Kappa Mikey

Kappa Mikey is an American animated comedy television series created by Larry Schwarz for Nicktoons Network. Despite airing on the channel, it was not an official Nicktoon, being produced by Schwarz's production company Animation Collective. The series ran from February 25, 2006, to September 20, 2008, with repeats until November 29, 2010, across two seasons.^[1] 52 22-minute episodes were produced.^[2]

The series was announced in 2002, when it was announced that Noggin's teen block The N would be co-developing and airing the series.^[3][4] Animation World Network reported that Noggin/The N had signed on as a co-producer.^[3] However, the show was moved to Nicktoons Network, a sister channel to Noggin. With the move, it became the first half-hour series to premiere exclusively on Nicktoons.

Plot

Intended as a parody of Japanese anime, the series follows a young American actor named Mikey Simon whose appearance is "rendered in a thick-line, pop-graphic, American cartoon style".^[5] He travels to Japan to star in a tokusatsu show called LilyMu, where his anime-influenced co-stars represent common anime clichés.

Each episode follows a specific formula. A typical episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined, sometimes revealing the conflict that the characters deal with through the rest of the episode, with a minor subplot running beneath the main plot. After the problem is resolved, the LilyMu segment will be shot again and successfully completed the second time, often rewritten to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story.

Deep into season 2, Kappa Mikey has stopped showing a LilyMu sequence at the end of an episode whenever it would make the episode too long, when the characters are in their LilyMu uniforms enough as it is, or when they successfully film a sequence without any mistakes before the ending.

Characters

Main characters

• Mikey Simon (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) is a 19-year-old American actor who portrays the superhero and main lead Kappa Mikey in LilyMu. Off the set of LilyMu, he has a childish sense of humor.
• Gonard (voiced by Sean Schemmel) is LilyMu's main antagonist, a purple-skinned, blue-haired humanoid set on either domination or destruction. Off set, he is an actor who is actually a sweet-natured, if dim-witted, young man with an obsession for sandwiches.
• Mitsuki (voiced by Evelyn Lanto) plays the headstrong bad girl on LilyMu. Off set, she is a sweet and caring young woman with a huge crush on Mikey.
• Lily (voiced by Kether Donohue) is an actress who portrays the damsel-in-distress role. She's also a temperamental and self-centered actress who was the original star of LilyMu before Mikey was hired.
• Guano (voiced by Gary Mack) is a small purple creature who stars in and directs LilyMu. His LilyMu character is a parody of Pikachu, right down to only saying his name. In the episode "A Christmas Mikey", he is revealed to be Ozu's long-lost son wearing a costume.
• Ozu (voiced by Stephen Moverly) is the often-temperamental owner and producer of LilyMu, and owns various properties around Tokyo.
• Yes Man (voiced by Jesse Adams) is a hyperactive, overdramatic servant/scapegoat of Ozu who agrees with everything he says. He enjoys working for Ozu and is rarely seen away from him.

