we see them celebrate by participating in their most sacred rituals- drinking in bars accompanied by blonde escorts.

Happy Holidays to everyone, whether you're in outer space or safe at home, whether you're a green space alien or a one-eyed space pirate! See you in 2008!

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anime journalism circa 1987

This article originally appeared in the July 26, 1987 issue of SAN FRANCISCO IMAGE, a Bay Area based publication. I somehow obtained a photocopy of this article and subsequently reprinted it in the C/FO Atlanta Newsletter, which appeared in the winter of 1987. It’s an interesting look at American media beginning to discover Japanese animation, as well as a glimpse of what fandom was like at the time.

From IMAGE, July 26 1987

Japanimation: Creating A World Without Smurfs

The room is filled with punk teenagers sitting silently. All their attention is focused on the large TV screen, where elegantly drawn cartoon characters move with a fluid energy that rivals reality. After countless battles, Space Pirate Captain Harlock has returned to earth, only to watch the woman he loves die in his arms. Sniffling sounds are audible. Even the kid with the Mohawk has tears on his cheek.

“It affected people,” recalls Owen Hannifen. With his wife, Eclare, he runs the Japanese Animation Archives in San Francisco, where the screening was held. “I teared up at that scene the first time I saw it, too- and I hadn’t cried at any animation since Bambi’s mama bit the big one.”

The artistic quality and complex, no-holds-barred plots of what is called “Japanimation” has brought it rising popularity in America. A few recognizably Japanese cartoons such as Robotech, dubbed into English, are broadcast regularly in San Francisco, but many people watch Japanimation without knowing it; more than half of the cartoons with American characters and plots are drawn by Japanese animators. And San Franscisco is now the home of what Owen believes is the nation’s only archive of Japanese animation.

The Hannifens, whose love affair with comic books dates back twenty years, realized in 1985 that they were sitting on a gold mine; a private collection of 5,000 Japanese comics and animation books and 1,000 hours of taped animation. So they decided to open their library to the public. In addition to the tapes and comics, the archives contain more than 200 records and compact discs, both animation background music and songs composed especially to read Japanese comic books by.

To visit JAA, located in their home, is to enter another world. Every available space, from the walls to the knickknack shelves to the TV screen, is brightened by Japanese cartoon characters. When Owen sits down to give a rambling discourse on Japanimation, a different story line seems to slip in every time he tries to make a point. He illustrates one tale by revealing a Captain Harlock tattoo on his arm. He will gladly show visitors whatever Japanimation tickles their fancy, from comedy to soft-core porn.

The Hannifens started videotaping in 1976 when a local TV station broadcast Yuusha Raideen, one of the seminal giant-robot shows. “We said, ‘My my, my, this is certainly different from Huckleberry Hound,’” Owen says. “Unlike American animation, which has silly animals doing silly things with dead comedians’ voices, Raideen used a multiplane camera and good music. We taped every episode religiously.”

While anyone can visit the archives, the Hannifens are trying to make it self-supporting by charging a $25 membership fee ($15 for students and senior citizens). There are about 150 JAA members, who get access to the archives, discounts on comic books and related merchandise and some free copying services.

Owen sums up the reason Americans prefer Japanese animation in a word: “Quality. In Japan animators are considered artists. They have their own fan clubs. Even the voice actors have fan clubs.”

Appointments to visit the Japanese Animation Archives can be made by contacting the Hannifens at PO Box 4151, San Francisco CA 94101; (phone number deleted)

Owen Hannifen passed away in 2000 after a long and colorful career in California fandom.

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Anime on CED

During the Format Wars of the 70s and 80s the struggle was on between VHS and Beta. But other format battles raged in the background. One such format was Capacitance Electronic Disc, or CED. Known also under its brand name of RCA Selectavision, it was a unique system that used a metal disc. Image and sound were recorded on the disc electronically and read by the stylus, like a needle on an LP record on that turntable gathering dust in your attic. The discs were housed in plastic cases that slid in and out of the player. The resulting product delivered a picture superior to then-current videotape with crystal-clear fast forwards and rewinds. Unfortunately, this media was non-recordable, which meant you can’t tape your soaps or Johnny Carson. So the CED system coughed, sputtered, and died. Today you can find the discs in thrift stores and antique malls across North America, presenting a cross section of American film circa 1978-1983, sold by people who think they’re laserdiscs, bought by people who think they’re valuable collectors items.

this is not a laser disc player

At any rate, this is a blog about Japanese cartoons so we’ve got to work the things in here somewhere. So here goes! After years of research and excavation, ANIME ON CED is proud to present our in-depth exploration of the ENTIRE FIELD of Japanese Animation as released in the CED format. Following is a COMPLETE LIST of anime titles released on CED.

1. JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

2. THE WIZARD OF OZ

There, that was fun and enlightening, wasn’t it? Start your collection today!

Seriously, I’m pretty sure there are more titles out there, but these two are the only ones I personally own. So therefore, review.

THE WIZARD OF OZ, at least the 1982 Toho version we’re talking about here, is one of at least three different versions of Oz animated in Japan. This version features the voice and singing of Aileen Quinn, who had just finished her role as “Little Orphan Annie” in the musical and film of the same name. Also notable in the voice cast is Lorne Greene as The Wizard. Aileen belts out a few numbers and generally is the most bombastic thing about this lackluster production. The animation is jerky, the character designs are nothing to write home about, and Dorothy has a gigantic head. Seriously, I know anime characters have big heads, but her head is huge. Her giant blank eyes and unfortunate choices in lipstick shade make Dorothy a freakish doll-faced spectacle, even next to the cartoony Tin Man and a foppish, dreadlocked Scarecrow.

Having never read the Oz books, I can’t say for sure, but I have a feeling this film sticks a little closer to the original story than the MGM film. Dorothy and Toto watch the film "Twister" and are blown to Oz, meet the Tin Man, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, some Good and Bad witches, some munchkins, and the Wizard. General Jinjur and her all-girl army do not appear.  If you’re an Oz fan, this film should probably cement over a few holes in your collection, and if you’re a fan of Japanese animation oddities on weird dead formats then what are you waiting for? I once saw dozens of sealed VHS copies of this film in a Goodwill, so it can’t be too hard to find.

yes, there are flying monkeys

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, on the other hand, is a much more entertaining movie. This 1974 co-production is like the animation styles of three continents stuck into a blender, whipped into a fine puree, and spread over groovy 1970s toast. Directed by Gisaburo “Night On The Galactic Railroad” Sugii, this winning fairy tale was created by Mushi Productions veterans who worked on things like Astro Boy and Cleopatra Queen Of Sex and would go on to things like Glass Mask and Death Note. We all know the story – Jack, magic beans, beanstalk, giant, grinding bones to make bread, singing harp, treasure,etc.- but this film throws in an entire supporting cast of dogs, mice, princesses, and evil queens that turn the movie from yet another animated children’s film into an enjoyable experience in its own right. (a full review was online at the now defunct Anime Jump website.)

The character designs betray the film’s global origins; Jack and his fellow ground-dwellers have a real European cartoon look, a Peyo-style roundness that makes you want to buy Kinder eggs or buy Eurorail passes, while the cloud castle princess has a definite anime character style and her subjects are day players from Princess Knight episodes. The evil witch, on the other hand, is Disney Evil Witch all the way.

Turns out Princess Margaret of Top Of Beanstalk Land has been hypnotized by the evil Hecuba, who is going to marry Margie off to her son, the giant Tulip. Yeah, that’s his name. Poor Jack, voiced by Billie Lou “Astro Boy” Watt, climbs up the beanstalk with his faithful canine companion Crosby (??) just in time to learn Hecuba has turned the citizens of cloud-land into Disney Cinderella mice. Befriending the princess (voiced by Corinne “Trixie” Orr), Jack makes it back home with the treasure, but his conscience and a stirring song by his previously silent dog convince him to climb back up and set things right. There’s a trippy sequence where Hecuba bends the laws of time and space, some exciting up and downstairs castle chasing action as Tulip rages after the pair, and after a few songs it’s back down the beanstalk, go get the axe. One of the film’s outstanding scenes is the wedding between Tulip & the princess – since the citizenry has been turned into mice, Hecuba fills the pews and pulpit with blank-faced paper dolls she animates through magic. It’s a creepy sequence with real dread.

The film’s music ranges from wigged-out psychedelic jam guitar to a portentious tune that suspiciously resembles Caiphas’s theme from “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Hecuba applies mind-control makeup to the Princess in a scene that now has serious lesbian overtones thanks to wah-wah porno background music. The movie never misses a chance to throw in a song and while some of them are clumsy (Jack and the giant sing a duet as they chase each other) they’re all fun.

