Oh my god… it’s happened. It’s bloody happened. What an incredible episode this was, it totally changed the way I look at this series. I know that I’ve talked down to this series a lot for the past months, but damn. This episode really reminded me why I’ve become such a huge fan of the World Masterpiece Theatre… BIG SPOILERS coming up!
But yeah, that disclaimer must have been a bit redundant, because it’s an event that probably everyone knew about before this series started: the death of Bert. And that’s one thing that makes the World Masterpiece Theatre stand apart from all those other series: you know bad things are going to happen; you know that the shit is going to hit the fan, but you just never know when exactly it’s going to happen. Especially Les Miserables loved pulling this.
But seriously, the end of this episode took me utterly by surprise. The build-up for this episode was just SO adorable. Because of all the things with Henderson, I was really starting to forget what makes the World Masterpiece Theatre stand above 90% of all other anime: the character-development. And of course: that’s going to take about 25 episodes to really pay off in your average series. This episode really was where everything came together in terms of development in a really adorable Christmas episode. From Bert finally selling his trophy, to the villagers forgiving him because of how he risked his life to save Noah in the previous episode. It all fit incredibly well.
It’s really a shame that this series was wrongly advertised as Anne of Green Gables’ prequel, because that would suggest that Anne is the only important character here, while in fact this series is just as much about Bert, Johanna and the rest of the Thomas family.
I really wonder how this series is going to play out now that Bert is about to die. Not in terms of where the plot is going, but whether Anne’s second family is going to be able to match up to the Thomas family, or whether they’re going to be more like the stereotypical Henderson, Randolf and Mildred. I really have no bloody clue, but the past few episodes have really made up for how this series just kept going on about Henderson in the Marysville School Arc.
Rating: *** (Awesome)]]>
Konnichiwa Anne – 24
Sigh… If only anyone would sub this.
‘From Bert finally selling his trophy, to the villagers forgiving him because of how he risked his life to save Noah in the previous episode. ‘
That sounds really, really cliché..
thestation: yeah, it kindof does if you don’t know the context, but I didn’t mind after all of the build-up this series put into it. Clichés aren’t necessarily bad, they’re just often badly delivered.
Well, nowadays, everything is a cliche. But that’s not the point. An anime can use the most over-used idea in history, but if it delivers it well, there’s no problem.
What do you mean ‘wrongly advertised’? It still is about Anne, but that doesn’t mean the side characters might not steal the thunder.
Even in the original version, Les Miserables’ main lead in Cosette was almost stolen (pardon the pun) by Jean Valjean.
Similar things happened in Emily of New Moon amongst others where there’s plenty of amazing side characters. Just happens so that many classical literature is made so well that the lead doesn’t hog the spotlight.
This episode was incredibly fun and heart-warming! I think it’s the best chrismtmas episode I’ve ever seen and the more realistic one too, it managed to convey the ” magical” atmosphere of christmas and to impart to us characters’ feelings and thoughts, I remembered just how much I loved and love christmas time!