Hellsing

And now for one of my personal favorite animes.....Hellsing.

Hellsing is a Japanese manga and anime series written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano.
It debuted in Young King Ours in 1997 and ended in 2008.
Hellsing chronicles the efforts of the mysterious and secret Hellsing Organization, as it combats vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural foes who threaten the United Kingdom.

Dark Horse Comics is licensed for the English language release of the manga in North America. In Australia and New Zealand, Madman Entertainment owns the rights and in Singapore the rights are owned by Chuang Yi.
Hellsing: The Dawn, a prequel series, has been published in special editions of Young King OURs since 2001.

The anime series was produced by Gonzo and directed by Umanosuke Iida from a screenplay by Chiaki Konaka.
It is different from the manga in terms of plot, though it uses some of the same characters and similar character designs.
The anime was broadcast on Fuji Television in Japan from October 10, 2001 to January 16, 2002.
Satelight and Geneon. is producing an original video animation (OVA) called Hellsing Ultimate. Ultimate follows the manga story line more closely than the first anime series.

Hellsing (Complete Boxed Set)

Cardcaptor Sakura

Cardcaptor Sakura is a magical girl manga series from the famous all-female artist team CLAMP (creators of Angelic Layer, Magic Knight Rayearth and Tokyo Babylon, among others) .
Cardcaptor Sakura is published in Japan by Kodansha (the largest manga publisher in Japan) and was serialized in Nakayoshi (a shōjo manga magazine).
The manga series consists of twelve volumes.
The Cardcaptor Sakura manga is well-known for its emphasis on the shōjo genre (manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10 and 18) of the series, with nearly every page having detailed flowers, bubbles, or sparkles around the main characters.
It won the Seiun Award for Best Manga in 2001, and the anime won the Animage Grand Prix award for best anime in 1999.
The manga was translated into English by Tokyopop.

Cardcaptor Sakura was adapted into an anime television series, animated by Madhouse (Death Note, Chobits, Trigun) and directed by Morio Asaka (who also did Chobits) .
The character designer and chief animation director for the series was Kumiko Takahashi (Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam).
It premiered on NHK from April 8, 1998 and finished airing on March 21, 2000.
Two theatrically released movies (Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie and Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card), and several specials (Tomoyo's video diary 1, 2 and 3) were also produced.
The second season of TV series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1999.
Nelvana produced an English dub of the anime series, titled Cardcaptors, which aired in English-speaking countries.
An unedited English translation, bearing the original title, Cardcaptor Sakura, was broadcast in its English-language networks by the anime television network Animax.
Cardcaptor Sakura has also been released in North America (but not the UK or Australia) on unedited and subtitled DVDs under its original title.

Besides being a very popular anime, Cardcaptor Sakura has another interesting quirk.
Several of the characters from Cardcaptor Sakura have been reworked for use in another Clamp series, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
Sakura (The Princess of Clow Country) and "Syaoran" Li (The son of Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li) are two of the cross overs from Cardcaptor to Tsubasa.


The series has been adapted into several video games, developed for Game Boy, PlayStation, WonderSwan, Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2.

Chibi Vampire

Chibi Vampire was originally released in Japan as Karin.
It is a Japanese manga and anime series written and illustrated by Yuna Kagesaki.
The story is about basically a " reverse vampire"girl , instead of drinking blood, she must inject it into others because she produces too much.
Chibi Vampire first premiered in the shōnen magazine Monthly Dragon Age from October 2003 until February 2008.
The individual chapters of the story were published by Kadokawa Shoten into thirteen collected volumes.

Both the manga and light novel series were released by Tokyopop in English. Tokyopop renamed the manga series Chibi Vampire and the novel series Chibi Vampire: The Novel.

In 2005, an anime adaptation of Chibi Vampire was created by J.C.Staff and directed by Shinichiro Kimura.
Twenty-four episodes were aired in Japan on WOWOW from November 3, 2005 till May 11, 2006.
It was licensed for an English release to Region 1 DVD, under the name Karin, by Geneon USA.
On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced that Funimation had agreed to be the exclusive North American distributer of Geneon titles, including Chibi Vampire.

A guidebook to the Chibi Vampire series, Karin All-Nosebleeds Book, was released in 2006.

Chibi Vampire, Volume 1 (v. 1)

Mushishi

Mushishi is a manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Urushibara and published in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine. It ran from 1999 to August 2008.

