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.

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.

Chōdenji Robo Combattler V

Chōdenji Robo Combattler V is the first part of Tadao Nagahama's Robot Romance Trilogy of Super Robot series. The robot's name is a portmanteau of Combine, Combat and Battle, and the V is intended both as an abbreviation for "victory" and in reference to the five component machines that form the robot, as well as its five pilots. The V is proununced as the letter V, whereas in the follow-up series, Voltes V, it is prounounced "five". It is also known as "Combattra".

Thousands of years ago, the people of the planet Campbell decided to leave their planet and seek out new worlds to inhabit. One group, lead by the scientist Oreana, landed on Earth, but was delayed from their mission. In the early 21st century, Oreana's group reawakens and begins their plan to conquer the Earth. The only effective defense against the Campbellians' giant biomechanical slave beasts is the super-electromagnetic robot, Combattler V and its pilots.

Casshan

Casshan is the English title for Shinzo Ningen Casshern (新造人間キャシャーン, Shinzō Ningen Kyashān?), an anime series created by animation studio Tatsunoko Productions in 1973.
The American publisher did an awkward katakana to romaji transcription, and actually made a mistake, by translating "キャシャーン" as "Casshan" instead of "Casshern" which is the correct name used in Japan and in other countries, and even used in the 2004 live action film.

Tetsuya Azuma (Azuma Tetsuya), also known as Casshern, is a cybernetic "neo-human" (shinzo ningen in Japanese) who was turned into a cyborg by his father for the purpose of hunting down and destroying robots that have taken over the world. His late biological father, Dr. Azuma, was the inventor of the robots that were originally intended to serve humankind, but mutinied en masse when their cold logic concluded that the good of the Earth Ecosystem required the destruction of the human race.

Casshern and his robotic dog, Friender, join forces with a beautiful girl named Luna to battle the robots led by their brutal boss known as the Black King.

http://www.casshan.com/

Captain Future

Captain Future is a fictional character, the creation of science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton.
The original character was published by Ned Pines' Thrilling/Standard/Better publications company. A different Captain Future was published in Pine's Nedor Comics line.

In 1978, one year after Hamilton's death, Toei Animation of Japan produced a Captain Future TV anime series of 52 episodes, based on 13 original Hamilton stories. Despite the strong cultural differences and the large gap between a literary work and animation, the series was close to the original in many ways, from the didactic scientific explanations to the emphasis on the usefulness of brains as opposed to brawn.

The series was translated in several languages and distributed globally. The four episodes comprising the series' second story arc were dubbed into English and released on video by Ziv in the early 1980s. In the late 80s, Harmony Gold dubbed the series' initial four-part story as an edited together TV movie simply entitled Captain Future.

While only eight episodes were dubbed into English, the series met huge success particularly in France, where the title and lead character's name were changed to "Capitaine Flam" (based on Flame), and in Germany, where it appears under its original title. The success of "Capitaine Flam" and japanimation in France was especially due to anthemic theme tunes (in French language) which became true hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the French charts.

For the German version, which was cut by about a quarter of the original length - the producers erronously assumed it to be aimed at younger audiences and thus cut out more violent scenes - a completely new soundtrack was created by Christian Bruhn. To this day the soundtrack is considered cult and the theme song can be heard as background music in many magazines and other shows. A soundtrack CD was released in 1995, and a remix called "The Final" by Phil Fuldner entered the top ten of the German and Swiss single charts in 1998. Also, the German Bastei Verlag publishing house released a Captain Future comic series with original adventures, but the artistic rendering was far below the animation series' quality.

On a more literary plane, in 1996 the Hugo award for best Novella was given to a psychologically and socially complex pastiche of Hamilton's space opera: The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele.

Calimero

Calimero is a Japanese anime series (based on an Italian creation) about a charming, but hapless anthropomorphized cartoon chicken; the only black one in a family of yellow chickens. He wears half of his egg shell still on his head.

