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My Review of Tales of Little Women

Do I want more World Masterpiece Theater? Yes, please. Okay, let’s watch the one story that is a world-renown novel that’s been adapted over and over for the past 100 years.

Even if you have never read the Louisa May Alcott novel, there’s a good chance you have at least heard about the story. It has been adapted many times with stage productions, TV mini-series, musicals, and yes, the movie adaptations. There are four prominent movie adaptations that are well-known and three of those were either nominated or won an Academy Award. One with Katherine Hepburn, one with Elizabeth Taylor, one with Winona Ryder, and a more recent one with Emma Watson. Everyone has their go-to version or they just stick to the novel and fuck off with them movies.

Asking my mother, she told me that she prefers the novel, but thought the 1994 version was fine by her book. Me, I have never been able to get my hands on any film version prior to watching this anime. I didn’t go see the 1994 version with my mother. I was 8 and my attention was squarely on The Lion King and Clueless. And as for reading the novel. Um, mumble, mumble, insert something about my Autism as an excuse why I never read this…You know, some shit like that. But I digress.

There were a few anime adaptations of Little Women. There’s the first one from 1981 animated by Toei. Then, there’s the 1987 adaptation done by Nippon animation. And finally, the sequel to the Nippon version in 1993. For this review, I will start with Nippon Animation’s version due to availability’s sake. Yeah, I said the word “availability”. This series made it to the U.S. If I’m able to get my paws on the Toei version of Little Women, I might review it one day. That version is unrelated to the Nippon version. Same story, different rollout. Okay, let’s get started!

This story follows the March sisters in their daily lives living in the time of the Civil War. These little women live at home with their mother, Mary March while their father is off fighting for the Union in the war. First, there’s the eldest daughter Meg. She is coming of age where she’s close to making important decisions for her life. Next is Jo, she’s spunky and a tomboy who has ambitions of becoming a great novelist one day. After that is Beth, who is shy and timid but won’t hesitate helping anyone or anything in need. And then, the baby of the family Amy. I know in most versions, Amy is more fleshed-out with a love for art. Here, she loves art…she’s just a very precocious brat.

Trouble arises fast as the battle between the union and the confederacy was getting closer to where the March family lives. Before they knew it, they left everything they knew behind to go north to Newcord. Not before the confederates set the town of York on fire! After leaving their old life behind, the March family made their way to the new town up north where they meet new friends and connections. The March sisters are doing the best they can in their day-to-day lives and shooting for their own personal goals.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: I never thought that I would ever see a legitimate dub for a World Masterpiece Theater anime. But here we are! This anime was licensed and dubbed by Saban Entertainment back in the day. Does that name ring a bell? Think of Digimon Adventures, Samurai Pizza Cats, and so many Power Rangers. This even landed a spot on HBO in the late 80s and early 90s. And yet somehow, I never ran into this series growing up and we had HBO. I only remember watching Little Lulu and Lifestories: Families in Crisis. Yeah, I’m a complicated batch of a person. Today, it is available to watch on Amazon’s Freevee. However, and I cannot believe this has to be said about something not Pokemon related, only the English dub is available for streaming. Keep in mind that this only applies to the 48-episode series. The 1993 sequel was never licensed or dubbed.

As usual, the Japanese cast had many veterans from other World Masterpiece Theater classics like Eiko Yamada. As for the English dub…ooh boy, you can tell that this is early, early, back in the day, cringe AF, stiff as a board English dubbed. Add to that, they redubbed the opening and ending themes.

Yeah, I don’t think the west was willing to have the original opening theme as 10 seconds of it had Amy getting spanked by her father.

Instead, you get an English dub 45 second song of the synopsis. While it was easy for me to watch this dubbed, it was difficult to find who voiced who. Even the credits at the end of the episode show me nothing. Granted, there are a lot of familiar anime voice actors like Wendee Lee, Richard Epcar, Dave Mallow, Barbara Goodson, and Rebecca Forstadt.

