Amedeo’s Story in the World Masterpiece Theater Figure Lineup

Amedeo Bottle Cap Figure from Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri by Kaiyodo

A White Monkey Mascot in Miniature Form

This figure depicts Amedeo, the white monkey companion who travels with the young protagonist Marco throughout the 1976 anime series Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri — known internationally as 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother or simply Marco. Manufactured by Kaiyodo, it is a bottle cap figure: a small collectible designed to attach to the cap of a PET bottle, a format that was widespread in Japan from the late 1990s into the early 2000s. The circular base is molded to resemble a bottle cap and stamped with the words “THE WORLD MASTERPIECE THEATER,” marking it as an official piece of merchandise from that long-running anime franchise.

Amedeo is sculpted faithfully to his on-screen design: white body, dark face, ears, and hands, long tail. The pose shows him cradling a red fruit, lending the piece a moment of narrative character. He is not the lead of the series but functions as its mascot — an anime-original character who does not appear in the source novel, created to accompany Marco and give the long journey a consistent point of warmth. His presence in the lineup indicates that Kaiyodo covered the full cast, not only the main protagonist.

The World Masterpiece Theater and the Story Behind Marco

Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri aired on the Fuji TV network in 1976 as part of the World Masterpiece Theater, an anthology anime block that ran for several decades and adapted Western literary works at roughly one per year. The roster includes Heidi: Girl of the Alps, A Dog of Flanders, and Anne of Green Gables — titles that remain widely recognized across generations of Japanese viewers. The franchise is associated with a particular era of careful, emotionally grounded animation aimed at family audiences.

The source for Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri is a story within Italian author Edmondo De Amicis’s 1886 novel Cuore, following a boy named Marco who travels from Italy to Argentina in search of his missing mother. The anime was directed by Isao Takahata, with character design by Yoichi Kotabe — names that would later become foundational to Studio Ghibli. Amedeo’s inclusion as an invented companion for Marco reflects the kind of thoughtful, humanizing adaptation that characterized World Masterpiece Theater productions.

Kaiyodo, the Bottle Cap Format, and Its Appeal Outside Japan

Kaiyodo, founded in 1964 and headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, has built a reputation among collectors worldwide for the sculptural precision of its figures across multiple small-format categories: capsule toys, food toys, statues, and bottle cap figures. The bottle cap figure category emerged as part of a broader movement in late-1990s Japan, where small, precisely detailed figures — sold alongside beverages, candy, or capsule machines — began attracting adult collectors as much as children. Kaiyodo’s output within this category was recognized as a step above the average for its level of detail.

World Masterpiece Theater goods were produced for the Japanese domestic market and saw little formal distribution outside Japan. Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri, however, was broadcast in Italy, Spain, and across Latin America, where it built a following that persists today. For viewers from those regions, official merchandise of this kind — made in Japan, made by Kaiyodo — represents a direct connection to a series that formed a significant part of their own television childhood.