Introduction


Sara Crewe has lived in two worlds. One world, a dream-land where your wishes are read from your lips, the other, a hard life in terrible poverty after losing all the wealth at a single blow where something to eat and shelter are the most important things in life. (In fact they were before but it is quite easy to overlook this fact, is it not?) But as long as she keeps her imagination, inner strength and good friends, there is still hope.

Sara, drawed by Toshiki Yamazaki

A Little Princess Sara is an anime based on the classic children's novel 'A Little Princess' by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is part of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater (WMT) line and was shown in Japan in 1985.

I have seen this series for the first time several years ago and it is my all-time favourite anime ever since. So now it has finally got its own home page. On these pages I want to show you why I think that 'A Little Princess Sara' is one of the most powerful and still heart-warming television series or anime ever produced.


The Story

Little Sara is the dearest treasure of her loving, wealthy father who has lost his wife when Sara was still a little child. She has grown up in India but she is going to go to school in England. So it happens that in winter 1885 she enters Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies in London. Her father must return to India and Sara tries to get used to her new surroundings.

Although Miss Minchin feels a grudge against Sara due to an unfortunate incident, she uses her as a show pupil for the seminary. For Sara's father is wealthier than all other fathers and Sara wears the most expensive and elegant frocks and even has got her own carriage. No wonder she is envied by Lavinia, the oldest pupil in class and former teacher's pet. But Sara also gains good friends: her schoolmates Ermengarde and Lottie, Becky the scullery-maid and Peter, who drives her carriage. So it can be said that Sara feels quite comfortable at the seminary.

But Sara's life is going to change completely. On one day, her birthday, the horrible news of the ruin and even death of her father reach her. Sara doesn't have a penny to call her own and with her father gone there's nobody left on the world whom she belongs to. Miss Minchin takes the chance and makes Sara a scullery-maid just like Becky. From now on she has to work hard for the seminary and Miss Minchin and Lavinia are not the ones who spare indigent drudges. However, her friends don't let her down and Sara fights hard and manages to master her new life and with her imagination, sharp mind and inner strength, to indeed stay A Little Princess inside.

About these pages

This site isn't dedicated to Japanese animation (anime) fans only. If you've read the book or watched the most recent film, you might also be interested in this version of the story. If you're unfamiliar with anime, I can offer you a small information page about the topic. It will do for now, but there is much more and better information available. Try the resources links there.

As stated above, 'A Little Princess Sara' is an anime from Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater (WMT) line. Those are all based on a piece of classic children's literature respectively and are therefore quite different from typical anime like Sailor Moon or Gundam. If you never heard of the WMT line before, you might want to read the referring section first.

The main purpose of this site is to draw attention towards an otherwise almost unknown anime which definitely deserves more popularity. People tend to underrate television series like this one because they do not have any ambition to look at it more closely before judging. I hope that this site can demonstrate that 'A Little Princess Sara' is not at all "just another kid's show".

This series is not my favourite anime because someone particular directed it or because it was produced by a particular company. It is just that this is one of the rare cases of everything being almost perfect. (the film or series where everything is perfect does not exist) One person cannot guarantee for the overall quality of the final product. Even if Isao Takahata who directed some of the other WMT series was a genius (but that title is reserved for Osamu Tezuka) he could not turn a film like, say 'Rambo 3' into a good film. I have tried to cover at least some of the many components which make up a good series in the different sections of this home page. Eventually there will be more sections in the future. Currently these sections are planned:

You can now go back to the main index and enter the sections you are interested in. Some of them may be even more interesting if you have read the original novel.

Enjoy your visit!


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Taro Rehrl (e-mail), 1997-01-01, 2002-08-17