False Friends: WMT stories adapted by other anime studios.

The WMT are often classics. That's why it's not surprising other animation studios have adapted the stories they are based on. The purpose of this page is to make the inventory of the series that you might confuse with meisakus, but that have been produced by other studios.

A Dog of Flanders:

TMS (Tôkyô Movie Shinsha) made a 26 episode long TV series based on this story in 1992. It was entitled Furandaasu no inu - boku no patorashu (a Dog of Flanders - My Patrasche). Note the character designer was SEKI Jun'ichi, who had made a large part of his career at Nippon Animation. This anime has been broadcasted in France a few years ago (the last scene of the series had been cut, because too sad). In spite of a much more modern design than the WMT version, this series hasn't been as successful. Here are two pictures; one from the WMT, and one from the TMS version, so that you can compare the designs.

The World Masterpiece Theater
The TMS series

Little Women:

This time, it's TOEI Animation that has adapted Louisa May Alcott's novel. wakakusa no yon shimai was shown in 1981 in Japan, but I don't know how episodes the series is made of. It seems to be much lower than its WMT contrepart. Mike has made an interesting section about this series on his site. I took there the picture below to show you its character design (Y. Kondo did a better job IMO!).

Peter Pan:

A series entitled Peter Pan and the Pirates has been shown in France and Great Britain and North America. Although it has been animated by TMS, it's not strictly speaking an anime, since it had been made for the US channel FOX TV. The character design of the series is very different from the one of the WMT as shown on the picture below.

To know more about Peter Pan and the Pirates, visit this very complete American site.

Remi:

Once again, this is an adaptation by TMS, made in 1977. rattai anime ie naki ko is 51 episode long, and was a great success in several European countries (at least in France and Italy). This beautiful series by Osamu Dezaki is probably better than the WMT "ie naki ko remi", despite its a bit "old fashioned" design. It also seems to be much more faithful to Hector Malot's novel. Here is a picture of Remi (it doesn't come from the series itself) I found on noosphère site (a French site full of anime pics).

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Opening date: June 30, 1998 - last update: January 30, 2000