Takarajima 宝島

1978 fall | Episodes: 26 | Score: 7.9 (7784)

Updated every at | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Producers:Madhouse

Synopsis

Jim Hawkins is a young boy lead by progressive events to embark on a search journey for the legendary treasure of the once dreaded pirate, Captain Flint. On their way to Treasure Island, John Silver, Jim's best friend, take over command of the ship revealing his true self as the ruthless pirate who once was the right hand of Flint himself. Feeling betrayed, Jim now has to deal with his mixed feelings and face Silver who still consider himself and Jim as friends. (Source: ANN)

Voice Actors

Shimizu, Mari

Wakayama, Genzo

News

Reviews

Chuy_diazz
10/15/2024, 04:11 PM
A journey through MadHouse chapter #5: a classic tale of pirates and treasure hunts. Takarajima puts us in the shoes of Jim Hawkins, a boy who will be involved in a journey to find the treasure of the famous pirate known as Captain Flint. A classic pirate story that is still good even today. It has what it takes to keep the viewer trapped in this journey. It has an essence similar to what one saw as a child on a Saturday morning while eating breakfast. It is an anime that can take you back to happier times in your life, because although it is notsomething from our time, it does appeal a little to nostalgia for being a simple and unpretentious story. The conflict of Jim going to look for a treasure to help his mother and how he will make allies and enemies on this journey. It is a story that knows how to capture the essence of piracy very well, because although monsters may come, even among them there are codes that must be respected. One thing to note is the antagonist of this story, John Silver. He is a person who is physically limited but can still instill fear among the pirates. He is not a brutish and violent antagonist as you would expect from this type of story, but rather a more intelligent and manipulative one who is willing to do anything to find that treasure. Even though I consider it a pretty good and entertaining story, personally it is not what I was looking for. At the end of the day you can't take away that feeling of Western literature, and I understand that because it is based on an English book, but it is not the kind of feeling I look for in an anime. Maybe I am too used to modern anime and these first encounters with the classics can be a shock, but I don't think that is the case. I am just not used to Western stories in anime.
whiteflame55
07/07/2023, 12:23 PM
This was a pretty consistently engrossing series. I actually found it harder and harder to compare with the other adaptations of Treasure Island I've seen as I went through it because this really felt like it was charting its own course, much for the better. I may have known the broad swings of the story, but elements like Jim and Silver's relationship were given some pretty deep nuance here, and there was a lot more to enjoy out of the secondary cast. There's a very strong visual presentation, particularly for its time, as well as the music it uses, all of which add up toa package that I think a lot of modern anime could not match for style. At times, this gave me Ghibli vibes, but with a much reduced fantasy element and more focus on the high flying adventures of pirates, sailors and treasure hunters that still was grounded in the realities of this kind of conflict. Some of the plot twists and turns were a bit unbelievable, but gives those moments so much strong atmosphere and visual style that it's hard to hold that against it. I thought they could have done more to examine characters like Trelawney, Livesey and Smollett, but given the size of the cast, I think they did pretty well with all the motivations and background, albeit some of that came very late (e.g. Gray). There was more substance here than I was expecting, and I'm happy to walk away satisfied.
Teramol
05/12/2023, 11:47 PM
Just finished the 1978 anime adaptation of Treasure Island by the studio Madhouse. It was a really great adventure. Here's a spoiler free fast review. Despite looking old, the animation was still very fluid and had a lot of charm to it. The pacing could have been a litlte faster as this story probably didn't need a full 26 episode series but the upside was that it fleshed out the characters way more. Particularly the main characters; Jim Hawkins, John Silver and the constantly shifting relationship between the two was beautiful. I also really liked how raw the series felt in that it didn't bother censoring ormaking the harsher stuff look more pleasant. Many reality checks were given throughout the story which made it feel more authentic. The mystery behind Captain Flint's treasure wasn't anything grand or spectacular, but it was a good device to carry the plot forward while the series focused mostly on the conflict between the good guys and the pirates which imo was one of the highlights of the show, especially the dialogue between the two factions. The OST was great. A lot of variety from jazzy guitar to dramatic piano which mostly fit the scenes really well. And the ending in particular was a bittersweet one but imo it fit the story perfectly. Mostly tied up the stories of all the surviving characters while also leaving some stuff a little open for some imagination which I also liked. Would recommend to anyone that wants to see a great version of a classic adventure story. Don't let it being an old anime scare you away.
Firechick12012
04/30/2023, 12:44 PM
