Figure 1.--We notice one Japanese series which seems to be a production of the Enid Blyton "Famous Five" series.

We know very little about Japanese TV series. As far as I know they have not been shown in the West. Even so we have more information than on several European countries. We have begin to collect some information about individual TV programs. We have information on only a few series at this time. Hopefully our Japanese readers will provide us more information. Some of the series have been issued on DVD.

Boy Detective Group (1970s)

"Boy Detective Group" was a children's TV series. Itseems rather a spin-off on English books like the :Famous Five and "Secret Seven", versions of which have neen done in Japan. In fact children detectives for sime reason seem a prevalent concept in Japanese series. (The concept is virtually absent on American TV.) We know virtually nothing about "Boy Detective Group", except that it was also referred to as "BD7".

Famous Five (19??)

We notice a "The Famous Five" TV series in Japan. We do not know if it was called "The Famous Five" or even if the association with Enid Blyton. We do know her books were transferred into Japanese. In the Japanese TV series, the dog does not seem to count as the cast includes five children, three boys and a girl. The children wear contemporary Japnese clothing. Some Japanese movies and television look like the children were not costumed, but just wore their own clothing. Here the children can be seen in rather stylish clothing and we suspect that the children were costumed. We have no further information about the series. Hopefully our Japanese readers will tell us more.

German Navy Boys Detective Team (1988)

A popular children's program was the "German Navy Boys Detective Team". A Japanese reader tells us about a Japanese TV series broadcast in 1988. It is about a group of schoolfriends, rsther like "The Famous Five", although the boys are not as well behaved and of course are all boys. The title was, "German Navy Boys Detective Team". I think it was broadcast daily as a kind of after school children's TV. There were 50 episodes made. Apparently the boys called themselves the Germany Navy detective team because one of them was fascinated with Germany. He had a model of a German World War II U-boat and wore a cap in the colors of the German flag. The boys often misbehaved at school and as acresult were often punished by being made to stand in the hallway outside their classroom. We have no information on individual episodes at this time. An image from the program shows two boys wearing jean short pants and one boy weard ordinary black short pants. Another in the group wears long pants. American viewers will find the costuming a littkle confudsing in that it is difficult to understand how boys dressed like the Dectevive Team can misbehave at school. We are unsure about the costuming here. We do not know if these were costumes especially selected by the director or costume designer or the clothes the boys normally wore.

Unknown Quiz Program (1986)

Quiz shows are a popular format on Japanese television. I'm not sure what the title of this quiz program was. Some of the quizes programs involved children (figure 1). A Japanese reader remembers seeing it, but can not recall the title at this time. Hopefully our Japanese readers can provide some information. One reader believes the contestants were chosen from viewers letters.

Unknown Program (19??)

We notice one Japanese TV series which seems to involve an extended Japanese family. The children wear contemprary clothing.

Created: 5:38 AM 8/7/2004
Last updated: 1:10 AM 1/17/2005