Tales of Little Women: Letters from Home

Tales of Little Women: Letters from Home
Fuji TV
October 25, 1987
Anime, Historical Drama
VHS
C+

Fumio Kurokawa directed this series, while Akira Miyazaki wrote it, based somewhat loosely on the Alcott classic.  How loosely?  Well, it's not till the 18th episode that material from the book appears.  This is the 39th episode, and the air-date is for the Japanese version, although I got it dubbed from Nickelodeon.  But since this is a case where the visuals are more interesting than the sound, I'm fine with going with the original broadcast dates.  (In contrast, Noozles is even campier with the American dub.)

The American voice cast:

• Mona Marshall as Jo March
• Melanie McQueen as Beth March
• Mike Reynolds as James Laurence
• Joshua Seth as Theodore "Laurie" Laurence
• Stephanie Sheh as Meg March
• Reba West as Amy March

The three most notable things about the look of the series:

• Hannah's dark skin
• Meg's waffle-hair
• The exaggerated perspective where characters loom as they approach and shrink as they depart

Note that almost without exception, the translations of the Japanese episode titles are much more interesting than those for the American broadcast, my favorite being "The Friendship Pin," formerly known as "The Town Burns Down!"  This one was called "Letters, Letters, Letters We All Wrote."