Kuro (TV series)

Kuro is an American-Canadian-French-Japanese animated comedy-musical children's series produced by DIC Entertainment, TMS Entertainment, Berry Studios, and 20th Century Fox Television. The series has played a big role for Saturday Morning cartoons throughout the 90s as it aired on all of the major broadcast networks since it's debut in 1988. It aired on NBC from 1988-1991, CBS from 1991-1993, ABC from 1993-1997, Fox Kids from 1997-2001, and then Playhouse Disney from 2001 to 2003. Currently, the series airs on Fox Family using the FoxToons branding. Reruns air on Disney XD and MeTV.

Kuro centers around red-haired alien princess named Kuro and her adventures in the Kira-Shine Planet with her friends, a cyborg named Watter, and a Caterpillar (later Butterfly) named Teresa. During each episode, the trio face the villain of the series, an evil alien larva queen named Queen Ribbon and her two henchmen, Devious Daniel and Atrocious Anemia who try to stop the trio in their tracks.

The series appears to be loosely based on the 1984 Famicon game Kuro: Tales of an Alien Princess made by Hudson Soft. (Now Konami) The show is also known the the longest running Canadian animated television series at 33 years old (35 if you count the specials).

Premise
Kuro revolves around 17-year old Alien princess named Kuro and her friends Watter the Cyborg and Teresa the Caterpillar and their adventures in Kira-Shine Planet. However, with the fun they have, they also deal with the wicked Queen Ribbon (who plots to take over Kira-Shine Planet by kidnapping Kuro's mother. Assisting her are Devious Daniel and Atrocious Anemia who are notorious pranksters.

In The New Adventures of Kuro (2003-08), two more villains were added: A giant space blob named Lady Junk and an outcast of the Kira-Shine Planet named Lord Outcast. Who try to compete against Queen Ribbon.

Characters

 * Kuro - An energetic young lady who happens to be Kira-Shine Planet's princess. She has red hair and loves to go on adventures. Whenever she feels sick, she often refuses. Whenever Kuro is in space, she creates a space bubble to protect her.
 * Watter - A cyborg as well as one of Kuro's best friends. He is a cyborg who is portrayed as extremely smart and often uses his knowledge to outsmart Queen Ribbon.
 * Teresa - A caterpillar (Butterfly starting in the episode "Let's Pupate") who is one of Kuro's best friends. She is a tiny purple larva with blue hair (pigtails) and is often the crybaby of the bunch. In the New Adventures episode "Let's Pupate", she transforms into a pupa and emerges as a cyan butterfly with large yellow wings. She also has her flagship blue ribbon on her left antennae. She is autistic.
 * Queen Ribbon - The main antagonist of the series. She is a tall and slender pink larva with a red bow on her head. She plots to take over Kira-Shine Planet by starting a rebellion and often assumes Kuro and her friends are the only things keeping her from succeeding.
 * Devious Daniel - Queen Ribbon's son. During the original series (1988-2003), he was a ruthless prankster who loves to build booby traps. However, when he breaks his leg in the New Adventures episode "Villain's Injury", he then becomes an on/off villain. Desperately attempting to maintain his neutrality.
 * Atrocious Anemia - Queen Ribbon's Daughter. Just like Devious Daniel, she loved to prank other but not with traps. She typically insults not only Kuro, but also the viewer at times.

Introduced in New Adventures

 * Lady Junk - A giant space blob that was created after two giant sized asteroids crashed into each other. She is known to absorb various garbage and uses it for her advantage.
 * Lord Outcast - An ex-citizen of Planet Kira-Shine. He was outcasted from the planet after his life of crime. In "Kuro at the Big Screen", he transforms in a star and tries to destroy the planet for revenge.
 * Puffy - Teresa's rival. She was originally a tiny creme colored worm with a green ribbon on her head. In the episode "Let's Pupate", she pupates herself but instead of emerging as a butterfly, she absorbs an abominable stone and transforms into a monster made of silk.
 * Krabu - A tiny alien girl with crab pincers for hair. She becomes Kuro's next door neighbor and has a tendency to pinch others with her hair.
 * Choriblob - Krabu's baby sister. She is a tiny red blob with a black bow on her head.

Production
The series's production began as early as 1985 following the show's creator, Clara Mirsa, pitched a show's pilot episode to HBO after she played the original Famicom game. Once the pilot episode aired on HBO on October 24, 1986 (with the other six airing on PBS throughout 1987), the show's producers went on to produce the series. Originally, Kuro was defined as a genderless alien figure before the show's creator wanted Kuro to be female after watching "Curly's Gang" on VHS. Once she was created, the casting begins.

