Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

I recently read Les Misérables in class and completely fell in love with it. I googled "Les Misérables anime", not expecting to find much, and was very pleased to discover such a lengthy and faithful adaptation. There were a few changes here and there, but most I didn't mind, and some I liked. For example, a large portion of this series is from Cosette's point of view, which I actually found nice because in the novel, the reader hardly knows her and she is written very passively. In the anime she shows strength and personality that we never saw in the book. Most of myqualms with the series stem from the fact that it is aimed at children. There are many works of fiction that target a young audience but can be enjoyed by adults without seeming too childish. This anime succeeded partially in that, but at times I was taken out of the drama by little things that made me think "Oh yeah, this is for kids." The original story makes you think a lot, and allows you to make inferences on your own based on what you read. This show however leaves nothing to the imagination as it has a tendency to try to drill something into your head and make absolutely sure that you understand. Some of it was overkill, even for children. (WE GET IT. PEOPLE CAN CHANGE.) There were also some changes to the plot that I found a bit unnecessary, especially toward the end. I always had an open mind to changes from the novel, as the show in general was already way more faithful than I ever expected it to be, but some changes to make it "happier" seemed a bit cheesy. I won't spoil anything, but I was disappointed when silly reasons caused certain characters not to die. That being said, for the vast majority of the series I was able to ignore those things. In fact, there were parts where I felt like they probably got as dark as they possibly could with a G rating. Sometimes I would think, "This is rated G, so I wonder if /that/ is going to happen? Oh look, it did. Cool." But I digress. It may seem like I didn't like this series very much, but in actuality there were a lot more things that I liked than didn't like. I definitely enjoyed it, and sped through it in 4 days. (I'm on break with a lot of free time.) It kind of made me wish that there was a really dark anime adaptation with really good animation, but I'll take what I can get. This was a good series that I would suggest to any fan of Les Miz, and still a good watch even if you're completely new to it. I'm really glad I found this.

This is my first ever review! I actually never really thought I'd ever write one! Please be nice! I rarely see any anime adaptations of famous novels and I often wondered how it would be like. My first guess was that it may steer away from the novel's original story but after reading how it was faithful to the original novel, I decided to try it. (Plus, seeing little Cosette was really what attracted me, she's so adorable!) Do note, I have not read the original novels so I cannot help but be biased about it. but despite that, I will try to keep it as unbiasedas possible. I also tried my best not to spoil anything! Story; I did a bit of research and found out that the anime adapted from the second half of the first volume to the last one with hints of flashbacks for the first half of the first volume. According to many, the anime adaptation of Les Misérables was very faithful which I had mentioned above which is a plus for me. I like well adapted animes that follow their source work as much as it could. And in my opinion, the story was amazing to me! It was gripping, emotional, and had a lot of hidden valuable messages about life. There's no plot holes, or none that I could find that would deduct any marks. The only thing that I could think of that didn't feel right was the pacing. As much as I know that most of it was alright, some parts felt really...Slow...And repetitive even. But even though it was slow at some parts, the story was excellent nonetheless. And thus I give the story a 9/10. Art; The art was simple and nice. I didn't mind it so much and plus, some of the character designs were really nice in my opinion. Especially little Cosette, she was just so adorable! The animation was average at best though, but I guess it wasn't so bad during its time. But from the looks of it, Nippon Animation seemed to have a really limited budget when it came to making the adaptation. I might be wrong though. The use of coloring and shading for different scenes were done nicely. When there's a happy and uplifting scene or a sad and depressing one, the coloring and shading will adjust according to it! So with all that, I gave the Art an 8/10. Sound/Music; There aren't many soundtracks that stood out for me in this show but despite that, the music would fit with the events that would happen in the show. Those that caught my ears were the ending theme and the lullaby that was sung by Cosette. I really like the voice acting for this show(Japanese) as they acted out their characters very well. I have not tried any other dubs yet though so I can't compare to any other dubs. With that, I gave the Sound and Music a 7/10 Character; There's a decent amount of characters in this show and there were definitely a few that stood out the most. First would be one of the main characters of the story, Jean Valjean. Through out the series he had shown nothing but kindness and selflessness. If I had more room in my favorites list, he would be in there! He's such a good person! Secondly, there's the eldest daughter of the innkeeper Eponine. She was a selfish little brat at first but by some point in the show, I saw her in a new light and I could sympathize with her some times... Cosette was adorable at first but despite more development in her character throughout the series, I still can't help but find her a bit plain. But she was a good character nonetheless! There were also characters that I find tiring. One such character was the innkeeper himself. He was your typical bad guy really. There wasn't much development from him and throughout the series, he continues to try and ruin our main characters' lives. But overall, all the characters were well portrayed and so I gave the Characters a 9/10. Enjoyment; I love this show as soon as I started it! There were plenty of sad scenes which could pull my heartstrings and even make me cry and there were plenty of times where I feel happy for the characters. There was very little that I could say I did not enjoy and thus I give it a 10/10 for Enjoyment. Overall, I rate this show a 9/10 and it could definitely end up in my favorites if I had room on my list! It is rated G for everyone but some parts of the show makes me doubt if it's actually suitable for all ages... but even so, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys adaptations of famous historical novels(If there's any) and those who like western-themed animes!

(4/24/2023: I decided to completely rewrite my old review, as it's not up to par with my current reviews and is embarrassingly overly fangirly. For some reason MAL wouldn't let me just replace the old one with new content, so I had to delete my old review) The year was 2007. It was around that time that I was really starting to dip my toes deeper into the anime fandom beyond just Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever was airing on TV. I was browsing some anime websites, and a promo picture for a new anime called Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette caught my eye. It looked interestingand I wanted to watch it...but at the time, little to no fansubs for it existed, and the few people that saw the anime hated it, dismissing it as a watered down version of the original novel right out of the gate. Back then, I wasn't familiar with the original Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables, but I watched the few episodes that received subs and I liked it a lot. But Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette wouldn't receive completed fansubs until 2011 (Thanks, Licca Fansubs!!), around the time I started college. During that time, I learned that Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette was actually made as an attempt to revive the World Masterpiece Theater franchise, which was notable for adapting Western children's novels into Japanese animation, from the early 70s up to 1997, then from 2007-2009. Unfortunately, the attempt to revive WMT failed, and since Konnichiwa Anne ended, no new WMT anime have been made. Which is a damn shame in my opinion, because as of this writing, I've seen a good majority of the WMT, this anime included. While I do consider Dog of Flanders to be better, I'm thankful that I got to watch Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette, because it introduced me to the WMT as a whole and was one of the anime that helped refine my personal tastes. And because, honestly? Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is pretty damn amazing. I did review this when the fansubs finished, but looking back, my old review for it is pretty overly fangirly and not up to standard with how my reviews are now, so I'm writing a new one. While the marketing does place quite a bit of focus on Cosette, and a majority of the series is told from her point of view, the anime does follow the same story beats as the book. Set in nineteenth century-era France, the series begins with Cosette, a three-year-old girl, traveling with her mother Fantine, who is trying to find a job and a place to live, but have always been shunned away due to few employers hiring single mothers. When her mother is promised with the prosperity of working in the big city, Cosette is separated from her in the hopes a caretaker named Thénardier will watch over her while her mother earns some money. Unfortunately, this was a trick and the caretaker is a corrupt man who makes Cosette his slave, and she is subject to their abuse every day. The city Fantine works at is famous for its kindly mayor, Monsieur Madeleine, but what nobody knows is that his real name is Jean Valjean, a former convict who served 19 years in prison, only changing his ways after a bishop is kind to him. When circumstances put Fantine in dire straits, Jean Valjean promises to save Cosette from the Thenardiers so she can have a life. But Valjean is being pursued by the stoic, determined Inspector Javert, a member of the Paris police force who steadfastly holds the "once a criminal, always a criminal" mindset and wants to throw Valjean back into prison by any means necessary. Now, if you're thinking Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is a dumbed down, heavily sanitized, kiddyfied version of the novel akin to G3 My Little Pony, you'd best throw that expectation out the window, because other than removing the heavier stuff such as Fantine going into prostitution and Javert's suicide (Which I'm pretty sure is because Japan considers it taboo to depict suicide in children's programming), the anime is actually pretty faithful to the book. Probably more so than other adaptations I know of, such as the 1935 and 1998 movies. Several important characters do die in the later half of the anime, and very few get spared. It pulls no punches in its depiction of the June Rebellion arc or the abuse various characters are made to endure. Plus, several characters who don't get a lot of development in the book or whose fates were left ambiguous are not only more fleshed out here, but even receive happier outcomes. To be honest, I'm kind of glad the anime decided to try and be both fairly light and dark, because leaning too much into the darker elements of the book might have made it come across as too edgy. Plus, just because the anime adds a lot more happier moments, including making the ending more hopeful than the book was, that doesn't necessarily mean none of them were poorly written or felt unearned, because in my opinion, I think they work wonderfully within the context of the anime as a whole. From a technical standpoint, the animation is really good. Not just in terms of its overall presentation, but because of just how different it looks compared to WMT's previous output. Because it was made in the middle of the digital era, Nippon Animation was able to do more with the character designs, backgrounds, and settings that it couldn't back when they were still active. Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette has a much glossier, more refined look about it compared to previous shows' more rustic, rougher outputs, though that's not to say their older shows weren't good. The designs of female characters such as Cosette, Fantine, Eponine, and so on do look a bit more reminiscent of modern anime girls, with big eyes and glossy hair, but like with all of WMT shows before it, there's zero cartoony exaggeration. No chibi faces, no veins popping outside their heads, etc, which is a rule the WMT has always followed for all their shows. The male characters also manage to toe the line between being cartoony and realistic, with more emphasis on the latter without clashing with the show's tone. The actual character motion ranges from being slow to fluid depending on the scene, and it's always remained consistent throughout. The backgrounds are detailed and nicely rendered, and Nippon's depiction of France in the early 19th century is pretty spot-on from what I can see. Admittedly, I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, as again, it's been years since I've seen the Les Mis anime, but I remember liking it, and both theme songs by Yuki Saitou are beautifully sung and fit the feel of the show perfectly. If there's one thing the WMT is really good at across most, if not all their series, it's fleshing out their characters and making them as interesting and three-dimensional as humanly possible, and Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is no different. The reason this is so is because the WMT series in general puts a lot of emphasis on build-up, which since most WMT series have 40-50 episodes, they're actually allowed to do more than what 13-26 episode series allow them to do, and actually having it pay off. A lot of said build-up in here consists of the creators fleshing out the characters, bringing the best out of them, and moving the story forward. Every single character, from Cosette, Jean Valjean, Marius, Eponine, Gavroche, and even all the men in the Les Amis, is well developed, interesting, and three-dimensional, each with their own roles to play in the grand epic that is Les Miserables. For anybody who felt that Eponine didn't have much in the way of screen time in the book or in the various other adaptations, don't worry, she gets a lot to do here, both as a kid and as an adult. Basically, Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette has an awesome cast of characters that are portrayed extremely well here, differences from the book notwithstanding, and even with the anime's lighter, more kid-friendly tone, they still retain the depth and nuances they had from the book. I personally didn't have much in the way of complaints about the anime myself, though this is because I haven't read the book yet. I know a lot of people will take issue with the anime removing the heavier elements of the book, like Fantine going into prostitution and Javert's suicide, which is valid, and there are no shortage of adaptations that retain those two things. But I don't think those are reason enough to completely dismiss the anime as a whole. Plus, the first 13 or so episodes can be a bit of a climb, as they focus a lot on Cosette living with the Thenardiers, and it's fairly slow paced, even though I think both are done really well considering how long the anime actually is (52 episodes). If you can get past the slow pacing and the removal of the heavier, darker parts, Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is an excellently written series from beginning to end, and now that the series has complete English fansubs, it's a lot easier to watch and access! There are also two manga adaptations of Les Miserables, both of which are more faithful to the book's tone and keep the parts that the anime removed: The 2011 manga by Takahiro Arai, which Seven Seas is releasing in the US right now, and the 2015 manga by Udon Entertainment, and while the latter is shorter than the former, I think both manga are awesome recreations of the epic that is Les Miserables, even if Arai's version has the benefit of being much longer, and therefore able to cover the entire story. Say what you will about Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette being happier and lighter than the source material, IMHO it's a way better adaptation than the 2012 musical movie ever was, mainly for the fact that it DOESN'T have useless, unnecessarily gross scenes like Thenardier urinating in a guy's beer cup and a random inn patron having sex with Santa Claus that were clearly thrown in there just for pointless shock humor! Seriously, whoever decided filming those scenes for the 2012 movie should never work in the film industry ever again!! So yeah, I love Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette. I have a strong attachment to this anime, and it's one of my favorite series of all time. It has great characters, a realistic yet exciting storyline that never goes over-the-top, and it is an utter shame that the WMT revival never got off the ground, because we need more anime like this that actually care about telling interesting stories and characters you can relate to. This anime also helped me discover a blog that to this day I still visit, and said blog introduced me to a lot more anime I would come to love later in love, so I owe Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette that much. So don't be put off by the anime's lighter tone, because if you want to watch something that's not only full of passion, full of evolving characters and a story that has a lot of care put into it, give Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette a shot. I did and I don't regret it.

This is a perfect series. I have no doubts to put it on the top of the best I've seen. Everything fits well together, I've never seen/read the original Les Miserables but the Anime is very good maybe better than the original? I was surprised the simplicity of the character drawing, yet it never fails to accomplish their characterization. The plot is there, the art is there, the feelings are there, the ending is perfect, everything is perfect! A truly masterpiece! The best long series of all time?