Nippon Animation era (1978 – 1986):- Producer Jean Chalopin contacted some Japanese studios, such as Toei (who didGrendizer); and Tokyo Movie Shinsha, Studio Pierrot and Studio Junio produced French-Japanese series. Even though made completely in Japan by character-designers such as Shingo Araki, the first Chalopin production of this type, Ulysses 31 took thematic inspiration from the Greek Odyssey and graphic influence from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Ulysses 31 went on sale in 1981, other shows produced by DiC Entertainment followed in 1982, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Mysterious Cities of Gold, later M.A.S.K., etc. Such series were enough popular to allow the introduction of licensed products such as tee shirts, toys, stickers, mustard glass, mugs or keshi. Also followed a wave of anime adaptations of European tales by Studio Pierrot and mostly by the Nippon Animation studio,e.g. Johanna Spyri's (1974), Waldemar Bonsels's (1975), Hector Malot's (1977), Cécile Aubry's (1980), or Jules Verne's Around the World with Willy Fog (1983), notable adaptation of American works were Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1980) and Alexander Key's Future Boy Conan. Interesting cases are Alexandre Dumas, père's The Three Musketeers adapted to Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (1981) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes become Sherlock Hound (1984), both turned human characters into anthro pomorph animals. Such anthropomophism in tales comes from old and common story telling traditions in both Japanese and French cultures, including the Chōjū giga emaki (the true origins ofmanga) of Toba Sōjō (1053–1140), and the animal fables of Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695). Changing humans to anthropomorphized dogs reflects a known form of Cynicism: etymologically speaking, the bite of the Cyniccomes from the fact he is a dog (cynomeans "dog" in Greek). The adaptations of these popular tales made easier the acceptance and assimilation of semi-Japanese cultural products in countries such as France, Italy or Spain. The localization including credits removal by Sabanor DiC, was such that even today, twenty or thirty years later, most of French adults who have watched series like Calimero (1974) adapted from an Italian novel, Wanpaku Omukashi Kum Kum (1975), Barbapapa (1977) adapted from a French novel, or Monchichi (1980) as kids don't even know they were not local animation but "Japan animation" created in Japan, South Korea, Chinaor North Korea.