Second Suzuka Yoshida designed show of the year (she also designed Vampiyan Kids). This one is an updating of her father’s Hakushon Daimaou creation. Yoshida is a great artist, and it’s a shame there aren’t more shows boasting her designs.

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Or Martial Arts Cooking Legend Bistro-Recipe as it was in Japan. Strange show where cooks make monsters out of food then battle them.

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Another mascot character, Kogepan comes to anime. Kogepan is an anthropomorphic burnt bun.

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Ah, one of the lost Sony UK DVD releases (along with various Jackie Chan adventures boxsets, the latest Astro Boy TV show and Heavy Gear: The Animated Series), this kept on appearing on schedules while I was at Videolog, only to continually bumped into the future.

Shotaro Ishinomori’s iconic James Bond homage is one of those series that is going to be continually revisited by the anime industry, either as adaptation (it’s had three so far) or by reference and homage (too numerous to mention).

See also the entry I wrote for the top 100 anime list.

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The interest in this show seems to lie in the pilot that Masaaki Yuasa directed. And quite rightly as it is pretty neat, full of action and bawdy comedy you’d expect from folks who worked on Shin-chan. So here it is:

Watch vampiyan kids pilot in Animation  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

As you can see from the difference in pilot and the series’ OP, the finished show went for a more traditional colour palette and feels a lot lighter than what Yuasa delivered. It’s an interesting curio. The director of the finished series version, Masatsugu Arakawa (who’s a fairly neat animator in his own right), is directing the Kewpie Doll anime later this year. Which I had remained unaware of until just now.

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Young girl goes to stay with monsters while her parents are out of town in this kids show for NHK. Various Shin-chan alumni were involved, including Masaaki Yuasa who did set design for the show. There is an English version, “Mistin”, but where it got aired I’m unclear on.

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Nami from One Piece goes off to find magic items.

Studio Deen-ugly version of Hiro Mashima’s adventure manga. Tokyopop licenced and got it on TV during the big boom. It is curious how Mashima’s properties have been handled better in the US/UK than One Piece, the work which he is usually unfavourably compared with. And which is miles more popular elsewhere.

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Moe librarian anime based on moe librarian manga. With horrible character designs. Seeing 21st Century Studio Deen animation and then watching those 80s Urusei Yatsura episodes makes you wonder what happened.

And yes, to answer your question, Lum-A-Day will return shortishly.

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Following Prince of Tennis in the schedule was this other hit show from the pages of Shonen Jump. The tale of a young boy learning the game of Go from the ghost of a Heian era Go instructor to the Emperor.

I wrote about it here.

Here’s an old BBC report on the boom caused by the manga and anime:

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Big hit straight out the gate with Takeshi Konomi’s breakthrough 1999 manga about tennis genius Ryoma Echizen coming to the small screen.

Wrote about it here so go take a look at that if you want.

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