まんが大行進 [再現版] (1964年07月) Manga Daikōshin [reconstruction] (1964.07) ========================================== What is this? ------------- Toei Manga Matsuri were a series of film containing several segments of anime, tokusatsu and TV drama programmes. What is considered the first iteration dates back to July 1964 and was called "Manga Daikōshin" (Great cartoons parade). It contains 4 short anime movies edited from episodes of TV series aired at the time. Unfortunately, apart from the OP of 2 of these movies, this series of film has never been released. Here is an attempt at reconstructing this very first Toei Manga Matsuri. I used the episodes from the TV series to recreate what I believe is as close as possible to what it looked like. I did my best to include all the relevant documents. Because there is a lot of uncertainty around many areas, I had to make choices. I wrote below about my train of thoughts regarding these decisions. What does it contain? --------------------- This group of films was screened in Japan from 21, July 1964. It contains 4 segments: - "狼少年ケン サーカスから来た仲間" (Ōkami Shōnen Ken - Circus kara Kita Nakama) - "少年忍者風のフジ丸 謎のアラビヤ人形" (Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru - Nazo no Arabia Ningyō) - "エイトマン ロボット007・光線銃レーザー" (Eightman - Robot 007 & Kōsenjū Laser) - "鉄人28号 ミラクル魔術団・海底基地" (Tetsujin 28-gō - Miracle Majutsudan & Kaitei Kichi) From 28, July 1964, Fujimaru was replaced by "忍者部隊月光" (Ninja Butai Gekkō), a newly produced film based on a live action TV series of the same name. How were these movies reconstructed? ------------------------------------ ### Ōkami Shōnen Ken - Circus kara Kita Nakama This short movie is an edited version of episode 23 and has a duration of 24 minutes (According to sources, the film length is 657 metres, played at 23.98 fps so we can compare with the detelecined DVD, it should last for 23'58"). With the intro (the Toei logo) and the content of episode 23 complete (including OP & ED), this reconstructed version is 24'54" (56 seconds longer). It is possible that, like Eightman and Tetsujin 28-gō, this movie had only an OP with all the credits and no ED. When I edited out the ED, the reconstructed version was still 10 seconds over. This is roughly the duration of the episode title screen. By removing it, we get a duration of 23'59", just 1 second over time. It's a shame that the staff don't get to be credited in this reconstruction, but it feels like it's as close as it can be from the original. I reused the Eirin number from the Soran movie screened in the following Manga Daikōshin of 1965. I superimposed it on the main title. The subtitle (Circus kara Kita Nakama) may have been displayed there too, but there is no way to know. ### Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru - Nazo no Arabia Ningyō The documents mention this movie is an edited version of the first episodes of the TV series and has a duration of 53 minutes (53'16" based on film length). It is not clear which episodes were used. Given the duration, it should be just under 3 episodes long. I took episodes 1 to 3 as a starting point. Then I realised that the end of episode 3 is nice and open, does not finish on a cliffhanger, and is suitable for the conclusion of a standalone movie. I stitched them together, then removed the title screens in all episodes and the summaries at the beginning of episodes 2 and 3. I also edited out the final short sequences entitled "Ninjutsu Sen'ichiya". I left out the ED like I did in the other movies. This content, the intro (Toei logo) and the OP was 4 minutes too long. I then edited out the beginning of episode 3 where　"死神小僧" (the mysterious boy) fights the ninja and the section with Fujimaru's mother. Her role is developed in the following episodes, but she doesn't appear in the rest of this one, cutting this part out made sense. That takes us to 53'42" (26 seconds longer), which is an acceptable compromise. My theory is that these 26 seconds are about 8-9 seconds edited out at the end of each episode when the mention of "つづく" (to be continued) is on screen. I tried to remove them, but it felt weird to have the BGM cut off. I also added the Eirin number on the main title screen, like I did for Ken (see above). I also removed the title from episode 1 in the short introduction right after the OP, while retaining the sequence's length. The animation was looping so it was easy. I recreated a fade in effect. It is unknown if the name of this movie (Nazo no Arabia Ningyō) was