Kappa Mikey

Kappa Mikey
The main cast of Kappa Mikey
Genre	Adventure Comedy
Created by	Larry Schwarz
Directed by	Sergei Aniskov
Voices of	Michael Sinterniklaas Stephen Moverly Annice Moriarty Sean Schemmel Gary Mack Jesse Adams Evelyn Lanto Dan Green Wayne Grayson Bella Hudson
Opening theme	"Hey Hey Look Look" by Beat Crusaders
Composer(s)	John Angier
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	52 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Larry Schwarz Sergei Aniskov Sean Laher Christopher Fauci Michael Gold
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Animation Collective Schwarz Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	Nicktoons
Original run	February 25, 2006 (2006-02-25) – September 20, 2008 (2008-09-20)
Chronology
Followed by	Dancing Sushi
Related shows	Speed Racer: The Next Generation Three Delivery
External links
Website

Kappa Mikey is an American animated sitcom created by Larry Schwarz, who chose 4Kids Entertainment as the worldwide licensing, marketing and official promotional agent of the series. The show is Nicktoons's first original half-hour series, bought during the same period as other Animation Collective series such as Three Delivery and Speed Racer: The Next Generation, as well as Flash shows from other studios, such as Edgar & Ellen and The Secret Show, though the latter was made from BBC. The series premiered on February 25, 2006, as Nickelodeon aired several reruns and premieres as a promotional movement from August 20, 2006 to January 2007. The series is MTV's first global acquisition, and is currently available on iTunes.

Kappa Mikey was marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States", according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term anime in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. As a matter of fact, the series is a homage/parody of the Japanese anime genre. On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first and only original television movie, an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is "The Karaoke Episode".

The last three episodes aired after the show was stuck on a hiatus. These episodes were aired in September 2008, and declared the season (series) finale after September 20.

Plot

The series centers around Mikey Simon, a 19-year-old actor who just graduated from high school and is from Cleveland, Ohio. He embarks to Japan after winning a scratch-off card contest to star in the country's formerly popular live-action series, LilyMu, which is presented as an "anime". In doing this, he rockets the show back to the top of the ratings, and becomes Japan's biggest star in anime history.

Segments of LilyMu are seen at the beginning and end of each episode, but the show focuses primarily on the actors' and producers' lives off-set and Mikey's adjustments to the new world he has entered, similar in concept to The Famous Jett Jackson. The humor comes from the fact that because Mikey is an American, he actually stands out visually from the other cast members, similar to the mix of styles in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. While most characters on the show are drawn in an anime-inspired style (thin outlines, big, detailed eyes, small mouths, and all ten fingers), Mikey (and all other American characters) is drawn in a retro-inspired American cartoon manner (thicker outlines, single black dot pupil eyes, a larger mouth, and only eight fingers). The humor is delivered in a rapid pace, and also consists of light satire, incongruity, slapstick, character quirks, and a fair amount of gross-out humor.

Production

The show's title is a variation on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that it was the inspiration for naming the title character Mikey, and uses the prefix kappa. Like Mikey, who is a 'fish out of water' in Japan, the kappa creature itself is a water demon who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa", on August 5, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained. Mikey also shares his name with the actor who supplies his voice.

Kappa Mikey is different from other cartoons produced at the turn of the 21st century, in that the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not out-sourced, and the episodes were written by a full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, the series became Animation Collective's first television series. The series was produced in New York City starting from the summer of 2005. Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007.

Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was running Rumpus toys, a toy design company in New York City, but they folded before any storyboarding could commence. They resurfaced years later as Animation Collective, and produced an early test pilot for a pitch to MTV Networks, where the character designs and backgrounds resembled more like those found in Adult Swim series Perfect Hair Forever, and the humor was also more adult-oriented. Much of the current cast was voicing their characters even this early in production. MTV declined the deal, and Nickelodeon eventually picked up the project. The series was tweaked heavily in order to be aimed at a younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible", and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?", and the songs in "The Karaoke Episode".