The characters were created by Nino and Toni Pagot and originated as a series of animated advertisements shown throughout Italy. The characters were later licensed to Japan as an anime series, twice. The first was made by Toei Animation and ran from October 15, 1974 to September 30, 1975, and the second, with new settings and characters, was made in 1992. Altogether, 99 Japanese episodes were made (47 in the 1974 Toei series, and 52 in the 1992 series).

Co-starring are his girlfriend Priscilla, a shy bird with common sense; Valeriano, a green bird who is obsessed with film-making; Susy, a wealthy girl duck; Piero (Susy's boyfriend), another wealthy green duck; and Rosella (Valeriano's girlfriend), another shy bird. The series mostly consists of the group's many adventures as they solve mysteries and make documentaries. However, their adventures usually get them into quite a bit of trouble.

Calimero is the name and subject of a Welsh language song by the Super Furry Animals.

Calimero's "little boy lost" persona and distinctive speech patterns caused him to have a worldwide fan base, which was officially headquartered in Hampton - a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Brave Reideen

Brave Reideen (Yūsha Raidīn) is a Super Robot anime series. Produced by Tohokushinsha, Asahi News Agency and Sunrise, it aired on NET (now TV Asahi) from 4 April 1975 to 26 March 1976, with a total of 50 episodes. It has also been loosely translated to Heroic Rydeen.

After a slumber of 12 millennia, the Demon Empire returns to seize control of the Earth. Reideen, the giant robot-like protector of the lost continent of Mu, senses the evil presence and awakens within its golden pyramid, revealing to young Japanese boy Akira Hibiki that he is the one descendant of the ancient Mu people who must help Reideen save Earth.

He was assisted by his friends, token girl Mari Sakurano (daughter of a scientist fighting the Demon Empire) and several members of his high school soccer team.

The Brave Reideen series is renowned in Japan as the first to include a giant machine of mysterious and mystical origins. Reideen is in fact portrayed as a sentient being. Also, the inclusion of the Mu myth would be imitated in other anime, such as Super Atragon, and more recently in RahXephon. It was also the first anime mecha work of anime director and writer Yoshiyuki Tomino, better known as the creator of Gundam. The latter half was directed by Tadao Nagahama, and may be seen as a predecessor to his famous Romantic Trilogy, consisting of Combattler V, Voltes V and Daimos.
This series was the second collaboration between writer/director Yoshiyuki Tomino and artist Yasuhiko Yoshikazu. The first work to feature both men was Wandering Sun (Sasurai no Taiyō) (1971). The two would later team up again for both Mobile Suit Gundam and Gundam F-91.
The series is also considered the first super robot anime to reach a large US audience directly. It was shown on the New York Japanese community channel 47 with subtitles produced by Hawaii's Kiku TV. The series first appeared on US television in June 1976, Sunday nights at 8:00 P.M. on San Francisco, CA's KEMO TV-20. Later in 1976, the series began running on KMUV TV-31 in Sacramento, CA . The show was also distributed to Japanese-American television stations in Los Angeles and Chicago, and was sponsored by Honolulu-based Marukai Trading Company, who distributed Japanese-produced merchandise to local retailers in localities airing Raideen - according to author August Ragone.
In the 1990's the series was remade as Reideen the Superior (Chōja Raidīn), directed by Toshifumi Kawase.
According to RahXephon director Yutaka Izubuchi, the similarity of designs and powers of the title robots and the basic plots of RahXephon and Raideen are intentional.

The original toy figures of Reideen (renamed "Raydeen") were introduced to the U.S. market as part of the Shogun Warriors during late 1970s under the Mattel brand. Raydeen was one of the robots featured in the licensed comic book based on the toys.

Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster

Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster was an anime series aired from 1976 to 1977 in Japan. There were 38 episodes aired at 25 minutes each. It is also known as "Blocker Army IV Machine Blaster", "Blocker Corps IV", "Blocker Army IV", "Blocker Corps", "Machine Blaster".