The manga was adapted into an animated television series in 2005. The Artland production was directed by Hiroshi Nagahama. Episodes one through twenty aired in stations across Japan between October 2005 and March 2006. Episodes 21 through 26 aired on BS Fuji every Sunday from May 14, 2006 to June 18 of the same year. A live-action feature film adaptation, directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, premiered on March 24, 2007.

The Mushishi manga won an Excellence Prize at the 2003 Japan Media Arts Festival and the 2006 Kodansha Manga Award.

The anime series was animated by Artland and directed by Hiroshi Nagahama and spanned a total of 26 episodes. The first 20 episodes of the series first aired between October 2005 and March 2006 on Fuji TV and its affiliated broadcast networks, including Kansai TV, Tōkai TV, Hokkaidō Bunka Hoso, TV Shinhiroshima, TV Nishinippon. Episodes 21 through 26 aired on BS Fuji every Sunday from May 14, 2006 to June 18 of the same year.

The television series covered every chapter from the first five volumes of the manga and the first story from volume six, but did not adhere to the original order.

At the 5th Tokyo Anime Award competition held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair, held on March 25, 2006, the anime series won grand prizes in the categories of television series and best art direction (for Takashi Waki).

The series has later been aired by the Japanese anime television network, Animax, who have also aired the series later across its respective networks worldwide, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea. It has also been licensed for distribution across numerous other regions, including North America by Funimation.

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop is an animated Japanese television series. It was directed by Shinichiro Watanabe and written by Keiko Nobumoto and produced by Sunrise. It consisted of 26 episodes. The series followed the adventures of a group of bounty hunters traveling on their spaceship, the Bebop, in the year 2071.

Cowboy Bebop was a commercial success both in Japan and international markets, notably in the United States. After this reception, Sony Pictures released a feature film, Knockin' on Heaven's Door to theaters worldwide and followed up with an international DVD release. Two manga adaptations were serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's Asuka Fantasy DX.

Cowboy Bebop has been strongly influenced by American music, especially the jazz movements of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s and the early rock era of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of its action sequences, from space battles to hand-to-hand martial arts combat, are set and timed to music. Following the musical theme, episodes are called Sessions, and titles are often borrowed from album or song names (such as Sympathy for the Devil or My Funny Valentine), or make use of a genre name ("Mushroom Samba") indicating a given episode's musical theme.

Cowboy Bebop almost did not appear on Japanese television due to its depictions of violence. It was first sent to TV Tokyo, one of the main broadcasters of anime in Japan. The show had an aborted first run from April 3, 1998 until June 19, 1998 on TV Tokyo, broadcasting only episodes 2, 3, 7 to 15 and 18.

Later that year, the series was shown in its entirety from October 23 until April 23, 1999, on the satellite network WOWOW. With the TV Tokyo broadcast slot fiasco, the production schedule was disrupted to the extent that the last episode was delivered to WOWOW on the day of its broadcast. Cowboy Bebop won the Seiun Award in 2000.

The full series has also been broadcast across Japan by the anime television network, Animax, who has also aired the series via its respective networks across Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia. Cowboy Bebop was popular enough that the movie, Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira (Knockin' on Heaven's Door), was commissioned and released in Japan in 2001, and later released in the United States as Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in 2003.

In a 2006 poll by TV Asahi, Cowboy Bebop was voted 40th for Japan's all-time favorite anime.

FLCL / Fooly Cooly

FLCL (also Fooly Cooly) is an Japanese anime OVA series co-produced by Gainax and Production I.G. The series was created and directed by Kazuya Tsurumaki, and written by Yōji Enokido.

Furi Kuri follows the story of Naota Nandaba, a twelve-year-old boy living in the fictional industrial town of Mabase, and his encounters with the alien life-form Haruko Haruhara. The Japanese suburb houses the Medical Meccanica building, the reason for Haruko's visit.

The American reception for the series, although not widespread, has been enthusiastic following its release on Adult Swim in the summer of 2003. Anime.com also gave the series an enthusiastic review in October of that year, although there was also a minor reference to it in the September "issue". In 2003, it also went on to win third place for Best Animation Film at the Fantasia Festival.

FLCL has garnered both positive and negative reception among reviewers, sometimes diverging to extremes in both directions. Adult Swim occasionally refers to FLCL as "The greatest show we have ever aired". Christopher McDonald of Anime News Network called it "downright hilarious" and "visually superb" with great music, citing the packaging of 2 episodes per DVD as the only weakness of Synch-Point's original release.

On February 24, 2007, FLCL was nominated for "Best Cast", and won "Best Comedy Series" and "Best Short Series" at the first American Anime Awards show.

