, known as '' Spaceketeers'' in the United States, is an

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 produced by

Toei Animation is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including '' Sally the Witch'', '' GeGeGe no Kitarō'', '' Mazinger Z'', '' Galaxy Express 999'', '' Cutie Honey'', '' Dr. Slu ...

. It is a sci-fi remake/adaptation of

Wu Cheng'en Wu Cheng'en (, c. 1500–1582Shi Changyu (1999). "Introduction." in trans. W.J.F. Jenner, ''Journey to the West'', volume 1. Seventh Edition. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. pp. 1–22. or 1505–1580), courtesy name Ruzhong (), was a Chines ...

's fantasy novel ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the Classic Chinese Novels, great Chinese novels, and has been described as arguably the ...

''. It was directed by Yugo Serikawa and written by Tatsuo Tamura. It aired in

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- ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

from April 2, 1978, to August 24, 1979. In the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, it was referred to as ''Spaceketeers'' and was part of Jim Terry's Force Five series. In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, it was referred to as ''Sci-Bots'' on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

releases. In

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, it was known as ''El Galáctico''.

Story

The story revolves around the Princess of the Moon, Aurora and her three cyborg companions (Kugo, Djorgo, and Hakka) who must travel to the Great King planet and restore the Galaxy Energy in the year 2072. The universe was becoming more and more unbalanced as the Queen of the Great Planet grows older. Their adventure includes battling the starmen who are transformed from the unbalanced minerals and planets.

Concept

''Starzinger'' was essentially a

sci-fi Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes Space warfare in science fiction, space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, i ...

retelling of the 16th-century shenmo fantasy novel ''

'', a Chinese literary

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of Masterpiece, lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or Literary merit, highest quality, class, or rank – something that Exemplification, exemplifies its ...

written by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

novelist

. The sci-fi twists were designed by

Leiji Matsumoto was a Japanese manga artist, and creator of several anime and manga series. His widow Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Matsumoto was famous for his works such as ''Space Battleship Yamato'' and ''Galaxy Express 999''. His style was chara ...

based on the ''Terebi Magazine''

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 ...

with art by Gosaku Ohta.

Characters

Production

The series was produced by

. Production staff include: * Directors: Yugo Seirikawa, Kozo Morishita, Kazumi Fukushima * Creator: Leiji Matsumoto *

Screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

s: Tatsuo Tamura, Mitsuru Majima, Sukehiro Tomita * Character designs: Masami Suda *

Animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

s: Masami Suda, Satoshi Jinguu * Music:

Shunsuke Kikuchi was a Japanese composer who was active from the early 1960s until 2017. He specialized in incidental music for media such as television and film. Kikuchi was regarded as one of Japan's most highly demanded film and TV composers, working princi ...

Adaptations

In March 1979, a film was aired reusing footage from the first segment of the series. The film was more or less a summary. The last nine episodes of the actual series was re-branded as ''"SF Saiyūki Starzinger II"'', though when shown outside Japan it was treated as one continuous series. It was never intended to be anything more than re-marketing of the last few episodes, since it was aired immediately after the first sixty-four episodes were shown in June 1979. The 65th episode began instantly in the following month with all the galactic energy restored in the storyline.

Media

A total of 73 episodes of the show were broadcast in Japan. ''Starzinger'' was aired in the early 1980s in Latin America under the name of ''El Galáctico'' (''The Galactic''), as part of the four-series show ''"El festival de los robots"'', which translates to "The festival of the robots". The other shows were '' Steel Jeeg'', '' Gaiking'', and '' Magne Robo Gakeen''. Only 47 episodes of the original 73 were dubbed and aired. This version of the series never reached their conclusion. The Spanish theme song of "El Galáctico" was composed and sung by Chilean singer Memo Aguirre (Capitán Memo). In 2008 the Chilean company SeriesTV released a set of 24 DVDs with Festival de los Robots episodes. This set includes 24 episodes of "El Galactico" with the original Spanish dubbing. In

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, it was aired as ''"Spaceketeers"'' as part of the package show '' Force Five''. As the ''Journey to the West'' story is not well known in the region, the characters were renamed to reference the Three Musketeers. To also fit into the ''Force Five'' time slot, the show had to be edit-squeezed into 26 episodes. The U.S. version puts them on a mission to the Dekos Star System, which contained evil powers changing peaceful creatures to evil mutants. The ''Force Five'' version not only just produced 26 episodes, but this English-language version of the series never reached their conclusion. 24 episodes of the original 73 were also released to home video in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

(mainly in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

) under the original name ''Starzinger''. A listing of what episodes were cut out can be found at
Warfists Starzinger site in the episode section
The Swedish-language version of the series reached their conclusion.

Episode list

Home media

VHS

United Kingdom:

DVD

Japan: On 25 January 2008 TOHO released a six disc DVD box-set. Latin America: On 28 July 2008 SeriesTv released "El Festival de los Robots" onto DVD. USA: On 20 August 2013

Shout! Factory Shout! Factory, LLC, doing business as Shout! Studios (formerly doing business as Shout! Factory, its current legal name), is an American home video and music distributor founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases, issued i ...

released "Starzinger: The Movie Collection" onto DVD.

References

External links

Official page of ''Starzinger I''

Review of ''Sci-Bots''
* * {{Toei Animation films 1978 anime television series debuts 1979 Japanese television series endings 1979 anime films 1979 films 1979 manga Action anime and manga Fictional kings Fictional princes Fictional princesses Fictional queens Fuji Television original programming Japanese animated science fiction films Manga series Television shows based on Journey to the West Television series set in the 2070s Television series set in the future Animated space adventure television series Toei Animation television Toei Animation films 1970s Japanese television series Animated television series about princesses Cyborgs in television Cyborgs in anime and manga Television series about the Moon