You can call me a dork, but I have The Rain, The Park and Other Things stuck in my head. You know that hit song from the 1960s by The Cowsills, which had the hook in the chorus… “I love the flower girl” in glorious multi-part harmony. Now you may ask, why this song? Umm well, I just finished a magical girl series and hey the song is like a perfect metaphor for the show! Long before Sailor Scouts, Kiki, 80s magical idols and the plentitude of magical girls of more recent you had your run in a variety of mojokko from Toei Animation throughout the 1960s and 70s. Today we will meet one of them, Miss Lunlun, and all her adventures in Hana no Ko Lunlun.
Exporting anime to foreign audiences has been a practice for decades and Hana no Ko Lunlun has brought joy to many all over the world. And yet in my native vernacular of English it is very… unfinished (at least at this time of writing). Be it fansubs or old VHS releases, we don’t yet have the complete unedited 50 episode run. The closest are a couple compilation movies made by William Winckler Productions, but for me, this is not good enough… so I had to resort to an alternative. Just so you know this is how my review will be based: first, I had episodes one to ten in Japanese with subtitles; second, I had access to the full French version with subtitles, Le tour de monde de Lydie (merci beaucoup!); and finally the Winckler dub to act as a double check.
First and foremost Lunlun is a magical girl show, but Lunlun is also more than a magical girl show. Lunlun has been tasked to find the Flower of Seven Colors because she is apparently a descendant of the Flower Star/Planet and its up to her to find this rarity to help inaugurate a new king. In typical fashion we also include the usual cute talking animal companions: Nouveau, a dog (whose name means ‘new’, fyi I did take some French in high school) and Cateau, a cat (super obvious, lol). Lunlun also is given a magical pendant, or pin (not the usual wand), the Flower Key, which allows her to transform temporarily into different attire, but not so much another identity. Sometimes abilities associated with each said article are added to her skills, like knowing how to fly an airplane while wearing a pilot’s uniform. She even gets an upgrade halfway in because the first Flower Key gets destroyed!
Well from what I have written thus far this sounds like some kind of typical magical girl show, but let’s not forget this quest to find the Flower of Seven Colors. Lunlun is as much a show about travel and adventure as it is about magic. Trekking across Europe and Northern Africa searching for this botanical prize she meets lots of different people along the way. We get to see and experience stories and witness various aspects of human life in different countries as Lunlun ends up befriending everyone… but alas the Flower is never found… until the very end. 😉 Sounds to me like a down to Earth Galaxy Express 999, sort of?
Lunlun is thus a fortunate 15 year old French girl who get an opportunity to live out her destiny and be blessed with an infinite closet of possibilities to wear as a part of it. Add to this a handsome young photographer, Serge, who is like a guardian angel to Lunlun and is someone with an inexhaustible supply of various flower seeds that are given to these new friends at the end of each episode. And let’s not forget our antagonist duo (1979’s version of Team Rocket?): Togenishia, a snobby stuck up b!t#h bent on taking the Flower for herself who has a mean tornado-like whirlwind spell (but beware the after effects of casting it!) and Yabouki, her right hand man who is either a raccoon, or tanuki (in the French dub he is a badger). He has a magical knack for disguise.
Concluding I can shout out FINALLY, I have seen Lunlun after wanting to for so long! Don’t ask me why, but I really, really, really had a long standing desire to see this show. Perhaps it’s that old time Toei vibe, or I thought Lunlun’s clothes and hair were adorable… seriously, this would be a cute cosplay! Hana no Ko Lunlun represents a kind of magical girl show I like seeing, even though at moments I felt like it dragged. It’s simple, light and adorable. And funnily enough, I watched so much of the French dub I at times thought this was a French show and not Japanese. Too many times I called her Lydie, lol… and of course Serge was Monsieur Florent. The ending interestingly has a bit of wisdom in that you can go all over the place looking for something special and realize that it is often found not to far from where you first began.
Essentially a retelling of The Fossilized Warrior two-parter, you would at first believe this was simply episodes 12 and 13 spliced together into one. Yet Can You Live Like a Warrior!? has more to tell and includes minute glimpses of other earlier travels. Plus, we get an extensive chunk of the very first episode showing the tragic death of Tetsuro’s mother and the meeting between Tetsuro and Maetel where Maetel presents Tetsuro with an all exclusive pass to ride the galactic train C6250, the fabled Galaxy Express. With all that said if anyone has never seen, or read (can’t forget the manga) any Galaxy Express 999 at all and wants a quick crash course I can recommend this TV special, or the epic 1979 motion picture adaptation, if you want a singular first tasting into the classic Galaxy Express 999 universe.
