, is a musical

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities ...

-based Japanese

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

series, based on the 1977 manga series '' Olympus no Pollon'' (, , "Pollon of Olympus") 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 ...

. ''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 consisted of 46 episodes and aired across Japan on

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...

and across Italy on

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

from May 1982 to March 1983. The series is noted for its faithful portrayal of the Gods of

Mount Olympus Mount Olympus (; el, Όλυμπος, Ólympos, also , ) is the highest mountain in Greece. It is part of the Olympus massif near the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea, located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, be ...

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, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

. 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. However, 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. However, her attempts to prove herself worthy of the title of goddess usually result in disasters of comic proportions. ;

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the ear ...

: : 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 or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek reli ...

: : 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 : : 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 mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...

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

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols inclu ...

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

Poseidon Poseidon (; grc-gre, Ποσειδῶν) was one of the Twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and myth, god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.Burkert 1985pp. 136–139 In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a ...

: : 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 maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

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

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...

: : God of smiting and Aphrodite's husband, he's an amiable, if bumbling, inventor. He however 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 regarded ...

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

Dionysus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...

: : 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 very much enjoy his company (and the wine he brews). ; Hades : : 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 Italy, ''Little Pollon'' has been a very successful television program in France on

La Cinq La Cinq () was France's first privately owned free-to-air television network. Created by politician Jérôme Seydoux and Italian media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, the network broadcast from 1985 to 1992. The contract for France's fifth terrest ...

in the late 1980s under the title , with Pollon's name changed to "Olympe". In Spain, the series was broadcast with the name '' Polon''; in the region of

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, it was known as '' Polon'', and it was also distributed on VHS in Spanish. Only 24 episodes of the 46 were dubbed in Spanish and Catalan. Enoki Films USA holds the U.S. license to the anime series, although no English-language dub or subtitling of the series has ever been commercially released. The ''Little Pollon'' production team followed up the series in 1983 with another anime based on a Hideo Azuma manga, ''

Nanako SOS is a seinen manga series created by Hideo Azuma which ran in ''Popcorn'' and ''Just Comic'' (both published by Kobunsha) from April 1980 to July 1986. The series was adapted into 39-episode anime television series produced by Kokusai Eiga-s ...

''. In one scene in ''Nanako SOS'', the ''Little Pollon'' anime is being played on television.

Anime staff (original print)

* Original creator: Hideo Azuma * Executive producer: Juzo Tsubota * Series director: Takao Yotsuji * Scenarists: Masaru Yamamoto, Kenji Terada, Toyohiro Ando * Character designs: Toshio Takagi, Tsutomu Fujita * Animation directors: Toshio Takagi, Hirokazu Ishiyuki * Music: Masayuki Yamamoto * Theme song performance: Yoshie Hara * Production: Kokusai Eiga (Movie International Co., Ltd.) / Fuji TV

Anime staff (italian version)

* Italian production: Mediaset * Original creator: Hideo Azuma * Executive producer: Juzo Tsubota * Series director: Takao Yotsuji * Scenarists: Masaru Yamamoto, Kenji Terada, Toyohiro Ando * Character designs: Toshio Takagi, Tsutomu Fujita * Animation directors: Toshio Takagi, Hirokazu Ishiyuki * Music: Masayuki Yamamoto * Theme song performance: Yoshie Hara * Production: Kokusai Eiga (Movie International Co., Ltd.) / Fuji TV

References

External links

* * *{{IMDb title, tt0294158 1977 manga 1982 anime television series debuts Akita Shoten manga Comedy anime and manga Fantasy anime and manga Fuji TV original programming 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