#82 – Hakushon Daimaou

More old school stuff I've never seen. I was familiar with the character designs though for reasons I cannot fathom.

From Tatsunoko's Official Site:

Meet THE GENIE FAMILY: An old jar which has found its way to modern residential neighborhood just happens to be the home of three Arabian genies. There's Hasshoo, the husband; Eppah, his wife; and their little daughter, Ya-ahn. They can only emerge from the jar if somebody standing by it happens to sneeze, hiccup or yawn. A sneeze brings forth Hasshoo; a hiccup calls out Eppah, and a yawn summons Ya-ahn. While they are out they must grant the wishes of whoever released them, until another inadvertent sneeze, etc., sends them back again. But it's not an unmixed blessing for their new master! Hasshoo is so clumsy that his attempts to obey wishes result in hilarious disaster. And mischievous Ya-ahn always finds a way to humorously twist the wish in a way her master never thought of. THE GENIE FAMILY is cartoon series of comedy misadventures filled with fantasy, action, and excitement.

As you can see from the above quote, this 1969 show is about a family of genies, It doesn't take much to guess it was inspired by the 1965 “I Dream Of Jeannie” US sitcom. Which leads me to wonder just how many anime shows are influenced (directly and indirectly) by that and Bewitched? And apparantly it was translated for nearly every country in Europe except those that speak English. It was created by the immensely prolific Tatsuo Yoshida, creator of Gatchaman and Speed Racer amongst many others. Regardless of what you might think of Tatsunoko's work on a technical and artistic basis, they've had an undeniable impact culturally. The fact that I recognised characters of a show I've never heard of is just one of the minor ripples of that impact.