Lucy in Australia

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Anime television series
title Lucy in Australia
Original title 南 の 虹 の ル ー シ ー
transcription Minami no Niji no Rushī
Country of production JapanJapan Japan
original language Japanese
year 1982
Studio Nippon animation
length 24 minutes
Episodes 50
genre drama
idea Phyllis Piddington
production Takaji Matsudo
music Koichi Sakata
First broadcast January 10 - December 26, 1982 on Fuji Television
German-language
first broadcast		 June 1991 on Tele 5
synchronization

Lucy in Australia ( Japanese 南 の 虹 の ル ー シ ー , Minami no Niji no Rūshī , literally: "Lucy from the rainbow of the south") is the anime adaptation of the novel Southern Rainbow by the Australian author Phyllis Piddington . The series was produced by Nippon Animation in 1982 as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series. It tells the story of seven-year-old Lucy May Poppel, who emigrated with her family from England to Australia in the 19th century .

action

The Poppel family, like many others, is leaving their home country England because they have been promised farmland on the new continent of Australia. But when they arrived in the south of Australia, the Poppels found that life there wasn't as easy as they are used to: the cities are still under construction, the hinterland is largely undeveloped and not measured, which is why most immigrants have no land can be assigned.

Lucy, the protagonist, doesn't care much about the family's worries at first. With her older sister Kate and her boyfriend Billy, the animal-loving girl explores her new home and not only gets to know new animal species, but also the natives of Australia . When there was no longer any hope of getting his own farm in the foreseeable future, the father sells the prefabricated house brought from England to the rich but obnoxious Mr. Pettiwell. Lucy and her family move into a small cabin in the city of Adelaide with Dr. Dayton, a drunk doctor who is soon brought to his senses by the Poppels. There they settle down and explore the new country bit by bit.

The adventures for Lucy never end. For example, one day she finds an orphaned dingo puppy whom she affectionately calls "Little" and raises. For the Poppels, a silver lining appears when the father receives an offer from a man to buy his farm, but an accident ensures that it does not go that far.

Three years have now passed and not only the life of the Poppels, who moved into a bigger house, but all of Australia has changed: Adelaide has become a real city, on the uninhabited coast where immigrants once landed is a large port emerged. Arthur Poppel, Lucy's father, has since given up wanting to be a farmer again. Instead, he works on road building and in the evenings when he comes home he indulges in alcohol. The family gets into ever greater financial worries that they are forced to sell Lucy's beloved sheep, Snowflake. Confused with grief over this loss, Lucy runs in front of a runaway carriage and lies unconscious on the street, where rich Mr. Princeton picks her up and takes her home. Lucy will soon regain consciousness, but can't remember her name or where her family is from. Sylvia Princeton, whose own daughter died years ago, is soon determined to take in the strange girl permanently and even gives her the name of her dead child: Emily. In the meantime, the Poppels are feverishly looking for Lucy, but only Little, the faithful dingo, is able to find her and make her remember again. The Princetons are now very fond of Lucy and so they offer her father Arthur a farm if he is ready to give them his daughter for adoption . Lucy's parents don't want to know about it. When Lucy hears of this offer, she decides with a heavy heart to leave her family and live with the Princetons so that her father's dream can come true. Touched by their willingness to make sacrifices and tormented by remorse, Mr. Princeton helps Lucy's father find his own piece of farmland - without insisting on adoption. After a few difficult, exciting years in Australia, the Poppel family moved towards the rainbow in order to finally live as they imagined from the start.

Historical background

Australia was initially used as a penal colony by the British government to empty the overcrowded prisons. The continent was initially settled with slave labor, not a few of whom were uncomfortable political prisoners who had voiced criticism of the British crown. In 1829 Edward Gibbin Wakefielt while he was imprisoned in England, wrote several letters on the subject of "free, systematic colonization", which were published in daily newspapers. In it he described that the land in Australia should not be distributed to the settlers for free, but that the immigrants should work in the colonies with the prospect of being able to buy land later. The money from the sale of the land should be used to ship more settlers to Australia, not day laborers and vagabonds, but trained workers who would further advance the economy. In 1834 everything was set in motion to put Wakefield's theory into practice. The new colony was named after William IV's wife: Adelaide. Suitable workers - mostly adult men and women under thirty - were given free ship passage. Many large companies such as the South Australian Company made money in Australia, because whoever bought 32 hectares of farmland received 4,000 square meters of land in the city. (Mr. Pettiwell and Mr. Princeton will also have so increased their fortunes.)

In the story, Lucy, Kate and Billy take a trip on the beach to what is known as Flinders Bay, which really exists. The bay is named after Captain Matthew Flinders , who explored the Australian south coast in 1802 and ended up where Adelaide was later built.

The surveyor Colonel Light is also frequently mentioned, who - as Mr. Poppel explains to his children - also planned the city of Adelaide. All of this corresponds to the facts, including, as Arthur Poppel learns to his astonishment, that Adelaide was built exactly according to Light's plans and that there were no deviations. Light sailed to South Australia in 1835 to take care of rebuilding the city. Only four years later, on October 6, 1839, he died there of tuberculosis . Lucy May's neighbor, who was personally on an expedition in the hinterland with Colonel Light, also dies of an unknown disease.

Production and publication

The series was produced in 1982 by the Nippon Animation Studio, directed by Hiroshi Saitō, as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series. The character design was created by Shūichi Seki and the artistic director was Taisaburō Abe. The series aired on Fuji TV from January 10, 1982 to December 26, 1982 .

The German first broadcast took place in the summer of 1991 on Tele 5 . The anime has also been translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Arabic, and Polish, among others.

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) German speaker
Lucy May Minori Matsushima Susanne Beck
Mother annie Ikuko Tani Reinhilt Schneider
Father Arthur Katsunosuke Hori Ben Hecker
Kate Rihoko Yoshida Reinhilt Schneider

music

The music in the series was composed by Kōichi Sakata . The opening credits are Niji ni Naritai ( 虹 に な り た い ) by Sumiko Yamagata , the credits are underlaid with Mori ni Oide ( 森 へ お い で ) by Sumiko Yamagata.

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