Introduction

Personal Review

I grew up part of my childhood watching this cartoon. I think that this show was somewhat educational. Some of the science involved in this show is not one of those super-science topics, often presented in anime. It was rather a speculation of what the future may be. I think watching this show as a kid taught me some of the plausible advance theoretical science and expanded some of my imaginations. Another commendable attribute in this show is its emphasis in team work, and the fact that some of the show has subtle "moral" messages. The characters in the show are shown as smart, and educated professionals and were well designed without too wild physical attributes. The story lines are still fun and intense to watch, rather to laugh at as an adult (as in the case of Voltron for me). However, the series were not serious all the time, there are occassional humorous actions/comments the characters took which seems very natural. This show even has some early CGI works. Last but not least, the voice acting/dubbing were not too bad, each character and minor characters were given appropriate voices from the, often short, description of what kind of character or where they're from.

This profile is from The Complete Anime Guide by Trish Ledoux & Doug Ranney, Tiger Mountain Press, Issaquah, WA, 1995

The original 1966 Thunderbirds series was a Gerry and Sylvia Anderson "Supermarionation" production, featuring a marionette process combining the traditional strings with electronic impulses that allowed the plastic puppets to move their eyes, blink, raise their eyebrows and move their lips in a reasonably lifelike fashion. Thunderbirds was set in the 21st century, and detailed the exploits of International Rescue, an impossible missions force located on a farflung Pacific atoll. Jeff Tracy headed the Thunderbirds team, which embarked in high-tech vehicles loaded with super-sophisitcated equipment to rescue those unfortumates trapped in seemingly inextricable circumstances, and to prevent interplanetary criminals from pulling off their "foolproof" crimes.

Thunderbirds 2086, made by ITC Japan and the long-delayed animated version of this property, was telecast daily over Showtime pay-cable in the U.S. in 1983. First broadcast in Japan in 1982 as Kagaku Kyuujo-Tai Techno Voyager ("Science Rescue Team TechnoVoyager"), no mention was made of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson in the credit titles, and none of the original characters appeared in the animated version. In place of the all-W.A.S.P. Tracy family, the new Thunderbirds International Rescue Organization was a five-person team of unrelated, multicultural adventurers: Jesse Rigel, Dylan Beyda, Jonathan Jordan Jr., Gran Hanson, and Kallan James. The squareheaded, beady-eyed Anderson character designs were skipped for standard anime renditions: attractive characters with round or almond-shaped eyes and not too much wild-haired color.

Operating (per the series' title) in 2086, this Thunderbirds crew all had personalized shuttle vehicles and versatile backpacks. As in the Supermarionation Thunderbirds, five main vehicles were utilized for search and rescue: Thunderbird-1 was a shuttle, TB-2 a hypersonic transport, TB-5 a drilling vehicle, etc. While this holdover from the original was maintained, the cliffhanger structure was not; all stories on Thunderbirds 2086 were self-contained half-hours, packing in plenty of action and suspense while keeping a well-measured pace.

The technological advances presented on the series were logical given the present rate of spaceware progress, so that the futuristic ambience of Thunderbirds 2086 looks more like intelligent speculation rather than farfetched "sci-fi." Plots were cut from the Star Trek cloth, but were well-enough constructed to avoid imitation. The strictly business storylines allowed for a bare minimum of spectacular effects and resorted to violence only as a logical extension of the action, something well-suited to the series' limited animation.

In keeping with the Andersons' original Thunderbirds, the characters in the animated version behaved coolly and professionally, with none of the unnecessary histrionics or gratuitous kidding around which often weakened American-produced extraterrestrial cartoons. Teamwork was emphasized, as opposed to the maverick types in anime efforts like Robotech and Captain Harlock. Under the direction of actor/writer Peter Fernandez, the voice acting on the English-language version was realistic, more so than that on previous Fernandez projects such as Speed Racer.

All in all, the 24 episodes of Thunderbirds 2086 were capably done, and a significant improvement on the already commendable Supermarionation version. But though its level of maturity fit right in with the Showtime, Thunderbirds 2086 was less successful opposite such child-oriented as He-Man and G.I. Joe when syndicated commercially in 1986 and 1987.

NOTE: This profile may have been slightly altered.

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