Tuned in to Retro Anime / Manga!

I've been meaning to watch Paris no Isabelle. Simply because I think it is neat that there is an anime set during the Franco-Prussian War.

so sick of otaku shit. i like histirical shit.

>>164
Having already watched a few episodes: don't. It's slow and boring and all the characters suck.

It's too bad, because the historical period is interesting, but the actual show is shit

The hard part for me is finding period anime that does justice to the setting. Often, historical periods in anime feel like backdrops for what are ultimately very 21st century characters. This problem plagues historical fiction.

I like Paris no Isabelle. The ending is pretty crazy.
Though Kinpatsu no Jeanie is more solid. That one's great.
I think Hidamari no Ki is also great. And I've enjoyed all the old Sangokushi films that got subs.

>>163
Despite 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.

>>4267
Seems like the title was popularized in Japan by an old film and book translation. And the youtube video OP posted is yet another adaptation lol, a special from 1980.
I wonder if Wakakusa no Charlotte's title was a nod to the book. It fits that show though.

I'm again going to bump this finely-aged thread to post my thoughts about Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari (the Little Women anime from 1987) now that I've finished watching it (very slowly over the course of like half a year). As one would expect from a 48 episode show based on a 150 year old book, it's pretty slow and maybe "quaint". Back in the 70's-80's shows like this were a lot more common, I think, because anime creators at the time would've grown up reading the foreign novel's they're based on. A few obvious examples: Anne of Green Gables, Dog of Flanders, Little Lord Fauntleroy (which appears as an ad at the end of this show). It's not surprising that today without much exposure to the source material or interest in shows longer than 13 episodes, that they're not so popular.

Relatedly, Little Women wasn't one of the books they made me read in school, so I knew very little about it when I watching this. If I ever read the OG novels, and the universe hasn't died from old age before I finish it, maybe I'll come back and do a proper comparison. One of the notable differences I can point to based on my shallow knowledge is about the Character Hannah. She's the maid crying in my video here >>4267. In the OG novel, she's not black, Wikipedia says she's Irish, and most adaptations follow suit. I figure this would be a point of contention for some, but the story was always very much about the northern perspective during the Civil War, and the history of slavery was probably especially interesting to Japanese people.

Too, The Japanese perspective of American culture and history was a point of interest for me. They get so much right I kind of assume that the part which are "wrong" are intentional just to level with a comparatively disinterested audience For instance, the true Wapanese here will know that snowmen in Japan are typically built with 2 spheres (like this "8"), while in America they're built with 3. Sure enough in episode 23, Amy makes an American style snowman. Jo bowing like no American ever would (see image), is an opposite example that's really funny to me.

>>4371
One problem with watching this show as an English native is that the translations available leave much to be desired. The first 10 episodes you can find on nyaa are good, after that the they were often humorously erroneous. I was genuinely laughing during this scene when Jo randomly starts speaking Arabic (according to Google-translate she's saying: "I'll take care of it — with pleasure"). But by combining my solid knowledge of English and 弱い knowledge of Japanese I still managed to enjoy it.

>>4372
I feel the art style largely speaks for itself, I described it as "Ghibli-esque" here >>4267. One of the names you might recognize is Yoshifumi Kondō. Just a year after working as the character designer and key animator for this show he'd go on to do similar work on Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, Only Yesterday and Porco Rosso, among others. The largely one-tone shading is something you don't see much in anime after the 80's, this clip is one of a few that's 2 tone. Working on a television budget, I figure they traded detailed shading in exchange for the smoother animation.

>>4373
Someone could make a "Jo falling over" compilation with this show. I believe her being clumsy is true to the novel. Cheers to the 2 anons who actually read this.