Speed ​​racer

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Speed ​​racer
Original title マ ッ ハ GoGoGo
transcription Go go go
genre Action, Kodomo , sports
Manga
country JapanJapan Japan
author Tatsuo Yoshida
Illustrator Jiro Kuwata
publishing company Shueisha
magazine CoroCoro Comic
First publication June 1966 - May 1968
expenditure 2
Anime television series
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
Year (s) 1967-1968
Studio Tatsunoko Production
length 25 minutes
Episodes 52
Director Hiroshi Sasagawa
production Tatsuo Yoshida
music Nobuyoshi Koshibe
First broadcast April 2, 1967 on Fuji TV
German-language
first broadcast		 November 18, 1971 on Das Erste
synchronization

Speed ​​Racer ( Japanese マ ッ ハ GoGoGo , mahha gō gō gō , Mach Go Go Go ) is a manga series by author Tatsuo Yoshida and illustrator Jiro Kuwata from 1966 to 1968. It was adapted in 1967 as an anime television series, which was mainly used internationally its revised American version found distribution and when it was also the first anime series ever broadcast on German television.

content

Gō Mifune runs his Mach 5 racing car for his father's racing team, the Mifune Motors Team. Thanks to the many technical tricks built into his car, Gō can win every race and has many envious people. Some of his competitors want to throw him out of the race with illegal tricks, but are stopped by Gō's team or the mysterious Fukumen Racer. Fukumen Racer and the racing team fight against criminals and spies in addition to their everyday life as racing drivers.

Characters

The main character of the series is the young racing driver Gō Mifune ( 三 船 剛 ) with his Mach 5 racing car . His name is inspired by the Japanese film actor Toshirō Mifune . He has a younger brother named Kurio Mifune ( 三 船 く り お ), who often hides in the trunk of Mach 5 with his chimpanzee Senpei.

Other characters are the mechanic Sabu ( サ ブ ), Gō's father Daisuke Mifune ( 三 船 大 介 ), his mother Aya Mifune ( 三 船 ア ヤ ) and his girlfriend Michi Shimura ( 志 村 ミ チ ), who flies in the helicopter during the races and stands by Gō.

A secondary character that appears more often is the enigmatic driver with the number 9, Fukumen Racer ( 覆 面 レ ー サ ー ). This is actually Gō's older brother Ken'ichi Mifune, who has been cast out due to a family dispute.

automobile

The Mach 5 , Gō Mifunes Auto, is equipped with various extras that can be activated by buttons on the steering wheel:

  • Button A - Extendable telescopic supports to jack up the car or jump over obstacles
  • Button B - changing the tires to make it easier to negotiate rough terrain
  • Knob C - Retractable rotating saw blades
  • Button D - Activation of an impenetrable driver's cab
  • Button E - Activation of very bright special headlights with which infrared vision is also possible (function later replaced by extendable mini wings for larger jumps)
  • Button F - Transform into a submarine
  • Button G - sending out a radio-controlled, homing robotic letter pigeon

The vehicle was referred to as Mach 5 in the English and German versions . In Japanese, the "5" is pronounced as go . In the Japanese version it is called Mach-gō ( マ ッ ハ 号 ) with -gō as a suffix for a vehicle, but also has the "5" in the emblem. The full title Mach Go Go Go is a play on words about Mach-go, go ("go") Go! (the protagonist).

Manga

Mach Go Go Go first appeared in Japan from 1966 to 1968 as a manga series in CoroCoro Comic magazine . The Shueisha publishing house also brought out the chapters in two anthologies, which were later reprinted several times. In 1988 and 1989 the series was first published by Now Comics in the USA as a monthly issue. In the 2000s, the series was published in English by Digital Manga Publishing , in Spanish by Dolmen and in Italian by J-Pop .

Anime adaptation

Japanese production

In 1967, the Tatsunoko Production studio, co-founded by Yoshida, created an animated series of the same name based on the manga . The anime was the studio's second production and its first in color. Directed by Hiroshi Sasagawa and Yoshida, who also acted as producer. Jinzo Toriumi was responsible for the script, Mitsuki Nakamura was the artistic director . The character design was created by Ippei Kuri . The animation was implemented as cel animation and in limited animation “on threes”, which means that three images in a row were the same and only eight images per second were different. The music was composed by Nobuyoshi Koshibe and the opening title is Mach Go Go Go by Vocal Shop. The credits are underlaid with the song Tama ni Nodoka ni ( た ま に ゃ の ど か に ) by Vocal Shop.

