Kappa Mikey is an American animated comedy television series created by Larry Schwarz. Animated by Schwarz's production company, Animation Collective, The series ran from February 25, 2006 to September 20, 2008. 52 22-minute episodes were produced across two seasons.
The series was announced in 2002, when it was announced that Noggin's teen block The N would be co-developing and airing the series. Animation World Network reported that Noggin/The N had signed on as a co-producer. However, the show was moved to Nicktoons Network, a sister channel to Noggin. With the move, it became the first half-hour series to premiere exclusively on Nicktoons.
Plot
Intended as a parody of Japanese anime, the series follows a young American actor named Mikey Simon whose appearance is "rendered in a thick-line, pop-graphic, American cartoon style," and travels to Japan to star in a tokusatsu show called LilyMu, where his anime-influenced co-stars represent common anime clichés.
Each episode follows a specific formula. A typical episode starts with the cast filming a LilyMu segment, but the take is ruined, sometimes revealing the conflict that the characters deal with through the rest of the episode, with a minor subplot running beneath the main plot. After the problem is resolved, the LilyMu segment will be shot again and successfully completed the second time, often rewritten to incorporate whatever lesson was learned during the main story.
Deep into season 2, Kappa Mikey has stopped showing a LilyMu sequence at the end of an episode whenever it would make the episode too long, when the characters are in their LilyMu uniforms enough as it is, or when they successfully film a sequence without any mistakes before the ending.
The show's title is a play on the word kappamaki, a type of sushi. It is suggested that the show was the inspiration for naming the title character "Mikey" and used the prefix "kappa". Like Mikey, who is a "fish out of water" in Japan, the kappa itself is a water demon creature who can live on land. The kappas first appeared on this show in the episode "Mikey, Kappa" on August 5, 2007, where the origin of the title was explained.
Characters
Mikey Simon (voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas) Gonard (voiced by Sean Schemmel) Guano (voiced by Gary Mack) Lily (voiced by Kether Donohue) Mitsuki (voiced by Carrie Keranen) Ozu (voiced by Stephen Moverly) Yes Man (voiced by Jesse Adams)
Production
Larry Schwarz conceived the series in 2000, when he was working at Rumpus Toys, a toy design company in New York City. In September 2001, Rumpus and Sunbow Entertainment partnered to work on the series. In May 2002, the project was picked up by Noggin (a channel owned by MTV Networks) for its teen-oriented programming block, The N. Noggin/The N signed a co-development deal for the series, while Animation Collective retained the series' copyright and distribution rights. By the time animation was completed, The N had shifted more to live-action shows for young adults, so Kappa Mikey was moved to another MTV Networks-owned channel: Nicktoons Network. The series was tweaked in order to fit Nicktoons Network's younger audience. Voice talents were usually local, and its audio was recorded at Manhattan-based NYAV Post, which Michael Sinterniklaas owns. Larry Schwarz, along with the other executive producers, oversaw all phases of production, but only had writing credits on the pilot episode, "Mikey Impossible" and "A Christmas Mikey". All the episodes were directed by Sergei Aniskov. The instrumental score was composed by John Angier, who also wrote the lyrics to "The Recycling Song", "Ori and Yori's Hits", "Living With Mikey", "How Did We Get Here?" and the songs from "The Karaoke Episode".
Unlike other cartoons produced at the turn of the 21st century, the property was owned by the studio instead of an agency, the animation was not outsourced and the episodes were written by full-time staff. After producing Internet-based projects and television spots, the series became Animation Collective's first television series. The series was produced in New York City; pre-production began in 2002 and animation started in the summer of 2005. Production for the two seasons wrapped in September 2007.