It’s available on DVD from Hen's Tooth Video - scroll down (the guys that brought us Hawk The Slayer), but for the purposes of this column let’s just pretend it’s another example of Anime On CED. So far we have a fairy tale and Oz adaption #345; not exactly representative of the field of Japanese animation as a whole. If you know of any other Anime On CED releases, contact Let’s Anime!

Goodbye, Prince Tulip! Gooooodbyyyyyyyyeeeeeee!

-Dave Merrill

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the fake Nadia episode guide

(this fake episode guide originally appeared in LET’S ANIME #1, published in 1992. It is completely false in every way, and was written because anime fandom at the time simply could not shut up about the show. Of course nowadays nobody remembers it at all. Ha ha.)

NADIA EPISODE GUIDE: SECRET OF BLUE WATER

Editor’s note: In order to conform to a little-known provision of the recent nuclear arms proliferation treaties with the Soviet Union, it has been decided that every Japanese anime fanzine MUST feature an episode guide to the recent Gainax-produced NHK anime series ‘Nadia in the Mysterious Ocean’s Blue Waters of the Sea of Questionable Mystery Challenge of the $23,000 Pyramid”, that lovable series that captured the hearts of lonely Hayao Miyazaki wannabes everywhere. So, in order to do our part to bring about World Peace and Niceness, here we go.

EPISODE ONE: “A GIRL, A TOWER, A JEWEL, THE INDIGESTION OF LOVE’S MIGHTY FLAME!!”

In Paris, 1888, nothing happens.

One year later, during the 1889 Paris World’s Exposition, a young inventor named Jean-Claude van Paul-Jacques-Louis Robespierre Napoleon XVIII, along with his aging mentor “Pops” Racer, sail up the Seine in a rented barge, eager to attend the latest meeting of the Paris chapter of the “Man Was Never Meant To Fly” club and show off their newest anti-flying machine. Meanwhile, the Impressionist painter Claude Monet awakens with intestinal gas pains and decides not to attend the Exposition after all, which is good since he isn’t in this series anyway. Taking a break from the hilarious festivities of men who never meant to fly, Jean-Paul visits the Eiffel Tower and meets a mysterious young girl named Nadia Skywalker, sole possessor of a powerful mysterious gem of mystery and danger, the Hope Diamond. However, she trades the Hope in for another gem, the “Blue Water Of 1000 Flushes”. Nadia is also the last descendant of the royal family of the lost city of Laputa, and as such is being chased by the evil government agent Special Mooska (oops, wrong show)… is the last descendant of the lost city of ATLANTIS, and is being chased by special agent 0073 Grandes “Chesty” Morgan and her two henchmen Inky and Dinky. In a fierce confrontation atop the Eiffel Tower, Nadia runs away.

The very next day Nadia is captured by Grandes in her big transforming Japanese robot, but is rescued by Jean, who points out quite rightly in a line later edited from the final version that the things haven’t even been invented yet.

Meanwhile, Nikolai Tesla discovers that strange radio emissions from the planet Mars are interrupting his weekly recordings of the broadcasts of Casey Kasem’s “American Top 40”.

EPISODE TWO:

Rerun of episode one.

EPISODE THREE: “GODZILLA VERSUS THE RIDDLE OF THE SEA MONSTERS!!!!!”

Due to the rerun it was never shown, but in episode two it was revealed that Nadia, actually the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary in disguise, was trying to keep the beginning of the First World War on schedule by sending compromising photographs of British Prime Minister Palmerston to the New York Daily Post. As WWI begins on schedule twenty five years later, it seems to have worked. Meanwhile the nuclear submarine Polaris destroys Grandes’ mechanical device, forcing her to rely on her backup mecha, a Gundam Mark II, to capture Nadia and return her to the Czechoslovakian Olympic Gymnastics Team in time to humiliate the Americans at the 1976 Olympics. However, Jean-Claude Debussy renders the Gundam suit useless by sending it repeated transmissions of public service announcements by the President’s Commission On Physical Fitness. Meanwhile, a young Mary Lou Retton watches in horror.

Captain Nemo, owner of a large seafood restaurant chain, gets disgusted with bad table manners and decides to retaliate with his very own atomic sub. He captures Nadia and Jean-John as they vacation at Club Med, and plans to use the Blue Water to increase tourist attendance at the “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea” ride at Disneyworld, but is told by an irate Michael Eisner to “go soak his head.” Meanwhile in Vienna, a young Adolph Hitler warns the Academy if they don’t let him study painting, he’ll start World War Two.