In 2010, I watched an old anime that Anime News Network happened to start streaming called Ie Naki Ko, based on a French novel which was about a boy who traveled with an old minstrel in order to escape being sold off into slavery. I thought the anime was amazing and it's still one of my favorites. But the 1977 Ie Naki Ko anime was only one anime that the late great director Osamu Dezaki worked on, alongside his team, among many, many others that would continue until his untimely death in 2011. I've seen a few of the anime he worked on, with Roseof Versailles being my favorite for obvious reasons, and just recently I finished an anime that he worked on just a year after Ie Naki Ko included, another adventure anime based on a Western novel. I will admit, the only reason I even decided to watch Treasure Island was because Discotek picked it up for a blu-ray release in the US fairly recently, the first time it ever got licensed here, and I checked it out to see if it was any good. I'm certainly glad I did, and I still continue to be surprised at how anime, even in its relative infancy, was able to churn out genuinely awesome creations that you just don't get anymore. Granted, I still like Versailles and Ie Naki Ko better than Treasure Island, but seriously, TI is a damn good anime in and of itself that you should really check out if you want a fun, tense, swashbuckling adventure that isn't afraid to get dark when it needs to. Based on the 1883 novel by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stephenson, Treasure Island stars Jim Hawkins, an energetic 13-year-old boy who helps his mother run the Admiral Benbow Inn on England's Bristol Channel. His life is fairly normal until a pirate by the name of Billy Bones stays at the inn. Billy Bones is a drunkard who is always causing trouble, but when sober, he's paranoid that he's being followed. After several events involving violent sword fights, Billy Bones dies, leaving Jim his most prized possession: A map that supposedly leads to Treasure Island, where the famous Captain Flint hid a mountain of treasure so sought-after that nearly every pirate wants to get their hands on it no matter the cost. Jim wants to get in on the action and find this fabled treasure, wanting to be a sailor like his father once was. With help from some friends of his late father, Jim manages to get a spot on the ship named The Hispaniola and has a chance to find the treasure. But he is woefully unprepared for all that sailing the high seas come with, like dealing with low food supplies, in-fighting amongst the sailors, pirates, betrayal, and if the treasure is even real to begin with. While it has been a decade since I've seen Ie Naki Ko (I really need to rewrite my review of it), I do remember a lot of details about it, and since Treasure Island was made right after Remi ended, comparisons to it are inevitable, both in terms of their animation and their approaches to storytelling. I adore Remi to death, but if there's one thing I really didn't like about the 1977 anime, its the narrator, or rather, the anime's overusage of him. Seriously, the narrator in that show not only talks through a good majority of every single episode, there are several moments where said narrator outright spoils important plot twists long before they get revealed in-universe. It's like the creator didn't trust the viewers to figure things out themselves, even when the show had an episode where characters find out about the truth behind Remi's real parentage, which the 1997 series remedied by cutting out the narrator completely. It seems like even Dezaki realized this and toned down the narration a LOT in Treasure Island. Granted, there's still narration in every episode, but the narrator is Jim this time around, which makes sense as this is his story and it's framed as him telling his mother about his adventures, and luckily, the narration doesn't spoil important plot twists or completely take over the story this time. Thank God! Unlike Remi, which had 52 episodes to tell its story, Treasure Island only has 26, which in my opinion wound up being the perfect length for it. TI is made into two arcs, with the first half focusing on Jim and his team simply getting to Treasure Island and all that sailing across the sea entails, and the second half being about them surviving on the island and their ongoing conflict with the pirates. I do want to say, if there's one thing TI as an anime is really good at, its establishing and maintaining tension. The story is constantly moving from one beat to another, with characters' loyalties and motivations either remaining ambiguous or constantly changing, so you never know what's going to happen throughout every episode, and the way TI manages to keep this tension going for its entire run without resorting to cheese, melodrama, or cheap shots is amazing. It did an awesome job at making me feel invested in what was going on and wondering just what was going to happen in the next episode, or even in the very next scene, and it never drags anything out for the sake of unnecessary padding. Not a single moment in TI was wasted, and everything and everyone got their moments to shine. Another reason why the tension works so well is the cast of characters, all of whom are fun, interesting, and well fleshed out, with each of them serving their own roles in the story and having their own strengths and flaws that make them compelling and fun to follow. One thing I also really appreciate about TI as a series is that the pirates are not only portrayed as being absolutely ruthless, but also extremely smart and cunning. Many stories about pirates tend to make them out to be little more than dumb brutes who only care about treasure and nothing else, and while the pirates in TI also care a lot about finding treasure, they're not made out to be a bunch of brainless buffoons who kill anyone they see. They dedicate a lot of time planning their actions down to the letter and spend a lot of money and resources on trying to pull them off, while trying to make sure Jim and the other good guys don't catch on to their plans. For example, in the second half of the series, Jim and the crew of the Hispaniola stay in a fort on Treasure Island that happens to have a working well. When the pirates try to mess with them by contaminating their water, I was sure they would do something like poison the water supply and straight up kill them off, but instead, they throw the corpses of dead animals into the well, contaminating the water that way with intent to drive them mad or indirectly kill them through dehydration. I