Oz no Mahōtsukai

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Oz no Mahōtsukai
オズの魔法使い (The Wizard of Oz)
Genre	Fantasy, Kodomo
TV anime
Directed by	Naisho Tonogawa
Studio	Panmedia
Network	TV Tokyo HBO, Disney's Family Channel Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Original run	October 6, 1986 – September 28, 1987
No. of episodes	52

Oz no Mahōtsukai (Japanese: オズの魔法使い) is an anime adaption based on four of the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum which ran on the Japanese network TV Tokyo from October 6, 1986–September 28, 1987. It consists of 52 episodes, which explain other parts of the Oz stories, including the events that happened after Dorothy first left Oz.

In 1987, HBO purchased the rights to the series and dubbed it to English. Production for the English version was done by the Canadian studio Cinar. Actress Margot Kidder was hired as narrator for the series, which aired as a mini-series. Interestingly, this English version attempted to completely occlude the show's Japanese origins, going so far as to remove all Japanese names and studios from the credits and to credit key aspects of the animation to Westerners.

To give it a secondary market, episodes of the show were later re-edited into four films and released on video and DVD, in which major plots and storylines are removed in favour of cutting each story-arc down into their retrospective book-cannon story. To this day, no release of the show in an uncut episodic format in the U.S has come to light. The show aired in Australia multiple times in the early 90's in the full episodic format on the ABC channel.

The series has been aired in many countries outside Japan and has been dubbed and subtitled in French, English, Spanish, German, Polish, Japanese, Dutch and Hebrew.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Characters 2.1 Main Characters 2.2 Other Charecters 2.3 Villains 3 Music 4 Episode Listing 4.1 Japanese Translated Titles[1] 4.2 English Production Episode Titles 5 Alternative Titles 6 Trivia 7 External links 8 References

[edit] Plot

Oz no Mahōtsukai is split into four distinct parts, or story arcs, each based on one of the original Oz books by L. Frank Baum.

The first story arc (episodes 1 to 17) of the series is based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It follows the adventures of Dorothy, an orphan girl living out in the gray prairies of Kansas. A cyclone tears her house from the ground and take it to the Land of Oz. In Oz she meets the good witch of the south, who tells her that the only person able to send her back home is the Wizard of Oz. On her way to the wizard, Dorothy meets the Scarecrow, made entirety of straw and lacking a brain, the Tinman, made entirety from metal and lacking a heart, and the Cowardly Lion who wishes to become brave. From here on, the plot continues to follow the book very closely.

The second story arc (episodes 18 to 30) adapts The Marvelous Land of Oz. Dorothy returns back to the land of Oz and encounters the magician Mombi, who wants to turn Dorothy into a sculpture. Meanwhile Jinjur and her army of girls try to take over the Emerald City. The major changes from the book were the Wogglebug not being present, and Dorothy incorporated into the story (she was not present in the original novel).

The third part of the series is an adaptation of the third Oz book, Ozma of Oz, and covers episodes 31 to 41. The group journey to the neighboring land of Ev to find a lost prince and rescue him. There, they meet the Nome King, the villain of this part of the series.

The final story arc of the series (episodes 42 – 52) is based upon The Emerald City of Oz, the sixth Oz book. Continuing on directly from the last story arc, the Nome King is now planning his revenge – to conquer the Emerald City using underground caves that he has dug with a giant worm.

Though still based on the books, the stories of the third and fourth arcs strayed heavily from their source material. Characters were renamed and bore no resemblance to how they appeared in the books, or simply were not present at all. For example, the characters can freely walk across the Deadly Desert unharmed and Billina does not even come from Kansas. A major plot theme from The Emerald City of Oz - Aunt Em and Uncle Henry coming to Oz - never happens at all. Dorothy also leaves Oz once again to go home to Kansas in the end.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Main Characters

• Dorothy - Sumi Shimamoto (Japanese) / Morgan Hallet (American)
• Scarecrow - Takuzō Kamiyama (Japanese) / Richard Dumont (American)
• Tin Man - Yoshito Yasuhara (Japanese) / George Morris (American)
• Cowardly Lion - Ichirō Nagai (Japanese) / Neil Shee (American)