Recurring characters

• Mr. and Mrs. Simon (voiced by Dan Green and Meredith Zeitlin) are Mikey's parents. They are unseen characters, but they have been featured in the episodes "The Lost Pilot", "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", "Lost in Transportation", "The Switch", "Saving Face", and "La Cage Aux Mikey".
• Speed Racer is an older, androgynous version of the famed racer. Speed makes a cameo appearance in the theme song as the LilyMu team's limousine chauffeur and in the pilot episode. Despite having the body of a middle-aged man, the character has eyelashes and the deep feminine voice like that of a young boy.
• Yoshi (voiced by Jesse Adams) is the main camera man for the LilyMu series, Yoshi is a shy, blond, beer-bellied man, who is featured in many episodes, sometimes as a main role (such as in Battle of the Band), but mostly as an Easter egg. He appears to live in LilyMu Towers with the other cast members. Like Yes Man, he is frequently prone to be the butt of violence, regardless of intention.
• The Dancing Sushi are little sushi-beings that serve as scene transitions or bumpers. They are sometimes accompanied by other random characters, such as a sushi chef or a sumo wrestler. The three main Dancing Sushi starred in the spin-off miniseries Dancing Sushi.^[6] In this show, their names are Larry (after Larry Schwarz), Roro, and Salmon, and a female sushi named Meep was created to round out the main cast.^[7]
• Socky (voiced by Adam Moreno) is a sock puppet pop icon with a mind of its own, spokesperson for Hitoshi Beauty Cream, and rival of Lily for Tokyo Trend's Top 50 Most Beautiful list. Socky has become one of LilyMu's most persistent antagonists.
• Ethel (voiced by Kether Donahue) is an old lady who appears at least once in every episode, sometimes in a speaking role, but mostly as a background extra.
• The Cat Burglar (voiced by Wayne Grayson) is an unnamed bandit who is a recurring antagonist. In his initial appearance, he was thought to have only one arm, due to the other being covered by his coat.
• Gonard's mother (voiced by Sean Schemmel) is the unnamed mother of Gonard who still lives with her. In "The Switch" she has a woman's voice. In "The Fugi-kid" and all the succeeding episodes, Gonard's mother speaks in a falsetto voice with an Irish accent.
• The Kappas (voiced by Evelyn Lanto) are water spirits that are based on the creature of the same name in Japanese folklore who Mikey's LilyMu character is named after, they are described by Ozu as fish out of water and Mikey being an American in Japan. They live around a river in the middle of the jungle.
• Dr. Takashi Katashi (voiced by Wayne Grayson) is a doctor. In "Plastic Surgeon To The Stars", he wears a generic doctor headband over his eye. Dr. Katashi performs an unintentional 'pimple enlargement' on Mikey. He did plastic surgery on Socky, to make him beautiful, information which led to Socky's downfall. Katashi also appears to have a degree in dentistry, according to "The Bracemaster". He performs a check-up on Mikey, Gonard, Lily, and Mitsuki, and reports that only Mikey has an overbite, and needs a retainer. Katashi has a dark side as well as he steals Ozu's retainer and family heirloom for its value, with plans to sell it for a green sports car.
• Agent Yoshida (voiced by Michael Alston Baley) is a Japanese government agent who arrested Mikey for a crime he did not commit. However, later on, he arrests the real crook, with Mikey's help. Agent Yoshida is hired by Ozu to investigate a DVD infringement ring in Back To School. However, after months on the case, he finds no suspects. With LilyMu's help, he finally arrests the students behind the crime.
• The Pirate Captain/Pirate King (voiced by Sean Schemmel) is the captain of a pirate ship and five other pirates. In "Go Nard Hunting", he replaces Gonard's role on LilyMu.
• Masako Masako (voiced by Lex Woutan) is a beloved red-carpet fashion critic. She appears again as a news correspondent in "The Karaoke Episode: Part II".
• The Chums are an outcast biker gang who accept Mikey as an "honorary member" when he is convinced that the rest of the LilyMu cast are leaving him out of activities. They are big fans of LilyMu. Mikey eventually becomes friends again with the cast, but the Chums keep in touch with him using a whistle whenever he needs help.
  • Beef is the leader of the Chums who Mikey becomes most acquainted with.
• Kenji is a Tokyo street urchin who loves the LilyMu show. Kenji has a dog named Mr. Poopers and many friends, including Mikey look-alike Jomar.
• Mr. Stereo (voiced by Wayne Grayson) is one of Ozu's company sponsors and business partners in "Lost In Transportation". Mr. Stereo sells stereos at bargain prices, and claims that if his stereos don't please his customers, he will do crazy things, even though he does them anyway. He has a spoiled son named Timmy who is a huge fan of LilyMu. Mr. Stereo appears again in "Seven LilyMu" to host the LilyMu live performance in the Megastore, in honor of his tenth store.
• The Tatami Twins (voiced by Bella Hudson) are two fat children who are the sons of Mr. Tatami. They mistake Guano for a toy, and even throw Lily and Mitsuki into the 'Tatami Room' for "shoplifting". They make a second appearance in "Manic Monday', purchasing Gonard and Guano's cursed tiki idol, in an attempt to pass on the bad luck.

Production

Larry Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was working at Rumpus Toys, a toy design company in New York City. In September 2001, Rumpus and Sunbow Entertainment partnered to work on the series.^[8] In May 2002, the project was picked up by Noggin (a channel owned by MTV Networks) for its teen-oriented programming block, The N.^[3] Noggin/The N signed a co-development deal for the series,^[4] while Animation Collective retained the series' copyright and distribution rights. By the time animation was completed, The N had shifted more to live-action shows for young adults, so Kappa Mikey was moved to another MTV Networks-owned channel: Nicktoons Network. The series was tweaked in order to fit Nicktoons Network's younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible" and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?" and the songs from "The Karaoke Episode".

