Goku no Daiboken

Goku no Daiboken, or The Adventures of Sun Wukong is our first television anime adaptation of Journey to the West. A 1960 film from Tezuka had adapted the story already, but this more comedic version unrelated to Tezuka's ran for 39 episodes. A Japanese DVD set was released in 2008.

 

If you are unfamiliar with Journey to the West, you likely still know one of the many adaptations of this 16th century Chinese novel. A Buddhist monk travels west with scriptures, accompanied by a less than holy Monkey, a Pig like being, a monkey sometimes portrayed as a Kappa or other water based creature, and a dragon changed into a horse. Saiyuki adapts this story with pretty boys, Lego Monkey Kid is a loose adaptation/sequel series, something called Dragon Ball was based on this work.

 

Goku no Daiboken leans cartoonish comedy rather than a serious adaptation of the tale, with the first two episodes covering Goku's time before being sealed in the mountain, and him joining Tripitaka on his journey. What I remember from reading the abridged translation Monkey a few years ago, Daiboken seems to be even more abridged, but as a kid-aimed adaptation of classic literature, it is covering the most important story beats. I don't think in the original novel Goku wrote Idiot on Buddha's finger when he reached them, but you know, close enough.

The backgrounds have a nice style, and while I'm not personally crazy about the human designs, this is a fun version of a story everyone should have some familiarity with.

 

Mahoutsukai Sally

Mahoutsukai Sally, or Sally the Witch, was the first of Toei's Showa Majokko series, or Magical Girls. The manga by Tetsujin 28-go's Mitsuteru Yokoyama started in June of 1966, and the first episode of the anime premiered that December, before running for a total of 109 episodes. A sequel anime aired in 1989, and Sally impact on anime, particularly ones aimed at young girls, can still be felt to this day.

The series saw a Japanese DVD release around 2006 for its 50th anniversary. While it began in black and white, the show was produced in color by the end of its run. It also has an eyecatch! 

Episode 1

Episode 17

The series follows the adventures of the princess of a magic kingdom during her time on earth as she grows as a person and improves her magic, mostly through silly antics. 

The animation is a bit stiff, but the humor is solid, and comes from the character's actions making situations silly, rather than characters ending up in humorous situations without reason as we have mostly seen in these Showa comedies. Episode two does keep up the trend of bad stereotypes, with local boys playing 'cowboys and indians', but at least none of the humor is derived from this.

 The backgrounds range from simplistic to lovely, and the theme song is catchy. Any fan of magical girl series, Yokoyama, or classic humor, should give the show a chance.

Ganbare! Marine Kid

Ganbare! Marine Kid ran for only 13 episodes a year after the first 3 episodes of the previous version, also by TV Doga. This version has not been released on home media in Japan on its own, but if I understand correctly, when Warner Brothers licensed Marine Boy for America and commissioned a 78 episode series, the 13 episodes of Ganbare made up a part of that episode list. I cannot find anyone's list of episodes comparing the Japanese episode list to the American one, since the episodes aired in a different order in America, let alone a list marking which episodes of the 1969 version are actually just this 1966 one again. So. I am going to review this with the 1969 version, but if anyone can ever clear up which episodes of the 1969 anime are actually the first three of Ganbare, I am open to revisiting this entry.

I did watch half of the 'first' 1969 episode- are these kelp ninjas from 66 or 69? Help me Ocean Lad

 

Jungle Taitei: Susume Leo!

Neo Jungle Taitei-Susume Leo!, or Leo the Lion, was a new adaptation of the Kimba manga from Mushi Pro that ran for 26 episode, and followed the manga more closely than the '65 anime.  

 The show quickly recaps the childhood of Kimba who is now a grown leader with a wife. The colors are not as interesting as the earlier version, but it does use some interesting materials like paint smears for wind, and footage of ink on water for the sun beating down in the desert. 

They do use the original ending theme of the previous Kimba for this series rather than an original ending, and the opening is almost all footage from the first episode. While this show continues to be mostly episodic animal antics, the death rate is immediately higher than in the 65' series.

 

This show serves as our first remake anime, and immediately introduces the idea of remaking a series to have the new anime follow the manga more closely. Here I was blaming FMA:B for starting that trend in the modern age. 

 

Since I can only compare the first three episodes of '65 and '66, I can't make a judgment call on which version a person may enjoy more of the two, but any fans of Tezuka, talking animals, adventure comedies, or The lion king- especially for furry reasons- should give a Jungle Taitei a chance. The factors to take into consideration should be the series length, the starting age for our lion, and accuracy to Tezuka's original manga.

 

Robotan (1966)

 Robotan, the two volume manga from 1966-68, had two anime adaptations. The 103 episode version from 1966 is mostly lost, though the 1986 33 episode version seems to be available dubbed into Hindi online, although it does not have a dvd release. 

 

The series was commissioned by Daiko Advertising, who has since thrown out the masters. A few have appeared on online auctions, but at this time, and only one clip and the theme have surfaced at this time. It did have a separate ending theme which is still novel for the era, and the series seems to be your standard children's fair- a boy and his robot getting into mischief. Obake no Q-taro's popularity is what inspired the creation of Robotan, so this is no surprise. 

Yuusei Kamen

Yuusei Kamen 3 volume manga ran alongside the 39 episode anime from Eiken and was released on dvd in Japan in 2013.

 

Yuusei Kamen

The species from a counter earth- Pineron- make contact, and from an inter-species romance  is born our protagonist Peter. When the rocket Peter's human father was in explodes over the alien planet, it starts a war between the two, and aliens on earth like Peter's mother are sent to concentration camps. A masked hero then appears to defend Earth from the more technologically advanced Pinerons.

 

 

 

 

The explosion over Pineron

 

 

 

From that premise, you may be reminded of how the United States created concentration camps for Japanese citizens during World War II, with the last one having been closed 20 years before this anime premiered. The aliens in this series are only distinguished from the earthlings by star shaped marks on their faces, which our mixed-race protagonist also sports. This should bring up questions about plot holes, but we need some excuse for Peter to be free to be the masked hero defending earth. 

Peter and his star

In these first three episodes, we see mothers and babies being taken away for being different, fighting done not as a necessity but as part of a hostile take over, and a general prepared to die despite the family waiting for him. As Yuusei Kamen- Star Mask- Peter is our classic shonen protagonist, saving the day and stopping evil, but his screen time is limited in a way that helps the series focus on its reflection on the atrocities of war. These can be downplayed by some of the comic relief characters that feel like obligations to the story rather than a part of it, but that seems par for the era.

Yuusei Kamen

 If you enjoy the drama of space war anime, but can tolerate a lack of mecha, this is a series for you. It can be an oddly somber look at war's reality for a 60s anime aimed at young boys, and the animation is nice for the time period.