|
Superbook (アニメ 親子劇場 Anime Oyako Gekijo; Animated Parent and Child Theater) is an anime television series produced by Tatsunoko Productions in Japan in conjunction with the Christian Broadcasting Network in the United States. The series chronicled the events of the Bible's Old and New Testaments in its 52 episode run. The first 26 episodes aired from October 1, 1981 to March 29, 1982. The series returned as Superbook II (パソコントラベル探偵団 Pasocon Travel Tanteidan; Personal Computer Travel Detectives) with 26 episodes to air from April 4, 1983 to September 26, 1983. Between both series in the first run was the companion series ''The Flying House''. The series was broadcast on TV Tokyo, CBN Cable (now ABC Family), and in syndication. It was previously seen on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, but is currently off the schedule. It can now be seen on TBN's "Smile of a Child" network. The Spanish version can be seen on different spanish stations as well.
The story The first series (Anime Oyako Gekijo) began at the home of a young boy named Christopher Peepers (Sho Azuka in Japanese) who discovers the magical Bible "Superbook" (Timebook) that speaks and sends him, his friend Joy (Azusa Yamato), and his toy robot Gizmo (Zenmaijikake) back in time to the early events of the Old Testament. Gizmo can walk and talk, but only for the duration of the adventure (and he still needs to be wound up regularly). In the first episode, Chris and Joy were cleaning the attic for Chris's father (a somewhat eccentric college professor) when they noticed an old book glowing. The children tried to open the book, but were unable to open it, no matter how hard they pulled. The book promptly opened on its own, shining a blinding light around Chris's bedroom, and started to speak before whisking the children and Gizmo back in time to the Garden of Eden to experience the story of Adam and Eve. In Superbook II (Pasokon Travel Tanteidan), which took place several years after the first series, the book fell onto a computer keyboard, giving anybody the ability to see into the past from Christopher's home via the monitor. Ruffles, Chris' dog, managed to get lost in time, prompting Gizmo and Chris' cousin Uri (Hisashi in the original Japanese) to search for her. Chris and Joy kept watch and control of the computer from the present. The older children also had a hard time trying to keep what happened a secret from Chris's parents. The first series of Superbook featured chiefly stories from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), although a few episodes dealt with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and the finale episode was about the conversion of Saint Paul of Tarsus. The episodes in the first series are chiefly one-shot stories, with no overarching "plot" aside from Chris and Joy learning life lessons from their travels in the Superbook. However, some condensation or editing of stories was necessary in order to fit them into half-hour episodes and make them suitable for young viewers. Also, some additional edits were necessary for the English versions to make the episodes conform to American broadcast standards. The episodes in Season Two focused solely on Old Testament stories. Season Two covered some stories featured in Season One (for example, the stories of Abraham, Joseph and King David) in more detail, while also covering some stories not included in the first series (i.e. the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah). In Season Two, the overarching plot concern was Uri and Gizmo's quest to find the missing Ruffles. Likewise, The Flying House, which originally aired in Japan between the two Superbook series, was a more in-depth look at the life of Jesus and other events from the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). The significance of Superbook Superbook was born of a desire by evangelist and CBN head Pat Robertson to reach Japan, where Christians constitute a minority of the population. Research conducted by CBN in Japan during the late 1970s and early 1980s indicated that children were likely to be the most receptive to Bible stories and that the best way to reach them was through Christian anime and manga. Thus, CBN contracted with Yomiko Advertising and Tatsunoko Production to create and market an anime series that would help drive Bible sales in the Japanese market. In this and in audience ratings, Superbook was a success. CBN originally did not plan to release the series outside of Japan, since Japanese animation was not considered marketable in the West at the time and since anime fandom in America was still in its infancy. Reportedly, the network was encouraged by a positive response to the series at a convention in France and went on to prepare the English-dubbed version that would be aired on U.S. television in 1982. In the United States, Superbook was the first Christian-themed animated series to be syndicated to TV stations since ''Davey and Goliath'' in the 1960s. Many American viewers who watched the series during its initial run were probably, at least initially, unaware of its Japanese origins, since CBN did not promote the series as Japanese and in fact removed all Japanese names from the English credits aside from a credit for Tatsunoko for the animation production. Superbook has been criticized by Christian conservatives in the United States (many of whom probably were also unaware of the show's origins) for "condensing" or "glossing over" the Bible stories it portrayed and for its "jerky" animation style (which is nevertheless characteristic of TV anime series, which generally have much smaller budgets than feature films). Many also believed that introducing modern characters into the stories would confuse young readers who would be disappointed not to find two modern children and a talking robot in the real Bible. Nevertheless, the series was a global success, translated into over 30 languages, and is frequently used as a tool to introduce children and other new Christians to the basics of the Christian faith. To this day, the series has a loyal and devoted fan following around the world, among adults who grew up watching it as well as youngsters. In addition to the United States and Japan, the series has been aired in various other territories around Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Superbook was very popular on national television in Kenya, and also in the predominantly Muslim nation of Senegal, where it was reportedly the first Christian-themed program ever broadcast on TV. One of Superbooks greatest successes was in the former Soviet Union, where it introduced a great number of viewers to Christianity in the wake of the fall of Communism. In the Ukraine, the anime inspired a live-action Barney and Friends-style children's program titled Superbook Club (with the robot Gizmo, or "Robik" in Ukrainian, as the mascot), and there are also several Superbook Club music albums aimed at children. Series I Series II Other titles DVD Releases Episodes are available on both VHS and DVD, (http://www.azplace.com/tv.html has links to the videos and DVD's). Only the first 3 volumes of the DVD releases are available which include the first 12 episodes of Series I (4 on each DVD). Other DVDs are planned for release at a later date. Trivia English Technical For Tatsunoko For CBN STAFF FOR NEW SUPERBOOK SERIES (2007) See Also | ||||||||
|
| |||||||||
 |
|
| |