Jan 4, 2009
Story - 8
What can I say? Shoujo Cosette is an adaptation of my favorite book of all time, Les Miserables, and it's overall surprisingly faithful to the original text. Especially when you consider that SC is geared toward children, and the original is...well, definitely not.
That said, SC gets an 8 and not a perfect 10 from me because in their effort to keep the anime kid-friendly, Nippon Animation committed some pretty grievous crimes against the original canon. I'll keep it vague here, but I'll settle for saying that some characters who ought to have died survive for the dumbest reasons. Overall, though, their attention to
...
canon is commendable indeed.
Art - 4
This, I think, is where SC suffers most. Nippon's animation budget clearly isn't high, and I suppose they do the best with what they're given, but aside from the occasional lovely background, the animation here is sorely lacking and, at times, looks like it might've been passable a decade ago at best. Character designs are decent - Valjean is especially well done - but also somewhat bland. Overall, this is the weakest point of the anime.
Sound - 6
The sound in SC is decent enough, but nothing special. The fact that the same OP and ED are kept throughout the entire anime rather detracts from it as well, especially after Cosette herself has long grown up and tons of new characters have been introduced. Only one or two tracks stand out in my mind at all - good, but nothing memorable.
Character - 8
SC does an overall good job of keeping true to the original characters. Javert could stand to be wittier, and Enjolras could stand to be less - well, nice, but all in all most characters keep true to their original. Characters in the anime who weren't in the book are surprisingly few and far between, and all serve their purpose fairly well - especially Alain.
Again, Character is an 8 and not a 10 because of one unforgivable change to one character in particular.
Enjoyment - 8
As a die-hard Mizzie who was initially very dubious indeed about anything remotely resembling an anime adaptation for children, I was surprised how I kept coming back to watch SC every week, despite my own limited Japanese and the decided lack of subs. Only once did I even consider dropping it, and that hesitation was fairly short-lived. Nippon Animation manages to transcend its clearly limited animation budget and make SC something actually worth watching.
Overall - 7
Overall, SC is an admirable effort by Nippon to adapt a classic work of literature into a television show, several minor pitfalls notwithstanding. It's an enjoyable anime for even those unacquainted with Victor Hugo's masterpiece, and the vocabulary is simple enough that even someone who doesn't know the language can probably follow along (though I do wish someone would hurry up and sub it). The only real downsides are a few instances of bowdlerization and the aforementioned poor animation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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