Anime Profile: Marine Boy

Marine Boy was known as Kaitei Shonen Marien (Marine The Sea Bottom Boy) in Japan. It was produced in 1966 - 1967 in Japan by Minoru Adachi through K Fujita Associates Inc and released by Japan Tele Cartoons and Seven Arts Television world wide. It first appeared on Melbourne television in March 1968 at 4pm on Channel 9 and was described by TV guides as "The story of Marine Boy's underwater heroics." It was a very popular sereies and was last seen Melbourne TV as late as 1988. Stanley Jaffe was the producer of the English version. The voice of Marine Boy, Neptina and Cli Cli was that of Corinne Orr (female) who was also the voice of Trixie in Speed Racer. Jack Grimes was the voice of Professor Fumble and Splasher and Peter Fernandez (other work includes The Space Giants, Ultraman, and Star Blazers-aka Space Battleship Yamoto and most of the Godzilla films) was the voice of Piper and Dr Mariner and later went on to be Speed from Speed Racer. Jack Curtis was the voice of Bulton. Warner Brothers bought out Seven Arts and its library and holds all the Marine Boy masters. They have no plans to do anything with them (production info and voice credits from Andy Shepherd).

JAPANESE BROADCAST INFORMATION (Kelly Lannan)

This series as we know it consists of 78 episodes dubbed into English from the Japanese series Submarine Boy Marine? Well, yes and no. It would seem that in Japan, Marine Boy was seen as *3* distinct series', and the first series of just 3 episodes was produced in B/W !!!! Broadcast information and records tend to indicate that 130 episodes were produced, although this may simply be an indication of the number of episodes broadcast; the major problem with the information about the series is that the main title of the series changed 3 times; what isn't known is whether episodes were simply lifted out of one series and re-imported into another for 'repeat'.

• Dolphin Prince (series 1) consisted of 3 black & white episodes:
    #1-3 broadcast April 4, 1965 - April 18, 1965 (at 7:30pm)
  
• Hang In There! Marine Kid (series 2) consisted of 13 episodes
    #1-13 broadcast Oct 6, 1965 - Dec. 29, 1966 (at 7:00pm)
  
• Submarine Boy Marine (series 3) consisted of:
    Season 1 (36 episodes): #1-36 broadcast Jan 13, 1969 - Sept. 22, 1969 (at 6:00pm)
    Season 2 (78 episodes): #1-78 broadcast May 11, 1971 - Sept. 2, 1971 (at 5:00pm)
  

It would seem that 'our' version of Marine Boy comes from this last 'season' of 78 episodes; more intriguingly, it would seem that Marine Boy (being produced by 7 Arts in the West) is yet another example of those 'cross-over hybrid' series; perhaps the Western producers saw the original series, thought it had merit, and decided to bankroll further episodes. Obviously, these were translated and aired in the West before their Japanese counterparts even went to air (note the 1971 date on that batch of episodes!)

The whole series was set around Ocean Patrol Headquarters under the sea, responsible for making the oceans of the world safe. The main patrol boat was the P1, led by Marine Boy and his 2 crew members Piper (the skinny one) and Bolton (fatter with a deeper voice). The sub fired torpedoes and had a chute underneath where Marine Boy would swim in and out. Like all ocean patrol recruits, they wore red berets as part of their uniform. The entire operation was run by Dr Mariner who was Marine Boy's father, with the help of Professor Fumble (has a huge nose) who comes up with fabulous inventions to help Marine Boy defeat his foes.

Marine Boy doesn't seem to have a normal name. His father refers to him as Son or Marine Boy. He has red hair with an orange suit made out of a special material to give him protection. His main weapon is a sonic boomerang that he keeps in a pouch on his left arm, and he moves through the water as fast as the marine life, powered by propeller shoes. He can stay underwater for great lengths of time through chewing "oxygum". Splasher (a white dolphin) and Neptina (a mermaid) are two of his underwater friends that help him in his adventures. Neptina wears a huge pearl around her neck that has special powers, including seeing into the future to warn Marine Boy of danger. Cli Cli (a small boy) often tries to help Marine Boy but usually causes more trouble.

As of March 2015, Rick Idak is currently in production of a Marine Boy live-action fan film.