History Anime / AiNoWakakusaMonogatari

* {{Adorkable}}: Whenever [[SternTeacher John Brooke]] gets flustered around [[ProperLady Meg]], it's completely adorable.

* AdaptationalBackstoryChange: Father March's backstory is different than in the book, where he was a preacher. [[spoiler: He was raised by Aunt March, who wanted him to run for public office. He dropped out of law school and became a civil engineer instead.]]

* GoodSamaritan: Marmee spends much of her time volunteering at the church in Newcord, helping anyone she can, and encourages her daughters to do the same.
** [[GenerationXerox Beth takes to volunteering as well]].

* IdenticalStranger: Beth is said to be dead ringer for [[spoiler: Mr. Laurence's daughter Catherine, though we don't see what she looks like, so we have to take his word for it.]]

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Much sooner than in the novel. Not only does the family lose their home, the factory their father invested money into was raided and destroyed, rendering them with only enough money for train tickets and the down payment for a house (which is why they stay with Aunt March for so long since they have to find a house that Father's army salary can afford, even then it takes Meg and Jo's jobs to make rent). But before then, the family was raised relatively modestly, despite the large house, so they aren't too shaken by it, except for [[ShrinkingViolet Beth]].

* {{Jerkass}}: David. He constantly antagonizes the family, Jo especially, because he's worried about losing his inheritance as Aunt March's sole heir and constantly bothers Aunt March for money for his 'businesses,' which he gambles away playing pool. He also tries to outright steal Aunt March's ruby ring.

* LimitedWardrobe: Aside from a few instances (mainly formal wear), everyone wear the same set of clothes a season. Possibly justified since it wasn't uncommon for even the wealthy to own only a few sets of clothes.

-->'''Jo:''' Quit that! You can't go because you haven't been invited! Don't try to force an invitation where you aren't wanted. Amy if you insist on attending the play, I'm not going. And I'm sure Laurie won't like that. I'm also sure he'll think you're a very rude little girl with no manners who is an embarrassment to herself and her family, which you are! Now, do you still want to go with us? Do you?

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Davis makes his novel counterpart look like a saint. Aside from the infamous scene where he whip's Amy's hands, on Amy's first day of class, another poor girl is only late by less than a minute and Mr. Davis goes off on her, blaming her for the class not having perfect attendance anymore, and calls Amy, who ''wasn't'' late, "Miss Tardy" because she was ''almost'' late, even thought it was her first day there. In another episode he expects Amy, who is ''seven'', to have learned multiplication of double-digit numbers (which usually isn't taught until the 3rd grade), and belittles her in front of the whole class for getting only ''one'' problem wrong. He's also quite fond of showing off his whip to the class as a way of discipline. Naturally, he is not very well liked by his students, with Amy's friends insulting him regularly outside of school. He does mellow quite a bit as there series goes on, however.
* ServileSnarker: Hannah has some shades of this

* HairDecorations: Amy wears a little hair bow most of the time, and Meg wears a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snood_(headgear) snood]].
** After Jo [[ImportantHaircut sells her hair]], she gets a red headband from Beth.

* SpoiledSweet: Sallie Gardener and Annie Moffat, both are sweet if naive girls that genuinely enjoy Meg's company.
** To a lesser extent, the Moffat's two younger children that Meg tutors, though they do have occasional moments of brattiness since they are ''very'' young children too young for school.
* ShipperOnDeck: Mr. Lawrence is this for Jo/Laurie
** Also Laurie and Jo themselves for Mr. Brooke and Meg
*** Jo is this with Meg and any man that's interested.
* ShrinkingViolet: Take a wild guess.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Mild example. In earlier episodes, since [[CuteKitten Milky-Ann]] was never properly trained before (she appears to be only a few days old when Beth finds her in the rain), she wets the carpet, Beth's bed, and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Amy's dress]]. This leads to Jo and Beth getting a box full of dirt as a makeshift litter-box. This all was kept in the English dub, by the way.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Father March's [[spoiler: lack of contact with Aunt March, the woman who raised him since childhood, was unintentional, but it left her very bitter at him and his family. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments They do make up when he comes home, though]] ]].

