The theme song asks us to dispute it our home, a mighty jungle
name echoes as a hero swings from vine to vine, and a stunning home traveler
escapes downhearted robots! Is it Tarzan or Big title Wars – or each? Here is Tatsunoko’s
1984 sequence OKAWARI-
romp by map of two continents’ fee of approved culture, turning in comedy, action,
and romance. Mostly comedy. Fondly remembered by viewers who had been too few to
withhold this sequence alive, the negate used to be cancelled early and vanished completely. What
is the mystery of Starzan S?
Someplace within the galaxy the planet Kirakira is haunted. The
Senobi tribe wishes to be left on my own of their forests, however the Robotic tribe of,
naturally, robots, are determined for pure sources to gas their robotic
standard of living. Most productive one thing protects the Senobi- our hero, the OKAWARI-
Starzan S who defeats the schemes of Robotic chief Darth Cry and his
mechanical monsters with equal doses of Tarzan vine-swinging, Magnus Robotic
Fighter robotic punching, and varied remodeling mechanical devices that
coincidentally create wide toys.
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| Starzan Affirm, Starzan Kick |
Into this quaint popular culture remix shatter-lands Jun Yagami.
Armed finest with some blurry shots, a mini-skirt, and a collapsible ray-gun, this
stunning teenage home traveler is hunting for her missing father, who
vanished while monitoring down a legendary home utopia named “Paratopia.”
Hot on Jun’s home-booted heels attain the Maneko clan in
their garish candelabra of a starship. Mama Maneko, convinced Paratopia holds
the secret to eternal formative years, is the matriarch of a bathroom-paper dynasty. Her
daughter
henpecked husband Hachiro takes abuse from them each. In the intervening time, their son
Ebirusu, a comedy model of Vegas-generation Elvis Presley, has finest one aim in
mind, the hand of the beautiful Jun. Disabled in a wide cosmic storm, each
parties shatter-land on Kirakira. Sides are fleet chosen; the Manekos wind up
with the Robots while Jun is rescued by the God Of The Jungle, Starzan!
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| the Maneko family album |
Certain, Starzan, who oscillates between being a dashing warrior
or a rapid goof, who can defeat robots in conjunction with his mighty blows yet infrequently
time out over his comprise toes, and whose first seek of Jun begins a teenage home
romance that will shake the very foundations of Kirakira, and maybe the
galaxy itself!
OKAWARI-
aired in Urashiman’s used Fuji-TV timeslot, Saturdays at
underperformed within the rankings and the negate used to be changed by an even extra vague
Tatsunoko sequence, the auto-mechanic run Yoroshiku Mechadoc. Nevertheless for 34
weeks viewers would thrill to Starzan, his little Ewokish buddy Mutan, and the
pleasant Senobi tribe’s battle to offer protection to Jun from the rampaging Robots and
whatever nutty device Ma Maneko and her dopey clan had been pushing. The theme song
“Present Me Your Dwelling” used to be sung by Poplar, aka Sumiko Fukuda, who’d later pronounce
tunes for Dream Warrior Wingman and Disney’s Elegance And The Beast. Yoshitaka
Amano is credited as Starzan S character designer, however the rounded, relaxed
facets betray the hand of Takayuki Goto, who’d work on other Tatsunoko
tasks like Zillion and facets as varied because the rooster comedy Gu Gu Ganmo
and the cyborg non-comedy Appleseed. The animation is fluid, the song is
wide, the characters and colours are bouncy and 80s, and Jun takes loads of
baths and reveals loads of her home. To be magnificent, so does Starzan; equal
opportunity fanservice in action.
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| the direction of outer home teenage romance below no circumstances runs still |
An SF comedy, Starzan S has masses of monsters, aliens,
spaceships, dimensional warps, and other genre staples. Starzan’s major mecha,
the remodeling gorilla-bird-plesiosaur-buffalo Mecha Starzan S, offers powerful
of the negate’s required 1980s anime negate remodeling-mecha photos. Nevertheless Starzan
S unabashedly ditches the sci-fi for comedy, below no circumstances hesitating to abandon its
lead in resolve on of whatever loopy device or sad character defect of the Manekos
is driving that week’s script (any resemblance to Tatsunoko’s earlier downhearted-guy
centered Time Bokan sequence is purely intentional).
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| Hachiro in an uncommon mood, Leeds and Maneko are no longer impressed |
Grandma Maneko’s character used to be in step with singer, arts patron,
and industrialist Masako “Pink Billionairess” Ohya, who reportedly owned 3600
crimson apparel and 6 golf applications. Rumor has it her daughter
used to be in step with display tale Elizabeth Taylor. Leeds in turn dominates her little,
frilly-collared husband Hachiro (modeled on boxer-became comedian Octopus
Hachiro), and everyone indulges Ebirusu in what is described as his “illicit
like” for Jun Yagami, herself a rob on the true-existence singer Junko Yagami, who
recorded songs for Closing Yamato, a pile of hit singles and albums, and now
lives within the United States.
