is a French–Japanese–Luxembourgian anime series based on the Greek mythology of Odysseus (known as "Ulixes" or "Ulysses" in Latin), set in the 31st century. It was produced by DIC Audiovisuel and Tokyo Movie Shinsha, in co-production with France 3 and RTL. The series comprises 26 half-hour episodes.

Production

In 1980, DIC Audiovisuel, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Telecom Animation Film produced a pilot for the series, simply titled "Ulysses 31". Although, there was a Japanese VHS release of the series by King Records in 1986, the pilot never saw an official home release and was used for internal use only.

The pilot has long been considered as only been recorded in Japanese, until a French searcher discovered a copy of the French version in July 2015, then a copy of the English-dubbed version in June 2022.

The story is virtually identical to episode one of the finished series, but the story was the only thing that was kept. Some characters underwent major redesigns from a typical anime design to the finished series, which is a mix of Japanese anime style and European art based on the appearance of classical Greek sculpture.

In the United Kingdom, it first aired on BBC One at 16:30 on Thursday, November 7, 1985. In the Republic of Ireland, the show was aired on RTÉ One in 1985. Ulysses 31 was repeated on the European satellite broadcaster The Children's Channel in 1992, as part of an afternoon animation block that also included Clémentine and Widget. The entire series was released in English in a complete DVD box set in the UK released by Contender Entertainment, and in Australia by Madman Entertainment. In the United States, one DVD titled Ulysses 31: The Mysteries of Time was released, containing only four selected episodes. The rights, like most of DIC's other programs, were originally owned by WildBrain, through its in-name-only unit, Cookie Jar Entertainment (which WildBrain's ownership of the series reverted back to creators, and Jean Chalopin (though Tokyo Movie, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Telecom Animation Film's founder, Yutaka Fujioka, died on March 30, 1996)).

It was also aired on Cartoon Network (Asia) in the 1992 NHK BS-2 Japanese version.

The series was remastered in HD for broadcast in French-language channel Mangas, and it was announced that it will be released on Blu-ray for the first time.

Soundtrack

Most of the original soundtrack was composed by Denny Crockett and Ike Egan. Six additional themes were composed by Shuki Levy and Haim Saban: "Potpourri", "Final Glory", "Space Traffic", "Ulysse Meets Ulysse", "Mermaids", and "Change of Time (Theme of Chronos)".

The Japanese version has a different soundtrack, opening with and closing with , both by Tomoaki Taka. The music was composed by Wakakusa Kei, who made the soundtrack in both the series and pilot that was produced in 1980. An official soundtrack was released in 1986 on vinyl and on CD in 1988 by King Records.

References

Further reading

  • Dixième Planète (French magazine), issue No. 15 (Feb/Mar 2002), 8 pages about the series and toys produced
  • Escolano. "Silence Underscores Responsible Fatherhood in Ulysess 31". Shahinian and Salas. The Animated Dad. McFarland. 2024.
  • TMS official website;