#kosei tomita

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[the-monkey-ruler]

Tezuka Osamu Story: I am Son-Goku (1989) 手塚治虫物語 ぼくは孫悟空

Director: Osamu Tezuka Screenwriter: Osamu Tezuka Starring: Kuniwa Ishii / Tsui Kusao / Kyouji Kobayashi / Mari Shimizu / Kosei Tomita / Yoshiko Fujita / Momi Koyama / Mayumi Tanaka / Kenji Utsumi / Tetsuya Asado / Kaibo Kawakubo / Hisashi Katsuda / Ichiro Nagai / Kaneto Shiozawa / Nishio Germany / Masuoka Hiroshi Genre: Drama / Animation / Fantasy Country/Region of Production: Japan Language: Japanese Date: 1989-08-27 Duration: 70 minutes Also known as: 手冢治虫物语 我的孙悟空 / 手塚治虫物語：我的孫悟空 IMDb: tt1654078 Type: Crossover

Summary:

This is the 12th special animated program for "24-hour Television: Ai wa Chikyu wo Sukuu." The first half of the story is an autobiographical animated piece focused on the episode in which the young boy Tezuka Osamu becomes attracted to the Chinese animated work "Tessen Koshu." Then it uses some episodes from Son-goku to depict how he eventually becomes an animation writer. The latter half is a new science fiction version of Son-goku set against a background of Planet Sapphire in the Galaxy of 3010. This is one of Tezuka Osamu's posthumous works. He unfortunately passed away during the planning stages.

At the world premiere, Takamasa Matsutani, president of Japan's "Tezuka Animation Production Co., Ltd.", accepted an interview with the "International Herald Herald". He revealed a rather touching past incident.

Osamu Tezuka began to create this different Sun Wukong in 1952, and made it into a comic "My Son Goku" and serialized it in a magazine. When creating, Osamu Tezuka also considered using the image of Peking Opera facial makeup, but in the end he making Sun Wukong like a bear perhaps to show the difference. When he died in 1989, he left the draft of the animated film "My Son Goku" in the world. This was also Osamu Tezuka's last animated work.

The indissoluble bond between Osamu Tezuka and Sun Wukong dates back to when he was in middle school. At that time, he watched the cartoon "Princess Iron Fan" produced by the brothers Wan Laiming, the founder of Chinese animation, and made up his mind to make animation his lifelong career. Therefore, there were later cartoons and animated characters such as "Astro Boy" and "Jungle King" that grew up with a generation. It was his comics and animations that saved the Japanese animation industry, which was on the verge of collapse at the time. "My Son Goku" also records the friendship between Osamu Tezuka and Wan Laiming.

Matsutani Takamasa said: "Mr. Wan is the person that Mr. Tezuka respects and admires the most. Many people think that Mr. Tezuka is more influenced by Disney animation. In fact, he was influenced earlier by Chinese animation, especially Mr. Wan's animation, and more profound.” In 1988, Osamu Tezuka came to China and paid a special visit to Wan Laiming, who was already in his seventies. After returning to Japan, Tezuka Osamu completed the draft of his last animated film "My Son Goku" and wrote "This is my Son Goku" on the title page. "After he visited Mr. Wan, he already knew that he would die soon and completed "My Son Goku". Before his death, he used his work to say hello to Mr. Wan and tell Mr. Wan, 'I'm going.'" When he said this, Matsutani Xiaozheng's tone was a little heavy.

In 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Astro Boy's birth, Tezuka released the cartoon "My Son Goku", to which Osamu Tezuka devoted special emotions to.

Source: https://tezukaosamu.net/en/anime/63.html

Link: https://gogoanime.be/watch/tezuka-osamu-monogatari-boku-wa-son-goku-WYPj-episode-full/

[retrosofa]

This week let's take a look Cutie Honey episode two: "Night of the Fire Peony, Dance of Swords."

Screenwriter: Masaki Tsuji

Art Director: Eiji Ito

Animation Director: Masamune Ochiai

Director: Hiroshi Shidara

The museum featured at the beginning of the episode is supposed to be the real life National Museum of Western Art. You can see Rodin's The Thinker as well as The Gates of Hell.

The artist of the ill-fated sculpture in this episode is “Pecasso,” a thinly-veiled play on the real-life artist Pablo Picasso. Although he’s best known for his paintings, the real-life Picasso did in fact create sculptures as well. However, the sculpture featured here appears to be fictional.

