Bosco Adventure
Bosco Adventure is an anime television series produced by Nippon Animation, mainly inspired by a book "Storie del Bosco" of the Italian writer Tony Wolf, and other books of this author. The series was very popular in Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and were shown in many European countries, America, and other parts of world like Egypt, Djibouti, Cameroon, Israel and South Korea. They were big success in France, Italy and Japan, but not very famous and was not commercialized in the UK or USA since they were never released in English. The Japanese DVDs were released on July 25, 2003 and the fully remastered Blu-ray discs on July 28, 2017.
Plot
The story is about a young elvish Princess Apricot whose mission is to return to her home - Fountain land, occupied by evil forces of a monster called Scorpion, before the total eclipse of the Sun. If she manages to sit on a throne before the eclipse, she'll release a great power of water that will destroy the occupators. To prevent that from happening, she's been kidnapped by mysterious cloaked man called Hoodman, and his, rather clumsy, aides: Jack and Franz. Their mission is to keep Princess Apricot away from her home land until the eclipse. In the first episode, she escapes from the villains by sending a message with her trusty mechanical bird, Speak. The Princess's urgent call for help is accidentally heard by inhabitants of Bosco Forest: a brave and adventurous Frog, intelligent and ingenious inventor Tutty, and cowardly, but kind and warm-hearted Otter. They save her from the villains, and the princess becomes a part of Bosco crew. Guys decide to help Apricot finding her way back home, before it's too late. On their way to Fountain land they get into myriad of adventures, where they prove their desire and ability to help and protect those who are in need, and where their own relationships between each other flourish and develop into strong friendship and love.Characters
Allies
Main characters
;Princess Apricot: Voiced by Yuko Minaguchi;Frog: Voiced by Shigeru Nakahara
;Tutty: Voiced by Hiroya Ishimaru
;Otter: Voiced by Koichi Yamadera
Minor characters
;Speak: Voiced by Hiroko Fukujun;Ender: Voiced by Kôhei Miyauchi
;Owl: Voiced by Kôhei Miyauchi
;Raby: Voiced by Naoko Watanabe
;Hedgy: Funny hedgehog from Bosco forest.
;Crow: Funny crow from the Bosco forest.
;Jenny: Voiced by Miki Itou
;Araiguma: Voiced by Chieko Honda
;Kasasagi: Ornith, Crow's passion, inhabitant of Bosco forest.
;Giant: Appears in episode 2, on the Sleepy Giant's mountain.
;Mother Dragon: Appears in episodes 3, 4, 23, 25 and 26. She inhabits the valley that Bosco crew reaches on their journey to Fountain land. She is peaceful and lives in amity with the citizens of the valley's village. The kidnapping of the Baby Dragon maddens her and for a brief time she becomes an enemy for the Bosco crew until they save the baby from Hoodman.
;Baby Dragon: Appears in episodes 3, 4, 23, 25 and 26. Gets kidnapped by Jack and Franz and serves as Hoodman's bait for Apricot. In the end, she saves the Baby Dragon and returns him to his mother.
;Leon: Appears in episodes 8 and 9, he is a ruler of the Oasis.
;Pansa: Leon's counselor, appears in episodes 8 and 9.
;Unicorn: Voiced by Hiromi Tsuru
Enemies
Main characters
;Hoodman: Voiced by Banjo Ginga;Jack: Voiced by Sanji Hase
;Franz: Voiced by Kenichi Ogata
;Tamia: Voiced by Rihoko Yoshida
;Koumori :Messenger is a bat and serves as a bearer of Scorpion's messages to Hoodman. He often gives him ideas to help him catch the princess. Appears for the first time in episode 5.
;Scorpion: Voiced by Hidekatsu Shibata
;Oja:Oja is a big lizard who is the chief of the tribe that captures Apricot in episode 13. He appears in the episode 14 when Hoodman tries to exchange kidnapped Apricot for Frog - as Oja's only motive is to eat. Oja agrees, but eventually friends manage to escape the lizard's castle - leaving the lizards' chieftain with an empty stomach.
Episodes
Music
Background music in Bosco Adventure varies from colorful and cheerful, to moody, nostalgic and sentimental, with typical Japanese sounds. It has variety of cues, for every situation and place which crew visits Several cues repeat throughout the episodes, depending on the situation.Songs that were released on Bonus Disc as a part of DVD are: Tokimeki wa Forever, Hareta hi nimo ai wo kudasai, Kara Kara Makkura and Bosco Adventure.
Releases outside Japan
- Arab World, as "سفينة الأصدقاء" was dubbed in the early 90s by Kuwaity dubbing center called Funoon Centre.
- Bulgaria, as "Приключенията на Боско" showed from end of may/start of June to December 8 in 1991 on BNT
- Cameroon, Egypt, France, as "Les aventures du Bosco". In Cameroon on Manga in 1992, in Egypt on Egyptian Channel 3 in early 1990s, in France on La Cinq in 1990. Note that in Egypt it wasn't dubbed in Arabic, as only the French dub aired on Egyptian Channel 3 in the early 1990s, when there was a partnership between the Egyptian networks and the French network.
- Canada, as "La Forêt Magique", in the early 1990s on TVA, a French-language network based in Montreal, PQ.
- Estonia, as "Bosco Seiklused", in 1996.
- Hungary, as "A Bosco léghajó kalandjai", shown on TV channel Msat and released on VHS by Tower Video with two episodes/volume.
- Israel, as "חבורת הצב המעופף", shown on the Israeli Channel 1.
- Italy, as "La principessa dai capelli blu", transmitted on Italia 1 in 1988.
- Poland, as "Przygody Bosco" on Top Canal in 1991, and Polish-dubbed version on TVN in 1997.
- Russia, Latvia, as "Приключения Боско". In Russia, only last ten episodes were shown on RTR in 1991. In Latvia, the same Russian-dubbed version was twice aired by KS Video channel in 1993 and 1994.
- South Korea, as "날아라 거북선" on KBS in 1987.
- Spain, Mexico, Chile, as "Las aventuras de la nave Bosco"
- Thailand, as "บอสโก ป่ามหัศจรรย์", shown on 7 Channel in 1991.
- Serbia , as "Плава принцеза", shown on TV Novi Sad in 1991. Overall, sixteen episodes were shown, first twelve and the last four.