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It took me very long to make an review, but here it is, ladies and gentlemen.

Now, as you can probably guess, this will be yet another review of yet another anime show from Nippon Animation, as you can see from the page of this anime itself. Now, if you've been reading my reviews, before, you might already know who they are and how many anime shows they had made. But the one show that i've been wanting to review and that i have never once did, was in fact an anime show from the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise. And what great way to start 2024 ... with an review of an anime that isn't as popular worldwide, but is still an cultural icon in Japan, than today's review: "Flanders No Inu", also known in english as "The Dog of Flanders".

The Dog of Flanders was an anime series that aired in 1975, animated by Nippon Animation (Go figure), and it is based of the novel series written by british author "Ouida". There has been many adaptations of Flanders novel made in the past, even before Nippon's own adaptation from the 70s. But unlike most adaptations, this one attempts to follow the novel very closely all the way to the end, with some some more details and additions to the story, here and there. And also, unlike most movies and TV shows' adaptions of the novel, the 75' anime series was, just like the original novel, itself, absolutely beloved by the majority of Japanese audience. So much so, that not only the show lasted for 52 episodes, succeeding on following the novel, perfectly, but giving an true ending to the already beloved anime show. Making this anime one of the most memorable anime shows in history. It was an subject for homages, parodies, and even had been referenced in many anime shows, even to this day. Like for example, Subaru from Re:Zero, had an phone that uses the same tune from the classic anime from 75' as his ringtone. And a much more recent example is CAPCOM's recent remake of Resident Evil 4 game. Which has 3 animated commercials that pays homage to the 75' anime, basically parodying both The Dog of Flanders and the RS4 game, all while being animated by Nippon Animation, itself. Quite an coincidence, don't you think?

But enough all that, you're here for the anime, right? So how does this anime hold up, compared to most anime shows that i've seen over the years, and how does it hold up compared to the majority of all the adaptions of Flanders novel by Ouida? Let's find out...

But first things first, i want to address that i've finished watching the anime with Portuguese translations made by two fansub groups. One is the Brazillian fansub by Proxy Fansubs, while the European one was made by SilverDragoon fansubs. This was because i prefer watching and reading in Portuguese than in English, because it's much easier for me to understand the story, alittle better.

Okay, i'm done rambling, here's the synopses:

The story is about an young boy named "Nello Flanders", who lives in an village with his grandfather "Jehan Flanders", as a poor family who have the finances problems. Despite this, they were an happy family, together, who spend everyday, working hard to transfer and sell milk to the city of Antwerp, just so they can afford enough money for food. One day, Nello encounters an dog named "Patrasche", who's constantly getting whipped and abused by his owner, who forces him to take the cart full of jewelry everywhere they go, just to sell the jewelry stuff for a quick buck. Nello feels bad for the dog and wanted to give water to Patrasche, but gets interrupted by the owner who pushes the kid away from the dog and continue their work. As the story progresses, Patrasche starts to feel completely out of it. He hasn't eaten anything, drinked anything, not even having a good rest or sleep, at all. So the owner, seeing how weak he's gotten, to the point of not even be able to move a muscle, at all, instead of giving him food or water or helping him out to make him feel better, no, he holds the dog to his own arms, throws him againts the grass floor and continues his work without his own dog, leaving him to die. Good god! Talk about despicable!

A few minutes later, Nello and Jehan finds that same dog that Nello saw a few days ago, sees him lying to the floor, left to die. So Nello, feeling sorry for the dog and hating to see an innocent animal to die because of overwork, decided to bring him to his home with his grandfather, to help and take good care of him. Luckily, Patrasche managed to survive, thanks to Nello and Jehan's good caring for the weak dog. And from there, Nello and Jehan decided to keep the abandoned dog as his owners. So for the rest of the series, Nello and Patrasche would spend their times, together, as companions, where they can play around, relax, and do things as most good childrens do, like helping out his grandfather on his job to sell milk in Antwerp.

There are also some subplots that also accompanies the story moving forward. Both good things and bad things happening to Nello's life. Such as Nello becoming an painter, his relationship with his friends such as Alois, George and Paul, the owner trying to take Patrasche away from Nello and Jehan, Nello's grandfather's health deteriorating in each episodes more frequently, some of their neighbors leaving the village like Mrs. Nulette, people like Hans and Mr. Cogez misjudging and unjustifying Nello as the route of all of their foolish problems, an arc where Alois leaves the village to go to england, in which she gets sick there due to all the anxiety and hardwork at her british school, and all lots more.

The story of this anime, as you can guess, it's definitely something else entirely. What could've been an relaxing and cute show at first, would have such interesting arcs, characters and episodes that would push the story's greatness, even further. I loved everything about this anime. It basically not only adapts the story of the novel perfectly to give an great introduction to the story of Nello Flanders and his dog, Patrasche, but also adding a few new things to the story to give it an much richer story than it already had. Each arc has served a purpose to the story and gives Nello and the rest of the cast perfect character developments. Not to mention that many of its moments really leaves an mark onto everyone's perspective on the anime. Some making you smile, others making you laugh, or sad to see, or in some cases, getting frustrated and angry at it (But in an good way). My personal favorite arc in the entire anime is Nello becoming an painter. This is because this subplot has gave Nello so much growth in personality and character, thanks to many of the things happening to him, from the loss of his grandfather, to being blamed for the things he never did. Which leaves to him building all the confidence and hope that he would finally succeed on becoming an painter and finally get to go to school, just like his friend Alois, but to no avail. Which of course leaves us with what i call it "The saddest, yet, satisfiying ending to an masterpiece of anime i've ever seen". But in respect to this anime's greatness, i'm not gonna try to spoil it and ruin the surprise for everyone to see.

But yeah, the story of this anime is indeed, an beautiful journey that i had with this anime. No. Questions. Asked.

The characters are all great. Aside from Andre, who didn't do much in the story, and probably the most boring character in the series, the rest of the cast are all great. Not once have i ever felt tired of seeing them every now and then.

Starting with Nello, the boy who has gone through so much things happening to him, despite all the hardships and tribulations, he always maintained true to himself. Showing his kindness to thoses in need, not ONCE has he ever holded a single grudge againts anyone who stands in his way, even if he gets misjudged and accused for the things he did nothing wrong. He's also quite an strong kid. And no, i'm calling him like overpowered hero, but rather, a pretty strong kid who can help out his grandfather on transfering the milk to Antwerp, taking care of those who get sick, and there's even an arc where he took care of his uncle (Who unfortunately, i couldn't remember his name at the time of this review, gomen ne! XP), while trying to cut a very huge tree down all by himself. Which shocks me to this day, because, how can an kid, at the age of 9, would manage to cut down an huge, gigantic tree, while his uncle is sick? HOW!? That's what i love about Nello and why he's my favorite character in this anime. Despite getting all misjudged and treated unfairly by the villagers and even with no way to fight back, he always stayed strong until the anime's tragic end.

His companion, Patrasche, is also an wonderful character, too. This is the kind of dog that i would love to have as my companion. He's the type of dog who always wanted to stay loyal to his new owner and wanted to help out whenever they need. Despite being abused by his previous owner, he still wanted to help Nello and Jehan transfer the milk to Antwerp. Much like Nello, Patrasche has always maintained strong and faithful to himself, still loyal to Nello, no matter how much faith or hope is lost, and no matter how many times they get unjustified. Truly... One of a kind.

Aside our two MCs, we also get other characters who are also just as fantastic as the MCs and do serve a purpose to the story, as well. There's Alois, who has been Nello's best friend until the end of the series, Nello's grandfather, Jehan Flanders, his two new friends George and his younger brother, Paul, his kind neighbor, Mrs. Nulette, and her female pet duck named "Kuro", Alois parents, the down-to-earth mother Mrs. Cogez and the awful father Mr. Cogez and that piece of human trash named "Hans" who constantly blames Nello for stupid shit that Hans himself did. Despite being side characters (except Alois, who's pretty much an main character, too, at this point), each characters has their own purpose to the story. Either helping out Nello when he's in deep trouble, like Alois, George and Paul, or when he's getting bombarded with harsh criticism towards him, such as Mr. Cogez and Hans. While the middle are the people who are very supportive for Nello's life, like Jehan, Mrs. Nulette, Mrs. Cogez, his uncle who lives in the tree, and among others. Either way, all of them did an fantastic job as characters, and with the exception of Andre (Who is, again, an boring character to see in the anime), i pretty much loved everyone in this anime. Even Hans and Mr. Cogez, who both i loved to hate on them for both being pieces of shits.

As for the animation, i'm quite impressed with how much effort has been put into this one anime in 75'. It does look pretty good for 1970s standards. Each of the characters and the background animations are very well detailed and animated solidly. You can feel that the animators are doing what's best of the anime, since this is an adaptation of an novel by Ouida. Yeah, i get that people are gonna disagree with me on this because they think that this anime's animation hasn't aged well and all that stuff, but come the hell on, people, it's an anime from 1975. Of course the animation isn't always gonna look as good as today. But does that stop the anime from still looking good? Nope. I still think that the anime, on it's own, still looks pretty good, even if it has aged a bit. I'm probably more forgiving to old vintage anime than i am for garbage like Migi & Dali or Tokyo Mew Mew New, where the animations are so atrocious, it doesn't matter how much they tried. Atleast The Dog of Flanders still is pretty good in animation department.

As for the audio, i think it's still pretty good. Atleast there's not that much deteriorated noises in the audio, and the music is still pretty good, although, there were some instances where the music would end up cutting off shortly after someone else starts talking. Strange. The opening and theme songs "Yoake no Michi" and "Doko Mademo Aruko Ne", both sang by Doraemon's singer, Kumiko Oosugi, are absolute cuteness overload. I loved especially the opening theme song. It's very pure, cute, and leaves you making a happy smile to your face when you listen to it, even to the point of hearing the song in your head for a good amount of time (What the hell am i talking about?).

