#68 – Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee

Another Tatsunoko show. This time from 1970 and about a Bee. Now, according to ANN, a sequel was made in '74 and there was also a remake from 1989.

Now one of these got Saban-ised, but I'm not entirely sure which. I'm pretty certain it was the 1989 series, but it's not entirely clear. BCDB states there was a US release in the mid-nineties, but it also states it it was made in 1994. It's possible this is the series that ANN lists as being from 1974 as that listing does have some english credits on it.

Tatsunoko's own page only mentions 2 series, with episode counts matching ANN's listings for the 1970 and 1974 versions, thus furthering my confusion. The BCDB entry lists 55 episodes which matches the ANN's 1989 series listing. The Japanese wikipedia page agrees on the 1970 and 1989 series, but no mention is made of the 26 episode series from 1974.

Confusing, is it not?

Here's something I forgot when discussing the other Tatsunoko shows, and something strangely missing from a lot of ANN entries – Yoshitaka Amano. The famed artist started his career at Tatsunoko at fifteen years old. In this interview with 1UP, he mentions Hutch as being one of the first shows he had a major contribution to.