#wakakusa no yon shimai

[holy-cucumber01]

Little Women

Genre : drama, historical, school

Category : Special / Аnime series

Episodes : 70 min / (Wakakusa no Yon Shimai) 26 duration 25 min, (Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari) 48 duration 25 min, (Wakakusa Monogatari: Nan to Jo-sensei) 40 duration 25 min

[rainbowmilk1996]

Little Women (1981)

I noticed that this series doesn’t get much love in favor of “Tales of Little Women”, which to be fair, is the superior of the two. Also known as “Wakakusa Monogatari Yori: Wakakusa no Yon Shimai” (roughly translated as “Little Women’s Story: Little Women’s Four Sisters”) or simply “Wakakusa no Yon Shimai” (roughly translates to “Little Women’s Four Sisters”).

This series actually started as an hour-long special called simply “Wakakusa Monogatari” It has less of a refined art style, as you can see below, but basically this 1980 special was a precursor to the 1981 26-episode series.

Characters were designed by Joji Kikuchi, no stranger to shoujo anime. His credits include Honey Honey, Mahou no Mako-chan, and Majokko Megu-chan, among others.

Little Women would fit well as a shoujo series, so the art style fits in my opinion. And yes, Jo and Amy’s hair color’s are swapped. My theory is it’s because Jo is the most “American” of the four. Helping my theory is the fact that Meg, the most proper and lady-like of the sisters, is often portrayed as not only the palest in the right lighting, but also with jet black hair, while other adaptations opt for brown/light brown hair. Amy has pigtails and Beth has these sausage ringlets. They make her look even more adorable, but I’m biased since Beth is my favorite.

Anyway, the plot is basically the same as the book; four sisters during the Civil War becoming little women as they make friends with the cute rich neighbor boy, and by the end of the series Father’s returned home from war and they’re a complete family again. Yay.

There are some subplots added too, such as Marmee and the girls volunteering at an army hospital, Aunt March wanting to adopt one of the sisters, and two episodes involving runaway slaves, the first episode it’s a boy who lost his whole family, the second episode involving a couple, their child so young he has to be carried, and a grandpa, who is almost hung by Confederate soldiers, and the March’s and Laurie help them escape them. And yes, the runaway slaves in blackface. Not showing them here, but feel free to cringe.

There are some plot differences, too. Such as when Amy’s teacher strikes her for bringing pickled limes (btw, sounds gross, but whatever) in episode 5, and not only is she taken out of school, but Aunt March of all people scares him to the point where said teacher apologizes to Marmee, and Amy is welcomed back at school by the other students in episode 7, unlike in the original novels, where Aunt March tutors Amy herself. That was nice closure I guess.

This series was also dubbed in English and was shown on CBN back in the early 80s (now known as Freeform). The English dub is mostly lost except for the first 3 episodes on YouTube. Do yourself a favor if you watch the English dub, and skip the overly-synthy badly sung opening. It’s so bad...

[classical-adaptations-of-anime]

In 1981 the third adaption of Little Women was created.

Enjoy some of these pictures!

[rainbowmilk1996]

Another song from the 1981 Little Women anime. This is the song that plays in episode 24 when Beth is hallucinating from scarlet fever. It’s calm and gentle, but a bit sad in context since the episode in question is called “Angel’s Lullaby”. I know the French dub changes it to an instrumental song, but still it’s quite a beautiful song.

[rainbowmilk1996]

The ending theme song for the 1981 “Little Women” anime, or as it’s known as in Japanese, “ Wakakusa no Yon Shimai ”, which roughly translates to “Little Women’s Four Sisters”, not to be confused with the more well-known adaptation, “Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari” (which it often is despite the massively different art styles, and the fact that Jo is blonde here, which no other adaptation that I know of does).

It’s a cute song about Jo’s wishes for her sisters, which is nice I guess. 

[rainbowmilk1996]

The opening theme song for the 1981 “Little Women” anime, or as it’s known as in Japanese, “ Wakakusa no Yon Shimai ”, which roughly translates to “Little Women’s Four Sisters”, not to be confused with the more well-known adaptation, “Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari” (which it often is despite the massively different art styles).

Also “Wakakusa Monogatari” roughly translates to “Story of the Young Grass”. This probably makes more sense in Japanese.

[rainbowmilk1996]

An insert song for the 1981 “Little Women” anime. It’s nice and calm. Let me know if I translated the title right. Fun fact, Keiko Han (or Keiko Tsuji as she’s credited here), was cast in both the 1981 and 1987 anime adaptations. She was Beth in the 1981 anime, and Meg in the 1987 anime.

[rainbowmilk1996]

(clockwise) Jo, Beth, Meg and Amy