And as far as the voice acting goes, many of the actors did a great job voicing the characters. Not counting Patrasche (Because he's just an animal who make bark noises and nothing else), we have Michie Kita (Who did Togenishia from Hana No ko Lunlun) voicing Nello Flanders, Reiko Katsura (Who did Akabe in Jungle Kurobe) voicing Alois, Hiroo Oikawa (Who did some characters in Lupin The Third's second anime series) voicing Jehan Flanders, Taeko Nakanishi (Who did kelly Stowner from Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma) did Alois' mother, Mrs. Cogez, and, by the way, Taeko is also the voice of Mrs. Nuletta in The Dog of Flanders' 1997 remake by Nippon Animation (Coincidence, i think?), while in this 75' version, Mrs. Nulette is voiced by Haru Endo (Who did Lisa in Romeo no Aoi Sora), Masako Sugaya (Who did Remi in Ie Naki Kou and Uran from 80s' Tetsuwan Atom), Shouzo Iizuka (Famous for voicing Nappa in Dragon Ball Z), voices Patrasche's original owner (Who's called Enzou, by the way), just to name a few. The point i'm trying to cross, is that each voice actors gave their all for the characters in this anime and all did a great job voicing them. Easily the best part in the entire anime show.

So to conclude this, to say that this anime is an cultural icon in Japan, i was NOT kidding when i said it. The anime made such an impact to that country, that i've been told that most of these Japanese tourists literally went to Belgium, Antwerp, just to pay a visit to the same locations that Nello and Patrasche had been in the show, as well as seeing the statues that references Nello and his companion. If that's the case, is that an surprise?

The Dog of Flanders isn't just an masterpiece of anime, it's an work of art. Becoming an example of how you make an good anime in every way possible. Not only the anime managed to be faithful to the original novel by Ouida, but also succeed it in every way possible. The story, the characters, the animation, the music, the voice acting, the audio quality, the visuals, it was all perfect from the groundup! And Proxylain wasn't kidding when this anime is the meaning of life. It really tells and teaches such good morals about life and how you need to treat it kindly, that even to this day, Japanese audience has at the very least referenced this anime for years and years. This anime managed to impress me, as someone who lived in Portugal, and introduced me to the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, in an great way, possible. And i'm not gonna lie, i was happy, sad, angry (In a good way) and had all those emotions in this one anime show. That's how impressive this was.

If you're looking to watch this anime with your family or with your childrens, DO IT NOW! It's your chance to give this anime an opportunity to shine and give as much love as it deserves. It truly is... One of a kind. And The Dog of Flanders gets an very deserved 10 out of 10!

So with that said, that should end my review of this anime. My name is José Diogo, and i'll see you all on the otherside.

Back in 2022, i finished watching and reviewing Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds, which was an absolute classic even after 40 years. Now, it's 2023 and i decided to watch and review yet another Three Musketeers anime that was aired in 1987 (6 years later), under the name "Anime Sanjuushi".

Anime Sanjuushi is, as you can see, also an anime adaptation of the novels by Alexandre Dumas, animated by studio Gallop of the Kochikame, Rurouni Kenshin and Yu-Gi-Oh fame. Now, rather than being another kid friendly version like how Dogtanian turned out to be, this one happens to be more serious, more darker and more mature ... than even your average adaption of The Three Musketeers. It wasn't nowhere near as popular as to the likes of Dogtanian, but it did gained a cult following thanks to the airings in a few countries. Including my country, Portugal, for example. Like most countries, Portugal also had an european portuguese dub of this anime when it first aired in 1988, almost a year after the anime started airing in Japan. It received reruns on RTP2 in 1992 under the program "Agora Escolha", a portuguese program that shows reruns of previously aired and older shows that aired on RTP1.

Now, even though it's nice that my country manage to get this anime to air in my country, i unfortunately never got a chance to watch this anime. I was born in 1995 and by the time i was born, the anime was no longer airing on television. Or at the very least i haven't heard from it before for years. The only few adaptions of The Three Musketeers that i was mostly familiar with was, like i said, Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds, which i enjoyed that anime quite alot, and Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers, which the latter sucked donkey ass. So to hear that this anime manage to exist in the 80s and getting to hear about it for the first time through some videos on Youtube, i'm surprised that there would be another one made in Japan.

But at lead us to this question: Is this one the best version of The Three Musketeers and probably even better than the likes of Dogtanian and that shitty Disney Direct-to-DVD film? Well, now that i finished watching the Japanese dub of this anime, let's see what this version has to offer:

Now before i start the review, i want to let you know that this review might contain some spoilers. I highly recommend to watch the anime first before reading this video, because there are a few things that i want to mention this time around. But first things first, let's hear the story:

In this one, the story starts with D'Artagnan fighting againts the bullies over which animal is the tallest on the planet. And D'Artagnan's answer was the elephant, even though he never saw an elephant before in his life, while others say it's a cow. Of course D'Artagnan is still determined that the tallest animal in the world is an elephant, he decided to tell his grandparents that not only he wants go to paris to find the elephant just so he can prove those bullies that the elephant is taller than a cow, but also decided to work and serve to King Louis XIII as an musketeer. Throughout the anime, he encounters many people around him for the first time. He meets Constance, who would later become his love interest, Jean, who would go on to become his friend, the three musketeers themselves, Athos, Aramis and Porthos and eventually, his enemies. Rochefort, Milady, Richelieu and of course, The Iron Mask.

There are atleast three arcs in total. One is about his encounter with the musketeers and Richelieu's minions, who try to stand in D'Artagnan's way of becoming an musketeer, while the second arc is surrounding his rivalry with Milady and her ways of facing againts him and finally, the third arc focus on Iron Mask and his plans to end King Louis XIII's life by switching him with the king's twin brother and starting a war againts the entire Paris as a whole.

For an anime from 1987 to have such a story like this, i loved how it turned out to be. Unlike most versions of The Three Musketeers that i've watched, Anime Sanjuushi manage to take an simple story about a young lad becoming an musketeer and make it more than just that simple story. It has more interesting action scenes, as expected for an action show, there's more dramatic moments in each episodes, there's the romantic relationship between D'Artagnan and Constance and of course, there has been some numerous changes made in this anime. While there were a few changes like for example, D'Artagnan becoming 16 years old rather than being much older. Then there's two Iron Masks appearing in this anime. One being the bandit while the other being the king's brother, who would later become an replacement for the king's disappearance. But the most radical change made in this anime is Aramis, who now became a girl in this version. And in this version, Aramis also had her own sad backstory that not only will be explained in the later episodes of this anime, but also in the 1989 movie, Aramis' Adventures.

While there's alot more good to this anime than anything negative, there were a couple of issues in which i think it could've been better. For example, i wished the ending had an definitive epilogue to this story rather than stopping the anime abruptly. Luckily, there's the 1989 movie that did give an solid conclusion to that and to find out whether or not Jean's mother is still alive.

Other issue that i had with the anime is that sometimes, Jean can go a bit out of character and end up being jealous at D'Artagnan after becoming an musketeer. I don't know what is it about it, but i don't like how Jean acts like a jerk towards him when he should've been happier about D'Artagnan becoming an musketeer. But sadly, it was never explained why Jean was like this in just a few episodes. I know that Jean does calm himself down a bit and becomes friends with D'Artagnan again, but still, it's annoying to see this instance happening. But hey, it's just an nitpick of mine. But aside from those instances, i think the story is wonderful and a perfect option for those who want to see the story of The Three Musketeers told in a much more mature and serious manner.

Now let's take a look at some of the characters in this anime:

Since this is Studio Gallop's own adaption, we not only get the previously established characters, but also a few more introduced to this anime.

Just like the others, you have D'Artagnan, the hero with strong sense of honor, although a bit inexperienced, but with courage and strong will. Still the same as before, but now even more likable than ever before.

You then have Athos, the older of the three musketeers, who's calm, considered and he's the wisest of the group. he's quite an awesome and badass character anytime he fights, too, thanks to his personality and his voice by Akira Kamiya.

Aramis, the character whose Gallop changed the character's sex in this version, is kind and brave for a woman who hides her wounds and her secret revenge for her beloved fiancée. She's basically the best character in this anime and probably one of the best and most unique versions of the character thanks to her kindness, bravery and how she respects her friends as actual people and not treat them like garbage like most today's modern movies, shows or video games where women are treated like powerful human beings with no personalities or interesting factors to them other than acting like tough guys and having their sad and pathetic backstories just to try to make us love them, only for us to pity their stupidity. Aramis is not like Rey from the shitty ass Disney's Star Wars sequels or Ellie and Abby from "The Woke Of Us Part 2" or even that ugly as fuck Alloy from those shit-tier Horizon games. Aramis is just her own character. And does set up a really good example of how you make an woman just as interesting, unique, fun and diverse as the male counterparts.

And then there's Porthos, who... Well... He's Porthos. He's kindhearted and loves eating food. he's not really the best character in the show, but he can also have his own moments, as well.

Other side characters like Constance and her father, the queen of Paris, Treville and King Louis XIII aren't much to write about, but again, just like Porthos, they can also have their own moments, too.

The villains like Richelieu, Milady and Rochefort are also fun characters to watch. Especially Milady and Rochefort. With Milady being an sexy and gorgeous lady who knows how she deals with people who stand in her way and with the help of Pépe, while Rochefort, he's a fun, goofy, entertaining and sometimes, even badass of an character to watch.

Then you have Iron Mask... Holy shit, Iron Mask. I know the guy never revealed his face since his life ended at the end of the anime, but man, this villain is one of the best i've seen and probably the reason why i kept watching the show just to see him in action. This guy is menacing, he's evil, he's an badass gentleman and even a smart person who knows what he wants and what he wants to do. And when he fights againts D'Artagnan or the musketeers, this guy knows how he fights like a man and is in now way, shape or form, even messing around. And with him being the smartest of the cast, helping the fact that he attempted to replace King Louis with the king's twin brother, Philipe, just so the real king can get executed to death, this makes Iron Mask as one of the most menacing, most badass, most ruthless and of course, most smartest villains i've seen in anime.

