The little princess Sara
| Anime television series | |
|---|---|
| title | The little princess Sara |
| Original title | 小 公 女 セ ー ラ |
| transcription | Shōkōjo Sēra |
| Country of production |
 Japan
|
| original language | Japanese |
| year | 1985 |
| Studio | Nippon animation |
| length | 24 minutes |
| Episodes | 46 |
| Director | Fumio Kurogawa |
| idea | Frances Hodgson Burnett |
| music | Yasuo Higuchi |
| First broadcast | January 6 - December 29, 1985 on Fuji TV |
| German-language first broadcast |
March 8, 1993 on RTL II |
The little princess Sara ( Japanese 小 公 女 セ ー ラ , Shōkōjo Sēra ) is a Japanese cartoon series ( anime ) from 1985. It was based on the novel Sara, the little princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett , which appeared in 1905.
The series was animated by Nippon Animation as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series . The anime was also adapted as a manga , which was released in November 2013 in German by Tokyopop .
action
Sara Crewe was born in India where she grew up with her French mother and English father. Her mother passed away at an early age and Sara's wealthy father, Captain Crewe, envisages an English education for the girl, as a result of which he takes her to his native London . In Miss Minchin's Institute for young ladies Sarah will receive a ladylike upbringing, while the father returns to India to be its shops in the diamond mines of Golconda to devote.
Miss Minchin, who runs the boarding school with a strict hand, is initially proud of Sara, the flagship student, for whom she is reluctant to accept privileges such as a separate room, a maid and her own carriage. Above all, the director hopes that Sara will help her institute gain financial support.
Despite her wealth, Sara is a warm-hearted, imaginative and frugal girl who supports weaker students and makes friends with the previously rather rejected students Ermengarde and Lottie and the poorly treated kitchen maid Becky. However, Sara also attracts the envy of the class elder Lavinia, who was considered the richest and most intelligent girl before their arrival and who subsequently feels devalued. Miss Minchin's resentment against Sara also grows after she realizes that the girl is superior to her in the French language.
Sara's situation changes abruptly after the institute learned of the death of her father on her birthday, who died in India as a result of a yellow fever infection. Furthermore, it turns out that its diamond mine in Golkonda is not considered to be profitable. Since Captain Crewe was liable for the mine with all of his private assets, there is no inheritance left for Sara, only debts. The now impoverished Sara is no longer able to pay the boarding school costs. She is demoted to an ordinary maid by Miss Minchin and is supposed to make up for the losses through work. She is also forbidden from any social contact with the students. However, Sara endures her fate with dignity.
The social decline of Saras also means the rise of Lavinia, which from then on exposes the girl to venom and intrigue. From Miss Minchin Sara learns only malice and inhumanity. She is subjected to hard physical labor and deprivation of food , as a result of which she almost dies.
Only when the weak entrepreneur Mr. Carrisford from India moves into the neighboring house does the situation improve for Sara. His servant Ram Dass makes the acquaintance of Sara after his monkey has got lost over the roof of Sara's servants' room and becomes aware of the girl's suffering. He and his master secretly help her by secretly delivering food to Sara and her roommate Becky. However, after this game is discovered one day, Sara is banished to sleep in a stable that burns down due to an incident on Halloween. After this incident, Sara was finally kicked out of the boarding school and from then on she had to fend for herself on the streets of London.
By chance it turns out that Sara is the wanted daughter of Mr. Carrisford's late business friend Ralph Crewe, about whose whereabouts he had no clue. The bankruptcy declaration against Sara's father has since been overturned because the diamond mine has proven to be economical. Sara inherits both her father and Mr. Carrisford, who has no descendants and makes her the sole heir of his property. She forgives Miss Minchin and also makes up with Lavinia to resume her classes at the boarding school. Becky is released from kitchen duty and is allowed to continue to live in freedom as Sara's best friend by her side.
