People who know this blog probably know that I’ve been a big fan of the World Masterpiece Theatre for a while now. Especially Les Miserables belongs among my favourites. It’s a shame, however, that what very likely is the very last installment of the franchise doesn’t really live up to its name. It’s a mixed bag, inconsistent, cheesy, and while it has incredibly good parts, it also has parts that are incredibly bad.
Konnichwa Anne was meant to be a prequel to one of the most-loved characters of the WMT-franchise: Anne of Green Gables. However, let me say this right up front: the Anne of Konnichiwa Anne IS NOT Anne of Green Gables. She’s just a girl who happens to bear a few striking similarities, but there is no way that they’re the same person. The Anne in this series is a genius and a bookworm, even though Anne of Green Gables only later became interested in studying. Anne of Green Gables didn’t like to look back at her past, but this part tends to be completely overshadowed by cheese at times in Konnichiwa Anne.
And like I said, the plot really is a mixed bag. There are just too many episodic stories which pick out a side-character and give them a cheesy backstory and development, which only end up ruining that particular character. And this show does it over and over and over. One particularly bad example is Henderson, who plays a major role in episodes 11 to 20. She just keeps on whining with her cheesy feminist morals and completely takes away the focus from all of the interesting characters.
However, this also is a show that whenever it shines, it really shines like no other. Setting aside the cheesy side-characters, there is one character who is developed brilliantly throughout the series: Bert. The creators did an amazing job of making this hopeless drunk come alive and give him just the right amount of background and depth to really make him steal the show whenever he’s on. Heck, he’s even far more interesting than Anne herself. Really, whenever Bert and his family form the central focus of this series, it forgets all of the cheese and instead it creates what it should have been creating throughout the entire series: amazingly genuine and heart-wrenching drama.
While the rest of the episodes range from annoying to decent, they still miss that level of detail and realism that graces the rest of the WMT-series. The creators were just too immature and inexperienced to make this work, and while I really congratulate them on the truly excellent way they developed Bert, they really were the wrong staff that was assigned to this project.
| Storytelling: | 7/10 – Really cheesy episodic stories, but the main storyline is okay. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – Bert rocks beyond belief, Henderson sucks beyond belief. The rest of the characters hover somewhere in between. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – Nothing special, but does its job. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – Good depiction of 1900s Nova Scotia. |
If only Takahata Isao worked on this project, and it would’ve been even better.
with this series my WMT marathon is concluded after 4.5 years.
I agree, this series looks more like a cheap imiation of the original Akage no Anne
Of the post-2000 WMT titles, my favourite remains Porphy. Les Miserables should have lasted 39 episodes instead of 52.
Also, except Bert, the other person that saves the show is the narrator Masako Ikeda. her voice gives this series a nostalgic feeling. Only she reminded me of the original Anne of Green Gables.