And as for Jean, who is, in fact, an original character made exclusively to this anime, is an nice addition to the anime. Sure, like i said, he can go out of character a bit when D'Artagnan finally became a musketeer, but i appreciate the little guy and his good intentions and his goal to find his long lost mother after being separated by the soldiers. He is mischevious, but definitely a good companion to have on your adventures. Even if he does get jealous every now and then.

Now that's done, what do i think about the production of the anime?

For the animation, it looks pretty good for 1987 standards. The character designs look much more unique and sometimes gorgeous for its time, the background animation is beautiful to look at and the animation movements, whether the characters make facial expressions or when the musketeers fight, they look pretty smooth and polished than most of the animated adaptions of The Three Musketeers. I honestly don't know what else is there to complain here, honestly. Maybe Constance's design is the only one that i didn't like that much, but even then, she looks okay as it is. But yeah, for Studio Gallop in 1987, the animation looks good. No issues here.

The music is also great as well. It's nice to hear some different and unique renditions of Anime Sanjuushi's opening theme song and loved the use of some instruments for some background musics. Whether it has the Saxophone involved when a fight scene happens, or a very slow and beautiful music is played. The opening theme song by Noriko Sakai and the ending theme songs by PumpKin, are very good songs to listen to, too. Especially Noriko Sakai's song in this anime. One of the most underrated anime songs i've heard in a long time.

And as for the voice acting in the Japanese dub (Because i didn't watched the European Portuguese dub to be honest, but i'll check it out, later), is pretty good. Loved some of the more obscure seiyuus like Tatsuya Matsuda as D'Artagnan, who is perfect for an young character like him. Aramis' voice actress, Eiko Yamada, is very wonderful to hear. Especially when she does a great job making an tomboyish voice. Other seiyuus like Akira Kamiya (Kinnikuman and Kenshiro's voice), who like i said, is the voice of Athos, is yet, another great voice performance from the legend himself and one of his more underrated roles in anime. Also shoutouts to Noriko Hidaka (Who voices one of my favorite waifus, Noriko Takaya from Gunbuster) for her great role as Constance, Mayumi Tanak (The voice of Krillin and Monkey D. Luffy) for a pretty good voice of Jean, Fumi Hirano (Lum's voice) for her sexy and gorgeous voice for Milady, easily one of the hottest i've heard, Shigeru Chiba (Who voices Raditz, Buggy The Clown and Kazuma Kuwabara), who gives an outstanding role as Rochefort and last and certainly not least, Shigezo Sasaoka, who gives an extraodinary voice as Iron Mask and easily his most memorable role in anime. May him rest in peace.

Well... What can i say about this anime? IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! Not only this is one of the best, if not, the best version of The Three Musketeers that i have ever seen, but also, one of the most memorable ones at that. This is easily the most underrated version of the classic novel that i've seen, too. Like i said, it took an simple underdog story of a young man becoming an musketeer and not only add a few more to it, but also making it the most definitive version of The Three Musketeers that it has to offer. While not exactly 100% faithful to the books, it definitely respects the story with dignity and honor. It goes to show that you can do more with an classic novel than it meets the eyes.

If you're a fan of anime or The Three Musketeers, Give this anime a shot, man. This version manages to make even an simple story just as awesome as you may expect from Gallop. After me finishing watching this anime, i can comfortly say that this anime easily clears that shitty Disney's Direct-to-DVD film and probably, even good ones like Dogtanian and The Three Muskehounds. Don't get me wrong, though. I love Dogtanian. It's an absolute classic for many reasons. But this version, man... There was no competition between these two. I think Anime Sanjuushi is the best version of The Three Musketeers out there. Give this anime a watch in japanese dub or whatever dub languages you use, whatever may be, give Anime Sanjuushi a second chance. Trust me. You won't regret watching this awesome show.

For my final score for Anime Sanjuushi will be an 9 out of 10. I think it's an absolute gem. A gem that i will not forget for years to come.

This has been my review of Anime Sanjuushi. My name is José Diogo and i'll see you guys again real soon with whatever more obscure shows i can find.

Another day, another anime that i decided to review after finishing it. And this time, it's TOEI Animation's old anime that has become a classic both in Japan and in other countries like France and Italy.

Hana no Ko Lunlun is an original anime series that aired between 1979 to 1980 by, yours truly, TOEI Animation. The studio that has been famous for many magical girl anime series. Whether it's the early days of Maho Shojo like Himitsu no Akko-chan and Mahou Tsukai Sally or the beloved 90s anime Sailor Moon or the ever-so-popular Precure series. This one is yet another example of an iconic Magical ... Girl anime series that has become a classic after so many years after it's run thanks to many countries that aired and dubbed this anime like France, Italy, Brazil, etc.

It was also known for being the first ever Maho Shojo anime to receive an english dub long before DIC Entertainment got to dub Sailor Moon. But unfortunately, only a few episodes were dubbed and never again was made more after that.

Unfortunately, nothing has been heard about this anime again until TOEI Animation and Tencent announced that the remake is in production, but as of 2022, nothing has been announced any further than that.

It's a shame really, because this anime is considered an classic by many 80s kids and fans of the show for years now. But the question remains, is it as good as many people make it out to be? That where i'll have to find out:

Now before i start reviewing the anime, i'd like to inform you that i watched the anime with brazilian portuguese fansubs by Mastercorpfansubs, which has completed the entire anime in portuguese sub. so i went with that instead of finding the japanese RAW or the english subs. While the brazilian portuguese fansub isn't perfect, it's decent enough to understand the entire anime's story and characters as a whole.

Anyway, with that said, let's get into the story:

The story starts with two talking creatures by the name of Cateau and Nouveau, who are looking around the village for a girl who would accept the offer to go on a journey with them to find the flower of seven colors. In France, they found a girl by the name of "Lunlun Flower", an orphan girl who lives with her paternal grandparents at a flower shop. In there, they went ahead and explain everything that she needs to know before going on a journey. While Lunlun and her grandparents are surprised to see two animals talking like humans, they didn't mind it too much and took a listen to what they had to say. Anyway, Cateau and Nouveau explained that they wanted Lunlun to help them find the flower of seven colors and give it to her as an award for finding it. So, on Lunlun's 15th birthday, she decided to go with them and start their journey to find the flower of seven colors, where they encounter many people through out their journey. Whether to be begged for help or as an obstacle that keeps them away from getting it. And of course there are two evil people who will become Lunlun's one of those obstacles to her journey. And that is Togenishia and Yaboki. Who rather they try to stop her from getting the flower of seven colors, they want to follow her and keep her finding it. And once she finds it, they will do anything they can to capture it just so Togenishia would become the queen. Which of course they fail at making attempts either due to Yaboki's imcompetence or people like Serge (Lunlun's crush) or any other people preventing them from making such attempts. Also, just in case Lunlun stays protected, she's given the magical pin that can allow Lunlun to transfer the flowers' powers into her pin and give her each transformation to get past through many obstacles. So yeah, it's an long story of nothing but adventures, hardships, tribulations and battle to find this one flower of seven colors.

The show is very episodic. Each episode, Lunlun and friends is met with many people who always either need help or they are there to get into trouble and it's up to Lunlun and her friends to try to resolve the problems they have. Some that have to do with the loss of their parents, others that has to do with finding a long lost friend/family member, one that was about stopping people from destroying a place they loved as kids, one that was about a teenager wanting to go on a journey to go back home to live on his own and so much more. Almost each and every story is very heartbreaking, yet wholesome to see Lunlun helping them out when needed. But of course they have to be cautious with Yaboki and Togenishia's antics that will ruin their goals and dreams. But each time they start an antic, Lunlun or another person in the episode finds a way to resolve the problems with no issues or stop both Togenishia and Yaboki from causing anymore troubles. And at the end of the episode, Serge comes in to give the person in each episode the seeds for the flowers as a thanks for helping out and understand Lunlun better. Each episode also ends with how the name of the flowers mean. Whether it's about love, care, effort, sadness, betrayal, happiness, etc.

Now that we got how the story and the format of the episode works, let's give a look at some the characters.

First we have Lunlun Flower, who is the main character of the show. While she can be a pretty tomboyish and outspoken girl who loves to have fun, she can be a nice person and does anything she can to help those in need. But she also can get pretty frustrated and even sad when a person that she's helping does something that she does not like. Whether they are lying to her about their past or trying to cause her more trouble than giving her a hand. Then you have Lunlun's friends, Cateau and Nouveau. both Cateau and Nouveau serves as Lunlun's friends to help out to find the flower of seven colors and of course as the body guards to prevent her from something terrible happening to her. They also make sure that they can sense any danger that comes around them just in case Togenishia or Yaboki don't get in their way. Speaking of Togenishia and Yaboki, they are the main villains of this anime. With Togenishia being the selfish and whiny girl who only cares about getting the flower of seven colors just to become the queen, while Yaboki serves as her servant who always plans and makes desperate attempts to get to ruin people's lives, but not once has ever worked. Their only goal is to follow Lunlun in every step she's in to find the flower of seven colors just so once she finds it, they would capture it and get Togenishia to become the queen. And then there's Serge Flowa. Who usually comes at the end of the episode to give flower seeds to the people that helped and did everything for Lunlun to find the flower of seven colors as a thanks. He also at times comes in to rescure Lunlun whenever she's in a serious danger, as well. He's also the guy that Lunlun whose she has a crush on. Each episode introduces an character that would either be troubled with issues or they are there the cause troubles. Whether they are childrens, teenagers or adults. Not gonna spoil the whole anime just to ruin the characters' arc. But i will say that my personal favorite character arc so far is the one with Darif going to africa to visit his hometown and live there forever. It's a very serious but a nice arc to see how much he wants to go there to see his hometown.

Now what about the animation? Well, it did aged well to a certain degree. Sometimes it's colorful, other times it's depressing, but for the most part, it's very beautifully crafted to the point that i'm amazed with how much detail they put to the background animation just as much as the character designs thanks to Shingo Araki's design on the characters, even for 1979 standards. Sure there are moments where the animation can look a bit weird at times, but hey, it's an old anime, we can't expect too much from the 70s to have the same high standards as today's animes. Just accept that it's an product of it's time. And a good one at that.

