Little Gems - Marine Boy

This has been a long time coming to the site but finally after some cleaning up of the images, Marine Boy has made it to the screen.

Marine Boy was originally produced some time in the mid to late sixties in Japan. The episode information at the end suggests 1967 was the initial release date but it may have been earlier than that as I do not know the order of episode release. According to the Radio Times (thanks to John Archbold) BBC1 showed Marine Boy on the 5th February 1969. There were several seasons of Marine Boy totalling at least 78 episodes. They were all dubbed into English and each episode lasted about 25 mins and was shot in colour.

Marine Boy worked for the Ocean Patrol Marine Headquarters. His father was called Dr. Mariner although we never got to hear him call Marine Boy by his real name (assuming of course he had one). His father often referred to him as son or Marine Boy and was especially concerned when Marine Boy was out of contact for any length of time. Marine boy always wore an orange water suit made out of a special material to give him protection from bullets and blasts. His main weapon was a powerful yellow boomerang that he kept in a pouch on his arm. This boomerang was often the device that saved the day. Marine Boy swims or literally shot through the water faster than almost anything else, by virtue of his water jet powered propeller boots. These just like the boomerang were developed by the genius, Professor Fimble. Marine boy was able to remain underwater for great periods of time by another Professor Fimble's inventions - oxygen producing chewing gum called ‘oxygum.’ Occasionally Marine Boy was seen slipping a small strip into his mouth before leaving the Ocean Patrol Boat and entering the water.

Splasher was the name of a small white dolphin which was Marine Boy's best friend. Splasher often came to the aid of Marine Boy. Neptina was a mermaid and she too helped Marine Boy in his fight against the bad guys. Neptina had a large magic pearl around her neck that had special powers. It allowed her to locate Marine boy when he was lost or has been captured by the bad guys. Cli Cli was the name of a small boy who often tried to help Marine Boy but usually ended up getting everyone into a mess (including himself). Cli Cli secretly wanted to be a smaller version of Marine Boy - bit like Batman and Robin.

Marine boy was always accompanied by two other friends called Bolton and Piper. They too were employed by the Ocean Patrol Marine Group. Bolton was a large aggressive angry looking bloke, whilst Piper was an easily frightened but easy going sort of guy.

There was always some problem with the ocean and it was always down to some bad guy wanting to make vast amounts of money or wanting to take over the world. Of course Marine Boy and his friends would always defeat them and save the day. The show tried to be environmentally friendly but always tried to ally technological progress with marine life. It never seemed to quite work for the bad guys though. This show was light years ahead of Seaquest DSV which took on board similar ideas from the show.

Anyone with any memories, thoughts, suggestions etc. or if you were involved in the making of Marine Boy (technical or actor), then I would love to hear from you using the address in the top menu bar.

Episode List

Only one episode done at the moment but more will follow.

Episode 1 Panic in the Pacific	Coming soon Episode 2 The Stolen Island	Coming soon Episode 3 Rustlers of the Deep	Coming soon Episode 4 Piracy under the Sea

Showdown at Sea	Panic in the Pacific	24 Hours to Doom	The Phoney Patrolman	Monster of the Deep	Dangerous Starfish	The Ghost of Destruction
Saga of the Underwater Lion	Attack of the Robot Spiders	The Stolen Island	The Ultra Freezer Freeze	Dangerous Shell Fish	The Great Bomb Robbery	The Whale That Blows Rainbow
The Mini Microwave	Menace of the Missing Bomb	The Invincible Robots	The Green Monster	Operation Deep Deep	Attack of the Robot Sharks	Danger at 300 Fathoms
The Tremendous Tremendo	The Great Plankton Menace	The Vanishing Vessel	The Ghost Ship	Red Menace	Fight For The Rocket	The Precious Robot
Ghost of Spook Island	Challenge of the Pirates	The Well Hidden Plan Film	Flame On The High Seas	Nuclear Pirates	The Terrifying Icebergs	Whales of Destruction
The Desperate Search	Underworld Rustlers of the Deep	Raid of the Robot Robbers	Power of Power	The Gigantic Sea Farm	5 Billion in Diamonds	Mission At Corkscrew Strait
The Fantastic Flesh	The Monster Search Underwater	Terror of the Fireball	The Mysterious Paradise	The Monstrous Seaweed	Mystery of the Missing Vessels	The Secret of the Golden Seaweed
The Stormy Brainstorm	Avenger of the Sea	The Deadly Tank	Deepest of the Deep	The Great Underwater Train Robbery	The Super Mystery Boat	Disaster On The High Sea
The Gill Men	Vikings Attack of the Icebergs	Land of the Strange	Secret of the Time Capsule	Danger In The Depths	Lighthouse of Terror	The Invincible Force
The Great Escape	The Empire of the Sea	Thieves of the Deep	Riddle of the Vanishing Frogmen	The Wild Monster Plant	Battle to Save the World	The Greatest Power on Earth
The Dragon of the Sea	Piracy Under the Sea	The Super Brain Capers	The Genius Dolphin	The Tub Tanker Sub

Marine Boy, Neptina, Splasher, Bolton, Professor Fimble, Piper, Dr. Mariner, Clicli	Corinne Orr, Jack Curtis, Jack Grimes, Peter Fernandez

Dialogue Adapted and Directed by	Peter Fernandez
Theme music	Kenjiro Hirose
Background Music	Setsuo Tsukahara
Character Designer	Yuichi Fukuhara
Art Director	Akira Tomita
Animation and Artworks	Japan Tele-Cartoon Inc
Produced by	Minoru Adachi
Directed by	Haruo Osanai
Written by	Haruo Osanai
Production Coordinated by	Zavala-Riss Production
A SEVEN ARTS TELEVISION PRESENTATION
JAPAN TELE-CARTOONS and SEVEN ARTS PRODUCTION
In association with K. Fujita Associates Inc

Marine Boy	Neptina	Bolton
Piper	Dr. Mariner (Marine Boy's father)	Splasher
Professor Fumble	The Ocean Patrol Boat	The lifesaving boomerang
The infamous underwater wrist transmitter	The impenetrable Suit	A Bad Guy
Another bad guy	Even More Bad Guys	Definitely a bad guy