Later, Jean forgets to tie his shoe, trips over the lace, and dies, but is revived by Nadia and the Blue Water gem.

EPISODE FOUR:

This is a rerun of episode two, which was a rerun of episode one. New scenes of Nixon’s resignation speech are added to up the ratings.

EPISODE FIVE: “A REAL WORKOUT FOR THE NAUTILUS!”

In 1991 Tokyo, NHK screenwriters Haro Genki and Hawaya Nistamicha are fired for their atrocious pun. Meanwhile back in 1889 Europe, Russia and Japan begin the Russo-Japanese War twelve years ahead of schedule, completely pre-empting the Spanish-American War. This forces William Randolph Hearst to fill his newspapers with old reprints of excerpts from Issac Asimov’s autobiography. Disgusted with the print medium, the American public waits impatiently for the miracle of television. On board the Nautilus, Electra discovers she is pregnant, which is curious since she doesn’t have sex until episode 22. This is news to Captain Nemo, who has been busy attacking the South Pacific Lodge of the Benevolent And Protective Order Of Special Mooses, to gain control of their valuable supplies of cheap imitation gimmicks, not to mention gee-gaws, knick-knacks, and bric-a-brac. Meanwhile in Boston, Jean and Nadia open a small boutique, which does well until it’s destroyed by Grandes and her pals Chester and Joe in their new mecha, the SDF-1 Macross.

In the ensuing battle Jean trips over a speed bump and dies, but Nadia brings him back to life with the secret powers of the Blue Water gem and a good five cent fountain Coca-Cola.

EPISODES SIX TO TWENTY-ONE:

Reruns of episodes #1 and #2 edited together with clips from the 1991 TV movie “Knight Rider 2000” along with highlights of recent episodes of “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. Hosted by Lorne Green and special musical guests, the Judds.

EPISODE TWENTY TWO: “YAMATO! WHAP THAT MOTHER!”

Grandes discovers her investments in IBM stock and Hartford Mutual have led to holdings of over ten million francs, which in real money is about twelve dollars. Incensed, she attacks Jean and Nadia, now living in a ramshackle apartment in Duluth, with both the Grandizer and Great Mazinger robots, but is staggered with Jean counterattacks by revealing his true identity of Devilman and ripping her head off, in the process discovering that Grandes was really Count Decapita in drag, the real Grandes being on vacation.

Meanwhile on board the Nautilus Electra gives birth to twins, discovering that she was merely the surrogate mother to embryos which are the love children of Jackie Onassis and former New York Yankees shortstop and Money Store spokesman Phil Rizzuto. Electra gives them up for adoption and promises to pay more attention to her reproductive organs next time.

Captain Nemo, searching for his lost tube of moustache wax, discovers a laser-disc of the Doris Wishman film “Bad Girls Go To Hell”. This he uses in his attack against the North Atlantic chapter of the Liberace fan club, which retaliates by transmitting episodes of “Dark Shadows” with annoying audio drops happening about every ten seconds. Since television has yet to be invented, neither side is harmed.

Jean falls off a moving U-Haul truck, breaks his neck, and dies, but Nadia revives him with the Blue Water gem and several kilos of pure, uncut hashish.

EPISODES TWENTY-THREE TO THIRTY-SIX:

These episodes were replaced by reruns of episodes three, seven, nine, and sixteen, edited together and introduced by Sally Jesse Raphael, with a new soundtrack by the Bay City Rollers.

EPISODE THIRTY-SEVEN: “THERE SHE WAS JUST A WALKIN’ DOWN THE STREET, SINGIN’ DOO-WAH DIDDY DIDDY DUM DIDDY DOO.”

This is actually an episode of “Rat Patrol” with voices from “Secret Of Blue Water” dubbed over; the result of a night of heavy drinking over at Streamline Pictures. In Japan this was replaced by reruns of “Fairy Princess Minky Momo” with voices dubbed in from “Fist Of The North Star” and introduced by the cast of “Kamen Rider Super-One” and Carl Macek’s brother Skippy The Glow Attorney.

EPISODE THIRTY-EIGHT: “RESOLUTION OF THE SEVEN HUNDRED REAL ESTATE BROKERS BEFORE THE COMING BATTLE!!!”