And now for the audio. I think the audio is nice, too. It's much clearer to listen to the characters' voices even with a few bits that could've been better. The music can also be said the same. I loved the opening theme song sang by none other than Mitsuko Horie. Who was famous for the Voltes V theme song, Candy Candy, 80s Himitsu no Akko-chan, Sailor Moon and the ending theme song of the first Jewelpet anime. Same thing with the background music. It's relaxing, it's calming and it's very well orchestrated in each and every parts of the scenes.

And as far as the voice acting goes, it's definitely nice to listen, too. Probably better in Japanese than listening in any different language. Mari Okamoto did a great job as Lunlun. Giving an really adorable and lovely voice while she was 24-5 years old at the time. She's the voice of Ai Kaminari from Yatterman and Professor Lukic from Little Witch Academia. You also have Fuyumi Shiraishi as Cateau, who is known for voicing Mirai Yashima from Mobile Suit Gundam series and Bokko from Wonder 3. Then there's Takuzo Kamiyama who did the voice of Nouveau. Not much is known about him in anime other than being the voices of Shalulu from Laputa: Castle in the Sky and the second voice of Dayon from Osomatsu-kun in 1988. Sanji Hase as Yaboki, is also the voice of Suneo's father in the lost 1973 Doraemon anime and Chang "006" Changku from the 1979 Cyborg 009 anime series. Interesting about Michie Kita is that not only she was the voice of Togenishia in this anime, but also the narrator of this anime as well. So good on her, too. Unfortunately she hasn't had much roles in a long time. The last time she ever had a role was as Hana from Natsume Yuujinchou. But she was the voice of Nello Daas from The Dog of Flandres by Nippon Animation. So there's that going with. And then there's Yuu Mizushima as the voice of Serge Flowa. Who was quite a popular choice for a seiyuu to voice in as he was the voice of other characters in other animes. Like Toshio Ootomo in Creamy Mami, Luigi in the Super Mario anime OVAs and 1986 anime movie, Takeru Myojin from Rokushin Gattai Godmars, Ryo Asuka from the Devilman 80s OVAs, Clow Reed from Tsubasa Chronicles and oddly enough, Chang Changku in Cyborg 009 VS Devilman. Strange, huh? We have to same actors who would voice both the same character in Cyborg 009 at some point in time, right? Anyway, i could go on name many voice actors that i've heard in this anime, but i'm not going that far for that. The point is, everyone did a great job at giving and lending their voices to the characters they voice in and all of them did a wonderful job.

So. What do i have to conclude here? Well, it's a great anime! I loved everything about how it focus on flowers as the core theme of the show and how the story goes. The production of the anime is pretty good for it's time, even if it aged differently. Personally, it's definitely an very underrated show. One of the most underrated and unique Maho Shojo shows that i've seen in a while. A breath of fresh air after watching that atrocity that was Tokyo Mew Mew New and that disappointing Delicious Party Precure.

I would love to recommend people to check out the anime if you're a fan of retro anime or retro Maho Shojo anime, but the problem is that only a few japanese raw episodes has been subbed into english and the rest is all in french. So i think it's best to learn japanese and go for the RAW version just to experience this cultural classic that is Hana no Ko Lunlun.

Fortunately, like i said, i saw this anime in brazilian portuguese fansub, so i'm glad that i got to see what was i missing all this time. It's something that i've never seen before. The only retro Maho Shojo anime that i was more familiar with was Creamy Mami and Sailor Moon.

But whatever the case may be, no matter what country you're from, please watch Hana no Ko Lunlun. It's one of the most beautiful and gorgeous anime that you'll ever see in your life no matter how old it is.

As for my rating, i decided to give this anime an 9 out of 10. It's not exactly always perfect, but it's nearly close to being one.

Anyway, that's my review of Hana no Ko Lunlun. My name is José Diogo. And i'll see you guys next time! ;)

I could've had done this review a long time ago, but couldn't find the time to do it. but now that i'm back to review some anime shows for a bit, i'll start with the one that i finished back in june. This one being Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Nippon Animation.

Now you already know that there's Walt Disney's adaption of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland back in 1951, but have you ever heard of Nippon Animation's own adaption of this said fairy tale? This show was released in 1983 with little success as it was overshadowed by the said Disney film and only 26 episodes ... were released in Japan and dubbed in english for the american broadcast. However, it did find some decent popularity in european countries, latin countries and arabic countries like saudi arabia for example. The show is an japanese-german collaboration between Nippon Animation (Which you already know who they are just by reading my reviews on some of their animes by now) and the german studio Apollo Films. Which both animated and dubbed this anime while it was running on television

Which lead us to this question: Is this anime as good as many people make it out to be back in the 80s and 90s? I guess we'll just have to find out:

First off, the story. Considering that this is an anime adaptation of the fairy tale, you'd wonder if this follows the story from the books, right? Well, more or less. You see, the story does follow a bit from two books in each half and in episodic format. The first half being Alice in Wonderland, while the other follows the Alice Through the Looking Glass. The only difference, however, is that while the movie tells Alice exploring through the entirety of Wonderland, in this show, the show follows a bit closer to the novels and also takes place in Alice's homeland, England. Where it can be seen her parents and her sister, Celia. Also, the anime shows that Alice can go to Wonderland when she either goes to the cave that the White Rabbit went or while she ends up falling asleep and ends up dreaming, which leads her to go to Wonderland. Not sure if that was the case since i can't tell if she was dreaming or just suddendly entered Wonderland. And also, by the end of the episode, she comes back to real world, which has her telling her parents what she saw, which the parents and her sister get confused. Call it an transition if you will.

So what do i think about the story? Well, it's decent to a certain degree. While there were some episodes that i did find them boring at times, there were a few that i did liked mostly because of how silly the stories are. One that is about trying to leave the forest with no name, where the people end up switching personalities and start acting like crazy, one that is about the white rabbit getting fired because of his incompetence and getting replaced by the black rabbit (Don't ask questions), one that is about the citizens of Wonderland competing in a race where nobody loses and the one that has a fight between the lion and the unicorn. My personal favorite episode so far is about the queen getting fed up with idiots to the point that she decided to put everyone to go to school to start studying and learning. Again, not all the episodes are great, but it does have a good amount of episodes worth watching.

Of course we have the characters of the show. Of course we still get to see more of these characters from the novels. You have Alice, who is the main character of the show, you have the white rabbit, you have the Tweedle brothers, you have Humpty Dumpty, you have the Mad Hatter and March Hare, you have Cheshire Cat, you have the Queen of Hearts, you have Jabberwocky, etc. Although some of them differs their personalities, like for example, Cheshire Cat now became a more bumbler guy, rather than being a smart aleck. There's one character that appears exclusively for this anime. And that character is Benny Bunny, who is the white rabbit's nephew. He usually comes off as Alice's companion through out her adventures in Wonderland and usually gets along with her, although they did bickered at times. Not much of an interesting character, but i find him cute enough. So yeah, aside from Benny and a few different personalities for some of the Wonderlanders, the characters are pretty much the same as the novels. So no need to go deep on them.

The animation is alright, even for 1983. While the characters don't look THAT great, atleast Nippon gets the job done with the character designs decently well. I personally liked Alice's design a bit more. She looks much more cuter in her red clothing and nice color to differentiate from the novels and the movies like the Disney version. Same with the background animations. Looks nice to look at especially for some of the unique ones. Like the mushrooms and the castle.

Now for the audio. But before i delve into it, i'd like to adress that i watched the european portuguese dub of the german dub of this anime. The reasons for this is that:

1) Those two dubs actually has 52 episodes in total instead of just 24. The reason why this anime's MAL page is still set to 24 episodes only is because the japanese dub only lasted for 24 episodes and those said 24 only got dubbed in japanese.

And 2) I can't seem to find the japanese dub anywhere on the internet aside from just one video on Youtube where they said their goodbyes. So i have to go for the portuguese dub since it's the one that is almost entirely available on Youtube.

Anyway, now back to the review. As far as the audio goes, it's alright. I personally find the eletronic music being a bit out of place for this whimsical anime. Sure it's nice to listen to and the german opening theme song "Alice Im Wunderland" is a nice song to listen to, but again, i find it out of place for a anime that adapts a very crazy and whimsical fairy tale from the 19th century.

And finally, the voice acting. Mostly in portuguese though, because i never got a chance to experience the japanese dub aside from, again, that video where they said their goodbyes.

Anyway, the portuguese dub was made and aired on RTP1 in 1987 by the portuguese dubbing studio named "Videoplano". They are the same studio that dubbed other anime shows like The Adventures of Nils Holgersson and Ozamu Tezuka's Aoi Blink.

Just like Dogtatian and the Three Muskehound's 1983 portuguese dub, this one also survived, as well, thanks to the releases of all the episodes on home video by Planeta Diagostini. And it's the one that i saw thanks to Youtube. So i'm glad that i got to watch the dub of this anime with barely any issues.

Anyway, as far as the portuguese dub goes, it's pretty good. Many voice actors did a good job at voicing their characters with their own unique voices lent to the characters. I especially loved Carmen Santos voicing the Queen of Hearts, António Feio voicing the white rabbit, the late Argentina Rocha as the voice of Benny Bunny, Luis Mascarenhas as the voice of Humpy Dumpty (Which is the only well known Disney voice actor to ever voice a anime character) and João Lourenço as the voice of Jabberwocky. But again, just like Dogtanian's portuguese voice in Wanwan Sanjuushi, i also find Alice's portuguese voice actress, Isabel Ribas, to be unfitting for the character. Again, don't get me wrong, i like her voice well enough, but the issue i have with her being the voice of Alice is the same issue i had with João Lourenço as the voice of Dogtanian. She sounds way too adult to voice a child character. Especially considering that Isabel was 29 years old at the time. But yeah, that's the only nitpick i have with the portuguese dub. But anyway, it's a pretty good dub for all things considered.