If you look very closely during Sister Jill’s oration, you can spot Akira Fudo from Devilman in the crowd. There’s also a girl who looks like a incorrectly colored version of his girlfriend, Miki Makimura, that appears as well.  The animation director for this episode, Masamune Ochiai, previously worked on the Devilman TV series.

The staff for this episode had a lot of fun with inside jokes. The name of the hospital Seiji is admitted to is called “Yabuhebi Hospital.” Yabu hebi is the abbreviation of the saying yabu wo tsutsuite hebi wo dasu or “poke a bush and a snake comes out.” An English equivalent would be something like “let sleeping dogs lie.” 

Later, Honey brings Fire Claw to the "Ichiryu Hotel." Ichiryu means first-class, top-ranking, etc. Basically saying it’s one super swanky hotel.

This episode marks the animated debut of the Hayami patriarch, Danbei Hayami. Like Junpei, Danbei is a character recycled from Go Nagai’s Abashiri Family manga. In the Abashiri manga, he was known as Daemon Abashiri, father to Kikunosuke, Goemon, Naojiro and Kichiza. It was originally producer Toshio Katsuta’s idea to incorporate Daemon and other elements from The Abashiri Family into Cutie Honey. He would later include Daemon and Kichiza in UFO Robot Grendizer as Danbei Makiba and Goro Makiba.

Danbei is said to have been born during the Meiji era, which was between 1868 and 1912. Realistically, he would’ve been born towards the end, which would make him around 62 years old during the series.

Danbei was voiced by the late Kosei Tomita, who would go on to voice Danbei/Daemon in UFO Robo Grendizer, The Abashiri Family, New Cutey Honey and finally, Cutie Honey Universe.

[callgespenst]

Finished Media, November 2022

I’ve barely been on here for the last month but that’s only because I’ve been having a weird time lately. Going to try to get back into the habit and start by going through all the stuff I watched last month.

Velocipastor: saw this at a friend’s house for their birthday party. Possibly the best b-movie ever made. Definitely best watched with friends for optimal riffing. Toes the line on how dumb it wants to be flawlessly in a way other b-movies have attempted, but have come just short of.

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story: Absolutely flawless escalation. Starts out normally enough and before you know it, Al and Madonna are reenacting Metal Gear Solid 3. Daniel Radcliffe is an extremely convincing young Al, even when playing against actual Al Yankovic as a label producer. The more Yankovic lore you know going in, the better, but probably still entertaining otherwise.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: this is the first Marvel movie I’ve seen since...Endgame? The movie’s biggest strength is definitely divorcing itself as much as possible from the rest of the goings-on of the MCU so it can be just a Black Panther sequel. Almost all of the screen time features black women, and when it’s not them, it’s M’Baku, which is also good. The first two thirds are a compelling statement about loss, and I was so into it I forgot about the obligatory CGI slugfest that would come at the end. My main criticism is that it feels ever-so-slightly too long.

Scooby Doo Meets Courage: A crossover that works so well it feels like a miracle it happened at all. Has some really good CG (very expressive and fun car chase scene) and some not so good CG (Giant CG cornfield? That’s a little much).  Scooby spoke in too many complete sentences for my liking but otherwise, good fun.

Flying Phantom Ship: An absolute must watch. One of Hayao Miyazaki’s earliest works (as a key animator) from 1969. Completely bonkers in a way nothing else I’ve ever seen is. Lots of early voice work from now legendary seiyuu (Goro Naya, Kosei Tomita, and Masako Nozawa as the main character).

Phantom of the Paradise: Another one of those movies that influenced almost everything that’s come since, and yet the original still stands above the rest. Draws from a lot of classic stories and mashes them together in a fascinating and compelling way. Phenomenal music, too. A film everyone should see at least once.

Glass Onion: Just as good as the first Knives Out. Long, but doesn’t feel long at all. Best use of celebrity cameos in a movie I’ve seen in a hot minute. Pulls together at the end in a way that feels almost viscerally satisfying. Daniel Craig plays Among Us, like, literally, that’s not a joke or anything. Might have to watch this again once it’s available on streaming.