If you’re anything like me, you can recognize Forstadt’s voice in nearly everything she’s in. She’s usually found playing little girl characters. And she continued doing that for the next 30 years after playing Amy here. I’m not joking, she did that up until her retirement. Seriously, all her characters sound the same! Amy March is just Suiseiseki, who is just Mihoshi, who is just Rika Furude. That’s not something I want to say in a review. I wish I could list out the English cast here, but only Jo and Amy’s voice actors are known and the others are a mystery. Instead…can I go off on Hannah’s voice for a quick sec? I love Barbara Goodson so much. This role…NOOOO.

JAPANESE CAST: *Meg is played by Keiko Han (known for Prof. Ivy on Pokemon, Luna/Queen Beryl on Sailor Moon, and Mito on Hunter x Hunter)

*Jo is played by Eiko Yamada (known for Mai on DBZ, Anne from Anne of Green Gables, Tsubasa on Ranma ½, Lavinia on Princess Sara, and Yvonne on Trapp Family Story)

*Beth is played by Mayumi Shou (known for Young Chi-Chi on Dragon Ball)

*Amy is played by Rei Sakuma (known for Daisy on Pokemon, Jiji on Kiki’s Delivery Service, Shampoo on Ranma ½, Funaho on Tenchi Muyo, and Peorth on Ah My Goddess)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Hands down, Beth wins me over from episode 2 when she saves Milky Ann. She gets an automatic pearl point.

DISLIKED CHARACTER: You know what? It would be so easy to put up the easy answer here like Aunt March’s weaselly nephew David. I agree, he is detestable. And there are several instances where I wish Jo would have just slugged him in the face. But one, nagging, pesty, sneaky little brat kept creeping up on my annoyance meter.

Amy March, the youngest of the March sisters. When I saw that an episode was going to be titled “Amy’s Revenge”, I thought that she was going to take revenge on that snot-nosed classmate of hers that tattled and got Amy in trouble. This happened the episode before this one and I was ever-so curious to see what was going to happen. Much to my dismay, it was not that. This revenge came at the end of the particular episode and it wasn’t to someone who deserved it, it was to her own sister.

Because Amy was getting over a sickness, her sisters Meg and Jo forbad Amy from going to a play they were invited to. It was absolutely reasonable. Amy wasn’t over her sickness and they only had the two tickets for the elder siblings. I know I shouldn’t hate on Amy because she’s a little kid. But speaking as a late-30’s, single lady with no babies, fuck them kids and that brat needs a spankin’! Because Amy was told to stay home and wait another day, Amy gets angry at her sister Jo. So much that she goes up to her room and burns her entire story that Jo wrote in the fireplace.

This here is the moment where all my sense and reason for Amy went right the fuck out the window. I know I’ve been mean to little children in shows of the past and should rethink my logic because they’re kids and don’t know any better. I know that Jo and Amy were able to mend their relationship after Amy almost drowned, but that was just wrong of Amy. That action alone sky-rocketed Amy to the top of the “I fucking hate you” mountain. Before, I was just annoyed by her because Amy’s a little kid. This, did not help her win any points with me.

SHIPPING: Going into this, I’m curious to see if Jo winds up with Anthony of the newspaper or the boy next door Laurie. I’m leaning on Laurie heavily since I think Anthony is an anime-only character. So, I hope nothing changes…

Medea reads what really happens with Jo x Laurie

I really should start the original source material before jumping into the anime. Silly Medea, when will you ever learn your lesson? Never. I never learn. At least I was right about who Meg was going to end up with. I actually saw that coming a mile away. But the Jo x Laurie thing…I’m not going to be over this for a while. Jesus “Tap Dancing” Christ, they better not show…Laurie marrying HER. I know it works in the novel, just not in the anime. As it turns out, readers were also not digging Jo’s decision of turning down Laurie and then marrying this new guy. I guess Alcott saw Jo and Laurie as nothing more than friends.

Let’s talk about Meg now. Meg has been constantly reminded from several people throughout the series to marry a rich man. Mr. Brook is a kind man, but not one of wealth. And suddenly, I’m reminded of the daughters from Fiddler on the Roof in this instance. Tevye wants his eldest to marry the butcher, but she listens to her heart and marries Motel the tailor. But I digress.

Remind me if I ever talk about Fiddler again to make sure I have a shot of hard liquor in my system.