Characters
- Sara Crewe ( セ ー ラ ・ ク ル ー , Sēra Kurū )
- The protagonist of the series was born in Bombay , then British India , to wealthy parents. Since her mother was French, Sara grew up bilingual, which gives her an advantage over her classmates at Miss Minchin's Institute. Sara also has foreign language skills in Hindi . She is characterized by vivid imagination, high intelligence and a strong will. At Miss Minchin's boarding school, Sara becomes aware of the differences between rich and poor for the first time, as portrayed by Becky, a poorly treated kitchen maid, and Lavinia, the decadent daughter of a wealthy patron. After the death of her father, Sara herself is forced to live in poverty and is employed as an ordinary worker by Miss Minchin.
- Miss Minchin ( マ リ ア ・ ミ ン チ ン , Maria Minchin )
- Miss Minchin ( sometimes mistakenly referred to as Fräulein Minchen in German ) is the boarding school director. She is an elderly, not very empathetic person who leads the school with a hard hand. She is mainly fixated on the financial advantages for the boarding school, which is evident on the one hand in her efforts to win the daughters of rich parents as pupils, and on the other hand in her tough austerity measures. Your human qualities fall by the wayside. She likes to harass her servants, especially Sara, against whom she has envy and resentment, and is prone to choleric outbursts when she is stressed.
- Amelia Minchin ( ア メ リ ア ・ ミ ン チ ン , Ameria Minchin )
- Miss Amelia is the younger sister of the boarding school director and stands in her shadow as the opposite of her character. She is warm-hearted, human and compassionate, but rather weak and with poor self-confidence, which is why she is unable to assert herself against her big sister.
- Lavinia Herbert ( ラ ビ ニ ア ・ ハ ー バ ー ト , Rabinia Hābāto )
- The senior class at Miss Minchin's Institute is American and the daughter of wealthy southerners who have made a profit from their oil businesses and have ties to the president. She is Sara's bitterest opponent, as she can hardly bear that she is more talented than herself. Lavinia is also quite intelligent and is presented as good at math, but weak in French, which Miss Minchin's Institute attaches great importance to. Even after Sara's impoverishment, Lavinia continues her hostility and even uses teachers for her own purposes. She is well versed in outward appearances, attaches importance to luxury and pomp such as exorbitant clothes and jewelry. Although Lavinia is very spoiled, her parents are rather harmless. Above all, her father is a very virtuous person.
- Becky ( ベ ッ キ ー , Bekkī )
- Ashfield native Becky is one day employed by Miss Minchin as a maid. In doing so, however, she is rather clumsy, which earns her the contempt of the rest of the kitchen staff and above all Miss Minchins. Becky is treated almost without rights and, even in her poor situation, is still punished with punishment such as food deprivation and beatings. For Sara, she is a mirror of poverty from the very first moment. She is the only one who treats her humanely and secretly helps her. As a result, Becky becomes the most important support for Sara after her own impoverishment.
- Peter ( ピ ー タ ー , Pītā )
- Originally Sara's coachman, Peter, who is the same age and lives with his family in the East End of London, becomes an important and loyal friend for Sara. Since he is very hard-working, he knows the London markets very well. He can often use his excellent contacts to help Sara. He does everything to make her predicament more bearable for his former mistress. His parents are both unable to work due to illness, which is why he is responsible for maintaining the family.
- Ermengarde St. John ( ア ー メ ン ガ ー ド ・ セ ン ト ジ ョ ン , Āmengādo Sentojon )
- Ermengarde is initially Sara's best friend and the worst student at the boarding school. Her father is a senior teacher and rejects his daughter because of her miserable grades. Due to her low self-esteem, she is initially exposed to Lavinia's harassment without protection until Sara protects her and stands up for her. Under their influence, Ermengarde increasingly succeeds in asserting itself. As the series progresses, she gains confidence.
- Lotty Lei ( ロ ッ テ ィ ・ レ イ , Rotti Rei )
- Lotty is the youngest child at Miss Minchin's Institute at the age of four. She sees Sara as a surrogate mother because her own mother has passed away.