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Davis makes his novel counterpart look like a saint. Aside from the infamous scene where he whip's Amy's hands, on Amy's first day of class, another poor girl is only late by less than a minute and Mr. Davis goes off on her, blaming her for the class not having perfect attendance anymore, and calls Amy, who ''wasn't'' late, "Miss Tardy" because she was ''almost'' late, even thought it was her first day there. In another episode he expects Amy, who is ''seven'', to have learned multiplication of double-digit numbers (which usually isn't taught until the 3rd grade), and belittles her in front of the whole class for getting only ''one'' problem wrong. He's also quite fond of showing off his whip to the class as a way of discipline. Naturally, he is not very well liked by his students, with Amy's friends insulting him regularly outside of school.

** John Marty, the runaway slave, gets hit with this. His earliest episodes, he is refereed to as John in the English dub, but later episodes call him ''Jim''. He is still called John occasionally.

*** Jo is this with Meg with any man that's interested.

* AdaptationExpansion: The first 17 episodes are all original storylines from screenwriter Akira Miyazaki. In addition to changing the family maid Hannah from Irish to African-American, the series introduced a runaway slave character named John (renamed Jim in the English dub), possibly to draw attention to the plight of black Americans in the 19th century. He's one of several original characters introduced in this adaptation, the most noteworthy ones being Anthony and David. Early episodes also establish the Battle of Gettysburg and ensuing destruction of the March family home as the reason why the Marches move to Newcord. Also, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is a plot point of one of the "original" episodes.

** The runaway slave character, John (Jim in English), supposedly fears that he will be captured and forced to fight for the Confederacy. The Confederacy did not employ African-Americans as soldiers until near the very end of the war (due to tremendous resistance from white Southerners over the idea of slaves becoming soldiers), and in fact, African-Americans in the Confederate Army never saw combat. However, African-Americans in Pennsylvania - including those who had been free all their lives - ''did'' face the very real threat of being captured by Confederate forces and sold into slavery.

** It's generally averted for the most part with the English dub, ignoring NeverSayDie that most anime dubbed at this time would. Special mention goes to an early scene where a Confederate soldier says when the South wins, they intend to ''hang'' President Lincoln.
* TheBusCameBack: Jim Marty. He rides on top of the train the March family takes to Newcord, but disappears shortly after, assumingly he made it to Boston like he planned. In episode 35, he is revealed to have gotten hired by Henry Murdoch and now works as a printer.
* CanonForeigner: Several major characters who didn't exist in the original book, such as David Fowlet (the girl's {{Jerkass}} relative), Anthony Boone (Jo's rival/possible love interest), Tom Brooke (John Brooke's younger brother around Amy's age) and Jim (John in Japanese - see DubNameChange) Marty (a runaway slave that the March family helps to get up north, later having been hired by Jo's boss).

** The runaway slave, named John in the Japanese original, becomes Jim in the English version, invoking OneSteveLimit in both languages, though his earliest episodes called him John.

* FrameUp: The Moffat's oldest son is chums with [[{{Jerkass}} David]], and he stole money to gamble at pool, which he lost. Meg is assumed to have stolen it my Mrs. Moffat, not helped by David's testimony and the fact Aunt March bought her and Jo new ball gowns around the same time which cost the amount that was stolen, until the daughter Annie, who was bullied into secrecy, tells her parents what happened, [[KarmaHoudini but not before her brother joins the army]] and Meg almost loses the opportunity to attend the Moffat's ball. [[OlderThanTheyThink This subplot actually originates from the novel, but it's only briefly mentioned in passing]], as well as Meg never being suspected in the first place.

** Played completely straight with [[{{Jerkass}} David]], who resents his relatives because it means he's no longer the sole heir to Aunt March's fortune.

* ParentalAbandonment: Unlike most adaptations, Laurie's father is said to still alive, the implication being that he is a soldier who left after fighting with Mr. Lawrence.

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Mr. Lawrence doesn't like the fact Laurie wanted to be a pianist, to the point where Laurie's given up that dream. When Laurie plays for Jo and Amy just for fun, he tries to discourage them from overpraising Laurie's "mediocre" talents. [[spoiler: It's because he doesn't want to be reminded of his daughter.]]

* IdenticalStranger: Beth is a dead ringer for [[spoiler: Mr. Laurence's daughter Linda, though we only see a portrait of Linda since she died at some point in the past.]]

