The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a Japanese anime series, directed by Hiroshi Saitô which was aired in 1980. It is based on the well-known and popular novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. The series was broadcast on the World Masterpiece Theater, an animation staple on Fuji TV that showcased each year an animated version of a different classical book or story of Western literature, and was originally titled “Tom Sawyer no Bōken”. It was the second installment of the series, after 1977’s Rascal the Raccoon, to feature the work of an American author. This series was also dubbed to English by Saban International and aired on HBO circa 1988 under the title “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” It aired during the 7:30AM time slot and alternated with the later WMT version of “Little Women.” Celebrity Home Entertainment released videos in the United States under the title “All New Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. As of January 2011, the anime is airing in the United States on the NHK’s cable channel TV Japan.