That’s it for November! And here’s what I’m up to now:

Playing: Spider-Man PS4

Watching: Witch from Mercury, Do it Yourself!, Pop Team Epic S2, FMA:B, Slime Diaries, Urusei Yatsura (2022).

Reading: Spy x Family

[adamwatchesmovies]

Metropolis (2001)

While the story of Metropolis isn’t substantial, it partially makes up for it with top-notch visuals.

The film, very loosely based on the 1927 German silent masterpiece, is set in the futuristic city of Metropolis, where the Ziggurat, a newly-constructed super-skyscraper is being promoted as the gateway into a new age of wonder. Despite heavy discrimination towards robots, Duke Red (Tarô Ishida) is secretly building a robotic duplicate of his deceased daughter, who will serve as humanity's leader atop the Ziggurat. Before “Tima” (Yuka Imoto) is completed, the scientist in charge is killed by Duke Red’s adoptive son Rock (Koki Okada), the head of an anti-robot vigilante group. Rescued by Kenichi (Kei Kobayashi), Tima begins to learn what it means to be human.

As you can tell, the story of Metropolis is often incoherent and overall, pretty average. The characters are paper-thin. Rock is an unlikeable jerk that’s prejudiced against robots for no reason. Duke Red is obsessed with putting Tima on the throne for reasons you won't understand (While still supporting anti-robot vigilante groups... say what?). Meanwhile, Kenichi is a wide-eyed nice guy trapped in the middle. Tima is a blank slate that reacts with questions to everything and has no will of her own. She just gets dragged from situation to situation while the plot revolves around her.

What also hurts the film is that the world is too complex and poorly explored. It’s established that the society is prejudiced against robots and that any robot that does not stay confined into its specified zone is to be destroyed. Why? No idea, but the people of Metropolis take this extremely seriously. When a single robot wriggles to the surface, it and a big chunk of the building it's in are blown to bits and nobody bats an eye, they just go about their usual way. Aren’t vigilante groups by their nature against the law? Where are the police and why aren’t they stopping the trigger-happy Rock?

Story-wise, this film feels like it was mangled to and viciously truncated to fit its 113-minute running time. Characters are captured or escape off-screen with no explanation whatsoever. Huge chunks of the plot are just... missing! 

I've complained a lot, but I don’t want to give the impression that this is a terrible movie. When it comes to the animation and character design, it’s actually rather spectacular. If you’re familiar with Japanese Manga and anime, you'll recognize the art style of Astroboy creator Osamu Tezuka, which looks great. Even the computer-generated graphics look terrific and are well integrated. The backgrounds are lush and detailed, the characters distinct from each other, the action is fast-paced and the designs inventive. Tezuka's style makes too obvious who is good and evil but that’s a minor gripe. It's difficult to describe how good the movie looks using only words. Just watch a trailer and trust me, you’ll be impressed. Every character is always perfectly on-model and there were no shortcuts taken at any point. Say what you will about the story, but it is a feast for the eyes.

I wouldn’t say that the 2001 animated Metropolis is a great film but it is a good and worth checking out if you’re a fan of animation or Manga and Anime. It's a case where the sheer spectacle is enough to make a film worth. (Original Japanese with subtitles, on DVD, April 11, 2014)

[dcrewatch]

Detective Conan Rewatch: Episode 983

Episode 983: “Kid vs. Komei: The Targeted Lips (Part 1)”

Before watching this episode, on a scale of 1-10, how much are you looking forward to seeing it again?

We’re back to a manga-based story and holy moly YES it’s Kaitou Kid AND Heiji x Kazuha focus. YESSSSSSS. 10. (Oh yeah, and I guess Komei’s here too.)

Favorite screencap:

Heiji: “Why’d ya have to go and confess already to your girlfriend!? You’re makin’ me look bad!”

Conan: “Dude. We waited like...25 years. Chill.”

Favorite moment:

Kid pretending to be Kazuha. ^^; I do feel bad for Heiji though.

Least favorite moment:

Kazuha misunderstanding Heiji’s staring. ^^; Heiji, it is pretty strange to just be staring at a girl’s lips though.

What's one thing you noticed/realized about this episode that you hadn't before?

Ah, Kogoro sees yet another hint of Conan being waaaay too smart for his age. Conan’s able to read the complicated kanji used in the newspaper article.

RIP Kosei Tomita. Thank you for voicing Jirokichi these past several years.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this episode?

