Moomin (ムーミン) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Zuiyo Enterprise and animated by Tokyo Movie until episode 26 and by Mushi Production after episode 27. The series is loosely based on the Moomin books by the Finnish author Tove Jansson and was broadcast on Fuji Television from 1969 to 1970. A sequel series entitled Shin Muumin (lit. 'New Moomin') was later released in 1972. Jansson never approved of the series or its successor, due to their dramatic changes with the plots, overall atmosphere, and character personalities. Because of this, the series was never translated into any languages or released outside Japan except Taiwan and some others like United Kingdom. Also, the series has never been released in principle since 1990 including in Japan, when a new anime television series Moomin was released with the full involvement of Jansson herself. The anime series is also the second entry in what is now known as World Masterpiece Theater (Calpis Comic Theater at the time). Zuiyo Enterprise, would split in 1975 into Nippon Animation Company, Ltd. (which employed some of the Zuiyo's production staff and continued with the World Masterpiece Theater franchise) and Zuiyo Company, Ltd.

Summary

The anime series is notably different from the later anime television series Moomin, released in the early 1990s, which was translated into many languages, released in dozens of countries, and relies more on the original Moomin books and comic strips. While the series itself was well-liked by the Japanese public as an adventurous and comedic series for boys, it was dramatically different in areas like the adaptation and overall atmosphere. For example, Moomintroll was portrayed more as an ordinary boy; while still friendly like in the books, he is somewhat ill-tempered, occasionally fighting or behaving slyly. This, along with elements such as Snork being a driver, common use of firearms, one scene in an early episode featuring characters getting drunk together at a bar, infuriated Jansson. After Tokyo Movie's contract was cancelled, with Mushi Production taking over, the designs were changed accordingly and the series had episodes more faithful to the source material, which included the source's stories and points of mystery, horror, comedy and tragedy. Despite this, Jansson's consent was still not obtained and the program was ended after more than 60 episodes. Since 1990, Moomin Characters, Ltd, which manages the Moomin copyrights, has not released this series to the public in principle.

Production

In the 1960s, sports dramas and slapstick comedies were the mainstream of Japanese TV animation at that time. Therefore, Calpis Co., Ltd., the sponsor of the animated program in Fuji TV, wanted to offer a family-oriented animation that was distinctly different from those fields. At that time, "Moomin," which had just been imported from abroad as children's literature, caught their attention. And so the project was launched. A short time later, the proposal was sent to Tove Jansson. Jansson's response was positive, so Shigeto Takahashi, a producer at Zuiyo Enterprise who was in charge of the project, decided to meet directly with Jansson to proceed with negotiations. Jansson suggested the following conditions for the production of the animation.

Development and pre-production

Tokyo Movie, now TMS Entertainment, was chosen to produce the animation. The director was chosen to be Masaaki Osumi, who has the unique background of having come from a puppet theater company. Osumi, who knows Moomin well, initially thought the content was too static to be suitable for animation, but accepted the position. The company hired Yasuo Otsuka as the animation director. He was considered to be one of Japan's foremost animators, and he was an important mentor to Hayao Miyazaki. He thought the cuteness of movement and the roundness of his drawings as important, and never used straight lines to draw characters such as the Moomins. The initial meetings were confusing. Takahashi, who respected Jansson's opinions and aimed for a plot that was faithful to the original work, was at odds with the advertising agency, which aimed for a plot that did not respect Jansson's original work on the grounds that "the style as it is will not be popular in Japan." Osumi was invited by the advertising agency to a planning meeting, where he was surprised and frustrated by their inability to understand the spirit of the source material, due to comments such as "Let's run a bullet train in the Moomin Valley." Osumi was dissatisfied and desired to quit, but was fascinated by the animation shown by Mr. Otsuka just before leaving company, and reconsidered. Osumi later said of the participants in this meeting, "Perhaps, but they had not even read the original work and were only thinking about the character business." Later, the bullet train idea was rejected due to opposition from Osumi and others. In making the animation, Osumi decided to base it on Moomin comic strips rather than the Jansson novels. The strips had a freer plot than the novels, and he thought that "the style of the comic would work as an animation. Therefore, Osumi claims that he did not create a plot that was different than the comic strip. In the casting process, Kyōko Kishida, who was regarded as a great actor with a strong acting background, was chosen to play Moomin. This was due to the fact that she once contributed a story about reading a Moomin novel in an essay she had written for a newspaper. Subsequently, the casting of other main characters was done according to Kisida's abilities, and stage actors and other actors with greater theatrical skills than the popular voice actors of the time were employed. Hisashi Inoue, a distinguished novelist and dramatist, participated as a screenwriter. At first, there were some complaints from the advertising agency that the story was too self-control. However, once the animation was actually broadcast, the response was more favorable than expected, and especially since the sponsor, Calpis, liked it very much, and the strong complaints receded, as if pushed by them. Thus was created "Moomin," a children's animation mixing fantasy by Jansson and Japanese culture.