The 52 episodes of the series were shown from April 2, 1967 to March 31, 1968 on the Japanese TV channel Fuji TV on a weekly basis.

In 1997 a remake of the same title was made, also by Tatsunoko Production. Hiroshi Sasagawa directed, and the lead writer was Masaaki Sakurai . The character design comes from Masami Suda . The 34 episodes, each 25 minutes long, were broadcast from January 9 to September 24, 1997 by TV Tokyo .

On September 13, 2008, the television movie Mach Girl ( マ ッ ハ ガ ー ル ) was broadcast in Japan . The short film was made by Tatsunoko Production and Studio Ron under the direction of Takashi Yamada .

synchronization

The German dubbed version was produced by FFS Film- & Fernseh-Synchron .

role Japanese voice German voice
Gō Mifune / Speed ​​Racer Katsuji Mori Niko Macoulis
Kurio Mifune / Spritle Junko Hori
Sabu / Sparky Kei Tomiyama
Daisuke Mifune / Pops Racer Teiji Ōmiya
Aya Mifune / Mom Racer Ryoko Kinomiya
Michi Shimura / Trixie Yoshiko Matsuo
Fukumen Racer / Racer X Kinya Aikawa

Marketing in the United States and internationally

As early as 1967, Trans-Lux acquired the rights to the series for the American market. For the broadcast in the USA, many elements of the series were completely changed, especially adapted to the American environment and the violence reduced. So none of the opponents was allowed to die and scenes with only unconscious opponents with stars around their heads were inserted. In addition, the title song has been re-recorded with English text. The names of the characters have also been adapted to the American television audience: Gō Mifune became Speed ​​Racer , his younger brother Kurio Mifune became Spritle Racer , his father Daisuke Mifune became Pops Racer , and his mother Aya Mifune became Mom Racer . Gō's girlfriend Michi Shimura was renamed Trixie , the mechanic Sabu became Sparks , the chimpanzee Senpei became Chim-Chim , and Ken'ichi Mifune (aka Fukumen Racer ) became Rex Racer (aka Racer X ). The American revision was headed by Peter Fernandez.

The series ran from 1967 to 1968 on American regional channels, mostly daily, and was repeated several times until the 1970s and sporadically later. Speed ​​Racer was released on VHS in the 1980s . In 1993 the series was broadcast again, now by MTV. In 1993, Fred Wolf Films produced a 13-part American remake of the anime entitled The New Adventures of Speed ​​Racer . At the same time, merchandising appeared, including a model of Mach 5 . In 1994 a film followed that was cut from two episodes of the new series and one of the old series. In 2007, a one-volume OEL manga on Speed ​​Racer was published in the USA and was published by Seven Seas Entertainment .

The American edited version was sold and broadcast on television in other countries, including Italy, Mexico, Spain, France and Portugal. The new series from 1997 also came on American television from 2002 as well as in Spanish, Portuguese and Filipino.

Speed ​​Racer in Germany

For a broadcast on ARD , the then SDR editor and head of the afternoon program, Dr. Elisabeth Schwarz obtained the licenses for eight episodes of the series. With the broadcast of the first episode on November 18, 1971, Speed ​​Racer became the first anime series ever published on German television.

Immediately after the broadcast, protests from parents, educators and the media began: Bayerischer Rundfunk spoke of a "scandal", the newspaper Die Welt believed it recognized the "pure pleasure of a raw manslaughter conviction", Der Spiegel described the series as a "horror comic" and "blood and pile-ups spectacle", and the press service Church and Television wrote that Speed ​​Racer was "only comparable to fascist persistence films". A total of three Speed ​​Racer episodes were shown until December , before the then SDR program director Horst Jaedicke withdrew the fourth episode, which had already been announced for December 23, 1971, from the program and canceled it. Instead, the 1969 puppet film The Little Witch was repeated.

When the SDR editorial team then received thousands of letters from children asking for repetition or continuation (as opposed to around 200 letters that had previously requested cancellation), a resumption of Speed ​​Racer was initially considered in autumn 1972. Before that, however, a large-scale survey with scientific evaluation was carried out. As a result, it was found that the series was “gripping and rousing”, but that the tension “does not dissolve into liberating laughter with the children”. Therefore, the SDR initially decided against a continuation.