In the November 2007 issue of Anime Insider, FLCL was ranked 4th in their list of the best English-licensed anime of all time.

Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon(officially translated as Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon)is the title of a huge Japanese media franchise created by Naoko Takeuchi. It's generally credited with popularizing the concept of a sentai (team) of magical girls, as well as the general re-emergence of the magical girl genre itself.

The story of the various series revolves around the reincarnated defenders of a kingdom that once spanned the solar system, and the evil forces that they battle. The major characters—called Sailor Senshi (literally "Sailor Soldiers"; frequently called "Sailor Scouts" in the North American version)—are teenage girls who can transform into heroines named for the moon and planets (Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, etc). The use of "Sailor" comes from a style of girls' school uniform popular in Japan, the sērā fuku (sailor outfit), after which the Senshi's uniforms are modeled. The elements of fantasy in the series are heavily symbolic and often based on mythology.

Creation of the Sailor Moon manga was preceded by another, Codename: Sailor V, which centered around just one Sailor Senshi. Takeuchi devised the idea when she wanted to create a cute series about girls in outer space, and her editor asked her to put them in sailor fuku. When Sailor V was proposed for adaptation into an anime, the concept was modified so that Sailor V herself became only one member of a team. The resulting manga series was a fusion of the popular magical girl and sentai genres of which Takeuchi was a fan, making Sailor Moon one of the first series ever to combine the two.

The manga resulted in spinoffs into other types of media, including a highly popular anime, as well as musical theatre productions, video games, and a live-action (tokusatsu) series. Although most concepts in the many versions overlap, there are often notable differences, and thus continuity between the different formats is limited.

Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied is a Japanese manga and anime series created by manga author Lynn Okamoto. A thirteen-episode anime series adaptation based on the manga was produced by the studio ARMS and broadcast on TV Tokyo from July to October 2004; the anime was later licensed in North America on DVD by ADV Films. The anime started before the manga was complete, as a result, the plot differed between the two, especially towards the ending of the story. In 2005, a special original video animation, written to occur between the tenth and eleventh episodes of the series, was released. The title is literally German for "Elves' Song", or more properly translated "Song of the Elves", and takes its name from the poem Elfenlied and the German word lied, a classical-romantic poem or musical work.

Elfen Lied revolves around the interactions, views, emotions, and discrimination between humans and the diclonius, a mutant species similar to humans in build but distinguishable by two cat-ear-like horns and "vectors", transparent arms which can pass through air and objects at high speed. The series is centered around the teenage Diclonius girl "Lucy", said to be the first Diclonius, being rejected by humans and her subsequent murderous vengeance upon them.

So far, only the thirteen-episode anime series has been licensed in the United States, by ADV Films and in Australia, by Madman Entertainment. ADV Films said the series was one of their bestselling and "most notorious" releases of 2005.

Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo is a Japanese animated T.V. series consisting of twenty-six episodes. It was broadcast in Japan from May 20, 2004 through March 19, 2005 on the television network, Fuji TV. Samurai Champloo was created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, whose previous television show, Cowboy Bebop, earned him renown in the anime and Japanese television communities. The show was produced by studio Manglobe.

The word, champloo, comes from the Okinawan word "chanpurū" (as in gōyā chanpurū, the Okinawan stir-fry dish containing bitter melon). Chanpurū, alone, simply means "to mix" or "to hash." Therefore, the title, Samurai Champloo, may be translated to "Samurai Remix" or "Samurai Mashup."

The series is a cross-genre work of media, blending the action and samurai genres with elements of non-slapstick comedy. It is also a period piece, taking place during Japan's Edo period. The series is interwoven with revisionist historical facts and anachronistic elements of mise-en-scene, dialogue and soundtrack. The shows most frequent anachronism is its use of elements of hip hop culture, particularly rap and the music it has influenced, break dancing, turntablism, hip hop slang, and graffiti. The show also contains anachronistic elements from the punk subculture and modernism, but less prominently.

Wolf's Rain

Wolf's Rain is an japanese animation series created by writer and story editor Keiko Nobumoto and produced by BONES Studio. The series was directed by Tensai Okamura and featured character designs by Toshiro Kawamoto with a soundtrack produced and arranged by Yoko Kanno. It focuses on the journey of four lone wolves who cross paths while following the scent of the Lunar Flowers. They form a pack and decide to seek out the Flower Maiden in order to open the way to Paradise. Along the way, they must avoid a fanatical wolf hunter and the nobles who wish to use the Flower Maiden to create their own Paradise.

