is a musical

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

-based Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series, based on the 1977

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series by

Hideo Azuma was a Japanese manga artist. Azuma made his professional debut in 1969 in the Akita Shoten manga magazine '' Manga Ō''. He was most well known for his science fiction ''lolicon''-themed works appearing in magazines such as ''Weekly Shōnen Ch ...

. ''Olympus no Pollon'' was serialized in ''Princess'' magazine from 1977 to 1979, per the magazine's table-of-contents recorded by the vintage manga bookstore Kudan Shobō. The anime television series aired in 1982 on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as or , is a Japanese television station that serves the Kantō region as the flagship (broadcasting), flagship station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network System (FNS). The station is owned-and- ...

lasting 46 episodes. The series is noted for its faithful portrayal of the gods of Mount Olympus as fallible beings succumbing to real human faults and weaknesses, such as selfishness, temper tantrums, debauchery, laziness, and vanity.

Story

The main character of the story is Pollon, a sweet, precocious little girl who is the daughter of the God of the Sun,

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

. Pollon's goal in life is to grow up to become a beautiful and powerful goddess. She attempts to do good deeds and help out any way she can in order to achieve the status of godhood. Invariably, her overtures backfire and end up causing major trouble for both the gods of Olympus and their human subjects, but Pollon's kind heart, perseverance and indomitable spirit win out in the end, as she attains the title of "Goddess of Hope".

Characters

;Pollon : :The daughter of Apollo, the sun-god, she is a kind-hearted but somewhat naive girl who wants to be a goddess when she grows up, but her attempts to prove herself worthy of the title of goddess usually result in disasters of comic proportions. ;

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

: :The God of Love, and Pollon's cousin and best friend, he shoots heart-tipped arrows at people to make them fall in love, but as he is quite an ugly creature, he ironically has no girlfriend of his own. ;

: :Pollon's father and also Eros' uncle, the God of the Sun, he is a lazy drunk who is somewhat neglectful of his daughter. His main job is to drive the Sun's chariot across the sky each day, but as he is often too lazy and/or drunk to do so, Pollon often ends up driving the chariot herself. ;

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

: :The king of the gods, father of Apollo and grandfather of Pollon. Despite his advanced age, he has a strong attraction to younger women, which often gets him in trouble with his wife, Hera. ;

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

: :The queen of the gods, mother of Apollo and grandmother of Pollon, she is portrayed as the stereotypical hen-pecking wife, somewhat neurotic and given to temper tantrums, and often responds violently to her husband Zeus' flirtatious ways. ;

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

: :The Goddess of the Moon, one of Pollon's aunts. ;

Aphrodite Aphrodite (, ) is an Greek mythology, ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, procreation, and as her syncretism, syncretised Roman counterpart , desire, Sexual intercourse, sex, fertility, prosperity, and ...

: :The Goddess of Beauty, and another of Pollon's aunts, she is also the mother of Eros. Aphrodite is beautiful and vain, and spends hours admiring herself in the mirror. She's ashamed of her unattractive son and frequently disowns him. ;

Poseidon Poseidon (; ) is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, presiding over the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 He was the protector of seafarers and the guardian of many Hellenic cit ...

: :The God of the Sea is very tall in stature, towering way over the other gods. Although he is the god of the sea, he ironically can't swim. ;

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

: :Atlas is the Titan who holds the weight of the sky. It is shown that he is ticklish. ;

Hephaestus Hephaestus ( , ; wikt:Hephaestus#Alternative forms, eight spellings; ) is the Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, carpenters, craftsmen, fire, metallurgy, metalworking, sculpture and volcanoes.Walter Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: III.2. ...

: :God of smiting and Aphrodite's husband, he's an amiable, if bumbling, inventor, but he dislikes most of the other male gods, especially Apollo, because they're more handsome than him. ;

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

: :The armor-clad goddess of wisdom and war, she is of the most serious and wise characters in the cast, but others dislike her prickly attitude. ;

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ...

: :God of wine and merrymaking, he's a bald, stout man with dark glasses. He's never seen without a bottle in his hand. The other gods much enjoy his company (and the wine he brews). ;

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

: :God of the underworld, he reigns unopposed over his realm with his wife Persephone. They enjoy inflicting the most absurd punishments and tortures on the damned. ;Dr. Nahaha : :A somewhat modern-looking scientist. Bumbling and foolish, he genuinely believes himself the "sanest person in this crazy world of fools". He tries to help Pollon by providing her with concoctions and potions that, according to him, could potentially solve every trouble Pollon meets in her adventures, but they always fail to provide the intended effect. He also provides Pollon with a powder able to induce happiness and euphoria. ;Dosankos : :Apollo's horse. ;The Sun : :The long-suffering Sun is often ripped, torn or otherwise disturbed by Pollon and/or the other gods. He has become a heavy smoker to deal with the stress in his life. ;Azuma Bug : :A cute little insect

author surrogate As a literary technique, an author surrogate (also called an author avatar) is a fictional character based on the author. The author surrogate may be disguised, with a different name, or the author surrogate may be quite close to the author, with ...

who tells the story of Pollon and the gods as it unfolds. ;The Goddess of Goddesses : :An anime-exclusive character that serves as a mentor to Pollon.

Overseas distribution

In addition to its success in Japan and the United States, ''Little Pollon'' has been a successful television program in France on

La Cinq La Cinq (, ) was a French free-to-air television channel. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, it existed from 1986 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terrestrial network, which was suppos ...

in the late 1980s under the title , with Pollon's name changed to "Olympe". In Italy, the series was successfully broadcast in

Italia 1 Italia 1 (Italian pronunciation ) is an Italian free-to-air television channel on the Mediaset network, owned by MFE - MediaForEurope. It is aimed at both a young adult and adult audience. Italia 1 was launched on 3 January 1982 and, was or ...

, with the title ''C'era una volta... Pollon'', and it has regular reruns. In Spain, the series was broadcast with the name '' Polon''; in the region of

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, it was known as '' Polon'', and was also distributed on VHS in Spanish. Only 24 episodes of the 46 were dubbed in Spanish and Catalan.

Enoki Films is a Japanese studio based in the Enoki Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Shinjuku, Tokyo.Company Profile
...

USA holds the U.S. license to the anime series. The ''Little Pollon'' production team followed up the series in 1983 with another anime based on a Hideo Azuma manga, '' Nanako SOS''. In one scene in ''Nanako SOS'', the ''Little Pollon'' anime is being played on television.

Notes

References

External links

* * * {{Monthly Princess 1977 manga 1982 anime television series debuts Akita Shoten manga Comedy anime and manga Fantasy anime and manga Fuji Television original programming Fictional ancient Greeks Classical mythology in anime and manga Greek and Roman deities in fiction Hideo Azuma Shōjo manga Television series based on classical mythology Television series set in ancient Greece Apollo