"World Masterpiece Theater" Series Index

Clicking on a link will show you more information on each individual series!

WMT info. courtesy of Ben Ettinger. Ben's web-page has disappeared, but there is more information in the S&G Database, + images.

The eclectic years:

1969-1970:Moomin

Directed by:

Produced by:

Tokyo Movie Shinsha

Mushi Pro

1971:The stories of H. Ch. Anderssen

Directed by Hata, Masami
Produced by Mushi Pro

1972:Moomin

Directed by Rin, Tarô
Produced by Mushi Pro

1973:Rocky Chuck, the hill-mouse

Directed by Endô, Seiji
Produced by Mushi Pro

1974:Heidi, girl of the Alps

The Nippon Animation years:

1975:3000 leagues in search of mother
1977:Rascal racoon
1978:The story of Pelline
1979:Anne of Green Gables
1980:The adventures of Tom Sawyer
1981:The Robinson family lost at sea
1982:Lucy of the southern rainbows
1983:Story of the Alps: My Annette
1984:Katri the cow girl
1985:Little Princess Sara

1986:The tale of Pollyanna, girl of love
1987:Little Women
1988:Little Prince Cedie
1989:The adventures of Peter Pan
1990:Daddy long-legs
1991:Story of the Trapp family
1992:Bush Baby, little angel of the grasslands
1993:Little Men
1994:Tico of the seven seas
1995:Romeo's Blue Skies
1996:Famous dog Lassie
1996-1997:Nobody's girl

Pre-World Masterpiece; from ZUIYÔ ENTERPRISE

[1974: arupusu no shôjo haiji / Heidi, Girl of the Alps]

As Heidi leaves Alm-Uncle...

Original Work: Heidi (Pt. 1: Heidi's Lehr-und Wanderjahre, Pt. 2: Heidi kann brauchen, was es gelernt hat) (1880 & 1881)

Continuations: Heidi Grows Up and Heidi's Children by Charles Tritten, "Johanna Spyri's translator"

Author: Johanna Spyri (1827-1901)
Nationality: Swiss
Story Setting: Alm-uncle's cabin near Maienfeld, Switzerland; and Frankfurt, Germany
Story Beginning Date: 1877: Heidi is brought to Alm-mountain by Dete
Series Length: 52 Eps.
Staff:

Director: Takahata Isao
Continuity & layout: Miyazaki Hayao
Character design & director of animation: Kotabe Yôichi
Music: Watanabe Takeo
Artistic director: Okai Masahiro

Voice actors:

Heidi: Sugiyama Kazuko
Grandfather: Miyauchi Kôhei
Peter: Kohara Noriko
Clara: Yoshida Ryouko
Miss Lottenmeyer: Asabu Miyoko
Narrator: Sawada Toshiko

Theme songs:

Opening: Tell me
Closing: Wait a moment
Vocalist: Ôsugi Kumiko

Sound: A zipped MIDI-file of the closing song.

The sum total 23 Nippon Animation World Masterpiece Theater tv series

1975: furandâsu no inu / A Dog of Flanders

Original Work: A Dog of Flanders & Other Stories (1872)
Author: Marie Louisa De La Ramée (Ouida) (1839-1908)
Nationality: English
Story Setting: Belgium
Story Beginning Date: 1870: Nello meets Patrasche.
Series Length: 52 Eps.
Director: Kuroda Yoshio
Character design: Mori Yasuji
Theme songs:

Opening: Daybreak on the road
Closing: Walk to the ends of the earth
Vocalist: Ôsugi Kumiko

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Flanders page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1976: haha wo tazunete sanzen ri / 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (From the Appenines to the Andes)

Marco

Original Work: (Cuore) Heart: an Italian schoolboy's journal, a book for boys (1878)
Author: Edmondo de Amicis (1846-1908)
Nationality: Italian
Story Setting: Genova, Italy (Marco's hometown); and then across the Atlantic by boat to Buenos Aires, Argentina
Story Beginning Date: 1881: Marco's mother Anna goes to Argentina.
Series Length: 52 Eps.
Staff:

Director: Takahata Isao
Continuity & layout: Miyazaki Hayao
Scenario writer: Fukazawa Kazuo
Character design & animation director: Kotabe Yôichi
Artistic director: Mukuo Takashi
Music: Sakata Kôichi

Voice actors:

Marco: Matsunoo Keiko
Peppino: Nagai Ichirô
Conchetta: Kohara Noriko
Fiolina: Nobusawa Mieko

Theme songs:

Opening: Marco of the grasslands
Closing: Good morning, mother
Vocalist: Ôsugi Kumiko

1977: araiguma rasukaru / Rascal Raccoon

Original Work: Rascal, a Memoir of a Better Era (1963)
Author: Sterling North (1906-1974)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States
Story Beginning Date: 1917: Sterling meets Rascal.
Series Length: 52 Eps.
Directors: Endô Seiji and Saito Hiroshi (ep's 1-29)

Koshi Shigeo (ep's 30-52)

Character design: Endô Seiji
Theme songs:

Opening: To Locke River
Closing: Here, Rascal
Vocalist: Ôsugi Kumiko

1978: perïnu monogatari / The Story of Perrine

Original Work: En Famille (1893)

Her own folk.