admit I haven't read the novel so I can't comment how this plays out in the book, but seriously, considering the novel was the progenitor for all other pirate stories to follow, I'm amazed at how much mileage Stephenson, and by extension the anime team, managed to get out of having the Hispaniola crew and the pirates engage in a battle of wits as well as swords and guns. Tension doesn't always have to come from just fight scenes, and TI absolutely nailed it in my book. Eat your heart out, Fena: Pirate Princess. Granted, as much as I want to praise TI up the wazoo, it's not without its issues, though they're pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. For one, the animation for TI's time is pretty good, and at times even improved compared to Remi. Dezaki still gets good mileage out of his usage of water colored freeze frame stills that make scenes look more epic than they are, the backgrounds are realistic yet vividly imaginative and well layered, and the character designs, done by the great Akio Sugino, have this great rustic look about them that really make them look like rugged people and not like your typical anime characters, though I do have to question why they made Jim's design a lot more round and cutesy compared to Remi's more slightly realistic look. Note that Jim's face and nose are much more round and cartoony. There is one thing about Dr. Livesey's design that really bothered me, and I don't know if this was intentional or not, but early in the series, his skin has this really ugly looking beige/green color that makes him look weird. And no, it's not because of the lighting either, for a good majority of the show, his skin looks like a mix of beige and green. It gets better over the course of the series, but I have to question whose bright idea it was to make him look like that in the first place. Furthermore, there are times when a character's hair changes color out of nowhere, and pretty drastically even if it's for just a second. For example, Long John Silver's hair is brown, but in some scenes it looks black, and other scenes randomly change it to blonde, and not because of stuff like him being in front of a campfire. Consistency should not be this hard! But other than those things, the animation is still pretty good for the time, and since TI has a more action-oriented feel to it, the fight choreography is a nice mix of fluid, dynamic movement and quick cuts to characters beating the crap out of each other complete with 70s sound effects. Speaking of sound, the soundtrack is also surprisingly versatile, with heavy usage of trumpets, electric guitars, drums, and a LOT of 70s electronica that actually manages to work a lot better than you'd expect. Oh, and the opening song is absolutely badass and fits the show to a T. Plus, all the voice actors play their roles wonderfully...though I'm not gonna lie, Mari Shimizu's Jim can get really, really shrill at times, especially when he's angry or yells. Not all the time, thankfully, and she'd get better about this later on, especially when she'd reprise her role as Astro Boy in the 1980 remake of...well, Astro Boy. Plus, as shrill as Mari Shimizu can be, she's nowhere near on the level of the auditory nightmare that is Misaki Kuno. Or the God-awful car alarm/alpaca screams of Susanoo from The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. You're probably wondering why I haven't talked much about John Silver, the secondary main character of the series. Don't get me wrong, he's just as interesting and fun to follow as all the other characters are, and is the main driving force behind a good portion of the plot. But I honestly found it really hard to believe that a one-legged man who doesn't even use a peg is capable of pulling off a lot of the feats he does, especially in an era where prothestics didn't exist yet that I know of. Seriously, this guy survives a crap ton of things that literally no human could ever be capable of surviving, and because of this, along with a staggering lack of any real weaknesses, he comes dangerously close to superhuman territory. Plus, I'm sure a lot of people in the modern day will take issue with the fact that a disabled man is portrayed as the villain, even though he's presented as much more complex than that. I kind of wish the anime had taken some time to show him actually struggling more, whether with his disability or grappling with his own faults. That's not to say Silver is a bad character in any way, and I love how the anime really played with the father/son dynamic he had with Jim and the conflicting feelings Jim has about him as a result of his inevitable betrayal. Furthermore, there was one episode that I found hard to take seriously, with said episode involving a ghost ship that kind of felt out of place, considering TI as a show prided itself on being as grounded in reality as possible. Luckily, nothing of that caliber happens again, so it's not a huge issue. Also, several promo pictures show a lady in a veil, including the one I'm using, and taking up a good portion of the poster. Usually that implies said character is going to be important in the show, but if you're convinced she's going to be important, don't get your hopes up. She literally only appears in episode 25 and then never again. False advertising, much? So yeah, the few flaws it has notwithstanding, I think Treasure Island is a fantastic anime that absolutely deserves to be seen, and now that Discotek Media put it out on Blu-Ray this past March, it's more widely available! Treasure Island is pretty much everything that Fena: Pirate Princess tried to be but couldn't, as the latter thought it could get viewers by throwing in endless fight scenes and a million plotlines without actually developing them or checking if they'd actually work. Treasure Island knew what it wanted to be, had a clear goal in mind, and cared enough about its premise to flesh out its characters and make it exciting. I don't recommend showing it to kids though, because there's quite a lot of violence, death, and uncensored blood in this, along with two instances of Jim drinking alcohol while underage. But seriously, just check out Treasure Island if you want an epic, exciting, tense swashbuckling adventure that'll actually have you at the edge of your seat.
