60 Years Later, A Forgotten Sci

King Kong Was Having Anime Adventures 60 Years Ago

The King Kong Showwas the first anime made for America — and a big part of Kong’s time in Japan.

Whenever Godzilla and King Kong clash, it’s often seen as a battle of the East versus the West. The King of the Monsters is one of Japan’s most famous cultural exports, while the Eighth Wonder of the World is as American as apple pie despite his Skull Island origins. Turns out it’s not actually that simple. There have been several American Godzilla films at this point, of course, but Japan has made plenty of King Kong content. (Kongtent, if you will.) There’s 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla, but there’s also The King Kong Show, which premiered 60 years ago and was the first anime ever made for America.

The King Kong Show, which premiered on ABC on September 10, 1966, had its origins in the United States. Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, the duo behind those beloved stop-motion Christmas specials in addition to a host of other classic animation, developed a King Kong series after getting permission from RKO, the studio behind the big ape’s debut feature. The show followed Kong after he befriends young Bobby Bond and his family, Professor Carl Bond and teenage daughter Susan. They go on all sorts of adventures together, battling various monsters and fending off the evil designs of Dr. Who, a mad scientist who wants to capture Kong. (The show had no official connection to the James Bond franchise, whose first film was titled Dr. No, nor did it have a connection to the British sci-fi series Doctor Who.) Episodes of The King Kong Showfeatured a segment about the giant gorilla and a segment titled Tom of T.H.U.M.B.,which was about a secret agent who had been shrunk down to a tiny, espionage-ready size.

The animation in The King Kong Show is, like so many animated shows of the ’60s, charming but a little crude, and there are plenty of instances of limited animation — a technique where assets are re-used or static images take the place of more expensive, fluid animation. This was not a show made on a kaiju-sized budget; it was more of the norm for the era.

What was not the norm was where the show was made. Although the designs, scripts, and voice acting were all done in the United States, Videocraft International (which would later become Rankin/Bass) outsourced the animation to Japan’s Toei Animation. The King Kong Show was the first cel-based anime to be made specifically for American audiences. This was the Rankin/Bass way; the classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer stop-motion Christmas special from 1964 was also made in Japan by a different studio. The King Kong Show was the first of many traditionally animated series that Rankin/Bass would have Japanese animators make.

The King Kong Show is an anime by technicality. It doesn’t especially feel like anime. There are definitely similarities between the animation and other Toei anime of the ’60s, like Cyborg 009, but on the whole it feels more like a Western cartoon in large part because of the character designs, which were drawn up by American cartoonists. Still, it has a place in history as a first, and it would open the door for Kong to have more adventures in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Rather than just be paid to do The King Kong Show‘s animation, Toei put in some of their own money. In exchange, they got the Japanese distribution rights, and Japanese children were able to watch The King Kong Show on TV in 1967.

Toho, the studio behind Godzilla that had borrowed Kong for the two kaiju’s match in the 1962 film, still had the film rights to the ape for a few years afterwards. At one point, Toho was in talks with Rankin/Bass for a joint production that could coincide with The King Kong Show. Originally titled Operation Robinson Crusoe: King Kong vs. Ebirah, the movie would’ve pitted Kong against the titular giant shrimp kaiju. Those plans fell through, and instead Toho just made the movie with Godzilla instead of Kong (which is why Godzilla behaves somewhat Kong-like in the 1966 film Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.) Toho and Rankin/Bass would work together for the following year’s King Kong Escapes, which was essentially a loose adaptation of The King Kong Show. Dr. Who makes the jump to live-action as does his creation Mechani-Kong, which had debuted in two episodes of the cartoon. (Mechani-Kong predates Mechagodzilla by nearly a decade.)

The King Kong Show ended after one 25-episode season. Kong’s Japanese foray would end with the ’60s. Toho would consider another crossover with Godzilla in the ’90s, but regaining the infamously complex rights to Kong proved too difficult. There was a plan to have Godzilla fight Mechani-Kong instead, but even that wouldn’t work. Ultimately, they released Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla IIin 1993. Now the two kaiju are battling in the ongoing American MonsterVerse franchise, and anime is more popular in America than ever. In the wake of all this, The King Kong Show has been somewhat forgotten; it’s worth remembering as a monstrous bit of animation trivia.

The King Kong Show is not officially streaming on mainstream subscription platforms, but episodes and clips are widely available on YouTube.

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