Sans Famille

En Famille

Sans Famille

Ie naki ko Rémi

Author: Hector Malot (1830-1907)
Nationality: French
Story Setting: France
Pre-Story Date: 1878: Perrine born in Dacca, India.
Series Length: 50 Eps.
Directors: Saito Hiroshi and Koshi Shigeo (ep's 1-29)

Koshi Shigeo (ep's 30-50)

Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: Perrine's story
Closing: Whimsical Baron
Vocalist: Ôsugi Kumiko

1979: akage no an / Anne of Green Gables

Original Work: Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Continuations: Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne's House of Dreams (with links to the novels, online)

Author: Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)
Nationality: Canadian
Story Setting: Canada
Story Beginning Date: 1890: Anne arrives at Princess Edwards Isle from Nova Scotia.
Series Length: 50 Eps.
Director: Takahata Isao
Character design: Kondô Yoshifumi
Theme songs:

Opening: Can you hear it?
Closing: An endless dream
Vocalist: Ôwada Ritsuko

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Anne page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1980: tomu sôyâ no bôken / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Original Work: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) (a link to the novel, online) Apparently there was an animated version of Huckleberry Finn made a few years later, by another animation studio. Nippon Animation has slated a movie re-make of Tom Sawyer for Spring, 1999. It is the third in a series of movie remakes scheduled by NA over the next three years.
Author: Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States, St. Petersburg, small town on Miss.
Story Beginning Date: Summer 1870: Tom begins his adventures.
Series Length: 49 Eps.
Director: Saitô Hiroshi
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: Further than anyone has ever gone
Closing: My Mississippi
Vocalist: Kusaka Maron

1981: kazoku robinson hyôryüki fushigina shima no furône / The Robinson family lost at sea: Vroni on the wondrous island

Original Work: The Swiss Family Robinson (Der Schweizerische Robinson) (1813)
Author: Johann David Wyss (1743-1818)
Nationality: Swiss
Story Setting: Southern Pacific island
Story Beginning Date: 1813: Vroni and family wrecked on deserted island.
Series Length: 50 Eps.
Director: Kuroda Yoshihirô
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: Barefoot Vroni
Closing: Vroni's dream
Vocalist: Han Keiko

1982: minami no niji no rüshï / Lucy of the Southern Rainbows

Original Work: ?
Author: Phyllis Piddington (?)
Nationality: ?
Story Setting: Australia
Story Beginning Date: 1840: The Poppel home moves to southern Australia.
Series Length: 50 Eps.
Director: Saitô Hiroshi
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: I want to become a rainbow
Closing: Come into the forest
Vocalist: Yamagata Sumiko

1983: arupusu monogatari watashi no an'netto / Story of the Alps: My Annette

Original Work: ? (The japanese translated edition is entitled Yuki no Takara, or "The Snow Treasure")
Author: Patricia M. St. John (?)
Nationality: English
Story Setting: Rossiniere, Switzerland
Story Beginning Date: Spring 1920: Annette and Lucien get into fight.
Series Length: 48 Eps.
Director: Kusuba Kôzô
Character design: Takamatsu Issei
Theme songs:

Opening: Annette's blue skies
Closing: Edelweiss's white flower
Vocalist: Han Keiko

1984: makiba no shôjo katori / Katri, Girl of the Meadows (Katri the Cow Girl)

Original Work: Paimen, piika ja emäntä (The ~1940 Japanese translated edition by Morimoto Yasuko and Kolpinen from which the anime hails its title is Makiba no Shôjo, referred to in English as Katri, the Cow Girl)
Author: Auni Nuolivaara
Nationality: Finnish
Story Setting: Finland
Story Beginning Date: Fall 1912: Katri's mother leaves to work in Germany.
Series Length: 49 Eps.
Director: Saitô Hiroshi
Character design: Takano Noboru
Theme songs:

Opening: Love: a present for you
Closing: A lullaby on the breeze
Vocalist: Kobayashi Chie

1985: shôkôjo sèra / Little Princess Sara

Original Work: A Little Princess (1905) (a link to the novel, online)
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett (1848-1924)
Nationality: English
Story Setting: England
Story Beginning Date: 1885: Sara enters Miss Minchin's girls' school.
Series Length: 46 Eps.
Director: Kurokawa Fumio
Character design: Saida Shunji
Theme songs:

Opening: The whisper of a flower
Closing: Sunflower
Vocalist: Shimonari Satoko

Sound: A zipped MIDI-file from Sara. The song is called Mizuiro, or "Color of Water".