Upon landing at the next layover stop C6250 runs into a bit of apparent sabotage as the line of track has been covered by many massive stones preventing a smooth stop. Needless to say, Tetsuro and Maetel are trapped! Well why not go in reverse? Science fiction fantasy or not, trains may be able to fly through outer space in Galaxy Express 999, but this space locomotive can only move in a singular direction. Realizing they are trapped for the moment both Tetsuro and Maetel observe a barren lifeless world with only piles of rock, much of which looks rather human, like statues or carvings… too perfect and precise to be just natural erosion.
With the aid of binoculars Tetsuro spots one of these human like rock formations far in the distance, an attractive female form similar to an ancient art scuplture… perhaps this planet’s Venus/Aphrodite? Ever curious he leaves the confines of the train to get a close look. Astonished by the beauty of the figure up close he is soon greeted by a sword wielding young man who proclaims Tetsuro to be a thief and thus attacks him. The fallen Tetsuro exposes his Galaxy Express pass and is thus struck by the young man with the sword. Maetel soon shows up to rescue Tetsuro and tend to his wound, a nasty slice in his back! Tetsuro then realizes his pass is missing and according to rules this makes him ineligible to ride the train. Come hell or high water, Tetsuro vows to get his pass back.
Making my way through the Galaxy Express 999 TV series I am glad to take a break and recapitulate with this TV special as I fondly remembered the original episodes Galaxy Express 999: Can You Live Like a Warrior!? was based from. Leiji Matsumoto’s stories and characters are some of the most cherished in all of anime and manga, endeared by many in Japan and around the world, including this BIG fan writing this post! His stories represent courage and taking a personal stand usually with a bit of fantastic flair that looks and feels like nothing else. Tetsuro must take a stand in this TV special to prove that he, like many other Matsumoto heroes, Can 
Call me ignorant, but I have never heard of the Romantic Masterpiece Theater. World Masterpiece Theater oh yes, I love those shows, but the previous moniker is our current interest and I don’t have much to say on it except I can guess (and I mean guess!) that Isabelle of Paris was labeled in this category as this was one of four shows released by a studio not usually seen on our radars, DAX International in 1979/80. These four shows could have been the Romantic Masterpiece Theater? By the way I want to thank Helen McCarthy’s research as this is what helped me come to this conclusion. Now this means I need to check out the other three shows: Julie the Wild Rose, Golden-Haired Jeannie and Wandering Girl Nell. … What I do know is that we get a pre-intro to Isabelle for Romantic Masterpiece Theater which features cats… I love cats and it’s a short, simple and a cute sequence, but anyway… on with the show!
Isabelle of Paris always begins with a few seconds of recap before the start of the official intro, but when that intro comes, I am excited. It’s not the most technically advanced in terms of animation and it always outlines the main cast, which by the end of episode one you should have a good handle on. My joy is that it features the music of Frédéric Chopin (the real Piano Man). Fantaisie-Impromptu in C♯ minor to be exact, a very bold choice, but somewhat fitting as well. Chopin’s work is often heard throughout the series including one of my personal favorites, Nocturne in B flat minor, Op. 9 No. 1. 
Set during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, during the reign of Napolean III, we find the backdrop to Isabelle of Paris. Isabelle is a carefree 15 year old noble French girl who gets caught up in the social-political climate of that era. France has been defeated and the Prussian Army has laid siege to Paris much to the delight of many crooked Parisian nobles and politicians. Being of the upperclass she witnesses first hand the toil this situation has put onto the Rostain family. Her brother is an officer in the army, her sister is in love with a commoner (the piano teacher!) who like many others aims to defend Paris as the army and government cannot and her parents are set on upholding tradition of the family name and prestige. 
Though a short series for the time (40–50 episodes was the norm), Isabelle of Paris told an effective story which when you look at it from a glance is really a reflection on the evolution of the Rostain family from privileged nobility to defenders of the common man. Isabelle of Paris portrays a solid, dramatic and adventurous tale full of strength that also occasionally threw in a monkey wrench that made me go, “What, the…?”… like being chased by a guy who looks like Frankenstein and the main ‘evil’ politician having green skin, lol. Yet the conclusion was a definite surprise as I was not expecting such a tragic downfall… prepare a few tissues. This was a happy find as of recent and is without question a welcome break from much more drawn out series which sometimes can be a haul getting through. May I add yet another fun shojo series to my collection. YES!!!
The Classic Anime Museum 
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