CinaGinger
10/19/2021, 04:58 AM
This is about 'Treasure's Island' by Stevenson but the thing is... Is this worth it to watch? I think that's correct. However, it has good and bad things so I'll summarize a little what I'm talking about without spoiling the fun: (+) The story itself is nice, the characters are memorable and you can empathize with them. There's not black or white about this, you could change sides from time to time while watching this. The opening and ending songs are melancholic and nice, it really has that classic nice vibe so no issues about it either. For a 70s animation it really has nice quality,and the director is a famous one. He even directed Black Jack and Ashita no Joe so you can't go wrong with this TV series. (-) Now the thing is, it's the total of 26 episodes the proper lenght for this story? The main flaw about anime studios, is that someone has put money into it, so the number of chapters always dictate what to add or what not. There are many filler scenes that had to show the real work from this team and so it could lead to boring arcs or episodes throughout this series. Also, some things are dated, although not necessarily incorrect taking into account the era is this based on, like children doing things that they shouldn't do for example. Another fault that I saw, that I found a little concerning, is that one of the characters in the poster doesn't have much relevance in this series so they should have replaced it with another character that indeed was more important. This is indeed an adventure story and fortunately a nice version although not perfect.
Shaja
07/30/2012, 08:30 PM
This is Treasure Island, the classic book brought to life in anime. This is one of the best classics i can possibly think of. Staying really close to the story it really brings the story to life for me. The show executes the atmosphere greatly too. The music,background noises and sound effects are well selected and timed to create some of the most dramatic and lighthearted moments i can imagine. The character portrayal of long john silvers is a very lasting impression. It really shows the duality of his character while maintaining his opposing force threw the entire series. Jim is depicted a bit annoyingly tho, areal brat at times but that's part of the charm when you have a unlikely hero. The art is great for its time and aged well i think. In my opinion classic anime art is great and i prefer it more too the overly used CG but that's my opinion. Like most classics it uses a warm and bright color pallet most of the time but it is no stranger to deeper shades of blue,purple and black to showcase darker moods. In summation this is a 10, the story is a great classic novel so you can't really go wrong. The art and sound are done well and really belong in the show. The characters are likable and lasting, Silver is one of my favorite characters in anime of all time. So start watching this and you will be surprised at how much you will love this show.
sabrina19
01/17/2012, 01:25 AM
--The review contains spoilers-- Story 10/10 You all probably know the original book from Robert Louis Stevenson "The Treasure island". Well, as this anime is based on the book, you would assume that the story is pretty much the same. You're right, it is, except that in my opinion it's a little bit...more exiting. Those who have read the book know that the pirates didn't find the treasure because Ben Gunn had already dug it out and hidden at another place. It's completely different in the anime. Here, is the secret of the treasure much more puzzling, an amazing quest left by the famouscaptain Flint. So, the search of the treasure becomes altogether more exiting and has a lot of more adventures in it. Art 10/10 Before you question the fact that I have put a 10 here, I remind you to consider that the anime is from the year 1978! To my mind the art is very good, especially when you look at the pirates. Nowadays a bunch of pirates is just a bunc of pirates, but here - look at them - they are drawn with their own characteristics, so each pirate has a look of it's own and stands out from the other pirates. I think it's admirable. Sound 8/10 And again, I have to remind you that the anime is from the year 1978, so I won't comment nothing more on this behalf. Except, that I find the soundtrack very suiting for the different situations in the anime. Character 10/10 Again - individual characters, that is what I found very appealing in the anime. Look at the unimportant pirates - they all have a character of their own, although they aren't the main persons in the anime. And of course the most colorful character - Long John Silver! If you read the book first you'll see that this Silver is more appealing. If you watch the anime first, you'll see only this kind of Silver character in the book later as you read it. In my oppinion the Silver from the anime is much more the friend and father figure that Jim seaks. That's why a third of the anime occurs on the ship (the travel from Bristol to the Treasure island), that is the time when the two characters Silver and Jim become close, so you'll understand their later actions better. Enjoyment 10/10 Imagine everything you wan't from a pirate story - it's all there! Amazing adventures, sword and gun fights, an exciting treasure hunt, rum, gold and pirate songs, treason and friendship, the sea and a mystic island. Do I have to explain more? :) Overall 10/10 Well, as you can see, I personnally think that this is one of the best animes I ever seen. Of course, the difficulty now is to get it. I managed to find and download only the first 7 episodes. Those who understand German, have it a lilltle bit easier - you can find the anime in Youtube dubbed in German. So, I hope this was helpful to you and you'll enjoy the anime as much as I did.

