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mask131 · 4 months ago

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Other Odysseys: Ulysses 31

It seems so strange for me that many people do not know Ulysses 31, because back in France it is one of the most famous and defining productions of the 80s in terms of kid entertainment. It was one of the big nerdy things of the time, and a large influence on French sci-fi.

Ulysses 31 (French title, Ulysse 31 ; Japanese title, Uchu Densetsu Yurishizu Satiwan) is one of the most renowned results of this specific mediatic era in the 80s which saw recurring collaborations between France and Japan. This series is, as a result, both an European cartoon and a Japanese anime. It first aired during the 1981-1982 season, but it kept having regular re-airings all the way into the 2000s. It is a set of 26 episodes, each 26 minutes long (though the original airing was... very strange. If anyone is interested I'll share about it :p)

And what's the plot? Well if you couldn't guess by the title... It's THE ODYSSEY IN SPACE of course!

Science-fiction was the big obsession of both French and Japanese in the 80s, so of course they would settle to move the Odyssey n space. Remember: it was the post-Star Wars boom, the "after Kubrick's 2001" time, the era of "Captain Future", "Albator 78", "Cobra Space Adventure". We still have Odysseus trying to return home, encountering monsters and being persecuted by the gods... But we are in the 31st century, Odysseus' ship is a space-ship equiped with a helpful artificial-intelligence-computer, Troy is a space station, Odysseus tries to return to planet Earth rather than Ithaqua, and his journey takes him through space and different planets instead of islands of the sea.

Another quite major change: Telemachus is with Odysseus! Yep. Indeed, you see, Odysseus still has his entire crew... But they were placed into a suspended animation by the gods as part of Odysseus' curse. This was actually a way to limit the protagonists of the story, as there are only four people awake and sentient on the ship. Odysseus, his son Telemachus who accompanies him, Themis (who is an alien little girl Odysseus rescued from this version of the Cyclop, no relationship to the Titaness whatsoever), and Nonno. Nonno who is... he is supposed to be the sort of goofy, joking robot sidekick - you know the type of character, this typical chibified little mascot you find in every anime of the era, and that people either love or despise with all their guts.

Together, the four of them (who basically have a sort of family dynamic of a father, his two kids, and the pet) have to find back their way to Earth while escaping the many perils and dangers the gods throw before them... Because here's the fascinating thing in this take on the Odyssey: the gods are actual gods. They're not hyper-advanced aliens, they're not omniscient artificial intelligence, they are actual deities who just happen to rule over the entire universe instead of one planet. Or rather the entire "multiverse"...

Here is the starting plot of the series, the core of the first episode and what is recapped at the beginning of each ulterior story - and it gives you an insight at how this cartoon handles the original material.

The episode begins with Odysseus and Telemachus leaving the Troy space-station where they stayed for several years, to return home to Earth. However, during their travel, they get captured by the inhabitants of a strange and dangerous planet: a group of fanatical one-eyed monks. These people are actually a cult who worship a creation of the god Poseidon: a gigantic robot, the "Cyclop", which provides sight and energy to the fanatical monks... in exchange of child sacrifices. Odysseus rescues his son Telemachus, as well as two alien kids (one of them being Themis, the other her older brother Numaios), and destroys the Cyclop-robot before leaving the planet.

Unfortunately for him, the monks called upon Poseidon, who in turn called upon Zeus - and Zeus appears in front of Odysseus' ship. Zeus punishes Odysseus for destroying a sacred creation of the gods - and not only does he places Odysseus' entire crew (plus Themis' older brother) in a state of suspended animation, a sort of floating coma, but he also erases the road back to Earth from the space-ship's main computer... And then transports Odysseus' ship to Olympus.

Sounds cool? No. Olympus is here an alternate dimension filled with physical abnormalities and scientific horrors and other alien terrors. It is where the gods and their servants dwell, but it is also where they send all those they seek to punish or torment... And by Zeus' own words, Odysseus is now doomed to find his way back to Earth - which he can only do by reaching the outmost limits of the dimension of Olympus, the "realm of Hades", where a gate to his homeworld awaits him...

Quite a story, huh?

The anime actually takes a course typical of Odyssey cartoons: it adapts the key parts of the Odyssey (Circe, Charybdis and Scylla, Aeolus, the Cyclop, the Laestrygons, etc), but also throws in other elements from Greek mythology to pad things up (Odysseus encounters the sphinx, the minotaur, Nereus, and more), and also adds entirely new episodes which have absolutely nothing to do with Greek mythology whatsoever (and usually you can feel how different they are due to relying on anime tropes and random fantasy or sci-fi stories rather than, you know, Greek legend and Antique aesthetic - you even have a friggin' space adaptation of Count Zaroff!).

