Kappa Mikey
Kappa Mikey is an American animated sitcom created by Larry Schwarz, who chose 4Kids Entertainment as the worldwide licensing, marketing and official promotional agent of the series. The show is Nicktoons's first original half-hour series, bought during the same period as other Animation Collective series such as Three Delivery and Speed Racer: The Next Generation, as well as Flash shows from other studios, such as Edgar & Ellen and The Secret Show, though the latter was made from BBC. The series premiered on January 6, 2006, as Nickelodeon aired several reruns and premieres as a promotional movement from August 20, 2006 to January 2007. The series is MTV's first global acquisition, and is currently available on iTunes. Kappa Mikey was marketed as "the first anime to be produced entirely in the United States", according to press releases from MTV, Nicktoons Network, and various other sources, as the term anime in English is generally reserved for animation originally produced for the Japanese market. It uses Japanese animation and culture as inspiration for its concept, rather than being "true" anime. As a matter of fact, the series is a homage/parody of Japanese anime. On February 16, 2008, during their "Music Week", Nicktoons Network aired their first and only original television movie, an hour-long Kappa Mikey musical entitled "Kappa Karaoke". Officially, the episode's title is "The Karaoke Episode".
Mikey, Gonard, Guano, Mitsuki and Lily go to camp.
Mikey decides that he wants to free a captive squid while Guano uses a new gel on his fur.
Mikey and Lily get a retainer from the Bracemaster; Guano disguises himself as a panda for a LilyMu episode.
Mikey puts an artificial-intelligence chip in a motorcycle, creating a talking bike with attitude. Lily becomes popular among the Viking community after she steps up efforts to improve her public image.
Ozu lets his rivalry with another show's producer overshadow a friendly game of baseball.
After eating a radioactive sandwich Gonard gains superintelligence, and his friendship with Mikey is strained. Meanwhile, Lily, Mitsuki, and Guano compete for endorsements.
After Mikey floods the set, the crew has to film on location while avoiding the perils of the wilderness and Kappa as well.
The cast panics when Ozu hires a script doctor who is famous for killing off characters; Guano becomes a talk show celebrity.
When the gang goes to Mount LilyMu, everyone but Mitsuki can go on the bullet train, since Mikey cannot find Mitsuki's ticket. On the train, Mikey hears mumbles and finds Mitsuki tied up. Mikey convinces the gang to help find Mitsuki, and whoever kidnapped Mitsuki. In the subplot, Yes Man quits after a fight with Ozu.
Ozu wants to get the Masked Tanuki, the local superhero, on his show as a ratings boost. Mikey and Gonard rob their own studio to lure him in, only to lure in the Cat Burgler, who kidnaps them as a means for revenge. Meanwhile, Lily and Mitsuki try to solve the mystery of Guano’s apartment.
Ozu and his crew go undercover as students and faculty at the local Lebaniku High School, in order to figure out who’s behind a DVD piracy ring, making illegal copies of their show. Mikey, unable to fit in with any of the cliques, winds up with two nerds. Gonard becomes the Lebaniku football teams’ secret weapon against their rival.
A pair of mystical friendship bracelets magically switch Lily and Mitsuki’s bodies, and they agree to live the other’s life for a while, so Mistuki can finally date Mikey. Lily ends up working with a pair of environmentalists named the Do-Gooders. In the subplot, Gonard and Guano are cursed by a tiki idol.
Mikey opens a Kappa Mikey-themed restaurant, which does lousy until Gonard starts preparing dishes for it. A rival restaurant nabs Gonard and hypnotizes him into making dishes for them instead. In the subplot, Lily is caught showing hatred toward babies, so Ozu forces her to take care of a baby for one day to regain LilyMu’s reputation.
At a video rental store on Halloween, Mikey comes across a "creepy, unmarked" DVD, and after watching it, he and his friends are cursed. Their one way to break the curse is to assist a girl named Samoa to find her gobstopper in a haunted house, looking out for clues from the DVD itself.
Mikey gets lost in Yoyogi Park and meets a Werepuff, a monster who eats peoples' clothes, and Mikey turns into one when his pants are eaten off. Lily feels suddenly attracted to him, and they soon become a celebrity couple. The only way to cure him is if he eats the fur of the original Werepuff before dawn.
Mikey finds a karaoke machine run by a robotic genie. But Mikey insults the genie, causing it to put a curse on him and his fellow LilyMu cast members so that they can't stop singing.
