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Some experiences stay with us longer than other, often longer than we'd like in the first place. Something attaches to our memory, an athmosphere, a sound, a few unconnected details, bringing recollections to haunt us through the years.Not many today remember Bem.
Not many, probably, even know about it. A careful perusal of the best published resources seems to confirm the suspect that never the series did reach the English speaking world.
Net searches have come up with nothing, too.So this might be the only place to learn about Bem.
We'll take the responsibility.The series first aired on Italian TVs in the early 80s, late on a dark winter afternoon on some second class, long forgotten local channel, probably peddled to the station by some shady mercenary supplying Japanese cartoons (anime was yet an unknown word) to answer the ever-growing requests - from both kids and advertisers - for more.
How and why did we stumble on that particular channel at that particular hour is a detail long forgotten. And yet, the darkly colored images on the screen attracted our attention during our frenetic zapping, and we did watch. And were hooked.
A greenish-skinned kid in a red jumpsuit, only three fingers in each hand, sneaking around some ruins in the most depressing scenario possible, only dark contorted trees and fog.
Don'ask us about the story - we don't remember.
We remember the kid transforming at will into some kind of strange monster with a domed head and a ribbed torso. A fight against some kind of ghost...
The whole thing, of course, left us with more questions than answers, so we got back the following afternoon.
The main themes of the series, as we would discover in the few weeks following, were already established in that first (?) episode.
Yokai Ningen Bem (literally Bem, the Human Spectre), a 26 episodes series produced by Daichi Doga in 1968, certainly will claim a place in anime history as one of the bleakest ever to grace a tv set for a scant half hour. The three main characters (called Bem, Bero and Bera - at least in the Italian version) move by night in a markedly post-war, drab-colored landscape of crumbling mansions, skeletrical forests of dead trees, unmarked stretches of roads leading somewhere indefinite and deserted, dimly lit cities with flagstones pavements, peopled by obsessed characters. Revenge and unfulfilled passions are the main causes that bring evil in the life of these men, and the three main characters have to face them despite themselves. The soundtrack is suitably brooding, dominated by eerie bass flutes, trumpets and whining electronic instruments in the best B-movie tradition.
The bad-guys selection is the worst from both the pulps and worldwide folklore, ranging from hell-bent snakewomen to mad sorcerers to a killing hairpiece (!) and a haunted streetcar (!) - that the series succeded in making such outrageous cliches chilly enough to be worth watching testifies to the strengts of both direction and writing.
The gist of the series: Bem, a sharply- dressed, slap-headed supernatural being with three fingers and white eyes, teams up with the equally three fingered supernatural-kid Bero (the green-skinned, red-jumpsuited one) and supernatural-she-creature Bera (white skin, heavy makeup, red dress clinging to a '50s pinup figure) and embarks on a 26 episodes search for peace and oblivion that will lead the supernatural surrogate family to face a variety of good people menaced by evil supernatural manifestations and will end, most probably, tragically.
The three beings are only passing themselves off, and imperfectly, for humans: their true shape is somewhat reminiscent of the Mutant from Metaluna as seen in the Sci-fi classic "This Island Earth" - two-lobed, domed head, grotesque features, taloned hands.
This surrogate family slowly develops a peculiar relation, evolving through the series. In the beginning Bem, the "grown-up" that knows how meddling with humans can only result in pain and denial, tries to shield Bero from the worst as the "boy" starts various friendships with mundane kids only to be forced to leave them behind. Bero's emotional ties usually drag Bem out of his self-imposed exhile, so that the "human spectre" will come at the end of each episode to put things straight and kill-off the nasty-of-the-week.
Bera steadily refuses at this point the mother-role that would suit her in a normal situation, and is geerally ruthless, amoral, even evil in her dealings with humans.Throughout the 26 episodes the relationship between the three somehow mellows, while the characters slowly become more human, so much so that by the end of the series the three spectres are actively supporting humans against evil, to the point of (possibly) sacrificing their own "lives" in the last episode to save some kids from a burning building.
In the end, this growing relationship is probably the central theme of the series, with the horror and the low-key adventure thrown in for good measure by the producers.
Was it really any good?
Or was it just different?
The few other things we know might help us in our judgement.
Daichi Doga had produced, with the same staff (a Nobuhide or Nobuyoshi Morikawa is credited with character design) the 52 episodes of Ogon Bat just the previous year, the only other production we were able to trace.
The 1967 series - that was also made into a live-action movie feature(*) - follows the exploits of skull-faced, black caped undead superhero Ogon Bat against evil Dr. Zero.
And yet, just one year later, the difference is striking: Bem does not share the campy action and the gaudy backgrounds of Ogon Bat, the would-be 007 situations and the recurring characters. It's much more subdued, darker not only in hues but also in themes and development.
Watching Bem in a dark house during those winter evenings a long time ago was a chilly experience indeed.
(*)Note: The yellow-skull look of Ogon Bat is strikingly similar to the one graced by Italian produced and almost contemporary comic anti-hero Kriminal (1964), one of the first productions of Italian cartoonist Magnus (real name Roberto Raviola), so that the movie was actually dubbed for the Italian market calling the character "Kriminal". The fact that the two characters do not share any other trait but the costume evidently did not bother too much the distributors. Two legit Kriminal adaptations, shot in Italy in 1967 and 1968 further compliate the filmography.
It is not known if the Magnus comic was at the time known to the Ogon Bat production team.
And this is it for the time being.
We are triying to collect all we can about the series, and will update this page whenever possible. We'll be grateful for any kind of help.
UPDATE!
Thanks to Davide 'Z' Di Giorgio, we have now a full episode summary for the series!
Enjoy!
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