Title- Super Mario Issun-bōshi
Voices
Toru Furuya as Mario
Miyako Endou as Princess Peach, Toad, Morton Koopa Jr., Wendy O. Koopa
Masaharu Satou as Bowser, Larry Koopa, Iggy Koopa
Naoki Tatsuta as Luigi, Papa, Roy Koopa, Lemmy Koopa, Ludwig von Koopa Toshiko Sawada as Narrator
Episode 2 now, and whilst it’s not as good as episode 1, it’s ok. I must confess I’ve only seen an unsubbed version so I don’t really know what went on but really it’s pretty easy to pick up. Mario’s now this thumb high minish-like kid who was born with a moustache (they always seem to give Baby Mario a stache in the cartoons, yet he’s completely bald faced in the games.) and he wants to see the city. So he asks his parents (who are not fully seen in Tom and Jerry style.) if he can go and they say ‘sure why not?’
He’s given a pin as a weapon and starts sailing in a raft towards town. It’s here that you start to see that despite the pretty crappy animation, the actual designs are practically from the pages of the instruction manual itself, we see various enemies, although they don’t attack Mario, until we see a Lakitu who uses rain and lightning to attempt to drown Mario. I don’t think the guy has an actual reason to try to kill Mario, but as Wizardheimer says, ‘I’m an evil Koopawizard, I don’t need a reason to be mean and nasty, it’s in my nature.’ So I can’t complain with that logic.
Next we get a lot of talk as Peach saves Mario from drowning, then Bowser comes up to her, almost as a mugger, which is a shame as his appearance here seems slightly more badass than the last episode (or the next ‘snigger’) Bowser laughs at Mario and eats him, which gives me two more geek moments. Firstly the fact Bowser eats Mario which is part of the new Mario and Luigi game, and secondly, he attacks Bowser’s insides with his pin, something that is reminiscent of the Yoshi’s Island Battle with prince Froggy. What happens after Bowser spits out Mario sucks. It looks like they’re going to have a fight when Mario cuts off Bowser’s horns. Bowser then runs off crying…
Yes, this episode is the shortest, it is barely based on the games, but I feel that overall the good points make up for it. Even Bowser getting jobbed and being turned into a crybaby mugger or even rapist.
