Kirby of the Stars (Kirby: Right Back at Ya!)
From Kirbypedia
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| English Title: | Kirby:Right Back at Ya! |
| Japanese Title: | 星のカービィ Kirby of the Stars |
| Aired: | JPN: Oct. 6th '01 - Sept. 9th '03 USA: Sept. 14th '02 - Dec 9th '06 |
| Episodes: | 100 |
| Length: | 24 minutes |
| Producer: | Yoshikawa Souji |
| Original Draft: | Masahiro Sakurai |
Kirby's first and currently only animated series! It was made by a company called Warp Star, a joint project of Nintendo and HAL Labs. It first aired in Japan on CBCTV, and was later dubbed and brought to North America by 4Kids Entertainment. (boo! hiss!) It has also aired in many other countries and languages, including most of Europe and Asia.
Unlike many game-to-anime adaptations which tend to be direct copies of the game plot, the creators of the Kirby anime made something completely different. While it still has many of the same themes, characters, and locations, it has an entirely new, separate storyline from any of the games. In a sense, you could say they're separate universes or time lines that don't directly influence each other.
The anime tells the story of how Kirby first crash lands on Pop Star, in the country of Dream Land.
Contents |
Story
Unfinished
For more details and a timeline see Story Analysis on KRR
Development
The Outline
Someone, at some point, working at HAL Labs, decided there needed to be a Kirby anime. Unfortunately the very early days of development aren't clear, but as things
The Kirby anime was made by a joint project between HAL and Nintendo, called Warp Star. The main director was a veteran of animatioon named Soji Yoshikawa, and the one who did the original proposal- and set many of the guidelines for the show- was Kirby's creator Masahiro Sakurai himself. Much of the difficulties in creating an anime for Kirby were detailed in early interviews with Nintendo.
Sakurai had a few things he wanted for the show- or rather, didn't want. One, he didn't want Kirby to speak. And two, he didn't want there to be any humans! Nearly everyone involved- including Sakurai- admit that not having Kirby speak was quite a challenge. Though there are characters like Snoopy and Link that don't speak, it's much harder to do with the main character of a TV show.
In addition, without humans they had to come up with unique species and characters. (Yoshikawa compared it to a Finnish series called The Moomins, which had no humans in it.)
Another of Sakurai's intentions was that Kirby would seem 'like a pet', until he suddenly gains a Copy Ability and can battle. His view for Kirby seems to be one of 'hidden strength'.
Yoshikawa, also one of the writers, had great visions for making the series widely accessible, using not only facets of the games, but references culture and events from real life.
The Animation
Perhaps the biggest part of making the show went into the animation. Yoshikawa spoke of how the Japanese animation industry had so reduced itself to shortcuts and cutting corners. He wanted to have animation where things could 'be moved as much as we pleased'. And so they made the decision to do a mix of traditional 2D and 3D computer graphics animation.
Because of this, they were able to focus far more on creating lively, smooth animation for the characters. The frame rate of the show is 2-3X higher than most anime! ((About 10,000 frames are used in each episode, compared to the 4000-5000 used by most anime on TV.) Even with the length of the series, the animation improves noticeably as it goes on, likely as the animators improve their techniques.
In America!
Nintendo had big plans for releasing the series in the US, putting $10 million dollars into an advertising campaign to make Kirby "the next Pikachu". Kirby release article Kirby has enjoyed high levels of popularity and financial success in Japan, selling a wide range of merchandise, but Nintendo's efforts in the US appear to have failed, judging by comparatively lackluster reviews and TV ratings the series received there.
The official websites spoke much about Kirby toys and other merchandise, but almost nothing was actually released outside of the DVDs. It is unknown if Kirby merely doesn't appeal to the average US consumer, if poor localization of the series is to blame, or some other combination of factors is to blame.
(It's 4Kid's fault. We all know it.)
In addition, many of the foreign language dubs in Europe and such were only re-dubs of the 4Kids version, meaning the poor kids there got a version even farther removed from the original!
Characters
Main Characters
Kirby - The star of the show! Kirby may not talk much, but he's still the main character.
Fumu (Tiff) - The other star of the show! She helps Kirby out and cares for him. She's the only one who can summon his Warp Star.
Bun (Tuff) - Fumu's little brother. He's not too bright and kind of a troublemaker.
Meta Knight - The obligatory mysterious shadowy guy- but there's a lot more to him that it seems!
Villains
King Dedede - Dedede causes trouble for Kirby no matter where he is.
Escargon (Escargoon) - Dedede's right-hand man and personal assistant. Escargon helps him with his schemes, but isn't bad at heart.
Nighmare - The main villain who runs Holy Nightmare Co. He's usually only seen in the shadows.
Customer Service - The public face of Nightmare's company. Also the coolest character on the show. Yes, cooler than Meta Knight.
Demon beasts - The monsters and robots and things that go bump in the night that Nightmare creates and Dedede purchases to try to get Kirby.
Minor Characters
There are a plethora of other characters living in the castle and village, as well as around Dream Land. Many of them have big roles in the series.
Guest Characters
Sometimes a new face appears for only an episode or two before bidding farewell. Many of these characters end up being pretty important though!
Other
Episodes
For detailed info and synopsizes, please see Episodes.
For a quick reference, see the episode guide on KRR's main page. http://www.kirbysrainbowresort.net/info/anime/episode/
Locations
Pop Star - Much like in the games, Pop Star is a little star-shaped placed far from earth.
Dream Land - Also known as Pupupuland, most of the series takes place here. Click the name for a more detailed listing of locations.
- Pupu Village (Cappytown) - The biggest (and only) town in Dream Land, most of the Cappies and other people live here.
- Whispy Wood's Forest - A massive forest where it's said unwary travelers will be lost forever.
Nightmare's Fortress - Not seen until the very end of the series, this planet-sized fortress is Nightmare's based of operations.
Version Differences
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Opening and Ending Themes
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Staff
| Original Proposal | Masahiro Sakurai (HAL Labs) |
| Production | Chubu-Nippon Broadcasting Co., Ltd.(CBC) Dentsu A-UN Entertainment |
| General Director | Soji Yoshikawa |
| Animation Director | Mitsuo Kusakabe |
| Character Design | Miyuki Shimabukuro |
| Art Director | Manami Koyama |
| Music | Miyagawa Akira |
| Script | Soji Yoshikawa, others |
| Editor | Kotabe Youichi |
| 3DCG Production | Akira Takamura Daisuke Saito Hirotsugu Murayama Keiji Nakatsuji |
| 2D Cel Work | Noriko Nishinomiya |
