What's “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog?”
Anime fans in search of new things to watch can be like star-crossed lovers, yearning to cross an impossible gap to achieve their hearts' desires. Okay, that's a tad hyperbolic, but nonetheless “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog” is here to help. Each week we provide additional information and cultural context to aid anime fans in deciding whether or not they'd like to take an unknown series for a test-drive.
What's Sea Prince and the Fire Child?
Sea Prince and the Fire Child is a 1981 animated theatrical film with direction by Masami Hata (Ringing Bell) and animation by Sanrio. Known as Sirius no Densetsu (“The Legend of Sirius”) in Japan, the film is based on a story by Shintaro Tsuji, the creator of Sanrio's Little Twin Stars characters. Crunchyroll describes the film as follows:
“Long ago, spirits of fire and water lived as one. But jealous Algaroch, Lord of the Winds, drove a rift between King Oceanus and his sister Hyperia, Queen of Fire. Since then fire fairies and water sprites have been at war and forbidden from consorting, but when Prince Sirius, the king's chosen successor, meets Hyperia's beautiful daughter Malta, they fall madly in love. A wise, old turtle explains their one chance is to reach the hill of Elysium during the next solar eclipse, where a magic flower blossoms that can carry them to a distant star where fire and water live as one.”
Essentially, Sea Prince and the Fire Child is a reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, transposed into a fantastical world filled with spirits and fairies. It's a children's film, of course, because nothing says “children's entertainment” like a doomed romance with deadly repercussions.
What's in a Name?
The Japanese language and English dubbed versions use different names to refer to some characters and places, e.g. Glaucon rather than King Oceanus, Themis instead of Queen Hyperia, Argon rather than Algaroch, and Moebius Hill instead of Elysium Hill. For the sake of simplicity, this post will use the Japanese naming conventions.
Handsome Hand-Drawn Animation and Moving Music.
The greatest strength of Sea Prince and the Fire Child is its animation. Combined with excellent color and lighting design, the animation creates a beautiful vision of a world inhabited not only by magical creatures, but by an entire rainbow-colored assortment of oceanic flora and fauna.
Unlike many other contemporary examples of Japanese animation, Sea Prince and the Fire Child uses full animation (24 frames per second), rather than limited animation. The sequences in which Glaucon emerges from the sea, in which Themis blazes with anger, and in which Malta dances before the Sacred Flame are especially breath-taking in their craft.
The film also features a score performed by the NHK Symphony Orchestra. The score is composed by Koichi Sugiyama, a world-famous composer who is best known in the West for his music for the Dragon Quest series of video games. The music and the visuals of Sea Prince and the Fire Child dovetail together wonderfully, enhancing the sometimes somber and melancholy nature of the story.
All's Well that Ends Well?
The other salient feature of Sea Prince and the Fire Child is its bittersweet conclusion. In most Western animated films aimed at children, love triumphs in the end, but with the legend of Sirius, the result can at best be called a Pyrrhic victory. Love is usually depicted as a positive quality, but here love has long-reaching destructive consequences: Malta and Sirius are so infatuated with one another that they neglect their duties, and their kingdoms and clans suffer numerous disasters as a result.
Crunchyroll currently streams Sea Prince and the Fire Child in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Minor Outlying Islands. The film is available both in the original Japanese language with English subtitles and with the 1982 English dub, which features the voices of Tony Oliver and Mike Reynolds, among others.
Sea Prince and the Fire Child is also released on Region 1 DVD by Discotek Media under their Eastern Star label. There is also a version of The Legend of Sirius that is published in Japan in book form. This version includes illustrations by Yukio Abe, although it should be noted that the art-style for the book version is considerably different from Sanrio's animated film.
If you're interested in a gorgeous oddity and a piece of animation history, consider giving Sea Prince and the Fire Child a try.
Is there a series in Crunchyroll's catalog that you think needs some more love and attention? Please send in your suggestions to cruisingcrunchy@gmail.com. Your pick could inspire the next installment of “Cruising the Crunchy-Catalog”!
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.
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