[edit] Other Charecters

• Glinda the good Witch of the south
• Uncle Henry
• Aunt Em
• The Wizard of Oz
• Good Witch of the North
• Toto
• Queen of the Field Mice
• The Prince of Ev
• Princess Lulu
• Tip / Princess Ozma - Masako Nozawa (Japanese) / Steven Bednarski (American)
• Jack Pumpkinhead - Kazuyo Aoki (Japanese)
• The Sawhorse
• The Gump
• Tik-Tok - A.J. Henderson (American)
• Lord Kaliko - Walter Massey (American)
• Billina

[edit] Villains

• Wicked Witch of the West - Naoko Kouda (Japanese)
• Wicked Witch of the East
• Winged Monkeys
• Mombi - Chie Kitagawa (Japanese) / Kathleen Fee (American)
• The Growleywog
• General Guff - Dean Hagopian (American)
• Giant Worm
• General Jinjur - Susan Glover (American)
• The Nome King

[edit] Music

Japan

• Opening Theme: "Fanshii Gaaru [ファンシーガール]"(Fancy Girl) Satoko Yamano)
• Ending Theme: "Mahō no Crayon [魔法のクレヨン]"(Crayon of Magic)Kumiko Ōsugi and Ema Ōsugi)

U.S.

• Theme Song: "Searching For A Dream" by The Parachute Club (US dubbed; used for both the opening and ending, although the opening version is longer)

The Parachute Club composed three other opening theme songs for the video/DVD release of the series in movie format. These songs were called "Listen to Your Heart", "Taste the Rain" and "Close Your Eyes".

[edit] Episode Listing

[edit] Japanese Translated Titles[1]

[edit] English Production Episode Titles

Note: these are the titles used in the English-language version of the show produced by Cinar.

[edit] Alternative Titles

• Czarnoksiężnik z Krainy Oz (Polish Title)
• El Mago de Oz (Spanish Title)
• הקוסם מארץ עוץ (Hakosem Meeretz Utz) (Israeli Title)
• Il mago di Oz (Italian Title)
• Im Land des Zauberers von Oz (German Title)
• De Tovenaar van Oz (Dutch Title)
• Le Magicien d'Oz (French Title)
• オズの魔法使い (Japanese Title)

[edit] Trivia

• Shuichi Seki, who worked on many of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater TV series, served as character designer.^[1]

[edit] External links

• "Ozu no mahôtsukai" (1986) at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1987) at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" Episodes 1-17 at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Marvelous Land of Oz" Episodes 18-30 at the Internet Movie Database
• "Ozma of Oz" Episodes 31-41 at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Emerald City of Oz" Episodes 42-52 at the Internet Movie Database
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz at TV.com
• Oz no Mahōtsukai at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Oz no Mahōtsukai in the AniDB database
• Tovenaar van Oz (Dutch)

[edit] References

1. ^ Japanese voices: "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1987) at the Internet Movie Database
   American voices: Catalog of the Oz Movies - 1980 to 1995 at The Oz Encyclopedia

The world of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Oz portal The land | The characters | The books The authors (Baum | Thompson | McGraw | Volkov) | The illustrators (Denslow | Neill) The film adaptations (1908: The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays | 1910: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz | The Land of Oz | 1914: The Patchwork Girl of Oz | The Magic Cloak of Oz | His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz | 1925: Wizard of Oz | 1933: The Wizard of Oz | 1939: The Wizard of Oz | 1961: Tales of the Wizard of Oz | 1964: Return to Oz | 1965: The Wizard of Mars | 1969: The Wonderful Land of Oz | 1971: Ayşecik ve Sihirli Cüceler Rüyalar Ülkesinde | 1972: Journey Back to Oz | 1975: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | 1976: The Wizard of Oz | 1976: Oz | 1981: The Marvelous Land of Oz | 1982: The Wizard of Oz | 1984: Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oróz | 1985: Return to Oz | 1986: Oz no Mahōtsukai | 1990: Supēsu Ozu no Bōken | 1996: The Wonderful Galaxy of Oz | 2005: The Muppets' Wizard of Oz | The Patchwork Girl of Oz)

The Wiz (The musical | The film)

Wicked (The books | The musical)