Change of production company

When the broadcast began, Tokyo Movie and Zuiyo Enterprise asked Jansson to watch episode 7. This was to get her endorsement. But, she gave the episode a low rating and submitted a letter to the staff with a series of complaints and requests. Tokyo Movie ended production after episode 26 and exited the project because of this letter from Jansson. But this reason was ostensible. The Moomin project was initially intended to be a low-budget production, but the animators and staff on site insisted on producing high-quality work, and as a result, the budget was far exceeded, and negotiations with the advertising agency for an increase in the budget were not agreed upon. Also, Due to its popularity with viewers, the number of broadcasts was suddenly increased from the planned number, but Tokyo Movie could not cope with this. For this reason, Tokyo Movie's upper management wanted to withdraw from the project and used Jansson's claims as an excuse to Zuiyo Enterprise, the sponsors, and the Fuji TV, who were willing to continue the program. With the departure of Tokyo Movie from the project, Osumi and other key staff and animators were also dropped from the production. The animators on site were summoned by the president and informed of the sudden termination. They were disappointed, but also relieved. Yutaka Fujioka, who was in charge of the site and wanted the project to continue, was on a business trip that day and was angry when he heard the news of the termination the next day. However, the CEO had already made that decision, and it was too late. They were soon transferred to the Lupin the 3rd Part I: The Classic Adventures project. Mushi Production became the animation production company from episode 27. Episode 27 was greatly innovated and changed in response to Jansson's request, with the character design being adapted to drawings by Jansson and the plot of the story being changed as well. Unfortunately, however, after the program ended, the TV station was inundated with many complaints. The children wrote such comments as, "The characters' faces suddenly changed and became scary," and "Why did the atmosphere of the story change and it became boring? ". Also, The sponsor, Calpis, which had been satisfied with Tokyo Movie, expressed its dissatisfaction. This evaluation led to a meeting with Jansson, and as a result, a few elements, such as character design, were returned to a status similar to Tokyo Movie, provided that it would be broadcast only in Japan. The program was ended after well over 60 episodes.

Reception

Critical response

Tove Jansson had difficulty viewing all of its animations due to historical issues. So, having watched only the episode 7, which had just been completed at the time, she explained the following. "First of all, the starting point is wrong. That is, the Moomin Valley and the Moomin way of thinking are all expressed differently. The Moomin family members do not live in today's modern society. They live in a society that is benign and kind. Of course, incidents do occur. The Moomin family likes incidents. However, they never argue. It is unthinkable for Moominpappa to slap his son on the buttocks, and no one in this world slaps anyone on the buttocks. If they do get angry, for example, they will only hit each other's heads with umbrellas and never use force of arms. Overall, the feeling of the Moomin Valley has been lost. It seems to me that the only way to save this mistake is for everyone involved in this work to read the Moomin books well, to become integrated into the Moomin world, and to feel and understand that feeling." Jansson also included the following other requests in her letter. However, Jansson did not dismiss all of the work, praising the colors used in the background as "The effects of colors such as water and sky are well done. Also, She stated in 1971, "At first, they told that I was angry that the Japanese Moomins were different, and in a way this is true. I have not yet had a good look at them in Japan, As far as the films sent to me, the Japanese Moomins are aggressive. besides, the Japanese Moomins have problems with cars and money, but my Moomin Valley has no such problems. but, I began to think it would be nice to have a Moomin with a Japanese flavor.". In 2008, Masaaki Osumi said to one of Jansson's reviews by stating. "My biggest regret is that I should have had a knee-to-knee talk with Tove Jansson, although there is nothing I can do about it now. If I had talked to her properly, we would have understood each other. As you can see from the actual work, it is based on the 'no money, no car, no fight' philosophy of the original Moomin story. Certainly cars make an appearance, but they get flat tires as soon as they come out. Other times, various civilizations are tried to be brought into the Moomin Valley, but all fail. That is a consistent theme. We used a rudimentary approach to drama: the car is there as a visual, but the reason for it is to denigrate the car society. I had faith that Mr. Jansson would understand the theme." Producer Shigeto Takahashi gave the series a low rating, saying he was disappointed that it could not faithfully reproduce the original worldview by Tove Jansson, but praised Kisida and the rest of the cast for their excellent performances. Incidentally, Kisida's performance in this series was so well received that she continued to play the Moomins in the Japanese dubbed version of the stop-motion Moomin TV series produced in Poland in 1977.

Cast and characters

The description will focus on elements that differ from Jansson's original narrative.

Main characters

Supporting characters

Episodes

Home media

In 1989, The series saw VHS and Laser Disc releases in Japan. This is the only home media.