The anime series was well received in Japan, being the third ranked anime series in its time slot while airing on Fuji TV. The Bandai Entertainment English language release sold well in North America. It helped Bandai gain the 2004 Anime Company of the Year award from industry news company ICv2 in the ICv2 Retailers Guide to Anime/Manga. The manga adaptation was selected as one of their top ten anime products of 2005 and sold well in North America. Reviewers of the series gave it high marks for characterization, visual presentation, and its soundtrack, while disparaging the existence of four recapitulation episodes in the middle of the series. The manga adaptation also sold well in North America and received good reviews, though reviewers felt its short length resulted in a rushed plot and neglected supporting characters.





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Turbo Tagger

Stellvia of the Universe

Stellvia of the Universe is an anime series which is set in space and in the future. As a prelude to the series, the Earth of year 2167 AD is shown to be devastated by a powerful electromagnetic shockwave. This is caused by a nearby star, Hydrus Beta, 20 light-years away, going supernova. The series itself is set 189 years later, in the year 2356 AD. Civilization has been rebuilt with humanity having united together to face the coming of the second shockwave of the supernova. The second shockwave, unlike the first, is to contain a great deal of matter composed of the remnants of the star itself. Stellvia ran for 26 episodes. It was produced by the animation studio XEBEC and is distributed in the United States by Geneon. A sequel was originally announced for 2005, but was canceled after internal difficulties. Geneon however recently halted all distribution of anime DVDs in America. As of now Stellvia has been discontinued.

Beginning with the May 2003 issue, a manga adaptation by Ryo Akizuki was serialized in Dengeki Daioh and has been published in the US as a two volume graphic novel series by DrMaster. The word Stellvia is actually made up from two Latin words, stella meaning star(s) and via meaning street. In Japanese the kanji for street is "Michi" which can be translated as either street or road. Therefore Stellvia is roughly translated as The Road to the Stars.



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Tokimeki Memorial

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Tokimeki Memorial (ときめきメモリアル, Tokimeki Memoriaru?) is a popular dating simulation series by Konami. It consists of 6 main games, Tokimeki Memorial, Tokimeki Memorial 2, Tokimeki Memorial 3 ~ Yakusoku no Ano Basho de ~ (At the Place we Promised), Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side 2nd Kiss, and Tokimeki Memorial Online, in addition to a large number of spinoffs. The games are notable in the dating sim genre for being highly nonlinear. Their nickname amongst their fans is the contraction TokiMemo.

The gameplay in Tokimeki Memorial focuses on scheduling, dating and stat-building. The player must organize his or her time between asking out members of the opposite sex and developing his or her abilities at school and sport (with the long-term goal of becoming more seductive, not out of any intrinsic value). Dates are frequent but very brief, with usually only one multiple-choice question to determine whether your partner's love meter will increase or decrease. One playthrough lasts for a fixed period of 3 years of high school (on the order of 5-10 hours of play), at the end of which the character with the highest love meter confesses their love. None of the games in the series contain erotic elements.

Tokimeki Memorial has been adapted into a 26 episode anime TV series, Tokimeki Memorial Only Love, produced by Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. and Anime International Company and based on Tokimeki Memorial Online, which premiered across Japan on October 2, 2006.

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Japanese Anime: Aria

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ARIA is an ongoing manga and anime by Kozue Amano. It is serialized in Mag Garden's monthly magazine Comic Blade, and has been collected into nine tankōbon volumes to date with more releases planned in 2006. It is actually a sequel series to the two volume series, AQUA, which is an introductory series to Aria and tells of how Akari comes to AQUA.

ARIA takes place in the twenty-fourth century, on the planet Aqua (formerly Mars), which has been terraformed into a habitable planet covered in oceans and seas. The town of Neo-Venezia, where the story occurs, is based on Venice both in terms of art and feel, and despite the futuristic time period, there is very little science-fiction to the manga at all.

The manga stars Akari, who is an apprentice gondolier with ARIA Company, one of the three most popular gondola companies in the city. She is training to become a full-time gondolier (or undine, as they are called in Neo-Venezia).

The style of ARIA is very laid-back, taking a "slice of life" approach to the story and is not plot driven. Most of it is devoted to the lush expansive art, as Kozue Amano frequently will take pages and pages to draw an environment, showing the wonder of both everyday activities in Neo-Venezia as well as one-of-a-kind events. It is very similar in tone to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō.