1986: ai shôjo porian'na monogatari / Tale of Pollyanna, Girl of Love

Original Work: Pollyanna (1913)

Continuations: Pollyanna Grows Up (1915) and various others by different authors after Porter's death

Author: Eleanor Hodgman Porter (1868-1920)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States; latter half in Boston (and taken from Pollyanna Grows Up)
Story Beginning Date: 1920: Polyanna taken in by Mrs. Polly Harrington.
Series Length: 51 Eps.
Director: Kusuba Kôzô
Character design: Satô Yoshiharu
Theme songs:

Opening: Carnival of happiness and I want to see that smiling you
Closing: To become love... and Happiness
Vocalist: Kudô Yuki

1987: ai no wakakusa monogatari / A Tale of Love's Young Grass

Original Work: Little Women (1868-69) (a link to the novel online)

Continuations: Good Wives (1889), Little Men (1871), and Jo's Boys

Author: Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States
Story Beginning Date: 1863
Series Length: 48 Eps.
Director: Kurokawa Fumio
Character design: Kondô Yoshifumi & Yamazaki Toshiki
Theme songs:

Opening: An invitation from the young grass and Some day, absolutely
Closing: A melody on the breeze in the evening sun and A lullaby to my father
Vocalists: Han Keiko, Yamada Eiko, Shô Mayumi, Sakuma Rei, Shimonari Satoko

Home Page: A hypertext version of Little Women, plus background information on the author and text.

1988: shôkôshi sedi / Little Prince Cedie

Original Work: Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886)
Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett (1848-1924)
Nationality: English
Story Setting: United States
Story Beginning Date: 1885: Cedie (Cedric) leaves New York for England.
Series Length: 43 Eps.
Director: Kusuba Kôzô
Character design: Sakurai Michiyo
Theme songs:

Opening: Our Cedie
Closing: For the sake of loving someone...
Vocalist: Nishida Hikaru

1989: pètâ pan no bôken / The Adventures of Peter Pan

Original Work: Peter and Wendy (1911)

Predecessors: The Little White Bird (1902), Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)

Author: James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)
Nationality: Scottish
Story Setting: England/Neverland
Story Beginning Date: 1900: Peter takes Wendy to Neverland.
Series Length: 41 Eps.
Director: Nakamura Takashi
Character design: Kuroda Yoshihirô
Theme songs:

Opening: One more time, Peter Pan
Closing: Dream... Open Sesame!
Vocalist: Yüyu

1990: watashi no ashinaga ojisan / Daddy Long-legs

Original Work: Daddy Long-Legs (1912)
Author: Jean Webster (1876-1916)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States
Story Beginning Date: 1920: Judy to enter college.
Series Length: 40 Eps.
Director: Yokota Kazuyoshi
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: Growing up
Closing: Your breeze...
Vocalist: Horie Mitsuko (link leads to Jun Hamazaki's fan home page on this popular singer/voice-actor, who did not sing the opening or closing for but is playing the PART of Rémi in the 1995/96 WMT series Rémi, the homeless girl. She also released, in conjunction with Nippon Animation, a CD-single of the song "Yume yo eien ni", a commemorative of sorts which colludes many of the WMT opening themes into one long omnibus song. She has been well known at least since the time of her singing of the theme-songs to the 1976 classic of girls' anime, Candy Candy.)

1991: torappu ikke monogatari / Story of the Trapp Family

Original Work: The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1949)
Author: Maria Augusta Trapp
Nationality: German
Story Setting: Austria
Story Date: 1937: Trapp Family flees from rising Nazi tide to New York.
Series Length: 40 Eps.
Director: Kuzuba Kôzô
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi
Theme songs:

Opening: The do-re-mi song
Closing: Hold out your hands
Vocalist: Itô Eri

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Trapp page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1992: kusabara no chïsana tenshi busshu beibï / Bush Baby, Little Angel of the Grasslands

Original Work: The bushbabies (1965)
Author: William Stevenson (1925- )
Nationality: Canadian
Story Setting: Killimanjaro, Kenya
Story Beginning Date: 1964: Jackie begins to travel the savannah.
Series Length: 40 Eps.
Director: Suzuki Takayoshi
Character design: Seki Jun'ichi & Katô Hiromi
Theme songs:

Opening: A smile as prologue and Appolo
Closing: Become a bird
Vocalists: Yamano Satoko, Tanimura Shinji, Okamoto Maya

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Bushbaby page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1993: wakakusa monogatari nan to jô sensei / Tale of Young Grass: Nan and Miss Jo

Original Work: Little Men (1871) (sequel to Little Women)
Author: Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888)
Nationality: American
Story Setting: United States
Story Beginning Date: 1882: Nan comes to Plum Fields.
Series Length: 40 Eps.
Director: Kusuba Kôzô
Character design: Satô Yoshiharu
Theme songs:

Opening: Tomorrow's sky is as clear as today's
Closing: 'Ding-dong' through the blue sky
Vocalist: Kosaka Akiko and Itô Kaoru

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1994: nanatsu no umi no tiko / Tico of the Seven Seas (Tico and Nanami)

Original Work: None; original story
Story Setting: Japan
Story Beginning Date: 1994: The Pepelonchino arrives in Japan.
Series Length: 39 Eps.
Director: Takagi Jun
Character design: Morikawa Sôko
Theme songs:

Opening: Sea loves you
Closing: Twinkle talk
Vocalist: Shinozuka Mayumi

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Tico page with ep list, char list and credits. (Japanese)

1995: romio no aoi sora / Romeo's Blue Skies (The Black Brothers)

Original Work: Fratelli Neri (1941?)

Apparently the German translation of this book, Die Schwarzen Brüder, is the source for the current Japanese translation of it, but the original was written in Italian. The book title translates to The Black Brothers, but to my knowledge the book has not yet been translated into English.

Author: Lisa Tetzner
Nationality: Swiss (originally German, she emigrated to Switzerland with her husband in the thirties to escape the rising tide of nazism in Germany)
Story Setting: From Sonogno, a small village in southern Switzerland (to the north of Lago Maggiore, a lake overlapping the southern border wtih Italy; not on map) to Locarno and then Milan, Italy
Story Beginning Date: 1838: Romeo departs for Milan.
Series Length: 33 Eps.
Director: Kusuba Kôzô
Character design: Satô Yoshiharu
Theme songs:

Opening: To the sky...
Closing: Si Si Ciao - On these Roman roofs
Vocalist: Kasahara Hiroko

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Romeo page with synopses, credits & ep list (Japanese)
Home Page: Fansubbing group, The Techno-Girls, with info on english-subtitled episodes
Home Page: Online anime mag EX (vol 2 issue 3) feature article on Romeo
Scripts:

1996: meiken rasshï / Famous Dog Lassie

Original Work: Lassie Come-Home (1940)
Author: Eric Mowbray Knight (1897-1943)
Nationality: English
Story Setting: From Scotland to Yorkshire, England
Story Beginning Date:
Series Length: 25 Eps.
Director: Katabuchi Sunao
Character design: Morikawa Sôko
Theme songs:

Opening: Endless story
Closing: A boy's hills
Vocalist:

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Lassie home page (Japanese)

**(Sept. 1996-)1997: ie naki ko rémi / Rémi the Homeless Girl ("Nobody's girl"?)**

Original Work: Sans Famille

One english translated edition (Rand, McNally & company, 1925; The Windermere series; tr. by Philip Schuyler Allen) is entitled The adventures of Rémi. A literal translation of the title gives Familyless, a title as awkward as The adventures of Rémi is imaginative, but another translated edition (Cupples & Leon Company, 1916; tr. by Florence Crewe-Jones) renders it Nobody's boy, far nearer the feeling of the original title. It should be noted, however, that this title wouldn't quite fit as a reference to the anime version, because the main character is no longer a boy, as in the original, but is now a girl. It should also be noted that this story was made into a popular anime tv series over ten years ago, from Tokyo Movie Shinsha, under the direction of Dezaki Osamu (Blackjack, Ashita no Joe). The Japanese translation of the novel (and the Dezaki anime version) is entitled Ie naki ko.

Author: Hector Malot (1830-1907)
Nationality: French
Story Setting: France
Story Beginning Date:
Series Length: Started airing on September 1, 1996; CANCELLED by Fuji TV on account of low ratings; ended March 23, 1997 with a staggeringly low episode count of 23 episodes.
Director: Kusaba Kôzô
Character Design: Ôshiro Masaru (reading uncertain; kanji are "ôkï" "shiro" and "katsu")
Theme songs:

Opening: About love...
Closing: A Premonition of Happiness (not the Future Boy Conan song!)
Vocalists: Sada Masashi and "Youca", respectively

Home Page: Yasushi Harasawa's Rémi home page (Japanese)

WMT info. courtesy of Ben Ettinger.