Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

In 19th century France, a struggling single mother, Fantine, leaves her three-year-old daughter Cosette in the care of her new acquaintances, the Thernadiers. Unfortunately, Cosette's caretakers prove to be anything but loving, and the poor girl is subjected to repeated abuse and forced servitude. Still, she endures the torment in the hopes of seeing her mother once again.

One night, while doing errands for her host family, Cosette is assisted by an honorable stranger named Jean Valjean. After a brief conversation with the young girl, Jean acknowledges her as the type of person he has been seeking and rescues her from the clutches of the Thernadiers. They make their way to a nearby town where Cosette enjoys a new life thanks to her savior.

Under Jean's guidance, Cosette promises to help others with her newfound freedom. She pledges to heal the nation, ensuring that no one else suffers her fate. Though the road ahead is paved with tragedies left by the French Revolution, this idealistic girl will not rest until France is freed from poverty and suffering.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Valjean, Jean Main

Sugawara, Masashi Japanese

Cosette Main

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Thénardier, Éponine Main

Sasamoto, Yuuko Japanese

Javert Main

Matsuyama, Takashi Japanese

Gavroche Main

Kobayashi, Yumiko Japanese

Pontmercy, Marius Main

Katsu, Anri Japanese

Enjolras Supporting

Kishi, Yuuji Japanese

Alan Supporting

Katsu, Anri Japanese

Combeferre Supporting

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Courfeyrac Supporting

Takemoto, Eiji Japanese

Yamamoto, Kouji Producer

Itou, Yukihiro Producer

Sakurai, Hiroaki Director, Storyboard

Hayase, Hiroyuki Sound Director

Reviews

Jan 4, 2009

bubonicwoodchuck

Recommended

Story - 8
What can I say? Shoujo Cosette is an adaptation of my favorite book of all time, Les Miserables, and it's overall surprisingly faithful to the original text. Especially when you consider that SC is geared toward children, and the original is...well, definitely not.

That said, SC gets an 8 and not a perfect 10 from me because in their effort to keep the anime kid-friendly, Nippon Animation committed some pretty grievous crimes against the original canon. I'll keep it vague here, but I'll settle for saying that some characters who ought to have died survive for the dumbest reasons. Overall, though, their attention to ... canon is commendable indeed.

Art - 4
This, I think, is where SC suffers most. Nippon's animation budget clearly isn't high, and I suppose they do the best with what they're given, but aside from the occasional lovely background, the animation here is sorely lacking and, at times, looks like it might've been passable a decade ago at best. Character designs are decent - Valjean is especially well done - but also somewhat bland. Overall, this is the weakest point of the anime.

Sound - 6
The sound in SC is decent enough, but nothing special. The fact that the same OP and ED are kept throughout the entire anime rather detracts from it as well, especially after Cosette herself has long grown up and tons of new characters have been introduced. Only one or two tracks stand out in my mind at all - good, but nothing memorable.

Character - 8
SC does an overall good job of keeping true to the original characters. Javert could stand to be wittier, and Enjolras could stand to be less - well, nice, but all in all most characters keep true to their original. Characters in the anime who weren't in the book are surprisingly few and far between, and all serve their purpose fairly well - especially Alain.

Again, Character is an 8 and not a 10 because of one unforgivable change to one character in particular.

Enjoyment - 8
As a die-hard Mizzie who was initially very dubious indeed about anything remotely resembling an anime adaptation for children, I was surprised how I kept coming back to watch SC every week, despite my own limited Japanese and the decided lack of subs. Only once did I even consider dropping it, and that hesitation was fairly short-lived. Nippon Animation manages to transcend its clearly limited animation budget and make SC something actually worth watching.

Overall - 7
Overall, SC is an admirable effort by Nippon to adapt a classic work of literature into a television show, several minor pitfalls notwithstanding. It's an enjoyable anime for even those unacquainted with Victor Hugo's masterpiece, and the vocabulary is simple enough that even someone who doesn't know the language can probably follow along (though I do wish someone would hurry up and sub it). The only real downsides are a few instances of bowdlerization and the aforementioned poor animation.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 7, 2024

Julpen

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

This show are full of problem that are trivial alone but gathered become the straw that broke the camel's back :

- Eponine highlight Cosette as designated hero and that's why she was removed :
https://files.catbox.moe/gc2ufu.mp4

Cosette live in the same city than Eponine collapsing due to misery but ain't affected at all by it and end up being the typical highly optimistic friendship is magic love is the answer piece of shit character btw both love Marius but one deserve him more than the other apparently

- Fantine have the Rukia/Botan problem : A character that was created with another version of the show in mind, being ... the proof of a last minute change in his initial theme (Valjean stole the show)

About Marius and the ABC arc : So his friend try to fight the gouvernment to make change society and get killed : but thing get better anyway ? It really give me IBO vibes but much worst because Uru ain't singing the ending
It write them off for being dangerous Man-child bursting a tantrum and make without thinking the argument "You make thing worst by resisting bcz of retaliatory action the oppressor could take"

After his arc everyone become blandly nice like Cosette even those who had a serious case of Summoner's Rift mentality like Javert/Grandpa, could it be the magical effect of contact with grass ?

The last episode is chief kiss of being awful : Apparently it was a story about Jean Valjean redemption bcz he stole bread to feed his probably dead of starvation nephews, the title of this should have been "Misaimed fandom The Animation"

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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May 16, 2021

AgentBishop

Not Recommended

i've never been this angry while watching an anime
i really wanted to punch the monitor, this is one of the worst adaptations i've ever seen
this is supposed to be an extremely tragic story, Cosette is supposed to be a symbol of an innocent girl who when through hell

i don't think you guys have seen the previous anime adaptation, the character design was EXTREMELY bad in the older anime adaptation, but in that adaptation the direction was really good, Cosette was truly miserable, there was no fucking Chu chu! (the fucking dog), there was no little brother to secretly help her, there was no happy moment, ... it was hell every second, but here she is happy!! she barely is shown to be scared, she barely is shown to be miserable
because there is always some fucking emotional support from chu chu!
she doesn't get kicked in a way we can see, the physical abuse isn't show, you just see the bruises later on her leg, AWFUL adaptation

did you know the mother sells her teeth? yet we never see this in the anime
did you know the sister (nun) after lying cries her eyes out? yet she just moves on without a single tear in this anime


the music is probably the only good thing about this anime
the animation is too lazy for a story as great as this one

i don't think most of you would read the book or watch the older anime so i suppose watching this garbage is better than nothing, it's just so sad how this anime didn't deliver the true tragedy that characters actually went through

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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