KAPPA MIKEY

'Kappa Mikey' is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz, which premiered on the Nicktoons Network on February 25, 2006, and premiered on Nickelodeon on August 20, 2006. It is MTV's first global acquisition. In April of 2006, it was picked up for a second season, which is already airing its run as of June 9th. In Canada, the show used to air on the Teletoon channel before being replaced by Cybersix, since they had already shown all of the first season episodes a few times. According to the Teletoon website, the show will return with new episodes in September.
''Kappa Mikey'' is marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States", according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term ''anime'' in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. It is produced by Animation Collective in New York City with voiceovers recorded at NYAV Post (sometimes by 4Kids Entertainment in random episodes, mostly like Dan Green), and animated using Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya.

Contents

Title

Plot

Characters

Theme Song

List of episodes

DVD Release

References

References to American Popular Culture

Cultural Errors

External links

Title

The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode ''Mikey, Kappa'', on August 5th, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice.

Plot

The series centers around Mikey Simon, a teenage actor from Cleveland, Ohio, who embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular anime series, LilyMu, and in doing this, rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest anime star. Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered (similar in concept to ''The Famous Jett Jackson''). The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers).
Each episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined (with the exception of the Christmas special), sometimes revealing the conflict that they 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 changed to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story.
The show has a large comedic overuse of face faults, such as a character's face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller (or super deformed). Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which are one of the show's running gags, but cannot, due to being drawn in an American style. The show is fast-paced, irreverent, and contains a fair amount of gross-out humor, which are signature elements of Western children's entertainment.

Characters

Main articles: List of Kappa Mikey characters

:Mikey Simon by Michael Sintkerniklaas
:Gonard by Sean Schemal
:Lily by Anice Moriaty
:Mitsuki by Evelyn Lanto
:Guano by Gary Mack
:Ozu by Stephan Moverly
:Yes Man by Jesse Adams
These characters are modelled off of American and Japanese cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired off of famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba's from the film Spirited Away. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it.

Theme Song

The 'Kappa Mikey' theme song is called "''Hey (x2) Look (x2)''" by Beat Crusaders.

List of episodes

Main articles: List of Kappa Mikey episodes

DVD Release

A Kappa Mikey DVD is scheduled to be released on September 18, 2007 under Anchor Bay Entertainment. It includes the episode ''Lost in Transportation'' and ''Easy Come, Easy Gonard'', both from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a music video of the theme song, wallpaper, and a How-To-Draw-Mikey tutorial. Since this DVD only includes a few episodes, it is possible that the studio is planning on releasing a series of DVDs, gradually putting every episode on DVD, instead of getting an entire season out at once.

References

References to American Popular Culture

★ In ''Easy Come, Easy Gonard'', the countdown clock shown is from the American television series ''24''.

★ In the episode ''Sumo of all Fears'', the Lilymu episode is almost identical to the climax to the first ''Spider-Man film''.

★ In the episode ''Lost in Transportation'', when Mikey is in the coffee shop with the bikers, he tries to "dance his way out", so he jumps up on the counter and does a dance very similar to the Pee Wee Herman dance. The scene is a reference to "''Pee Wee's Big Adventure''".

★ In the episode ''Ship of Fools'' The Videogame has graphics straight from Donkey Kong.

★ Lily's Punchbug's name comes from the children's game "slug-bug" or "punch-buggy", in which one child yells out "slug-bug!" and hits another in the shoulder or arm when they spot a VW Beetle. This is usually played as a car game (that is, played in a vehicle driven by an adult).

★ During the theme song, there is a scene where it shows Mikey dancing in a white, button-up shirt, his underwear, socks, and sunglasses accompanied by a pair of Dobermanns. This is likely a reference to Tom Cruise in ''Risky Business''. The parody is in ''Mikey Impossible'', the title of which is a parody of Mission Impossible, also starring Tom Cruise.

★ The instructor in ''The Lost Pilot'' greatly resembles Simon Cowell. Also in the episode, the audition ''LilyMu'' has for a new actor is reminiscent to the ''Idol'' series. (''Pop Idol'', ''American Idol'', ''Australian Idol'', etc.)

★ In the episode ''Big Brozu'', Brozu says that he has to "Trump" his younger brother and fire him. This is reference to the reality show ''The Apprentice'' in which Donald Trump uses the catchphrase "You're fired" to eliminate contestants on the show.

★ Mikey's Orb in ''LilyMu'' appears to be based on the sentinel sphere from the Phantasm movies. It can fly around with no explainable means of propulsion other than having been thrown into the air (although it is possible that its saw blades act as lifting rotors of some sort). It also appears to have a limited intelligence, allowing it to do things like hover, navigate itself to cut multiple targets, and return to Mikey after it has served its purpose.

★ In the episode "Uh oh, Guano" Mikey's horse is named Sea Cookie which is a spoof off of "Seabiscuit" an American movie.

★ In ''A Christmas Mikey'':

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★ The title is a parody of the movie "A Christmas Story" (or ''A Christmas Carol''). The story parodies both ''It's a Wonderful Life'' and ''A Christmas Carol''.

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★ Mitsuki's performance in the mansion scene is a parody of Gloria Swanson's role as Norma Desmond in ''Sunset Boulevard''. Also in ''A Christmas Mikey,'' Mitsuki has a monkey named Professor Bobo, likely a reference to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 character of that name.

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★ Lily's career doing voice-over work (to Mikey's and a passerby's disgust) is a meta-reference on the show itself.

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★ Guano as a chimney sweep with a British accent may be a reference to the chimney sweeps in ''Mary Poppins'' - he is in fact whistling "Chim Chim Cherrie" when he first appears in this role.

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★ When Mikey is upset over Ozu not giving him a new contract, Gonard says, "Don't worry, we'll get you that monkey assistant," and he puts on a yellow hat, which is a reference to Curious George.

★ In ''The Good, The Bad, & The Mikey'', at the beginning of the staged fight sequence between Kappa Mikey and Captin Impressive, the beginning to ''Beat It'', a song by Michael Jackson can be heard.

★ In ''Mikey Likes It(Garbage)'', when Lily is looking around in the restaurant, there are two familiar couples: One is the pirate from ''Ship of Fools'' and Vito's wife (with blonde hair), and the other is the balif from ''The Fugi-Kid'' with the old lady that sometimes makes a cameo appearance.

★ In ''Saving Face'', the newspaper editor looks almost exactly like Spiderman's J. Jonah Jameson

Cultural Errors

★ In the episode ''Ship of Fools'', the video game boxes for the Lily-Mu video game have a rating of "E for Everyone" from North America's Entertainment Software Rating Board rating system rather than a rating from Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization rating system.

External links

★ Offical Site

★ Kappa Mikey fansite

★ Nicktoons Network Show Site

★ Teletoon show site