* {{Jerkass}}: David. He constantly antagonizes the family, Jo especially, because he's worried about losing his inheritance as Aunt March's sole heir and constantly bothers Aunt March for money for his 'businesses,' which he gambles away playing pool.

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Davis. Aside from the infamous scene where he whip's Amy's hands, on Amy's first day of class, another poor girl is only late by less than a minute and Mr. Davis goes off on her, blaming her for the class not having perfect attendance anymore, and calls Amy, who ''wasn't'' late, "Miss Tardy" because she was ''almost'' late. In another episode he expects Amy, who is ''seven'', to have learned multiplication of large numbers, and belittles her in front of the whole class for getting both problems wrong. He's also quite fond of showing off his whip to the class as a way of discipline. Naturally, he is not very well liked by his students, with Amy's friends insulting him regularly outside of school.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Much sooner than in the novel. Not only does the family lose their home, the factory their father invested money into was raided and destroyed, rendering them with only enough money for train tickets and the down payment for a house (which is why they stay with Aunt March for so long). But before then, the family was raised modestly, despite the large house, so they aren't too shaken by it, except for [[ShrinkingViolet Beth]].

** Episodes 3 and 4 deal with their hometown being taken over by Confederate soldiers, and the March family is hiding Jim, a runaway slave. When Confederate soldiers come to their house and Hannah heads for the kitchen, the commander orders some of his men after her and to search the kitchen, with Marmee pleading them to leave her alone. Keep in mind, African-Americans in the northern states, even if they had been free their whole lives, had the threat of being sold into slavery.

** When [[spoiler: Father comes home (the second time after his illness), he says at one point, he stopped ''breathing''. Understandably, the girls are utterly terrified that he still wants to go back to war after the six months he is allotted to stay home. Fortunately, the war ends by the final episode.]]

* {{Blackface}}: Fortunately averted with the African-American characters in the show, but a few of Beth's dolls are stylized this way (which surprisingly were kept in the English dub). [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Then again, this was the 1860s]].

** Beth: Pale Pink

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Mr. Lawrence doesn't like the fact Laurie wanted to be a pianist, to the point where Laurie's given up that dream. When Laurie plays for Jo and Amy just for fun, he tries to discourage them from overpraising his "mediocre" talents.
* FrameUp: The Moffat's oldest son is chums with [[{{Jerkass}} David]], and he stole money to gamble at pool, which he lost. Meg is assumed to have stolen it my Mrs. Moffat, not helped by David's testimony and the fact Aunt March bought her and Jo new ball gowns around the same time, until the daughter Annie, who was bullied into secrecy, tells her parents what happened, [[KarmaHoudini but not before her brother joins the army]] and Meg almost loses the opportunity to attend the Moffat's ball. [[OlderThanTheyThink This subplot actually originates from the novel, but it's only briefly mentioned in passing]], as well as Meg never being suspected in the first place.

* GodIsGood: Most of the characters have this belief.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Much sooner than in the novel. Not only does the family lose their home, the factory their father invested money into was raided and destroyed, rendering them with only enough money for train tickets. But before then, the family was raised modestly, despite the large house, so they aren't too shaken by it, except for [[ShrinkingViolet Beth]].

* KickTheDog: David does this often, from nearly ruining Meg and Jo's chance to attend the Moffat's family ball to rubbing it in Jo's face how much money he gets compared to the time Aunt March gave the girls $1 for Christmas.

* LimitedWardrobe: Aside from a few instances (mainly ballgowns), the girls wear the same set of clothes a season. Possibly justified since it wasn't uncommon for even the wealthy to own only a few sets of clothes. They at least wear outfits appropriate for the weather.

** Also Marmee's name in this series is Mary, who is a kind woman devoted to raising her family and helping everyone around her. Hmm...

* OldMaid: Aunt March calls herself this from time to time, despite the fact she was actually married.

* JesusTaboo: Subverted. While Jesus himself isn't mentioned much in favor of general Christian themes, David mentioned him in episode 47 to attempt to appeal to Aunt March so she'll give him more money because of the Christmas season. Aunt March doesn't approve of this, and orders him out.

