MARINE BOY
Marine Boy was known as Kaitei Shonen Marien (Marine The Sea Bottom Boy) in Japan. It
was
produced in 1966 - 1967 in Japan by Minoru Adachi
through K Fujita Associates Inc and released by Japan Tele Cartoons and Seven Arts
Television world wide. It first appeared on Melbourne television in March 1968 at 4pm on
Channel 9 and was described by TV guides as "The story of Marine Boy's underwater
heroics." It was a very popular sereies and was last seen Melbourne TV as late
as 1988. Stanley Jaffe was the producer of the English version. The voice of Marine
Boy, Neptina and Cli Cli was that of Corinne Orr (female) who was also the voice of Trixie
in Speed Racer. Jack Grimes was the voice of Professor Fumble and Splasher and Peter
Fernandez (other work includes The Space Giants, Ultraman, and Star
Blazers-aka Space Battleship Yamoto and 
most of the Godzilla
films) was the voice of Piper and Dr Mariner and later went on to be Speed from
Speed Racer. Jack Curtis was the voice of Bulton.
Warner Brothers bought out Seven Arts and its library and holds all the Marine Boy
masters. They have no plans to do anything with them (production info and voice credits
from Andy Shepherd).
JAPANESE BROADCAST INFORMATION (Kelly Lannan)
This series as we know it consists of 78 episodes dubbed into English from the Japanese
series 
Submarine Boy Marine? Well, yes and no. It would seem that in
Japan, Marine Boy was seen as *3* distinct series', and the first series of just 3
episodes was produced in B/W !!!! Broadcast information and records tend to indicate that
130 episodes were produced, although this may simply be an indication of the number of
episodes broadcast; the major problem with the information about the series is that the
main title of the series changed 3 times; what *isn't known is whether episodes were
simply lifted out of one series and re-imported into another for 'repeat'.
Dolphin Prince (Series 1) consisted of 3 (BW episodes):
#1-3 broadcast 4/4/1965-18/4/1965 (at 7.30pm)
Hang In There! Marine Kid (Series 2) consisted of 13 episodes:
#1-13 broadcast 6/10/1965-29/12/1966 (at 7.00pm)
Submarine Boy Marine (Series 3) consisted of:
Season 1 (36 episodes)
#1-36 broadcast 13/1/1969-22/9/1969 (at 6.00pm)
Season 2 (78 episodes)
#1-78 broadcast 11/5/1971-2/9/1971 (at 5.00pm)
It would seem that 'our' version of Marine Boy comes
from this last 'season' of 78 episodes; more intriguingly, it would seem that Marine Boy
(being produced by 7 Arts in the West) is yet another example of those 'cross-over hybrid'
series; perhaps the Western producers saw the original series, thought it had merit, and
decided to bankroll further episodes. Obviously, these were translated and aired in the
West before their Japanese counterparts even went to air (note the 1971 date on that batch
of episodes!) (Kelly Lannan)
The whole series was set around Ocean Patrol Headquarters under the sea, responsible for
making
the oceans of the world safe. The main patrol boat
was the P1, led by Marine Boy and his 2 crew members Piper (the skinny one) and Bolton
(fatter with a deeper voice). The sub fired torpedoes and had a chute underneath where
Marine Boy would swim in and out. Like all ocean patrol recruits, they wore red berets as
part of their uniform. The entire operation was run by Dr Mariner who was Marine
Boy’s father, with the help of Professor Fumble (has a huge nose) who comes up with
fabulous inventions to help Marine Boy defeat his foes.
Marine Boy doesn’t seem to have a normal name. His father refers to him as
Son or Marine Boy. He has red hair with an orange suit made out of a special material to
give him protection. His main weapon is a sonic boomerang that he keeps in a pouch on his
left arm, and he moves through the water as fast as the marine life, powered by propeller
shoes. He can stay underwater for great lengths of time through chewing
‘oxygum’. Splasher, a white dolphin, and Neptina a mermaid are
two
of his underwater friends that help him in his adventures. Neptina wears a huge pearl
around her neck that has special powers, including seeing into the future to warn Marine
Boy of danger. Cli Cli, a small boy often tries to help Marine Boy but usually causes more
trouble. (Thanks to Kelly Lannan for the Marine Boy frame grabs)
Marine Boy was also shown in Mexico under the title “Marino y
la Patrulla Oceanica” (From Mauricio Korbmanmauricio@korbman.com)
Marine Boy theme song
Marine Boy theme music (on some episodes)
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