displayed here or under the main title in the OP. The subtitle uses the old version of the word Arabia ("アラビヤ", written with the katakana "ya", vs. the modern "アラビア", with the katakana "a"). This is a strange choice. The same word appears in one episode of Ōkami Shōnen Ken aired the previous year and uses its modern form. It is possible that this is an error on the official materials (See Eightman below for another example). In this case, the title would have been "少年忍者風のフジ丸 謎のアラビア人形". ### Eightman - Robot 007 & Kōsenjū Laser This movie is an edited version of episodes 10 and 9 (in this order, according to the subtitle). This is the only movie in HD. The episodes come from the JPBD, the rest of the material is sourced from DVD upscaled using Topaz. This editing was easy. With the movie OP, and the content of episodes 10 and 9 (without the title screens), we get a duration of 46 minutes and 1 seconds. The documents say this movie was exactly 46 minutes long (if we use the 35mm film length of 1,261 metres). We're 1 second over, which is OK to me. In the documents, the subtitle of the 2nd part is often mistyped as "光線銃レーサー" (Kōsenjū Racer), even on official material such as the posters and pamphlet. The correct title, however, is with "レーザー" (Laser), as written in the original manga chapter ("光線兵器レーザー", Kōsen Heiki Laser). ### Tetsujin 28-gō - Miracle Majutsudan & Kaitei Kichi This movie reuses episodes 30 and 31 (or 31 and 32 if you count the recap episode as being #12 rather than #11.5). According to sources, it has a duration of 47 minutes (47'24" based on the film's length). The episodes start with a short recap of the story so far, I edited these parts out. However, this is not totally seamless as the BGM keeps playing from the recap to the beginning of the episode and fades out to the BGM or SE. I did my best to remove this transition. Maybe I could do something a little bit better if I had the original BGM. I also removed both next episode previews. This one was easy as there is a clear video fade out and the sound stops too. This reconstructed version has a duration of 47'26", which is just 2 seconds over the original movie length. Good enough! ### Ninja Butai Gekkō Nothing to edit in this movie as it was a newly produced one, not taken from the TV series. It has a Cinemascope aspect ratio however, while the other ones are in 4:3. I was disappointed finding out that the Toei logo sequence at the beginning is different from the ones from Eightman and Tetsujin 28-gō. Was it common back then to have different logo sequences for movies screened together? Or was it replaced and updated in the DVD edition? It has an end title screen ("終"), while the other movies don't seem to have had. For this reason, I think it was screened last. What is missing? ---------------- In the OP and ED for the movies available in the Eiken OP-ED DVD (Eightman and Tetsujin 28-gō), there is no mention of the Eirin number (the number issued by the Film Classification and Rating Organization of Japan). I looked up on the [Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan website](http://db.eiren.org/). Eightman and Tetsujin 28-gō don't have Eirin numbers listed, while Ken and Fujimaru do (22041 and 21966 respectively). This is interesting. Could it be that these 2 Eiken movies never received any ratings? In the 1965 Toei Manga Matsuri, the Eirin numbers appear in the opening of the movies on the title screen. The BGM for Ninja Butai Gekkō are available on CD. I don't have it, but I'd be curious to see if there's any information in the booklet. What was the original screening order? -------------------------------------- There is an ongoing question about the order of screening for the oldest Toei Manga Matsuri. For some of them, Toei is not even sure. When there is a doubt, in the official DVD releases of Toei Manga Matsuri for example, the order retained is the one from the pamphlet. I compiled below the orders found in the documents I had access to. I also included my personal preference. ### Order with Fujimaru Pamphlet order: 1. Ken 2. Fujimaru 3. Tetsujin 28-gō 4. Eightman Poster 1 order: 1. Eightman 2. Tetsujin 28-gō 3. Fujimaru 4. Ken Poster 2 order: 1. Fujimaru 2. Ken 3. Tetsujin 28-gō 4. Eightman Special ticket order: 1. Eightman 2. Tetsujin 28-gō 3. Ken 4. Fujimaru Personal recommendation: 1. Fujimaru 2. Ken 3. Eightman 4. Tetsujin 28-gō ### Order with Ninja Butai Gekkō Newspaper ad: 1. Ken 2. Eightman 3. Tetsujin 28-gō 4. Ninja Butai Gekkō