Nadia, revealed as Princess Anastasia of the royal family of Imperial Russia, escapes the Bolshevik Revolution by not being there; her alterations shop in the rear of JC Penneys in Bossier City Louisiana is destroyed when Grandes and the entire cast of “Urusei Yatsura”, brainwashed into believing that Nadia is actually Madoka from “Orange Road”, attack with giant robots from “Dougram”, “L. Gaim”, “Xabungle”, and “Psycho Armor Govarion, in the process completely wrecking the Pecanland Mall. Nadia escapes in a Federal Express truck, while Jean rams a Lockheed C-5A cargo jet into Grandes’ Cross Your Heart bra, causing a massive atomic explosion. The secret society of “guys with pointy masks” attacks the Nautilus, destroying it completely, which depresses Captain Gloval (whoops, wrong show) Captain NEMO, until he realizes that he’s got another one safe at home in the garage.

After the nuclear blast, Jean trips on a pebble and dies; Nadia revives him with the Blue Water gem and several back issues of “The Stark Fist Of Removal.”

EPISODE THIRTY-NINE: “THREE MILLION BUCKS OF WHITEY’S ICE; AND BABY… THAT’S COLD!”

The entire remnant of the continent of Atlantis, along with the secret society of “guys with pointy masks” and the Omaha chapter of the Cartoon/Fantasy Organization, attacks Nadia, Jean, and the Nautilus with a robot double of Nadia’s long lost twin brother Shecky, who recites bad poetry and has questionable table manners. Jean takes a 75-millimeter howitzer blast to the sternum and dies, but is revived by Nadia and the Blue Water gem along with a free trial subscription to National Geographic Magazine. The Nautilus becomes a transforming robot that is subsequently taken over by Grandes, who, in her new Maidenform bra, dreams she conquers the world, until her companions Frank and Steve thwart her plans by declaring their undying love for each other and purchasing a condo together.

Jean uses his new flying machine to escape the battle but is shot down and killed by a particle beam fired from an orbiting “Star Wars” death-ray laser. However, Nadia revives him with the Blue Water gem and a coupon for fifty cents off any dessert item at Dairy Queen, while supplies last. Deros from the Hollow Earth, along with their Aluminum Nazi Hell Creature allies, attach the remnants of the Mu continent civilization, and America and Spain decide to go ahead and hold the Spanish-American War.

Captain Nemo shaves his head in preparation for auditioning for the job of Captain Picard’s stand-in on “Star Trek”, while Electra stands around and makes snide observations, all the while unaware that she has been secretly impregnated with the offspring of former Secretary Of The Treasury Bert Lance and “Hee-Haw” star Minnie Pearl.

In a shocking finale, the Earth is blown off its axis by “powerful magnetic weapons much more powerful than atomic bombs”, which raise the sea level and kill everyone on Earth instantly, including Jean. However, Nadia lives, and using the Blue Water gem and several acts not suitable for publication in a family magazine, she brings Jean back to life, and together they become the Adam and Eve of a new mankind. The end.

Wow! What a fantastically original and innovative show! Truly a pleasure to watch, especially the famous scene in episode #18 where the giant robot “Bob” Dobbs is hurled off the cliff by the force of the exploding bananas. How we laughed!

Rumor has it that the Gainax gang is hard at work on a sequel, tentatively titled “Nadia II – Secret Of The Blue Ooze”, featuring previously unreleased footage from the first series, edited together with film of the Kennedy assassination and the 1968 Elvis “comeback” TV special. We can hardly wait!!!

-Dave Merrill

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Anime, Pat Robertson, Mazinger Z, and... YOU!

Cable TV in the 80s was kinda strange. Lots of national channels + not a lot of programming = strangeness. USA Network was running the bizarro hippy punker clip-show extravaganza Night Flight, Discovery Channel would occasionally show entire days worth of Russian television, and everything was liable to be interrupted by local ads shoehorned in by your mom & pop cable TV service. And of course everywhere there was Japanese animation! If you weren’t watching 90 minute compilations of Force Five episodes or Thunderbirds 2086 episodes on Showtime, you were catching Belle & Sebastian or Mysterious Cities Of Gold in between Tomorrow People marathons on Nickelodeon. And if you were particularly hard core you would watch Superbook and Flying House - the Japanese anime Bible cartoons – on Pat “700 Club” Robertson’s CBN network.