Takarajima 宝島

1978 fall | Episodes: 26 | Score: 7.9 (7784)

Updated every at | Status: Finished Airing

Type: TV

Producers:Madhouse

Synopsis

Voice Actors

Shimizu, Mari

Wakayama, Genzo

News

Reviews

Chuy_diazz
10/15/2024, 04:11 PM
A journey through MadHouse chapter #5: a classic tale of pirates and treasure hunts. Takarajima puts us in the shoes of Jim Hawkins, a boy who will be involved in a journey to find the treasure of the famous pirate known as Captain Flint. A classic pirate story that is still good even today. It has what it takes to keep the viewer trapped in this journey. It has an essence similar to what one saw as a child on a Saturday morning while eating breakfast. It is an anime that can take you back to happier times in your life, because although it is notsomething from our time, it does appeal a little to nostalgia for being a simple and unpretentious story. The conflict of Jim going to look for a treasure to help his mother and how he will make allies and enemies on this journey. It is a story that knows how to capture the essence of piracy very well, because although monsters may come, even among them there are codes that must be respected. One thing to note is the antagonist of this story, John Silver. He is a person who is physically limited but can still instill fear among the pirates. He is not a brutish and violent antagonist as you would expect from this type of story, but rather a more intelligent and manipulative one who is willing to do anything to find that treasure. Even though I consider it a pretty good and entertaining story, personally it is not what I was looking for. At the end of the day you can't take away that feeling of Western literature, and I understand that because it is based on an English book, but it is not the kind of feeling I look for in an anime. Maybe I am too used to modern anime and these first encounters with the classics can be a shock, but I don't think that is the case. I am just not used to Western stories in anime.
whiteflame55
07/07/2023, 12:23 PM
This was a pretty consistently engrossing series. I actually found it harder and harder to compare with the other adaptations of Treasure Island I've seen as I went through it because this really felt like it was charting its own course, much for the better. I may have known the broad swings of the story, but elements like Jim and Silver's relationship were given some pretty deep nuance here, and there was a lot more to enjoy out of the secondary cast. There's a very strong visual presentation, particularly for its time, as well as the music it uses, all of which add up toa package that I think a lot of modern anime could not match for style. At times, this gave me Ghibli vibes, but with a much reduced fantasy element and more focus on the high flying adventures of pirates, sailors and treasure hunters that still was grounded in the realities of this kind of conflict. Some of the plot twists and turns were a bit unbelievable, but gives those moments so much strong atmosphere and visual style that it's hard to hold that against it. I thought they could have done more to examine characters like Trelawney, Livesey and Smollett, but given the size of the cast, I think they did pretty well with all the motivations and background, albeit some of that came very late (e.g. Gray). There was more substance here than I was expecting, and I'm happy to walk away satisfied.
Teramol
05/12/2023, 11:47 PM
Just finished the 1978 anime adaptation of Treasure Island by the studio Madhouse. It was a really great adventure. Here's a spoiler free fast review. Despite looking old, the animation was still very fluid and had a lot of charm to it. The pacing could have been a litlte faster as this story probably didn't need a full 26 episode series but the upside was that it fleshed out the characters way more. Particularly the main characters; Jim Hawkins, John Silver and the constantly shifting relationship between the two was beautiful. I also really liked how raw the series felt in that it didn't bother censoring ormaking the harsher stuff look more pleasant. Many reality checks were given throughout the story which made it feel more authentic. The mystery behind Captain Flint's treasure wasn't anything grand or spectacular, but it was a good device to carry the plot forward while the series focused mostly on the conflict between the good guys and the pirates which imo was one of the highlights of the show, especially the dialogue between the two factions. The OST was great. A lot of variety from jazzy guitar to dramatic piano which mostly fit the scenes really well. And the ending in particular was a bittersweet one but imo it fit the story perfectly. Mostly tied up the stories of all the surviving characters while also leaving some stuff a little open for some imagination which I also liked. Would recommend to anyone that wants to see a great version of a classic adventure story. Don't let it being an old anime scare you away.
Firechick12012
04/30/2023, 12:44 PM
In 2010, I watched an old anime that Anime News Network happened to start streaming called Ie Naki Ko, based on a French novel which was about a boy who traveled with an old minstrel in order to escape being sold off into slavery. I thought the anime was amazing and it's still one of my favorites. But the 1977 Ie Naki Ko anime was only one anime that the late great director Osamu Dezaki worked on, alongside his team, among many, many others that would continue until his untimely death in 2011. I've seen a few of the anime he worked on, with Roseof Versailles being my favorite for obvious reasons, and just recently I finished an anime that he worked on just a year after Ie Naki Ko included, another adventure anime based on a Western novel. I will admit, the only reason I even decided to watch Treasure Island was because Discotek picked it up for a blu-ray release in the US fairly recently, the first time it ever got licensed here, and I checked it out