In your work in the field of Japanese cartoons you may
occasionally uncover examples of any one of the several versions of anime based
on Little Women, the seminal American novel by Louisa May Alcott. But wait, you ask. How can you tell all these iterations of Little Women apart? Well,
we here at LET’S ANIME have compiled a handy guide to allow you to instantly
identify and categorize Little Women by year, studio, English dub version, and
hairstyle.
Yes, not only are there three separate ‘Little Women’ anime,
but all three were dubbed and released in the United States to a perhaps
confused but mostly indifferent audience. What’s more, these three releases all
give us the same basic snippet of Little Women storyline, frustrating the needs
of those required to write a book report on Little Women but can’t be bothered
to read the book.
Who are the titular Little Women, and why? Responsible
eldest Meg, tomboy writer Jo, demure piano diva Beth, and girly-girl Amy
survive as best they can in 1860s New England, enduring financial difficulties, repercussions of the Civil War and a
challenging adolescence as they become what we know today as “teenagers” but
that the Victorian period had no name for.
The ink was barely dry on Alcott’s original Little Women
when the first of several Japanese translations appeared in 1906. When Japanese animation titan Toei decided to
produce a series of TV specials based on Western literature in the late 70s,
Little Women got the nod along with Les Miserables, Frankenstein, Call Of The
Wild, the literary fantasia Arsene Lupin Vs Sherlock Holmes, and a Dracula that
adapted Marvel’s comic book rather than Bram Stoker’s novel.
Yes, that's $29.95 for an hour long VHS tape your kids will watch once, and no, I don't miss the 80s
Toei’s Little Women, a 67-minute special on the Fuji TV
network, aired May 3 1980. It
starts right where the book does, a Christmas for the March girls that promises
few presents and no Father. Dubbed by our Robotech pals at Intersound, this
Little Women was packaged by Harmony Gold and found its way to American video
stores thanks to Vestron Video’s Children’s Video Library, who also brought you
Rainbow Brite, the Hugga Bunch, and the Glo Friends. This Little Women wraps up with Jo cutting her
hair to get money to buy a watch fob for a guy who buys her a comb. Well, not
that last part.
Hot on the heels of the Toei telemovie was Movie International’s 1981 version, which is titled Little Women: Four Sisters Of
Young Grass. I’m sure there’s a good reason they wanted to invoke lawn imagery
in the title, but so far the logic escapes me. MIC farmed the animation out to
Toei and there’s a distinct similarity in the two productions, especially in
the character designs which sometimes show a family likeness. Jo is almost completely different, however; sporting
a new hairstyle and an adult look at odds with the story’s intent. MIC’s series ran from April until September
of ’81. With episode titles like “Christmas Eve At The March Home”, “Angels In
Boots”, “Jo’s Boyfriend”, “Beth’s
Makeover”, “Jo Vs Amy”, “Meg is Caught In A Trap”, “Trouble In Raleigh”, and
“Don’t Die, Beth”, you can see which story arcs the series focused on.
Along with MIC’s Honey Honey and the Mushi Pro Tezuka series
Jungle Emperor Go Leo, Little Women was dubbed by SONIC International, a
since-vanished Florida production
house. Like Honey Honey, Little Women made it onto a series of Sony home video
tapes that may very well be lurking in the thrift stores and used bookshops
near you. If MIC’s Little Women ever made
it onto CBN Cable along with Honey Honey and
Leo, it got past us because we didn’t catch it.
"Angels In Boots": not the 1969 biker gang exploitation picture. (pic courtesy _D_)
It would be six long, Jo-free years before Little Women
would again be animated in Japan.
Nippon Animation took a ground-up approach to their 1987 World Masterpiece Theater series Little Women In Love, throwing out the Toei character designs
and retooling courtesy Yoshifumi Kondo, who directed the lovely Whispers Of The
Heart and would character design for Only Yesterday, Grave Of The Fireflies,
and Princess Mononoke before his untimely death in 1998. Nippon’s series is the
most successful of the bunch, featuring period-accurate hairstyles, clothing, and
architecture combined with good animation and scripts that stick close to
Alcott’s original. The series ran 48 episodes and garnered a sequel, Little
Women II: The Wrath Of Aunt March. I mean, Jo’s Boys. Japanese audiences also got the entire series
in English on specialty Japanese cable channels. Americans, however, got one
measly VHS release of this series, which again features that first episode
where the March gals are facing a poor Christmas. Saban provided the English
dub.
It's a Little Women Christmas with what appear to be Satan's Zombie Dolls
But is this all there is to the story of Little Women in
Japanese animation? No sir. The TBS
series “World Mukashibanashi Manga” (Manga Folktales Of The World) devoted an episode to Little Women in October of 1977.
Manga Folktales featured a variety of stories and fairy tales obscure
and famous – Jack & The Beanstalk, Alibaba & The 40 Thieves, Beauty And
The Beast, Why The Sea Is Salty, Gifts Of The North Wind, Cinderella, Wizard Of
Oz – and in English (and Spanish) they show up in the cheap DVD
bins from time to time. Did their Little Women get an English version? Is there
yet another dub of yet another anime Little Women out there? How much Little
Women is too much Little Women?
-Dave Merrill
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