>>163Despite the fact that this thread is almost 4 years old, nobody has noticed that the show OP posted isn't "Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari", it's "Wakakusa no Yon Shimai"
I've been watching the former recently, and was surprised to find out that there are actually two separate 80's anime adaptations of Alcott's Little Women.
From Wikipedia:
>This series is sometimes confused with Nippon Animation's 1987 World Masterpiece Theater TV series Tales of Little Women, as both series were dubbed in English and broadcast on U.S. cable TV in the 1980s (the 1981 series on CBN, and the 1987 series on HBO). In addition, both TV series share a voice actress: Keiko Han, who plays Beth in this TV series, and Meg in the 1987 series. To add to that, both series have, "Wakakusa" in the title:
"Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari/ 愛の若草物語" can be translated literally as "Young Grass Love Story" and "Wakakusa no Yon Shimai/ 若草の四姉妹" as "Four Sisters of Young Grass". It probably sounds a lot better in Japanese. As a point of reference, the incredibly common Japanese word for "girl" "shoujo/ 少女" is literally written with the kanji for "little" and "women", so the original title might sound weird to them too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This kinda makes the '87 anime look like a ripoff, but honestly I've been enjoying it up to episode 19. I much prefer the Ghibli-esque style to the Cutie Honey look of the '81 anime. I'm surprised neither show is more popular in America, given it's sincere attempt to adapt one of their most highly regarded and culturally significant novels.