Woo~! 9!

Celebrate it!

Since I don't have access to a tablet and am too lazy to scan a drawing, have a (not exactly) summary haiku.

Kid at it again

Heiji is super flustered

Komei seeks info

Next Episode: Episode 984

Previous Episode: Episode 982

[lionhearts-proyect]

Conociendo a... Parte 7 - Zarkon

Continuando con los análisis, ahora nos toca analizar al mero mero villanazo de la historia. Ya que sin conflicto no hay historia que contar. Y es esta versión la que nos deja pensativos, ya que, a diferencia de sus versiones anteriores, en esta alguna vez estuvo del bando de los buenos.

A SIMPLE VISTA

Un gran e imponente ser es a quien vemos en primera instancia, enfundado en una armadura rojiza y con brillantes y vacíos ojos violetas. Sabemos al instante que no es una persona buena y que es mejor alejarse lo más rápido posible… o jurarle lealtad eterna si se quiere seguir vivo.

Posee las características básicas de su raza, es decir, la piel violeta (aunque a veces la veo gris, corríjanme si me equivoco), dientes, garras y hasta orejas algo “animales”. Sin el casco se ve que tiene unas como escamas en la cabeza. Es un ser de apariencia intimidante, y sus acciones crueles y nefastas para conseguir poder es las más tenebrosa de sus características.

Sin embargo, la historia nos tiene la sorpresa de que mucho tiempo atrás, Zarkon no solo era un líder idealista y que procuraba a su pueblo, si no que fue el primer Paladín Negro. Lo que pasó después fue una historia de la que hay que aprender, porque en el mundo real, la corrupción de un deseo es más común de lo que pensamos.

Al igual que su mujer, los ojos rojos de Zarkon, los cuales tenían una mirada intensa, valerosa y firme, fueron corrompidos por los deseos de poder y venganza.

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ANTECEDENTES

(Créanlo o no, en tiempos antiguos esto era una apariencia intimidante) 

Anime/Serie 80´s El personaje que sirvió de base para el malvado rey del Planeta Doom es el emperador Daibazaal, un sujeto que aparte de feo, es malvado, sádico, inmisericorde y con un temperamento muy explosivo.

Mucho, muuuuucho tiempo atrás, este “simpático” dictador ascendió al trono, en algún punto de su vida descubrió las flores del planeta Amazon, las cuales le dieron una gran longevidad (y al que pensó en Quintaescencia, pues puede que no esté tan equivocado).

Cual cierto país del continente americano, Daibazaal comenzó a mandar sus tropas a conquistar cuanto planeta se dejara y a usar a los prisioneros como mano de obra barata y otras cositas. No crean que logró todo esto solo, por supuesto que se alió con planetas tan belicosos como el suyo.

Conforme pasa la serie, este monarca se empeña en que si o si habría que destruir al odioso GoLion, usando cualquier cosa: engañando gente, vendiendo falsas esperanzas a habitantes sobrevivientes de la propia Tierra (recuérdese que el planeta valió verch en este cuento), en fin, de todo.

Al final final, Daibazaal es capturado por su propio vástago y forzado a pilotear un mecha a su imagen y semejanza, terminando obviamente destruido por los heroes de la caricatura.

Pues en cuanto a diferencias con DoTU, Zarkon es igual de malo malote malito que su versión original, pero por cuestiones de censura no se miraba cuantas maldades y graciosadas hacía Don Morado. Entre sus alianzas se encuentra la que forma Throk (villano de “Vehículos”) en la película “Fleet of Doom”. Según la wiki, acá no es asesinado, aunque eso ya depende de la pseudosecuela que usted vea.

Tanto en el anime como en la versión americana, el rey no tiene mucha tolerancia, no pasa de ser otro líder político sociópata como tantos otros.

Si bien su apariencia es intimidante, cualquier millenial que lo vea se va a partir de risa (oigan, eran los horribles 80, las cosas eran diferentes. XD) pero demuestra que es un guerrero experimentad y letal.

En mi particular opinión, Daibazaal es una capirotada entre emperador romano, zar terrible y político corrupto, Zarkon es solo una versión Light… pero no por eso menos peligrosa.

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(”hijazo de mi vidaza, cortese el pelo”)

COMIC Sigue siendo el … --- El carismático y benevolente líder de su pueblo, el emperador Zarkon. Todos aman a Zarkon y a su glorioso régimen. Con amor, Patita.

