Amber Gold

Amber Gold is a Japanese anime series created by Mamiko Kawai, usually broadcasted by Cartoon Network. It is produced by Rhode Productions Co., Ltd., which was responisble for creating the Amber Gold series of games. Being a very succesful anime overseas, it is also one of the longest running anime series, with 23 seasons and 805 episodes. Although constantly compared to My Little Pony due to it's use of ponies for characters, it is usually considered in no way close to MLP in terms of tone, humor style or morals.

During it's runtime on TV, many changes were made to it's writing style, quality or budget during its production, especially between Season 1 to Season 2 to Season 3.

Production
Originally released on a 1991 VHS containing several ideas/pilots for upcoming cartoons in Japan, it was a 5-minute pilot originally named Gorudotan Ōgonshoku Uma (Goldie Golden Horse.) In this pilot, a golden horse named Gorudotan (Goldie) lives alongside her parents, Futoisan (Mr. Fat) and Papaiyachan (Papaya.) They are all minding their own business, when all of a sudden, a gray horse named Pizabōi (Pizzaboy) comes with a pizza that the family did not order. When told that he probably came to the wrong house, he refuses the reality, trying to hide the fact that he has a crush on Gorudotan. Although the pilot is extremely different and has a much more light-hearted feel compared to the actual show, the characters and their personalities are very similar to the produced show. It was originally made on a PC-9801DA/U computer with a self-made animation program.

A second 5-minute pilot named Gōruden Anbā (Golden Amber) was made in 1992, and would form the basis for the actual show. In this pilot, a pony named Amber Gold who likes to show the world how corrupted it is meets another pony named Hakeemu (Hakeem) who just wants world peace. Together, they enter a protest on a new law which prohibits "lads touching gals" and point out why it is stupid. This is very close to the fifth season of Amber Gold, however, some of the characters' personalities have been changed (such as Amber's anger being toned down,) FM synthesized music was ditched and the overall pacing of the episodes were sped up dramatically. The music was similar to the one in the very first pilot, with the music being played on a Yamaha Portasound PSS-140 and a Suzuki RPM-40 drum machine, unlike the actual show which used Protracker music and MIDI music played on a Soundblaster AWE32 expanded to 28 MB of RAM for the ending and opening theme until 2001.

The pilot was considered lost for almost two decades until Rhode posted the Japanese pilot in 2011 on Youtube and a higher quality HD version in 2016.

As the show began production however, many problems occured. Due to the show taking place in a city and the overall high demand of movement in the background, there had to many cellulose layers used when animating the episodes, which caused the overall bluriness of Season 1 episodes. However, as the show progressed, there started to be less cel layers being used, which resulted in increasingly still but clearer backgrounds. The background complexity would not return until the show would switch to digital animation with it's third season.

Early episodes used .MOD Amiga music made by amateur hobbyist musicians, even straight up .MOD music from the games before starting to use more professionally made higher-budget music.

Premise
The series revolves around the life of a 12-year old pony named Amber Gold and his sarcastic personality, trying to tell people how stupid they are in a humorous and satirical way. Other reccurring characters are Hakeem Mondegreen, a slightly dull-minded constantly attention-seeking jolly pony who wants to bring world peace, and Clichay Exdie, an extremely dumb vampire pony who is also a narcissist.

One of the recurring elements (until season 10 atleast) was the Spectravideo SV-318. It was initially used by Amber Gold as a sort of diary, but this element was dropped in Season 3. It was used for various purposes: for messing around, for locating hidden objects or even saving the world. Later, this was replaced with a Daewoo CPC-300.

Episodes
Each season consists of 35 episodes, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes.

Season 1-2, Season 3 (episode 1-2)
Their name is Amber, and they're here to teach us the difference between the good and bad

And they're really a pal, and they're just here to the make the world a better place

They're Amber, they're Amber, they're Amber, and they're here!

Season 3 (episode 3 onwards)
Their name is Amber, and they're here to teach us the difference between the good and bad

And his name is Hakeem, and he's just here to the make the world peace official

They're Amber, he's Hakeem, they're Amber, and they're here!