The Enid Blyton Society

When the first four Secret Seven books were issued in Japan a few years ago they were given the full manga illustration treatment (Both inside and out). The covers, for those who might be interested, can be seen below.

It's fascinating to know that the Secret Seven were given that treatment, though the manga style makes the children look a bit twee and doll-like.

That is quite fascinating — I must admit, while manga style isn't much to my taste personally, I like them better than some of the recent (English) cover illustrations for the Famous Five! I agree they look a little twee, but that is the style of illustration that's popular in Japan. I quite like Scamper on the first cover!

I can read enough Japanese to see that the Secret Seven are called Himitsu Kurabu — "Secret Club" — but under the titles, there's also an attempt to transliterate their English name into Japanese phonics as Shiikuretto Sefun! It would be interesting to know how closely the translations of the actual stories follow the original English versions.

There are certain styles of manga (or Japanese anime - I'm not sure what counts as manga and what doesn't) that seem more grown up and less twee, with gorgeously detailed backgrounds, and I like those styles very much. An example is the animated film Arrietty, based on Mary Norton's The Borrowers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edit: This also looks good, based on the book When Marnie was There by Joan G. Robinson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJBTCf4laMA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Manga" in Japanese means strip cartoons, graphic novels and the like; "anime" are animated cartoons (short for "animation"). Those two examples are lovely, Anita, I agree. Mind you, I must admit to having been a very young fan of this one as well...

I enjoyed your article in the last Journal, Nicko, about the Find-Outers in Japan — do you or anyone have some idea of how popular Enid Blyton books are in Japan, or how long ago they started being translated into Japanese? It does show, again, how universal her appeal is.

Courtenay wrote:I must admit to having been a very young fan of this one as well...

When I was a nipper, we had Marine Boy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HqSkY4vtVY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Never seen that one before, Anita — pretty cool. Beats me how all those explosions happened underwater, but who said anime had to follow the standard laws of physics?

Courtenay wrote:"Manga" in Japanese means strip cartoons, graphic novels and the like; "anime" are animated cartoons (short for "animation"). Those two examples are lovely, Anita, I agree. Mind you, I must admit to having been a very young fan of this one as well...

I agree with both of you that the Ghibli anime look great. That style - which appeals to both children and adults - is possibly more common with anime than manga though I would guess.

Courtenay wrote:I enjoyed your article in the last Journal, Nicko, about the Find-Outers in Japan — do you or anyone have some idea of how popular Enid Blyton books are in Japan, or how long ago they started being translated into Japanese? It does show, again, how universal her appeal is.

You are very kind.

How popular are they? Well, with regards to the mystery and adventure books, popular enough for the first few books in some of the series to be reissued from time to time. Not popular enough to be available in their entirety though.

The first few Five-Find Outers books were issued in 1964/5 and then again in 2002 with this rather abstract style of cover:



The Adventure Series was issued in 1984 (with the Pamela Goodchild covers) but hasn`t been available since.

The opening Secret Seven books were issued in 1987/8 and again quite recently.

The first several Famous Five books are also widely available and I see them in libraries pretty regularly with this style of cover.



Otherwise, the Noddy and girls books are pretty common and a couple of Betsy-May books were published recently.

Thanks, Nicko. It's interesting to see those. I think cryptic covers work well for the Find-Outers series.

That's really cool!
I am a huge lover for pretty much anything Japanese. Yet, I prefer not mixing my love for Blyton's worlds with manga-like illustrations. I find it quite interesting though, and I can see it work.

Thanks for the interesting further info, Nicko. The Japanese version of Invisible Thief looks like some kind of surrealist artwork! It's quite a good one, though it wouldn't be my first choice for a Find-Outers cover. A huge improvement on Joseph Abbey, though.

I really like the Japanese cover for Five on a Treasure Island — it's a timeless sort of style that somehow manages to be both classic and modern at the same time, and I could imagine it would appeal to children across many cultures. Can't help wishing some of the current cover illustrators for the English editions of the Famous Five would take a leaf from that artist's book!!

After Enid Blyton times back in '80s, the Japanese manga was my main menu in the '90s. I wonder if the Japanese ever get Enid Blyton adapted into full manga. (In fact, is there any full comic version of E.B?). There are Detective Conan to Sherlock Holmes, and Agatha Christie (this is anime).

Also I wonder how strong the influence of Enid Blyton into Japan writers. It will make a good research to see any Enid Blyton roots in Japan's gigantic world of manga.

jubei wrote:I wonder if the Japanese ever get Enid Blyton adapted into full manga. (In fact, is there any full comic version of E.B?)

Some of the Claude Voilier Famous Five continuation books were turned into comic strips:

http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/book ... comicstrip" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You've reminded me that a Japanese anime of the St. Clare's books was made in 1991. It was dubbed into various languages including German, French, Italian, Arabic and Tagalog - but not English.

Indeed, some of the Japanese anime can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoIu8BBGAVY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wow. Here is the anime info on that
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=4493" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mischievo ... t._Clare's" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

so far, I can't find any unofficial fansub on this anime also.