What an awesome, awesome series. This episode yet again convinces me that this show indeed is my favourite show this season, even taking epics as Phantom and Cross Game into account. This series did EXACTLY what I hoped it to do. The original series was an absolute masterpiece in terms of characterization, but it lacked one thing: conflict. It would really have been able blow its audience away if it was a bit more dramatic and bitter-sweet. And even though that lack of conflict was also part of the original series’ charm, Konnichiwa Anne is currently showing how incredible it could have been if that extra bit of drama was included. While it’s of course not as solidly produced as the original series, the creators managed to really capture what makes a Lucy Maud Montgomery-adaptation so incredibly charming.
We start the episode when Bert’s asleep after wrecking half the house, and Anne is hiding scared in her bed from what he did to Katie Morris. When Johanna wakes up and sees the mess he created, she breaks down and asks him why he started drinking again. Anne meanwhile fins out that Katie Morris didn’t die, and Bert wakes up to tell Johanna that he got fired, and walks to his shed again leaving Johanna crying.
Johanna tries to distract herself by cleaning up the glass for the next morning, to prevent Horace and Edward from walking on it, and is surprised that the two of them slept through everything. The next morning, the two of them find out that Bert has been fired, and get happy thinking that they can spend a lot of time with their dad, but Johanna quickly yells at them that this also means that they’re not going to be able to afford food and oil for light.
Johanna then says to Anne that she should prepare to leave as well, just in case things become too hard for Johanna to even sustain her own family. Meanwhile at the station Mrs. Minton yells angrily at Bert’s former boss who fired him, and she’s very angry that they didn’t just dupe Bert, but also put his wife and children in a very bad situation. The then blackmails the station owner into giving Bert a new job (she once gave him money in order to reach his position).
Minton then arrives at Johanna’s house and asks to talk with Bert. She immediately notices the stench of alcohol, and it turns out that he’s been drinking despite their huge money problems. She tells him that he isn’t going to be able to find any work anymore in his town. When Bert laughs it off, she tells him that he shouldn’t take this so lightly and that it was his own fault that that happened. She then comes with the good news: in Marysville she managed to find a job for him. Bert looks down a bit in his surprise. Minton however does make him swear to not touch alcohol again. Bert really doesn’t know what to say to thank her, and Minton says that he should be thanking Anne: she is the reason why Minton bothered to find this job for him in the first place.
Since there is no time to lose, Bert walks into the house with the message that they’re going to leave the house and move to Marysville because he managed to find a new job there and wants to start as soon as possible. Johanna is overwhelmed, to say the least, and worries how she’s going to move three small children in such a short time, but at the same time she’s very glad that there’s some sort of solution. When Johanna’s away, the boys start joking again at how Anne is going to be left behind, taking Johanna’s words of that day before a bit too literally, although these words hurt Anne a lot.
That afternoon, Anne is still wondering whether she’s going to say goodbye to Katie. Then, an interesting guest arrives: Bertha’s former friend: Jessie. It’s been six years since the two of them saw each other for the last time. She mentions how Bertha was such a nice person, just as Walter. She then notices Katie Morris, and as it turns out it turns out to be a bookcase precious to Bertha. They used it often to read books in front of Anne, and it was often used. Unfortunately, Bert sold all of the books for money when they died and he took it over. Jessie then comes with the real reason she dropped by: she’s willing to adopt Anne and give her a proper home and education. Her own daughter had just died when Bertha passed away, so she didn’t have the courage to take over Anne, but now she’s different and has the confidence to raise her. Johanna however, declines. She’s been raising Anne for the past six years now, and they’ve grown dependant on each other. he’s not going to hand Anne over that easily.
While Bert is breaking up stuff in order to make it fit on the carriage more easily, Anne asks him (nearly in tears) whether she’s going to stay behind as well. Bert gets a bit shocked by that, but then reassures Anne that she’s going along with them. Johanna meanwhile sends Jessie away without letting her see Anne. Thanks to a foreshadowing narrator, we now know that this is something that she never managed to forgive herself.
The next day, the move happens. On the way, they tun into Minton and she says a few words to Anne before they go away, and the two of them say goodbye for now. The road to Marysville is a snowy one, but Anne while sad on one side for having to say goodbye to the place where she grew up, but on the other side she’s happy that she wasn’t cast aside and looks forward to her new home.
Well, there you have the irony: just think how differently Anne would have grown up if she was taken care by Jessie: she would have had a loving family and she’d never have met the Cuthberts at all. Both this series and the original Akage no Anne had these moments in which a character was forced to make a choice that would have a major impact on how they would lead the rest of their lives: Matilda when she decided to adopt Anne, Anne when she had to go to college, Elisa when she was asked to go to London and now again, with Johanna who had to choose whether or not to give Anne a better future.
And it really was one heck of a selfish decision: simply because she needed Anne’s help she denied Anne a chance for a better future and good education. But the sad thing is that we know that eventually, she’s going to be forced to really let go of Anne. Right now, Bert is saved, but the problems have nowhere near ended at this point. If Bert makes another miss, he’ll really be screwed.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Bittersweet aftermath of the previous episode. There were so many pure emotions in just 20 minutes.