Unlike other cartoons produced at the turn of the 21st century, the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not outsourced and the episodes were written by full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, the series became Animation Collective's first television series. The series was produced in New York City; pre-production began in 2002 and animation started in the summer of 2005.^[9] Production wrapped in September 2007.

The series was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than in many other Flash shows, and they did not always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, and bodies becoming smaller. Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style.

Episodes

Note: All episodes of the series were directed by Sergei Aniskov.

Dancing Sushi

Dancing Sushi is a spin-off series based on the brief bumpers within the series.^[10] The series features four sushi characters – Salmon, Larry, Roro, and Meep – who all want to become the world's biggest pop stars.^[11] Unlike the main series, Dancing Sushi lacks any dialogue. The sushis were "voiced" by individuals involved in the original Kappa Mikey series including John Angier, the composer of the series, and director John Holt.

Dancing Sushi was produced from October 2007 to December 2007. It was intended as a way to continue offering fans of Kappa Mikey more of the same kinds of characters in the same universe, and also to keep animators working on the transition between the studio's two major shows; Speed Racer: The Next Generation was in production soon afterwards.

Merchandising

In April 2005, 4Kids Entertainment was appointed as the exclusive licensing agent for the series.^[12][13]

Home media

A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under the Starz Home Entertainment brand, and includes the episodes "Lost in Transportation," "Easy Come, Easy Gonard," and "The Man Who Would Be Mikey," all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a fictional music video of "I'm Alright" taken from the episode "Battle of the Bands," wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-to-Draw-Mikey tutorial.

In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a second DVD that was scheduled to be released sometime later that year. However, the announcement was removed from the website, leaving the exact release date unknown. The DVD was intended to include the first season in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would have been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. As of 2009, this release is shelved.

Season 1 (Episodes 1–13) was released on DVD on September 12, 2007 [1], and Season 2 (Episodes 14–26) was released on DVD on March 12, 2008 [2] by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia.

The soundtrack for "The Karaoke Episode" is available as a downloadable album on iTunes. Both seasons of the show itself were also available for download from iTunes before they were later taken down from the online retailer.

Footnotes

1. ^ Kappa Mikey was originally slated to air on Noggin's teen block The N.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 332–333. ISBN 978-1538103739.
2. ^ Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 61. ISBN 9781476672939.
3. ^ Godfrey, Leigh (May 29, 2002). "Sunbow and Noggin's The N to Co-Develop Kappa Mikey". Animation World Network Sunbow Entertainment and The N, Noggin's new network for tweens, have signed a co-development deal for the anime comedy Kappa Mikey.
4. ^ Fraser, Fiona (May 23, 2002). "The N comes onboard Sunbow's Kappa Mikey". C21Media
5. ^ "Kappa Mikey - Behind The Scenes "Sizzle Reel"", 16 August 2018, retrieved 2023-07-10 As described by Larry Schwarz at 1:26 mark
6. ^ Animation World Network's article on Animation Collective "Animation World Magazine". Archived from the original on 2007-09-22. Retrieved 2007-09-27.
7. ^ Dancing Sushi website http://www.dancingsushi.com Archived 2016-04-11 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ "Sunbow and Rumpus to Produce Kappa Mikey Series"
9. ^ "Cross-Cultural Cartoons: Larry Schwarz and the Animation Collective". Animation World Magazine. September 20, 2007. Archived from the original on January 2, 2013. Retrieved April 2, 2008.
10. ^ Dominguez, Noah (November 4, 2020). "Three Delivery: Nickelodeon's OTHER Obscure 'Anime'". CBR. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
11. ^ Baisley, Sarah (January 23, 2008). "Animation Collective Delivers Comedy, Action and Chinese Food to NATPE 2008". Animation World Network. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
12. ^ "4Kids Lands Anime Series Kappa Mikey". www.awn.com
13. ^ "4Kids entertainment named worldwide licensing, marketing and promotional agent for animated children’s series kappa mikey". Archived 2006-01-14 at the Wayback Machine.

External links

• Kappa Mikey at IMDb