by The anime version also includes a picture-story show-style explanation of sex education.
The TV anime series “Mysterious Melmo” (26 episodes in total), based on the original work by Tezuka Osamu, was broadcast on the TBS network from 1971 to 1972. It was the first TV anime series produced by Tezuka Productions and is a memorable work that greatly stimulated children’s desire to transform.
The main character, Melmo-chan, loses her mother in a traffic accident, and although she is only in the third grade of elementary school, she has to raise her young brother. Melmo is saved by blue and red “miracle candies” sent to her by her mother in heaven. With the help of the mysterious candies, which make her grow 10 years if she eats blue candies and become 10 years younger if she eats red candies, Melmo overcomes various crises.
Sometimes, she transforms into an attractive woman of a certain age; sometimes, she reverts to being a fertilized egg and even combines red and blue to become an animal. To the children watching on TV, it was a strange and fun transformation fantasy, but in fact, this anime had a central theme of “sex and life” and was intended to be a sex education program through anime.
The final episode of the anime is set 15 years later. A scene is depicted of a married Melmo enduring labor pains in a hospital delivery room, and she finally gives birth to a baby girl. The words of her benefactor, Dr. Waregarasu, “Isn’t the happiness of humans, or rather of living things, the very act of life itself in an eternal repetition?” may have been difficult for children to understand, but I’m sure it was something that Tezuka-sensei wanted to convey.
Since this anime has such a powerful message, the final episode of the original manga must have been. But when I looked into it, I found that there was not a single frame of such a scene in the original manga. In fact, “Mysterious Melmo” was initially planned as a TV anime, and the manga was serialized in the magazine “Shogaku Ichinensei” (Shogakukan) before the program (originally titled “Mama-chan”). As expected, since it was aimed at younger children, the element of sex education was blurred.
The original manga, essentially a one-shot story, is a slapstick comedy full of mischief, in which Melmo consumes miracle candies and transforms into various characters, including a nurse, a school teacher, and a policewoman, to navigate difficult situations. However, it ends abruptly with the 19th episode.
The story is about a depressed elephant named Burako-san who is transformed into a flight attendant with miracle candies and taken back to her hometown (corresponding to the second episode of the anime). It is not known why the series ended, but this means that the original story does not have a final episode. Incidentally, the rival program to the anime “Mysterious Melmo” was the still ongoing “Sazae-san,” and Tezuka himself commented with regret that “it ended with poor audience ratings, despite its good reputation.”
