Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables (赤毛のアン, Akage no An literally Red-haired Anne) is a anime directed by Isao Takahata, part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater. it was first broadcast on Fuji TV from January 7, 1979 to December 30, 1979. Fifty episodes were produced in total.

It was adapted from the novel, "Anne of Green Gables", by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The series has been exported to neighbouring Asian countries and also to Europe and French Canada ("Anna dai capelli rossi" in Italian, "Anne la maison aux pignons verts" in French, "Ana de las Tejas Verdes" in Spanish, "Ana dos Cabelos Ruivos" in Portuguese and "Anne mit den roten Haaren" in German). An English dub produced by Leephy Studios aired on SABC and Japan Entertainment Television, which has been legally available on YouTube since 2016.

As with the novels, the animated version of Anne is beloved in Japan to this day. The "DVD Memorial BOX set" for Region 2 was released on August 22, 2008, and a Blu-Ray of the series was released in Japan on March 26, 2014.

An anime series that serves as a prequel to the series, "Kon'nichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables" (こんにちは アン, Konnichiwa An 〜Bifō Guriin Gēburusu) premiered on April 5, 2009, in Japan.

Overview
The series is based on the novel "Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. While several Japanese translated versions existed at the time, (notably Hanako Muraoka who released her best-selling translation in 1952) the production team decided to use the Taeko Kamiyama's translated edition, published by Obunsha Bunko and Shingakusha Bunko in 1973. It was chosen because it was considered the the most faithful translation of the original at the time of production. The Obunsha paperback edition is currently out of print, making it difficult to obtain (the digital book version of Gutenberg 21 is available, however). The Shingakusha paperback edition is not available at general bookstores as it was made for junior high school students.

Since its release, the critically-acclaimed series has been praised for how it faithfully adapts the original novel. Details can be found in the opening of the first episode which lifts passages from the original, or how a quote from Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," which was a favorite of the author Montgomery, is worked into certain scenes. Isao Takahata states that the reason for making such a faithful adaptation is to take advantage of the "goodness of the original", such as fun conversational structure in scenes between Anne and Marilla Cuthbert.

On the other hand, the series deviates from its source material somewhat starting from the 25th episode. Additionally, the anime had cut out plot points from the original novel, such as the ghost she encounters in "The Haunted Forest".

As part of "World Masterpiece Theater", a level of quality is expected by fans and critics, however, the series suffered from uneven animation. Some have noted badly animated scenes involving Marilla, and the color of Mashu's hair and beard changes from time to time. This was apparently due to production lapses during the holiday season. Studio Robin, who was in charge of coloring, was on holiday break during the production and this affected the quality of certain episodes.

In 2009, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of the original novel and 30th anniversary of the original broadcast of the anime, "Kon'nichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables" was released and broadcast on BS Fuji.

Synopsis
Anne is an orphan full of imagination. When she arrives at her new home she will understand that, sometimes, you have to be a sensible person too, but her unique character will change, or at least attract the people around her. The story covers Anne’s growth from about eleven to seventeen years old, while she makes friends, goes to school and studies to fulfill her dream. At a difficult point in her life, Anne will have to take a hard choice, but at the end she will be able to find a new dream.

Born of the pen of the Canadian writer L.M. Montgomery, the little red-haired orphan comes to life in this anime, based on the first book in the long Anne series. Nobody has ever wanted her in her long and lonely 11-year-old life... until this dream comes true and she is going to have a wonderful home in Green Gables on Prince Edward Island with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. But all turns too good to be true - it was just a mistake; the Cuthberts have "ordered a boy" from the orphanage and have no need for a girl. And yet, soon Marilla and Matthew discover that they cannot live without this lively imaginative chatterbox. Green Gables becomes her home; Diana - the best "bosom friend" any girl ever dreamed of; Gilbert - the hated but never-despairing boy in love. Friends, dreams and school, scrapes and funny accidents, laughter and tears, tragedies and achievements - fill Anne's life as she goes on her road of growing up.

Characters
Towards the latter half of the series, Anne and her classmates reach their early adolescence, thus changing their designs to a more mature appearance. The same production technique was adopted in other "World Masterpiece Theater" series such as "My Daddy Long Legs" (1990) and " Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette" (2007).

Behind the Scenes
The anime was directed by Isao Takahata. He chose to hold this version very true to the original source material, although his two previous works ("Heidi, Girl of the Alps" and "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother") had been adapted and altered.

Hayao Miyazaki did the scene setting and layout. Previously, he had worked on "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother", although he left the production and Nippon Animation after the first 15 episodes. Miyazaki noticed a difference in Takahata's philosophy of animation; Takahata stuck to controlled, realistic acting at the time, similar to his former work. Miyazaki had not intended to do other work with Takahata, but he had also not planned on becoming independent at this stage of his career.

