The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980 TV series)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Title card
トム・ソーヤーの冒険
GenreComedy-drama, historical, adventure, western
Based onThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Directed byHiroshi Saito
Music byKatsuhisa Hattori
Opening themeDare yori mo tōku e
by Maron Kusaka
Ending themeBoku no Mississippi
by Maron Kusaka
Country of originJapan
Original languageJapanese
No. of episodes49
Production
Executive producerKōichi Motohashi
ProducerTakaji Matsudo
Production companies
Original release
NetworkFNS (Fuji TV)
ReleaseJanuary 6 (1980-01-06) –
December 28, 1980 (1980-12-28)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Japanese: トム・ソーヤーの冒険, Hepburn: Tomu Sōyā no Bōken) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Nippon Animation and directed by Hiroshi Saito, which premiered on Fuji Television and its affiliates on January 6, 1980, and ended its run on December 28 the same year. It is based on the 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (and partially on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

The series was broadcast on the World Masterpiece Theater, an animation staple on Fuji TV, that each year showcased an animated version of a classical book or story of Western literature, and was originally titled Tom Sawyer no Bōken. It was the second installment of the series, after Rascal the Raccoon in 1977, to feature the work of an American author.

This series was dubbed into English by Saban International and broadcast on HBO in 1988 under the title The Adventures of Tom Sawyer at 7:30 am. It alternated with the later World Masterpiece Theater version of Tales of Little Women. Celebrity Home Entertainment released videos in the United States under the title All New Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It also aired on The Children's Channel in the UK and Network 10 in Australia and has also been dubbed in other languages, including French, Italian, Arabic, Hebrew, Portuguese, German, Hungarian, Dutch, Filipino and Spanish. In January 2011, it was shown in the United States in the original Japanese on the NHK's cable channel TV Japan. In the Philippines, it was shown on ABS-CBN, Q, Kapamilya Channel, A2Z and TV5.