, known as ''

Spaceketeers , known as '' Spaceketeers'' in the United States, is an anime series produced by Toei Animation. It is a sci-fi remake/adaptation of Wu Cheng'en's fantasy novel ''Journey to the West''. It was directed by Yugo Serikawa and written by Leiji ...

'' in the United States, is an

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 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 greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popul ...

''. It was directed by Yugo Serikawa and written by

Leiji Matsumoto is a Japanese mangaka, creator of several anime and manga series. His wife Miyako Maki is also a manga artist. Early life Matsumoto was the middle child of a family of seven brothers, and, in his early childhood, Matsumoto was given a 35m ...

. It aired in

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 ...

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, it was referred to as ''Spaceketeers'' and was part of Jim Terry's

Force Five ''Force Five'' is an American adaptation of five different anime television series. In the United States, this series was primarily shown only in New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, though it did make brief appearances in other markets, s ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, it was referred to as ''Sci-Bots'' on VHS releases. In

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

, it was known as ''El Galáctico''.

Story

The story revolves around the Princess of the Moon, Aurora and her three

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

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 (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universe ...

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

'', a Chinese literary

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

written by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

novelist

. The sci-fi twists were designed by

based on the ''Terebi Magazine'' manga 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 * Screenwriters: Tatsuo Tamura, Mitsuru Majima, Sukehiro Tomita * Character Designs: Masami Suda * Animators: 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 pri ...

Adaptations

In March 1979, a movie was aired reusing footage from the first segment of the series. The movie 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 July 1979 with all the galactic energy restored in the storyline.

Media

A total of 73 episodes of Sci-Fi West Saga Starzinger 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 is a Japanese Super Robot mecha anime series produced by Toei Animation. For distribution purposes, Toei refers to this television series as ''Dino-Mecha Gaiking'' or simply ''Gaiking''. It ran from April 1976 through January 1977 and co ...

", and "

Magne Robo Gakeen is a Japanese anime television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisemen ...

". 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 edit a set of 24 DVD with Festival de los Robots episodes. This set includes 24 episodes of "El Galactico" with the original Spanish dubbing. In North America, it was aired as ''"Spaceketeers"'' as part of the package show ''

''. As the ''Journey to the West'' story is not well known in the region, the characters were renamed to reference the

Three Musketeers 3 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 3, three, or III may also refer to: * AD 3, the third year of the AD era * 3 BC, the third year before the AD era * March, the third month Books * '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...

. 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. Twenty-four episodes of the original 73 also aired in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

(mainly in Sweden) 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 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 manga Action anime and manga Fictional kings Fictional princes Fictional princesses Fictional queens Fuji TV original programming Japanese animated science fiction films Manga series Television series set in the 2070s Television series set in the future Works based on Journey to the West Animated space adventure television series Toei Animation television Toei Animation films 1970s Japanese television series