<i>The Swiss Family Robinson</i> in Japan

The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) is one of the most translated books of all times and has enjoyed lasting popularity through several adaptations, including a 1960 Disney film and two Tv series by the American showman Irwin Allen in the 1970s. The book, a modern twist on Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), describes the life of a Swiss family who is stranded on a deserted island in the East Indies. Identified as a classic of Western literature, the novel was adapted by the Japanese studio Nippon Animation into the animated series Family Robinson castaway story: Flone of the mysterious island (1981, Kazoku Robinson hyôryûki fushigi na shima no Furône), as part of the World Masterpiece Theater, a programming slot featuring anime based on western juvenile fiction, for a targeted audience of children and mothers. This article aims to examine Flone both as an adaptation for television — considering the narrative techniques used to suit the animated, serialised format — and a cultural renegotiation of familiar tropes and genres. Through a comparative approach, the analysis investigates how the series engages with and reworks narrative archetypes, such as those rooted in the colonial myths and the survival story, within a Japanese cultural framework. In doing so, special attention will be paid to the figure of the eponymous heroine, which represents a distinctive take on the shōjo (girl) character and enabled the creation of related merchandise, as well as to the representations of masculinity as embodied by the show’s male characters.