I lived in Japan for seven years and lived by a very complete video rental store with a huge selection of anime. As such, I know a lot of titles that were never translated and, having gained no major following in Japan are unlikely to ever be translated.
For instance, how many of you were aware that Hayao Miyazaki had a television series about Sherlock Holmes as played by a dog?
But so I don’t have much hope in asking…but I’m looking for the title of an animation I once watched that was quite good but that I never went searching for the LD of.
It was about a boy who it happens is the daughter or something of space pirates or anti-space pirates or something. He doesn’t know this, but as the series goes on, he finds out and ends up becoming a girl. As the space pirate anti-space pirate or whatever it was that he is, he wears some sort of yellow and orange or red outfit.
Do you have any names, or an approximate year? I have an anime encyclopedia at home (don’t ask me why, I haven’t been into it since college) that I can check. Since it’s hardcopy, though, the chances are slim. I’ll give it a look, though.
Actually I think I found it. Space Pirate Mito (宇宙海賊ミトの大冒険.) The description didn’t read like I remembered it. I’d forgotten about the fact that the mom looked like a 6 year old most of the time and seems to have gained more advertising space on the box covers than the son/daughter even though I would swear that it was the son/daughter who was the main character in reality. The description seems to say its mostly about the mom, so perhaps I just forgot.
If your encyclopedia has it and Congratulations for Ancestors! ( 御先祖様万々歳！ ), I’d be interested in seeing which one it is.
Took a while, but I found it. It was released in America as Stellarbusters, aka Great Adventures of Space Pirate Mito.
The other one is listed as Glory to the Ancestors, about a girl who travels back in time to learn about her ancestors, then gets in trouble with the time police when she tries to help them out of poverty.
Let me know if you need any other info about either one.
The book is The Anime Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese Animation Since 1917, by Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy.