Maple Town Compendium

Update 11/9/2020

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 15:10:00 +0000

Hey, everyone!

I apologize for not updating this blog. I'll see if I can get back to working on this. Please stay tuned for more news!

Apology and What's Next

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 01:40:00 +0000

To everyone out there, I have to apologize for my failure to update this blog or even tell you what on Earth is going on.

Life is getting in the way. Besides making a living, my other endeavors like my comics are taking up my time.

I had never meant to abandon this blog. Maple Town is a favorite anime of mine and it is my intent to try to document this work for future generations.

Once I work out more details and plan things better, I will have news on what's next for the Maple Town Compendium.

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 15:10:00 +0000

ATTENTION!

From now until December or maybe January, this blog will be going on hiatus.

Other obligations as well as troubles writing more blog posts & episode summaries are interfering with this blog.

Stay tuned for more news and updates as I will get back to updating this blog regularly.

Short Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 23 Sep 2018 16:29:00 +0000

Attention!

This blog is taking a short break. I have fallen behind on updates and still need to compose more.

Stay tuned!

Q & A With Rebecca Forstadt

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 09 Sep 2018 09:39:00 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, I have something special today. After much effort, I was able to contact Rebecca Forstadt and get some answers to some questions about the Maple Town English dub.

Rebecca Forstadt is an American voice actress best known for her role in anime and cartoons. Her best known role hands down is Lynn Minmei from Robotech as well as Mihoshi in Tenchi Muyo. In Maple Town, she voiced Patty Rabbit, the protagonist of the series.

In my attempts to solve the long standing questions around Maple Town's English dub, I wanted to reach out to Rebecca in the hope that she might have answers. I did get some answers and am very grateful for her time. So without further ado...let's get to those questions!

Q:  You voiced Patty Rabbit in Maple Town. Compared to your other roles (Minmay in Robotech), do you get a lot of fans asking you about your Patty Rabbit role?

REBECCA:  I don’t get as many fans asking me about Patty Rabbit but I do have some fans who contact me from time to time. Maybe because it was more orientated to kids rather than high school/college age.

Q:  What are your memories of working on Maple Town's dub (recording dialogue, script reading, etc)? Were they pleasant ones?

REBECCA:  It was always lots of fun working on the show. At the time we recorded Saban Entertainment was a small building on Ventura Blvd. It eventually moved to Burbank and then Westwood later on as it got bigger. I would sometimes come in with a tiny baby because my daughter was born around that time.

Q:  While other actors did record dialogue for Maple Town's English dub (Kirsten Bishop, Steve Kramer, Edie Mirman, etc), some of the voice roles have never been identified. Do you know who those might have been?

REBECCA:  Barbara Goodson was Bobby Bear, but as far as the rest, I would have to hear them to figure out who they were. It was a long time ago.

Q:  Did you record dialogue for all 52 episodes of Maple Town? For some reason, only about 32-39 episodes made it to North American television; the whole series was never aired and I haven't discovered why.

REBECCA:   I’m pretty sure I was in all the episodes since I played the lead. I don’t remember the exact number, though.

Q:  Maple Town had a sequel that aired in Japan and a few other countries called Palm Town; Palm Town never made it to North America. Were you aware of this sequel? Were you ever contacted about recording dialogue for a Palm Town English dub?

REBECCA:   I never heard about Palm town and never worked on it.

Q: Any final thoughts on Maple Town or words for 1980s children who remember the series?

REBECCA: I’m glad there are still fans of it. It was a cute series and I loved working on it.

There you have it, fans. This has filled in a few blanks.

Barbara Goodson as Bobby Bear? That does contradict my research citing Goodson voicing Mikey Mole and Bobby being voiced by Wendee Lee.

Rebecca also states knowing nothing about Palm Town; that would imply that the series either was not meant to be exported in North America or plans were made to do so but cancelled.

That's all for now. And this message is intended for Rebecca if you're out there and end up reading this. Thank you very much for your time; both myself and many of the Maple Town fans appreciate you answering these questions.

Any questions or comments? More info on Maple Town's English dub? You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

UPDATE 9/6/2018

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 01:33:00 +0000

ATTENTION!! I have a big announcement.

I was able to establish contact with Rebecca Forstadt, the voice of Patty Rabbit and was able to ask her some questions about Maple Town!

Watch this Sunday for a special blog post! I will be sharing those answers so stay tuned!

Maple Town Episode 3 Commentary

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 22:30:00 +0000

My apologies to everyone that it took so long to get this done...so then onto our next episode!

Maple Town Episode 3
English Dub Title: Box Go Boom (Alternate title - the Silver Spoons)
Japanese Title: "Kie ta gin nosaji" (消えた銀のさじ)
Spanish Dub Title: Las Cucharillas Magicas

This episode focuses on Bobby Bear and his family. Bobby is the deuteragonist of Maple Town and a native of the town as opposed to Patty, newly moved to Maple Town.

We start out at Patty Rabbit's house. She wants to go out with her father on his mail route but her mother intervenes; she orders Patty to finish eating breakfast. We then cut to the general store of Maple Town, operated by the Bear family. Mrs. Bear is berating her son Bobby for trying to run out on his responsibilities. She reminds him that he has to polish silver spoons arriving today and to take care of his three younger brothers. It just so happens that Bobby has tied up his brothers inside a large sack and in their struggle to get free, end up wrecking the store.

Patty is told to finish eating before going out with her father

Mrs. Bear yells at Bobby

Bobby's got it in the bag...along with his brothers!

Mr. Bear catches his son trying to sneak away

Mrs. Bear throws her three sons out of the store and goes after Bobby; Bobby tries to run away but gets caught by his father. Mr. Bear then sneaks off, leaving his wife and his son behind.

Patty with the silver spoons

Meanwhile, Mr. Rabbit and Patty pick up a mail shipment from the train station. Patty noticed a package addressed to Bobby Bear's house with a label on it identifying the contents as silver spoons. These silver spoons are the episode's Macguffin as they will drive the plot. Speaking of the plot, this box of spoons gets the attention of Wilde Wolf who wants to steal them.

Wilde Wolf spots the silver spoons

Bobby is waiting for Patty at the post office and picks up the package of silver spoons. Patty wants to go along with him but Mrs. Rabbit stops her, commanding Patty to clean up her room. Patty does this by stuffing all her toys and belongings into a closet (admit it - you've done this too).

Patty stuffs things into her closet...which doesn't work!

Wilde Wolf with his booby trap duplicate

We then cut to Wilde Wolf who has made a duplicate of the box Bobby has. He plans to switch the silver spoons with his fake box. Unfortunately, when the switch is made, the two boxes get confused and that leads to our episode's conflict - nobody can tell which box has the silver spoons and which is the booby-trap fake.

The boxes get mixed up!

To make things more interesting, Bobby's brothers get involved. After a hilarious scene with them getting thrown out of the general store (they were playing with toy guns while Mrs. Bear tried to work), Bobby and Wilde Wolf try to figure out which of the two boxes is the one with the silver spoons. Meanwhile, Patty meets up with Bobby in possession of the two boxes.

Bobby's three brothers play as their mom tries to work.

The next scene involves Mrs. Rabbit heading to the general store and meeting Mrs. Bear. They talk and realize neither has seen Patty or Bobby in quite some time; this leads to worry for the children. As that happens, Bobby is immersing one of the boxes in a bucket of water, hoping that it will disarm the one that is trapped with a bomb. Bobby's brothers show up but Bobby warns them not to touch any of the boxes. When he isn't looking, the three brothers steal one of the boxes and run off. Bobby chases after them and is able to get the box back...until his mother takes it from him. Bobby begs his mom not to open it as it could be the trapped box but she won't listen.

As that happens, Wilde Wolf returns, finds the other box and takes it. Bobby is able to snatch the box his mother has and runs off with Patty in tow. Bobby's three brothers pursue as Mrs. Bear looks on in frustration. Wilde Wolf is hiding in the bushes and decides to go after them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bear returns to the store and gets yelled at by his wife. She tells him about the silver spoons and the identical box; Mr. Bear decides to investigate and his wife follows him.

Attempting to exchange boxes...

Bobby's brothers steal a box!

Patty and Bobby encounter Wilde Wolf; he demands the two children give him their box, which he believes contains the silver spoons. Bobby agrees to trade boxes but Bobby's brothers run by to snatch the box Bobby has. Bobby goes after his brothers and Wilde Wolf, telling Patty to go get Sheriff Bulldog for help. As Bobby heads off in pursuit, Patty runs into her father on his scooter and they ride off together, Patty having told him en route what happened. The next scene has Patty, Mr. Rabbit and the sheriff all on the scooter with them encountering the Bears. That is followed by all of them riding on Mr. Rabbit's scooter...and coming to a full stop then the scooter's tire pops like a balloon from all the weight. That scene is one that I found hilarious by the way.

How many riders can fit on one scooter?

Wilde Wolf finally catches up to Bobby's brothers and tries to reclaim the box from them. They spend time throwing the box back and forth to each other, keeping it away from Wilde Wolf. This gag runs a bit long for my taste yet it wouldn't look out of place in a Tex Avery cartoon. Wilde Wolf tires himself out and one of the brothers decides to open the box.

The Bear brothers toss the box back & forth, keeping it away from Wilde Wolf!

Wilde Wolf at that moment gets his second wind and manages to snatch the box away. In slow motion, Wilde Wolf leaps down with the box in his possession, Bobby's brother falls out of the tree and Bobby leaps to save his little brother...which he does.

Bobby to the rescue!

Wilde Wolf, thinking his box contains the silver spoons, throws the other box back to Bobby and rushes off to open his loot. Unfortunately, he took the wrong box and it blows up right in his face.

Whoops...wrong box, Wilde Wolf!

Bobby is reunited with his parents and offers to do his duty by polishing the silver spoons. Later, everyone is back at the store but all is not well. Mrs. Bear yells at her son for using a dirty rag to polish the silver spoons. Mr. Bear tries to defend his son but while Mrs. Bear yells at him, Bobby and Patty slip out of the store. Mr. Bear and Bobby's brothers then sneak off, promising to be back for dinner. Mrs. Bear actually smiles after seeing them go and heads back into the store.

Bobby learns that no good deed goes unpunished.

The English dub cuts out some talking from offscreen between Patty and Bobby. Why this was cut is something I'm not sure of.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This episode, like the first and second, is another strong one. It's interesting to see Bobby take center stage and we get a feel for both his personality along with his relationship with his family. I give this episode an A.

That's it for now! If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Brief Update 8/26/2018

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 26 Aug 2018 23:01:00 +0000

Today, we have just a short update. To all of you out there, I am sorry that there's been no update last week. I have hit a snag.

The episode summaries and the gathering of screenshots is more work than I expected. There will be some delays but there will be updates on Sundays...when I get to them. Personally speaking, maintaining a blog on a regular schedule is tricky. I may slip with updates but I will try at least to update this blog on a regular basis.

In addition to episodes summaries of Maple Town, I did plan to comment too on Palm Town, the voice actors and some of the merchandise of the Maple Town franchise.

One final note - I am still attempting to contact Rebecca Forstadt, the voice of Patty Rabbit, and may have succeeded. I'll post again in the future about that.

That's it for today. Stay tuned!

Maple Town Needs Your Help

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 12 Aug 2018 09:09:00 +0000

This is a short blog post this week. I'll have more episode commentaries and related blog posts next week. But there is something I want to remind everyone.

The purpose of this blog is to document Maple Town and its sequel Palm Town for future generations. In spite of all my research, there is only so much I can do or can uncover.

If you have any useful information about Maple Town - be it the English dub, any of the foreign dubs or the original Japanese - or if you are connected to the show in any way - working on the original or the dubs, involved in selling the show, voice acting, etc - feel free to comment on the blog or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

I can't do this alone. I need help. Any more information would be appreciated.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Episode 2 Commentary

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 05 Aug 2018 09:23:00 +0000

Now without further ado, let's move onto the next episode of Maple Town!

Maple Town Episode 2
English Dub Title: The Stolen Necklace
Japanese Title: "Nerawareta kubikazari" (ねらわれた首飾り)
Spanish Dub Title: El Robo Del Collar

This episode continues to build up on the previous episode as it introduces many of the children of Maple Town; in the first episode, we met Patty Rabbit and her family along with Bobby Bear. More characters get introduced, namely because this episode deals with Patty's first day in Maple Town's school.

The episode opens with Patty Rabbit waking up in her new home and being excited because it's the first day of school. I'm not sure whether this episode takes place the day after the first episode or a few days after as the English dub never says. Anyway in her excitement, Patty rushes to wake up her sister Rachel, who's upset about being awakened since it's still too early. Patty rushes downstairs to the kitchen where her mother and little brother Ricky are. We learn it's so early that Mrs. Rabbit hasn't even started breakfast yet.

Patty in her pajamas rushing to wake Rachel

Again, from a technical standpoint, the camera shots and landscapes are just as beautiful as they were in the first episode. We get a nice view of the surrounding wilderness, a bird's eye view of the town and a zoom up to Patty's bedroom window. While animation in Japan for television does have lower budgets as opposed to theatrical animation, it is still astounding what the animators can do.

While comparing the American English dub against the Spanish dub, I noticed a difference. The English dub has Ricky taunting Patty and then implies Patty running off to change for school. The Spanish dub has Patty angrily running after Ricky and shouting at him. I'm not sure why this was changed for US television.

Mmm...croissants...

By the time breakfast is ready (the Rabbit family is having some tasty looking croissants), Patty comes downstairs wearing a lovely looking party dress. Her parents though object and make her change into her regular dress for school.

Patty Rabbit trying to wear her party dress for school

Patty and Rachel then head off to school, only to encounter a car passing by with Fanny Fox and her brother Freddy Fox. Freddy taunts Patty with an eyelid pull (a taunt familiar to anyone who's watched anime), which leads to Patty retaliating by sticking her tongue out at him. Rachel promptly yells at Patty for doing that, ordering her to stop. Given Rachel's attempt to assert authority over Patty plus her taller height, it is implied she's older than Patty and much of the other schoolchildren. Her exact age isn't clear; she's most likely in her early teens. As a big sister, Rachel's attempts to assert authority over Patty does lead her into conflict with Patty in the future - but that's a whole other episode.

Freddy Fox (right) taunts Patty & Rachel

Danny Dog meets Patty and Rachel

Soon after, they meet Danny Dog and strike up a conversation with him. The three walk to the Maple Town schoolhouse. During this scene, we get another lovely shot of the school with the various students running around before class starts. Not unlike television in the Western world, television animation in Japan has a limited budget but in spite of this, they still manage to make the art look incredibly beautiful.

Fanny Fox, Suzie Squirrel and Penny Pig

Anyway, local rich girl Fanny Fox (we met her parents Mr. and Mrs. Fox in the first episode) stands waiting while wearing a beautiful dress; alongside her are her friends Suzie Squirrel and Penny Pig. Fanny calls out to Danny but the very shy Danny walks off. Suzie laughs over this and Fanny angrily stomps on her tail.

Cut scene from USA broadcast

The next scene cuts to Wilde Wolf along with something that was cut from the USA version. He decides to practice with his flintlock pistol and accidentally shoots himself in the face while doing so (he doesn't get hurt). The part with him actually looking into the barrel of his pistol was cut from the USA broadcast version of Maple Town due to concerns over violence. (On another note, such censorship is much stricter nowadays but that's another discussion.) The USA version splices in a scene of Oscar Otter fishing (from the first episode) and commenting that Wilde Wolf's gun isn't real. This was probably done for time due to broadcast requirements. Wilde Wolf gets angry when Oscar Otter taunts him while walking by; this leads to a hilarious scene with the wolf just throwing a tantrum over that insult.

We cut back to the school where Bobby Bear meets up with Patty; Fanny, Penny and Suzie are amused when they hear Bobby asking Patty if she wants to go hunt bugs with him. She brushes him off and heads into the school. While that is going on, Wilde Wolf takes an interest in the beautiful dress that Fanny is wearing and decides to steal it.

Patty gives Bobby the brushoff

Wilde Wolf in a dress? No...just no.

The next scene takes place inside Maple Town's schoolhouse where Miss Deer introduces Patty and Rachel. Their seats get assigned next; Rachel sits next to Skippy Squirrel (no relation to the Animaniacs character of the same name) with Patty getting to sit next to Danny.

Inside the Maple Town school, Miss Deer introduces Rachel and Patty Rabbit

The two Skippy Squirrels: Animaniacs (left), Maple Town (right)

Fanny is not happy about this (Bobby seems upset too) and decides to do something about it. This leads Fanny to remove her necklace and drop it near Patty. She aims to get Patty in trouble by claiming Patty stole her necklace. Danny accidentally intercepts the necklace though and before anyone can say something, Wilde Wolf bursts into the school with sword in hand. With Miss Deer and the students terrified, Wilde Wolf decides to steal Fanny's necklace. Miss Deer goes to the office of Dr. Goat, the schoolmaster, and calls the local sheriff Barney Bulldog for help. This ends up snapping Dr. Goat out of a nap he had been taking...a rather funny scene if you ask me.

Fanny Fox removes her necklace to make it look like Patty stole it.

Wilde Wolf steals Fannie's necklace from Danny Dog

Sheriff Bulldog shows up, gets all the details from Miss Deer and goes off to find Wilde Wolf. Another scene cut from the USA version has Sheriff Bulldog acting happy, thinking he'll win favor with Miss Deer for catching Wilde Wolf. Unlike the obvious reasons for cutting the above scene with Wilde Wolf's pistol, I don't know why this was cut.

Cut scene from USA broadcast

Fanny is not happy with her necklace stolen and berates Danny for letting Wilde Wolf steal it. She claims it's valuable, being made of diamonds, and she wants to be repaid for it. There's no way that Danny can pay for the stolen necklace so Fanny says she'll forgive everything if Patty or Danny can get it back from Wilde Wolf. Bobby Bear scoffs on hearing that, claiming Wilde Wolf would not let them just walk up and take the necklace back. After getting taunted by Fanny, Patty resolves to go after Wilde Wolf and get the necklace. She runs out of the school and off into the wilderness. Bobby ends up following her.

Patty ducks down to avoid being spotted by Wilde Wolf

Patty eventually catches up to Wilde Wolf and sneaks up on him trying to get the necklace back. This leads to a hilarious scene where she crouches down to avoid being spotted by Wilde Wolf. Wilde Wolf is then distracted by a coin on the ground (attached to a string); Patty is able to grab the necklace while while he's chasing after the coin. The coin was a ploy by Bobby Bear, but the wolf catches up to him and Bobby flees. Bobby meets up with Patty and they run for it with Wilde Wolf in hot pursuit. Meanwhile back at the schoolhouse, Fanny is sad. She openly admits the necklace isn't diamond and not really valuable. Overcome with tears, she realizes (as does the rest of the class) that she's put both Patty and Bobby in danger. Fanny goes off after Wilde Wolf...as does the whole class and Miss Deer. The next scene goes to Mr. Rabbit and Sheriff Bulldog; the sheriff fills Mr. Rabbit in on what's happening and the two take off after Wilde Wolf.

Meanwhile, the wolf catches up to Patty and Bobby. He demands the necklace back but Patty refuses. Fanny arrives and tells everyone the necklace isn't worth anything; Wilde Wolf loses interest and decides to steal Fanny's exquisite dress. All three children run off with Wilde Wolf in pursuit and then followed by all the other school students, Miss Deer, Sheriff Bulldog and Mr. Rabbit.

Fanny Fox confesses her necklace is just cheap costume jewelry

The chase leads through a briar patch where Fanny's dress gets torn up. Patty, Bobby and Fanny climb into a tree to get away from Wilde Wolf. Wilde Wolf tries to climb up after them but managed to get himself catapulted into the distant lake.

Fanny's dress gets ruined

The adults catch up to Patty and friends, Fanny mourns the destruction of her pretty dress, and the episode concludes with Patty and Bobby running off into the wilderness.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is an excellent episode that builds upon the first episode, introducing more characters like Fanny Fox and Miss Deer. This episode gets an A from me.

Feel free to comment below. Feedback can be sent to mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 4

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 29 Jul 2018 09:23:00 +0000

And now we come to the final part of the mysteries surrounding the North American broadcast of Maple Town.

What was the plan for the original proposed 65-episode run of Maple Town for US television?
My sources tell me that when Maple Town was exported to the US television market, there were plans to turn it into a 65-episode package for television syndication. How was Saban and the Maltese Companies (they handled the North American dub) planning to even fill a 65-episode requirement? Keep in mind that Maple Town had 52 episodes total, about 13 episode short of that above mentioned 65.

Before we continue, I will need to explain syndication to any non-American readers out there. (My thanks to the TV Tropes page for this explanation!) Because of the fact that television in the United States operates, syndication is a uniquely American design though some other countries have similar concepts.

Anyway, when a television show is sold for broadcast, it is usually to a single network, be it broadcast, cable or satellite; said channel will broadcast that show exclusively and at a designated time. When syndication is done, a show is sold to multiple independent television stations to do with as they wish. When I say syndication, my fellow Americans will think of second-run syndication or off-network syndication; this is when a show that has already broadcast on a network and reruns of it air in syndication. That's one kind of syndication. There's also first-run syndication which was done with many cartoons of the 1980s such as He-Man, She-Ra, Transformers, Inspector Gadget, etc. Yes, the original plan for Maple Town was to run it in first-run syndication; it did initially before moving over to Nickelodeon where it ran until 1993.

That's the long and short of it. The above link to TV Tropes has more details on syndication and how it works.

As I said before, Maple Town broadcasted in "barter" syndication in the USA. "Barter" syndication is where the episode is given for free to the network and allows the holder of the show to have more control over when it is aired. This is contrast to "cash" syndication where the independent network is given total control over the show such as what episodes air and what time it airs. In order to air in syndication, at least 65 episodes are needed mainly for animated series. That's why most of the cartoons I mentioned above are that long.

But that still brings us back to our main question - how was this planned 65-episode dubbing of Maple Town going to work?

I have formulated a theory as to how they'd have stretched Maple Town into a 65-episode run. It's possible that some episodes of the sequel Palm Town were going to be dubbed and edited to fill in the 65 episodes. That may not be so far-fetched. Carl Macek did this with Robotech. He originally wanted to make the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross into Robotech, but he didn't have enough episodes requires for syndication so he took two more series, Super Dimension Armored Cavalry Southern Cross and Genesis Climber Mospeada, and carefully edited them into the required 65 episodes. Of course, my above theory can't be proven unless someone out there can verify it.

On one final note, my sources tell me that television rights to the English Maple Town dub is presently held by the Kushner-Locke Company, which holds 39 episodes.

That's it for now, readers. Any information or comments should be added below in the comments or sent to mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 22 Jul 2018 09:21:00 +0000

Now we come to another mystery with Maple Town. So what mystery is it today?

Who were the uncredited voice actors for the English dub of Maple Town?

Some of the information on who voiced who in the English dubbed Maple Town is incomplete. What we do know is as follows:

Patty Rabbit was Rebecca Forstadt (credited as Reba West)
Bobby Bear was Wendee Lee (some incorrectly credit Susan Roman)
Wilde Wolf was Steve Kramer
Mikey Mole was Barbara Goodson
Mayor Dandy Lion was Ted Layman
Miss Deer was Edie Mirman
Susie Squirrel was Lara Cody
Danny Dog was voiced by the late Kirsten Bishop.
Fanny Fox was voiced by Maureen O'Connell. Maureen's identity is not confirmed at present; according to IMDB, this was an alias used by Marbry Steward, but this is not known for sure.

The other voices on the show like Patty Rabbit's parents, Rachel Rabbit, etc. aren't known. This may owe to the fact that anime voice actors tend to be non-union; as the television & film industry's powerful unions have a strict policy against their members doing non-union work, it's not unusual for these actors to do voices under assumed names.

UPDATE (7/25/2018): According to her Wikipedia entry, Melora Harte is cited as another voice actor for Maple Town, stating she did "various" roles. Coincidentally, she is married to Steve Kramer, the voice of Wilde Wolf!

If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 2: Palm Town

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 15 Jul 2018 09:20:00 +0000

There are more mysteries about Maple Town that I have yet to solve.

Maple Town actually had a sequel made. Some of you here in North America just read that last line and I know what you are thinking. Maple Town had a sequel? Yes, it did.

Many out there, like myself, never even knew of this sequel until years later with the Internet coming along. The name of the series was Palm Town or more precisely as New Maple Town Stories: Palm Town Chapter - the Japanese title was 新メイプルタウン物語-パームタウン編 or Shin Maple Town Monogatari: Palm Town Hen. It aired from 1987 to 1988 on TV Asahi in Maple Town's same time slot.

I plan to talk some more about Palm Town in a future blog post and will also have episode commentaries on those. But now we come to yet another mystery to solve.

Why was Palm Town never dubbed into English for North America?

For some strange reason, the sequel series to Maple Town, Palm Town, never made it to the USA and Canada. Some countries though that got Maple Town did get Palm Town; I know the show broadcast in Italy because I watched the Italian dubs. I did confirm with a Dutch Maple Town fan that Palm Town did not broadcast either in the Netherlands.

Palm Town screenshot courtesy of Maple Town Story Boards

Having watched the Italian dubs of Palm Town, the series isn't as good as Maple Town but still has its own charm.

If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Episode 1 Commentary

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 08 Jul 2018 09:20:00 +0000

So how about a write-up of the first episode of Maple Town? Before we continue, I need to emphasize that just as I will be using the English dub names of the characters, I will be using the English dub titles where I can. I will also use the Japanese episode titles and the Spanish dub titles as well.

Maple Town Episode 1
English Dub Title: Welcome to Maple Town
Japanese Title: "Kochira dōbutsu taun" (こちら動物タウン)
Spanish Dub Title: El Senor Conejo Cartero

This episode is essentially a "welcome" episode designed to introduce the main characters, namely Patty Rabbit and the Rabbit family. Anyway, let's get on with the show.

As the episode opens up, we get some nice camera shots of a steam powered train moving through a dense forest.

As the train moves through the forest, we cut to a shot of our protagonist Patty Rabbit looking out the window of the rear train car.

On a technical level - and I do know things about art and film as I am a freelance illustrator who makes comics - Maple Town is excellent quality by 1980s standards and even by today's standards. The shots and camera angles used when the train is moving combined with the beautifully rendered backgrounds and the character design - it's exceptional.

The wardrobes of the characters, like the Rabbit Family picture above, are of a superb design. It always fascinated me that this anime was made in the mid-1980s yet the technology and fashions resemble something from the first half of the 20th century. That's part of the unique charm of Maple Town. Anyway, the Rabbit family from left to right is Mrs. Rabbit holding their baby, Bunny; Rachel Rabbit, the eldest child; Patty Rabbit, our heroine sitting by the window; Mr. Rabbit, wearing the hat; and Ricky Rabbit, the only son in the family (reading the book).

Patty complains about the long train trip but her father assures her they'll be arriving in Maple Town soon. She also complains that she's hungry and fishes out a piece of candy from her suitcase.

Rachel berates Patty for eating candy. Meanwhile, we have a brief shot of the Maple Town mayor, Mayor Dandy Lion, rehearsing a speech to welcome the newcomers, the Rabbit Family, to town as a bored train station worker listens. Of course, fate has other ideas in store for Patty and her family.

The train comes to an abrupt halt as it gets held up by the primary villain of Maple Town, Wilde Wolf.

Wilde Wolf in silhouette

Wilde Wolf is pretty much the main villain of Maple Town. I'll be honest - "villain" may be too strong of a word. While he is genuinely menacing at times, other times see him as being more ineffectual. We'll see more of that as the series progresses. Anyway, Wilde Wolf gathers valuables from the townspeople to put into a sack. But he doesn't stop there.

Remember that candy I mentioned before? The one Patty Rabbit was eating? Wilde Wolf actually steals the candy from her. Patty grabs they candy back from him as Mr. Rabbit yells at Wilde Wolf for doing that. At that moment, Wilde Wolf spots the mailbag that Mr. Rabbit is carrying with him. Forgetting about the candy and the valuables, Wilde Wolf steals the mailbag, thinking its contents are full of money.

Wilde Wolf steals Mr. Rabbit's mailbag

One of the things I did when working on this review was to compare the English dub in my possession to the Spanish dub. Not surprisingly, the English dubbed episodes have scenes cut out. While some of these were most likely cut for time, some were cut for probably violating North American broadcast standards. Like the scene you're about to see...

Cut scene from USA broadcast

Mr. Rabbit tries to go after the mail but Wilde Wolf threatens him with a flintlock pistol. This was cut from the American broadcast, most likely due to restrictions on violence for broadcast television. It does irk me when material gets censored.

Anyway, Mayor Dandy Lion is alerted to the train robbery as is Maple Town's resident lawman, Sheriff Barney Bulldog. Mrs. Fox tags along and they learn the details of the robbery. Sheriff Bulldog is first amused at the fact that Wilde Wolf stole the mail until Mrs. Fox yells at him for that; it turns out both she and her husband, Mr. Fox, were expecting a very important letter.

While Mr. Rabbit, Mrs. Fox and Sheriff Bulldog head off into the woods to track down Wilde Wolf, Patty Rabbit runs off alone into the forest to find Wilde Wolf too and get the mail back. As our heroes head into the woods, Wilde Wolf decides to open the mailbag to inspect its contents...while a figure in a wooden barrel follows him. The mailbag does indeed have only mail in it rather than money. The figure in the barrel berates him.

The kid in the barrel is none other than Bobby Bear, the deuteragonist of the series. When Wilde Wolf realizes Bobby is right there, a chase ensues.

After a lengthy chase, Wilde Wolf gets temporarily incapacitated and Bobby recovers the stolen mailbag. Patty Rabbit eventually catches up to Bobby and asks him to return the mailbag. Bobby refuses to return it but Patty insists it belongs to her father. When Patty tells Bobby that it has just mail in there, he gives it back.

Wilde Wolf though regains consciousness and comes after both Patty and Bobby. After a scuffle, Wilde Wolf is knocked out. By then, Mr. Rabbit, Mrs. Fox and Sheriff Bulldog find Patty and Bobby. While Mr. Rabbit yells at Patty for running out into the woods alone, he is happy that she recovered the mail.

Patty's father yells at Patty for running off

Patty and Mr. Rabbit reunite with everyone else

The episode wraps up with a welcoming party in honor of the Rabbit family. Mr. Rabbit is able to deliver mail to a number of the townspeople including the Fox family (we'll learn more about them in future episodes).

Welcoming the Rabbits to Maple Town

Mr. and Mrs. Fox get an important letter

As the party goes along (and Mayor Lion drones on with his speech), Rachel takes Patty inside to show her around their new home. After a cross-section cut showing them walking around the inside of their new house, they head up to the balcony and end the episode by admiring the wilderness surrounding their new home of Maple Town.

What, no bathroom?

Patty and Rachel admiring their new home of Maple Town, their favorite place to be...

FINAL THOUGHTS: This is essentially a "welcome" episode, meant to introduce the main protagonists of Patty Rabbit and her family, Bobby Bear, Wilde Wolf and some other characters. It does succeed in that aspect and sets the tone for the series. I give this episode a grade of A.

On another note, future episode commentaries will be lighter on screenshots. Taking those shots and putting them into the blog posts - what a labor intensive ordeal.

Feel free to comment below. Feedback can be sent to mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

The Mysteries of Maple Town Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 01 Jul 2018 10:09:00 +0000

Another favorite show of mine was Unsolved Mysteries because I was always fascinated by mysteries and how they got solved. The 1986 anime series Maple Town is a source of mystery for me because there are unanswered questions about the show's North American broadcast. I hope in the course of doing this blog, we can solve these mysteries and answer these questions.

In my mind, there's four things that have been puzzling me in regards to Maple Town. The first mystery that comes to mind. It's this -

We did not get all 52 episodes broadcast here in the United States. Why was this the case?

I have reason to believe that all 52 episodes may have been dubbed into English but never broadcast. This happened when Saban dubbed the anime Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics into English but some episodes did not air on Nickelodeon for being too scary and too violent. Some years ago on YouTube, someone contacted me and claimed to have watched the remaining English dubbed episodes on Canadian television. These episodes did NOT have the Mrs. Maple segments that the earlier episodes have. Unfortunately, this is a secondhand account so until some other Canadians out there can verify this, I'm not sure if this is true.

I have been attempting to contact two of the voice actors from the English dub - Rebecca Forstadt (Patty Rabbit) and Edie Mirman (Miss Deer). I hoped to ask them some questions about Maple Town and maybe even confirm if they recorded dialogue for all 52 episodes. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, I am unable to reach them.

If anyone out there has information, I'd appreciate hearing from you. You can comment below or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

That's it for now.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Mrs. Maple

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 24 Jun 2018 09:31:00 +0000

The North American dubs of Maple Town had something that the original Japanese version and the other foreign dubs didn't have - a live-action host opening and closing the show.

Each episode of the North American English dubs would open and close with a live actor named Mrs. Maple on a kitchen set. She was implied to be the only human living in Maple Town and would introduce the episode, bringing up what was going on in Maple Town and what that episode's plot would be.

After chatting with the viewers for a bit and mentioning elements of the episode's story, she would turn to look out of a window into Maple Town, which had the animation added in (probably with Chroma key).

Mrs. Maple (Janice Adams) looking out her window into Maple Town

At the end of the episode, we (the viewers) would return to Mrs. Maple's kitchen where she'd sum up the story and/or its moral and then say goodbye to the viewers.

Later episodes of the English dub made Mrs. Maple's role less important; she'd give more of a summary of what to expect in the episode rather than the longer introductions she did early on.

Mrs. Maple was portrayed by Janice Adams. According to her listing on IMDB, Maple Town seems to be her only acting credit - nothing else before or after is listed. There's no other information about Janice Adams so any acting background, her current whereabouts, etc. are unknown.

This is the only post where I really plan to discuss her character. She isn't really important, even to the English dubs, so I won't mention Mrs. Maple much from here on.

That's it for now. Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Patty Rabbit

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 09:40:00 +0000

Today, I'm going to talk about the protagonist and heroine of Maple Town and its sequel Palm Town. Her name is Patty Rabbit and is pretty much the iconic character of both series.

Before I go any further, I want to emphasize that for clarity, I will be using the North American English names for the characters like Rachel Rabbit, Fanny Fox, Suzie Squirrel, etc. Should I come across a character that I'm unsure of their name or if they made it to the English dubs, I will use the best name I can find from the dubs I have. If anyone out there can help fill in the missing information, comment here or email me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com. Anyway, without further ado, let's get this show on the road.

Patty Rabbit (called Patty Hoprabbit in the original Japanese version) is the heroine of Maple Town and Palm Town. She's 8 years old and is the second of four children. At the start of the series, she moves with her family to Maple Town where her father runs the town post office.

After arriving and meeting new friends like Bobby Bear, Patty and her older sister Rachel (named Ann in the Japanese version) start school. Patty, her family and all her friends have all kinds of adventures in Maple Town.

Patty is quite energetic and usually cheerful. As a little girl though, she can be impulsive and even outright naive; she will rush ahead into situations without thinking first. Of course, that leads to a number of plots.

In the English dubs, Patty is voiced by Rebecca Forstadt, also known as Reba West. Americans and Canadians will obviously recognize the name and voice; her best known role, even today, is that of Lynn Minmei from Robotech. In the original Japanese, Patty was voiced by Maya Okamoto. The Italian dub had Patty voiced by Marcella Silvestri. If anyone else has more info on the voice credits for the foreign dubs, feel free to contact me.

In the sequel series, Palm Town (I will talk more about this in the future), Patty moves to the seaside resort town of Palm Town with her aunt Jane. She gets a different dress, shown in the picture above.

Also, I have a few model sheets of Patty. Special thanks goes to Phillip of the Maple Town Forums for posting these.

Well, that's it for now. I hope to have commentaries on episodes coming up soon. Your comments and feedback are always welcome.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town: An Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 17:25:00 +0000

Maple Town, officially known in Japanese as Maple Town Stories or Maple Town Monogatari (Japanese: メイプルタウン物語), was a 1986 Japanese animated series produced by Toei Animation, created by Chifude Asakura and directed by Junichi Sato (who also worked on Sailor Moon, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sgt. Frog).

Maple Town was a 52-episode anime that could be described as slice-of-life with elements of adventure and drama. The series revolved around a young female protagonist named Patty Rabbit. At the start of the series, she moves with her family to Maple Town, where her father runs the post office. During her time, she meets Bobby Bear and a number of other town residents like Danny Dog, Fanny Fox, Susie Squirrel, etc. and has run-ins with a local bandit named Wilde Wolf.

The series was animated by Toei and broacast on TV Asashi on Sundays from January 19, 1986 to January 11, 1987.

After its initial run, a sequel was made called Palm Town or formally as New Maple Town Stories: Palm Town Chapter or Shin Maple Town Monogatari: Palm Town Hen (新メイプルタウン物語-パームタウン編), with this series running for about 50 episodes. Palm Town only had Patty Rabbit with some of the original Maple Town characters appearing on occasion. This show originally broadcast from January 18, 1987 to December 27, 1987.

My sources tell me two movies were made - a Maple Town movie was released on July 12, 1986 and a Palm Town movie was released on March 14, 1987. I know the Maple Town movie is an original story, but I have not viewed it so I can give no more information at present. In contrast, the Palm Town movie is a compilation of the first episode of Palm Town with the last few episodes of Maple Town spliced in. I viewed this movie years ago on YouTube but it has been since taken down due to copyright issues.

Sometime in 1987, Maple Town was exported to a number of other countries including (but not limited to) the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, France, Poland, Hong Kong and various Arabic speaking nations. Some countries did also get its sequel Palm Town but other did not.

For the United States and Canada, an English language dub was produced by Saban Enterainment and the Maltese Companies in conjunction with Tonka producing merchandise of Maple Town. The series originally ran in syndication on independent television stations in 1987 and then moved to cable channel Nickelodeon. For reasons unknown, all 52 episodes were not shown on US television; Maple Town ran until April 2, 1993 on Nick.

Merchandise was released in Japan and other countries; Tonka licensed the toys here in the USA. Maple Town toys were collectible figurines with clothes as well as vehicles, furniture and playsets. The usual other merchandise was released such as puzzles and coloring books. Home video releases were released too as mentioned on the home video post.

That's it for now. I'll have some more posts up during the week.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Welcome to the Maple Town Compendium

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 09:11:00 +0000

Good day to all of you out there. My name is Max West and I'd like to welcome all of you to my new blog.

The focus of this blog is to discuss the 1986 Japanese animated series Maple Town Monogatari (Japanese: メイプルタウン物語), more commonly known as Maple Town.

What's that? You've never heard of this anime?

I hope to change that. Maple Town seems to be unknown except to three groups of people. The first would be animation buffs, especially those big on animation history. The second would be those who were children in the 1980s. Maple Town would run alongside many other animated series of the 1980s like He-Man & the Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Care Bears, Rainbow Brite, the Real Ghosbusters, and many more. The third would be the furry fandom. This series is noted by furry fans from Japan, USA, Canada, Spain, the Netherlands, etc. because of its focus on anthropomorphic animals.

Anyway, my goal is to raise awareness of Maple Town, discuss the series and document its existence for future generations. This show is quite unique and not just because of its Japanese origins.

When I viewed the show years ago in 1987 when it broadcast in the United States of America, first airing in syndication and then the cable channel Nickelodeon, I found it fascinating. Besides its cute nature, the beautifully rendered backgrounds are a technical marvel.

The very essence of the show was bewildering; this show was made in the 1980s and the sequel series to Maple Town, Palm Town (which I will also discuss on this blog), clearly establishes Maple Town takes place around 1986 and 1987. Yet everything was old-fashioned. In the decade of neon-colors, skinny neckties and legwarmers, everyone wore clothes resembling the first half of the twentieth century. The technology was old-fashioned too. In spite of this apparently taking place in the 1980s, any technology appearing was antique. There was a notable lack of television, computers, video games and so on. I just did not understand why this hamlet called Maple Town seemed to be isolated from the modern world in terms of both culture and technology. But it still fascinated me. I watched reruns of Maple Town on Nickelodeon until they stopped airing around April 1993. The thought of that small village never left my mind.

Years later, I started drawing comics. Inspired by Maple Town, I created a series with a similar concept - a small, isolated village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. It's titled Sunnyville Stories and owes a lot of Maple Town. That has its own blog so I won't bring it up here that much. The link is below.

The blog will get regular updates on Sundays; I may do occasional posts during the week. Welcome to this blog and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Links and Further Reading

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 09:07:00 +0000

I would like to share with you the links and resources I used to help in putting together this blog. These are also worth checking out for more information about Maple Town.

Maple Town's entry on Wikipedia

Maple Town's entry on IMDB

Maple Town's official entry on Toei Animation - This is in Japanese.

Maple Town on the Big Cartoon Database

Maple Town Wiki - A wiki for Maple Town; a very handy reference I used for my research.

Maple Town Story Forums - A forum powered by ProBoards about Maple Town, Palm Town and anything related to it. As of early 2017, there's not much activity going on but it is handy for tidbits of information. I plan to cite info from here when I can. Anyone browsing this blog/compendium should check the board out and maybe give it life again.

Maple Town Page on Tripod - This page was very handy and was what jogged my memory about this anime series. While it's a goldmine of information, it seems to be dead. It doesn't seem to be updated and there's no way to contact anyone who maintains the page.

This post will be updated regularly as I learn more information.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Home Video Releases

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 09:22:00 +0000

Maple Town did get home video releases on VHS format back in the late 1980s.

According to this Tripod based Maple Town page, six videocassettes were released by Family Home Entertainment from about 1988 to 1990.

The first cassette pictured here, titled "Welcome to Maple Town", was released in 1987 and has about 4 episodes running about 86 minutes total. These episodes are: Welcome to Maple Town, The Stolen Necklace, The Pot That Wouldn't Hold Water and the Greatest Treasure of All.

The remaining five videos released all have just two episodes each. They are as follows:

"The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town", 1987, containing The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town and The Children's Forest Patrol

"A Baby Comes to Maple Town", 1987, containing A Baby Comes to Maple Town and When Children Must Be Grownups

"The Case of the Missing Candy, 1987, containing the Case of the Missing Candy and Teacher, Please Don't Go

"Medicine from Maple Mountain", 1987, containing Medicine from Maple Mountain and the Ransom of Maple Forest

"The House Made of Love", 1987, containing the House Made of Love and A Most Unlikely Heroine

In Japan during the 1990s, Toei Video released about ten videocassettes with about three episodes each. (Above image courtesy of the Lost Media Wiki.) The UK got a few video releases through Multiple Sound Distributors. Meanwhile in the Netherlands, CNR Video released a few cassettes with episodes.

As for DVD releases, even in this day and age, they are quite rare. DVD releases exist in Japan, Spain and Hungary.

This is the DVD release of the Spanish Maple Town dub known as "La Aldea Del Arce".

I have no pictures of the Hungarian DVD release at present. In its native Japan, Toei has released both Maple Town and Palm Town on DVD over two boxed sets. My sources tell me that as many DVD sets do, there's bonus material such as production art, storyboards and character model sheets.

At the time of this writing, no other DVD releases have been announced for elsewhere like the United States.

There are two points of order that I need to address here. The first is that anyone in North America interested in getting any of the above DVD releases should take heed. Europe and Japan uses a region 2 coding for their videodiscs; these will NOT work on a North American DVD player, which are region 1.

The other one is directed at anyone looking for episodes in any format (DVD, videocassette, digital files and so on). PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME HERE OR BY EMAIL ASKING FOR EPISODES. For legal reasons, I cannot offer them nor can I direct you to any sources for these episodes. You are on your own for locating these.

Should the situation change with any sort of digital or optical disc release, this post will be updated.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.

Maple Town Episode List (North America)

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 09:25:00 +0000

Maple Town was exported to many other countries throughout the world in 1987 and translated into a number of languages for foreign viewers.

When it came to the United States of America, all 52 episodes were not broadcast in the United States market. My research shows that a run of 65 episodes were planned but this was not done. (On another note, since Maple Town only contained 52 episodes, this implies they may have planned to dub some of the episodes from its sequel series, Palm Town, to add onto this planned 65-episode run. But this is only speculation on my part.) The reasons for this and why its sequel Palm Town never made it to this side of the Atlantic Ocean is unknown (but that's another blog post).

Select episodes ran in barter syndication sometime in 1987. More episodes started airing on children's cable channel Nickelodeon until it was pulled from their lineup around April 2, 1993.

The following are the English titles of episodes that broadcast in the USA and possibly Canada. I don't have full information on which episodes ran nor do I have their exact airdate; I can only speculate from my research that these aired originally in 1987 and 1988 in both syndication and on Nickelodeon.

1. Welcome to Maple Town!

2. The Stolen Necklace

3. Box Go Boom (Alternate title may be "The Silver Spoons")

4. The Greatest Treasure of All

5. The Pot That Wouldn't Hold Water

6. Medicine from Maple Mountain

7. The Children's Forest Patrol

8. The Ransom of Maple Forest

9. A Most Unlikely Heroine

10. The Prettiest Dress In Maple Town

11. The House Made of Love

12. Teacher, Please Don't Go!

13. The Letter That Saved Mayor Dandy Lion (Alternate title may be "Letters of Love")

14. Father Still Knows Best (Alternate title may be "A Lesson from Father")

15. A Baby Comes to Maple Town

16. The Spirit of Twin Peaks

17. When Children Must Be Grownups

18. A Love Letter to Miss Deer (Alternate title may be "Love Letter Mix-Up")

19. The Beaver Family's Swimming Hole (Alternate title may be "The Beaver Family Pool")

20. The Maple Town Children's Newspaper (Alternate title may be "The Maple Town Newspaper")

21. The Mystery Man of Maple Town

22. The Case of the Missing Candy

23. The Forgotten Dream (Alternate title may be "A Long Forgotten Dream")

24. Friends of Maple Town

25. Angels of the Valley

26. The Witch's Castle (Alternate title maybe "The Old Witch's Castle")

27. High Tide

28. The Ghost Piano

29. Panic in the Hospital

30. Unfortunate Predictions

31. A Maple Town Wedding

32. Rotten Fruit

If anyone has more information about episodes that aired in the USA or Canada, feel free to comment here or contact me at mapletown(at)gmx(dot)com.

Maple Town Episode List (Japanese)

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 10:42:00 +0000

Maple Town's official Japanese title is Maple Town Monogatari (Japanese: メイプルタウン物語), which translates as "Maple Town Stories". The show was produced by Toei Animation of Japan and was broadcast Sunday mornings on TV Asahi from January 19, 1986 to January 11, 1987. A total of 52 episodes were produced plus one film. A sequel series titled Palm Town or officially Shin Maple Town Monogatari: Palm Town Hen (Japanese: 新メイプルタウン物語-パームタウン編) which translates as "New Maple Town Stories: Palm Town Chapter". That ran for 50 episodes and in the same time slot on TV Asahi as its predecessor did.