Well, time to drop the 150-year-old spoiler here. Jo meets and marries a fella while in New York. Fritz doesn’t even appear in the first series. Despite many objections and everyone’s opinion on the matter, Meg and Mr. Brook are engaged at the end of the first series and eventually married. Laurie is turned down by Jo, but still winds up with one of the March sisters. He marries Amy. And as for Beth…she’s in the loving comfort of Sem E. Terry.

Medea, that’s morbid even for you.

ACCURATE OR NOT: Ooh boy, let’s see if I can keep my uncomfortable faces and collar tugs out of this conversation.

*The ages. I can’t recall how old Meg and Jo are in the anime, but I figure they are around the age of 16 and 15 like in the book. Can’t say the same for Beth and Amy. There’s no way that their anime counterparts are 13 and 12. Beth, maybe! Amy in the anime is definitely elementary school-aged. And this here is the reason why I will never accept Laurie hooking up with HER in this anime. I’ll accept it in nearly every other media. Just not in this adaptation.

*There were several name changes between here and the novel. Most notably are the March parents, Richard and Margaret. In the anime, they are renamed to Frederic and Mary. But only people outside the family call her Mary March. She’s still called Marmee by the girls. While I’m still on the subject of name changes, John Brook’s name was different in the Japanese version. They changed his name to Carl Brook. But then, his name turns back to John in the sequel. Okay, give a point to the Americans here.

*Hannah the maid…I knew something was going to make me tug on my collar. Okay, let’s rip off this bandaid. In the novel Hannah was really Irish and Caucasian. I’m raising my eyebrow at this fact here. I know sites say the change could have been made to show the audience the plight of African Americans during the time. So, I’ll calm down for now. But then I see Asia the cook in the sequel…I got nothing. Really couldn’t find anything on her. I’ll still stay calm, but my eyebrow is going to stay up for a while.

*There of course is no town named Newcord. That was for some reason changed from the novel. It’s Concord! The name of the town is Concord! Don’t ask me why they changed it to Newcord in the anime. And don’t ask me why it suddenly changed back to the name of Concord in the sequel.

*There are several characters not in the novel. Yes, that includes Milky Ann. It’s always the animals. To be fair, several adaptations did have cats. There were several anime-only characters like John, the runaway slave and several people in Newcord like Anthony and Mr. Murdoch. Most notably would have to be Aunt March’s nephew, David. Thank God, because I don’t think I can go through watching all four movie adaptations knowing this chizzler is in it.

*Amy was not yanked out of school after her teacher punished her. In the novel, after that incident with the treats and the scolding, Marmee took her daughter out of school to be home-schooled. Here, it seems that Amy stayed in school.

ENDING TO THE FIRST SERIES: If you watch the series on Amazon’s Freevee, you’ll notice that they split the series into four parts. Each part has 12 episodes. I know this isn’t Amazon’s doing, but each part starts and ends with something big happening that I just find that fascinating. Anyways, the start of the final 12 episodes came with some unfortunate news. The patriarch of the March family has fallen ill. Since the beginning, it’s been well-established that Frederic March was fighting in the Civil War. At this point in the story, he was injured and developed an illness on top of that. Marmee ends up going to Washington D.C. to be by her husband’s side, leaving the girls on their own. During this time an unfortunate incident occurred.

The girls took over the responsibilities their mother usually does. One of those tasks was looking after a poor family known as the Hummels. The quiet child Beth took on that job. As a result, she witnessed the death of a child due to Scarlet Fever. And then, Beth contracts it. This illness really took its toll here. Amy was sent away to stay with Aunt March since she’s young and never had the virus before. In a week’s time, Beth was severely ill. Marmee braved a snow storm to take the train to go back home. Even the doctor was pessimistic about Beth surviving. Luckily, Beth’s fever broke. Beth gets to live and none of her belongings were thrown in the fireplace because she infected the entire house.

And I thought the “Sem E. Terry” joke was too much. Medea, it is never okay to bring up Time’s Arrow from Bojack Horseman.

I apologize for nothing.