Versión de Dynamite... nope, no quieren ver

---------

(No se si esto cuente como “imagen curseada”)

The Third Dimension 

En esta simpática pseudpsecuela se menciona que tras su derrota, Zarkon se hace miembro del Consejo Galáctico para redimirse, pero nel, todo era un truco. (háganse de cuenta las alianzas partidistas que andan haciendo aquí en mi México).

-------------------------------

[IMAGEN NO ENCONTRADA]

“Voltron Force” por otra parte, pues acá Lotor ya es considerado rey… creo… algo me dice que Zarkon ya pasó a mejor vida… o se fue de vacaciones con Haggar (digo, hasta la maldad necesita su semana santa ¿No?)

*****************************************

ACTOR DE DOBLAJE Quien se encargó de darle voz en la versión original fue Kosei Tomita, en inglés por Jack Angel y en español latino por Maynardo Zavala (Jumba, de “Lilo y Stitch”, falleció en el 2008)

Para esta nueva versión, la voz del emperador corre a cargo de Neil Kaplan, mientras que en español es Idzi Dutkiewicz (Tony Stark en el UCM… “¿Vuestra madre sabe que usáis sus cortinas?” XD)

*************************************************************

EL ESTEREOTIPO QUE REPRESENTA Esa es sencilla, es el villano principal... al menos hasta que queda en coma en el final de la primera temporada y luego cuando su vástago se lo tasajea. Pero eh aquí un detalle que a Lotor le va a arder, así como nuestro Príncipe Berenjena resultó ser una figura trágica, su predecesor en este tropo es su propio padre. La de Zarkon es la historia de un sujeto que luchaba contra el mal con fuerza y poder... aunque ahora que me pongo a analizarlo, su raza no era precisamente la más pacifica del universo. Después de todo, los rituales para elegir a líder de chorrocientosmil guerreros consisten en la demostración de la fuerza bruta y el alzamiento del más fuerte.

OK ok, regresando a esto, nuestro buen Zarkon es el ejemplo de la figura trágica, el héroe que se vuelve villano, el Darth Vader de las animaciones. Y al igual que el sith con más prótesis de la galaxia, su maldad no salió así por generación espontanea, aparentemente ya tenía sus pequeñas raíces. 

Ojo, no digo que al mostrarnos una raza que sobrepone la fuerza como lo más importante nos digan que “raza a es mala raza b es buena” (cofcof, ahí te hablan Allura), si no que nuestro Zarkon ya traía muy arraigadas ciertas costumbres de su cultura, y muchos sabrán que es muy difícil deshacerse de ciertas costumbres. Esto, sumado a las cosas extrañas en el campo de quintaescencia, se convirtieron en un excelente coctel para hacer a tu villano promedio.

(¿Se acuerdan de la boda de Zarkon? ¿Cómo olvidarla? Tumbadero de sillas, griterío de señoras, mi tía agarrando a taconazos a un gordo, las tías buscando a mi tío para que no se agarrara a golpes a todos... Ah no, esa fue la boda de mis papás...)

DE SHIPEOS Y COSAS PEORES

Todos sabemos que nuestro buen Zarkon se casó con Honerva, haciendo el Zaggar 100% canon (y por enésima vez, que el shipeo debería llamarse Zanerva... ay olvídenlo). Pero eso no evita que hagamos lo mejor que podemos hacer: SHIPEAR TODO CON TODO ^O^

Zaggar: Sip, 100% canon

Zalfor: (Zarkon x Alfor): VLD no se puede considerar completa si no hay un shipeo yaoi. Y que mejor que emparejar al paladín negro con el paladín rojo. XD

Zeith: (Zarkon x Keith): ... pero nuestro Shiro es el enfermo, ¿Verdad? ¬¬ Aunque por alguna extraña razón este shipeo me recuerda al Steven x Personaje principal en Pokemon Ruby/Safiro/Esmeralda.

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(I want it all/ I want it all/ I want it all/ I want it now (8)) OPINIÓN PERSONAL La principal queja de muchos críticos en Youtube era “mne, villanos del montón”, yo me decía “igual y le ponen que es firme seguidor de un ideal, y ese ideal es malo”. Diiigo, hablamos de los que hicieron “La Leyenda de Korra”, y en esa serie para niños se hablaban de temas un poquito densos.

