Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen! (found anime/manga adaption of video game series; 1986)
Cover of VHS tape.
Status: Found
Date found: Unknown
Found by: Unknown
Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen (translated into English as Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach) is a 1986 anime film and manga that was only released in Japan. It was produced by Nippon Television and Grouper Productions in order to promote the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 (later released as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels in the west). The theatrical release was shown alongside a video strategy guide for the game.
The movie is notable from its deviation of how the Mario canon was later developed, particularly in the presence of original characters such as Peach's fiancée Prince Haru (in contrast to the games, in which Peach has no other love interest outside Mario). While Peach and Bowser resemble Yoichi Kotabe's redesigns for the Japanese Mario 2, Luigi's design differs slightly from how he later looked in Mario 3 (as well as the U.S. version of Mario 2).
Super Mario Bros.: Peach-hime Kyushutsu Dai Sakusen was released in theaters on July 20, 1986, in Japan.[1] It was later released on VHS by VAP as a rental-only tape. Because of this and its lack of any re-release on modern media, it's considered something of a rare anime.
Plot
The plot of the film is about Mario and Luigi getting sucked into their Famicom (the Japanese equivalent to the NES) game and find out that Princess Peach has been kidnapped by Bowser. She must be saved by the two plumbers. In order to rescue her, the two must find the three powerups as follow: the Super Mushroom, the Fire Flower, and the Invincibility Star. Along the way, the brothers run into several enemies such as Goombas, Bloopers, Pirahna Plants, Lakitu, and much more. The duo arrives just in time to save Peach from a forced marriage to Bowser and defeat him by twirling Bowser by the tail and throwing him (this idea would be later recycled into Super Mario 64's Bowser battles). Peach thanks Mario for saving her (as well as for saving a prince, who, it turns out, had been put under a spell by Bowser to be transformed into a blue dog) and the two return home, promising to visit again soon. The movie ends with Bowser and his underlings now employed by Mario and Luigi in their grocery store.
Gallery
Vinyl record cover with obi strip.
Screenshots of the VHS tape and packaging - credit to DeviantART member CurtisGwin.
Vinyl record with liner notes.
Telephone card - credit to DeviantART member CurtisGwin.
Tie-in magazine by Kindaieigasha - credit to EverythingSuperMario.
