Marine Boy

Great cartoon series. Marine boy's propeller shoes, electric boomerang and oxygum: Oxygen releasing gum were unique inventions for the time and beyond. Magic series. Now I have to track it down.

My love for Marine Boy is only second to Astro-Boy and Speed Racer!

This was another one of those imported Japanese Anime cartoons form the 60's I just was glued to and loved beyond belief. It was innocent, it was wonderful, it was fantasy. Kids today over 6 would probably run far away from this, and I think that's sad. For me, it had everything a kid could want, a boy who could stay underwater because of the gum that was invented, his friends...a dolphin and a mermaid. You'd think Disney would have done something like this, they didn't. Thank Goodness.

Here's the neatest thing about Marine Boy that I think every parent should pay attention to. When they showed the series on the station I watched, they showed it in its original Japanese language with subtitles AND they showed it in English dubbed. I just happened to learn the sweet little catchy title song in its original Japanese, and then in English. Sang it around the house, all the time. Freaked my mother out. Cute huh?

Along with Speed Racer, Kimba the White Lion, Gigantor, and other late 60s anime, this was another that I loved. It played for a short while on PBS and then disappeared, not even in reruns. Even as an adult, I remember this show being special. Unfortunately, no one I know in my age group seems to recall it when I mentioned it, and I was beginning to think I was crazy! I vividly remember as child being struck by the magic chewing gum that allowed him to breathe underwater most of all, although having a mermaid and a dolphin as friends came in close seconds. Hopefully some day someone will get a clue and this will be released on DVD like all the other ones, especially considering some of the junk that is out there for kids nowadays.

Marine Boy had 2 friends - Splasher (the dolphin) and Crystal (a mermaid). Her name doesn't appear on the speaking credits because she couldn't speak, a trait she shares with her puppet counterpart from Stingray 'Marina'.

The 'Magic chewing gum' which enabled Marine Boy to breathe underwater was 'Oxygum'. And Bulton (the pilot of the sub) had a little catchphrase "Pipe down Piper", which he uttered when Piper got into a bit of a panic - as he often did.

A thoroughly enjoyable series with a strange atmosphere due to the lack of incidental music used. A marvellously distinctive, bubbly sounding' theme tune though. Ahhh - how I miss this age of innocence.

Marine Boy, the TV series, was the first Manga to be shown on British television. Although it has to my knowledge never been repeated, unlike almost every other children's TV program from the sixties and seventies, its memory lives on. Marine Boy's ability to breathe underwater and swim like a fish were conferred on him by what seemed to be magic chewing gum. These abilities led to numerous aquiline adventures for Marine Boy and his friend "splasher" the dolphin. More than this it's hard to recall, except that at the time it offered a distinct and welcome alternative to Bugs Bunny, Hector's House and Bill and Ben.