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The Adventures of Maya the Honey Bee is an anime television series produced by Zuiyo Enterprise (later Nippon Animation) and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation in Japan. The series consisted of 52 episodes and was originally telecast from April 1975 to April 1976 on the NET (now TV Asahi network). Based on the classic children's book Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels, the anime series has become extremely popular in Europe and has been rebroadcast in countries and languages all around the world since its premiere.
Two English-dubbed versions of the series exist, a South African version, using a translated version of the theme tune used for the German dub, and featuring (rather upper-class) British-type accents for the characters; and a United States version with an entirely new theme tune, and a Canadian voice cast, produced by Saban Entertainment, which was broadcast from January 1, 1990 to December 31, 1992 on the children's television channel Nickelodeon (also on YTV and Family Channel in Canada). Maya the Bee aired alongside other juvenile-targeted anime such as Adventures of the Little Koala, Noozles and The Littl' Bits as part of Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block of programming for young children. The South African dub also aired in Canada, during the early 1980s on CBC.
A second Maya the Bee series was a co-production made in 1979 by Wako Productions and Austrian/German Apollo Film, Wien (Vienna). The second series first premiered in Germany (ZDF) from September 1979 to September 1980. The very different and cartoon-like second series, which lasted for 52 episodes, was not very popular and did not premiere in Japan until 12 October 1982, on the TV Tokyo network (produced by affiliate TV Osaka), and aired through 27 September 1983. Ten episodes from this series were added to 45 from the original for the U.S. broadcast run, bringing the total of Maya episodes aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. to 55.
This work provides examples of:[]
- Audience Shift: The original Japanese version and the British dub was aimed to tween and teen girls. The U.S. Saban dub was aimed to preschool-aged children.
- Children Voicing Children: The human children are voiced by young children in the US Saban Dub and the British Dub.
- Darker and Edgier: The first season, of course.
- Edited for Syndication: The Japanese and Arabic version of the anime had longer scenes such as the Queen's arrival at the Hive where Maya and Willy are wearing chef hats and when Miss Casandra is injured and before Maya leaves the hive she says goodbye to her teacher and starts to cry. These scenes aren't present in the other versions of the anime.
- Lighter and Softer: The second season, compared to the first season.