The first three volumes of ARIA were released by ADV Manga in 2003 and 2004; however, the series appears to be on permanent hiatus. In 2006, Tokyopop announced it acquired the licensing for both Aqua and ARIA; the first three volumes of ARIA are to be republished before Tokyopop publishes further unreleased English volumes of the manga.



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3×3 Eyes

3×3 Eyes (pronounced Sazan Eyes in Japanese) is a manga created by acclaimed mangaka Yuzo Takada, and is his most successful series. It spans 40 volumes, beginning in 1987 and finally ending in 2002. It was serialized in Young Magazine.

There are also two anime OVA series based on 3×3 Eyes. They were first released in 1991 and 1995. They were relatively short, only comprising four 30-minute episodes and three 45-minute episodes. The storyline goes up to volume 5 of the manga.

The English-language manga was being published by Dark Horse Comics, but was canceled before the release of volume 9 in 2005. Two versions of the English adaptations exist; one published by Streamline Pictures and another released in 2001 by Pioneer LDC, now known as Geneon Entertainment.

3x3 Eyes follows the adventures of Pai, the last remaining Sanjiyan Unkara and her new Wu (an immortal companion), Yakumo, as they desperately try to find a way to make Pai human so that she can forget her troubled past. In some Chinese dubs Pai is pronounced "Pui" and her name is a reference to Parvati, a beautiful Indian mountain goddess reputed to inhabit the Himalayas. Yakumo can again become mortal and end his constant need to protect Pai because if Pai dies, then so will he. Along the way, they encounter many followers of the now-dead demon god Kaiyanwang, all of whom wish to kill Pai or siphon off her power in order to resurrect their deity and/or gain immortality.

Sazan is the Japanese word for 3x3 as in multiplication tables. It's also the phonetical equivalent for the English word southern, and Takada's favorite music group happens to be Southern All Stars.
Volume 40, the last volume, has been published in two versions, one of which includes a PC game.
Various games came out based on the 3x3 Eyes manga on the Japanese Super Famicom, Playstation and the Game Boy. They featured new characters, music and artwork.
The songs from 3x3 Eyes are by the Takada Band. Their music is released separately.
So far many music albums have been made: Two original soundtrack cds, the 3x3 Eyes - Seima Densetsu Matsuei Fudanshi 2 Original Soundtrack, the Takada Band vocal album, the 3x3 Eyes Dai-ichi Shou Original Soundtrack, a 3x3 Eyes Image Album 3 - Earth Chapter and the 3x3 Eyes Seima Densetsu Matsuei Fudanshi 1 Original Soundtrack.
A TV series was being considered at around the time the manga ended in 2002. However, due to the then-recent Japanese censorship laws, it wasn't made.
The original voice actresses for Pai and the Sanjiyan in the Streamline Pictures English language adaptation are also the same voice actresses for Robotech's Lynn Minmay and Lisa Hayes, respectively. (Rebecca Forstadt and Melanie MacQueen).
The voice actress for Pai is Megumi Hayashibara in the original Japanese language version.
The music composer for the animes is Kaoru Wada.

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Agent Aika

Agent Aika is an anime OVA series which stars a Japanese woman named Aika Sumeragi (voiced by Rei Sakuma) who works as a salvager for companies that hire her, but gets caught up in a plot for world domination. This OVA anime series is available in North America from Central Park Media.

Tokyo has sunk into the ocean, along with most of the world, during a land subsidence. Aika Sumeragi is a salvager who works for a small company run by a father and daughter tandem. Alas, the company isn't exactly successful, and money is needed desperately. Thus, Aika accepts the very dangerous job of acquiring an artifact called Lagu for a hefty sum. The boss' daughter Aida Rion joins Aika on this particular mission, and the two set off. Later on, Aika and Rion are captured by Rudolf Hagen -- an effeminate but over-sexed man who wants Lagu and Aika (and just about every pretty girl) for himself. Hargen commands a huge battleship manned exclusively by droves of cute girls in mini-skirts (the source for what is often called "fan service"). Alongside Hargen is his obsessive sister Nena, who is jealous of Aika, as well as another salvager named Gusto, who's also after Lagu and has a crush on Aika as well. When Aika's special bustier is activated, she becomes a " superwoman" who can take on whole armies by herself.

The automatic rifles shown and used throughout the series are German StG45(M), a weapon which historically never went past the prototype stage.
The planes Aika flies resemble Russian MiG-21 (episodes 1-4) and MiG-25 (episode 6).
There is about one panty shot every 20 secs in the Agent Aika anime (the first episode alone has about 122 panties in more or less plain view), even more, if you count group-scenes as more than one.

