San ku kaï

This series was huge hit in France in the early 80s as "San Ku Kaï". The concept was quite new for the audience at the time. Great series

I was eleven years old when I saw Sankuokai for the first time and was impressed with it. Her story, characters, mysticism, and moral message (the good always win, the bad guys always explode) managed to impact generations of children throughout South America. In Uruguay it was a singular, unique phenomenon; we all played as the characters in the series and made our homemade shuriken to show that we were ninjas. It is obviously an expansion of the creative work of George Lucas but it has a charm that only the Japanese can achieve. It's so good that I ordered the entire series and keep it in my house like a treasure. For those of us who saw it, it is an extraordinary memory.

This series was shown across Latin American countries in the early 80s, with the title "San Kuo Kai". Most characters kept their original names (something usually done with Japanese live-action series, not so much with animation). The audio was dubbed, the opening credits were translated, and the theme song was translated too. It seems that, from the total of 27 episodes, only 25 were ever dubbed and shown in Latin America, and they are currently available in a 6-DVD pack edition in very good quality.

I used to watch it as a kid and it was fun. There were several toys being sold at the time too. Don't expect hi-tech special effects, though.

This TV series was exhibited in early 80 in Chile. In this country the series has a lot success. A whole generation we grew viewing Sankuokai as the series was known in this part of the world. The story is simple, and retrospectively sometimes even seem some foolish, and the special effects very poor. However, it must be seen with some historical perspective. In spite of, Sankuokai, have a great meaning to whoever saw it. n September of 2005 the Chilean companies CIVITEL S.A y PROYECTA LTDA, released a DVD pack with the same dubbing that we saw when we was children. This pack is available to buy, obviously in Spanish, without subtitles.