The series was animated in Adobe Flash, with some moments of CGI rendered in Maya. To further emphasize the contrast in animation styles, one group of animators was assigned to the anime characters, and another group was in charge of Mikey and the other American characters. The vehicles on LilyMu and around Tokyo, as well as the weapons, the Gonard balloon, Pirate King's ship, the Karaoke Genie Machine, etc., were created in Maya and exported into Flash using the Toon Filter. The backgrounds were modeled in Maya, and texture, details, and clouds were added in Photoshop. Some of the backgrounds were inspired by actual locations in Tokyo. The show's anime-style characters perform with large comedic overuses of face faults, such as a face and/or body turning into an exaggerated general appearance, or becoming much smaller. This allowed animators to have more control over how a character looks and acts than on many other Flash shows, and they didn't always have to be on-model. The show uses clichés common to anime, including the sweat drop, lines over the eyes or no eyes at all, big heads, flaming eyes, bodies becoming smaller. Sometimes Mikey will try to do these things, which was one of the show's running gags, but cannot due to being drawn in an American style.

Characters

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey characters

Character	Voice actor
Mikey Simon	Michael Sinterniklaas
Gonard	Sean Schemmel
Guano	Gary Mack
Lily	Annice Moriarty
Mitsuki	Evelyn Lanto
Ozu	Stephen Moverly
Yes Man	Jesse Adams

These characters are modeled on cartoon stereotypes, to varying extents. The show also features secondary characters and extras, mostly in crowd scenes, whose designs are directly inspired by famous anime characters, but who are different enough to avoid copyright infringements. Sometimes this is done to spoof the films and television programs intentionally, such as the character Masaka Masako, whose appearance spoofs Yubaba, or her twin, Zeneba, from the film Spirited Away, or Takashi Katashi, who shares a similar appearance and name with Kakashi Hatake from the manga/anime franchise Naruto. The person standing next to him could be a character that s supposed to resemble Sakura Haruno, also from Naruto, note the clothing. On another episode there is an anime version of Ami and Yumi from the TV series, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, which was running on Cartoon Network at the time. Also in the final scene of the episode "Reality Bites", there is a person in the crowd that was designed like a persocom from the anime Chobits. Other times, it is done to continue the show's original concept, without any intention behind it.

Episodes

Main article: List of Kappa Mikey episodes

Seasons	Episodes	First Airdate	Last Airdate
Season 1	26	February 25, 2006	April 28, 2007
Season 2	26	June 9, 2007	September 20, 2008

Home media

A Kappa Mikey DVD was released on September 18, 2007 under the Starz Home Entertainment brand, and includes the episodes "Lost in Transportation", "Easy Come, Easy Gonard", and "The Man Who Would Be Mikey", all from the first season, as well as bonus material, including a fictional music video of "I'm Alright" taken from "Battle of the Bands", wallpaper, an interactive game parodying Hollywood Squares, and a How-to-Draw-Mikey tutorial.

In 2008, the Animation Collective site advertised a second DVD that was scheduled be released sometime later that year. However, the announcement was removed from the website, leaving the exact release date to be unknown. The DVD was intended to include the first season in its entirety, with DVD extras, and would have been considered more of an "official" volume than the last one. No further announcement has been made as the status of this DVD. As of 2009, this release is shelved.

Season 1 (Episodes 1 - 13) was released on DVD on September 12, 2007 [1] , and Season 1 (Episodes 14-26) was released on DVD on March 12, 2008 [2] by Anchor Bay Entertainment in Australia.

The soundtrack for "Kappa Karaoke" is available as a downloadable album on iTunes.

See also

Other anime about Kappas unrelated to Mikey:

• Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi
• Kappa no Kaikata

External links

• Official website
• Official website from Nicktoons Network
• Kappa Mikey from Teletoon
• Kappa Mikey at the Internet Movie Database
• Kappa Mikey at TV.com