The Amazing Three

The Amazing Three (aka The Wonder Three, W3) was a science fiction/fantasy manga created by the late Osamu Tezuka. The manga ran in Japan's Weekly Shonen Sunday from 30 May 1965 to 8 May 1966.

The manga was adapted into an anime series, which was shown on Fuji TV in Japan from June 1965 to June 1966. While the basic set-up remains the same, the stories in the anime were different from those in the manga. There were 52 episodes of the anime, filmed in black-and-white.

An English dub of the series first aired in Australia (Melbourne TV) in April 1969, and in the United States in 1974.

Original concept
The story features three aliens who come to observe the Earth, and the adventures they have with a young human named Shinichi.

The series is set in the 1960's (a specific year is not given). Earth is in the midst of various wars, and has been experimenting with the hydrogen bomb. This gets the attention of the Milky Way Confederation, who send three investigators to Earth to determine if it can be saved.

To disguise their appearance, the team known as the Amazing Three - Captain Bokko and her deputies, Pukko and Nokko - transform into a rabbit, a duck and a horse, respectively. They find their way into the Japanese village of Ogawa-mura, and here meet a rambunctious but kind-hearted boy, Shinichi Hoshi.

Shinichi's older brother, Koichi, is secretly a member of a global intelligence agency known as "Phoenix". The Amazing Three and Shinichi find themselves joining in Phoenix's fight against evil. It is through these adventures that the Amazing Three see that Earth is not beyond saving.

Changes to English version

 * The Milky Way Confederation is referred to as the "Galactic League", and the Amazing Three get their orders from "Galactic Control".
 * The characters are given English names, as noted above.

As with many anime series dubbed for English audiences (especially early on), there were probably other changes made. Thus, this is not a complete list.

Current availability
The original version is available in Japan; a search on Amazon's Japanese site shows two DVD box sets available. It is unknown if this will be picked up by an American anime distributor.

The prints and audio tracks of the original English dub have been out of circulation for many years, and it is unknown if they have been destroyed, or are in the hands of a private collector.

English voice cast

 * The names in parenthesis are the original Japanese names of the characters.


 * Bonnie Bunny (Captain Bokko) - Bobbie Byers
 * Ronny Pony (Nokko) - Neil Patrick
 * Zero the Duck (Pukko) - Paul Brown
 * Kenny Carter (Shinichi Hoshi), Randy Carter (Koichi Hoshi) - Kurt Nagel


 * Note : This may not be a complete list.