Noel's Fantastic Trip

Iruka (which means "dolphin" in Japanese) is a Japanese folk singer and children's book author. In 1983, she wrote the songs and story for a children's movie called Noel no Fushigi no Bouken (Noel's Fantastic Trip). It was released first on VHS and laserdisc and eventually on DVD. For the 40th anniversary of the movie's release, Orphan and LonelyChaser are pleased to bring you the first English subtitled version of this show.

Noel's Fantastic Trip is part adventure story and part environmental fable. A young girl named Noel lives on an idyllic small planet, also called Noel, with her dog Kinnosuke. One day, she decides to take some ice cream to Mr. Sun, to thank him for his work. Taking off in a small airplane, they encounter other spacecraft and stop at Planet Gaudy (where, as might be expected, everything is very gaudy indeed) before reaching their destination. Mr. Sun is quite grateful but complains about smog arising from an unknown planet. Noel and Kinnosuke fly off to investigate and run into the smog. They escape underwater, but during their explorations, they find that the ocean is horribly polluted. The pollution comes to life and chases them. They're saved by Su(per) the flying whale, who eats the pollution and purifies the ocean. Noel and Kinnosuke then fly to the city producing all the smog. There, they meet a sickly fox-child named Konkichi, who has never seen a blue sky. Once again, Noel calls on Su to combat the pollution, and there is a happy ending, at least for the moment.

Noel's Fantastic Trip is done in the bright, basic colors of a children's book.

The songs are generally soothing or upbeat. The movie is filled with Easter eggs. In space, Noel and Kinnosuke run into the Space Shuttle:

then the space station from 2001: A Space Odyssey:

and then space battleship Yamato:

(The rear turret is the giveaway.) When they approach Planet Gaudy, its control tower plays the five note "aliens" theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Noel responds in kind. Their ocean adventure is a tribute to the Beatles and features the Yellow Submarine itself:

as well as a stylized version of the Fab Four. Su is clearly meant to be Superman and is accompanied by John Williams' famous theme from the first movie.

The voice cast was made up of singers and other non-professionals:

• Iruka (Noel) was a singer and author. Her only other voice acting credit was The Fantastic Adventures of Unico, for which she also wrote and performed the insert song.
• Touma (Kinnosuke) had no other voice acting credits.
• Kamekichi (Advisor) had no other voice acting credits.
• Hachirou Azuma (Cabinet Minister) had no other voice acting credits.
• Yamada Panda (Host 1) was a fellow member of Iruka's folk group, Shrieks.
• Yamamoto Koutaro (Host 2) was a composer and performance. He had no other voice acting credits.
  
• Kobayashi Asei (Mr. Sun) was a composer and performer. His only other voice acting credit was A Journey through Fairyland.
• Nishioka Takashi (elderly Superman) was an anime director.
• Ninuma Kenji (Su the Whale) had no other anime credits.
  
• Shoufukutei Tsurube (Smog boss) was the voice of Felonius Gru in the Japanese versions of the Despicable Me franchise.His only other anime credit was My Neighbor the Yamadas.
  
• Ooba Kumiko (Konkichi) was a singer. Her only other voice acting credit was Cosmic Baton Girl Comet-san.

The director, Maeda Tsuneo, did chief animation direction on Eleven Hungry Cats, the first Nine OVA, and the Touch movies. He directed the Tama-chan TV series and the Hashire! Shiroi Ookami movie, an Orphan release.

MartyMcflies, proprietor of LonelyChaser subs and anime music maven, got the ball rolling. He sponsored a translator, Yume, and found translation checkers, squidlin and Japanese Hoarder. ninjacloud timed. I edited and typeset. Nemesis, Rezo, and Uchuu did QC. Rezo encoded from Iri's R2J DVD.

So here is Noel's Fantastic Trip. It is indeed a fantastic trip, like the voyage in Yellow Submarine, to which Noel is clearly indebted. I found it innocent and charming, and I hope you will too. You can download the movie from the usual torrent site or from IRC bot Orphan|Arutha in channels #nibl or #news on irc.rizon.net