Fūta-kun (lost pilot anime based on manga series; 1966)

A scene from the pilot.

Status: Lost

Fūta-kun (フータくん) is a manga series by Fujiko Fujio A. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen King from 1964 to 1967. It is the story of a young boy, Fūta, who goes on a business journey in a general store to save one million yen and eventually starts his own business, becomes president, and begins competing in business with his rival. The manga series was planned to be made into an anime TV series, and a pilot was produced in 1966.

Overview

The animated adaptation of this manga series was the second of Fujiko Fujio A's works after Obake no Q-taro. The animation was produced by Nippon Hōsō Eiga, and was completed around November 1966. The episode consisted of two 15-minute segments (30 minutes in total). It was scheduled to begin airing on NTV in January 1967, and a notice announcing the airing of the pilot was included in the first issue of the magazine COM, but it was never actually aired. However, on December 11, 1972, the pilot was aired on local station, Hiroshima Television from 4:30 to 45 p.m.

The 25 Years of Television Cartoons, published by Tokuma Shoten, mentions the pilot and reveals that the 16mm film was stored in a warehouse. According to the warehouse manager, the film's content was too modest to attract buyers at the time, and several years later, a TV station in the Chugoku-Shikoku region aired the pilot as a fill-in for another program.

Film found

In April 2022, Twitter user Konosheet (@video_vhs) contacted Kokuei, the parent company of Nippon Hōsō Eiga, to inquire if they had any films of the pilot in their possession, and discovered a film labeled "Pūta-kun" in the company warehouse. Although the title could not be confirmed from the film, it was confirmed that the character was holding a signboard with the word "Fūta" on it, thus making it clear that the film was the authentic Fūta-kun pilot.

Tokyo Cine Center, a screening room run by Kokuei, tweeted about the finding on its Twitter account.

Availability

Kokuei commissioned Tokyo Laboratory to examine the condition of the film in order to digitize the pilot and make it available to the public in the future. Tokyo Laboratory found that the film was reddish and faded, but that the audio was still recorded and could be digitized, albeit with some shrinkage and crystallization. Based on the results, Kokuei has indicated his intention to commission Tokyo Laboratory to digitize the film and restore it to its original state with color correction. As of 2024, the pilot has not yet been released.

Gallery

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  Film reel

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  Airing notice of the pilot published in magazine COM.