Mysterious Cities of Gold

Anyone born in the 80's is likely to remember "The Mysterious Cities of Gold" a true classic that has finally been released as a boxset on DVD in the UK (Region 2). After the 20 or so years since it first aired, does it still stand up to modern television? Time to find out...

Before we look at the DVD it's important to remember a little about what made the series so great during the 1980's. It was an animated series by DiC Entertainment and Studio Pierrot first released in Japan as "Taiyo no Ko Estueban" (roughly translated as Esteban, Child of the Sun) and had a mix of actual historic facts and science fiction. A good portion of the series is set in Peru and the surrounding areas - having been there myself it's nice to see these places in an animation and actually know the places that the characters are talking about and travelling through.

What’s more, The Mysterious Cities Of Gold holds up incredibly well. The animation may look a little dated, but it harks back to a time in the 1980s when ambitious programmes such as these were filling the childrens’ TV schedules. And this was the best of the lot. With a darkness and edge that you simply wouldn’t expect, it’s a gripping tale, expertly told. Further icing the cake, the DVD set that The Mysterious Cities Of Gold arrives on is nothing short of majestic, bursting with interesting features and a real care and attention that befits the programme itself. Which goes to make this collection something really very special indeed, not only bringing back a genuine classic from the archives, but doing it with a style that others would do well to match. Brilliant. --Simon Brew

The story follows the adventures of Esteban, a young Spanish boy who was orphaned when he was very little, Zia (an Incan girl), and Tao, the last survivor of the empire of Hiva. The story starts in 1532 with Esteban listening in on the tales of sailor's adventures until he is called for to help bring out the sun - making the sun shine when he wants it to is something that happens throughout the series but is never explained. Shortly afterwards he joins Mendoza, Pedro, and Sancho aboard Gomez's ship that is taking Zia, an abducted Incan girl, back to the Americas in search of fortunes and the mysterious cities of gold (though Esteban believes his father may still be alive and goes in search of him). Mendoza joins the crew as a navigator and it is revealed that it was Mendoza that saved Esteban many years before and has half the other half of Esteban's amulet - one that Esteban's father gave him just before disappearing beneath the waves during a great storm. Over the course of the next few episodes we see the journey from Spain to South America (specifically Peru) during which time Esteban becomes friends with Zia. Eventually Esteban and Zia get split up on the rest and meet Tao, the last descendant of the people of Hiva on what is evidentally the Galapagos Islands - the proof of this is the wildlife that they see such as the giant tortoises and the approximate location we know them to be in. For the next 30 or so episodes we see them travelling across South America discovering things like the Golden Condor, a flying machine made of gold. They reach sites such as Machu Picchu, which of course at the time would have been a working city as was depected here - but was referred to as the city above the clouds. Eventually they come across the Olmecs, and ancient civilisation that were deformed from radiation by the war between the builders of the seven cities. They plan to use the power source of the cities of gold for their own ends, but when the city of gold is found their plans are foiled and the city destroyed. They then part ways with the trio flying off in the Condor in search of the other cities. It's an entertaining story, but I don't want to cover it in great detail due to the shear size of it (it spans 39 episodes).


The dialogue isn't amazing, though the majority of the voices aren't too annoying. One annoyance is the number of times you can count Zia shouting "Esteban!" - there's too many times this happens to easily count! One thing most people will remember about this series though is it's memorable theme tune. As a special feature this theme tune is available with words for Karaoke. The rest of the music has an Andean feel to it, and some of the incidental music such as the piece for the Golden Condor is good to listen to.

In terms of animation it isn't as detailed as you would see today, but it is very symbollic of the style of children's Anime that was about at the time. On the 6 DVDs in the boxset there are the original documentaries that featured after every episode, deleted scenes, production documentary, biographies of cast and crew, original storyboards, a 32 page booklet, a double sided poster, and 6 postcards.

All I can really conclude with is that if you enjoyed this series before, then you're bound to enjoy it on DVD too!

Rating: 3.5/5

(Also review on http://www.newearthonline.co.uk/article/589)