Yume no Crayon Oukoku (1996 Pitch Pilot)

Yume no Crayon Oukoku (Japanese: 夢のクレヨン王国, Hepburn: Yume no Kureyon Ōkoku, lit. The Crayon Kingdom of Dreams) is a Japanese seventy-episode anime television series produced by Toei Animation and broadcast from September 7, 1997 to January 31, 1999, making it the studio's first use of digital ink and paint. It was based on the novel series by Reizo Fukunaga and was adapted into a manga by Michiru Kataoka and serialized in Nakayoshi which was published by Kodansha from August 1997 to August 1998. It has been dubbed into French, Italian, Russian, Korean and Chinese.

The civilians of the Crayon Kingdom have always viewed their Princess Silver as a twelve-year-old girl with a beautiful smile. However, unknown to them, the princess has 12 bad habits. This has created much distress to the Chameleon Prime Minister and the Crayon ministers for it would be embarrassing if this gets out.

One day, a party is held to celebrate Silver's twelfth birthday. The princess is so busy trying to find a suitable dance partner that she forgets to hide her bad habits. The boy she thinks suitable to dance with refuses to dance and, after a short quarrel, he changes Silver's parents, the King and Queen, into stone.

Along with a pig named Stonston and a rooster named Araessa, Silver learns that only the Grim Reaper is capable of casting a spell like that, and she assumes that the boy was actually him in disguise. So begins their quest to find the boy Reaper. They do not realize that the boy and the Grim Reaper are two different people entirely. The Grim Reaper is trying to kill Silver, whose ancestor trapped him in a mirror for several thousand years. The boy is trying to save her, and her parents, whom he transformed into stone to prevent them from being killed.

They finally realize this when the boy saves them from the Grim Reaper. He says he is Prince Cloud, and that he will help them destroy the Grim Reaper and Silver develops a crush on him. However, he constantly annoys her. They eventually find out that in order to destroy the Grim Reaper, Princess Silver must get rid of her 12 bad habits.

They eventually succeed, by reassembling the broken pieces of a mirror and deciphering the hidden code. They finally realize that they have to "tickle the Grim Reaper under the left arm" to destroy him and send him back into the mirror. They then cut off a lock of his hair and sprinkle it over The King and Queen, which brings them back to life.

However, Silver's maid Punya, a cat, liberates two mischievous angels. Princess Silver and her friends set off on yet another journey to bring them back. Prince Cloud does reappear to help them, but not often. Once this has been done, Silver, Cloud, Punya, Araessa, and Stonston set off on a journey around the kingdom.

In 1996, Toei Animation then named Toei Doga Co,. Ltd. (Japanese: 東映動画株式会社, Hepburn: ōei Dōga Kabushiki-gaisha, "dōga" is Japanese for "animation") made a pilot to pitch the Yume no Crayon Oukoku anime to ABC (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation, Japanese: 朝日放送, Hepburn: Asahi Hōsō). It was animated using traditional cel animation instead of digital ink and paint. The pilot was considered to be lost media until October 18, 2015 when the Toei Animation YouTube channel uploaded it to the public.

It was written by Takashi Yamada, storyboarded and directed by Junichi Sato, the animation director was Mitsuru Aoyama and the art directors were Yukie Yuki and Shinzou Yuki who would later go on to work on Episode 1 in the final product.

There are also some voice actors who would appear in the final product such as Yuka Tokumitsu as Princess Silver, Osamu Sakata as Araessa, Junko Takeuchi as Stonston, Nanaho Katsuragi as Prince Cloud and many more.

The pilot was called Party and its premise was similar to Episode 1 called The Princess sets out on her Journey albeit with some differences.

It starts with a logo of the anime on a white screen and it plays for five seconds. Then it shows the name of the pilot, it's called Party and it also plays for five seconds.

The pilot finally starts and there were some differences that didn't appear in the final product. The French Fries Kingdom, the Ramen Kingdom and the Pencil Kingdom appeared in the pilot but they didn't appear in the final product since Toei Animation feared that there would too much kingdoms appearing in the anime. So the Crayon Kingdom, the Hamburger Kingdom and the Rice Kingdom appeared in the final product.

The pilot ended with a message saying that the Yume no Crayon Oukoku anime is airing next year on ABC TV and TV Asahi and it says "Don't miss it!" It shows a copyright notice which reads "© Reizo Fukunaga, Kodansha, ABC, Toei Animation" and finally the pilot fades to a black screen and it ends.