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Galaxy Express 999

Galaxy Express 999 (銀河鉄道999; Ginga Tetsudō Three-Nine) is a manga written and drawn by Leiji Matsumoto, as well as various anime films and TV series based on it. The manga is published in English by Viz.

Galaxy Express 999 is set in a space-faring, high-tech future, where mechanized people with "machine bodies" are pushing humanity towards extinction. A street urchin named Tetsuro Hoshino wants an indestructible machine body, giving him the ability to live forever and have the freedom that the poor humans on Earth don't have. While machine bodies are impossibly expensive, they are supposedly given away for free on the planet Andromeda, the end of the line for the space train Galaxy Express 999 (Technology has advanced to the point where space-faring vehicles can assume any shape, such as the classical locomotive in the story.).

Tetsuro meets up with a beautiful woman, Maetel (sometimes translated "Maeter", from the Greek mētēr and/or Latin mater, meaning "mother"), who is the spitting image of his dead mother. Maetel offers him passage on 999 if he will be her travelling companion. Tetsuro agrees. Another notable character in both the manga and the anime series is the seemingly strict, mysterious alien conductor, that sometimes gets involved in Tetsuro's and Maetel's adventures.

In 1981, Roger Corman produced an English-language dub of the first GE999 anime, which changed the character names, saddled some with accents, and subverted much of the story.

In 1986, Harmony Gold produced rarely-seen dubs of two of the GE999 TV specials, Galaxy Express 999: Can You Live Like A Warrior? and Galaxy Express 999: Can You Love Like A Mother?

The first movie was dubbed again in 1996 by Viz, titled Galaxy Express 999: The Signature Edition. Released on VHS, this dub was more true to the source material. Viz also released Adieu, Galaxy Express 999 subbed and dubbed on VHS, although having lost the licenses for the two films, they were never released on R1 DVD. The only current official English-language release of Galaxy Express 999 material on DVD are a Korean release of the two movies which utilize Viz's subtitle scripts. The Dubs of both films were run quite regularly on the Canadian channel, Space the Imagination Station, when the station first launched.

Viz later released five volumes of the second Galaxy Express manga, which was the basis for the third film, Galaxy Express 999: Eternal Fantasy. The original manga hasn't translated into English.

anime

Daikū Maryū Gaiking

Daikū Maryū Gaiking (Japanese:大空魔竜ガイキング; In English "Great Sky Demon Dragon Gaiking") was a Super Robot mecha anime series produced by Toei Animation on an original idea by Akio Sugino (not Go Nagai, contrary to legend, even though his company, Dynamic Productions, co-produced the show from Episode 22 on, but he had no direct involvement), which ran from April 1976 through January 1977 and consisted of 44 26-minute episodes. Gaiking was notable for being one of the few super robot series to take place in real places outside of Japan, and for being the first Super Robot series to have a mobile carrier for the chief robots. Gaiking was part of Jim Terry's Force Five anthology series.

The story chronicled the battle between the crew of the semi-transformable carrier Daikū Maryū (also called the Kargosaur) and the Super Robot Gaiking against an invading race of aliens from the planet Zela, whose home planet is facing destruction by a black hole. Notable aspects of the series include the dinosaur-based designs of the Daikū Maryū and its support machines and the use of part of the carrier to form the main robot. The robot Gaiking was piloted by a baseball star named Sanshiro Tsuwabuki (Sanshiro's name was changed to Aries Astonopolis for the English version of the show with the carrier being called the "Great Space Dragon", a literal translation of "Daikū Maryū". Likewise, for the Latin America version the main character was called Brando Drummond and the carrier "Gran Dragon del Espacio"). It is most easily distinguished from other mecha by its skull-shaped golden torso, formed from the head of the Daikū Maryū, and its golden horns.

The leader of the alien villains was named Darius, and all of their ships and mecha were fish-shaped, which most likely inspired the Darius series of video games.

Gaiking is Toei Animation's first super robot series not based on an existing manga (the company's previous super robot anime Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, etc. were based on manga series by manga artist & writer Go Nagai). It was shown in English internationally as part of Jim Terry's Force Five lineup, and was also broadcast in Latin America as "El Gladiador" as part of a 4 anime mecha show called El Festival de los Robots (with the other 3 being "Starzinger", "Magne Robo Gakeen" and "Kotetsu Jeeg", known as "El Galactico", "Supermagnetron" and "El Vengador" respectively). Daikū Maryū Gaiking was aired also in Italy, on the local networks, under the name Gaiking.

