Marine Boy

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Marine Boy was one of the first anime cartoons shown in the U.S. in the 1960s, and later aired in Australia and the United Kingdom. Marine Boy was known as Kaitei Shonen Marien (Marine The Sea Bottom Boy) in Japan. It was produced from 1966 to 1967 in Japan by Minoru Adachi through K Fujita Associates Inc and released by Japan Tele Cartoons and Seven Arts Television worldwide. It was about the undersea adventures of a boy who was able to breathe under water by chewing a special chewing gum called "oxy-gum". He was powered underwater by his booster boots and armed with an electric boomerang. Marine Boy's father was part of the Ocean Patrol, an organisation set up to maintain peace and security in Earth's oceans.

Adventures often featured the Ocean Patrol craft P-1, a submarine crewed by Piper and Bolton (a double act), who would assist Marine Boy. Other regular characters in the show also included Neptina (a mermaid), Splasher (a dolphin) and Professor Fumble, the Ocean Patrol's absent-minded scientist.

In Japan, the program debuted with the 1965 Dolphin Prince series, consisting of just three episodes in black and white. The first 13 color episodes aired in the second series, entitled Hang In There! Marine Kid and broadcast from 1965 to 1966. Finally a third series - Submarine Boy Marine - aired over two seasons with 36 episodes shown in 1969, and 78 episodes broadcast in 1971. It is the second season of this final series that was dubbed for broadcast in English, and the English-language versions were broadcast internationally significantly before their Japanese-language equivalents were first aired in the Japanese market. Broadcast information and records tend to indicate that in total, 130 episodes were produced, although this may simply be an indication of the number of episodes broadcast; the major problem with information about the series is that the main title was changed three times. What isn't known is whether episodes were simply lifted out of one series and re-imported into another for a 'repeat'.

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, Star Blazers aka Space Battleship Yamato 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.

[edit] Trivia

In a possible nod to Marine Boy's "oxy-gum", Jimmy Neutron gives himself and his buddies "Neutronic Air Gum" that allows them to breathe underwater, in two episodes: Season 2 - Episode 3 (Operation: Rescue Jet Fusion, 2003) and Season 3 - Episode 13 (The Evil Beneath, 2006).
It's also used by Jimmy, Timmy, and Danny in the SpongeBob worlds in Nicktoons Unite.