Maya the Bee

Maya the Bee

This article is about the anime series. For the novel, see Maya the Bee.
Maya the Bee

(Mitsubachi Māya no Boken)
Demographic Kodomo
Genre Fantasy
TV anime
Director Hiroshi Saitô, Mitsuo Kaminashi and Seiji Endô
Studio Nippon Animation
Network TV Asahi, TV Tokyo, TV Osaka
Original run 1975 – 1976
Episodes 55
TV anime
Director Mitsuo Kaminashi
Studio Nippon Animation
Network TV Asahi, TV Tokyo, TV Osaka
Original run 1982 – 1983
Episodes 52

Maya the Bee, Mitsubachi Māya no Boken?, lit. The Adventures of Maya the Honeybee) is an anime television series produced by Nippon Animation Company in Japan. The series consisted of 55 episodes and was originally telecast across Japan from April 1975 to April 1976 on the TV Asahi network (formerly NET). Based on the classic children's book by Waldemar Bonsels, the anime series has been rebroadcast numerous times in various different countries and languages since its premiere.

An English-dubbed version of the series, produced by Saban Entertainment, was broadcast from 1990 to 1992 in the United States on the children's television channel Nickelodeon. Maya the Bee aired alongside other juvenile-targeted anime such as Adventures of the Little Koala, Noozles and The Littl' Bits as part of Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block of programming for very young children.

A second Maya the Bee anime, Shin Mitsubachi Māya no Boken (The New Adventures of Maya the Honeybee), was made in 1979 by Nippon Animation with the animation studio Wako Production, using the same character designs and some of the same staff of the original series. The second series, which lasted for 52 episodes, did not premiere in Japan until October 1982, on TV Osaka, and aired through September 1983. Ten episodes from this series were added to the 55 episodes from the original for the U.S. broadcast run, bringing the total of Maya episodes aired on Nickelodeon in the U.S. to 65.