Space Ace (anime)

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Space Ace
宇宙エース (Uchū Ēsu)
TV anime
Studio	Tatsunoko

Space Ace (宇宙エース, Uchū Ēsu^?) was produced and shown in Japan between 1965 to 1966 and aired in Melbourne in February 1968 on channel 9 at 5pm. The last time it appeared on tv was on Daryl Somers Cartoon Corner in August 1972 at 4pm. It was created and produced by Tatsuo Yoshida (Speed Racer) and his brother Kenji, through their newly established company "Tatsunoko productions."

SPACE ACE was a young boy. Only his face was visible in his uniform. He had ear-caps and an asymmetrical ‘v’ perched on his forehead like a sort of lightning bolt emblem. He was of course an alien, and like Prince Planet before him was given to homesick stargazing with the faces of his loved ones ghosted across the heavens.

Chubby Ace’s tool of preference was the galaxy ring, a flat white hoop he could produce from his fingers to be thrown, a la Oddjob’s bowler hat, or ride on, a la Monkey’s cloud. He was also very strong and a very good fighter as well.

The supporting cast includes a fatherly professor who was typical of the "fatherly professors" often seen in anime produced at the time (examples include Gigantor, Astro Boy and the aforementioned Prince Planet) with every outlandish combination of mis-shapen heads, hair, noses, and eyes. His hair has two huge buns atop his head like Mickey Mouse ears. He also had a moustache and smoked a pipe. He often referred to the character as "little Ace" in a gravelly, fatherly tone.

His daughter, Ginger, was Ace’s love interest. She wore a trendy beret and ponytail,

Providing the show's comedy relief was crusading investigative reporter Flash Scoop, who usually burst on the scene riding his jet skycycle at the worst possible moment of the battle, screaming for Ace to give him interviews and so on. Flash wore a cheesemaker cap, squawked raucously and most notably, had the face of a chimpanzee. Flash’s arrival was always accompanied by his own crazy-guy, wacko-the-did musical theme.

One of the show's most important characters however, was "Ebo" Ace’s imagined projection into the night sky depicted as a humanoid robot. He eventually arrived on earth to visit Ace. However Ebo went bad and Ace was forced to destroy him. Fortunately, Ebo was rebuilt as a loyal, Snoopy-like brown dog robot who had the ability to fly, which was handy when in battle. When Ace begin's to lose his strength, Ebo carries in his flip-top nose a supply of Ace’s space food, which he would shoot into the boy’s mouth from the air, eliciting a Popeye/spinach-like recovery and enabling Ace to win the day.