Since the cast of LilyMu is still unable to speak except in song, their show is cancelled. They wonder about what to do with the rest of their lives. Will they be cursed forever?
Ozu orders Mikey to write the first chapter of his memoirs for a magazine tomorrow, with the help of Guano, but things go haywire after Mikey starts making up lies about his accomplishments. Meanwhile, Gonard finds out that he could actually be royalty.
Like the heroes of the famous Japanese film The Seven Samurai, the cast responds to a distress call from a poor boy and LilyMu fan named Riku, whose playground is about to be destroyed by an evil Garbage Man to make way for a landfill. However, used to doing live shows, the five are under the impression that this is just another gig, and Riku thinks they are real heroes instead of actors.
As in Mark Twain's novel "The Prince and the Pauper," Mikey decides to take time off from being a superstar and trades places with an ordinary citizen who looks just like him.
Guano doesn't know how to finish a LilyMu clip show.
Mikey gets in trouble playing a game of golf, while Lily and Mitsuki try to join a country club.
When the cast tries to perform an episode "live", everything goes wrong.
Mikey falls in love with the actress in a kabuki play, unaware that it is actually Mitsuki understudying for her father after he breaks a leg, literally. Meanwhile, Gonard falls in love with popcorn, and it develops into an addiction.
When Lily's favorite clothing designer visits the set, Mikey and Lily compete to win his approval for their contrasting fashion lines. Meanwhile, Gonard becomes obsessed with developing his abs on Ozu's exercise machine.
Mikey threatens to quit after being forced to give up his smelly, good-luck sneakers, but then is caught in a tornado and dreams that he is in the Land of Ozu, where his friends appear as various characters similar to those in the classic film The Wizard of Oz.
Mikey has trouble finding an apartment and, going with Ozu's advice, moves in with Lily and Mitsuki. At the same time, Guano and Gonard have trouble on the set.
Ozu decides to take a vacation- his first in several decades. Before going, he reads off a long list of rules- most importantly, not to harm his prized 500-year-old Bonsai tree. Of course, even before he reads this, Mikey accidentally sets the tree aflame. Now, Mikey and most of the gang (excluding Lily, who is their temporary boss, and doing all she can to keep them busy) must work to replace the Bonsai before Ozu gets back from his unusually short vacation.
A new Kappa Mikey game is released and Mikey goes berserk trying to get a copy. In Mikey's absence, Lily is getting swept into the charm of Suave Mikey, a Mikey look-alike, whom they mistake for the real Mikey. However, Mitsuki is quite suspicious- does Mikey really have a car, a boat, and memories of a trip to Venice?
Mikey's status as a teen idol is threatened when he develops a pimple. His efforts to hide the blemish ultimately lead him to betray his friends to an evil tabloid publisher. Meanwhile, Lily finds a new rival in Socky, a hand-puppet who has replaced her as a Beauty Cream spokesperson.
The LilyMu cast borrows a secret jacket that can turn you invisible for a prop. Enticed by the jacket, Mikey takes it and goes wild in Tokyo. Upon bringing the jacket back though, the coat gets stolen by a one-armed man. Can Mikey prove his innonence and capture the thief?
Mikey throws away Mitsuki's treasured photo album after learning the joys of recycling. Eventually, Mikey recovers it only to discover that all the photos have been removed. Now he must somehow get them back... or create new ones in hopes of fooling Mitsuki. Meanwhile, Gonard and Lily are thrown into a relationship by Ozu to stir up publicity, only to have Guano interfere and make a love triangle. Who will win Lily's heart? Will it be Guano or Gonard? Only a duel can solve this!
When Mikey’s irresponsible spending causes him to go into debt, he must go into business with Gonard to bail himself out. When the lemonade business sours the two find themselves in debtors’ prison. Lily and Mitsuki must rescue Guano after he is mistaken for a toy by two greedy boys at the mall.
Mikey finds a cute little kitten and adopts him as a way to gain more popularity. The plan backfires and the entire media forgets about Mikey and focuses on the cat who becomes Japan's newest star and costs the LilyMu cast their jobs. Trying to get rid of the cat, Mikey hires a cat burgler, one that eats cats. Meanwhile, Ozu's plans to open a LilyMu superstore run short when he adopts the cat away from Mikey and fires the LilyMu cast. The LilyMu superstore is now changed to the a Kello the Kitten store.
