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"The Mysterious Cities of Gold" is a childrens cartoon from the 80s. It was produced by a collaboration between the French and the Japanese. It was animated by the Japanese company "Studio Pierrot". The show was written by Jean Chalopin and Bernard Deyries and was loosely based on Scott O'Dell's book "The King's Fifth". It was originally aired in Japan on "NHK" in 1982 and in 1983 on the French channel "Antenne 2". It was also later show on "CBBC" in the UK and on "Nickelodeon" in the states. It has also been broadcast in other countries including Germany, Australia, South Africa, Poland and Turkey amoungst others. It is known as "Les Mysterieuses Cites D'Or" in France, "Geheimnisvollen Stadte des Goldes" in Germany and "Taiyo no Ko Esuteban" in Japan.
The series has recieved official DVD releases in France, Germany, Canada (in French) and Japan but has never recieved an official English release. The Japanese version is now not available and none of the releases contain an English audio track or subtitles. Indeed they do not contain subtitles even in their own languages. One point to note is the German's never had their own theme tune so the English one is used. The series also recieved high levels of merchandising in Japan and to a lesser state France and not certain items are highly collectable. Items of particular interest tend to be any Cels from the series, any story boards or audio scripts, the Japanese Manga books and also the French Golden Condor and Solaris models.
The three main characters of the show are Tao, Esteban and Zia. Tao is a desendant of an ancient civilisation known as the Hiva, Zia is an Inca girl who was kidnapped as a very young girl and Esteban is an orphan who has been raised in the Cathedral in Barcelona. These three characters find themselves searching for "The Mysterious Cities of Gold". Along the way they are frequently helped by a group of three Spaniards. Mendoza who is a navigator and his two comic helpers Pedro and Sancho. They also make many friends with the local tribes they pass through on their adventures and some enemies as well. Through out the series they are pursued by another two Spaniards Gomez and Gaspard who will stop at nothing to discover the location of the "Cities of Gold". Also later in the series their paths cross with the Doctor and Companions who are also besotted with Gold and likewise will stop at nothing to gain it.
During their adventures they come across a couple of machines that help them greatly in their quest for the Cities. The first machine they find is the Solar Ship Solaris that works either as a conventional sailing ship or can be powered by the sun to reach high speeds. It is also can use the power of the sun to power two weapons. The second machine they find is a Golden Condor which is a solar powered flying machine. This helps them cross large distances very quickly and also comes in useful when they have to take on the Olmecs towards the end of the series. The Olmecs are the mutated survivors of a war between two powerful ancient civilisations. I will conclude my guide here as I do not want to give too much of the plot away, but if you are interested in finding out more about this series a good place to start is Wikipedia, this site has an interesting summary of the series and a good link list.
This text is copied from the UK version I made of this page, to view the original page please go here. UK page includes a picture of the three children. Key words for searching for additional information: Esteban, Child of the Sun; Zia; Tao; Golden Condor; Mysterious Cities of Gold; MCoG; Skutt and Solaris.
Mysterious Cities Of Gold international search
MCoG worldwide search
French Mysterious Cities of Gold items (DVDs and Collectables [most frequent place for Japanese items])
German Mysterious Cities of Gold items (Mainly German Version DVDs)
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