All in live I've learned from Anime. Well, that's not exactly true, but Japanese animation certainly has a way of surprising with each new encounter: "Rittai Anime Ie Naki Ko Remi" introduced me to the Manga style, it's pendent for drama and the beautiful sweeping (sometimes even 3D) backgrounds. "Kagaku Ninja Tai Gatchaman" was my first taste of science fiction, "Takarajima" featured a more exaggerated style of characters and the use of slow motion scenes for extra effect (years before the world caught on to John Woo) while both "Arupusu No Shôjo Haiji" & "Candy Candy" thought me that 'toons can be aimed solely at chicks, too. "Mori no Youki no Kobito-tachi: Berufi to Rirubitto" was not the first children's series in my lifetime to feature an enchanted forest, but one unforgettable episode had something different altogether though: naked cartoon characters. And under aged once at that.
The series revolved around the children of a fairytale village somewhere near here, though no one knows exactly where in the woods. The inhabitants called themselves 'Fanits' and were naturally one with nature, using birds, squirrels and a fox as transportation. Blond haired orphan Belfi (Berufi) lived with her alcoholic uncle Doc, and liked to get out as much as possible to play with the adventurous Lillibit (Rirubitto?) and his little gang: Napo (short for Napoleon) the Mayors son, Mockin the Woodman's son and Mongar the hanger on. One of them also had a little sister who occasionally joined them but I can't recall her name. Together they would have little adventures in and around the Fanitwood (in Fanitland) like searching for a multicolored-glowworm and usually outsmarting their bumbling parents in the process.
Now, there is only one episode I can clearly recall to this day, and this one involved the Fanit children wanting to see the ocean, and making a difficult trek (no doubt unknown to their folks) all the way to the seaside (actually a pond), where the boys immediately took off all their colorful clothes to go skinny dipping. Imagine my surprise to see these tiny 'toon characters with all their tiny Lil' Bits out (the two girls at least kept their knickers on). The sight of it was burned onto my retinas forever. Years later I happened upon an English spoken version on the BBC called Lil' Bits, but knowing their tendency to censor the h#ll out of everything (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle became Hero Turtles because of Auntie Beeb). I did not even bother to find out if they would be showing the beach blanked episode. But I'm sure it was there on Dutch Television in the early eighties.
8 out of 10