So in conclusion, i think this anime did aged decently well enough to make me continue watching until the end of the show. While there has been a few issues here and there, i had a good time watching this anime despite it's age. It definitely is nice to see Nippon Animation decided to have it's take on Alice's Adventure in Wonderland. While it's not as good as Walt Disney's 1951 adaption, it definitely is million times better than that shitty Disney live-action remakes from the 2010s decade.

The only issue now is that it's hard to find a japanese dub of all the episodes available to watch and the english dub only managed to dub 24 episodes. So the only way for you to experience the same way as i did is if you learn other languages that's not english or japanese and watch the entire show with an different language. Whether in portuguese, german, french, arabian, spanish or whatever language you learned.

But anyway, if i have to give it a rating, i'd say i'd give it an 7 out of 10. Not exactly Nippon's best work, but it's a very nice show to watch if i have to be generous.

Anyway, i hope you enjoyed my review after a long hiatus. My name is José Diogo and i'll come back with some more reviews next time.

Well well well... What do we have here? Another obscure anime show from 1971 by Mushi Production. The same people that brought us many of Ozamu Tezuka's anime adaptations and Ashita No Joe?

Why yes it is! Sasurai No Taiyou (Also known as Wandering Sun) is an anime show released in the early 70s made by Mushi Production. It's based off the manga of the same name by Keisuke Fujikawa, who was also involved in the anime industry as he worked on multiple anime shows in the 70s such as Mazinger Z and Cutey Honey.

Like before, there's not much is known about this anime outside of ... japan since not that many people talk about this.

So what could this anime be all about? Let's find out:

First off, the story is the most interesting and the best part of the anime:

It tells the story of two girls named "Nozomi" and "Miki" who were born from two different families. One is a rich family and the other is a very poor one who lived in the slums of the city. However, one individual by the name of "Michiko Nohara" secretly switched the two babies from each family due to a very personal grudge.

17 years later, Nozomi, now being transfered to the same school as Miki, finally met each others without noticing that they were switched from each of their families. Miki would treat her like crap due to coming from a very poor family and of course being a rich girl she is, while Nozomi tries to get to know better with her without holding any grudge againts her.

And yet the one thing that both girls share is a dream to become a singer. So while Miki would do anything she can to become a very popular singer just to make Nozomi miserable, Nozomi would strive and do anything she can to become a singer. Going from bars, to taking a tour and helping others in needs.

It's a story of hardships and tribulations of both girls striving to become a singer while not knowing the fact that they were switched from each family by one individual.

And man, this story is very interesting! What i love about this story is that not only it tells a very interesting story and episodes of where theses girls trying to become singers, but also highlighting the darkside of the music industry and how becoming a singer is not as glamorous as it sounds.

You get to see how Nozomi would be treated when she's involved in many situations. Whether it would be singing in any bars, working at a composer's house to get to learn to be a singer, going to tours without the composer's permission and among others.

As the series goes on, things gets pretty dark and serious when awful things happens to Nozomi. Whether it would be her Father's serious injuries that he got from the Yakuza or how Fanny tries to hide her from his true identity.

As it goes on, the story starts to get pretty serious and sad as noticed in many episodes.

The same thing can be said about the characters themselves. You got two main characters of the show, Nozomi Mine and Miki Koda.

Nozomi is a character that i truly admire. Despite coming from a poor family and despite being treated like crap by Miki and despite having many blocks that she has to get through, she does anything she can to become a singer, without giving up on it. From her personality to her looks and the history surrounding her, she's the one who stands out from the others in this anime.

Miki on the other hand, serve as Nozomi's rival. She's the reason why Nozomi tries to be careful with her since Miki is not the type of character who would be expected to be nice to others. She always bickers at her and treat her like garbage to the point of doing anything she can to ruin her life and carreer.

Both theses two characters are the reason that drive the story to continue to get interesting as it shows a huge rivalry between theses two in a way that it can get quite shocking and interesting as well.

As for the rest of the characters, you have some that serve a purpouse to the story. Such as Fanni/Hisashi who would try to hide his identity from Nozomi about who he really is outside of being a friend to her. And also, you have Isao Egawa, the composer, who at first he only cares about Miki since he takes music lessons with her, but does deeply care about Nozomi's carreer as a singer.

While others like Nozomi's uncle, Kumagoro, would serve as a supporting character who would do anything he can to help out Nozomi whenever she needs it.

Each characters are also very interesting and also another factor why the story is great.

The sound is good, too. You have many great musical scores and songs that are played through out the show. Kokoro no Uta is another beautiful song that was worth hearing it multiple times.

Same thing the voice acting, they are great and do give life to the characters' voices. This includes the singer Junko Fujiyama as the voice of Nozomi. Who despite sounding pretty old for a very young character, does a nice job portraying the character the way it wants to be.

But not all things comes off as great. There are a few flaws that can get pretty distracting.

First off, you have the sound effects. Now, i get what they are trying to do with the sound effects. They are trying to give more life and suspense to certain scenes to make it stand out from what it wants to show. But i feel that there are some minor scenes that don't even need the sound effects to be played out all the time. Like for example, when someone finds out something fishy about a certain thing.

But by far, the biggest problem with this show is of course the animation itself.

*Sigh* Now, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with Nozomi and some other characters' designs. They look fine as they are. But for some reason, the budget for the animation is waaaaaay too limited. And as a result, you're gonna get a few moments where the animation starts to act weird on it's own. Like when there's an extreme close up to Kumagoro, or how the camera shakes for no apparent reason, or how some of the people's character designs look very ugly and weird even by 70s standards.

Of course i know that i should not expect anything marvelous about the animation since it was made in 1971. The budget is very limited and the technology just isn't that advanced. But they could, however, take some time to fix them. But instead, it feels very rushed and mediocre that i couldn't give this anime as much higher rating than it deserved.

But yeah, even with thoses two issues i had with this anime while having an experience with it, overall, i loved the anime.

The story is outstanding, the characters are great, the sound is great (Although mishandled) and the music is absolutely great as well.

And for a anime that tackles on the Music industry for the first time in history, it was a nice piece of history to learn about it. I think this might be the first one to do so. Which would later become a plot point for many music animes like Creamy Mami, Wake Up, Girls! and Love Live!.

It's also worth noting that the storyboard for this anime is done by Yoshiyuki Tomino. The man behind Mobile Suit Gundam and many other mecha shows that came after it. So it's very interesting to see how this anime turned out to be and it's almost great.

So, it's not an perfect score to get, but i will give it an 8 out of 10. Aside from the mediocre animation and some weird uses of sound effects, i had a great time watching this one as well.

The anime's already subbed by OldCastle fansubs. So i'd say you'll just have to torrent or watch it somewhere that has the subs for Sasurai No Taiyou like Gogoanime.

But yeah, give this anime a shot. It's a wonderful and tragic show that i will not forget until the end of time.

Anyway, that's my review of Sasurai No Taiyou (Or Wandering Sun as it's called). I'm José Diogo and i'll see you on the other side. ^^

Before i start my review, i want to make clarification that i've watched the entire show in japanese dub with barely any english subs. Now even though watching the anime in that way was a challenge at first, i did find the stories of each episodes of this anime to be so simple that i can almost understand what the show's all about.

So keep in mind that i won't go into too much details about the show. I'm just gonna give my normal review of this anime to explain what i loved about this anime and about a few that i didn't.

Anyway, with all that ... said, what is this show's about?

Azuki-chan is an anime series based off the manga of the same name by Yasushi Akimoto. Who believe it or not, he has been involved in the Idol industry since he's known for creating a group of idols such as AKB48 and 22/7 (Which also got it's own anime and it also so happens to be one of my favourite anime shows ever).

The show was animated by MADHOUSE. The same studio that brought us Cardcaptor Sakura, Death Note, Kaiji, Hunter X Hunter and of course One Punch Man.

Again, not much is known about this show other than thoses facts that i mentioned. In fact, not many people seem to talk about this show nor even had made a fansub to this anime other than Episode 1 and the movie that it was based off.

So why is this one's forgotten as well? I guess that's where i have to enter in action to see it for myself.

First off, the story is very simple:

It tells a story about a girl named Azusa Noyama. Who was always nicknamed by her friends as "Azuki-chan" mostly because of one of the kids named Ken, who was the one who gave her her nickname and teased her about it.

At first, Azusa used to hate that nickname because she always gets made fun off because of it and not a single person seem like the name.

But things has changed when a new student named Yunosuke Ogasawara, met her for the first time and heard of her nickname. But unlike Ken, Yunosuke liked her name since he finds it to be a nice nickname for a girl like Azusa.

From there, Azusa became surprised with the response to the point that she starts to have a crush on him, Even to the point of falling in love with him.

As the show progresses, both Azusa and Yunosuke would begin to talk each others more often and start to like each other. From having a conversation to have some fun to visit some certain places they like to go. From there, Azusa starts to have feelings to him. Though, she gets a bit jealous when he's talking to other girls. Especially Yoko, who also happens to have a crush on Yunosuke.

Outside of the romance, each episodes tells a story about certain things that kids would usually do and sometimes some crazy ones as well. Especially if we have Makoto involved.

Now, even though i'm no good at japanese, the stories are much simpler, fun and a bit easier to follow, thankfully. So i have no issues with the stories. Although some episodes can get a bit silly and sometimes even weird, like there's one episode where Makoto had to be taking care of a old chimpanzee at the Zoo. Pretty Awkward for a kids show, don't you think?

The characters are, for the most part, pretty good. You have of course the main character Azusa, who basically does have a few days where she had a hardtime having some of the stuff that she doesn't like, but there are other days where things go pretty well for her. She's usually bothered with how Ken would make fun of her and eventually tease her and, like i said, gets jealous when Yunosuke is talking with Yoko.

Yunosuke is also great here. He serves as a pretty good love interest. He's kindhearted and does treat everyone with respect. Especially Azusa. He would every so often go out with her, talk to her, have fun with her and help her out whenever she needs it. Showing a heart of gold.

