The Mysterious Cities of Gold

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The Mysterious Cities of Gold
English promotional cover
太陽の子エステバン (Taiyō no ko Esuteban)
Genre	Historical fantasy adventure
Anime television series
Directed by	Bernard Deyriès Hisayuki Toriumi
Produced by	Max Saldinger Kanae Mayuzumi Atsumi Yajima
Written by	Jean Chalopin Mitsuru Kaneko Mitsuru Majima Sôji Yoshikawa
Music by	Shuki Levy Haim Saban Ryuji Sasai
Studio	Studio Pierrot DIC Audiovisuel MK Studio
Licensed by	Fabulous Films
Original network	NHK General TV (Japan) Antenne 2 (France) RTL Télévision (Luxembourg)
English network	AU: ABC-TV, SBS, NITV IE: Network 2 NA: SWABC, NBC NZ: TV One, TV2 UK: BBC, The Children's Channel US: Nickelodeon ZA: TV1, SABC 1
Original run	May 1, 1982 (1982-05-01) – February 5, 1983 (1983-02-05)
Episodes	39 (List of episodes)

Esteban: Child of the Sun (Japanese: 太陽の子エステバン, Hepburn: Taiyō no Ko Esuteban), known outside of Japan as the first season of The Mysterious Cities of Gold (French: Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or), is a French-Japanese animated series which was produced by MK, NHK, DiC Audiovisuel, CLT and animated by Studio Pierrot.^[1]

The series was originally broadcast in Japan and the French version, edited with different characterization and music, was subsequently redubbed and distributed in many countries. It is currently licensed for English-language home video release in the United Kingdom, Australia, and North America by Fabulous Films.

When it was rebroadcast in Japan on NHK BS2 from 1998 to 1999, the animation was imported back from France and the audio was redubbed. NHK had erased the original VTR when their contract expired, and the rights holder had lost the master copy. The voice actress for the main character, Esteban, was the only one to reprise her role.

A sequel, serving as a continuation of the original, premiered in 2012.