The following is a list of episodes that ran; these titles were obtained from Wikipedia and Anime News Network.

1.  "Kochira dōbutsu taun" (こちら動物タウン) - Jan. 19, 1986

2.  "Nerawareta kubikazari" (ねらわれた首飾り) - Jan. 26, 1986

3.  "Kie ta gin nosaji" (消えた銀のさじ) - Feb. 2, 1986

4.  "Hori ate ta takara mono" (掘り当てた宝もの) - Feb. 9, 1986

5.  "Ubawareta nabe" (うばわれたナベ) - Feb. 16, 1986

6.  "Kowareta kusuri bin" (こわれた薬びん) - Feb. 23, 1986

7.  "Mori no minarai keibitai" (森の見習い警備隊) - Mar. 2, 1986

8.  "Watashino e wo mite!" (わたしの絵を見て！) - Mar. 9, 1986

9.  "Hiroin hawatashi" (ヒロインはわたし) - Mar. 16, 1986

10.  "Papa, kocchi mui te" (パパこっち向いて) - Mar. 23, 1986

11.  "O kashi no ie no yakusoku" (お菓子の家の約束) - Mar. 30, 1986

12.  "Ika naide! Sensei" (行かないで！先生) - Apr. 6, 1986

13.  "Ai wo yobu tegami" (愛を呼ぶ手紙) - Apr. 13, 1986

14.  "Tōsan arigatō" (父さんありがとう) - Apr. 20, 1986

15.  "Haro! Akachan" (ハロー！赤ちゃん) - Apr. 27, 1986

16.  "Usagi yama no kami sama" (うさぎ山の神さま) - May 4, 1986

17.  "Kodomo dakeno machi" (子供だけの町) - May 11, 1986

18.  "Tanoma reta koi no tegami" (頼まれた恋の手紙) - May 18, 1986

19.  "Biibaa ie no natsu" (ビーバー家の夏) - May 25, 1986

20.  "Patei no kodomo shinbun" (パティの子供新聞) - Jun. 1, 1986

21.  "Nige tekita kaizoku" (逃げてきた海賊) - Jun. 8, 1986

22.  "Kodomo tachino mujintō" (子供たちの無人島) - Jun. 15, 1986

23. "Yume nowasuremono" (夢のわすれもの) - Jun. 22, 1986

24. "Yama kara kita tomo dachi" (山から来た友だち) - Jun. 29, 1986

25.  "Tanima no tenshi tachi" (谷間の天使たち) - Jul. 6, 1986

26.  "Majo no sumu o shiro" (魔女の住むお城) - Jul. 13, 1986

27. "Kai garani negai wo!" (貝がらに願いを！) - Jul. 20, 1986

28 "Koibito tachino aoi umi" (恋人たちの青い海) - Jul. 27, 1986

29 "Fushigina piano" (ふしぎなピアノ) - Aug. 3, 1986

30 "Byōin ha taisa wagi" (病院は大さわぎ) - Aug. 10, 1986

31 "Yōkoso! O kyaku sama" (ようこそ！お客さま) - Aug. 17, 1986

32 "Shōtaijō gahoshii!" (招待状がほしい！) - Aug. 24, 1986

33 "Gureteru no koi uranai" (グレテルの恋占い) - Aug. 31, 1986

34 "Tabi no shoujo dōra" (旅の少女ドーラ) - Sept. 7, 1986

35 "Kinenshashin de chīzu!" (記念写真でチーズ!) - Sept. 14, 1986

36 "Akai tori mitsu keta!" (赤い鳥見つけた!) - Sept. 21, 1986

37 "Akogare no baiorin" (憧れのバイオリン) - Sept. 28, 1986

38 "Kekkonshiki haomakase" (結婚式はおまかせ) - Oct. 5, 1986

39 "Daiana nonamida" (ダイアナのなみだ) - Oct. 12, 1986

40 "Himitsu no ie no onnanoko" (秘密の家の女の子) - Oct. 19, 1986

41 "Watashi no penfurendo" (私のペンフレンド) - Oct. 26, 1986

42 "Jasumin matsuri no yoru" (ジャスミン祭の夜) - Nov. 2, 1986

43 "Hoshi nitodoita tegami" (星にとどいた手紙) - Nov. 9, 1986

44 "Mafurâ no okurimono" (マフラーの贈り物) - Nov. 16, 1986

45 "Yama no ie hamou fuyu" (山の家はもう冬) - Nov. 23, 1986

46 "Mizuumi no sukêto kyousou" (湖のスケート競走) - Nov. 30, 1986

47 "Moshikashite megamisama?" (もしかして女神様?) - Dec. 7, 1986

48 "Sono kinko woakete!" (その金庫をあけて!) - Dec. 14, 1986

49 "Futagono akachan" (ふたごの赤ちゃん) - Dec. 21, 1986

50 "Kêki de shinnen wo!" (ケーキで新年を!) - Dec. 28, 1986

51 "Minami no machi noobasan" (南の町のおばさん) - Jan. 4, 1987

52 "Patei no tabidachi" (パティの旅立ち) - Jan. 11, 1987

A Word on Copyright

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 11:06:00 +0000

While I have put a copyright page here on this Maple Town blog, I feel it important to stress this as well in a blog post.

Maple Town and Palm Town are NOT my creations nor do I have any connection with those who created/produced the show. The copyrights and trademarks on this intellectual property belongs to their respective holders. I make no claim to said copyrights/trademarks whatsoever.

I will be sharing screenshots from Maple Town and Palm Town, video clips (courtesy of video sites like YouTube) and pictures of various merchandise. The purpose of these images and this site is for informational and educational purposes only; no infringement of any kind is intended to the rightful owners on the copyright/trademark on Maple Town. I repeat - I make no claim to any copyright on the aforementioned work and this blog would fall under fair use.

About Me

noreply@blogger.com (Max West) — Mon, 04 Jun 2018 10:52:00 +0000

As for the humble author of this blog? My real name is my own business. You can call me Max West. I was born on January 4, 1980 in New York City. I grew up in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens and during the first half of the 1990s, lived in rural North Carolina. I presently live in Fargo, North Dakota.

What do I do? Besides doing this blog, I draw comics. I draw an independent comic series, Sunnyville Stories, as well as a webcomic titled Tiffany & Corey (links are below). I also write. I've tried my hand at writing fiction and, as you can surmise, I do much blogging too. My degree is in creative writing from Baruch College of New York City.

Be sure to check out my blog about my comics series Sunnyville Stories and my webcomic Tiffany & Corey. If you like this blog, be sure to buy me a Ko-Fi.