Uchū Densetsu Yurishīzu Sātīwan

Azure_sky

Or Ulysses 31 as some of us knew it growing up. I used to love watching this as a child. It was a sci fi series losely based of Greek mythology. A pretty intelligent and deep show for a Saturday morning cartoon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_31

Anyone else have found childhood memories of this series?

Monkeyto

This and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors made my childhood.

Rawr

Monkeyto wrote: »

This and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors made my childhood.

+1 to this post, and also to Azure_sky for bringing this up.

Ulysses 31 was a pure work of unbelievably good art. Putting Homer's Odyssey in deep space is a crazy idea, which the writers pulled off beautifully. Ulysses 31, I feel also illustrates some of the things that children's shows of today sadly lack.

The writers seemed to have some respect for the audiences' intelligence, knowing that kids would be able to grasp the perils and challenges of Ulysses and Co. Very little exposition was needed, as the excellent opening credits did most of the work.

The villains were legendary. Without a doubt, the best villains I have ever seen in fiction. The Gods of Olympus were just plain evil. But not just that, they were unstoppable and merciless. All Ulysses could ever do was defeat their Shark-men and disrupt their operations...a bit.

Even in the end, when Ulysses finally does get his crew home, the Gods have not been defeated, they still rule the Universe of Olympus, doing their evil stuff like always...

And finally. This show had the ball-bearings to actually kill off characters. You almost never see that anymore in kids shows. (Even just mentioning death doesn't seem to even happen now)

Needless to say, it's a timeless classic that can stand toe-to-toe with almost anything else produced these days. I'll leave you with the excellent intro of the show.

Ulysses 31, no-one else can do the things you do!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ4c1X5ene8

Lemegeton

Monkeyto wrote: »

This and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors made my childhood.

not to mention Thundercats, Mask, Voltron, Transformers, Brave Starr etc...
the 1980's was the golden age of cartoons

Ulysees and Jayce and the Wheeled warriors had the best theme songs ever.

Madjackjr

Any one remember Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea It had a cool opening theam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NaLR8V9fE

Rawr

Madjackjr wrote: »

Any one remember Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea It had a cool opening theam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NaLR8V9fE

That show was one major headrush, and that intro music just digs into your head and never leaves. The French certainly made the 80s a golden time for kids cartoons (Ulysses 31, Mysterious Cites of Gold - Both French/Japanese Anime; Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, and this show).

One interesting thing about this show, is that it was originally called 'Shagma' in France and other non-English speaking countries. The title was changed for the English release because it sounded like something not-so-kid-friendly.

While living here in Norway, a friend had asked me if I remembered Shagma. I hadn't a clue what she was talking about until she showed me a DVD of it. Then the memories came flooding back