Maya the Honey Bee (みつばちマーヤの冒険), also titled internationally as Maya the Bee is a Japanese anime television series produced first by Zuiyo Enterprise[5] and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation of Osaka. After the first 6 episodes, Zuiyo Enterprise's animation studio division became Nippon Animation, which retained the rights of the series. The series consisted of 52 episodes and was originally telecast from April 1975 to April 1976 on all ANN affiliates. Loosely based on the classic children's book The Adventures of Maya the Bee by Waldemar Bonsels, the anime series has become extremely popular in continental Europe and has been rebroadcast in countries and languages all around the world since its premiere. A film edited from the first few episodes was released on 15 December 1977.[6]
Two English-dubbed versions of the series exist, a South African version produced by Sonovision for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC),[7] using a translated version of the theme tune used for the German dub, and featuring South African accents for the characters; and an American version with an entirely new theme tune, and a Canadian voice cast, produced by Saban Entertainment, which was broadcast from 1 January 1990 to 31 December 1992 on the children's television channel