Anime from Germany are more of a rarity, but they indeed exist. Many Germans aren’t even aware that some well-known children’s series technically fall under the anime category.
Yes, there are German anime too. In the 1970s, German TV channels collaborated with Japanese animation studios to produce several anime series. While the original language of these series is Japanese, they were tailored for German television. The following children’s series can be considered as “German” anime:
The Adventures of Maya the Bee
Almost every German child is familiar with The Adventures of Maya the Bee. The inspiration for this famous children’s series came from the novels of Waldemar Bonsels, a German writer. It first aired in September 1976 on ZDF. The Japanese animation studio Zuiyo Enterprise (now Nippon Animation) collaborated with the German company Peter Films for its production.
Pinocchio
Pinocchio from 1976 is also an anime series produced in collaboration with ZDF and ORF. Nippon Animation and Appolo Film were responsible for its implementation, with Japanese directors Hiroshi Saito and Shigeo Koshi leading the way. The series is based on the classic children’s book Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
Vicky the Viking
The Japanese studio Nippon Animation is also behind Vicky the Viking. It represents the first international collaboration between the public broadcasters ZDF and ORF. The goal of this cooperation was to create an affordable animated version of the children’s book Vicky, which was created in 1963. The series finally premiered on German television in 1974.
By the way, Vicky the Viking served as inspiration for manga artist Eiichirō Oda, among others, for his cult series One Piece. About a year after its German premiere, the children’s series was also broadcast in Japan, where it was similarly successful. Oda had watched it as a child back then.