En cuanto supe del pasado de Zarkon en el bando de los ñoños (no se hagan, es el primer spoiler del que te hablan en las reseñas) me quedé, no muy sorprendida, pero si intrigada, porque las historias de los héroes que caen en desgracia y se vuelven en villanos son muy interesantes.

Y ustedes lo sabían, yo estaba muy atenta a saber que eventos orillaron a que el anterior líder de Voltron se pasara al lado oscuro, hasta tenía mis teorías. Luego resultó que todo fue culpa de la esposa y todo valió ma…

En fin, así es la vida. Me llama mucho la atención que otra de las de Zarkon sea su cuasi-obsesión/terquedad en recuperar al león negro. Desde el punto de vista más simple uno diría “Quiere poder, ese méndigo león era suyo, pues por eso es malo”. No digo que ese no sea el motor, pero según yo esa terquedad viene por querer recuperar quien era.

Recordemos que antes de ser “Don Malo de Malolandia”, Zarkon tenía un pueblo a cual deberse, una esposa que quería mucho y un gato al cual soportar (ahora te comprendo, padre XD). Su último gran sacrificio fue por querer darle el gusto a su vieja y eso detonó en una fisura de realidades que amenazaba no solo comerse al planeta, si no probablemente al Universo. Y dejémoslo así: planeta destruido, esposa literalmente muerta (si, estaba a su lado, pero ni ella recordaba quien era), la probabilidad de que tus viejos amigos te hayan traicionado… porque vamos, en ese tipo de situaciones en que un familiar/amigo/pareja anda mal, vas a hacer cosas que nunca pensaste en hacer, y si no funciona, vas a buscar culpables. Digamos que eso es lo que le pasó a Zarkon, plus las cosas esas negras, la sobreexposición de sustancia probablemente adictiva, y el instinto primitivo de lucha que seguramente todo galra ha de tener. Todo este coctel transformó mágicamente a nuestro antiguo héroe en el villanote que todos aman. Y según yo, el instinto y las cosas bonitas en su vida que ha de tener guardadas en el subconciente (muuuuuuy en el subconciente) han de hacer que tenga esa obsesión en recuperar al león negro, a recuperar lo que él alguna vez fue y tal vez resarcir los errores que afectaron a su gente.

Pero ese mini análisis parece más una teoría, así que resumamos en que Zarkon sufrió el Síndrome de Anakin Skywalker. (aunque por lo menos era más simpático que Hayden Christensen ¬¬)

Para terminar: No odio a Zarkon, pero tampoco “amo” al transfondo de su personaje, aunque como dije antes, me gusta cuando el villano de la serie/temporada tenga un pasado en el que fue “bueno” y tenía ideales nobles. Terminemos los análisis con la frase que el buen Harvey Dent dijo en “El caballero de la noche”: “Mueres siendo un héroe, o vives lo suficiente para volverte el villano”, y según veo, Zarkon ha vivido por un largo tiempo.

[suzarever]

Kosei Tomita (Voice actor of Doraemon 1973, Jirokichi Suzuki in Detective Conan, Dr.Hell in Mazinger Z, Professor Saotome in Getter Robo) passed away at 84 due to stroke https://ift.tt/30nBD5A

[retrosofa]

After I finished Mahou no Mako-chan, I decided I wanted to re-watch some other magical girls shows I haven't seen in awhile. Last weekend I started watching Mahoutsukai Chappy or "Chappy The Witch." I haven't seen it in 10 years and honestly, I barely remember anything about it. Chappy is more or less a ripoff updated retelling of Mahoutsukai Sally.

Chappy and her family live in the magic kingdom. During a royal banquet she decides to flee to the human world with her younger brother, Jun. Her mother, father and "pet" Don soon follow, and thus their adventures in the human world begin.

