Spirit of Wonder harkens back to the stories of Jules Verne.

Spirit of Wonder
OAV series (two episodes), 2001. Directors: Takashi Annou, Masaya Fujimori. 97 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: Bandai Entertainment

Confusion! In Japan this is titled Spirit of Wonder 2 because it is a followup to the original Spirit of Wonder (Japan 1992, U.S. 1996). The first was an adaptation of Kenji Tsuruta’s charmingly nostalgic manga tribute to what he terms “the amazing ridiculousness” of the old-fashioned sci-fi of Verne, Wells and Hamilton, and the late 19th century/early 20th century popular scientific theories on which they were based. This new OAV, released as two volumes on Jan. 25 and July 25, 2001, was created by the AJIADO studio staff in the style of Tsuruta’s work.

The manga and 1992 OAV centered upon the trio of Miss China, a feisty young Chinese girl running a restaurant/boarding house in Bristol, England in the 1950s; Dr. Breckinridge, a classic raving mad scientist who is her tenant; and Jim, the MS’s handsome young assistant who is the reason Miss China does not throw Dr. Breckenridge out. This 2001 production was designed as two OAV volumes of 45 and 52 minutes, each featuring a 35-minute two-part serial installment, “The Scientific Boys Club” (directed by Annou), plus a “Miss China” short story (directed by Fujimori) of 10 and 16 minutes, respectively.

“The Scientific Boys Club” features new but similar characters, still in Bristol. (The landscapes of southwestern England in winter and English-style music by Hayato Matsuo beautifully capture the atmosphere of the locale.) A frame of scientists at JPL awaiting the landing of the Viking 1 space probe on Mars in 1976 segues to the story of three old men in England (in 1958) who created a Scientific Boys Club 50 years earlier, inspired by the vision of Mars with “canals” popularized by early 20th century astronomer Percival Lowell. The still-young-at-heart geezers ignore the first realistic observations of Mars of the 1950s and, utilizing the equally discredited theory of space travel by etheric current, finally finish constructing a spacecraft out of a 1910s dirigible with a war-surplus submarine as its airtight gondola.

They set off for Mars, assisted by eager young assistant Jack and his skeptical wife Windy, in a space journey which parallels to some extent Wells’ The First Men in the Moon. The juxtaposition of 1920s boys’-club pop science (which really is how the British Interplanetary Society started) and 1970s more realistic astronomical exploration makes this a parable showing that, scientific reality aside, we are all idealistic dreamers looking to the heavens.

The two more comedic short stories are “Shrinking of Miss China” and “Planet of Miss China.” In the former, Miss China is accidentally exposed to Dr. Breckinridge’s “cellular shrinking ray” with results that are a clever tribute to both Alice in Wonderland and The Incredible Shrinking Man. In the latter, Dr. B’s “reflective space telescope” which is intended to project a detailed image of the Martian surface in front of them, seems to instead project the Doctor, Jim and Miss China to a red planet which is not at all as they expect it to look. Spirit of Wonder is a cheerful delight for those who still find enjoyment in the naive but enthusiastic sci-fi of the early 20th century.