Wandering Sun

Wandering Sun (さすらいの太陽, Sasurai no Taiyo) is a Japanese manga and anime television series created by Keisuke Fujikawa and Mayumi Suzuki, and which ran for 26 episodes in 1971. Both Yoshiyuki Tomino and Yasuhiko Yoshikazu were involved in the production of Wandering Sun, and would later again collaborate on the ground-breaking and genre defining series Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam.

Wandering Sun tells the story of two girls switched at birth (one rich, Miki, and one poor, Nozomi), who compete to become successful singers after meeting at high-school.

The TV series was also released in Italy under the title Jane e Micci and in France as Nathalie et ses Amis.

This series was itself a ground-breaker in that it was perhaps the first anime series to depict the entertainment industry - specifically popular music, which would be a major plot point in many anime to come from Creamy Mami to Perfect Blue. The voice actress for Nozomi, Junko Fujiyama, was an actual singer who used the series as a launching pad for her own real-life singing career, releasing several singles while the series was still on the air. The anime, however, toned down some of the more intense and mature elements of the manga for a prime-time TV audience.

Cast

• Junko Fujiyama as Nozomi
• Michiko Hirai as Miki

Staff

• Original Creator: Keisuke Fujikawa, Mayumi Suzuki
• Script: Keisuke Fujikawa, Shun'ichi Yukimuro
• Character Designs: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
• Storyboards: Yoshiyuki Tomino
• Music: Hideki Fuyuki
• Producer: Hiroshi Saito, Noboru Katano
• Production: Mushi Production, Fuji TV