To be honest, CBN got a lot of mileage out of anime. Screening the two Christian cartoons is a natural, but they also ran the compilation films for Voltes V and Starbirds (the English dub of Fighting General Daimos), as well as direct-to-TV animated films like the Tatsunoko adaptation of the literary classic "Daddy Longlegs. 

let's volt in

kung-fu fighting giant robot that turns into a truck and romances the space ladies

I wonder who her mysterious benefactor will turn out to be

And if you were alert or un-hung-over enough to be watching TV at noon on Sunday, you might catch two of my favorites – Honey Honey and Leo The Lion.

Both dubbed by some Florida outfit called “Sonic International”, they seem to be odd choices to run on cable in the 80s – a shojo comedy set in 1910 and a violent talking-animal cartoon from the late 60s? – but trying to figure out the actions of television executives is a fruitless task. The important thing is that Honey Honey, based on the manga by shojo manga-ka pioneer Hideko Mizuno (who would later go on to pen the groundbreaking rock’n’roll manga FIRE) is a charming and frequently wacky series that is a minor gem. The original 1966 manga by Hideko Mizuno was published in RIBON (“Princess”) MAGAZINE, but the anime series would not air until 1981. What’s up with that?

Young teenage orphan Honey Honey, making ends meet in Austria in the early part of the last century, befriends a small white cat named Lily. As a result of this friendship Honey Honey finds herself pursued literally around the world by Princess Flora of Austria, Flora's four ethnic-stereotype suitors, and the mysterious thief Phoenix. And Phoenix’s cat.

Turns out Lily swallowed the famous gem the Star Of The Amazon, the possession thereof being the one condition pursuant to marrying Princess Flora. Over the next 25 episodes we see auto chases, UFOs, sultans, samurai, Viking warriors, spies, crooks, Robin Hood, circuses, storms at sea, ninjas, King Kong, you name it. It’s a whirlwind of a show that mixes slapstick with romance, and the English dub is amateurish but spirited. The animation by Kokusei Eiga varies from mediocre to amazing – there’s one episode that rivals anything else on TV at the time - but mostly the show is typical television quality.

Six episodes of the show were released on home video by Sony in various formats including Beta and 8mm. VHS copies occasionally show up on eBay and local video stores, so keep your eyes open. Honey Honey’s rights are currently owned by Enoki Films – one of our farsighted American outfits should contact them, release the show on DVD, and make us all happy. More information about Honey Honey can be found on this very blog! 

the nefarious Princess Flora, Herr Gustav, Geronimo, King Pika-Pika, and Sheik Oil Dollar

CBN’s other Sunday anime powerhouse is Leo The Lion, which of course is Tezuka’s sequel to Jungle Emperor/Kimba The White Lion, based on Tezuka’s classic manga series from the late 1950s. After he produced the first 1965 series (Japan’s first color TV cartoon!) under NBC’s guidelines, Tezuka went on to produce Leo (original title “Susume Leo”) staying closer to his original manga. This means continuing storylines, darker themes, and lots of animal-on-animal action complete with defenestrations, impalings, contusions, beheadings, shotgunnings, etc.

Leo (you may remember this white lion under his childhood name of “Kimba”) and his wife Leia (“Kitty”) defend the jungle and raise their two children Runi and Ruki . There are the occasional episodes of whimsical comedy – the James Bond spoof episode in particular – but for the most part this series is a lot darker and less “fun” than Kimba. It’s not surprising NBC would take a pass on this one, I can’t see it getting past the watchdog moms of 60s America. Of course 20 years later CBN either has no problem with it, or what’s more likely, has no idea they’re running a cartoon show in which a blind Masai warrior has his arm ripped off by a tribe of evil leopards.

Leo has been released on cheap public-domain home video several times, mostly in shoddy EP VHS tapes that contain edited versions of the episodes. Buyer beware! This is another series that deserves a decent DVD set as a companion to Right Stuf’s Kimba release.

And the CBN anime story doesn’t end there! Before Honey Honey and Leo, CBN ran the weekly Japanese current affairs news program Beyond The Horizon. Occasionally overstepping the boundaries of traditionally defined “news”, Beyond The Horizon would fill up its airtime with 12-minute half-episodes of the 1972 Toei giant robot show Mazinger Z. This mysteriously-dubbed version of the super robot classic featured the infamous English-language theme songs sung phonetically by Isao Sasaki.

Luckily anime fan seneschal Steve Harrison taped the things with his top-loading mono wired-remote VHS deck, capturing this artifact for posterity. But why would a news program run a children’s robot cartoon? Cultural background? Entertainment industry context? Time-filler for slow news days? Only Pat Robertson knows, and he ain’t tellin’.

-Dave Merrill

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