Originally in 1987, the series was pitched to the Family Channel (now Freeform) but was rejected for the show being described as "too bizarre". However, in 1988, the series was picked up by NBC for their Saturday lineup. So in December 1988, the series begins it's run.

Episodes
Kuro currently has 24 seasons with a total of 335 (342 including HBO/PBS specials) episodes currently. While most episodes do air on Fox Family, some episodes are also known to air on DarkFox. With one in particular, invasion of the Space Junk, airing on Adult Swim due to the dark tone of the episode.

Kuro's Sing-Along Songs
In 1997, it was announced that Kuro would star in her own sing-along song show. Aimed at preschoolers, the show would air on Playhouse Disney from 1998 until 2004. These songs would often be either nursery rhymes or original songs based on the kindergarten curriculum.

Kuro LIVE!
Kuro LIVE! is an American talk show that aired throughout 2008 on MyNetworkTV. While the show tanked in ratings gaining a 0.3 million per episode, the show got a positive reception due to the show focusing more on the comedy aspect as oppose to the show making jokes on politics and current events. A reboot is in the works for DarkFox.

Kuro-X
An anime-influenced spin-off of the show that takes place in a mechanical AU of the series. Kuro-X aired on Vortexx Saturday mornings and ended on September 27, 2014, the day when the block ended. Just like Kuro LIVE!, Kuro-X is set to have a more mature reboot aimed at teens and young adults on Jetix in 2022. Unlike the original Kuro-X, which was produced by Toei Animation, Kuro-X's reboot, currently named "Project Xeno" has the animation provided by Jetix Concept Animations and CW-affiliate WPIX 11. It is currently unknown if The CW will air the reboot.

Movies
Sometime in 1997, following DIC's owner ABC's merger with The Walt Disney Company, a Kuro movie began production. The movie was later known as Earth to Kuro and came out in 2000 by Walt Disney Home Video. Currently, it is the only pre-2019 Fox Family show to be released by a non-Fox studio. The film was met with mixed reception and a sequel was set to come out in 2004, but it never happened. It was ultimately reworked into Kuro at the Big Screen. Which was met with a much better reception and became the 7th highest grossing movie of 2007.

Video Games
The Kuro franchise has 18 games starting with the franchise's debut in 1988. The first of the games is a Kuro RPG (role-playing) named Kuro and the Quest of Venus on the NES (Famicom Disk System in Japan). The game was often compared to fellow Famicom game Mother due to the similarities. Kuro's latest game "Kuro's Star" was released in 2019 on the Nintendo Switch.

Merchandise
Much like other poplar children's media, the Kuro franchise has many forms of merchandise. The most notable forms of media are children's clothing and hats. Kuro is also known to have kids meal toys as well. Notably the 1993 set for McDonald's. Kuro is also notable for having more "adult" themed merchandise such as wigs based on the characters.

Bootlegs
Kuro bootlegs are fairly common on online retailers such as Ebay and Amazon. Typically bootleg merchandise often originate from Taiwan, Russia, or South Korea. Most bootlegs are often video games (often on the Famicom), home video (typically on VHS), and books (most bootleg Kuro books are fanfictions combined).

Reception
The Kuro franchise has met with all sorts of Reception. Most of the show's seasons and video games are known to have a positive reception while the movies are known to have a mixed-to-negative reception. Kuro has especially gained a positive reception by activists as it was an animated series to star a character of color. Many have often called "Fat Albert in Space" with the show being an animated sitcom starring a character of color or "Canada's SpongeBob" due to the popularity of the franchise. Fans of the show also liked the idea that some episodes also (unintentionally) tackled topics that would be considered "controversial" at times despite falling under the sitcom genre such as kidnapping, child abuse, racism, prejudice, and death. The series was added to the Television hall of fame in 2014 with Kuro, Watter, and Teresa being added.

United States

 * HBO (Pilot episode)
 * PBS (Specials)
 * NBC (Seasons 1 to 2)
 * CBS (Seasons 3 to 4)
 * ABC (Seasons 5 to 7a)
 * Fox Kids (Seasons 7b to 9)
 * Playhouse Disney (Seasons 10 to 11)
 * Fox Family (Currently)
 * Adult Swim (Invasion of the Space Junk)
 * Disney XD
 * MeTV

Canada

 * The Family Channel (Specials)
 * YTV (Seasons 1 to 7a)
 * Teletoon (Seasons 7b to present)

Latin America

 * América TV (Specials)
 * Cartoon Network (1993 to 2008)
 * Jetix (2008 to 2018)
 * Disney XD (2018 to present)

United Kingdom

 * BBC One (Specials)
 * CBBC (Most of the episodes)
 * BBC Three (Invasion of the Space Junk)