Yoshifumi Kondō (近藤喜文) was selected for character design and animation director over Yoichi Kotabe (小田部羊一), who had stopped work with Takahata after "3000 Leagues in Search of Mother" of the previous work. Kondō went on to work with Takahata on the films "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Only Yesterday". The voice of Anne was provided by Eiko Yamada, who would become a staple of "World Masterpiece Theatre" anime, going on to play Lavinia in Princess Sarah and Jo March in Little Women (the latter of which also featured character designs by Kondo).

The first six episodes were edited together by Takahata into a 100-minute theatrical movie in 1989. The film went unreleased until July 17, 2010, when it was screened at the Ghibli Museum as "Anne of Green Gables: Road to Green Gables" (赤毛のアン グリーンゲーブルズへの道, Akage no An: Green Gables e no Michi). Both the theatrical release and the entire original series are available on Blu-ray.

Source Material
In writing the novel, Montgomery was inspired by notes she had made as a young girl about two siblings who were mistakenly sent an orphan girl instead of the boy they had requested, yet decided to keep her. She drew upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada. Montgomery used a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit, which she had clipped from New York's Metropolitan Magazine and put on the wall of her bedroom, as the model for the face of Anne Shirley and a reminder of her "youthful idealism and spirituality."

Montgomery was inspired by the "formula Ann" orphan stories (called such because they followed such a predictable formula) which were popular at the time and distinguished her character by spelling her name with an extra "e". She based other characters, such as Gilbert Blythe, in part on people she knew. She said she wrote the novel in the twilight of the day, while sitting at her window and overlooking the fields of Cavendish.

Reception
The show was well received upon its Japanese debut, helping lift the profile of the source material. It has subsequently appeared on best-anime lists conducted by TV Asahi's audience polls and those produced by outlets like Animage.

Shigeto Mori has received two posthumous JASRAC International Awards for his work on the series, first in 2003 and then in 2010.

Music
The theme song (both OP and ED) was written by contemporary music composer Akira Miyoshi. Sanzen, who is usually known for avant-garde works, also co-wrote ballads suitable for Anne. However, it did not end with simple music for children, and an outstanding technique was used that set it apart from other anime songs. The major difference between OP and ED is that the interlude of only the instrument is included and the song partially includes a pause.

Colorful harmony and instrumentation reminiscent of modern French music, accents with temple blocks that you may be accustomed to in contemporary music, piano and harp that create a rich atmosphere, celesta , saxophone , grofe (temple block), deborzerk (G, F #, E, which are repeatedly struck in the interlude of the orchestra, are from the third movement from the New World), McDowell (insertion of the triplet at the end of the song) and other material quotes from composers associated with North America. I have no time. According to Ritsuko Owada's recollection at the time of recording, the total score was about the size of a newspaper  . In addition, he was in charge of composing and arranging two insert songs and one insert song. It was the first time that a saxophone was used for the OP in the World Masterpiece Theater frame.

OP is to stop just before B major and two minor, but poly-code of the main chord can be seen, which was announced "dance of the chord" (in the same year the sound of the forest clever quote (both hands diatonic code from the recording) Only the left hand is lowered by a semitone from CEG and DFA). In the ED, sixteenth notes fill both parts of the score so that it seems like a double concerto of celesta and piano, but Sanzen's trademark two-piano and mixed chorus works were composed before 1978. Absent. The animation for the ending theme was not produced after all, and it was only a staff introduction.

Kurodo Mori, a young contemporary music composer at the time, was in charge of the play accompaniment. Mizen was not in charge because he was the president of Toho Gakuen University and was busy and tended to get sick. Mizen recommended Mori, who is a disciple, to the creator, and the person in charge of Mori was decided. At that time, Toru Takemitsu produced a score engraving of Toru Takemitsu 's orchestra work at the request of Takemitsu , and Takemitsu tones are used at key points. In addition, he was in charge of composing and arranging three insert songs and one insert song.

Credits
This work was the last in the series to be credited with Isao Takahata as the director and Hayao Miyazaki as the animation staff. Isao Takahata, who had been involved in the masterpiece theater every other year until then, originally planned to produce the previous work "The Story of Perrine " , but Takahata showed a negative view on the original after the title was decided. Slided to this work because he refused to produce  . Hayao Miyazaki et al. Also participated in this work staff to slide in the same way. Hayao Miyazaki said, "I hate Anne. Thank you for the rest  " and left for " Lupin III Cagliostro's Castle "  . However, Anne's imaginative character, who prefers to act alone in nature, often appears in later Miyazaki works.