Kagaku Mokuyobi Himistu

In other news, UFOs are fucking real and official disclosure is just around the corner. Consider the overwhelming evidence:

The debate currently taking place within in the UN about establishing diplomatic relations with ETs.

The recent rise in UFO activity accompanied by astonishing new video (Exhibit A) (Exhibit B)

And just last week, scientists announced the discovery of a new planet conveniently dubbed “Earth 2.”

Now to help prepare you for the mass hysteria and social chaos that is sure to follow, here is a more-relevant-than-ever Japanese cartoon from 1975.

It’s called これがＵＦＯだ! 空飛ぶ円盤, which translates into shitty bootleg subtitles as “This UFO a discoid body in the sky.”

Originally produced for the Toei Manga Matsuri children’s film festival, the well-researched short depicts such momentous events as the fatal Louisville, KY sighting of ‘48, the abduction of Betty and Barney Hill by little blue men, and a history of seen-in-Japan saucers all within a whiplash 15 min.

Helpfully subtitled in gibberish that sometimes reads like English.

PART ONE

PART TWO


“Be curious and concerned with them
If they appear in front of you
What will you do?"

Comments

[Joseph Luster]

If you come to The 'Ville, I can guarantee you a sighting!

[Steve Harrison]

Isn't that mind blowing? I recall when I watched it when Jerry got his 'Mazinger Movies' DVD box from Japan. I almost had a freak-out! Well researched isn't the half of it! It's a freaking primer for UFOlogy pre-Strieber! (note no 'Grays' are present)

I think what destroyed my mind the most was the matter-of-fact manner everything was presented, as if every Japanese schoolchild knew some if not all the info already. Which I've long suspected they do.

After all, here in the U.S. you can show a picture of a flying saucer and someone will say "Oh, it's a flying saucer" but in Japan you'd get "Oh, that's an Adamski type...you can tell by the three balls on the underside, that's characteristic..."

And you know, all the excitement of this 'new Earth' really has my antenna up. Why the heck is this so exciting to the 'masses' who usually don't care jack crap about space? We're pretty much proved there's liquid water on Mars RIGHT NOW, but that's boring.

I wonder if the Space Arks will be revealed soon? Or will they be....Megazones?

[Matt]

I'm reminded of the theme from Gaiking: "Just open your window and look up at the sky! You'll see a fleet of alien invaders!"

How many children were terrorized by Toei's obsession with UFOs? The narration in this short is so earnest it borders on hysteria, like a demented public-safety announcement. My only regret is not having been able to have experienced it as a kid. I probably wouldn't have come out from under the bed for a week.

[ChrisM]

I love that the first thing they do when they see it? SHOOT IT DOWN!!

Anyway, there's NO such things as UFOs..at least NOT in the special sub-basement at the Smithsonian where only the "special" scientists are allowed to go...:-)

[Ms. Geek]

Actually, the best way to describe that short is that it is pre-"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" UFOlogy. We're coming up on the 30th anniversary of that seminal movie's release. The whole idea of childlike grey aliens came whole-cloth from that movie. Note also the similarities between the little troll-like aliens in the animated short and the later little grey alien concept.

Wonderful short...I'm glad someone had the presence of mind to put it up on YouTube.

[Steve Harrison]

What makes that short even more magical...it was the lead-in to the Grandizer 'pilot film', which is amazing on its own merits.

Those Toei 'Teribi Manga Festival' events every July must have beem magical. 1978 would have given you Spider-Man, Message from Space, Captain Harlock, Candy Candy and a Puss in Boots short. Children must have come out of that theater ready to take over the world...

Well, I guess they did, didn't they?

[Carl Horn]

I remember as a kid thinking the aliens in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND were a bit of a disappointment. I guess this represents the earlier CHARIOTS OF THE GODS? era of UFO pop consciousness, which must have inspired a lot of manga back in the day.

[Carl Horn]

I just realized the shot of Barney Hill sweating as they raise the rectal probe is in one of the history of anime guidebooks that Tokuma put out in 1988. It's a little surprising that no actual rectal probing is shown, considering that anime's quite good at that sort of thing.