to see if it was any good. I'm certainly glad I did, and I still continue to be surprised at how anime, even in its relative infancy, was able to churn out genuinely awesome creations that you just don't get anymore. Granted, I still like Versailles and Ie Naki Ko better than Treasure Island, but seriously, TI is a damn good anime in and of itself that you should really check out if you want a fun, tense, swashbuckling adventure that isn't afraid to get dark when it needs to. Based on the 1883 novel by Scottish writer Robert Louis Stephenson, Treasure Island stars Jim Hawkins, an energetic 13-year-old boy who helps his mother run the Admiral Benbow Inn on England's Bristol Channel. His life is fairly normal until a pirate by the name of Billy Bones stays at the inn. Billy Bones is a drunkard who is always causing trouble, but when sober, he's paranoid that he's being followed. After several events involving violent sword fights, Billy Bones dies, leaving Jim his most prized possession: A map that supposedly leads to Treasure Island, where the famous Captain Flint hid a mountain of treasure so sought-after that nearly every pirate wants to get their hands on it no matter the cost. Jim wants to get in on the action and find this fabled treasure, wanting to be a sailor like his father once was. With help from some friends of his late father, Jim manages to get a spot on the ship named The Hispaniola and has a chance to find the treasure. But he is woefully unprepared for all that sailing the high seas come with, like dealing with low food supplies, in-fighting amongst the sailors, pirates, betrayal, and if the treasure is even real to begin with. While it has been a decade since I've seen Ie Naki Ko (I really need to rewrite my review of it), I do remember a lot of details about it, and since Treasure Island was made right after Remi ended, comparisons to it are inevitable, both in terms of their animation and their approaches to storytelling. I adore Remi to death, but if there's one thing I really didn't like about the 1977 anime, its the narrator, or rather, the anime's overusage of him. Seriously, the narrator in that show not only talks through a good majority of every single episode, there are several moments where said narrator outright spoils important plot twists long before they get revealed in-universe. It's like the creator didn't trust the viewers to figure things out themselves, even when the show had an episode where characters find out about the truth behind Remi's real parentage, which the 1997 series remedied by cutting out the narrator completely. It seems like even Dezaki realized this and toned down the narration a LOT in Treasure Island. Granted, there's still narration in every episode, but the narrator is Jim this time around, which makes sense as this is his story and it's framed as him telling his mother about his adventures, and luckily, the narration doesn't spoil important plot twists or completely take over the story this time. Thank God! Unlike Remi, which had 52 episodes to tell its story, Treasure Island only has 26, which in my opinion wound up being the perfect length for it. TI is made into two arcs, with the first half focusing on Jim and his team simply getting to Treasure Island and all that sailing across the sea entails, and the second half being about them surviving on the island and their ongoing conflict with the pirates. I do want to say, if there's one thing TI as an anime is really good at, its establishing and maintaining tension. The story is constantly moving from one beat to another, with characters' loyalties and motivations either remaining ambiguous or constantly changing, so you never know what's going to happen throughout every episode, and the way TI manages to keep this tension going for its entire run without resorting to cheese, melodrama, or cheap shots is amazing. It did an awesome job at making me feel invested in what was going on and wondering just what was going to happen in the next episode, or even in the very next scene, and it never drags anything out for the sake of unnecessary padding. Not a single moment in TI was wasted, and everything and everyone got their moments to shine. Another reason why the tension works so well is the cast of characters, all of whom are fun, interesting, and well fleshed out, with each of them serving their own roles in the story and having their own strengths and flaws that make them compelling and fun to follow. One thing I also really appreciate about TI as a series is that the pirates are not only portrayed as being absolutely ruthless, but also extremely smart and cunning. Many stories about pirates tend to make them out to be little more than dumb brutes who only care about treasure and nothing else, and while the pirates in TI also care a lot about finding treasure, they're not made out to be a bunch of brainless buffoons who kill anyone they see. They dedicate a lot of time planning their actions down to the letter and spend a lot of money and resources on trying to pull them off, while trying to make sure Jim and the other good guys don't catch on to their plans. For example, in the second half of the series, Jim and the crew of the Hispaniola stay in a fort on Treasure Island that happens to have a working well. When the pirates try to mess with them by contaminating their water, I was sure they would do something like poison the water supply and straight up kill them off, but instead, they throw the corpses of dead animals into the well, contaminating the water that way with intent to drive them mad or indirectly kill them through dehydration. I admit I haven't read the novel so I can't comment how this plays out in the book, but seriously, considering the novel was the progenitor for all other pirate stories to follow, I'm amazed at how much mileage Stephenson, and by extension the anime team, managed to get out of having the Hispaniola crew and the pirates engage in a battle of wits as well