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Mysterious Cities of Gold New Series Blu-ray/DVD Listed on Amazon for February (Updated)

Fabulous Films will release the 2012 second season of the The Mysterious Cities of Gold (26 episodes), on Blu-ray and DVD. This is a French series, with no Japanese involvement confirmed. However, it is a continuation of the 1980s French-Japanese historical adventure series, broadcast on children's BBC in the 1980s. In Japan, the original series was shown on NHK as Taiyo no Ko Esteban or Esteban, a Boy from the Sun. Set in the sixteenth century, it chronicles the adventures of three children, the boys Esteban and Tao and the girl Zia (plus the parrot Kokapetl), as they seek the legendary cities of gold in South America. The sequel takes the characters to China. From the Fabulous Films site:

Esteban is back in a new adventure which sees him leave the New World behind and return to the Old in search of more Cities of Gold. After having discovered the first such city in the Americas,he and his friends Zia,Tao and the faithful parrot Kokapetl now journey to China to locate the second. Reunited with his former companions, the old seafarers Mendoza, Sancho and Pedro, the children take to the Golden Condor and fly off to explore the wonders of the East. But hot on their tail is the sinister Zares, a mysterious, cloaked stranger in the employ of the King of Spain who is determined to prevent the children from achieving their goal.

The original 1982 series was made between France's DiC studio and Japan's Studio Pierrot. The sequel is made by Blue Spirit Animation in partnership with the French TV channel TF1 and Movie Plus. Movie Plus is an international producer-distributor founded by Jean Chalopin, who co-scripted Cities of Gold, as well as co-creating another French-Japanese animation, Ulysses 31. The production was in the French town of Angoulême.