The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986)

Original title

オズの魔法使い

Genre

fantasy anime and manga

Country

Netherlands, Japan

Length

1 season, 52 episodes

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 30 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This Japanese anime series adapts multiple Oz books by L. Frank Baum, following Dorothy and other characters through magical adventures in the land of Oz. It covers events from early stories as well as what happens after Dorothy first returns home.

whimsicalgentleadventurousnostalgiclightheartedfantasticalepisodicclassic

What happens

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, known in Japan as Ozu no Mahōtsukai (オズの魔法使い), is a Japanese anime television series adaptation based on four of the original early 20th century Oz books by L. Frank Baum. In Japan, the series aired on TV Tokyo from 1986 to 1987. It consists of 52 episodes, which explain other parts of the Oz stories, including the events that happened after Dorothy returned home. The books adapted for the series include the first three novels — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), and Ozma of Oz (1907) — as well as the sixth, The Emerald City of Oz (1910). One of the TV series' writers, Akira Miyazaki, also wrote for the 1982 anime film of the same Japanese name. The series was also the final adaption of the series before the source material entered the public domain in 1989. Many of the series' staffers, such as director Hiroshi Saitō and character designer Shūichi Seki, also worked on Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater, so that the look and narrative style of the series feel similar to a WMT anime even though Nippon Animation itself was not involved in the production. The show has been aired in several countries outside of Japan and has been dubbed in English, Spanish, Italian, Indonesian and many other languages. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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