There are also other characters who do serve a purpose to each stories. You have Azusa's friends, Kaoru and Midori (Also known as "Jidama"). Kaoru is usually a shy girl who has a crush on Ken, while Midori/Jidama is a tomboy who shows no interest in boys since she doesn't give a crap about love.

There's also Yoko, who is Azusa's rival who has a crush on Yunosuke and would eventually try to take him away from her whenever she can. But she's never able to do it.

And finally, Tomo, who although doesn't show that much through out the show, she does appears occasionally when it has to do with Makoto and talking with Azusa and her friends.

As for the boys, outside of Yunosuke, you have Daizu, who's Azusa's little brother who enjoys annoying her big sister and sometimes would complain when doesn't get what he wants.

There's also Makoto, who is an absolute dork and the one that makes me laugh. He's one silly guy who always puts himself into trouble and his friends would have to try to help him out before things gets out of hands.

And finally, you have probably the worst character in the show named Ken, who's not only an complete jerk to Azusa who enjoys making fun of her name and pull her skirt and make fun of her panties (Typical bullying stuff), but he's also quite an asshole to the people. Sometimes when someone tries to have an conversation with him, especially Kaoru who has a crush on him, he wants them to shut up and let him do his own thing. Not to mention the way he talks to others. Once again, asshole.

There are also other characters that appear in the show, like the parents, the teachers and other people that Azusa and her friends meet. Though not much to say about them, other than some other adults that are not the kids' parents that gets some episodes about them.

So far, other than Ken and some other bullies, the characters are fun to watch. They all serve a purpose to make you smile even when you have a bad day.

As for the animation and character designs, they all look very simple, but cute to look at. You have many characters who have only have dot eyes while others have their eyes closed and some foreign characters have their dot eyes colored.

Same thing with the background animations. They all look good and they fit the mood of certain characters and situations.

As for the sound, the Music is pretty good to listen to. It's very relaxing, can be sometimes joyful, others can be funny and sometimes a bit sad whenever it needs to. Again, fitting the mood of certain moments in the anime's episodes.

The voice acting is pretty good as well, many seiyuus have done a pretty good job voicing each characters and giving more life to them. You have Yukana voicing Azusa, who's known for voicing Cure White/Honoka from Futari Wa! Precure and Meiling from Cardcaptor Sakura, Then you have Rei Sakuma voicing Yoko, who's known for voicing My Melody from Onegai My Melody and Shampoo from Ranma 1/2, you have Taeko Kawata voicing Kaoru, who's also known for voicing Amy Rose in the Sonic The Hedgehog video games, you have Mitsuaki voicing Ken, who also voices Close from Go! Princess Precure and Part 8 Josuke Higashikata from JoJolion in the JoJo's Bizzare Adventure video games and you even have Rica Matsumoto voicing Jidama, who not only she's known for voicing Ash Ketchum/Satoshi from the Pokémon series, but she's also known for being the singer for most Pokémon songs and being one of the founding members of JAM Project. Yes. That Rica Matsumoto!

Sorry for the mouthfull, but i couldn't resist how great the performances were during my watchthrough of this anime.

Aaaanyway, what do i have to say about this anime, overall? Well... It's pretty good! I loved the stories about each of the characters, minus Ken, again, the music is great, the characters are mostly great and the animation is very cute and charming to look at.

I can say that i had a good time watching this anime without worrying too much about having a bad day.

Sadly, like i said before, there's only one episode and a movie translated into english. The show itself has yet to be translated into english anytime soon. So the only real way to watch this show is if you understand Japanese and watch the show with no english subs. But even then, the language used in this anime is very simple and easy to understand, minus some of the quirky words used in the anime. So maybe you'll be able to watch it with little to no problems, whatsoever.

But if you do manage to find all the RAW episodes of this anime, i recommend you guys to watch it if you're into romance anime or kids anime in general. Though beware of the scene where Yunosuke gets punched in the stomach by the bullies. While it's not that violence, it can be a bit shocking to look at. And of course that dumbass Ken being a jerk to Azusa, as well.

But even then, for the most part, you'll definitely enjoy the anime regardless of theses scenes. it's cute, colorful and gives out that Peanuts cartoons vibe to it. It's definitely a hidden gem that i will not forget.

My rating for Azuki-chan is definitely an 8 out of 10. It's an cute show and i'm glad that i got around to watch it, even without any fansubs.

Anyway, there you have it. My review on Azuki-chan. My name's José Diogo and i'll see you guys next time.

Here we go again with yet another Nippon Animation anime show. And this time around, it's an anime adaptation of a manga series known as "Mikan Enikki". Or "Mikan's Picture Diary" as it's translated.

Mikan Enikki is an anime show based on a manga of the same name by Miwa Abiko and animated by, you guessed it, Nippon Animation. Now, i've already talked a bit about the studio before in my reviews of Vickie the Viking, Wakakusa no Charlotte, Dogtanian and the three Muskehound and Corrector Yui. So you should probably be familiar with the anime studio by now.

Not much is known about this show's popularity ... since it lasted for 30 episodes with 2 specials created and sadly faded to obscurity.

Now while i said that it was based off the manga, i said it very loosely because there are many occasions where the studio did made some changes and made some new stories and characters to differenciate from the manga.

But is it any good? Let's find out:

The show started with a boy named "Tom" who was about to go home with his friends until he noticed an orange cat. At first, he never saw a cat whose fur was orange which was odd to him. But he tend to ignore it and move on. While he was going home, the orange cat decided to follow him and eventually reached home, which surprised Tom for seeing the cat following him. So he decided to ask his parents if they would adopt the cat. The parents agreed to keep the cat with them and call him "Mikan".

It seems like things were going fine until Tom noticed something suspicious about Mikan. He noticed that the cat could laugh and has been drunk after coming back to his room to sleep. He had no idea what was going on with Mikan. So later that night, he decided to sneak onto him to find out who he really is. In which he found out that the cat was drinking Sake and not only that, but he was also talking and standing with only two hint pants. Tom got shocked with what he just witnessed and decided to take him to his room to find out what was up with him and why he was capable to do thoses things.

From there, Mikan explained that he came from another village where he was taken care of by his late grandfather known as Tatsuzo. Who he originally also called Mikan "Tom" as well. However ever since his passing, he had to leave the village because Tatsuzo's neighborhood couldn't accept him as a real cat, but rather, as a speaking yokai-like creature.

Tom felt bad for him so they decided to resolve to speak with Tom's parents to explain that Mikan is no ordinary cat and convinced them to let him live with them even if he can speak and stand with two hint paws. In which the parents agreed to, but in exchange, do not let Mikan get caught speaking to a human being.

So from there, the show would tell the adventures and misadventures of Mikan, his family, his friends and what he would do through out his life.

Now with all that said, let me say that the story so far has been great! Each and every stories were quite fun, interesting, hilarious, serious and sometimes a bit sad as well as there are a few moments where we'd see Mikan in some serious situations. Such as having a fight with other cats and sometimes trying to save others from getting injured.

The story is very well written, as well. As you get invested into the anime, more and more you'll end up loving alot about this show and it's episodes it's been told.

My favourite episodes are the ones involved with Mikan's reunion with his brother named "Jerry". And yes, their grandfather really did called them both Tom and Jerry (Totally not violating copyright infringements!)

Anyway, i loved the episodes with Jerry because we get to see Mikan trying to understand Jerry's feelings and trying to help him out whenever he can.

But like i said before, the anime is loosely based off the manga. So there were things that were changed from the manga (Like Mikan's backstory for example) and some of the chapters were never adapted into the anime. Like for example, the chapter where Mikan and his friends went into each worlds where there were magics and dragons. That was never adapted into animation.

And also, unlike the manga's stories where tend to be long and introspective, the anime's stories are much shorter, eventful and suspenseful.

Not to mention, some of the characters' personalities have changed here as well. For example, Mikan acts like a selfish troublemaker and does whatever he wants, while the manga despite being nosy, is well-behaved. Or how Kelly got pregnant in the anime compared to the manga version.

So you can easily say that the anime's story execution is more or less original than you may think so.

But is it a bad thing? Nope. I personally think they did a great job at telling it's own stories than just trying to adapt the manga faithfully.

Though i do wish that we'd have more episodes to have an proper ending because the anime's ending was more of a cup-out ending than it was an open-ending to the show. I'm not gonna spoil the whole show for all of you, so you can watch the anime for yourself to make up your own thoughts on the ending.

Now that i got the story out of the way, let's get into the characters:

First, there's Mikan, who like i said earlier, is one crazy troublemaker who does whatever he pleases. He'd talk, stand on his own with his legs and often times play his own harmonica that he received as a present. I had a great time seeing this cat being himself. Seeing him do what he knows best, having fun playing around with Tom and of course being a troublemaker himself, he makes me giggle seeing him do something that's not normal.

There's also characters that i do really enjoy. Such as the Kusanagi family. Tom is an ingenuous and caring kid who does anything he can to resolve the problems with Mikan even if they bicker at each others. His parents, Tojiro and Kikuko, are a very loving couple who rarely argue againts each others, but instead, do what they know best to make Tom's life and Mikan's life much better.

There's also the cats themselves like Kurobochi, who portrays himself as a lady's man who always falls in love with a cat named "Hana", there's Botan, who is the fattest of the group who's always honest with Mikan's troubles and wants to stay away from his crazy stunts, there's Kelly, who would later become Mikan's love interest and more.

Same thing with the human characters. There's Kyoko, who would serve as a love interest, Sera, who appears later on in the show and becomes friends with Tom when they start talking to each others and a few more.

All of theses characters do serve a purpose to each episodes' stories and do make the show more interesting and fun to watch.

The animation looks nice to see as well. While the character designs aren't anything new here, it gets the job done. Since this is Nippon Animation we are talking about, they do a pretty good job with what they know best. Giving more life to the characters' designs and animations and the backgrounds as well.

The same thing can be said about the sound as well. The music is very well composed. You get some moments where the background musics can fit well into scenes that happen and the OP and EDs are very cute, fun and catchy to listen and sing to.

