version française

• Series length: 48 episodes
• Director: KUROKAWA Fumio
• Music: WAKAKUSA Kei
• original novel: "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
• episodes list (French, German, Italian)
• Image (cells, old vinyl cover)

Story:

The Secession War began a few years ago. Frederick March has enlisted the Yankee army, and has let his wife alone with their four daughters: Meg (Margaret), Jo (Josephine), Beth (Elisabeth), and Amy. Since their house has burnt during a battle (in the series, not in the book), they have to move to Newcord, where their Aunt Marthe lives. They will begin a new life there...

What's interesting in this series isn't so much the plot, but rather the characters. The WMTs tend to show the daily life of the characters, instead of multiplying action scenes and new scenario developments. This way of acting have been here carried to extremes: the main aim of Little Women  is to bring this family alive. Although you never reach the same dramatic intensity as in Little Princess Sara, although fewer things happen than in Pollyanna, the action seems so real, the characters sound so true, that it is hard not to get into the story. I seldom found such a full of life atmosphere in an anime: after less than five minutes, I was hooked!

Succeeding a series like Little Women has required a faultless realisation. Director KUROKAWA did a work that almost reaches in quality what he had done in Little Princess Sara: The scenes follow each others with naturalness and fluidity like it will never happen again in the newer WMT (among the ones I have seen). It's a pity this director is rather unknown! The work he has done in the WMT really reaches the highest standard. The direction of photography is also very good, and makes the mise-en-scene very vivid (thanks for example many changes of the angle shoot...). As for the character design, it is one of the best I have ever seen, especially for Amy and Jo's faces. Note BTW that the late KONDO Yoshifumi (director of Mimi wo sumaseba ... ) was involved in it. The music is finally excellent and fits the general atmosphere of the anime very well.

Many don't like Little Women because of the relative "weakness" of its plot. However, this series is IMO a true jewel of animation, and an excellent adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel.

LINKS:

• Mike's site: a nice English German site about Louisa May Alcott, her works, and their adaptations. There are even some sections about the WMT (episodes guides, picture gallery...).
• The original novel Little Women is available online, on project Gutenberg's ftp site.
• The Louisa May Alcott web provides a great deal of information about the author of the original novel. It is maintained by Tara Calishain.
• Maria's site: a nice German site with a summary of the series and a character guide. It has mainly been made for poeple who know the anime, and contains spoiliers.
• Susan Lank Tolberts's site: another huge site about Louisa May Alcott.
• Ram Dass' site: although it's much smaller than the one he devoted to Sara, this site still deserves a visit for its very nice scans of original cells.

Little Women in France:

The series arrived on la 5; in 1989 I believe. It was than (only partly?) shown on TF1, and on France 3 in March 1997. Between these two broadcasts, it had been shown on the cable (TMC in 1995), and on satellite TV (AB cartoon in early 1997). AB cartoon has shown the series again in February and December 98. The French opening song is interpreted, like many others, by Claude Lombard.

Little Women in Germany and Austria:

The German broadcast channel is RTL2. The series seems to be shown quite often. Last times were in autumn 97, from February to April 98 and from June to August 99. The Austrian broadcast channel is as usual ORF1, and the series was last shown on Fall 1999 and Spring 2000. The original opening has been kept, with a new German song on the same melody as in France and Italy.

Little Women in Italy:

The series was last shown on Italia 1 in February 1996 and June 1999. It has a new Italien begining song interpreted by Christina D'Avena on the same melody and with the same pics as in Germany and in France.

Opening date: March 23, 1998 - last update: September 23, 2001