''Little Women'', also known as ''Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari'' (愛の若草物語?, "Love's Tale of Young Grass") is a 1987 Japanese animated television series adaptation of Creator/LouisaMayAlcott's ''Literature/LittleWomen'', produced by Creator/NipponAnimation and Creator/FujiTelevision as part of the World Masterpiece Theatre and directed by Fumio Kurokawa (''Anime/PrincessSarah''). While it's the third anime adaptation of the source material (following a 1980 TV special by Creator/ToeiAnimation and 1981 TV series by Movie International), it's also probably the best known, and gained some fans in Alcott's home country of the United States through its 1989 broadcast on Creator/{{HBO}}, renamed ''Tales of Little Women'' (a pretty close colloquial translation of the Japanese title of the series). The English dub has also been re-aired on Smile (formerly Smile of a Child), a Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned broadcast and digital-tier cable channel specializing in Christian and family-friendly children's programming, but is no longer being aired on Smile as of June 2018. However it has since been release on Amazon's [=AmazonPrime=] streaming service, and English dubbed and subtitled episodes are available for viewing on [=YouTube=].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Mild example. In earlier episodes, since [[CuteKitten Milky-Ann]] was never properly trained before (she appears to be only a few days old when Beth finds her in the rain), she wets the carpet, Beth's bed, and [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Amy's dress]]. This leads to Jo and Beth getting a box full of dirt as a makeshift litter-box. This all was kept in the English dub.

* GoldDigger: An interesting variant with Mrs. Moffat. The only reason she allows mer daughter to invite Meg to spend two weeks with them is because of Meg's friendship with Laurie, and is hoping to have her daughter meet him.

* RaceLift: Hannah, the family maid, is African-American in this version, while in most adaptations, she is Irish. At least one Japanese book inspired by this series has also race-lifted her.

* SadistTeacher: Mr. Davis. Aside from the infamous scene where he whip's Amy's hands, on Amy's first day of class, another poor girl is only late by less than a minute, and Mr. Davis goes off on her, blaming her for the class not having perfect attendance anymore, and calls Amy, who ''wasn't'' late, "Miss Tardy" because she was ''almost'' late. In another episode he expects Amy, who is ''seven'', to have learned multiplication of large numbers, and yells at her in front of the whole class for getting both problems wrong. He's also quite fond of showing off his whip to the class as a way of discipline. Naturally, he is not very well liked by his students, with Amy's friends insulting him regularly outside of school.

A sequel series, Little Women II: Jo's Boys, premiered in 1993.

''Little Women'', also known as ''Ai no Wakakusa Monogatari'' (愛の若草物語?, "Love's Tale of Young Grass") is a 1987 Japanese animated television series adaptation of Creator/LouisaMayAlcott's ''Literature/LittleWomen'', produced by Creator/NipponAnimation and Creator/FujiTelevision as part of the World Masterpiece Theatre and directed by Fumio Kurokawa (''Anime/PrincessSarah''). While it's the third anime adaptation of the source material (following a 1980 TV special by Creator/ToeiAnimation and 1981 TV series by Movie International), it's also probably the best known, and gained some fans in Alcott's home country of the United States through its 1989 broadcast on Creator/{{HBO}}, renamed ''Tales of Little Women''. The English dub has also been re-aired on Smile (formerly Smile of a Child), a Trinity Broadcasting Network-owned broadcast and digital-tier cable channel specializing in Christian and family-friendly children's programming, but is no longer being aired on Smile as of June 2018, but has since been release on Amazon's AmazonPrime streaming service.

* ImportantHaircut: Jo [[https://static.zerochan.net/Ai.no.Wakakusa.Monogatari.full.933396.jpg sells her hair]] to help pay for Marmee's trip, and it [[BoyishShortHair looks pretty cute]]. Jo, however, breaks down in tears when she is alone in bed.

* OldMaid: Unlike her novel counterpart, Aunt March never married.

* TheBusCameBack: Jim Marty. He rides on top of the train the March family takes to Newcord, but disappears shortly after, assumingly he made it to Boston like he planned. When Jo starts working for the newspaper, he is revealed to have gotten hired by Henry Murdoch and now works as a printer.