Earth is being attacked by the Moguru civilization, a super advanced peoples that live beneath the ocean. Professor Yuri, having studied the ancient super-technology in Astro base, anticipated such an invasion would take place. Using what he had learned of rheir technology, he created a series of super robots to help repel any such invasion, known as the Machine Blaster Corps. Led by the pilot Ishida, the Blocker Corps stands firm against the attack of the Moguru rulers, Hellqueen V and Kaibuddha.

The number 4 comes from the team of 4 robots. The robots individually have their own weapon, but they can also be combined to form a fire ring which cuts through the enemies. It was not the most popular show since anime powerhouses Gaiking and Combattler V, which featured more creative combinations and designs, were ruling the airwaves.

Barefoot Gen

Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) is a manga novel written and illustrated by Keiji Nakazawa. It begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by atomic bombing, Gen and other survivors are left to deal with the aftermath. The story is loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor.

Hadashi no Gen was originally serialized beginning in 1973 in the mass-market manga anthology Weekly Shonen Jump (Shūkan Shōnen Jampu), which had earlier published Nakazawa's autobiographical Hiroshima story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"). It was cancelled after a year and a half, and moved to three other less widely distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975. A volunteer organization, Project Gen, formed in 1976 to produce English translations, which were released in four volumes.

The first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by GEVION norsk forlag A/S. The Norwegian title is "Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima" (Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima).

The first volume was published in Finnish in 1985 by Jalava, but publishing was likewise abandoned. The Finnish title is "Hiroshiman poika" (The Son of Hiroshima), and Finnish translation was done by Kaija-Leena Ogihara. In 2006 Jalava republished the first volume (with its original translation) and has continued with publication of later volumes.

A new English translation has been released with an introduction by Art Spiegelman, who has compared the work to his own work, Maus. Last Gasp Publishers will eventually release ten volumes.

anime

Babel II

Babel II (read Babel the Second) is a relatively early manga series by Mitsuteru Yokoyama (who also did Gigantor and Sally, The Witch) that was later adapted into an anime series. In it, a Japanese schoolboy discovers that he is the heir to supernatural powers from outer space. He uses these powers to attack an organization akin to the group of mutants headed by Magneto in Marvel Comics.

But also he has three "protectors"/"servants" akin to the kaiju or giant monsters of Japanese film. One is Rodem, a shape-shifting black panther, and another is Ropross, a Pteradactyl-like flying creature. The third, named Poseidon, is a giant robot that always rises from the depth of the ocean when summoned. The boy hero commands these creatures to inflict mayhem on the machines of his enemy at their bases.

The distinction between Japanese and American super-powered beings is discernable from this story. American superheroes have carefully explained and prescribed powers, though in some people's minds, they be extended to the absurd. The super-powered beings in this series have a set of basic powers which they are all expected to possess and certain ways in which they are accustomed to manifest these, such as leaping to stand atop lampposts. For variety, a few have specialities, but there is no explanation nor matching up one set of powers against another.

Video game developer Yu Suzuki of Sega says Babel II was his main inspiration in the creation of the arcade game Psy-Phi

Attack on Tomorrow

Attack on Tomorrow (あしたへアタック！, Ashita he Ataku?) was an anime series that aired in 1977 in Japan. There were a total of 23 episodes aired at 25 minutes each. It is a spinoff of Attack No. 1. It was also known in Europe as Smash (French) and Mimi e le ragazze della pallavolo (Italian).
The story is about Mimi Hijiri, a student with only one school year remaining, who decides to revitalize a volleyball team low on morale from the death of one of its team member from an accident.
The series was created as a tribute to the gold medal Japanese women's volleyball team in the 1976 Olympics.
While the show would eventually air in the European market in the 1980s in countries such as France and Italy, the plot and concept was too similar to its predecessor Attack No. 1. The show ceased production after only 23 episodes. Another of Shiro Jinbo's works, Hana no Ko Lunlun, was much more successful globally as an anime a few years later
In the French version "Smash", Mimi is Virginia Tessier. In the Italian dub, she is Mimi Miceri. In both languages, most of the other character names were changed as well.
Mitsuko Horie performed both the opening and ending theme songs in the original Japanese version.