If you are familiar with the specific brand of science-fiction carried by things like Doctor Who, you'll find yourself upon a comfortable ground, a world where gods and witches coexist with alien plants, impossible planets, clones and hyper-advanced robots ; a world where Poseidon sends shark-humanoids in trident-shaped spaceships after Odysseus. However, the defining trait of this anime, and what a lot of people might enjoy with this loose adaptation: it is full on cosmic horror.

Already we are talking of Greek monsters transposed as aliens, robots and space abnormalities ; and of Odysseus' endless journey through hostile seas being turned into a desperate search for his home-planet throughout the empty darkness of an alternate dimension. Add to that how Olympus is a prison-dimension containing many people who are victim of the gods' unfairness or cruelty - even though they, themselves, turned towards evil measures or committed terrible deeds as a result of what the gods had them go through... The result is eepisodes that are either terrifying, or very much depressing (especially episodes like the Sisyphus or Circe ones, where these already ambiguous figures are even more morally ambiguous, pitiful in their fall and noble in their evil, antagonists Odysseus must battle but that he comes to admire and respect in their own ways). It's still kid-friendly though, so Odysseus always vanquishes the villain of the day, and his kids are never truly harmed, and the protagonists always escape by the end... But by gosh is everybody who is not a protagonist can have the worst and most miserable endings ever.

But then, you have to add the gods. They're the best part of the show - as in, the most horrifying. Remember when I said I don't mind pure villainization of the Greek gods as long as it is made in a way that makes sense and is aware of the original material? It's one of these cases.

In Ulysses 31's universe, there are no good gods. Athena is utterly absent, Hermes does appear but he doesn't give two shits about Odysseus as he was sent for another mission (dealing with Circe, which just happens to coincidentaly help Odysseus and even then in a way that deeply displeases Odysseus), and the closest thing we get to a benevolent entity is Hades - but that's just because he is a purely and entirely neutral force who is still massively terrifying. It tells you something that in this story, Zeus is turned into the main persecutor of Odysseus and teams up with Poseidon to cause the most terrible things to him (in fact, Zeus and Poseidon are so close they are basically almost one same entity). Even Aeolus is turned into an evil lord out of Dune who hosts for his guests deadly games using human beings as pawns.

But what is really frightening and cool in terms of design choices are how the big gods appear. The big three, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. The "minor" gods like Aeolus or others are depicted as just mutated and/or supernatural humanoids, as physical entities - but the "big" gods? They are... gigantic, empty-eyed Ancient Greek statues, half-translucid, floating into space, appearing and disappearing out of the shadows between the stars, with their voice booming through the silence of space and reaching people's ears against all physical laws. This, while being followed by some creepy synth music that traumatized an entire generation of kids. For those who were scared by the Southern Oracle scene from the Neverending Story, you'll get what I mean when I say enormous talking statues can be very disturbing.

In fact, in many ways "Ulysses 31" might be one of the darkest takes on the Odyssey and on Greek mythology I ever saw, which ultimately leaves you with a strange bittersweet taste in your mouth. Again, typical of a Doctor Who-like show: a cosmic horror story that ends happily, a space-travel tale where the heroes defeat the bad guys but with abominable implications for the kind of world they live in as a whole, and a story which despite being fun and goofy at time, is still a story where many people died or suffered dreadfully on the way. .

... You know, just your random kids classic that aired on children's channels on Sunday mornings X) Even some of the goofist, most ridiculous or childish episodes (like the one of the witch at the vacation camp for aliens - you'll know what I mean) always have at least one frightening scene or shot worth of a horror movie.

#the odyssey #ulysses 31 #ulysse 31 #other odysseys #odyssey adaptations #80s cartoon #anime #80s anime #french cartoon #dessin animé #greek mythology #cosmic horror #science fantasy

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mask131 · 4 months ago

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Other Odysseys: Mission Odyssey

This one is sort-of a follow-up to the "Ulysse 31" cartoon. You'll see what I mean...

Do you know Totally Spies, or Martin Mystery, or Team Galaxy? Those quite specific cartoons coming from a specific set of studios and a quite specific era, with their very distinctive style? Well, there was a fourth cartoon part of this set, so to speak... one adapting the Odyssey. A Franco-German cartoon first aired in 2002. In France we just call it "L'odyssée", The Odyssey, but in English the titled got changed to "Mission Odyssey" (probably to be more appealing to kids?).

This cartoon is another production of the company Marathon Média of the early 2000s pushing forward what has been called the "franime" - a French animation style trying to imitate Japanese anime, or rather marrying some manga visual elements with a more European animation tradition. Where Totally Spies was dealing with the "spy" genre, Martin Mystery with the "horror for kids" and Team Galaxy with "sci-fi space-travel", "Mission Odyssey" actually is meant to tackle a more "traditional" fantasy. And... that's kind of the main problem of this cartoon.