Meanwhile, there’s a lot of talk surrounding Mr. Brook and Meg. It was clear from the halfway point of the series that Mr. Brook had his eye on Meg. While Mr. Brook escorted Marmee to Washington to be with her husband, he would send notes back to the family and also special notes just for Meg. Unfortunately, Laurie decided to speed up the process as he’s in favor of them getting together. This did not go well. Meg could tell that Mr. Brook didn’t write a certain letter and got horribly upset by the ordeal. Jo and Marmee were also agitated by what had happened. Let the two love-birds figure out what to do. And that’s what they did! When Mr. Brook returned to Newcord, he told Meg he loved her and they end up engaged.

Meanwhile, Jo was asked by Anthony from the newspaper to go to New York with him. Keep in mind, Jo does go to New York later on, just not with Anthony because Anthony doesn’t exist in any other media. By the end of the final episode, Jo does go off to New York. Through some connections, she’s able to stay with a family friend and earn money by looking after their kids. This news seemed to go over well with the family. The only objectors were Aunt March and Laurie. Aunt March because she’s always going to find fault with everything. She highly objected to Meg marrying Mr. Brook. But Laurie, we know how he felt. It’s just that this series never had neither Laurie or Jo say anything romantic wise to the other.

So, we’ve got Meg engaged to Mr. Brook and Jo going to New York. Anything else? Beth is getting stronger every day after her bout with Scarlet Fever. Frederic March returns from war. Frederic also makes amends with Aunt March after many decades. And the Civil War is finally over. Merry 1865 everybody!

Okay, so this first series gave us a happy ending. Let’s see how the sequel shits on that!

JO’S BOYS: Several years after the release of the first series, Nippon does a sequel to Little Women. For the literary buffs, it’s not what you’re thinking. The original 48-episode series mostly covered everything from Alcott’s first book to Little Women. Yeah, there’s a second book to Little Women that covers what happens to Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy after the end of the Civil War. Jo’s Boys is more of Alcott’s book that came after that, “Little Men”. If you start this series immediately after watching the original series, you might get whiplash.

You turn on the first episode and you see a bunch of kids that don’t look familiar to you. Except for maybe one. One of the kids is definitely Meg’s child. There’s this guy who is definitely not Laure Lawrence with Jo. The town all of a sudden has the right name of Concord. And you’re wondering where Laurie, Marmee, Meg, Amy, and Beth are the whole time. Again, second novel! Why is Japan skipping over some major plot points from the second book?

Okay, time to drop some 150-year-old spoilers again. If this series isn’t going to cover it, then I will.

*Jo and Laurie never hook up. Jo meets a gentleman by the name of Fritz Bhaer while in New York. There was some back and forth if Jo and Fritz actually wind up together. They do. They marry and have two sons.

*Meg and Mr. Brook do marry each other and have twins, Demi and Daisy, as well as a baby named Josie.

*Laurie was of course friend-zoned by Jo. But he does end up getting together with Amy. They marry and have a child as well. Laurie for some reason his complexion seems lighter in his series compared to the first one. Also, don’t expect to see Amy nor this child of theirs in this series.

*Despite the sunny optimism we’re filled with near the end of the first series about Beth, that bout with Scarlet Fever really took a toll on her body. She dies a few years later.

*When Aunt March passed away, she left Jo her old home (which is known as Plumfield). This is when Jo and her husband Fritz turned Plumfield into a school and become the teachers. Plumfield is the main setting to this story.

THERE! Was that so hard to put these stories to ink and paper? If you are wondering if there are other adaptations to Little Men, there seem to be a couple of them. They’re just not as popular as the Little Women movies.

Jo March is now a teacher to a special school known as Plumfield along with her husband Fritz. Most of her students are either family members (like her sons, niece, and nephew), orphans, or special recommendations. One of those special students is a girl named Annie (Nan) Harding. Nan is a tomboy, possibly even more so than Jo was back in her younger days. Jo’s lessons are a little unorthodox when compared to other schools, but gives the students important life lessons and special responsibilities.

Aside from Nan, there are of course Jo’s two sons, Robb and Teddy. There’s also Jo’s niece and nephew, Daisy and Demi (Meg’s children). Fritz also has two of his own nephews there, Franz and Emil. There’s a kid named Tommy who’s a bit of a shit-starter and has a crush on Nan. A fat kid with some kind of stupid name like Georgie-Porgie or Double-Stuff Oreo. Ah well, it don’t matter. Some other boys that if you blink, you’ll forget them like Ned and Jack. Later in this series, we are introduced to two orphaned children, Nat and Dan. Nat was a meek boy with an ear for music. And as for Dan, he’s more of what you would call a “Prodigal Son”.

