An event for "Animation Journey 'The Adventures of Marco Polo'," an anime broadcast on NHK from 1979 to 1980, called "Animation Journey 'The Adventures of Marco Polo' All Fans Festival ★ Premium Screening & Talk Show" was held on April 13th at SKIP City Sainokuni Visual Plaza (Kawaguchi, Saitama). Producer Maruyama Masao, who worked on the anime, program director Nakamura Satoshi, Ichiryusai Shunsui (Asagami Yoko), who played Miriam, and Koyama Mami, who played Bidoa, appeared on stage. Mizushima Yutaka, who played Dana, and NHK newscaster Imamura Akiko served as MCs and talked about the behind-the-scenes production of the "phantom anime."
It was produced based on "The Travels of Marco Polo," which records Marco Polo's 24-year journey to the East from Venice, and was broadcast in 43 episodes. Only the first and final episodes were preserved by NHK, and it was called a "phantom anime." However, materials stored by viewers and people involved in the program were unearthed, and all episodes were collected in their entirety in 2021. After about 46 years since its broadcast, all episodes will be rebroadcast on NHK.
The unique combination of animation and live action was innovative. Program director Nakamura said, "I thought it would be difficult because it was a fifty-fifty mix of animation and live action. Since no one had done it before, we thought, let's do it now!" As it was a challenging program, he said, "There was no manual," and there were many difficulties.
Nakamura and the cameraman visited Iran and Afghanistan to film the live action scenes. It was Nakamura's first overseas location shoot. He tried to photograph the nomads, but had a hard time finding them. "The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan while we were filming in Iran. We returned to Japan for a while. We searched for the nomads in the desert, but we couldn't find them in Iran. They suddenly appeared in Kandahar," he revealed.
Nakamura reflected, "It was broadcast at 7:30 pm, so there were high expectations for it, and it didn't feel like it was a huge success. But looking at it now, it seems surprisingly good. I'm not an anime expert, and I didn't know much about anime. At the time, I wondered if the manga-style anime wouldn't go well with the live-action version, but now I think it was good."
Producer Maruyama talked about what went on behind the scenes of the production, saying, "Madhouse will do any job. They gave the OK without asking for details. They told me it was half live action, half animation, and I just had to create the character of Marco Polo. Sugino Akio's character is great. It's true that I fell in love with the character. Madhouse is a company that was founded by Dezaki (Osamu) and Sugino. At the time, there was a feeling that it might be better to form a new team with Dezaki and Sugino. Kawajiri Yoshiaki's illustrations were involved, and he created the world view of the illustrations."
He said that he was sometimes confused by the attempt to combine animation and live-action, saying, "When I got to the set, I didn't know what to do. We went to a live-action location, but you never know what's going to go in there. There was a back and forth where they said, 'We couldn't shoot the live-action, so you have to do it with animation,' and I said, 'We can't do that.' Since it was the first time we'd ever done it, it was a gamble to just give it a try. No one had ever done it before, so we had fun doing it. Even still images can look powerful. A kind of Madhouse style was established with this work."
The event included screenings of the 8th "Illusion of Baghdad", the 16th "Color of Life", and the 38th "The Legacy of Raja". The animated travelogue "The Adventures of Marco Polo" is broadcast every Saturday at 5:10 a.m. on NHK General TV.