Chappy is the third majokko series Toei Animation produced, following Mahoutsukai Sally, Himitsu no Akko-chan, Mahou no Mako-chan and Sarutobi Ecchan. While Mahoutsukai Sally and Himitsu-chan no Akko were both extremely successful series, Mahou no Mako-chan and Sarutobi Ecchan were not. Mako made decent ratings but definitely never came close to Sally or Akko's success. The series also failed to keep consistent ratings, which gradually dropped throughout it's 48 episode run. Ecchan tanked in the ratings, which resulted in it ending with a mere 26 episodes. Frantic to get another winner on their hands, Toei Animation decided to make their first "original" magical girl, combining elements from their previous series. Like Sally, Chappy was a witch from another realm. Like Akko and Mako, she had a magical item. Like Ecchan, she had a "pet mascot." The end result exceeded their expectations. Apparently Chappy was only planned for 26 episodes but got extended to 39.

The first episode, "Here Comes the Magical Family," was written by Masaki Tsuji, directed by Yugo Serikawa, and featured animation direction by Shinya Takahashi. These three men previously worked on Akko, Mako, and Ecchan. The first episode does a pretty good setting the tone of the series. There is quite a lot of Disney influences sprinkled around, namely Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. In the magic kingdom, Chappy dresses very similarly to Maleficent. Her father conjures a spell to turn a mouse and pumpkin into a horse and carriage. There's a scene where Chappy's brother and their grandfather have a magical battle that's reminiscent of Flora and Merryweather fighting over Aurora's dress color, etc.

The scenes in the magic kingdom are a lot of fun. They're pretty spooky and the denizen depicted are all eccentric and otherworldly. If you look closely you can see one of the flying monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, and there's also a demonic character aptly named "Satan King." When Chappy arrives to the human city, things are not as she had hoped for, evoking the social commentary we previously saw in Mako. As with the other series, Chappy and her family must keep their true identities a secret. There's a darker twist this time, as they fear being burned at stake.

I just re-watched the first two episodes, which were both pretty fun. Some of the darker aspects took me off guard - like the paranoia about witch burnings, as well as a scene where a biker thug attempts to assault Chappy's mother. It's not a graphic scene at all but the implication is very clear.

The animation quality is a little rocky, even for an older series. This series was produced in 1972 which was around the time of the Toei Animation Lock Down, so maybe that's why? If I remember correctly, the series has a lot of ups and downs in the animation department. Some episodes look fantastic while others are downright horrendous.

Oh, something I found very amusing: most of the cast would go on to star in Cutie Honey. Check it out:

Chappy: Eiko Masuyama (Honey Kisaragi)

Chappy's mother, Shizuko: Noriko Watanabe (Sister Jill, Mami)

Chappy's father: Koji Yada (Additional voices)

Jun: Sachiko Chijimatsu (Twin Panther)

Don, Chappy's grandpa: Kosei Tomita (Danbei Hayami)

Obaba: Nobuyo Tsuda (Panther Zora, Ms. Miharu)

Ippei: Masako Nozawa (Scorpion Panther)

The fact Eiko Masuyama and Noriko Watanabe play daughter and mother in one series and mortal enemies in another is so freakin' hilarious.

Anyways, I'll post more after I watch the first 13 episodes.

[dcrewatch]

Kosei Tomita has passed away at the age of 84. RIP😭😭😭😭

I heard! May he rest in peace.

[retrosofa]

One really neat thing about Cutie Honey Universe is that a lot of cast members have previously worked on other Honey series. 

The most famous example is Kosei Tomita, who voiced Danbei in the original TV series, New Cutey Honey, and the Cutey Honey FX game. He also voiced Danbei in UFO Robo Grendizer, and Daemon in Abashiri Family. The only time he did not voice Danbei was in Cutey Honey F.

Katsuji Mori, who originally played Seiji Hayami in the original TV series, voiced Honey’s father, Dr. Kisaragi in Universe.

Yui Horie, who played Honey in Re: Cutie Honey, returned as Honey’s best friend Natsuko Aki.

A few members of Panther Claw are voiced by actresses that had played villains in previous Cutie Honey series. 

Kimiko Saito, who plays Scissors Panther, previously voiced Destroyer Panther and Sky Panther in Re: Cutie Honey.

Kazue Ikura, who played Octo Panther, was originally Sister Jill in Re: Cutie Honey. 

Naoko Matsui, who voiced Jumbo Panther, had originally played the Jewel Princess in New Cutey Honey, as well as Satan Baby Claw in Cutey Honey F.

And finally, the ultimate combined Panther Claw monster, Gil Panther was voiced by Urara Takano. Takano originally played the greedy singer Siren in New Cutey Honey, as well as Cutter Claw in Cutey Honey F.