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BUSHBABIES (kusabara no chiisana tenshi
busshu beibii / Bush Baby, Little Angel of the Grasslands. (Series
Length: 40 Eps.) Jackie
in bush
This
is based on a novel, The bushbabies (1965), by a Canadian
author, William Stevenson. The novel was also adapted as a live action
movie,The Bushbaby (1970), USA/UK.
The story begins in 1964, in the area of Killimanjaro, Kenya when young
Jackie begins to travel the savannah. Her father is a game warden, who
has a loyal African assistant, Tenbo.
The area is troubled by poachers, whom the wardens are unable to catch.
After some time, Jackie's father loses his job because of Kenyan-isation,
and Jackie's family prepares to return to England. At Mombasa, Jackie realised
she has lost the papers for her pet bush-baby, and leaves the ship, which
sails without her. She luckily meets Tembo, who has been over-zealous in
spying on the poachers' export warehouse.
At first I thought that this series, though it looked well- researched,
was going to be one of those rather boring "lets be nice to animals" things,
and I didn't much like the principal character's design. However the episodes
after Jackie misses her ship are altogether superior, with a richly detailed
background of the real Africa, and with a silently worried Tembo dodging
the poachers, and also the police, who he entirely distrusts, while looking
after a lively blonde, blue-eyed girl who perhaps does not grasp as well
as the viewer what a mess she and Tenbo are in.
This is one of the most contemporary of the WMT
series and, at its best, contains a realism and subtlety light years away
from trashy American cartoons. Tembo's comments on the police, while unflattering,
ring as true as a broadsheet newspaper headline. Well worth checking out.
Production credits
MISSIS JO UND IHRE FROHLISHES FAMILIE (=Little
Men) Nan
| Nan
in Boston | Group | Nan with horse
A
sequel to the "Little Women" anime. Surprisingly, this is NOT "Little Women
part #2" but a much later book by Louisa M. Alcott, set in a residential
farm school run by Jo (from Little Women) and her husband. The main character
in the anime is Nan, a somewhat impetuous and tomboyish girl, who in the
first episode arrives at the school and after being booby-trapped with
a pail of water, chases and sorts out all the boys.
Later episodes have a variety of comedy, drama and sadness spotlighting
various of the younger characters, notably Dan. This is a delightful series;
it already seems as good as several of the other WMT
series, and there is every sign of a meaty script with a strong interest
in education. Jo's educational methods seem progressive even by 1997 standards.
In some scenes, Nan looks uncannily like Kiki in "Kiki's Delivery Service.
Jo does not look or act in the least like the "Little Women" anime character,
though it is, as later episodes reveal, the same person, and the twins
Demy and Daisy are the children of her sister Meg. It's worth making the
effort to watch the opening and closing minutes of the first and last episodes,
as they reveal that the whole thing is presented by an adult Nan.
I got a copy of "Little Men", which is still in print. As the original
title suggests, Nan has a minor role in the book, and does not appear till
halfway through, wheras in the anime she is the star. (My mother watched
several episodes with apparent enjoyment.) Production
credits
TICO & NANAMI (=Ein Toller Freund)
This
is the only WMT
(World Masterpiece Theater) anime series to be made with an original script.
Tico is a whale, and Nanami is a small girl who lives with her father on
a little old tugboat. Also in the series are the boat's engineer, an attractive
young woman, Cheryl, and other oddly assorted characters. Some of the early
episodes cover a story segment, set in South America, in which a photographer
photographs a massacre of seals, and some powerful and unscrupulous interests
try to have the information suppressed.
(I have a fair amount of information about this series, in an illustrated
booklet, but it's in Japanese).
To be frank, this is the WMT series I have liked
the least, and its lurid farrago of implausible sub-aquatic stunts, powerboat
chases, shootings, kidnappings, thugs with metal hands, fights, etc, grates
very badly when viewed alongside the gentler charms of the other series
with their wealth of realistic and everyday detail. It's a clash of two
utterly different cultures: what was formerly thought to be suitable reading
for the young, and what they are now served up on television. I'd much
rather have Katri the farm girl and her multiplication tables, than a lot
of identikit gunmen in expensive power boats. Production
credits
ROMEO's BLUE SKIES (romio no aoizora)
 This
WMT anime is illustrated here for completeness, as I know it only as a
fan-sub. Family | Romeo & Anita | Production credits |
REMI THE HOMELESS GIRL (ie naki no remi)
 The last WMT anime made, cancelled after only 23 episodes because of low ratings. I have seen only the first two episodes, in Japanese, in a not particularly good copy, but on the strength of that it seems that the WMT "Remi" is worth a look. The animation, in common with much recent anime (eg Hana Yori Dango) looks fairly true to life, with little if any distortion of eyes, etc and it's noticeable that the characters move in a very realistic way. In the scene where Remi and her small sister tickle each other it's almost as fluid as a live-action scene. The small girl Remi is extremely pretty and appealing, though it has to be said that her face is somewhat reminiscent of generic "cute anime girl" drawings I have seen elsewhere. Some of the scenes are quite moving, as when Remi arrives on a cow dcorated with flowers, for her mother's birthday party. We know it's all going to end badly.
Note that another anime version of "Remi" exists - "Remi the Homeless Boy", (ie naki ko) made for TMS by Osamu DEZAKI. Many of the characters are recognisable from this other "Remi" anime, in which Remi has to leave his poverty-stricken home and travel with an old wandering musician, his monkey, Joli-court, and his performing dogs; and doubtless from the book.The Nippon Animation site had many artworks for this series when I visited. Remi & musician | Remi & dog Production credits |
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