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| mandatory Mojo Nixon reference |
The heavy lifting in these harebrained Maneko stratagems is
normally performed by hapless Robotic tribesbots. The Robots are led by Darth
Cry, a little Darth Vader (voiced by Darth Vader’s Eastern enlighten actor
Toru “Dr. Nambu” Ohira), however their supreme ruler is a maniacal Barbie doll
named “Mother” who resides in a huge rice cooker, and their battle chief is
Tetsujin Extremely Z, a dopey deplorable between Tetsujin-28 and Ultraman. In restful
incompatibility, the little Senobi of us dwell an idyllic existence below the
mild guidance of their chief, the kindly… dwell up for it… Obi-Wan Senobi.
 |
| Darth Cry, Tetsujin Extremely Z in wide pose |
The items of Starzan S drop into space early and the negate
settles into its Jun-taking pictures, Starzan-rescuing, Paratopia-questing groove.
Starzan’s face will get stuck in goofy mode and he turns into a masked tokusatsu hero.
An amnesia-inflicting tidal wave isolates Jun and Ebirusu – is this his titanic likelihood
for like? Starzan reveals Jun his secret
jungle home, an upside-down wrecked spaceship now home to extraordinary nightclubbing
aliens, complete with a Sex Pistols needle fall. Ma Maneko has the Robots
assemble a huge offended Buddha Maneko statue robotic; what can also trot inferior?
There’s a visit Mutan’s home planet, a lifeless ringer for the Ewok-infested moon
of Endor, and we discover how he and Starzan met. Jun and Starzan and the remaining of
the solid run to Earth the set apart the mystery of Starzan’s heritage is printed,
and the bankrupt Maneko family’s possessions are traumatically auctioned off.
On their return to Kirakira, the proof all points to one conclusion – that
the negate is nearly over and so they’d greater wrap things up! Paratopia’s key’s
printed partly by map of the viewing of an total bunch of Beta videotapes, the darkish
mystery within the again of Darth Cry is solved, the Robotic and Senobi tribes bury the
robotic hatchet, and peace one way or the opposite returns to the wonderful planet Kirakira,
the set apart the triumphant jungle wail of Starzan still echoes by map of the woodland.
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| Starzan S records, books, toys |
So the titanic ask is, what the heck does “Okawari Boy”
indicate, anyway? Effectively, “okawari” is a
Eastern expression mature when requesting
a 2nd helping of food or one other drink, the “kawari” that implies “as a change of
one thing” or “replacement”. So within the context of Starzan being a replacement
for Tarzan, it makes sense. I guess. Certain. Why no longer. The different titanic ask is, what took place to
Starzan S?
The negate below no circumstances even had the courtesy of a home video initiate;
all that live to dispute the tale are home-taped TV publicizes. Tatsunoko shamelessly mines its
comprise again catalog for concepts and characters, yet no reboot for Starzan S. Why
no revival? Some theories: maybe a negate starring characters in step with true
of us (Maneko, Ebirusu, Jun) and thinly disguised parodies of extant,
copyrighted fictional characters (Darth Cry, Starzan) is sure to device
the dignity of somebody’s appropriate department someplace, consideration the
notoriously lawsuit-averse Eastern are loath to device. Add Starzan’s ragged TV
reception to the combo, and it’s protected to mediate Tatsunoko used to be/is reluctant to throw
honest appropriate cash after downhearted.
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| Starzan S, Mutan, and Ebiten, Ojinbo, and Kakasan of the Senobi |
Starzan S used to be heavy on the cultural Eastern gags so it’s unsurprising
that world markets had been also late to warm to the sequence, even supposing Starzan
S did create it to
and
two reported VHS releases in
With none form of (non-Polish) home video initiate, Starzan S vanished, and like
other vague Tatsunoko sequence “Animentary Ketsudan” and “Meiyo no Sukouto“, the sequence used to be finest in a local to create a dent amongst Western anime followers
by map of world tape-trading; an already tenuous link dependent upon a
opt, obsessive-compulsive group of Eastern followers.
Light, let’s no longer be too maudlin. The viewing public’s
gestalt mind presumably made the correct name; OKAWARI-BOY Starzan S is manifestly a 1984 artifact, a manufactured from that closing pop of the
anime increase, a stunning 34 episode SF comedy. Wackier than Urashiman, no longer as wacky
as Ippatsuman, dapper (or lucky) sufficient to no longer overstay its welcome, leaving
within the again of nothing bigger than some toys, some fond recollections, a huge wrecked Buddha
Maneko robotic, and the echoing name of the God Of The Jungle. Will we ever accumulate our comprise Paratopia of a
Starzan S re-initiate on
streaming or some contemporary, heretofore phenomenal craftsmanship? Will we, once extra,
be in a local to dispute OKAWARI-
areas?
