And finally, the behemoth of the series that is known as Les Miserables -Shoujo Cosette has ended. For the revival of the World Masterpiece Theatre, the classic novel by Victor Hugo was chosen to get an adaptation, and the result has become terrific; a masterpiece in terms of story and characters. Sure, the series is aimed at children, but don’t think that children will be the only ones to enjoy this, because Les Miserables is an epic for every age.
The series consists out of five arcs, where every arc is different from the other. Indeed, the first arc focuses on how a small girl called Cosette has to live under the evil Thenardiers. The fourth arc, however, deals with a bunch of men that fight for their beliefs in a revolution, and Cosette herself actually plays a very small role in this. There is indeed a lot of building-up, but because of this, every character can be fleshed out and developed. Every bit of storyline can be explained and carried further, and every single climax works, and takes the best out of the characters and the story, with the definite highlight being the fourth arc.
Les Miserables definitely isn’t your standard anime. There are no cheesy villains that are out there to destroy the world. No teenagers that can pilot giant robots. What we have here is a story that manages to remain realistic and yet exciting. Every character fits his or her role exactly and there is hardly any character that doesn’t develop somehow. There’s just one downside, though. The book was quite dark, and most of the dark elements did remain in the series. Unfortunately, the heaviest themes as prostitution and suicide had to be scrapped though. The ending also ends up being much lighter than that of the book, but that doesn’t mean that it’s less developed. Les Miserables remains an excellently written series, from beginning to end.
Overall, if you liked Studio Ghibli’s non-action movies then you’ll definitely like this one. It’s such a shame that the subs have only reached up till episode 6. If there ever was a series that deserves to be subbed, it’d be this one, because for me it had the best story and character-development of the entire year of 2007. Let’s hope that Porfy’s Long Journey doesn’t get the same negligence.
FEAR JAPAN’S KIDS SHOWS !!
Yeah, pretty much the lack of subs might’ve been the cause for many of us to be unable to relate with how good the show is. o_o;
Sigh. At times like these, I wish I knew Japanese. I also wish I had learned about this series much earlier. As it is, I have the subs, and am hoping and praying someone is nice enough to collect all the raws together on torrent so I can complete the series at least. But what I have seen, I love.
Miserables is definitely under appreciated. I’ve been trying to keep up but seedless torrents have prevented me from doing so. With that said can any of you hook me up with some active torrent or link for this series? =D
I myself used the program called share to get my releases. I think that the older episodes are still on there, so you could give it a try.
Tokyo Toshokan seems to have a lot of episodes. They’ve got a bunch subbed in other languages like Italian and French. I also advise that you check non-torrent video sites. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say what they are. Just keep your eyes open, you’ll find them. I can’t wait till the DVDs are released in the U.S.
what’s really weird is there’s quite a few fansub groups that are willing to do this project,but can’t ever find a translator.
formula fansubs just released their version of episode 5 today saying “The translator has expressed an interest in working up to episode 13, but it may or may not happen.”
Someone from another group even posted this on this blog a while ago
“We at Delicious Fansubs have always been willing to take this project the full way, but our translator went missing in action shortly after our last release without a word, and lacking a translator there’s not really much that we can do.”
I think Shoujo Cosette has got to be the most intensive Les Mis adaptation yet, and probably one of the most thorough and (for the most part) accurate, kids’ show or not. Nippon definitely has my respect for tackling it, and they definitely deserve the grade you gave them for sheer effort, if nothing else. 🙂
“No teenagers that can pilot giant robots.”
Oh man, now I have this inexplicable urge to draw Les Amis piloting Gundams…!
Thanks for blogging this! I only popped in near the end, but I’d be very interested to have a look at the series should a subbed/dubbed version ever make it to NZ.
Irene… thank you for conjuring fantastical mental images into my head of Grantaire and Enjolras and great big metal beasties.
It almost tops the one I’ve been carrying of Javert is Tabasco Sauce (don’t ask) but not quite.
… I naturally meant ‘Javert IN Tabasco’ not ‘Javert IS Tabasco’…
Huh? O_o Javert in Tabasco Sauce? I dunno what to think about that one. Maybe if you had said Javert in Hot Fudge . . .
. . . and the thread just took a very weird turn.
Actually, the idea of take-over-the-world villains made me think of Thenardier concocting evil plans while wearing his goofy diplomat costume and an intimidating monocle. Who could stop such a fiend? This could be a job for Policeman and Candlestick Boy! (And now it’s time to take my medication.) (By the way, I did not make those names up.)
By the way, psgels, remember how you thought Javert’s name was Javell? Well, it turns out that there was a French village called Javel that is now a part of Paris. Go figure! And the name Montparnasse actually comes from a section of Paris, too (on the left bank of the Seine).
It’s an old joke from when I was ranting about Javert to someone who rants about Tabasco. After a while, we ended up blending the two…
angedemystere… you’re just trying to give me plot bunnies now, aren’t you? 🙂
Mmmmmmmaybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee . . . 😉
The story I was referring to was “The Adventures of Policeman and Candlestick Boy,” or something close to that. My favorite part was when Javert kept knocking over the candlesticks that turn people good when touched, thus eventually giving the carpet a halo. LOL
Haha, I think I’ve read that! *goes to find it again*
I think if you google “michelle mercy” you’ll find it. She’s written a bunch of stuff like that (sadly, most of her stories are in German).
Hey, psgels, did you hear about Nippon’s hissy fit over videos of Shoujo Cosette on the net? A lot of people had made videos (both as episodes, clips and amvs) of it on YouTube and other sites, and many or all were removed. What a fiasco.
I haven’t actually. It’s a shame, though. I can understand episodes, but amvs?
Yeah, it was kinda bizarre. I think the weirdest part was that some of the amvs were removed but not all. I can’t understand why. Three of my four were removed and one was an amv. My other amv stayed up though. Go figure.
I think Nippon’s more upset by all the torrenting of episodes and such cuz they’re afraid of losing money on their DVDs for the show. I wish they would hurry up and start releasing them in other countries. I do NOT want to have to buy them all the way from Japan, especially with no subs. Or dubs, if there’s any chance of that happening.
Yeah, I heard about that too. T_T I think your best bet at this point – as far as keeping out of their way, at any rate – is to simply avoid listing “shoujo cosette” in the keywords. I know they haven’t taken down cillabub’s clip of the barricade scene yet for that exact reason.
Watch Episodes 1-52 here:
http://www.tudou.com/playlist/id/139362/
Its in Japanese.
THANK YOU to “Star Crossed Anime Blog”
I can still follow the storyline
with the help your Synopsis. 🙂
Hmm, I always enjoy Le Miserables. I was surprised to see it got an anime adaptation. (I found out when I got in an argument with a fellow anime fan over whether Les Miserables or Lupin III was better known.
Anyway, are there any fans here who had not yet been exposed to Les Miserables? If so I suggest checking out the musical. Pretty powerful stuff.
All the episodes have been subbed!
Haha, great to see this classic story as an anime. Thanks for bringing it to my eyes.
This is a great series, I watched it subbed and was worth every bit.
So good it became my nº1 Favourite, the plot was great and so was the ending, what can I say? It’s good from beginning to end.