"Maris fhe Wondergirl is a sexy space-comedy adventure complete with mecha, chases, crashes, explosions, aliens and a psychic nine tailed anthropomorphic fox!"
"Maris the Wondergirl is the story of a wrestler from Thanatos called Maris. A refugee from an extinct planet with an alcoholic father and an airhead mother, Maris' biggest problem is that she's a Thanatosian. Considering Thanatosians are six times stronger than the average Earthling this shouldn't be such a curse, especially in a galaxy where violence is rife. However, Maris accidentally destroys everything she touches and as all damages are docked from her wages, every mission she's assigned to by the Inter-Galactic Space Patrol takes her further in debt."
"But when she's selected to rescue the rich and sexy Kogane Maru it's like a dream come true. After setting him free from the terror of his ruthless kidnapper his eternal gratitude will surely guarantee marriage - and an end to all her financial headaches?"
"Maris the Wondergirl is the fourth story in the Rumik World series created by Rumiko Takahashi. One of Japan's most popular comic artists, Takahashi was born in 1957 and studied comics with Kazuo Koike, author of Crying Freeman. In 1978, she won a prize in Shogakukan's annual "new comic artist" contest and in that same year her series Lum Urusei Yatsura started appearing in the weekly manga magazine Shonen Sunday. This phenomenally successful series ran for nine years and went on to sell 22 million copies."
Original work: Rumiko Takahashi
Director: Motosuke Takahashi
Screenplay: Hideo Takayashuki & Tomoko Konpanu
Copyright: Shogakkan Inc./Studio Pierrot Co., Ltd./
Shogakkan Production Co., Ltd./O.B. Planning Co., Ltd.
VHS version:
Language: English
Label: Manga Video
Running time: 48 mins
Certificate: PG
Catalogue no: MANV 1040
Price: £8.99
Release Date: 11th July 1994
In this space comedy, also known as "Supergal" or "Maris the Chojo", and adapted from a manga story by Rumiko Takahashi, Maris is a Thanatosan and six times stronger than the average Earthling. She is employed by the Inter-Galactic Space patrol but is always broke because, without her restraints on, she accidentally smashes everything she touches. She is accompanied by a shape-changing fox with nine tails (a traditional creature from Japanese folklore). And look out for the characters from Takahashi's URUSEI YATSURA appearing fleetingly in the beach scene.
This is a very funny video with much visual humour, but then it was just as funny in Japanese, and Manga Video have ruined the 'out-take' end credit sequence (which some fans thought was the best part) by compressing it to half the original width. This is one of several recent releases where Manga Video (possibly inspired by favourable comments about Crusader's 'regional British accent' NUKU-NUKU), have given the characters a strange mix of international accents. (Anime voice actors usually speak ikantoi, the Japanese equivalent of Home Counties English). Here, Maris has a rather displeasing American accent. The standard of Manga Video dubs generally lags behind that of the newer UK anime labels; on present evidence MV are unresponsive to criticism from more knowledgeable fans. [Geoff Cowie]