Arrow Emblem Hawk of the Grand Prix

Arrow Emblem Hawk of the Grand Prix was an anime series aired from 1977 to 1978 in Japan. There were 44 episodes aired at 25 minutes each. It is also known as "Arrow Emblem Grand Prix no Taka". In the US, it was re-edited to a short movie called "Super Grand Prix".

The story is about a young boy named Takaya Todoroki who dreams of becoming a F1 racer. He puts all his energy into winning a beginners heat, but causes a massive pile up due to an error of judgement. Initially swearing to give up racing. Then a masked stranger appears by his bedside in the hospital who turned out to be world-famous driver Nick Lambda. He encourages him to dust himself off and try driving a new prototype. Before long, he is a team member of "Katori Motors", hoping to become a world F1 champion, driving the "Todoroki special", a car built to his own design.

The name "Taka" comes from the main character's name Takaya. In the US the 44 episode series was significantly shortened to form a 90 minute movie for children called "Super Grand Prix" released by Liberty International on August 12, 2003. The story is essentially the same, except Takaya is now known as "Sean Corrigan" and nicknamed "Crash Corrigan" for the crash.

There were a number of Arrow Emblem race cars released under the Popynica toyline by Popy Pleasure in 1978 and 1979. Two things made these cars unique. The first is that the Arrow Emblem toy car designs carried heavy paint or stickers that made the F1 cars seem flashy and almost appear to be "tricked out". This is in the 70s when the best toy car line in the west, Matchbox, sold very simple scaled models of average street cars and occasional hotrods. The second is that the cars are derived from a successful TV series following, something Matchbox do not have.

The Adventures of Piccolino

The Adventures of Piccolino (Pikorīno no Bōken) is a 52 episode anime series by Nippon Animation first aired in 1976.

The story is based on the novel "Pinocchio" by Italian author Carlo Collodi.

Ace o Nerae!

Ace o Nerae! (エースをねらえ!, Eesu wo nerae!?, lit. Aim for the Ace!) is a shōjo manga by Sumika Yamamoto begun in 1972 and serialized in Margaret. Hugely successful, it was adapted into a TV anime series in 1973, and more recently a live-action drama series in 2004. The anime series was made by Tokyo Movie Shinsha with the Madhouse animation studio (its first major production), and was originally aired on Mainichi Broadcasting. There was also a movie which consisted of several compiled episodes. Another TV anime and two OAVs would soon follow in the 1970s and 1980s. The original TV anime has been distributed in Europe, with the titles Jenny la tennista (Italian), Jeu, Set et Match (French), and Raqueta de oro or "Golden Racket" (Spanish).

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother

3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Haha wo Tazunete Sanzenri) is an anime series directed by Isao Takahata and aired in 1976. It is (very) loosely based on a small part of the novel Heart (Cuore) by Edmondo De Amicis, widely expanded into a 52-episode epic.

The series was broadcast on the World Masterpiece Theater, an animation staple that showcased each year an animated version of a different classical book or story, and was originally titled "From the Apennines to the Andes". Nippon Animation, producers of the World Masterpiece Theater, would adapt Cuore into a second TV anime series in 1981, although this second series was not part of the WMT.

A summarization movie was released in the 1980s using edited footage from the TV run. Nippon Animation also re-animated 3000 Leagues as a feature-length film in 1999, with a theme song performed by Scottish pop superstar Sheena Easton ("Catch a Dream").

The series was dubbed into several languages and became an instant success in some countries, such as Portugal, Brazil, Spain and Israel. In Hebrew, the series is called HaLev, meaning The Heart (the name of the novel which the series is based on). In some European and in Latin American countries the series is simply known as Marco.