Anne of Green Gables 

Based on the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, this 50 episode series tells the story of Anne Shirley, a young orphan living in 19th century Canada.

Stars:

Eiko Yamada, Fumie Kitahara, Michio Hazama

Cast

Series cast summary:
Eiko Yamada	...	Anne Shirley 50 episodes, 1979
Fumie Kitahara	...	Marilla Cuthbert 50 episodes, 1979
Michio Hazama	...	Narrator 46 episodes, 1979
Ryûji Saikachi	...	Matthew Cuthbert 44 episodes, 1979
Gara Takashima	...	Diana Barry 37 episodes, 1979

Storyline

Based on the books by Lucy Maud Montgomery, this 50 episode series tells the story of Anne Shirley, a young orphan living in 19th century Canada.

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Plot Keywords:

character name in series title | color in series title | 19th century | orphan | canada | 

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Genres:

Animation | Drama | Family | Romance

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Some of the episode names are the same as the names of chapters in the first book.

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Connections

Edited into Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables (2010)

User Reviews

the definitive film version of Anne of Green Gables

I tend to be against adapting books into movies, because you generally don't have time to be at all faithful to a book in such a short running time (the first couple of Harry Potter films were quite long because they wanted to hit so many plot points, but they still cut out all the character development). The popular Canadian miniseries from the '80s was a perfect example of this. It got a sense of the story across, but only just.

This is different. Fifty episodes are enough to do justice to a 38-chapter book. There's only one incident of any note that was cut, and several that were much fleshed out or added (plus one or two dull episodes that were mostly clips of earlier shows). You can be assured the creators really understand the characters and interpersonal dynamics of the story.

But is the story worth your while. You bet! A lot of folks link this series with Miyazaki, though he only worked on the first 15 episodes. More important were fellow Ghiblies Takahata and Kondo. But it FEELS like Miyazaki: strong, young, imaginative female lead steeped in the magic of Nature, learning to be loved by a grouchy but kindhearted elderly couple. All it needs is some flying machines!

It is worth digging on eBay for the possibly semi-legal region-free English subtitled DVDs. Don't mistake it for the recent Canadian animated series (which boggles the mind--surely it would've been cheaper to license and dub Akage no An!). This is, and surely always will be, the definitive film version of Anne of Green Gables. (You even get used to the "Konichiwa, Diana!")

Details

Release Date:

13 December 1981 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anne of Green Gables

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nippon Animation Co.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

24 min (50 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1