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<\/a>Here\u2019s the thing about Anne of Green Gables<\/em>. It\u2019s been done. And when I say it\u2019s been done, it\u2019s been translated into 36 languages. The book has sold 50 million copies. It has numerous Japanese translations (Anne-taku like Princess Usagi bicker over which is the best) and at least two manga. And anime is no no exception. Anne<\/em> got an adaptation as part of the revered World Masterpiece Theatre<\/em>, possibly the most famous of any in the series. It ran for 50 episodes and was directed by no less that Takahata Isao. And there have been multiple other anime takes on the franchise, too.<\/p>\n<\/a>Given all that, do we really need another Anne-ime in 2025? Well, I don\u2019t see the harm in it. At least it\u2019s not another isekai or CGDCT (though it does have that). It\u2019s certainly a much-revered story, and you have to assume there are reasons for that. Somehow I\u2019ve managed to almost entirely avoid any of the innumerable English and Japanese takes on the matter (including Takahata\u2019s) so I go into Anne Shirley<\/em> pretty much clean. By reputation this is one of those \u201cchildren\u2019s but loved by all ages\u201d books, so the potential audience should be there.<\/p>\n<\/a>It\u2019s hard to imagine a story that more obviously lends itself to the Ghibli aesthetic than this one \u2013 although Takahata in fact directed his version at Nippon Animation, as it was pre-Ghibli. As such it\u2019s no shock that The Answer Studio have transparently gone for a Ghibli-lite vibe with their adaptation. The Answer Studio is not Studio Ghibli, that goes without saying. But they got an experienced director in Kawamata Hiroshi, and a seasoned composer in Oshima Michiru for the music. With its soft watercolor palette and and Peter Rabbit<\/em> art style Anne Shirley<\/em> is pleasing on the eye in an un-flashy sort of way.<\/p>\n<\/a>One reality is that I\u2019m no doubt less than fully aware of all the ways Lucy Maud Montgomery\u2019s book has influenced fiction in the last 100+ years. Anne is a pretty familiar archetype in anime \u2013 the genki girl who can\u2019t shut up and heals the world with relentless positivity. There could be a bit of a \u201cseen all this before\u201d element to some of this series, but in truth Montgomery is probably somewhat responsible for that. Many tropes I see in the story are likely ones pioneered by Montgomery. And I have to say there is a level of authenticity to all this. As if it doesn\u2019t have to try too hard to prove itself, because it\u2019s the real deal.<\/p>\n<\/a>Anne<\/a> is an orphan girl (not Little Orphan Annie though) in Prince Edward Island Canada, one of The Maritimes (along with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia). It\u2019s a province that even now is sparsely populated, never mind in the 19th Century when this is set. She\u2019s sent to the town of Avonlea, there to live with Matthew<\/a> and Marilla<\/a> Cuthbert. Funnily enough I assumed they were married but they\u2019re in fact unmarried adult siblings, looking for some help on their farm Green Gables<\/a>. The only problem is that they requested a boy, which Matthew is too kind-hearted to tell Anne on the long carriage ride home from the station.<\/p>\n<\/a>Anne is a veritable force of nature (I kept waiting for Matthew to exclaim \u201cPippi, are you crazy!?\u201d) with an incredibly active imagination and love of big (and lots of) words. It\u2019s fun to see the soft-spoken Matthew be totally perplexed<\/a> by this odd child. Marilla is a much tougher nut to crack, and initially is determined to exchange Anne for a child with a Y-chromosome who\u2019ll be some help around the farm (I suspect they\u2019ll be surprised by what they have in Anne). But she too is worn down by Anne\u2019s relentless oddity, and though the shrewish Mrs. Blewett<\/a> is keen to take a girl in, Marilla in the end is too kind-hearted to hand Anne over.<\/p>\n