Marine Boy (海底少年マリン Kaitei Shōnen Marin) is an anime television series, produced by Minoru Adachi and Japan Tele-Cartoons. It originally aired in Japan on Fuji TV from January 13 to September 22, 1969, which only aired the first 36 episodes. It would later be aired to completion on Nippon TV from May 11 to September 2, 1971.
The first joint effort between Japanese and American studios, Marine Boy was one of the first color anime cartoons to be shown in a dubbed form in the United States. It was sold outside Japan via K. Fujita Associates Inc., with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Television handling worldwide distribution of the English-language version.
Dubbing History[]
Marine Boy was previously done as two previous series, Dolphin Prince and Hang On! Marine Kid. Despite cancellation, Hang On! Marine Kid was promoted for sale by Japanese program seller K. Fujita, who in turn attracted the attention of producer Stanley R. Jaffe representing US distributor Seven Arts Television, which later merged into Warner Brothers. Jaffe expressed interest in re-packaging the existing series and expanding it with newly animated episodes for the English-speaking market, with two provisos. Firstly, the series needed to run for 78 episodes to ensure the program had substantial shelf-life and value for money for stations buying it. Secondly, it was stipulated that the Japanese-language version could not be aired in Japan before the English-language version had aired first-run in the US and sold to international broadcasters. With the deal agreed, Terebi Doga launched production again, preparing the elements of both Dolphin Prince, (the 3 monochrome episodes re-worked and re-shot in color), and the 13 completed episodes of Hang On! Marine Kid for use in the new series, as well as gearing up to producing approximately 65 more new episodes as required to produce the a complete 78-episode run. Scripts and storyboards were prepared in both English and Japanese and with a fast turnaround in the production process, the episodes were delivered to Zavala-Riss Productions in the US for English dubbing (the unit that also dubbed Speed Racer, featuring the same voice actor cast).
As per the terms of the agreement Marine Boy was first run as a syndicated program throughout the US and in international markets from late 1967 onwards.
Cast[]
| Image | Character | Seiyū 
|
Dub Actor 
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Marine Boy | Yoshiko Ōta (eps. 1-13) | Corinne Orr |
| Noriko Ohara (eps. 14-78) | |||
|
Dr. Mariner | Gorō Naya | Peter Fernandez |
|
Piper | Nachi Nozawa | |
|
Bulton | Takuzō Kamiyama | Jack Curtis |
|
Professor Fumble | Kazuo Kumakura | Jack Grimes |
|
Splasher | Masako Nozawa | |
|
Neptina | Yoshiko Matsuo | Corinne Orr |
|
Clicli | Masako Sugaya | |
|
Narrator | N/A | Jack Curtis |
Notes[]
- This is the final anime dubbing role of Jack Curtis before his death in 1970.
- Apart from the Episodes originally created in Japan, the American-commissioned episodes were mainly pre-lay.
- The episode "Battle to Save the World" was included in Saturday Morning Cartoons Vol. 1 in 2009 before Warner Bros. released the entire series on DVD.
Transmission[]
| Date(s) | Channel | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1967-1968 | Syndication | United States |
|
| 1969-1971 | Nine Network | Australia | 
|
| 1988 | Network Ten | ||
| 2009-2011 | GO! | ||
| 2024-present | MeTV Toons | United States |
|
Video Releases[]
| Distributor | Year | Format | Contents | Region | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warner Home Video | 2013-2014 | 
|
The Complete Series | 1 NTSC |
United States |
|
| 3 Volumes | ||||||
External Links[]
- Marine Boy at the Anime News Network
- Marine Boy at the Internet Movie Database