When Mikey finds out his childhood hero Captain Impressive is reduced to a bad show at Tatami Megastore, he is devastated. So Mikey changes his image to a bad boy in fear of the same fate. Meanwhile, Mitsuki gets dating advice from Lily and is shocked when she learns that Mitsuki's crush is really Mikey.
After not being able to lift a prob while on set, Mikey decides to go to a gym and get stronger. A sumo named Yokuzuna becomes Mikey's newest rival and a mysterious trainer helps Mikey in defeating him. On a tennis court, Gonard is working on his game until he is embarrassingly defeated by the ball machine. When the rest of the cast asks what happened, he describes an assailant that sounds exactly like the ball machine.
The cast is scheduled to perform at the birthday party of the son of a major LilyMu advertiser. Mikey decides he can get there on his own and proceeds to get lost in Tokyo. As the cast does all they can to stall for him, Mikey joins a Tokyo motorbike gang and eventually becomes their leader.
Ozu's cherished jade tigerfish ends up missing and he's determined to figure out why. He questions the entire cast for answers, but they each respond with different points of view of the crime.
While horsing around, Mikey and the gang discover a secret floor in LilyMu Towers. Inside, they find a mad scientist and his enlarging ray. Gonard gets hit with the ray and now its up to Guano to use it on himself and defeat MegaGonard.
When Lily gets sick of Mikey's pranks, she becomes allies with the evil Phantom of the Soundstage. After the Phantom takes it too far, Lily must save Mikey before the pranks end his career. Guano's suit starts to break down and now he has to deal with what life will be like outside of his costume.
After coming across a bunch of musical instruments in the audio booth, the gang decides to start a band. Unfortunately, they are really bad. When Ozu listens however, he mistakes Mikey's cell phone ring tone for their music and turns "LilyMu" into an act to take advantage of their musical prowess. They go along with the lie for a bit until a group of girl rockers call them out. Then it's time for a Battle of the Bands.
A reporter from Mikey's hometown of Cleveland comes to the set. When doing the story on Mikey, he deceives the reporter to make himself seem more important. Now his parents are coming to visit because of the story and Mikey must convince his friends to play along. Meanwhile Ozu and Yes-man try to create a weather machine for a mysterious reason.
When Guano gets writer's block, Ozu puts the cast on a reality show to fill time. Because of the always filming cameras invading their lives, the gang takes severe measures to escape from the show and it's new reality twist
When Mikey feels like Ozu doesn't need him he is tempted to go back to America. The night before his flight, Mikey is visted by his guardian Angel. They show him what his castmates lives would be like without him. Meanwhile Ozu is visited by the ghosts of Japanese Christmas to try and show him the error of his ways.
Mikey Simon is trying to make his mark in showbiz in his hometown of Cleaveland, Ohio. Down on his luck, he comes across a scratch-off ticket and ends up winning a trip to Japan to star on the once great anime "LilyMu." Time will tell wether Mikey will become Japan's next big star or its next big flop
Mikey hangs out with the shows fans to boost his ego. He winds up getting kidnapped when the fans can't tell what's real and what's not. Meanwhile, Guano is forced to place subliminal messages in LilyMu advertisements so that Lily and Gonard will receive free gifts.
Ozu gets a vist from Brozu, his cool and irresponsible brother. Because he was born first, he owns 51% of "LilyMu" and decides to run things. He ends up firing his own brother Ozu and making Mikey the producer. Now the cast must learn to deal with Mikey's unusual management style or wind up fired themselves.
Mikey releases a magical sword from a stone while filming on location at a park. The gang wants Mikey to use the sword for their own amusement but wind up rescuing him when he gets taken by a dragon.
Ozu sells LilyMu's broadcasting rights to America and Mikey is excited. That is until he sees how they edited the show to make Guano the star. Gonard and Lily use their bonuses to hire a native of Buttstonia to be their maid and do chores for them.
Ozu, who realizes Mikey doesn't have a father figure anymore, decides to take him under his wing. While bonding on a deep sea fishing trip, tempers flare when a shark attacks the boat. Elsewhere, Guano winds up adopting a Jungle Crow and attempts to raise it in Tokyo.
Mitsuki is discovered to have led a life of espionage when a mysterious stranger tries to convince her to return to her past life.
Mitsuki, Lily, and Gonard are members of a secret society called the Order of the Oni. The members are among the most powerful men and women in Tokyo. Now Mikey wants to join. The question is wether or not he will be successful.
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Release | 2006-01-06 |
| Producer | Animation Collective |