And as far as the voice acting goes, the seiyuus do a great job at giving their all with their voices for the characters they voice in. Including Tarako (The second voice of Monokuma from Danganronpa series) as the voice of Mikan.

So in conclusion, what do i have to say about Mikan Enikki? Well... It's yet another great hidden gem from Nippon Animation! NA does it yet again with this anime.

The story is great, the art and animations are very cute, the characters are fun, the music is great, the voice acting is spectacular and of course i had a great time with this one! This is easily my favourite pet anime show ever.

And the good news, people, is that the anime has been fansubbed by Ibuki Fukoi fansubs, So you can pretty much find this anime through torrents or pirated sites like gogoanime for example.

But seriously though, if you're an animal lover and an anime fan, don't miss this show out. In fact, give it a watch if you can. It's a show that will definitely get you invested into it more and more as you watch the show. I know this because after i finished this show, i was satisfied with it. So i thank Nippon Animation once again for yet another masterpiece.

I give Mikan Enikki an 9 out of 10. It definitely is a really great anime to watch cute cats doing cute things, even the more serious ones, too.

Anyway, that's been my review of Mikan Enikki. This is José Diogo and i'll see you guys on the other side.

Finally! I've been wanting to give my review on this anime ever since i began watching this wonderful anime and finish it. And now that i've done thoses, i'm ready to give my thoughts on this anime.

But first things first, here's the rundown:

Corrector Yui is an anime series that aired in 1999 and ended in 2000 and made by noneother than Nippon Animation. I have already mentioned about Nippon Animation multiple times already, so there's no need to introduce them again.

The show was created by Kia Asamiya, who has been involved in the anime industry since the 80s. As he's usually known as one of ... the key animation for Fist Of The North Star. But he's also known for creating other series such as Silent Mobius and Compiler.

The show had a huge cult following ever since it's airing in other countries like Mexico or Brazil.

So what do i have to say about this one? Here's my full thoughts on it:

First, the story:

The story takes place somewhere in the 2000s. Where the world is dominated with computers and it's massive central network known as "ComNet". Which is linked to each computers all over the world to become a single global computer system and designed to be served as a interest to mankind. However, Grosser, the one supercomputer who manages all of this, decided to take over ComNet and corrupt the entire world with viruses.

That's where we are introduced to our main heroine of the show: Yui Kasuga. An highschool girl who wasn't too good at handling computers. One day, she met an corrector software named "IR" who chosen her to become the one who will fix all the wrong doings of Grosser. Now it's up to her to become "Corrector Yui" to find out why Grosser's doing all of this wrong doings and put a stop to his evil schemes and his henchmen.

There's also a second part/half of the show that continues the story of the anime after the Grosser Saga, but i won't go into the spoiler territory. The rest is up to you to see for yourselves.

Anyway, this anime is absolutely awesome! What i love about the anime is it's worldbuilding surrounding ComNet. We are given more time to see a great variety of networks that Yui and the other correctors visit. Such as the Western Net, the Mystery net, the Adventure Net, the Ocean Net, the Space net and so much more.

Not to mention the fact that the story is awesome in it's own right. As the series progesses, we get to learn more about why Grosser and his henchmen would try to take over ComNet and then when we reach to the second half of the show, things starts to get more interesting as we get to know more about the mystery surrounding a certain character that will play a role for the Ai Saga.

Also, after the commercial breaks, there's a small section called "Yui's Comic Strip Theatre" which tells a small story in four panels. Which serves a cute way to give us some funny and really adorable small stories to see before getting back to the show.

And then we have the characters themselves. Well i can safely say that every single one of them are great. You have some that are serious and others not so much, but they all serve a purpose to the story as the series progresses.

There's far too many characters that i know that would take forever to introduce, so i'll just give my thoughts on the main character herself.

First you have Yui Kasuga (I call her Yui-chan because she's so cute). What i really love about Yui-chan so much is her looks and her personality. She's such an adorable sweetheart that shows how funny she can be, but at the same time how empathetic she can be for the A.I. programs and does anything she can to help them. She's also quite a charming person who has a will to cheer people up even if people are at their lowest. Also, she's so adorable when she tries so hard to do something as simple as trying to type on the computer which made me smile and giggle.

There are also the correctors themselves who also help out Yui in certain situations where she needs the powers to Initialize the bugs. Some would give her water powers, one would give her earth ones and the other gives the fire one.

There are also a few differences that makes the correctors standout from each others. For example, Rescue has the power to heal people, while Follow can transform into each people.

And then you have the villains themselves. Grosser, as i said before, is one of the main villains of the show and the one who's tired of taking care of ComNet so he decided to take over the world. But then you have his four henchmen. War Wolf, who's one snarky son of bitch who keeps his snarky personality towards his companions, Jaggy, who despite being one by strong man, he's quite knowledgeable one who knows how to prepare himself to fight, Virus, who's the most intelligent one of the group, is armed with light sabers and computer viruses and finally you have Freeze, who's the only female in the group, can use her ice powers to freeze her opponents.

each and every characters have their own powers and distinctive personalities on them. Making them all stand out from each others.

So what about the animation? The animation here is spectacular even for 1999 ajd 2000. The character designs look really cool, giving each and every characters their own unique style of designs and dresses that they wear. The animation is also pretty great as well. very smooth and gorgeous to look at. Even the worldbuilding in ComNet looks amazing as well. very detailed, basically, the animators took the time to draw certain areas very well.

So basically, i barely even seen any errors or goofs in the animation. Even if some episodes don't look as good as the others, still looks good enough to make it watchable. So Nippon Animation really did outdone themselves with the animation here.

The sound is also great as well. The music is also pretty great to listen to. Especially the opening and ending theme song of the first half of the show. Which are the most memorable to me. Eien To In Basho is easily one of my favourite opening theme songs of all time. Unlike most of opening theme songs for anime that are given a more upbeat and energetic opening to keep you pumped for what you're about to see, this song is more calm and relaxing to listen. It also helps the fact that the opening animation is pretty good as well.

The second opening and ending theme songs are pretty good as well, but nowhere near as catchy as the first and ending theme songs.

I only watched the Japanese dub of the anime since i'm more confortable with it than i'd do with any Portuguese dubs. And as far as the voice acting goes, it's pretty great as well. Everyone did a great job giving more life to the characters' voices. Including Makiko Oomoto (Nintendo's Kirby's seiyuu) as Yui-chan. She gave such an adorable voice for her and her performance is very well done. The same can be said with other seiyuus like Kotono Mitsuishi (Sailor Moon's seiyuu) voicing Freeze, Tomohiro Nishimura voicing IR and more.

So overall, guys, after finishing the entire anime all the way through, i can safely say that this Nippon Animation's best anime they have ever created and the most original they created.

The characters are amazing, the story is awesome and epic, the animation is great, the voice acting is outstanding, the music is awesome and overall, this was a great anime to watch up til the end of the show.

Sadly, only 18 episodes has been officially translated by Viz Media and finding the DVDs for theses episodes are very rare to find. But luckily, Old Castle Fansubs did picked up the rest of the show and translated the entire anime for all of us. So you'll just have to torrent theses episodes and watch them for yourselves.

But seriously, though, go watch this anime. It's an anime that can easily entertain you through out your time. You won't regret it.

And i give this anime an perfect score of 10 out of 10. I think it's an epic masterpiece that i cannot forget!

Anyway, this has been my review of Corrector Yui. My name's José Diogo and i'll see you next time.

Here's another one that i remember watching vivibly as a child but never got to finish it's entirety. And this one so happens to be one of the most popular anime shows in Portugal. Right alongside with Tom Sawyer, Heidi, Maya The Bee and of course, Dragon Ball.

Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds (Or Wanwan Sanjuushi as it's called in japan) is an anime show made in 1981 by both Nippon Animation and BRB International. It's based off the novel "The three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas

Ever since it's airing on european televisions in the 1980s, it became an huge hit to the point of getting it's ... own merchandises. It even received a sequel made years later known as "The Return of Dogtanian". Which takes places years after the events of the anime. As well as we are given a CGI animated movie released in 2021.

However, we're not gonna go too deep into the franchsie itself, but rather the anime show that started it all. Which is why you're here in the first place.

So, how much this anime holds compared to what it did back in the days? Let's find out:

The story, like i mentioned, is based off The three Musketeers as it follows the story of the novels pretty well. Dogtanian goes to paris to become a muskehound and does what he knows best. Helping out thoses in need to prevent any incidents ever happening.

While the obvious difference here is that the characters became anthropormorthic animals, the key difference between this anime and the Duma's novels is that the character traits of Athos and Porthos are interchanged. Porthos became the secretive noble of the group while Athos became extrovert.

So far, aside the changes to the characters, the anime does a pretty good job following the anime pretty well. Telling the story of The three Musketeers faithfully.

So no issues with the story here.

As for the animation, even though this is a co-production between BRB International and Nippon Animation, Nippon Animation handled the entirety of the show with the animation throughout 26 episodes.

With that said, i have to say that the animation is pretty great for 1981. You get lots of details on certain areas and locations of France and the fight scenes look pretty good as well. Very detailed and fun to look at. The character designs are good as well. Each of the characters are given some nice looks on their outfits and designs as animals. Even Juliette doesn't look that bad but rather decent, as well.

Them you have the characters. Again, just like the story, the characters are also fun to watch and follow.

You have Dogtanian, who's the main protagonist of the series, who's very brave and not afraid of taking challenges againts thoses who get in his way to become a musketeer.

You also have the musketeers like Athos, Porthos and Aramis. Athos is more of the strongest of the three musketeers and enjoys drinking and eating alot. he can be a goofball at times while Aramis is more of a gentle swordman who enjoys reading books (especially the bible) and does poems to women anytime he's in a conversation with them and then you have Porthos, who's more of a bravest of the group who does anything he can to stop any bad guys anytime he sees them.

There are also other characters that do serve purposes to the story of the anime. You have Juliette who would later become Dogtanian's love interest and the small mouse named "Pip", who would appear later in the show as Dogtanian's sidekick that would help and advice him what he should think isntead of resorting into using his sword to attack.

