Tatakae! Osper (partially found anime series based on manga; 1965-1967)

Title card for Tatakae! Osupa

Status: Partially Found

Tatakae! Osupa (戦え! オスパー) is a sci-fi manga series created by Yamano Koichi and Takashi Ina, later having an anime adaptation made by Koichi himself and the Nihon Hoso Eigasha (transl. Japanese Broadcasting Film). The anime series was broadcasted on the Japanese channel, Nippon TV, and aired from December 14th, 1965, up until October 31st, 1967, spanning 52 episodes in total and each episode ran for 30 minutes.

Plot

After a catastrophic event disintegrated their home continent, the citizens of Mu adjusted their ways of living as they continue to live their lives in the ocean, with cities covered in domes, and as years go by, many of its citizens learned and adapted psychic abilities. Osper, our main protagonist, is one of them.

In an annual battle between the nation's competition to determine which citizen is the best psychic of them all, Osper is in battle with a mean, evil-spirited boy named Drome. The battle went on and Osper won, but due to Drome's poor-sported attitude, he destroys the dome the city is enclosed upon. Osper was sent to hunt down Drome above the sea and in the cities on land where he meets a girl named Yumi Umizu. Learning that various crimes and problems in the cities above the sea were caused by Drome, Osper and Yumi tackle and resolve these issues to fight evil and Drome, with Drome fleeing away every time.

Cast

• Keiko Yamato as Osupa/Osper
• Akira Okuhara as Robert
• Iemasa Kayumi as Chief Kaizu
• Megumi Tama as Yumi Kaizu
• Ryo Abe as Drome

Availability

The series was broadcasted every Tuesday starting from December 1965 up until October 1967 and was the very first anime broadcasted by Nippon TV.. Since it ended, there was no official home media release for the series and is rarely mentioned in newspapers and all of the 52 episodes are lost to time, much as any anime that had aired in the 1960s that was not properly archived. The only existing material of the series prior to 2022 was the opening credits of the show that was included in a compilation VHS tape of anime themes and can easily be watched online.

Episode 41's Discovery

On August 2019, Kokuei, the parent company of the now dissolved Nihon Hoso Eigasha (the company which produced "Tatakae! Osupa"), found a film whilst they were cleaning up a warehouse, that contained an episode of "Tatakae! Osupa", albeit was in very poor condition and deteriorating. It is believed to be the 41st episode of the series, "Horde of Poisonous Moths (戦え！オスパー毒蛾の大群)" that had first aired on September 20th, 1966. A Kickstarter page was made on Campfire with an ambition to fund and restore the film, with the target goal of ¥550,000 (around $4,246.00). The Kickstarter was successful as it made double the target amount at ¥1,598,512 (around $12,340.00).

The deteriorated film was taken into consideration and was digitized, and was screened at the Tokyo CineCenter in late 2022 at a limited time and audience. The episode was prohibited to be converted to any forms of media and is not showed to the general public, though supporters of the project are given a DVD release. In addition, two clips of the 41st episode was posted on the official Kokuei channel on YouTube to the people who supported the film's restoration project.

Gallery

Images

• 

  Found tape of Episode 41; courtesy of Kokuei Co. Ltd.

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  Newspaper article of an ad for Tatakae! Osupa; source unknown.

Videos

49 seconds of episode 41; uploaded for the support on the restoration project.

Short clip of episode 41; a teaser on the restoration project

VideoService "nico" not recognized.

External Links

• ENG Wikipedia page for Tatakae! Osupa
• Kickstarter Page for Tatakae! Osupa - Episode 41 restoration.
• Nicovideo upload of the intro for the series (direct link if embedded video isn't working)