For accuracy notes, I only have one. It looks as though Nat and Dan came to Plumfield before Nan in the novel. In the anime, Nan is introduced first as she arrives to Plumfield in the first episode. Nat comes a few episodes later and Dan doesn’t get introduced until about 10 episodes in.

DO WE SEE THE ORIGINAL CAST HERE: Short answer, kinda. Obviously, any elders in the original series are dead and gone by now. Aunt March is definitely gone by this point. Laurie’s grandfather should be, but then I saw someone who looked like him at a funeral scene. I’ll leave it at that. At the beginning of this sequel series, we get an introduction kinda reminding us of the March family where we see Jo, her sisters, and her parents. In an early episode, Jo talks to Nan about her youth and mentions a moment when she worried Marmee. That’s all we get of Marmee. Every so often, there’s a visit from Laurie. He continues to be helpful to Jo as well as to the children at Plumfield.

Now for the March sisters. We do not see a single sister until 33 episodes in (of a 40-episode series). Meg and John Brook finally appear to see their kids, Demi and Daisy. Beth gets no mention except for one sentence spoken by Jo near the end of the series. And as for Amy, one shot of her at a funeral and that’s that. After all the narrating she did in the first series and it amounts to just one second of screen time at a damn funeral. I know, I hated her in the first series, but give us a chance to see if she’s still a pain in the ass.

ENDING: Future choices. Jo has been giving these children every opportunity in the world to persue nearly any dream they chose to follow. These kids have learned and done so much. Nan decides she wants to become a doctor when she grows up. Although, throughout the series, she’s seen wanting to become different things. Just a few episodes prior, she wanted to be an engineer for a train. Let’s pause this dream for a second and see some familiar faces.

As it is Daisy and Demi’s birthday, Jo takes some of the kids over to her sister Meg’s home for a birthday party. Normally, it would be a big blowout with all of the kids from Plumfield. But due to Meg’s husband’s health, it’s best to keep it small. While watching this cutesy party, I can’t help but think during this episode that John Brook is going to die soon. By that episode’s end, he has a heart attack and during the following episode he passes away. Of course, everyone has taken the news differently. It’s just that it seemed to affect Nan more than one would think. As it turns out, John Brook had the same heart condition that took away Nan’s mother. With this, Nan came to kind of detest doctors overall and souring her outlook on becoming a doctor now.

Also, after John Brook’s death, Jo reveals what novel readers have known all along, that Beth died, Amy married Laurie, and Meg happily married John Brook despite him not being a well-off man. Yeah, thanks for just dropping those facts like they were nothing. But because of this sad moment, some of the kids are preparing for their own future. Daisy and Demi are ready to take on more responsibilities in the family now that their father passed away. One of Fritz’s nephews is ready to leave and go off to college. Tommy’s father has made plans to have his son study in Boston. And Dan is getting the opportunity to travel to Brazil. All of these sudden and upcoming changes really put Nan in a real depressive mood. But, she was able to shake it off after hearing everyone’s dreams for their future. Despite being sour about doctors after John Brook’s death, she decided to stick with that future plan. But there is a pretty big roadblock in the way of that dream.

Keep in mind that this is the late 1800s. The idea of there being a girl as a doctor is considered absurd and unheard of. A scholarship was put up with thanks to the late John Brook to help aspiring young students wanting to become a doctor. Unfortunately for Nan, she’s far too young and even if she was of age, her gender comes into question. She even confronted the mayor of the town about this and was laughed off. Jo knows first hand about this kind of unfair treatment of young women, especially in the first series when she was putting out the short stories in the paper. What do they do?

Jo learns to ride a bike.

Mmkay…I guess that’s sticking it to the mayor because he made a crack about girls riding bikes too. I don’t expect much to change in the gender gap situation as there’s only one episode left and we’re a good couple of decades before women could even vote. Hell, it’s 2024 and there’s still no equal pay and old white men have more say about my cooch than I do. But I digress! The final episode was focused on the final day of Dan being at Plumfield. Besides Ann, Dan was a really big character due to his rough debut, all the bad vices he came to the school with, his fall from grace, his redemption, and now he’s going to travel around the world. I know this series showed so much of Tommy liking Nan, but I’m seeing more Nan x Dan.