as swords and guns. Tension doesn't always have to come from just fight scenes, and TI absolutely nailed it in my book. Eat your heart out, Fena: Pirate Princess. Granted, as much as I want to praise TI up the wazoo, it's not without its issues, though they're pretty negligible in the grand scheme of things. For one, the animation for TI's time is pretty good, and at times even improved compared to Remi. Dezaki still gets good mileage out of his usage of water colored freeze frame stills that make scenes look more epic than they are, the backgrounds are realistic yet vividly imaginative and well layered, and the character designs, done by the great Akio Sugino, have this great rustic look about them that really make them look like rugged people and not like your typical anime characters, though I do have to question why they made Jim's design a lot more round and cutesy compared to Remi's more slightly realistic look. Note that Jim's face and nose are much more round and cartoony. There is one thing about Dr. Livesey's design that really bothered me, and I don't know if this was intentional or not, but early in the series, his skin has this really ugly looking beige/green color that makes him look weird. And no, it's not because of the lighting either, for a good majority of the show, his skin looks like a mix of beige and green. It gets better over the course of the series, but I have to question whose bright idea it was to make him look like that in the first place. Furthermore, there are times when a character's hair changes color out of nowhere, and pretty drastically even if it's for just a second. For example, Long John Silver's hair is brown, but in some scenes it looks black, and other scenes randomly change it to blonde, and not because of stuff like him being in front of a campfire. Consistency should not be this hard! But other than those things, the animation is still pretty good for the time, and since TI has a more action-oriented feel to it, the fight choreography is a nice mix of fluid, dynamic movement and quick cuts to characters beating the crap out of each other complete with 70s sound effects. Speaking of sound, the soundtrack is also surprisingly versatile, with heavy usage of trumpets, electric guitars, drums, and a LOT of 70s electronica that actually manages to work a lot better than you'd expect. Oh, and the opening song is absolutely badass and fits the show to a T. Plus, all the voice actors play their roles wonderfully...though I'm not gonna lie, Mari Shimizu's Jim can get really, really shrill at times, especially when he's angry or yells. Not all the time, thankfully, and she'd get better about this later on, especially when she'd reprise her role as Astro Boy in the 1980 remake of...well, Astro Boy. Plus, as shrill as Mari Shimizu can be, she's nowhere near on the level of the auditory nightmare that is Misaki Kuno. Or the God-awful car alarm/alpaca screams of Susanoo from The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon. You're probably wondering why I haven't talked much about John Silver, the secondary main character of the series. Don't get me wrong, he's just as interesting and fun to follow as all the other characters are, and is the main driving force behind a good portion of the plot. But I honestly found it really hard to believe that a one-legged man who doesn't even use a peg is capable of pulling off a lot of the feats he does, especially in an era where prothestics didn't exist yet that I know of. Seriously, this guy survives a crap ton of things that literally no human could ever be capable of surviving, and because of this, along with a staggering lack of any real weaknesses, he comes dangerously close to superhuman territory. Plus, I'm sure a lot of people in the modern day will take issue with the fact that a disabled man is portrayed as the villain, even though he's presented as much more complex than that. I kind of wish the anime had taken some time to show him actually struggling more, whether with his disability or grappling with his own faults. That's not to say Silver is a bad character in any way, and I love how the anime really played with the father/son dynamic he had with Jim and the conflicting feelings Jim has about him as a result of his inevitable betrayal. Furthermore, there was one episode that I found hard to take seriously, with said episode involving a ghost ship that kind of felt out of place, considering TI as a show prided itself on being as grounded in reality as possible. Luckily, nothing of that caliber happens again, so it's not a huge issue. Also, several promo pictures show a lady in a veil, including the one I'm using, and taking up a good portion of the poster. Usually that implies said character is going to be important in the show, but if you're convinced she's going to be important, don't get your hopes up. She literally only appears in episode 25 and then never again. False advertising, much? So yeah, the few flaws it has notwithstanding, I think Treasure Island is a fantastic anime that absolutely deserves to be seen, and now that Discotek Media put it out on Blu-Ray this past March, it's more widely available! Treasure Island is pretty much everything that Fena: Pirate Princess tried to be but couldn't, as the latter thought it could get viewers by throwing in endless fight scenes and a million plotlines without actually developing them or checking if they'd actually work. Treasure Island knew what it wanted to be, had a clear goal in mind, and cared enough about its premise to flesh out its characters and make it exciting. I don't recommend showing it to kids though, because there's quite a lot of violence, death, and uncensored blood in this, along with two instances of Jim drinking alcohol while underage. But seriously, just check out Treasure Island if you want an epic, exciting, tense swashbuckling adventure that'll actually have you at the edge of your seat.
CinaGinger
10/19/2021, 04:58 AM
