Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru

Akuma Tou no Prince: Mitsume ga Tooru (The Three-Eyed One: The Prince of Devil Island) was aired in 1985 as part of NTV's "Love Will Save the Earth" telethon. It was the seventh of nine specials to draw on a Tezuka Osamu story and the only one produced by Toei Animation instead of Tezuka Productions. The other eight were:

1978: Hyakumannen Chikyuu no Tabi: Bander Book
1979: Kaitei Choutokkyuu Marine Express
1980: Fumoon
1981: Bremen 4 
1983: Time Slip Ichimannen Prime Rose
1984: Daishizen no Majuu Bagi
1986: Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet
1989: Tezuka Osamu Monogatari: Boku wa Songoku 

Akuma Tou no Prince is the only special that lacks a high-definition source.

Akuma Tou no Prince is based on Tezuka Osamu's manga character Sharaku, the Three-Eyed One. Sharaku is a descendant of a nearly extinct tribe of three-eyed humans that created an advanced civilization 50,000 years ago and then perished. When his third eye is covered, he is a childish eighth-grader who prefers the company of kindergartners and is frequently bullied at school. However, when his third eye is uncovered, he is a super-genius with a penchant for trying to conquer the world. He is guarded, unofficially, by an older high school girl name Wato Chiyoko, who is exasperated when he behaves like a toddler and terrified when he acts like a psychopath.

Sharaku and Wato-san, as she is always called, are a reference to Sherlock and Watson, but there's no detective work in this episode. Instead, Sharaku, Wato-san, and Inspector Unmei, who thinks he's the reincarnation of Beethoven, are lured aboard a derelict ship and shanghaied to a mysterious island. The captors are none other than neo-Nazis led by Hitler's granddaughter, Pandora. They seek the ultimate treasure of the three-eyed tribe, a weapon that will allow them to (dare I say it?) Rule The World. Pandora and her minions use Sharaku to unlock the path to the treasure, but he is, as one might imagine, three steps ahead of them. Fortunately, Wato-san is one step ahead of Sharaku, and all ends happily for the world, if not Pandora.

The voice cast includes:

• Fujita Toshiko (Sharaku) played the title role in Ikkyu-san, Rui in Cat's Eye, and Yawara's mother in Yawara! She also played cyborg 1019 in Oz, an Orphan release.
• Takashima Gara (Wato-san) played Hild in the Aa! Megami-sama franchise and Julia in Cowboy Bebop. She played Lingming in the Sangokushi OVAs, which Orphan released. She is still active, appearing in the most recent incarnation of Gegege no Kitarou.
• The late Kumakura Kazuo (Unmei) played Papa Panda in the Panda Go Panda movies, the wizard in The Wizard of Oz anime movie, and Shuijing in the Sangokushi OVA, an Orphan release. He died in 2015.
• Yanami Jouji (the mustachioed old man, in a cameo role as a much put-upon ramen cart vendor) narrated most of the Dragon Ball Z properties. He played Ittan Momen in several of the GeGeGe no Kitaro series and movies and Chuta Ban in all the Kyojin no Hoshi TV series. He appeared as Lump in Ginga Tansa 2100-nen: Border Planet, Big Bird in Grim Douwa: Kin no Tori, and of course, Ibari in Stop!! Hibari-kun, all Orphan releases.
• Yokozawa Keiko (Pandora) is probably best known for her starring role as Sheeta in Castle in the Sky. She played the title roles in Charlotte (1977), the Dorami-chan properties, and ESPer Mami, as well as leading roles in Plastic Little and Legend of Lemnear.

The director, Serikawa Yuugo, is not well known.

Interestingly, the DVD release of Akuma Tou is apparently abridged (or edited or censored, your choice). According to Japan Wikipedia, the original show included a scene where a monster bird attacked the Kinmochi Clinic while Sharaku was watching Kinnikuman on TV. This scene is missing from the raw we have. (A tip of the hat to Gyumaoh for pointing this out, as well as ANN's name confusion about the seiyuu who played Wato-san.) That could explain why the special is only 85 minutes, when all the others are 90.

Moho Kareshi did the original script, and tenkenX6 checked the translation. ninjacloud timed, I edited and typeset, and Nemesis and VigorousJammer QCed. The raw is from heponeko and appears to be a DVD rip. It includes eyecatches at every commercial break (roughly every 12-13 minutes). In the Blu-ray Tezuka Osamu specials, the eyecatches have been removed.

Apparently, Tezuka Osamu didn't like Akuma Tou no Prince. The official web site complains that "more emphasis was placed on entertainment factors than on theme." That's certainly true; the usual environmental messaging is missing. But the helter-skelter plot and giddy twists are certainly mainstream Tezuka Osamu, and it is entertaining. You can get Akuma Tou no Prince from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net