Version française
Version française
Poppel family has left England to emigrate to Australia, in order to buy and manage a farm. For the two little girls Lucy and Jane, this move is a great adventure. Living conditions of the pioneers at the time were indeed precarious, and for children, life under a tent around kangaroos can be fascinating. Sadly, their parents face unexpected difficulties, and they'll have to learn life isn't always a game.
Personal comments:
The atmosphere of the series is somehow like the one of Swiss Family Robinson. The move to Australia, the discovery of a virgin land, the existence of pioneers seen througth the eyes of children are elements of both WMT. The story and the characters of Lucy are much more complex, though, and the plot is much more solid. "Robinson Family" was quite episodic and didn't have a very strong "thread". The series here definitely has a greater unity and an overall more serious tone, even if there are still many humorous sequences.
Speaking about technical qualities, the work is also much better here: some of the backgrounds are beautiful, even compared with the newer WMT's: the variety of colors that were used and the details of some pics brought a major improvement to the meisaku backgrounds quality. I wish I could tell the same thing about the character design, but the faces are often very static and not so expressive. This is mainly a problem of taste, but who don't appreciate Seki Jun'ichi's style (the chara designer of the anime) will probably be disappointed by the way these faces are drawn.
As a matter of fact, Lucy isn't what I'd call an unforgettable series, but it definitely has a certain charm and is IMO well worth checking out.
The series was shown on TMC (on the cable) in 1997 and on the satellite channel "Manga" during Spring 2000. It had probably been broadcasted before, but I know neither when nor where. The French opening song is interpreted by Claude Lombard. Note that the Japanese song that can be heard at the end of the last episode has been kept (which is quite rare in France).
The series has been broadcasted on Tele5 (dead channel) with its original opening song (which is BTW beautiful).
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Frédéric Goetzinger
(goetz@starnet.fr) Opening date: October 29, 1998 - last update: October 21, 2000