Wandering Sun

Wandering Sun
さすらいの太陽
(Sasurai no Taiyō)
Genre Drama, music
Manga
Written by Keisuke Fujikawa
Illustrated by Mayumi Suzuki
Published by Shogakukan
Demographic shōjo
Magazine Shōjo Comic
Original run August 1970 – August 1971
Volumes 4
Anime television series
Directed by Katsui Chikao
Studio Mushi Productions
Original network Fuji Television
Original run April 8, 1971 – September 30, 1971
Episodes 26

Wandering Sun (さすらいの太陽, Sasurai no Taiyō), also known as Nozomi in the Sun, is a Japanese manga series written by Keisuke Fujikawa and illustrated by Mayumi Suzuki. It also received an anime adaptation by Mushi Productions which ran for 26 episodes in 1971. Both Yoshiyuki Tomino and Yasuhiko Yoshikazu were involved in the production of Wandering Sun, and would later again collaborate on the ground-breaking and genre defining series Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam.

Wandering Sun tells the story of two girls switched at birth by the nurse Michiko, out of a grudge against the parents of one of the newborns. Miki was born in the poor Mine family but is switched into the rich Kouda clan, and Nozomi the opposite. Fate cannot separate the two girls who compete to become successful singers after meeting at high school, with the girl-next-door Nozomi working hard and on her own to be the best pop singer in Japan and the rich girl Miki using her family's status to reach the same goal.

The TV series was also released in Italy under the title Jane e Micci and in France as Nathalie et ses Amis.

This series was itself a ground-breaker in that it was perhaps the first anime series to depict the entertainment industry—specifically popular music,[1] which would be a major plot point in many anime to come from Creamy Mami to Perfect Blue. The voice actress for Nozomi Mine, Junko Fujiyama, was an actual singer who used the series as a launching pad for her own real-life singing career, releasing several singles while the series was still on the air. As a bonus, Nozomi's character design was modeled after another enka singer named Keiko Fuji, who would later be the mother of Hikaru Utada.

The anime toned down some of the more intense and mature elements of the manga for a prime-time TV audience.

Cast

Staff

  • Original Creator: Keisuke Fujikawa, Mayumi Suzuki
  • Script: Keisuke Fujikawa, Shun'ichi Yukimuro
  • Character Designs: Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
  • Storyboards: Yoshiyuki Tomino
  • Music: Hideki Fuyuki
  • Producer: Hiroshi Saito, Noboru Katano
  • Production: Mushi Production, Fuji TV

References

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