- Monsieur Dufarge ( デ ュ フ ァ ル ジ ュ 先生 , Dyufaruju-sensei )
- The French teacher at Miss Minchin's Institute is French himself and is impressed with Sara's knowledge of the language, where she is unrivaled. He is the only teacher who is openly committed to Sara and criticizes Miss Minchin's unjust behavior. However, he is the victim of an intrigue and finally thrown from the boarding school, so that Sara loses one of her most important colleagues.
- Tom Carrisford ( ト ム ・ ク リ ス フ ォ ー ド , Tomu Kurisufōdo )
- The institute's unmarried neighbor is a wealthy businessman and suffers from the effects of a serious illness that confines him to a wheelchair. Nobody knows that he was the business partner of Sara's father, who is looking for his daughter in London to pay off her rightful inheritance.
Differences compared to the novel
Compared to the novel, some things were changed in the series e.g. T. necessarily changed.
The novel is written in a more descriptive style, while the anime has a continuous storyline. In addition, Sara tries to be a princess in the book in order to be able to cope with her hard life. In the anime, she does this through her strong will and imagination, which makes her appear like a princess to others.
Also, an important character in the series, Peter, doesn't exist in the book. Thus, all events in which he is involved do not appear in the novel, at least not in this form. Other important events in the series that do not appear in the book:
- Visit of the mayor
- Visit from Lavinia's parents; Lavinia wants Sara to be her maid
- Lavinia's birthday; Lavinia wants Sara's doll Emily as a present
- Another visit by the mayor; Sara will be the class representative again for a day so that the mayor doesn't notice the circumstances under which Sara is now living in the boarding school
- Summer holidays; Becky visits her family
- Sara's serious illness
- Miss Amelia's injury, as a result of which she tells Sara about Miss Minchin's past
- The Halloween festival, as a result of which a fire breaks out in the barn
- In contrast to the book, the time span is about one year instead of several years (in the book Sara arrives in London at the age of seven and her father dies on her eleventh birthday) (Sara is eight when she arrives, almost nine years old, as shown by the Candles can be seen), which can be seen from the character interactions, the advancing seasons (May Queen, summer vacation and first separation from Becky, Sara's illness, Halloween, Christmas party at the end), the unchanged appearance of the characters and the length of time of the letters from India
- In the book, Sara's mother dies giving birth, while in the series Sara mentions that she lost her mother when she was four
- While Sara explicitly states at the end of the series that Becky should live with her as her best friend and not her maid, in the book Becky actually becomes her maid
It should also be mentioned that not all of the events in the novel happen in the same order in the series, and the content of many chapters has been divided into several episodes.
Publications
The complete anime series was released on DVD in France at the end of 2004. Only the French soundtrack is on the DVD.
In 2008, the German distributor NEW KSM acquired the licenses for a number of classic anime series, including The Little Princess Sara . The first box with 23 episodes was released on February 12, 2009, but only with a German soundtrack and in the German TV version, which shortened the opening credits and completely missing the credits. The second and final DVD box in the series was released in May 2009.
synchronization
| role | Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) | German speaker |
|---|---|---|
| Sara Crewe | Sumi Shimamoto | Beate Tober |
| Peter | Chika Sakamoto | Florian Kiesel |
| Becky | Mie Suzuki | Miriam Behpour |
| Lavinia | Eiko Yamada | Natascha Rybakowski |
| Miss Maria Minchin | Taeko Nakanishi | Viola Sauer |
| Amelia Minchin | Yuri Nashiwa | Sonja German |
| Molly | Asami Uchidono | Luise Lunow |
| James | Daisuke Gouri | Jörg Döring |
| Monsieur DuFarge | Toshiya Ueda | Karl-Ulrich Meves |
| Mariette | Sanae Takagi | Bettina White |
| Lavinia's father | Kazuhiko Kishino | Klaus Lochthove |
| Lavinia's mother | Kumiko Takizawa | Daniela Hoffmann |
| Donald | Mitsuko Horie | Matthias Hinze |
| Ramdas | Hideyuki Tanaka | Matthias Klages |