Uchūsen Sagittarius (宇宙船サジタリウス, Uchūsen Sajitariusu, lit. Spaceship Sagittarius) is a 77-episode Japanese science fictionanime television series directed by Kazuyoshi Yokota and created by Nippon Animation and TV Asahi. It aired between January 10, 1986, and October 3, 1987. The series is based on comics created by Italian physicist Andrea Romoli.[1] The series was a huge success in Japan and even won the Osamu Tezuka's Atom Award at the Tokyo Film Festival.
Story
The series depicts the adventures of four astronauts who travel through space and visit many planets. On each planet they have an adventure. Each adventure seems to have a moral, such as the value of friendship or the protection of endangered species.
Setting
The series takes place in a seemingly not so distant future. The world greatly resembles the world of the late 20th century, but there is a considerable amount of futuristic technology: interstellar travel is common place (the spatial agency which employs the characters is a modest private agency not related to the government), laser weapons exist, etc. There isn't any mention of the Internet (the series was created before the internet became really common) and the characters use outdated technology such as floppy disks (instead of CDs or DVDs) for data storage.
At the beginning of the series the characters are mostly on Earth, but as the series progress the characters travel through space on board of their spaceship called "The Sagittarius". The characters visit many planets on which they have many adventures. Although the Sagittarius is an old spaceship which uses a sort of oil as fuel, the spaceship is able to leave Earth and reach planets sometimes in as little time as a few hours. The characters do not require artificial respiratory systems and are able to breathe on each of the planets which they visit.
The show was full of humor, but it also incorporated mature themes. Many episodes talked about subjects such as: friendship, war in general, the danger of nuclear warfare or nuclear explosion (Japan was the victim of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki), protection of the environment and of endangered species, slavery (Sebeep was the personal singer of a taxidermist in one episode), alcoholism (there was an adventure in which Toppy had become an alcoholic and abandoned his family), pirates, virtual reality (in one adventure there was a complete world which was an illusion entirely controlled by a computer), etc.
Toppy is the leader of the group. He is a young father with a wife and a baby daughter. He is usually the group's strategist and gives instructions to his crew. He is sometimes in conflict with Rana. In the beginning of the series he was a pilot employed by a spatial agency. The "Sagittarius", which is the spatial ship in which the heroes travel through space, comes from that agency. In the comics, his name is Tope.
He resembles an anthropomorphic green frog. He is married to an obese woman. He has seven children who love him dearly. When unemployed by the Sagittarius crew, he has difficulty to find a job he likes, often forced to work in bad conditions in factories, waiting for the next travel with the Sagittarius. He is the most aggressive of the group and has a short temper. He also likes to flirt with women. He adores lasagna.
A giant yellow guy, he is the taller of the group. After Toppy he is the most wise member of the crew. He is a scientist and knows a lot about subjects such as chemistry and botany. He is completely in love with Professor Anne, though they are not married during the most part of the show. Rana has a tendency to irritate him. Giraffe and Toppy are really the brains of the team and as such their role in the show is crucial.
An anthropomorphic plant which resembles a cactus. Sebeep was found by Toppy, Rana and Giraffe on a planet in one of their adventures and he became a member of the team. Sebeep is always happy and smiling. He is the group's guitarist and singer, always seen with a guitar attached on his back. He likes to both sing and dance. The episodes in which Sebeep is the star are very emotional episodes and almost always involve singing at some point.
A scientist, Professor Anne is the most regularly seen woman in the show. She has pink hair and her face resembles Toppy's a lot. She loves Giraffe, although she sometimes reacts with rudeness to him.
