Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters! (partially found first Crystal Jewels anime series; 1991–1992)

'Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters! ' (Japanese:クリスタルジュエル！クリスタルモンスターの冒険！Kurisutarujueruzu! Kurisutaru Monsutā no Bōken!) is the 1991 anime series created by Maruko Jinko. It aired on TyataTV from November 1, 1991 to May 1, 1992 in Japan, with 52 of the 12-15 minute episodes broadcasted. It was succeeded by the 1992 long running anime series (which also aired six months and 12 days after the ending of the 1991 series), and simply titled, Crystal Jewels, and is currently running over 1,900 episodes to this day. The series have featured Crystal Monsters, Roaracryst, Ninecoat, Plantmore, Mouselette, and many of the other characters who also later appeared in the 1992 series. However, the character designs, the animation style, and the themes are different than the 1992 anime, also this anime is aimed at the younger audience (PG), while Crystal Jewels are aimed at teenage/young adult audiences in it's original format. The series is also produced in NTM (Nippon Titan Movie)

Summary
Roaracryst leaves his family in care to search for the Crystal Balls. Unfortunately, the disasterous web accident have landed him to Kouchu’s house, and insisted him to help Roaracryst find the Crystal Balls. Kouchu, agreeing to help Roaracryst find the Crystal Balls to wish for the safer environment, joins with Plantmore, Mouselette, and Ninecoat, and other friends while they are in wacky and crazy adventures that gets them into the worst of situations...

Availability and Surviving Materials
The first series of the Crystal Jewels franchise have aired from November 1, 1991 to May 1, 1992 on TyataTV in Japan, with 52 episodes running 12 minutes each. However, after the last episode have aired, it was planned for home releases because it got good ratings from the first episode. However, the NVM (Nippon Video Media), have rejected the home releases likely because of copyright problems and the Nippon Video Media have low budgets for that series at that time. It was difficult to put all 52 episodes on home release, so the series begin reruns from 1992 to 1994. Also, the series have three reruns: the first rerun from May 8, 1992 to October 30, 1992 (TV Tokyo), the second rerun is from April 30, 1993 to October 29, 1993 (TV Asashi), and the third rerun is from April 1, 1994 to October 1, 1994 (Fuji TV), and since 1995, it haven't reran ever since, and the series haven't even released on home video.

The reason why the series wasn't released in home video and reran was because the director, Sano Ukuto, complains that the 1991 anime's humor and plot are senseless, and he doesn't like how the 1991 anime have the way the characters are. For an example, in the 1991 anime, Roaracryst (Roakijushiku), has a big crush on Plantmore (Puranmora), while in the 1992 anime he and she are friends. Another reason is that the series couldn't make more sense because he claimed that Roaracryst is unsuitable to fall in love with a "flower". It is also Maruko Jinko's least favorite Crystal Jewels anime series because of some of the off-model animation can be easily seen in most episodes. Since then, the episodes can be seen nowhere around the internet nor websites, with the fate of the episode animation videos unknown, and the only surviving materials we have left is the poster, the title cards from every episode (not the animation), few of screenshots, eyecatches (screenshots only), part of the audio from some episodes, and the animation cels. These existing material was shown and uploaded on the Crystal Jewels Backpack Website (est. 1999) by someone under the name of PenWest, and all of the footages belonged to Oshiro Yoichi, who didn't upload them because of copyright law.

Differences between the anime and the 1992 series

 * The anime has 12-minute long episodes, while the 1992 series have 24-minute long episodes.
 * The anime only runs 52 episodes, while the 1992 series ran over 1,900+.
 * The anime ran from November 1991 to May 1992, while the main 1992 series ran from November 13, 1992 all the way to 2021.
 * Some of the characters that didn’t appear in this anime have appeared in the 1991 video game Crystal Jewels. They didn’t appear in this anime but they debuted in 1992. These characters are:
 * Dustin Withness
 * Elliott Mitoa
 * Samantha Shari
 * Shurika
 * Danielle Yukona
 * These anime debut dates are apart by almost a year.
 * The character designs. Notice the eyes from both series, and unlike this anime, the 1992 successors uses noses.
 * Roaracryst has a unrequited crush on Plantmore, while in 1992 he has no feelings for her.
 * Kouchu and Kouchu from 1992 are completely different characters. The 1991 Kouchu is good in grades, and is successful most of the time, and Kouchu seems to fail most of the time in the 1992 anime.
 * The opening and ending is short while there are longer songs in 1992.
 * Unlike the 1992 anime series, this anime series wasn’t even dubbed in any languages, even English because it was only in Japanese.
 * There was no home release for this series unlike the 1992 series have.
 * Ninecoat and Roaracryst have their mouths in a "normal" way, while in the 1992 series, they seem to have their mouths over their jaws.
 * This series have a more comical, goofy, and cartoonish nature aimed towards kids, while the 1992 anime have a more mature, darker, and serious nature, but the 1992 have adult humor.
 * Hunter Grai in this series have green hair and greenish palette outfit, while his 1992 counterpart uses the same color from the games.
 * Some characters uses different color schemes from the 1992 series and the original video games.
 * Batcho is the character who only appears in this anime unlike it’s successors.
 * Professor Shari’s laboratory was huge, even with a lot of gadgets and inventories around, while in the later successors she doesn’t have a laboratory that big.
 * Many of the Crystal Monsters are guest characters that don’t originate in the video games, unlike the 1992 anime series where every character from the video games are used in the anime adaptation.
 * Kouchu’s mother and her counterpart from 1992 are different. In the 1991 anime, she has a brown hair while in 1992 she has blue hair.
 * This series have been produced by a studio NTM while the 1992 successor have been produced by a studio LDC (Lighty Dream Castles).
 * The series slightly have different color palette than the 1992 anime while using traditional animation cels.
 * Buildings, rocks, mountains, and trees are outlined in this series unlike the successors.
 * The music from both series are completely different.
 * It is also known that the series uses a scene change transitions unlike the 1992 series.

Episodes
These episodes don’t have particular story summaries because they cannot be remembered.

Title card
In the title cards, the animation shows Roaracryst sleeping on the Crystal Ball. After the text is read, he falls off. The animation video cannot be found, but the screenshots of title cards from every episode can be seen.

Links

 * MyAnimeList page on Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters!
 * AniList page on Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters!
 * Anime-Planet page on Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters!
 * Kitsu page on Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters!
 * MyAnimeShelf page on Crystal Jewels: Adventures of the Crystal Monsters!