This is about 'Treasure's Island' by Stevenson but the thing is... Is this worth it to watch? I think that's correct. However, it has good and bad things so I'll summarize a little what I'm talking about without spoiling the fun: (+) The story itself is nice, the characters are memorable and you can empathize with them. There's not black or white about this, you could change sides from time to time while watching this. The opening and ending songs are melancholic and nice, it really has that classic nice vibe so no issues about it either. For a 70s animation it really has nice quality,and the director is a famous one. He even directed Black Jack and Ashita no Joe so you can't go wrong with this TV series. (-) Now the thing is, it's the total of 26 episodes the proper lenght for this story? The main flaw about anime studios, is that someone has put money into it, so the number of chapters always dictate what to add or what not. There are many filler scenes that had to show the real work from this team and so it could lead to boring arcs or episodes throughout this series. Also, some things are dated, although not necessarily incorrect taking into account the era is this based on, like children doing things that they shouldn't do for example. Another fault that I saw, that I found a little concerning, is that one of the characters in the poster doesn't have much relevance in this series so they should have replaced it with another character that indeed was more important. This is indeed an adventure story and fortunately a nice version although not perfect.
Shaja
07/30/2012, 08:30 PM
This is Treasure Island, the classic book brought to life in anime. This is one of the best classics i can possibly think of. Staying really close to the story it really brings the story to life for me. The show executes the atmosphere greatly too. The music,background noises and sound effects are well selected and timed to create some of the most dramatic and lighthearted moments i can imagine. The character portrayal of long john silvers is a very lasting impression. It really shows the duality of his character while maintaining his opposing force threw the entire series. Jim is depicted a bit annoyingly tho, areal brat at times but that's part of the charm when you have a unlikely hero. The art is great for its time and aged well i think. In my opinion classic anime art is great and i prefer it more too the overly used CG but that's my opinion. Like most classics it uses a warm and bright color pallet most of the time but it is no stranger to deeper shades of blue,purple and black to showcase darker moods. In summation this is a 10, the story is a great classic novel so you can't really go wrong. The art and sound are done well and really belong in the show. The characters are likable and lasting, Silver is one of my favorite characters in anime of all time. So start watching this and you will be surprised at how much you will love this show.
sabrina19
01/17/2012, 01:25 AM
--The review contains spoilers-- Story 10/10 You all probably know the original book from Robert Louis Stevenson "The Treasure island". Well, as this anime is based on the book, you would assume that the story is pretty much the same. You're right, it is, except that in my opinion it's a little bit...more exiting. Those who have read the book know that the pirates didn't find the treasure because Ben Gunn had already dug it out and hidden at another place. It's completely different in the anime. Here, is the secret of the treasure much more puzzling, an amazing quest left by the famouscaptain Flint. So, the search of the treasure becomes altogether more exiting and has a lot of more adventures in it. Art 10/10 Before you question the fact that I have put a 10 here, I remind you to consider that the anime is from the year 1978! To my mind the art is very good, especially when you look at the pirates. Nowadays a bunch of pirates is just a bunc of pirates, but here - look at them - they are drawn with their own characteristics, so each pirate has a look of it's own and stands out from the other pirates. I think it's admirable. Sound 8/10 And again, I have to remind you that the anime is from the year 1978, so I won't comment nothing more on this behalf. Except, that I find the soundtrack very suiting for the different situations in the anime. Character 10/10 Again - individual characters, that is what I found very appealing in the anime. Look at the unimportant pirates - they all have a character of their own, although they aren't the main persons in the anime. And of course the most colorful character - Long John Silver! If you read the book first you'll see that this Silver is more appealing. If you watch the anime first, you'll see only this kind of Silver character in the book later as you read it. In my oppinion the Silver from the anime is much more the friend and father figure that Jim seaks. That's why a third of the anime occurs on the ship (the travel from Bristol to the Treasure island), that is the time when the two characters Silver and Jim become close, so you'll understand their later actions better. Enjoyment 10/10 Imagine everything you wan't from a pirate story - it's all there! Amazing adventures, sword and gun fights, an exciting treasure hunt, rum, gold and pirate songs, treason and friendship, the sea and a mystic island. Do I have to explain more? :) Overall 10/10 Well, as you can see, I personnally think that this is one of the best animes I ever seen. Of course, the difficulty now is to get it. I managed to find and download only the first 7 episodes. Those who understand German, have it a lilltle bit easier - you can find the anime in Youtube dubbed in German. So, I hope this was helpful to you and you'll enjoy the anime as much as I did.

Takarajima 宝島

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Takarajima 宝島

North American Anime & Manga Releases for March

Q4 2022 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 12/6]