Because when you look at this cartoon... You will see how it clearly was meant to be a D&D-like fantasy show X)

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this cartoon and I have positive stuff to say about it... But let's get the bad things out of the way. And the first bad thing is that, if you are looking for a faithful adaptation of Greek mythology, turn away because its handling of the Greek myths is very very loose.

The core story is still the same as the Odyssey: Odysseus tries to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, but is pursued by the wrath of Poseidon, and must wander from island to island, monster to monster, encounter after encounter, with the final episode seeing him defeat the suitors harassing Penelope (the show is 26 episodes of 24 minutes). And don't get me wrong: unlike "Ulysses 31" which invented out of blue entire episodes completely unrelated to Greek mythology whatsoever, Mission Odyssey ALWAYS takes its elements from Greek mythology, always. But A) In order to provide some padding and extend the story, Odysseus encounters a LOT of monsters and characters NOT part of the Odyssey - Pegasus, the Minotaur, the Amazons, the Gorgons, centaurs, harpies , Lycaon and the Golden Fleece are all at the program. B) The show has an habit of... reimagining the monster and entities of Greek mythology in WILD and bizarre ways.

The Minotaur? He is actually the king of his island and much more human than planned. The Gorgons? They are now two witch-sisters instead of a trio of monsters. Charybdis and Scylla? They are cursed lovers who must be set free from the spell that trap them. The sirens? They're your typical fish-mermaid kingdom. The harpies? They are now an entire kingdom and matriarchy of bird-women, instead of random evil spirits. The Titans? Oh they're just horned-bluish humanoids living in a Norse-inspired frozen land, but very much regular mortal folks. Zephyrus? The human son of Aeolus who ran away from his father's celestial palace to live with other mortals. Etc, etc etc... This show has some of the most unfaithful and misinformative and just plain weird takes on Greek mythology I have seen in kids' cartoons.

The very crew of Odysseus' ship was entirely reinvented. Of course, it is to limit the number of protagonist and make it easier for kids to follow, but outside Odysseus, all of his companions are original characters to the show, and that's where I talked about the D&D vibe: these characters feel like a D&D party the more your think about it. Putting this under this perspective, it starts of make sense why some of the reimaginations are so strange and so unlike Greek mythology: it seems the show's project had some sort of past as a more "fantasy" show before settling for Greek mythology.

Anyway, enough of the bad stuff! What about the good? Why do I enjoy this cartoon and still advise people to go check it out despite its unfaithfulness?

Because - on the one side, it is VERY imaginative and creative in its reimagination. Sure it is not at all like the legends to have Charybdis and Scylla be doomed lover cursed into monstrous shapes to never be together... But you can't deny it still feels like something out of Ovid's Metamorphosis. Yes it is bizarre to have the Minotaur be the king who built the labyrinth instead of the monster trapped in it, but you see how they play with the legend around. And there's a lot of VERY striking visuals and concepts (like the Moirai spinning their web like creepy old-spider-ladies, or Lycaon trapped at the bottom of a well and sweet-talking people nto letting him out). And it does lead to some crazy scenarios that I quite enjoy: there's an episode about the group GOING DOWN INTO TARTARUS TO FREE POSEIDON OUT OF KRONOS CLUTCHES! How wild is that?

But here's the actual "good" point: while it is takes the "creative freedom" to the max in certain areas, when it decides to stick to the Greek myths, it sticks to it in a wonderful way. It's little details here and there, but they are very much appreciated. For example: the entire story of the Odyssey is here framed as actually some sort of contest or bet between Poseidon and Athena, who are the two main gods dealing with the story, and while the cartoon doesn't linger on the concept of the Trojan War (it's for kids after all), they do replace Odysseus' torment in the line of the Athena-Poseidon competitions, with Odysseus as Athena's champion opposed by Poseidon's own minions, monsters and servants.

There is an episode where the crew of Odysseus gets to the Underworld, and here Hades is not the bad guy, which is VERY interesting for an early 2000s cartoon: he is depicted, like in the myths, as a neutral though frightening entity who honestly will be a pleasant host to visitors as long as they don't stay, and follow his rules, but will become an absolute merciless terror if anyone break his law or tries to commit a crime in his domain. In fact, they do juxtapose him with Poseidon precisely to show how unlike Poseidon who is the bad guy here, Hades is much more benevolent than his brother.

Another little detail I particularly enjoy: Penelope and Telemachus are not forgotten, and every episode begins with a scene about them. Most beautifully: each episode's main theme, monster or MacGuffin is foreshadowed by the motif of Penelope's tapestry. Each day a new tapestry, echoing the adventures her husband will have to face...

But my favorite of this cartoon is, of course, Poseidon.

