The Monkey Fleet

That's what goes on. The octopuses steal the beach balls, so the monkeys go after them.

Looking at Japanese cartoons from this era is a puzzling matter. It's not simply that the basic story of these cartoons is so odd to the western eye, it's the symbolism behind them. Western cartoons use a lot of funny animal motifs, but there is often a symbolic content behind them. Monkeys are often used as surrogates for the Chinese, but what are we to make of the octopuses?