Since it's a #WorldBeeDay2020 today, I want to do a little thread connecting bees, Japan, Slovenia and Europe. The #WorldBeeDay is celebrated on May 20, the day Slovenian beekeeper Anton Janša, the pioneer of beekeeping, was born in 1734. #世界ミツバチの日 
So, honey and bees are big in Slovenia, but there was
one particularly famous bee back in the 70s and 80s. People growing up in those remote times surely still remember a famous bee called Maya and the rest of the gang.
one particularly famous bee back in the 70s and 80s. People growing up in those remote times surely still remember a famous bee called Maya and the rest of the gang.
Maya the Bee or Die Biene Maja in original was born much earlier as a main character of the book "Die Biene Maja und ihre Abenteuer" by the German writer Waldemar Bonsels, published in 1912.
It is a story about a rebellious bee who escapes from her hive and sets upon an adventurous journey exploring the world meeting other species, until she returns to warn her hive about the coming danger of a hornet plan to attack.
The book was successful and was translated into numerous languages around the world, but the character of Maya probably achieved greatest fame worldwide with the 1975 Japanese anime adaptation.
Many of us growing up in Europe watching the cartoon had no idea it was in fact a Japanese anime titled みつばちマーヤの冒険 Mitsubachi Māya no Bōken (The Adventure of Maya the Bee), by Nippon Animation and directed first by Masaharu Endō and then replaced by Hiroshi Saitō.
The cartoon, or should I say the anime, was hugely successful and has since been dubbed into 44 languages. The original series has 52 episodes and it was aired every Tuesday from 7:30 PM between 1975 and 1976 on NET (株式会社日本教育テレビ Kabushiki-gaisha Nihon Kyōiku Terebi)
The title song for the Japanese version was composed by Shozō Ise 伊勢 正三, performed by Chīta and the Honey Bee Choir.
"Chīta" is a nick name of Japanese pop folk (enka 演歌) music singer known by her artistic name Kiyoko Suizenji 水前寺 清子, whose real name is Tamiko Hayashida 林田 民子.
Her nick name Chīta is an abbreviation of the phrase "chiisana Tami-chan" ("little Tami), as she was called sometimes due to her small stature.
However, the title song that we were listening here in Europe and that everyone who watched the series still knows by heart was written by the Czech composer Karel Svoboda.
Svoboda composed TV scores for many cartoons in Czechoslovakia as well as in Germany. For example, he also composed the music for the series Vicky the Viking, based on the novel Vicke Viking (1963) written by the Swedish author Runer Jonsson.
Vicking Vicke was incidentally again a German-Japanese coproduction between ZDF and Zuiyo Eizo and directed by Hiroshi Saitō.
It premiered in Germany (ZDF), Austria (ORF) and Japan (Fuji Terebi) in 1974 under the title "Wickie und die starken Männer" in German and "Chiisana Baikingu Bikke 小さなバイキングビッケ in Japanese. But I digress.
So Karel Svoboda wrote the title song which was performed by a major Czech pop star Karel Gott, who was the most successful male singer in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic and was known in Germany as "the Golden Voice of Prague" He died only a couple of months ago.
Karl Gott recorded the Czech, Slovak and German versions.
The song I listened to was a Slovenian version, recorded by Janko Ropret, a famous pop singer at the time and a long-time radio presenter.
Here it goes:
So much about the bees and the #BeeDay. To conclude the circle back from Anton Janša all the way to #Japan, let's introduce Hajime Ansei - Anže @lechantdesanges with his tribute to Anton Janša and the bees.
Hajime Ansei 安西はぢめ is an accordion player and lover of Slovene pop folk music and keeps a twitter account. twitter.com/lechantdesanges
Sorry, his name should be spelled Anzai, not Ansei as I mistyped.
So, from Anton to Anže (Anzai 安西), from Karel Svoboda to Karel Gott and Janko Ropret, from mitsubachi Maya to čebelica Maja, this was a little trip in time and space. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. #WorldBeeDay2020
EDIT: Hajime Anzai - Anže 安西はぢめ @lechantdesanges is thanking everyone in Slovenia. For his Slak's "Čebelar" he is getting more views in one night than he got in 3 years before that. Congratulations!
