Maya the Bee

Maya the Bee (みつばちマーヤの冒険 Mitsubachi Māya no Bōken, lit. The Adventures of Maya the Honey Bee) is a Japanese anime series co-produced by Nippon Animation, the German Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) and Austrian Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF), based on a children's novel published in 1912 by German writer Waldemar Bonsels.

The series consists of 55 episodes, and was first broadcast in Japan from April 1, 1975 to April 20, 1976 on TV Asahi. In 1979, a sequel series of 52 episodes titled The New Adventures of Maya the Honey Bee (新みつばちマーヤの冒険 Shin Mitsubachi Māya no Bōken) was broadcast from October 12, 1982 to September 27, 1983. The music of the series was composed by the Czech Karel Svoboda.

Dubbing History
The original series, The Adventures of Maya the Honey Bee, was originally dubbed sometime in the late 70's. This dub was more closely based on the German version, even titling the series as Maja the Honey Bee, and features an unknown cast with upper-class British accents for the characters. This version of the series was shown in the United Kingdom and Australia, and is viewable on the official Maya the Bee YouTube channel, and has been released for Digital Download.

At one point, another dub was produced by a company named Sonovision for the South African Broadcasting Corporation, probably due to the boycott of South Africa by the British TV industry due to the government's controversial apartheid policies.

Yet another dub was produced by Saban Entertainment with a Canadian voice cast from Montreal, and aired from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1992 on Nickelodeon. As typical for a Saban dub, a new music score and theme song for the anime was composed. Only 45 episodes from the original series were dubbed, and 10 episodes from the sequel series The New Adventures of Maya the Honey Bee were added for the U.S. broadcast run, bringing the total number of episodes to 55.

Cast (Saban)
Additional Voices
 * Sonja Ball - Sidney / Phillip
 * Anna MacCormack - Grimelda
 * Michael Rudder - Digger