I like to say that if you want a complete idea of Poseidon in Greek mythology, through modern kid fiction, you need to look at both the Percy Jackson books and this cartoon. The Percy Jackson books did a great job at showing the good and benevolent side of Poseidon, but they lacked his evil and dangerous side - which is what this cartoon is all about.

It might just be me, as I am a big Poseidon fan, but Poseidon is here an excellent traditional villain. Of course, it is all the codes we know today - he is this over-arching villain who works only through minions, underlings and indirect attacks (because, as per the rule of the gods' games in this show, deities cannot directly attack or influence or protect the humans and have to work through side-ways), he always comes up with a new evil plot each episode, and at the end of it he goes all "I'll catch you next time!". But it works with the character and material, and its a delightful classic move.

You clearly see here Poseidon as the father and ruler of the monsters and dangers of the sea, and I adore his design which is literaly a mix of Disney's Hades and Ursula with some elements from Bai Tza from the Jackie Chan Adventures. He is this blue-skinned, blond, octopus-man whose size constantly shifts and changes from a tiny thing to a giant because he keeps manifesting himself through various bodies of water and so can appear as much out of the ocean as within a cup of water you try to drink. He is clearly shown as cruel and petty, vengeful and destructive, cunning and filled with dark magic... In fact he is even seen trying to cheat repeatedly throughout the series, only for Athena to step in and be like "Nah, not on my watch".

However there's a bonus point: we have a nuanced Poseidon here. The very episode with the Cyclop is quite interesting, as it actually explores Poseidon's relationship with his son Polyphemus - Polyphemus who is here actually more of a dumb idiot and honestly a bit goofy at times (he is still a man-eating giant, but at least he is polite and timid about it), and while Poseidon is short-tempered and get VERY annoyed by his son's idiocy... He doesn't actually lash out at him, he tries to cajole him, and he even conforts him at the end by promising him to create a new eye (in this version, kid-friendly, Polyphemus' eye is a glass-device). Which is a great contrast with how Poseidon threatens and terrifies his other underlings. In fact, many times in the show we see people who are genuinely pleased and happy to see Poseidon, see him as a benevolent and friendly guy and are more than willing to help him - only to realize too late what he asks from them is actually nefarious. It is made VERY clear that, if it wasn't for Odysseus, we could get to see more of Poseidon's good side, but since he is Poseidon's unwilling enemy, all turns against him.

Even more so: this cartoon had the genius idea of analyzing how Poseidon becoming the main villain and the persecutor of Odysseus in this story ends up ruining him. Because as the episodes pile up and Poseidon is more and more foiled by Odysseus, we see him get increasingly frustrated and mad and vengeful, becoming obsessed with this guy. He keeps telling those who think of him as a benevolent god and nice patron to go kill this guy who turns out to be just an innocent traveller or a nice person (oh yeah, Odysseus in this version is your ur-good guy, no blame whatsoever, he is just Superman without the powers, you know), and as a result he loses all the support he had gathered. It is very interesting how it works by the gods: because a few times Poseidon will use the trust and respect other gods put in him to try to turn them against Odysseus, or trick them into attacking him. It happened with Hades, and with Aeolus, and with Hephaistos, and each time, Poseidon's treachery was revealed, leading him to be banished from their realm and earning their enemity. The result is that... As the show progresses we realize how Poseidon's obsession with Odysseus, destructive grudge and desire to cheat to finally beat Athena lead him to become a hated and humiliated god among mortals and immortals, and I think it is a quite a nice twist.

They do enjoy analyzing the ambiguity and ambivalence of Poseidon - for example the Pegasus episode has Odysseus meet Bellerophon, and the hunt for the Chimera is actually put aside in favor of Odysseus trying to give therapy to poor Bellerophon who is in a sort of passive-abusive relationship with his father. In a similar way, the Cronos episode is all about how Odysseus and crew have to rescue Poseidon because, even though he is their enemy, hates them and will see them dead, he is a needed part of the world and removing him literaly kills the sea (all the sea-waters turn into a strange sand-colored crystal), for ultimately he is the sea, violent and stormy, and cunning and filled with monsters, and never making it easy on sailors.

Though my favorite part is definitively how by the end, once Odysseus gets his happy ending, we cut back to Athena and Poseidon concluding their bet... Only for Poseidon to try to convince Athena to take another bet and begin another "game", begging her like some sort of friend with dares like "Okay but what about him not returnign to the sea, not leaving Ithaca? Don't you want to bet on that, on him not resisting the call of the adventure? Please, Athena, let's just have another game. Let's just bet on anything, pleeeaasse". And... it leaves you with this very strange and still kind of happy note that ultimately Poseidon is indeed, not really a bad guy, but just a short-tempered gambling addict doubled with a very sore loser X)

#other odysseys #the odyssey #odyssey #odyssey adaptations #mission odyssey #poseidon #greek mythology #french cartoons #2000s cartoons

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