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| Hana no Ko Lunlun | |
 Logo for Hana no Ko Lunlun | |
| 花の子ルンルン (Hana no Ko Runrun) | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Magical girl |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Various |
| Written by | Various |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Original network | ANN (TV Asahi) |
| Original run | February 9, 1979 – February 8, 1980 |
| Episodes | 50(List of episodes) |
| Anime film | |
| Hana no Ko Lunlun: Hello Cherry Country | |
| Studio | Toei Animation |
| Released | March 15, 1980 (Japan) |
| Runtime | 15 minutes |
Hana no Ko Lunlun (花の子ルンルン,Hana no Ko Runrun), translated toEnglish asThe Flower Child Lunlun andLunlun, The Flower Angel, is amagical girlanime byToei Animation, focusing on a theme offlowers in its stories. It was directed byHiroshi Shidara and written byShiro Jinbo. It was greatly successful in the West, particularly inEurope and inLatin America, as well as inJapan.[citation needed] An edited English-language dub of a few episodes titledAngel made this series one of, if notthe first, magical girl anime works to reach the English-speaking market in the United States and Canada, well over a decade beforeSailor Moon.
A theatrical short film,Hello Cherry Country (こんにちは桜の国,Konnichiwa Sakura no Kuni), was released in March 1980.
In 2009, William Winckler Productions produced two all-new English-dubbed movie versions edited from the original series titledLun Lun the Flower Girl andLun Lun the Flower Girl 2. ProducerWilliam Winckler, known forTekkaman the Space Knight, wrote, produced and directed the English films, which are seen on broadband in Japan.
A Chinese-Japanese sequel produced byTencent Video and Toei Animation's Shanghai branch is in production.[1][2] It was originally announced as a remake.
Long ago,plant spirits andfairy-like creatures lived in harmony with mankind. Gradually humans began to rise towardgreed andcruelty, and the plant spirits immigrated to another world they dubbed the "Flower Star." However, their legacy remained in people who truly knew the meaning of love and kindness. A talking dog and cat pair, Nouveau and Cateau, were sent toEarth to find one such person to find a magical flower — the symbol of the Flower Star'sruling family — so that a new ruler can ascend thethrone.
InFrance they meet Lunlun Flower, atomboyish and outspoken young orphan who lives with her paternal grandparents who own a flower shop. Lunlun's late mother turns out to be a descendant of the Flower star people, so at Lunlun's 15th birthday party they ask Lunlun to join them, and she accepts. They tour all of Europe in pursuit of the bloom while offering assistance to those they encounter.
Lunlun, Nouveau and Cateau are followed by a bumbling pair ofvillains: the selfish fairy Togenishia and her servant Yabouki, who want to steal the flower and rule the Flower Star. Whenever Lunlun and her friends attempt to help people, Togenishia and Yabouki try to get them back on the road by force, only to fail. They are aided by Serge, a mysteriousphotographer who gives the people Lunlun helps packets of flowerseeds which symbolize the lesson they have learned in the "language of flowers." (For instance,thistles, which signifyindependence, are given when the son of a farmer vows to follow his dreams and leave home). Lunlun develops a huge crush on Serge due to his kindness, and he is implied to like her back.
The people that Lunlun help send flower seeds to Lunlun's grandparents and tell them about their amazing granddaughter... and, in the end, the magical flower is found growing in his garden, and saving it from destruction after an attack from Togenishia. The photographer Serge turns out to be the prince of the Flower Star, and he confirms that he loves Lunlun and asks her to be his Queen. Lunlun rejects his proposal, however, since she loves Serge with all of her heart but does not want to live in the Star Flower. So Serge cedes the throne to his younger brother so he can live on Earth andmarry Lunlun.
At the start of the series, Lunlun is given a magical pin from the King of the Flower Planet. This pin, when a flower is reflected in its mirror, gives Lunlun a new outfit for an activity, such as mountain climbing. About halfway through the series, the pin is broken when Lunlun falls from a branch overhanging a waterfall while trying to attract attention after being caught in the Dark Wind (Togenishia's main form of attack). While she is lost in the river, a new pin is given to her in the shape of the royal crest, with the warning that if it is ever lost or broken, her life on Earth will end and she will be unable to return to the Flower Planet. The words to activate this pin are "Fu Flay Lu Fey Lora".
Initially,ZIV International acquired the series for the U.S. in 1980. At least the first four episodes were dubbed into English, with a new theme song and score by house composerMark Mercury. In this incarnation, the characters were renamed to Angel (Lunlun), Cathy (Cateau), Wendal (Nouveau), Melicia (Togenishia) and Ivan (Yabouki). The episodes were then packaged into one presentation in 1981, which aired on HBO and was released on videocassette byMedia Home Entertainment asAngel and by Family Home Entertainment asFlower Angel. The ZIV dub was released on DVD as part of the Fairy Tale Adventures compilation fromTCG Direct in 2009.
In 1985, ZIV licensed their rights toHarmony Gold, who prepared a feature-film length condensation of the series with another new dub track and music score. Again, the characters were renamed, this time to Angel (Lunlun), Lily (Cateau), Periwinkle (Nouveau), Princess Wysteria (Togenishia), Ragweed (Yabouki) and Stefan (Serge Flora). The episodes that were featured in the film were episodes 1, 7, 24, 29, 49 and 50. The 37th episode was also covered, but it was only the intro to coincide with the beginning events of the 49th episode. This film was not released in America, but received multiple VHS releases in the UK.
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In 2005, Japanesetelevision networkTV Asahi conducted anonline web poll for the top 100 anime, andHana no Ko Lunlun placed 85th tied withIkkyū-san.[3]
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