Sonnawood (1992 anime)

Inner Creatures (Japanese: 魔法の森ソナウッド, Hepburn: Mahō no Mori Sonawood lit. "Magic Forest Sonawood") is a 1992 fantasy adventure anime series created by Toshihiro Chiba and produced by Studio Axel.

The series originally aired in Japan on NHK from October 3, 1992 to March 27, 1993 for an initial run of 26 episodes. Due to interest from international buyers, a second and final season consisting of 20 episodes was commissioned and broadcast later from 1993 to 1994.

An English dub produced by Kaleidoscope Entertainment Inc. and Droimétra-DMT was broadcast in US syndication starting July 1994 and on the Family Channel in Canada the following October, with the series title being changed and the character's names changed to suit the English-language market and be more alliterative with the character's animal forms.

Ever since Droimétra-DMT's acquisition by Magic World in 1998, it is currently owned by the studio.

Premise
Keith (Forrester in the English dub), a young adult whose mother had gone missing many years before, lives with his father into a home with a new step-family, particularly their younger son Oliver. Life becomes hard as both heads of the family constantly treat both boys with no respect, particularly the matriarch Hetta (Sally in the US dub). Fed up with misery in the household, Oliver finds out about Keith's book (a possession given to him by his mother before she vanished) containing a map of the hidden forest community Sonawood and convinces him to look for it, hoping to find happiness in a new life there, despite Keith's insistence that such a place doesn't exist.

The two sneak out one night to look for the forest community to discover a large stone barrier with a doorway entrance that seems to have nothing inside. Upon entering through the doorway, Keith and Oliver are transformed into an anthropomorphic fox and ocelot respectively and it turns out to be a forest occupied by other anthropomorphic animals, whose form is an extension of their personality when inside the community. Under the guidance of the wolf Ophelia (Wisteria in the Canadian dub), who turns out to be Keith's biological mother, the two join various other animal-folk in situations wherein the two learn from social conflicts.

Characters
See List of Inner Creatures characters

Japanese

 * Kappei Yamaguchi as Keith/Forrester
 * Akiko Yajima as Oliver
 * Mika Doi as Ophelia/Wisteria
 * Ryūsei Nakao as Alfred/Roddy
 * Miina Tominaga as Maybelline/Vivian
 * Ai Orikasa as Kara/Olga
 * Kikuko Inoue as Silvia/Darby
 * Kazuhiko Inoue as Osmond/Waylen
 * Masami Kikuchi as Pierre/Caleb
 * Keiko Toda as Harvey/Baldwin
 * Mika Kanai as Yasmine/Lucy
 * Akira Kamiya as Jared/Julian
 * Noriko Hidaka as Hetta/Sally
 * Kenichi Ogata as Franky/Osbourne

English

 * Colin O'Meara as Forrester
 * Sonja Ball as Oliver
 * Catherine Disher as Wisteria
 * Rick Jones as Roddy
 * Tabitha St. Germain (credited as Paulina Gillis) as Vivian
 * Alyson Court as Olga
 * Pauline Little as Darby
 * Michael Rudder as Waylen
 * Thor Bishopric as Caleb
 * Susan Roman as Baldwin
 * Kathleen Fee as Bibi
 * Karen Bernstein as Lucy
 * Dan Hennessey as Julian
 * Susan Glover as Sally
 * Colin Fox as Osbourne



Production
(TBA)

International broadcast

 * Argentina - Magic Kids
 * Australia - ABC, Cartoon Network, Boomerang
 * Brazil - SBT, Nickelodeon, Cultura, HBO Family, TV Brasil
 * Canada - Family, Treehouse
 * Canada (Quebec) - Le Canal Famille
 * Denmark - TV2, TV2 Zulu, Cartoon Network
 * El Kadsre - BTV (K-T.V.), BTV Me
 * France - France 3, Canal J
 * Finland - MTV3, Cartoon Network
 * Germany - kabel eins, KiKA
 * Helvmark - Net6
 * Ireland - RTÉ Network 2, Pop
 * Israel - Arutz HaYeladim
 * Italy - Italia 1, Junior TV
 * Japan - NHK, Cartoon Network
 * Jetania - Nickelodeon
 * Kuboia - Nickelodeon Kuboia (later as part of Nicktoons Network)
 * Malaysia - Cartoon Network, Astro Ceria
 * Mexico - ZAZ, Nickelodeon, HBO Family, Canal Once
 * Netherlands - RTL 4, Kindernet
 * New Zealand - TV2, Cartoon Network
 * Norway - TV2, Cartoon Network
 * Philippines - ABS-CBN
 * Poland - TVP1
 * Portugal - RTP1, Canal Panda
 * Singapore - Cartoon Network, Kids Central
 * South Africa: M-Net
 * South Korea - KBS, Daekyo Children's TV, Tooniverse
 * Spain - Antena 3, Canal Panda
 * Sweden - TV4
 * United Kingdom - TCC, Pop
 * United States - Syndication, HBO, HBO Family, KidsClick, Tubi TV

Merchandise
To promote the series, a wave of merchandise from various companies was released in Japan. Tomy (who was also a major partner in the series' production committee) released various toys, including character plushes, figurines and playsets, also publishing certain licensed video games. NTT also released various phone cards depicting characters or entire scenes with them.

Kodansha published various children's chapter and picture books based on the anime, many of which were officially translated into other languages with Scholastic Inc. publishing them in North America during the mid-to-late 90's.

Since Tomy had international subsidiaries, many of the numerous toys originally sold in Japan were also exported overseas (in addition to locally-designed products).

Video games
The anime also spawned video games for different systems.

Sonnawood: Keith to Oliver no Daibouken was released for the Sega Mega Drive on July 23, 1993 by Sega. In this game, Forrester and Oliver are tasked with a treasure hunt, as well as finding a rare flower to help make more for Felix and Diana to produce a medicine. The game is a side-scrolling platformer allowing one to play as eiher Forrester or Oliver, each one with a unique set of abilities. The game was later released in the US as Inner Creatures: Sonnawood Scavenger Hunt in autumn 1994 under Sega's "Kids Club" imprint.

Home media
The series was released on VHS in volumes in Japan by BMG-Victor from March 1993 onward, each volume containing 2 episodes. The 13 volumes were available both for rental and purchase. The penultimate volume released in September 1993 contains a short promo for the then-not yet aired second season.

In the United States and Canada, the series was released on VHS by PolyGram Video in the winter of 1994 through spring 1996. In 1999, the video rights were transferred to WarnerVision Entertainment's KidVision sublabel (exclusively distributed by Warner Home Video), re-releasing episodes on VHS and later DVD until 2004 when the deal expired.