Reviews & Ratings for
"Arupusu no shôjo Haiji" More at IMDbPro »

19 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
A triumph, 7 June 2004
Author: bernaljg from Gauthersburg, MD

I will never forget watching this program as a child in Costa Rica in the late 70's. At the time we lived near the Pacific coast, in the jungle surrounding a banana plantation, and it was very difficult to get a TV signal. Only one channel came in, and only for a few hours a day. With my younger brother and sister, we would play the soundtrack LP of songs in Spanish over and over. For the last episode the signal that day was very poor, so my parents drove us to the beach, near Limon, and we watched on a tiny battery-powered black-and-white TV which at the time must have been the latest in technology, especially in such a place. Recently, after all these years I heard a clip of the opening music over the web and wept for hours... I will be the happiest guy the day I can get this show on DVD, especially the Spanish-dubbed version.

14 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
A true classic, 25 October 2003
Author: gga

This TV series was one of the first anime hits in Argentina that crossed all barriers of age and gender. Extremely sweet and gentle, Heidi has a charm that both girls, parents and even boys love (but they'll never admit to it, of course). Heidi is such a pure girl that is impossible to ignore its charm. This TV series marks one of the earliest collaborations of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. By now, you can already see the genius of both. Looking back at these 52 episodes after their successful carreers, it is interesting to see many of their themes and leit motifs appearing in Heidi that would later also surface in later works (young heroines, love for country life, lazy and silent dogs, etc). Sadly, the TV series does not seem to have been published for later generations so the only way to watch it is likely thru some old fan subs. Technically, Heidi is also very impressive to see even today. The traditional use of shadowing in anime is instead replaced by a more flat look but a bigger emphasis put in animation. Looking at it today, animation buffs will be amazed at how good the animation of Heidi was for its time, the traditionally tight budgets of TV production and the length of the series.

10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
The best animated series so far, 12 August 2006

Author: fernandezal from Argentina

As a kid i watched Heidi like everyone of my generation kid or not...i spent a lot of money to get the dvds that are available in Spain. I live in Argentina and our money was devalued...i don't regret for a moment though...My nice is so happy that she says she is Heidi. I keep the DVD for my children that are not born yet. Looking back it means my childhood and all the good memories of a more simple time. I strongly recommend to anyone to watch them. I don't know if it is known in the USA or if it was translated to English. I have the 52 episodes. I know there are three versions...that are resumes of the series and also a movie.

10 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Heidi: that's my childhood, 13 May 1999
Author: erica

This is one of the first Japanese cartoon series that reached my country (Italy) in the late '70s and by far one of the best. It follows the original book quite faithfully and its graphics is of rather excellent level for just a TV series before the computer age. The characters are very well "builded", they are completely believable and lively: they became my friends and so was for all the children I knew. Indeed, this series was so well done that everyone, not just children, not just young girls, but just EVERYONE get crazy about it: boys and girls, teenagers, parents, grandparents... still I remember how much my grandpa liked it...

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
A great alternative to violence, 13 November 2006

Author: oncex from United States

I watched this series when I was a kid and I really liked it. I used to see it along with robotech/macross and other anime series, but this one still makes me feel happy just to remember those old days. I used to like Heidi because I used to spend a lot time(most of my free time) on the mountains when I was a kid. The dubbing they did on the version of heidi I watched was very good and if you think that subtitles are the only way to see any manga, you're wrong. I have seen too many mistakes on subtitles from big budget movies to indi movies. At least a good dubbing like the ones they do for Latin American countries have fewer errors and sound great.

PS. I'm buying this series for my daughter and I'm sure it will be better than any American cartoon now running.

6 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
The most successful animated TV-series in Spain, 23 April 2002

Author: Josh from (Spain)

This japan animated TV-series was an incredible social phenomenon in Spain.All the people in my country cried with the adventures of this charming girl in the 70's.It success was so strong that it caused that the television network that emitted it repeated a chapter by popular demand

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
Pure Japanese storytelling of a pure European story, 23 August 2008

Author: Carlos from Madrid, Spain

It's funny to see that Heidi, coming from the now very praised genius of Ghibli (Isao Takahata and, everyone guesses, some touches of Miyazaki) was so extremely successful in Europe and it is relatively unknown to American audiences, the ones most fascinated with Miyazaki. The story of an orphan girl who must live with her grandfather in the mountains, and how she is able to make a new life with a nearly unbeatable optimism, is told by Takahata in a style that could be Ozu on drawings. The same kind of character observation, the same kind of very long pauses between facts, and something that really surprises me, a very observatory storytelling, something that is very rare in animated series. It's extremely emotional too, but not being excessively emphatic on that. It's just an admirable animated series, very unique, and very classic, something that amazes me that had such success in Spain, Italy and Germany.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A collectible...fantastic series from Nippon., 24 July 2009

Author: Vighnesh RVS from India

I have seen a LOT of cartoons as a kid...but I don't think I've come across one so endearing...and (Man!) so cute...this was one of the few shows that everyone at home absolutely loved. I think even my dad used to catch some of the shows when he could, and that's saying something! Sure it belongs to animation yesteryear, but the visuals of the Alps are quite picturesque, add to it the delightful voice acting and the lovely take on the fauna (the prancing goats and the marmots are, I think, one of the highs of the series) and it all seems…perfect. But the essence of it all is Heidi, to be specific, the characterization…and the expressions! Her charm and appeal are irresistible…and the fact that its Anime helps (the eyes…!). But what's incredible is that the English dubbed version is simply UNTRACEABLE! Now that's a big goof-up...because they've definitely lost out on a large volume of DVD sales there. In fact, you can't even get the subtitles on the internet. Hopefully at some point they'll realize it and dig it out from somewhere and put it in the market.

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