* AlphaBitch: Jenny Snow, Amy's classmate. Jenny rubs it in Amy's face that her father isn't home to give her money for sweets. Then, when Amy, who doesn't have enough limes for the whole class, says Jenny may not get a lime because of said incident, tells Mr. Davis, [[{{Hypocrite}} despite having brought sweets to school in the past]].

** It's generally averted for the most part, completely ignoring NeverSayDie. Special mention goes to an early scene where a Confederate soldier says when the South wins, they intend to ''hang'' President Lincoln.

* CoolTeacher: Mr. Sutton, Amy's teacher back in Gettysburg/York. He is a kind, well-liked young man that goes to fight for the Union. When Amy draws him on her slate, he takes it in stride and likes the portrait, but it could be because he is also romantically interested in Meg (which [[ShippingGoggles Jo playfully teases her for]]), but that goes nowhere since we [[FridgeHorror don't see him after the first episode.]]

* FantasyForbiddingFather: Mr. Lawrence doesn't like the fact Laurie wants to be a pianist, to the point where Laurie's given up that dream. When Laurie plays for Jo and Amy just for fun, he tries to discourage them from overpraising his "mediocre" talents.

* IllGirl: Beth. She was constantly sick to the point where her father had to essentially home school her.

** The runaway slave, named John in the Japanese original, becomes Jim in the English version, invoking OneSteveLimit in both languages.
* FantasyForbiddingFather: Mr. Lawrence doesn't like the fact Laurie wants to be a pianist, to the point where he's given up that dream. When Laurie plays for Jo and Amy just for fun, he discourages them from overpraising his "mediocre" talents.

** Aunt March is a [[DistaffCounterpart grumpy old woman]], until the [[DefrostingIceQueen the March family come into her life,]] though she still is a bit stand-offish at first.

* HotBlooded: Jo. Also Marmee, but she doesn't act on it because she wants to set a good example.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Jenny Snow, Amy's AlphaBitch classmate. She told on Amy for bringing pickled limes to school, but she herself brought treats.

* ImpoverishedPatrician: Much sooner than in the novel. Not only does the family lose their home, the factory their father invested money into was destroyed, rendering them near-penniless. But before then, the family was raised modestly, despite the large house, so they aren't too shaken by it, except for [[ShrinkingViolet Beth]].

* {{Narrator}}: Amy acts as the narrator in the English dub.

** In the Christmas episode, Marmee give the girls Bibles in their favorite colors, whereas in the original novel, they were given copies of Literature/PilgrimsProgress in their favorite colors. This is possibly to make Japanese audiences understand the Christian themes of the novel easier.

* JesusTaboo: Subverted. While Jesus himself isn't mentioned much in favor of general Christian themes, David mentioned him in episode 47 to attempt to appeal to Aunt March so she'll give him more money. Aunt March doesn't approve of this, and orders him out.

* LoveTriangle: While Laurie regards Jo as more than a friend, it's hinted that Anthony does also, and Laurie views Anthony as something of a rival. For her part, Jo isn't interested in either one of them romantically and in ''Jo's Boys'', she has been HappilyMarried to [[MayDecemberRomance Friedrich Bhaer]] for several years.

* {{Meido}}: Esther, Aunt March's personal maid, albeit a bit more lower class for the time period (due to her Irish heritage). She is a calm, pleasant woman that does her best to serve Aunt March.

* RomanticFalseLead: [[CoolTeacher Mr. Sutton]] is probably this for Meg, who ultimately ends up with John Brooke.
* SadistTeacher: Mr. Davis. Aside from the infamous scene where he whip's Amy's hands, on Amy's first day of class, another poor girl is only late by less than a minute, and Mr. Davis goes off on her, blaming her for the class not having perfect attendance anymore, and calls Amy, who ''wasn't'' late, "Miss Tardy" because she was ''almost'' late. In another episode he expects Amy, who is 7, to have learned multiplication of large numbers, and yells at her in front of the whole class for getting both problems wrong. He's also quite fond of showing off his whip to the class as a way of discipline. Naturally, he is not very well liked by his students, with Amy's friends insulting him regularly outside of school.

* SuddenNameChange: John Brooke's name in the sequel series. His name was Carl in the original Japanese version, but in ''Jo's Boys'' it's changed back to John with no explanation whatsoever.