And then you have the villains of the anime. First you have Rochefort, who would become Dogtanian's first enemy he fought againts, who spies on each of him and his musketeers and does anything he can to take them down.

There's also Vidimer, who's mostly a comic relief who tries so hard to put a stop to them by coming up with many plans. From making booby traps on them to even disguise himself as a girl just to trick them and basically, he fails at everything. he's quite an hilarious character, by the way.

There's also Milady, who also plans to kill Dogtanian and his musketeers with her schemes that she comes up with. Quite a gorgeous neko girl.

And finally, you have the prime minister of France himself, Cardinal Richelieu. Who wants to have the power to control King Louis. He's the one who orders both Rochefort, Vidimer and Milady to do anything it takes to take Dogtanian and his musketeers down. But sadly, he gets frustrated because it never goes the way he wants it to be.

There are a few more that i would like to talk about, but i just felt like theses characters i mentioned here are makes the story important.

Now for the sound. Like i did with Vickie The Viking, i watched the PT-PT dub of the anime since it's the only one available on Youtube and the one that i'm mostly familiar with. Never watched the Japanese dub, although i heard a few things about the anime that makes the sound of the anime different here. So i will check them out and update this review whenever i can. But for now, here's my thought on the sound:

The music is probably my least favourite part of the anime. Mostly because it re-uses the same score as the opening theme song of the spanish version but with different composition. I mean, it's nice to hear the opening theme song since it brings so much joy of watching this anime as a kid again, but when you start repeating the same song but with different scoring, it gets annoying alittle too much.

The sounds are pretty good. You get some unique sound effects added when it comes to fighting scenes which makes it more interesting and fun to listen, to.

And for the voice acting, or the Portuguese dub that i watched which was done by National Films, it's pretty good to a certain degree. On one hand, i'm impressed with how many voice actors did great performances for each of the characters. Milady's PT-PT voice by Maria Emilia Correia really gives a soothing and beautiful voice for an already beautiful catgirl. While António Montez did a splendid job at making the voice of Aramis in a beautiful and wonderful way. Giving him a very kind and gentle voice for an already kind and gentle musketeer. May António rest in peace.

So yeah, i think everyone did a good job at voicing the characters in the PT-PT dub. But Dogtanian's PT-PT voice actor on the other hand? Ehhhh, i don't know, man, it's not that the actor that voices Dogtanian, João Lourenço, did a terrible job at it. Quite the opposite, he did a good job as well, but i just don't think his voice fits for that character because from what i know about Dogtanian, he's a child. He's supposed to have a more child-like voice, so hearing João do an adult voice for him just sounds pretty off even for a great performance.

But other than that one instance, i think the dub still holds up very well. Given that it was done in 1983 and it's the only dub that is still available to watch after so many years is just as impressive as the PT-PT dub of all things Dragon Ball, except much better.

But yeah, so that's Dogtanian and the three Muskehound. Overall, i think this show still holds up to this day after 40 years. The story is outstanding, the art and animation is great, the characters are very memorable, the sound is good, but the music needs a little more work, the dub is still pretty good to a certain degree and bottom line, i had a great time watching this classic gem.

If you're a fan of literature-based shows who wants to watch a great adaptation of The three Musketeers, i highly recommend this anime. There's also the english dub for this anime, too. Not sure what it sounds like, but if you live in an english speaking country and want to watch this show in it's english dub, go to youtube and there you go. Have fun with this one. You won't regret it.

This may be an autracious rating i'm going to give, but i definitely want to give it a 9 out of 10. This anime is definitely better than Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The three Musketeers. Now that's a fact that cannot be proven wrong.

Now there's actually yet another three musketeers anime that also aired in japan and other countries during the 80s and 90s, as well. It's called "Anime Sanjuushi". This one is meant to be a much more serious adaptation than the more kid friendly one that i saw. Not sure how that one holds compared to this, but i will definitely check it out sometime in the future once i get around it.

Anyway, that's my review of Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds, i hope you enjoyed my review for this anime and i'll see you guys next time. ;)

So what do we have here? Another obscure anime show from the 70s by Nippon Animation? Why of course it is!

Wakakusa no Charlotte is a anime show made in 1977 by the same studio that brought us Vickie The Viking, Maya The Bee, Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds and the vast majority of the World Masterpiece Theatre shows like Heidi and Tom Sawyer.

This was Nippon Animation's first anime to target shojo demographic, predating Haikara-san ga Toru.

It lasted for 30 episodes due to pretty mediocre ratings on television as it was taken off the air because of that. However, even though the anime wasn't well known ... in it's own country, it did gain a cult following in some european countries. Including Italy.

So with that said, i wonder why this was forgotten by many except italians and other europeans and what's the show is like? That's where we can find out:

So first thing's first, the story. It's gonna be a bit difficult to tell the whole thing since what i'm about to talk about may contain some spoilers, but i'll do my best to make it briefly:

So the story is quite original. It tells the story of a girl named "Charlotte" who lives in a farm with her father Andre who was playing around with her friends and taking care of her animals.

One day, it was Charlotte's birthday and her father decided to celebrate her birthday just between these two. Having a talk, eating their dinner and Andre gave her a formal clothing as her present, all of that good stuff.

However, on that day, he decided to tell Charlotte that her mother is alive. Which he did. At first Charlotte thought he was joking (which he wasn't) and refuse to face the reality that her mother was alive, which made her upset.

Her father did explained to her why she was alive and gave her some time to adjust to the idea. Which she did.

So as things calmed down a bit and Charlotte decided to wait for her father to get her mother back home.

Unfortunately, things' turned for the worse for Charlotte as her friend, Sandy, went to look for him after hours of not coming back to village.

And by the time he came back, he told Charlotte that her father died in an accident. And after hearing his words, Charlotte got shocked with the news and decided to try to look for her father with Sandy, to no prevail.

Because of this Charlotte had to spend the rest of the year without her parents. She did eventually made a friend with an hamster when she found her at the hospital and decided to call her "Spica" and did became friends with a guardian named Knight, who wants to help her find her mother.

As days have passed since her lost of her father and her mother's absence, she met a man who looks just like Andre called Albert, who so happens to be her uncle, told and explained to Charlotte that her father was from a noble family of Montburn and told her that her mother is in france with Charlotte's grandfather.

At first, she assumed that her mother is there and agreed to go there. She embarked to france to visit her grandfather, until Knight arrived to tell her that her mother is still in Quebec. Which shocked Charlotte and tried to get out of the boat. But it was too late.

And now she has to stay in France for a while to set things right with her grandfather to let her leave france to find her real mother.

Meanwhile, a landowner is trying to steal away her farm and her animals from her. So things gotten even worse as times would go on.

But can Charlotte manage to get pass through all this terrible incidents while finding her mother and get back to her farm without ruining her life and find her happiness?

And that's pretty much how the story goes. I could go on talking more about it, but i really don't want to spoil the entire show any further than that.

So with all that said, this is one of the most beautiful stories i've seen in anime shows. It shows, expresses and tells everything that you need to know about the characters and their heartbreaking incidents that keep on happening.

The story is very well crafted and gave me lots of moments where i'd be happy, sad, angry and much more.

And the characters are also pretty great, as well.

First you have Charlotte, who is of course the main protagonist of the show. Out of all the characters that i've seen in the show, Charlotte is my favourite of them all.

I really love this character, She's one that does anything she can to find her mother while trying to avoid all the incidents that comes around her. Seeing her concerns about not just her mother, but also other people she cares for, it moved me alot. She's just a cute and poor innocent girl who just wanted to have peace. And that, i respect her alot.

There's also other characters that later on appear in the show, like Knight, who's a very gentleman who's willing to help Charlotte to find her mother, Sandy, who's a cocky but a very down-to-earth person who also helps her out whenever she's in trouble. And Sandy also has an old man named Melville who's quite comical and enjoys looking at the stars.

There's more characters that i would love to talk about, but then again, i don't want to resort into spoiling the show for everyone that never saw the show.

As far as the animation and character designs go, they look decent. You have many characters who have very unique looks and appearances in the show and some that look well detailed. Even the animals look pretty good.

Charlotte's design looks very adorable as well in many episodes, too, though sometimes there are a few instances where her looks can look a bit weird even for 70s standards. And even the opening sequence isn't any better when Charlotte holds Spica in her hands.

As for the animation, they are servicable. There are moments where the animation can look good, but there are a few that don't look as glamorous as it seems. But for the most part, the animation here is decent to say the least.

The sound is also good, too. The audio is still listenable enough and the music is also pretty good. Especially the one that's pretty catchy. And it's that one BGM where the music plays like some sort of a hip hop-ish type of music. I don't what it is, but it sounds pretty cool.

As for the voice acting, it's pretty good as well. Many seiyuus did a great job voicing their characters and express their voices in a way that makes you feel alot of emotions for them. Especially Charlotte who was voiced by Keiko Yokozawa, who did the voice of Sheeta from Laputa: Castle In The Sky and Dorami in the Doraemon 1979 anime.

So for a show that ended shortly due to weak ratings in Japan is very sad to hear it, but i'm glad that it has a huge cult following in european countries like Italy, because i really love this show.

The characters are endearing to watch, the animation is decent, the character designs look good, the music is great and catchy to listen, the story is beautiful and overall, i had a great time watching this anime.

Sadly, the only way to watch this anime is through fansubs. Fortunately, there was a person named HelenaFansubs that managed to get all the episodes and translated the entire show on her own. So you can easily find them on Youtube or GoGoAnime with no issues with it.

And if you're looking for an original anime that has a great story and great characters to love and follow, then do not miss this one. This is yet another hidden underrated gem that needs more attention than it deserves.

And it's one of thoses anime shows that i'll never forget.

It's a close call, but i'll give it an 8 out of 10. Again, it has aged alot, but the anime is still pretty good, even by 70s standard.

Anyway, this has been my review on Wakakusa no Charlotte. My name's José Diogo and i'll see you next time.