In the spring of 1973, the SDR announced two afternoon programs for children in which Asterix comic books were to be filmed and read to accompany them. Although the contributions had already been produced, the French Dargaud publishing house had not received the broadcasting license by the scheduled date of the first broadcast. Since no ARD station had other children's programs as a substitute, two more of the five not yet broadcast episodes of Speed ​​Racer were shown instead at short notice , although the series was considered the "most controversial children's series on German television at all" at the time. After renewed protests from parents and educators, the ARD finally took the series out of the program.

The first TED optical disks released in 1975 also included a Speed ​​Racer episode. From October 1993 to April 1994 and from June 1994 to October 1994 a large part of the series was broadcast on RTL . Some episodes were released in German on VHS cassettes and DVD , the series was approved by the FSK for children aged 6 and over.

Actual filming

After two unsuccessful attempts in 1994 and 2000, a real-life US film of the same name was created in 2008 based on the original series and directed by the Wachowski brothers . Since this "Speed ​​Racer" film did not even earn the production costs internationally, it is viewed as a flop.

reception

Jason Thompson classifies the manga template as "simple children's comics from the 1960s", with cartoon-like drawings, fast action, lots of fistfights and jumping in and out of fast cars. Today the manga is only interesting from a historical point of view or for fans.

In the United States, Speed ​​Racer quickly became very successful and in the 1970s it became a synonym for anime series for fans. At the same time, the Japanese origins of the series remained hidden from many viewers for a long time. According to the Anime Guide , the series will remain in the memory of every viewer for a long time - fans and non-fans, who found the stories rather ridiculous. From everyone's perspective, however, the animations are too clumsy, cut too hastily and never come to rest, which in turn fits the American title. But even the remake from 1993 is no better animated than the original. According to Fred Patten, the series’s recipe for success is the “close-knit and likeable” group of heroes and the “supple” racing car with all its technical gadgets. Even decades after it was first broadcast, the anime remained one of the most famous series that still had a fan base. After the peak of popularity had already subsided, the series was criticized in the USA in the early 1980s for the amount of violence. The Speed ​​Racer episode, in which Racer X reveals his true identity to Speed ​​Racer, was later voted one of the most defining moments in American television history by TV Guide .

The characters in the series also appeared in an animated commercial produced in 1996 for the Volkswagen GTI. In this spot, Speed ​​drives a VW GTI because its Mach 5 has been sabotaged. The music from the series was published in a modified form by the duo Two Nice Girls, in one of their albums in 1990. Versions by The Swamp Zombies and Alpha Team Group followed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Vollbrecht: Anime - A phenomenon from Japan . In: German Film Institute - DIF / German Film Museum & Museum of Applied Arts (Ed.): Ga-netchû! The Manga Anime Syndrome. Henschel Verlag, 2008. p. 24. ISBN 978-3-89487-607-4 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney: The Complete Anime Guide . Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah 1995, ISBN 0-9649542-3-0 , pp. 16-18 .
  3. ↑ Patrick Drazen: Anime Explosion! - The What? Why? & Wow! of Japanese Animation . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2003. p. 8. ISBN 1-880656-72-8 . (English)
  4. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews , p. 250. Stone Bridge Press, 2004.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews , pp. 322-325. Stone Bridge Press, 2004.
  6. ↑ a b Jason Thompson: Manga. The Complete Guide . Del Rey, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0345485908 , pp. 344f. (English)
  7. ↑ Thomas Lamarre : The Anime Machine. A Media Theory of Animation . University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2009, ISBN 978-0-8166-5154-2 , pp. 187 .
  8. ↑ Speed ​​Racer. In: synchronized files. Retrieved May 27, 2018 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia. Revised & Expanded Edition . Stone Bridge Press, Berkeley 2006, ISBN 978-1-933330-10-5 , pp. 605 .
  10. ↑ a b Not to be braked. In: Der Spiegel. 17/1972, pp. 179-180.
  11. ↑ Manfred Kluge: That's why “Speed ​​Racer” came back on the screen. In: TV listening and seeing. 20/1973, p. 12.
  12. ↑ Started in the drought. In: Der Spiegel. 9/1975, pp. 131-133.
  13. ↑ Trish Ledoux, Doug Ranney: The Complete Anime Guide . Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah 1995, ISBN 0-9649542-3-0 , pp. 1, 3 .
  14. ↑ Fred Patten: Watching Anime, Reading Manga - 25 Years of Essays and Reviews , p. 129. Stone Bridge Press, 2004.

Web links

Commons : Speed ​​Racer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files