One of Japan’s favorite coming of age stories is coming back with an all-new anime series.

A young girl on the cusp of adolescence, plucky and purehearted despite the tough hand she’s been dealt in life so far, arrives in a small town in a beautiful bucolic locale. Though there are some troubles along the way, her earnest, compassionate, and courageous spirit always shines through in her interactions with others, and the emotional bonds she forms with the locals eventually make the community feel like not just where she happens to live, but truly a home to her.

It might sound like the plot of a cozy, heartwarming anime, but it’s actually a description of Anne of Green Gables, the1908 novel from Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Except, actually it is a description of an anime, since Anne of Green Gables was adapted into an anime TV series in 1979, becoming one of the most fondly remembered installments of Nippon Animation’s World Masterpiece Theater. And the synopsis above is going to apply to an anime yet again, as there’s a brand-new Anne of Green Gables anime on the way, and the first teaser video has just been released, as has the series’ premier date.

The new anime is titled Anne Shirley, the character’s full name, likely to differentiate it from the previous anime, Akage no Anne, which translates to “Anne with Red Hair” and is also the Japanese title of the Anne of Green Gables novel. There’s another good reason for the new anime to get a new name, though, because it’s not only adapting Montgomery’s original 1908 book, but also the next two novels in the series, Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, which follow Anne into young adulthood.

▼ And yes, real-life Prince Edward Island, where Anne of Green Gables is set, does have cherry blossoms, in yet another parallel between anime and Montgomery’s novels.

In addition to Anne, who will be portrayed by voice actress Honoka Inoue, the preview video shows glimpses of Anne’s adoptive parents Mathew and Marilla Cuthbert, her friend/neighbor Diana Barry, and her classmate/beating recipient Gilbert Blythe.

▼ A boy who bickers with the main character and gets smashed over the head by her for it, but who still ends up her friend? This story practically anime-adapts itself!

The 1979 Anne of Green Gables anime was phenomenally popular while airing and remains one of the most widely known and liked anime of its era. It also benefited from the involvement of two of Japan’s top anime directors in their pre-Studio Ghibli days, Isao Takahata, who directed the series, and Hayao Miyazaki, who contributed scene layouts for its earlier episodes. It even featured character designs from Yoshifumi Kondo, who would later fill that same role for Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, and Princess Mononoke.

You could thusly make the argument that anime studio The Answer Studio and director Hiroshi Kawamata have some pretty big shoes to fill with Anne Shirley but the preview video looks like a lot of love and care is being put into the series. It’s also set to air on public broadcaster NHK’s NHK E-TV channel (also known as NHK Educational TV), which is usually a prestige spot for TV anime, so it sounds like it’s in good hands.

Anne Shirley is scheduled to run for 24 episodes and premiers on April 5.

Source: PR Times
Top image: YouTube/アン・シャーリー
Insert images: PR Times, YouTube/アン・シャーリー
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