Sekai Meisaku Fantasy / World Fairy Tales Series

It’s rather out of the blue, but recently my memory led me to reminisce about a particular fable series I used to read as a kid. The search eventually brought me back to the Sekai Meisaku (世界名作) series — or World Masterpiece Fairy Tales — a long-running Japanese multimedia project that adapted popular fables from around the world with a distinct Japanese touch. 

While I no longer remember every detail, I clearly recall that the series had exceptionally high visual quality — no surprise, considering it was a product of Japan's animation golden age, spanning the late '80s to early '90s. The Sekai Meisaku series brought anime-level illustration to children's picture books, which was quite advanced compared to its peers at the time. It covered a mix of well-known fables, ranging from Aesop’s and Hans Christian Andersen’s tales to Japanese folktales and many others. The series was popular enough that it has many animations spanning over 2 decades along with picture books and video games on 3DO.

One of the first Sekai Meisaku picture book that I remember owning was Bunbuku Chagama, the tale of a shapeshifting tanuki repaying the kindness of its benefactor. I recall that my localized version of the Sekai Meisaku series had over 90 volumes, many of which featured the work of Shogo Hirata, whose stories of princes and princesses were especially prominent like Mermaid Princess adaptation from famous Andersen's work. 

Even though decades have passed since the series was discontinued, the adaptations still hold up — simple, colorful, and full of charm — making them ideal educational material for children, especially in a time when the world is flooded with overstimulating and often questionable content. In many ways, the inception of Realm of Darkness can probably be traced back to this fable series. These works certainly played a role in sparking my passion in writing.

It would be a shame to let this once-wonderful series fade into obscurity. I still hope that Toei will consider re-releasing it someday.