A new Gaiking series ("Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu") premiered on TV Asahi on November 12th 2005 (replacing Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo). This version, also produced by Toei, features a completely different story and main character, However, some of the names are very similar to the original series. Both Daiku Maryu and Gaiking have similar designs to the originals; Gaiking's torso is still skull shaped and the support machines come from Daiku Maryu and the open face form of Gaiking is a tribute to the old Gaiking. This series ended September 24, 2006 with the 39th episode.

5 years ago, the main character Daiya Tsuwabuki was on a fishing trip with his father when giant monsters attacked. Daiya was saved by the crew of Daiku Maryu. Present Day, Daiya believes that his father is still alive but no one is prepared to believe him, even his own mother. But when the same monsters attack the city Daiya becomes the pilot of Gaiking and joins Daiku Maryu as they go to the world of Darius to stop them from taking over the surface world.

Despite the similarity in family name, Daiya and Sanshiro from the original Gaiking are NOT related at all.

anime

Future Robo Daltanius

Future Robo Daltanius (Japanese: 未来ロボ ダルタニアス) was an anime series that aired from 1979 to 1980. There were 47 episodes. Alternate spellings include "Daltanius", "Dartanius", and "Daltanias".

It is the year 1995. Earth has been conquered by an alien army from the Saar cluster known as the Akron. The cities of Earth have been destroyed, and the remaining survivors live in harsh shanty towns and villages. Kento, a war orphan, hides within a cave along with his companions in order to escape some bandits. In the cave, they find the secret base of Dr. Earl, who was an inhabitant of the planet Helios, a planet conquered by the Akron. Dr. Earl then fled to Earth, bringing with him the greatest achievement in Helian technology: the super robot Daltanius, whose power is increased when combined with the intelligent lion robot, Beralios. Dr. Earl entrusts the fight for Earth to Kenta, who happens to be a descendant from the long disappeared Helian royal line.

Tadao Nagahama had a heavy influence in the artistic style and direction of the show. The style resembles that of Voltes V and Combattler V.

The main attraction super robot, Daltanius, was formed with 3 components: the main robot, Atlaus; the space ship, Gunper; and the mechanical lion, Beralios, which was recovered after the first battle with Akron.

The Japanese Mirai Robo Daltanius series was originally planned to be adapted by World Events Productions as one act of the Voltron: Defender of the Universe series in the United States and abroad. Unlike the ill-fated Light Speed Electric God Albegas conversion (which never even materialized, due to the lower ratings of the Dairugger XV Voltron run), the pilot episode of Daltanius was actually translated and dubbed into English, and adapted to fit the Voltron mythos. This pilot episode was test-marketed by World Events in locales such as Hawaii (and, reportedly, San Francisco), but was never again re-broadcast after these airings.

One factor which led to the scuttling of these plans was the intention to have the three-act Voltron trilogy (similar to Robotech's three-act adapted structure) consist of Daltanius (whose robot featured a lion-component on its chest), Dairugger XV (the "Vehicle Voltron"), and Albegas ("Gladiator Voltron"). When requesting master tapes from Toei Animation for translation purposes, the World Events producers mentioned that they should be sent "[The] ones with the lion." Mistakenly, Toei then proceeded to ship World Events copies of Hyakujuu-ou Golion — another "combining-robot" animé featuring lion-shaped fighters. In this case, however, the World Events producers greatly preferred the GoLion series to Daltanius, and the GoLion episodes went on to become arguably the most popular portion of the original Voltron run.

A rather remarkable irony is that as a Voltron, Daltanius would have been composed from one Lion, one Vehicle, and one Gladiator.

The robot is named after the main hero of the Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan.
Daltanius is 56 meters tall and weighs 678 tons.
Daltanius was the first combining super robot to have an animal component, as well as the first to have a lion's head chest; the lion's head would be incorporated into several Brave Series robots, most notably Gaogaigar.

Tosho Daimos

Tosho Daimos is an anime series produced by Nihon Sunrise.
Daimos is the third installment of Tadao Nagahama’s Romantic Trilogy, following Chōdenji Robo Combattler V and Chōdenji Machine Voltes V. It ran from 1 April 1978 to 27 January 1979 and consisted of 44 episodes. A movie with the pivotal episodes strung together titled Starbirds was released in the US by the same company that released Tranzor Z. The name Daimos is derived from Deimos, one of the two moons of Mars. Apart from Japan, the show also aired in the Philippines and in Italy. In the early 1980s there was a VHS release in France, but only the first seven episodes were available.

