Wandaba Style

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wacky Science Fiction Series Wandaba Style
妄想科学シリーズワンダバスタイル (Mousou Kagaku Series Wandaba Style)
Genre	Adventure, Comedy, Science Fiction
TV anime
Directed by	Nobuhiro Takamoto
Studio	Wonderfarm
Network	Kids Station
Original run	5 April 2003 – 21 June 2003
No. of episodes	12

Wacky Science Fiction Series Wandaba Style (妄想科学シリーズワンダバスタイル, Mousou Kagaku Series Wandaba Style^?), shortened to Wandaba Style in the English language release, is a twelve part anime series. The story is about a pop idol band named Mix Juice who need any kind of gig to make their name famous. At the same time, a young boy genius plans on taking a trip to the moon without using fossil fuels to pollute Earth's atmosphere. Thanks to some clever managing, the girls of Mix Juice and the scientist plan on making their first concert on the moon by any means necessary. The television series was released in English by ADV Films and 3 volumes of videos were released on VHS and DVD.

[edit] Main characters

All the female leads are named after flowers in the Japanese language. Sakura means cherry blossom, Himawari means sunflower, Ayame means iris, Yuri means lily, and Kiku means chrysanthemum.

The Mix Juice girls also have seasons within their last names. Haru means spring, Natsu means summer, Aki means autumn and Fuyu means winter.

Sakura Haruno (春野さくら Haruno Sakura) - Sakura is a nursery music singer who's spoiled by her success. She's the smart-aleck kid of Mix Juice who usually gets in trouble due to her mouthing off. Like most children her age, Sakura has a severe and intense fear of the dark. Sakura has blond hair in pigtails and hazel eyes. She weighs 48 kg and is 155 cm tall. Her measurements are 75-58-71. Voiced by: Rika Morinaga (Japanese), Luci Christian (English)

Himawari Natsuwa (夏輪ひまわり Natsuwa Himawari) - Himawari is an enka balladeer and speaks in traditional Japanese fashion as well as modern Japanese. She works part-time at a construction site where she's the focus of a lot of construction workers. Himawari has black hair in a ponytail and brown eyes. She weighs 48 kg and is 158 cm tall. Her measurements are 84-58-77. Voiced by: Mai Nakahara (Japanese), Monica Rial (English)

Ayame Akimo (秋茂あやめ Akimo Ayame) - Ayame is the soft-spoken member of Mix Juice and also the most eccentric. She claims that there are fairies in the world and that only she can see them. Ayame is a modern folk singer reminiscent of the Woodstock era. Ayame has blue hair and blue eyes. She weighs 46 kg and is 160 cm tall. Her measurements are 78-57-76. She wears glasses as well. Voiced by: Chiwa Saito (Japanese), Nancy Novotny (English)

Yuri Fuyude (冬出ゆり Fuyude Yuri) - Yuri is a rocker rebel singer who swings to the beat of her own drum. She constantly gets fired from her jobs due to her stubborn pride as a musician trying to go against new idol singers performing at places she works in. Although Yuri acts tough, she has severe acrophobia, or fear of heights. Yuri has long brown hair and blue eyes. She weighs 52 kg and is 163 cm tall. Her measurements are 83-56-84. Voiced by: Kana Ueda (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)

Dr. Susumu Tsukumo (九十九科学 Tsukumo Susumu) - Dr. Tsukumo is a young brown haired boy who wears a lab coat with the number 99 on the back. His theory was that man never landed on the moon and plans on doing it without using fossil fuels for a rocket. Dr. Tsukumo creates custom rockets called "Wandaba Mark #" for experimentation. Whenever Tsukumo measures something, he uses the outdated Japanese metric system like shaku, sun, ri and koku. Voiced by: Kouki Miyata (Japanese), Tiffany Grant (English)

Kiku No. 8 (キク8号 Kiku Hachi-gō) - Kiku No. 8 is Dr. Tsukumo's android lab assistant and a human satellite. Kiku's body is constructed of a solar-powered metal that recharges her. Sakura faults Tsukumo for this design accusing him of being a pervert. Kiku has short pink hair and a faceless expression. During the end of some episodes of Wandaba Style, she introduces "Kiku's Countdown Corner" to count how many days before the deadline of reaching the moon. Voiced by: Ai Shimizu (Japanese), Hilary Haag (English)

Michael Hanagata (マイケル花形 Maikaru Hanagata) - Mix Juice's shady and sleazy manager, Michael is a skinny man with a blonde afro, big sunglasses and an even bigger mouth. He dreamed of managing the best band in the world that would make him millions. Michael often finds himself launched into orbit by some of Tsukumo's experiments. Voiced by: Susumu Chiba (Japanese), Jason Douglas (English)

Ichirin - Dr. Tsukumo's robot unicycle and lab assistant that looks after him like a big brother. Tsukumo was an only child. Ichirin helps out with Tsukumo's experiments and to keep track of the progress. Ichirin's voice is more cultured like a butler's.

Tsukumo's parents - Dr. Tsukumo's parents are both scientists named Hikaru and Furuko. Hikaru was experimenting with an earlier rocket to try to reach the moon and was never heard from again. It turns out in Tsukumo fashion, it fell back to Earth and was living in Canada at the time. Furuko is a vicious, wicked and selfish mother to the doctor during his youth and has become his mortal enemy. Near the end of Wandaba Style, Fukuro finally reconciled with her son and put this long-standing rivalry to rest. She joined Hikaru in the limousine and Dr. Tsukumo resumed his experiments.