White Whale of Mu

むーのはくげい

Aired: 1980

A television anime produced by Tokyo Movie (now TMS Entertainment) and broadcast on Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV affiliates. As the company's first original property - undertaken by staff transitioning off its 'Shin Kyojin no Hoshi' baseball series - this SF fantasy is an ambitious creative statement for the studio. Centred on the colossal flying creature-craft Hakugei-go (the 'White Whale'), said to be the last guardian of the descendants of the lost continent of Mu, the show follows a band of young protagonists fighting to defend Earth from the encroaching evil scientific empire of Atlantis. Bold fusions of ancient-civilisation myth and hard SF, Kentaro Haneda's distinctive score, and the unforgettable visual of a flying biological mecha have made the series a cult favourite long after its original broadcast.