Akira Kamiya, who voiced Kazuya, is a veteran seiyuu (voice actor) who also voiced such heroes as Ryouma Nagare, the pilot of Getter-1.
Hiroya Ishimaru is better known for voicing the pilot of Mazinger Z, Kouji Kabuto. In most other animes, his characters and those of Akira Kamiya are friends and allies.
The name of one of the Barmians, Gurney Halleck, may have been inspired by the character Gurney Halleck from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel, Dune.
The album Circus by the Filipino alternative band Eraserheads contains quotes from different people who supported the band, two simple quotes are included “Erika” from a person named Richard and “Richard” from a person named Erika are seen. The quotes are in reference to the two main protagonists of the show and their multiple scenes in which they are running to each other while saying the lines quoted. (Kazuya’s name is changed to Richard in the dubbed show shown in the Philippines.)

Daimos was banned in the Philippines during the term of then president turned dictator Ferdinand Marcos around the early 1980s. Along with other super-robot-anime shows like Voltes V, it was banned citing reasons of its negative effects on young people.
The only time you can see all three Super Robot Romance Trilogy mechas, featured in one package, namely Combattler V, Voltes V and Daimos, is in the following games: Super Robot Taisen Advance for the Game Boy Advance, and Super Robot Taisen Alpha 2 and Super Robot Taisen Alpha 3 for the PlayStation 2 under the company Banpresto. The last features a special combination attack involving all three, the Chōdenji Reppū Seikenzuki (超電磁烈風正拳突き Super Electromagnetic Gale Piercing Righteous Fist). The opening of the attack features Daimos’ Fire Blizzard, Combattler’s Grand Light Wave and Voltes’ Choudenji Ball. Daimos then finishes it off by transforming into his Battle Truck mode and starts to accelerate on top of the Grand Light Wave to increase his momentum before delivering his devastating move: the Reppu Seikenzuki. Super Robot Taisen Alpha 3 is so far, the only Super Robot Taisen game that features this move which is also dubbed as the “Final Nagahama Special” among Super Robot Taisen fans.
The name “Richter” is probably inspired by legendary pianist and perfomer of Chopin’s work, Svyatoslav Richter.

Filipino band Parokya ni Edgar make reference to Daimos in their song “Mang Jose.”
Daimos was one of the many Super Robots featured in Mattel's line of imported Shogun Warriors toys during the late 1970s and early 1980s. A late addition to the toy series, the Daimos Shogun Warriors toy (a two-foot tall "Jumbo Machinder") was available in the U.S. for only about a year between 1979 and 1980 before the Shogun Warriors toy line folded in the U.S. market.

Conan, The Boy in Future

Conan, The Boy in Future (未来少年コナン, Mirai Shōnen Konan?, lit. Future Boy Conan) is an anime series, which premiered across Japan on the NHK network between April 4 and October 31, 1978 on the Tuesday 19:30-20:00 timeslot.

Spanning a total of 26 episodes, the series was produced by Nippon Animation and featured the likes of Hayao Miyazaki (director, character designs, storyboards), Isao Takahata (storyboards) and Yoshiyuki Tomino (storyboards). It is an adaptation of Alexander Key's novel The Incredible Tide.

The story begins in July 2008, during a time when mankind is faced with the threat of extinction. A devastating war fought between two major nations with ultramagnetic weapons far greater than anything seen earlier brings about total chaos and destruction throughout the world, resulting in several earthquakes and tidal waves, the earth thrown off its axis, its crust being rocked by massive movements, and the five continents being torn completely apart and sinking deep below the sea.

An attempt by a group of people to flee to outer space failed, with their spaceships being forced back to earth and vanishing, thus shattering their hopes. But one of the spaceships narrowly escaped destruction and crash landed on a small island which had miraculously survived the devastation. The crew members of the spaceship settled there, as if they were seeds sown on the island.

Amidst these survivors, a boy named Conan was born, bringing a new ray of hope to the earth. After several years, during which most of the other survivors had died and the only people left on the island were Conan and his grandfather, he meets a young girl named Lana, and their adventure begins.

Conan, The Boy in Future first aired across Japan on the NHK TV network between April 4 and October 31, 1978, during the Tuesday, 7:30pm timeslot. It has been regularly broadcast across Japan on the anime satellite television network, Animax, who have also later translated and dubbed the series into English for broadcast across its respective English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

The series was also translated into numerous other languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic, being broadcast across Europe, Latin America, the Arab world, and numerous other regions.