Sirius no Densetsu

Gods once lived on earth, and two siblings, Oceanus - God of Water, and Hyperia - Goddess of Fire, lived in peace and dearly loved each other. However, the God of Wind, Algaroc, become jealous of the pair's happiness, and spread lies and deceit between them until their hatred for each other brought about war.

Finally, Algaroc was imprisoned by the King of Gods, but after that time, the brother and sister still despised each other, so the Children of Fire and Water forever remained apart. But, then Prince Syrius of the Water and Princess Malta of the Fire meet and fall in love. The love of Syrius and Malta may not be enough to surpass their parents' hatred. Whether they can stay together forever may be impossible

(Source: AniDB)

Malta Main

Koyama, Mami Japanese

Sirius Main

Furuya, Toru Japanese

Piale Supporting

Han, Keiko Japanese

Mugwump Supporting

Suzuki, Hiromitsu Japanese

Hyperia Supporting

Mutou, Reiko Japanese

Aristurtle Supporting

Uno, Juukichi Japanese

Chiku Supporting

Sakakibara, Ikue Japanese

Oceanus Supporting

Utsumi, Kenji Japanese

Hata, Masami Director, Screenplay

Kawajiri, Yoshiaki Key Animation

Satou, Yuuzou Key Animation

Sugiyama, Koichi Music

Reviews

Dec 8, 2024

Zeoguri

Recommended

Hopefully readers don't mind, but this is going to be a very personal review from me because this is a very personal movie to me. "This" refers to Sirius no Densetsu, better known in the US as The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, and better known to *me* as "The Fire Prince and the Water Child" because the colors have been confusing me for over thirty years. That's right, over thirty years because this was the very first Japanese anime I ever watched as a child!

I owe this experience to my grandmother, a TV addict who counted her twin VCRs amongst her most prized ... possessions and used it liberally to amass a large collection of over a hundred, maybe even several hundred, pirated VHS tapes. Crucially, she was also at that time what we'd probably now refer to as a "Disney adult" so that when I'd go over to her house she'd naturally sit me in front of the TV to watch Dumbo, The Little Mermaid, or one of any number of animated VHS tapes she had in her ever-expanding collection. One of these pirated tapes was "Joey's Tape", a compilation tape containing various children's programs she recorded from rentals or the TV that would gradually be added to from sometime around 1989 until the tape was officially retired around 1992.

This tape, which I still treasure, is filled with absolute nostalgia gold. The original multi-episode pilot arc of Bucky O'Hare, an episode of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes cartoon complete with commercials, two episodes of Shelley Duval's Faerie Tale Theatre, and a mostly taped-over episode of, get this, the Dragon Warrior animated series, an anime adaption of Dragon Quest III that I didn't even know existed until I re-watched the tape in my teens! But the very first program that was recorded to this tape, recorded so long ago that I can't add the "start date" to my MAL, was a pirated copy of The Sea Prince and the Fire Child, a 1982 dub of a 1981 Sanrio production created by Shintaro Tsuji, one of the founders of Sanrio.

The Sea Prince and the Fire Child is a fantasy children's film that takes a lot of inspiration from Romeo and Juliet, Greek mythology, and Walt Disney animated features (resembling, but far predating The Little Mermaid). As one might suspect, it's a film that doesn't come close to matching the quality of even Disney's so-called "dark age" of the 70's and 80's in terms of animation but Sanrio still gives it the old college try and it what it lacks in quality it makes up for with pure style. The world of Sea Prince is vivid and colorful but also dark and full of danger, in many ways it's tonally similar to Don Bluth's anti-Disney movie The Secret of Nimh, but with a level of artistic style that at that time had not been seen at Disney since Sleeping Beauty.

I'm also leaving something important out here, which I discovered upon re-watching this film in my teens. Not only did I somehow manage to find a few minutes of the forgotten Dragon Warrior anime on my old VHS tape, but I was treated to some very familiar sounding music. It turns out that Sea Prince was scored by none-other than the late Koichi Sugiyama, the famed music composer best known for composing the music of the Dragon Quest video game series. If you've ever played any of the Dragon Warrior/Quest games you're probably very familiar with Sugiyama's style of music and Sea Prince features that very same style with a fully-orchestrated score.

The Sea Prince and The Fire Child is still, without question, a children's movie complete with a cliche story, annoying characters, and an uneven, all-over-the-place plot but its also a movie filled with beautiful scenes and sentiments that adults will appreciate as well. Highly recommend it to any lovers of 1980's animated fantasy films.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 28, 2018

matthigh

Mixed Feelings

Basically it's a Romeo and Juliet style story, right down to the not-so-happily-ever-after ending.

Sanrio is a funny little company - known for their overwhelming cuteness overload with Hello Kitty and friends, and yet earlier in their existence they were also known for making movies with stories that are not exactly kiddie-friendly. Like Bell of Chirin.

In this case, you have a little bit of nudity, and (as mentioned above) non-Disney-everybody-happy ending. Its a tragic tale of forbidden love between two people who must forever be kept apart; but the real tragedy is there is hope ... held out for a happy pairing, only to slip from their grasp.

Decent artwork, decent animation, decent sound. Could have done with a little less of the annoying sidekicks, though.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 21, 2018

JuneNephthys

Not Recommended

I’m reluctant to categorize Sea Prince and the Fire Child as a children’s cartoon―seeing as the overarching theme of Windaria, an ADULT-ORIENTED animated film felt a little bit less bleak. This film was produced by Sanrio Films, which also created the infamously dark “children’s” cartoon―Ringing Bell; which had me scratching my head as an adult―I can’t even imagine what a child would decipher a film that teaches, “if someone slaughters your entire family―hunt them down to… ask them to be your mentor, and then kill more of your own kind!” I don’t know, it’s a kooky film!

• This story, in layman’s terms, is a mythical rendition ... of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, which, probably sounds really cool―until you see how the plot is handled. There are several stupid mishaps by characters that could have easily been avoided; but, apparently, every single character in this fantastical Grecian tale is mentally impaired―causing problem after problem to intensify the tragedy.

• The romance is weak, but I don’t fault the story for that. Romeo and Juliet only happens because two people happen to meet and because crazily infatuated with each other, nothing new there. Piale’s (a lesbian fire fairy) dedication to Malta (essentially Juliet) seems stronger than the breadth of their love and her role in the film, while important, is very fleeting.

• Many characters die over stupid things, like, “I’m going to do this really risky thing to try to help this person, even though it might end our entire civilization.” The main hero and heroine don’t help with the stupidity, seeing as they are both bequeathed with the greatest responsibilities in their kingdoms and they both aren’t able to even live up to these titles for ONE day; they literally sacrifice the lives of hundreds or thousands mythical sea or fire creatures to smooch! It’s infuriating.

• People think that they thirsty character motivations in School Days is irritating―this is stupendously worse. In fact, School Days has much better catharsis and morality than this idiocy. This movie teaches youngsters that if you toss your duties onto other people, sacrifice the innocent lives of your kingdom to have a forbidden love, make decisions that further ensue calamity, and die holding onto that “pure” love―it will reunite the elders of the kingdom, in lieu of your death, despite their reasons for quarreling being incredibly pithy as well. Seriously, if the kingdoms of fire and water were torn apart at the seams because of the Wind God throwing shade and gossiping―how is the death of the lovers supposed to having any lasting impact on the illusory amalgamation of the two kingdoms?

• Overall, despite the production values being gorgeous―the animation and character designs reminded me of Disney’s Fantasia―the story, characters, and ethos of the story are severely lacking; Ringing Bell was much better, although the morality was also skewed. I give it a 3/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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