Spoiler alert, I think the only ship that came to be in this series was Nat and Daisy.

But Nan chasing down Dan to give him a ring before shouting goodbyes to him was a notable moment. In the final moment, we get to see all of these children grown up and doing what they want to do. Happily enough, Nan was able to become a doctor. I only say that because she’s wearing the lab coat to prove it. She stops by Plumfield after several years and meets with Jo. Also, we see adult Nan in the first episode too and…oh, that’s the end!

Okay, I was fine with both series by themselves. Yeah, it’s weird. After a while, I just came to accept Jo’s Boys to be its own separate story. And I guess that’s how the author and even the World Masterpiece Theater people wanted it. First, I’ll discuss the first series. I was curious to see what was going to happen next. It was a cute story that I just couldn’t stop watching it. Despite some of the lows the March family dealt with throughout the story, I’m satisfied that they ended things on a happy note. I know most of the film adaptations go further past where the anime left off, but I have a theory. Most of the World Masterpiece Theater animes try to end their animes on a happy note. We end with Jo starting a new life in New York, Meg engaged, Beth survived her bout with scarlet fever, and the patriarch to the March family home from war. I know, I constantly complain about so much being left out of Jo’s Boys, but I saw the first series ending fine the way it did. And now for the sequel…

I’m a little upset by the lack of time spent on certain characters. There were some children that really weren’t focused on as much. But the biggest disappointment would be Jo’s husband Fritz. We see him in nearly every episode and I just feel like there’s not much we know about him. I just saw this man as nothing more than a man with a bible in his hand and a beard on his chin.

If you understood this last sentence, you’re awesome.

They could have at least had one episode dedicated to learning about how Jo met Fritz. A love story episode would have been perfect for Daisy as she’s the one who’s more domesticated and romantic than all the other students. There was an episode where the kids saw a picture of Jo and Fritz on their wedding day. How disappointed was I when I realized that this episode wasn’t going to consist a flashback of that? VERY! In that process, we could have learned more about Fritz’s two nephews who also have less done with them than Fritz. Be honest, does anyone even remember Fritz’s two nephews? The answer is no.

And yes, I was kinda annoyed at the fact that there was a major brush-off of all the characters from the original series. Amy only got one scene where we see her for one second at a funeral. Barely any mention about her being married to Laurie (whom we see every now and then). Meg has a happy ending in the first series only for shit to get real in the second series where we only see her worried for her ailing husband and becoming a widow seconds later. Only one mention of Beth is just unacceptable. Beth is best girl and I will fight anyone about that. And now, let me lay on Jo for a bit. There’s a giant leap in her character between 16-year-old Jo and 30’s Jo. Mainly, the sequel didn’t discuss Jo’s writings and we just leap into Jo being a teacher at Plumfield.

Okay, how about something nice? I really enjoyed all of the development of Dan. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the kids did a lot to make me forget my unresolved gripes. It’s just that Dan pretty much carried this show. Dan was a bit of a jerk when entering Plumfield. He was living on the streets of Boston prior to this and had to steal in order to survive. Unfortunately, he didn’t soften up until doing some terrible things like give the other boys booze, cigars, and a hook for gambling. Oh, and almost setting the house on fire. After being sent away for a time, he does turn around for the better.

My advice is to treat both Little Women and Jo’s Boys as two separate shows, if possible. And if you want to watch the first Little Women series, Freevee through Amazon Prime has all 48 episodes available for streaming. You might have to do some digging around for Jo’s Boys.

Next anime…will NOT be chosen by me. This time, I went to a higher authority. I asked my mom which story should I choose, Heidi or Ann of Green Gables. Didn’t even need to think about it, she said Ann of Green Gables. This is the first time I ever asked my mom’s input in an anime. So, I hope she steers me right.

FINAL THOUGHT: My favorite of the four live-action films? Well, I was only able to get my hands on one of them. So, the 1994 version it is! It gets an extra point with me for having Mary Wickes.

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