User:Iboughttoomanygames/Eastern Magic

Yeah, I know the show doesn't exist, but this is my sandbox where I make pages for things I wish existed, all right?

Eastern Magic (東方神秘寓話, Touhou Shinpiguwa, lit. "Eastern Mysterious Fable") is an American-Japanese animated series based on the Touhou Project games that aired on PBS from 1998 to 2001. It was created by Ilana Stuart and animated by Studio Pierrot. It stars Reimu, the shrine maiden at the Hakurei Shrine, as she goes about her everyday life solving mysteries and making friends.

Characters

 * Reimu Hakurei (Cheryl Chase) - A miko (shrine maiden) at the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu's duty is to exterminate youkai that try to invade the Eastern Country. However, she's lazy, which leads to lots of youkai invasions. Reimu also possesses a family treasure - the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orb, an object of untold power. Its true power has never been seen in the series, but it has allowed Reimu to eat sweets and not get fat (which leads to a moral that we should all put on some weight sometimes), it can turn into a cat anytime Reimu wants, and it can give off any scent Reimu wants. Reimu lives on her own in the Hakurei Shrine alongside her pet turtle Genji, however her parents have been shown in a few episodes.
 * Marisa Kirisame (Kath Soucie) - A witch-in-training and Reimu's best friend. They met when Mima broke free from her prison and Reimu had to stop her. Marisa believes Reimu should train more to be apt at defending the shrine and the Eastern Country. Marisa's voice is the same as Kath Soucie's Linkha voice from Captain Planet, except without a Russian accent.
 * Mima (Nancy Cartwright) - A ghost who has been around for "a very long time." Because the show is aimed at children, it is not said that she died. Because Mima wanted to steal the Yin-Yang Orb, Reimu trapped her in a prison, but she managed to break free. She mostly spends her days playfully teasing Reimu, and she does care about her deep down inside. Mima trains Marisa, and in return, Marisa calls her "Lady Mima." In the final season, Mima learns to develop human legs.
 * Yuuka (Cree Summer) - A youkai who's trying to become more powerful. She lives in a huge mansion called Mugenkan somewhere in a dream world. She is commonly found there sleeping. When she's not sleeping, she uses a baton to practice her magic. Yuuka debuted in the second season.
 * Genji (Charlie Adler) - Reimu's faithful pet turtle. He too advises Reimu to train more, and since Reimu cannot fly, she relies on him to fly. Reimu calls him "silly old turtle."

Development
Ilana Stuart, born in 1967, grew up in the 70s watching Astro Boy, Speed Racer, Star Blazers, and Battle of the Planets. Sometime in the 1980s, she discovered all those shows were anime, and became interested in anime. This led her to make trips to Japan to appreciate the culture. On one such trip in summer 1997, she went to Comiket 52 and saw the first two Touhou Project games for sale. Since she had a PC-98, she bought them and played them. Eventually, she became interested in the lore, and wanting to develop it further, decided to make a TV show about it in order to showcase it to America. So she contacted Jun'ya Ota, who at first seemed hesitant to allow a big production to be made about his school project, but eventually accepted it. Then Stuart had to find a network willing to air it. ABC and CBS turned it down, so the last resort was PBS, who accepted it. With PBS airing the show, Stuart had to tone down some of the elements of the games and also make it educational. Looking at Arthur and Adventures of the Book of Virtues as examples, Stuart chose to make her show a slice-of-life series with morals at the end, while containing action elements.

Rick Duffield, who had created the PBS show Wishbone, signed on to direct the series, and Jun'ya Ota served as executive producer. The series was animated by Pierrot in Japan, and produced by Takayuki Sugisaki. The series was co-produced by Texas PBS station KERA-TV. At one point in production, Stuart was informed of the Pokémon seizure incident, which led to Pierrot toning down the flashy effects in the action sequences. The show eventually was completed and aired its first episode Monday, September 7th, 1998 on the majority of PBS providers.

Funding credits
Eastern Magic was funded by a variety of different sources.
 * Japan Center for Cultural Telecommunications
 * Sarku Japan
 * 7-Eleven

Broadcast history
Eastern Magic aired on PBS, on its PTV block, from its debut in 1998 until September 6, 1999. Afterwards, it aired on the redesigned PBS Kids block until its finale in June 2001. Re-runs were later shown on Kids' WB from September 2001 to January 2003, as part of the normal block and its short-lived Toonami block.