MARINE BOY
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ABOUT MARINEBOY
The Japanese series Kaitei Shoonen Marien (Seabottom Boy Marine), produced between
1965 and 1968 by Minoru Adachi for Japan Telecartoons and distributed in its homeland by K.
Fujita Associates, was intended from the beginning to be sold to other countries. Oddly enough, the
series, based on The Dolphin Prince, was seen in American well before it aired in Japan, from
1969 to 1971. The title character (possibly patterned after DC's comic book character Aquaman)
was the redheaded preteen son of underwater scientist Dr. Mariner, who under the aegis of the 21st
century Ocean Patrol fought crime and oppression beneath the ocean waves. To sustain his air
supply, the hero carried a supply of "Oxygum"-- oxygen-packed gum which when chewed would
allow the chewer to breathe underwater (this element was left unexplained in many episodes, leading
casual viewers to surmise that the human characters had all grown invisible gills). Marine traversed
the briny in his P-1 minisub in the company of crew members Bulton and Piper-- who like all the
other common seamen on this series incongruously wore French-style berets-- as well as a
hyperintelligent dolphin named Splasher. He also had a vital underwater ally in the person of
Neptina, a young mermaid who might well have been the first female TV cartoon character to
appear "topless" (though the viewer was denied a glimpse of her breasts as her strategically arranged
hair was always in the properly modest position). Neptina was the owner of a pearl necklace that
allowed her to see into the future and warn Marine of impending danger. To better battle his
enemies, Marine carried a lot of Batman-style hardware, notably his sonic boomerang,
propeller-equipped boots, and electronic listening devices.
In its abundance of larger-than-life characters and florid dialogue exchanges, Marine Boy was
as "sheer camp" as its American ad copy promised (after the premiere of Batman in 1966, the term
"camp," once a vague reference to a film or TV series being corny or ridiculous without intending to
be, was used as an umbrella term to describe any form of deliberately exaggerated entertainment). It
wasn't hard, then, for the American translating firm of Zavala/Riss to come up with dialogue that
matched the dizzy exuberance of the Japanese scenarists. Nor was it hard to match the lip
movements of the original cartoons, since the Japanese dialogue had adopted the same measured,
deliberate pace as the animation, bypassing the usual translating problem of having the
English-speaking actors talk at a super accelerated pace to match the Japanese cadence.
Seven arts Television domestically distributed the result, as had been planned by American
producer Stanley Jaffee from the inception of Kaitei Shoonen Marine; the U.S. title was Marine
Boy. Unlike Japanese distributor K. Fujita, Seven Arts did not offer the series in a single package.
To test the profitability fo the syndicated market, only 26 episodes were offered at first with a
promise of 26 more should Marine Boy click. As it turned out, 75 half-hour color episodes made it
into syndication which many markets telecast on a Monday-through-Friday basis. Marine Boy
enjoyed the formidable sponsorship of a major midwestern hamburger restaurant chain and might
have been the most successful Japanese import of the 1960s had not Speed Racer - also packaged
in Japan by K. Fujita, though using different animation personnel-- broken that record.
Little was changed beyond the spoken language when the series made its Pacific crossing; the
only significant alteration was in the character names of the hero and of Whitey the Dolphin, who
became "Splasher" in the American version. Audiences in the U.S. were more than satisfied with
Marine Boy. The series' limited animation techniques and production design often exceeded
American TV standards, with extra points scored by the elaborate undersea background art by
Akira Tomita. The one main problem with domestic distribution of Marine Boy was the dilemma
usually facing Japanese cartoons in the States-- namely, that the violence, even the comic violence,
was more intense than what was usually permissible in the late 1960s. Seven Arts was in fact
compelled to remove three episodes from the original 78-program manifest due to excessive
mayhem (these episodes were restored for later syndication runs in the 1970s). What was left was
still allegedly potent enough for the National Association for Better Broadcasting to complain that
Marine Boy was "one of the very worst animated shows. Child characters in extreme peril.
Expresses a relish for torture and destruction of evil characters." In this instance, NABB chose to
see only what it wanted to see. Rather than luxuriating in the demise of the villains, Marine Boy
invariably tried to rescue his enemies form the perils that their own perfidy had gotten them into.
When the baddies would ungratefully attempt to kill Marine Boy all the same, any fate that befell
them was richly deserved.
This description was taken from The Complete Anime Guide by Trish Ledoux & Doug Ranney,
Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah, Wa, 1995,
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