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'Fantastic Children' Village of the damned rip-off?

posted 17 years ago by bbhood_mel
2 replies | jump to latest

I just learnt of the existence of a japanese cartoon called "Fantastic Children".When I read the synopsis, The only thing who comes to my mind was "Village of the damned"! Take a look:

"Spotted across Europe, The "Belfort Children"* a group of mysterious white-haired children wanders the world in search for a special young girl.They behave far more mature than they should be.Thomas an ordinary boy, has just found Helga, a runaway orphan, on the island where he lives. He finds himself risking his life to save the orphan as the Belfort Children pursue her.Why are the Belfort Children after Helga? And who are these enigmatic white-haired children with supernatural powers? Thomas and Helga's search for the truth soon leads them to a poignant tragedy that occurred 500 years ago on a planet millions of light-years from Earth..."

*BTW Belfort is a small village in Belgium

Some pics:
http://anime.tanuki.pl/screens/1853.jpeg
http://www.manga-sanctuary.com/captures/1014_fantasticchildrentvscreen01.jpg
http://www.slocartoon.net/cartoons/images/003000/3935.jpg

By the way, I ask you this question.Do you know other things that look like to "Village of the damned"???

[–] Loyola70 17 years ago

Yes, you're right!!! I thought about that too when I first watched the Japanese anime "Fantastic Children", some of its elements are similar to Village of the Damned!!
The white hair of the children, the fact that they actually are aliens, their rules, their maturity.... The fact that the children are in couples and that they were born from normal parents (without really be their parents' daughter or son...)
But of course, the main story isn't the same, and one seats in a near future in Europe (in Fantastic Children) and the other one takes place in a little country village.... However, I'm glad that someone else saw the similarities!!

Yes, I know something else that might be related to Village of the Damned. It's the PS2 video game "Rules of Rose", the makers of the game stated that they were inspired by "The Lord of the Flies" and "Village of the Damned" to build their characters.

[–] bbhood_mel 17 years ago

Hey Loyola70! I'm happy to heard that I was not the only one who tought about it! Nobody knows Fantastic children around me..sniffle -_-

Another similarity I just found when I continue watching the serie it is that one of the child of the group (named Conrad if I remember it well)is a little bit outcast in the group of children and want to live an ordinary "human live" because he enjoyed it and loves her "mother" and his "brother"....That make me think a lot to David's dilemma(from the remake of course).

However I never heard of Rules of rose before....Seem interresting...^^

Do you know about the "Stepford Cuckoos" in X-Men? I heard it was also inspired from the novel...(I heard it on wiki)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepford_Cuckoos