Anime / A Dog of Flanders (1975)

The anime that made Japanese children cry for generations

A Dog of Flanders (フランダースの犬, Furandāsu no Inu) is a 1975 anime series produced by World Masterpiece Theater and directed by Masao Kuroda. It is based on the 1872 story A Dog of Flanders by Marie Louise de la Ramée.

Set in Belgium, it tells the tale of Nello, little Nello, an orphan boy who loses his mother. He is taken in by his kindly grandfather Jehan, and works as a milk deliverer as a living. One day, Nello finds a little dog and names him Patrasche. Very quickly, the boy and the dog become best friends and Patrasche even helps Nello deliver milk, while joining him in his day to day activities, be it his love for drawing or hanging out with his best friend Alois. Together they try to adapt to their new life in the village and traversing the many losses that come their way.

The anime began airing on January 5, 1975 and ended on December 28, 1975, after 52 episodes.

Because the original A Dog of Flanders story is big, big, big in Japan, this was one of their most popular entries, with Japanese children crying over the story and begging WMT for a different ending.

This series is also stated by some to be the first ever World Masterpiece Theater series, because back when it released prior anime, it went by the name Calpis Children's Theater.

In 1997, the series was remade into a movie, which was actually released in the United States by Pioneer Entertainment, but cut out some footage.

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A Dog Of Flanders (1975) has examples of:

• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Sort of. While Nello and Pastrache die, they are at least reunited with their loved ones in Heaven. In the original story, there's no mention of an afterlife.
• Adaptation Distillation:
  • The drawing Nello submits in the competition was a picture of Jehan and Patrasche, but in the original story it was a picture of the woodcutter Michel.
  • All the villagers notice that Nello is missing and immediately try to find him, compared to the original story where they didn't notice he was gone until they found both the boy and dog's corpses in the snow.
• Adaptation Expansion: There's more focus on Nello and Alois' friends across the village here, and they help define their social lives. Nello even gets a best friend in George who helps him communicate to Alois when her father forbids them from seeing each other.
• Adaptational Friendship: In the original A Dog of Flanders story by Marie Louise de la Ramée, Alois was a beautiful woman Nello fell in love with when out one day. Here Nello and Alois are already best friends, and all of Baas' Dating What Daddy Hates traits are portrayed as a hatred towards their platonic relationship. That's not to say the romance doesn't exist (it absolutely does), but the anime focuses on their friendship aspect more than anything.
• Aerith and Bob: One of the nods that George and Paul are Canon Foreigners is that they don't have traditional Belgian-sounding names like "Nello", "Alois", "Jehan", "Ensor" and "Baas".
• Artistic License – Geography: Even though this anime takes place in Belgium, with the tulips, windmills and architecture you'd be forgiven for thinking it takes place in the Netherlands instead.
• Artistic License – History: The German version of the theme song has the lyric "You know Rembrandt and Rubens, and they all painted in Flanders"^note Euch sind Rembrandt und Rubens bekannt, und sie malten alle im Flandernland. But Rembrandt was a Dutch painter who worked in Holland. This error isn't in the original Japanese OP.
• All Abusers Are Male: Alois' father is strict and treats her harshly in the name of discipline, even barring her from seeing Nello because of their class difference, but her mother is sweet and caring and supports him and Alois' friendship. Patrasche's old owner was also an abusive alcoholic man.
• All Just a Dream: One possible interpretation of the ending since it has angels carry Nello and Patrasche. Nello was simply passed out, and dreamed of them since he's an artist, and many classical paintings depict angels. This totally isn't because we're upset about his death and are trying to make ourselves feel better!
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • In Germany, the series was called Niklaas, ein Junge aus Flandern and the theme song was sung by Katja Ebstein.
  • In Korea, the series was called 프란다스의 개 (Flanders Dog) and the theme song was sung by an unknown female singer.
• Anyone Can Die: Including children and dogs - and yes, Nello and Patrasche do die.
• Big Fancy House: Alois Cogez, the daughter of the wealthiest man in town, lives in a large mansion, and has a personal butler who tends to her.
• Birthday Episode: Episode 23 is Alois' birthday, and she invites almost the whole neighbourhood. Nello gifts Alois her favourite flowers, remembering she mentioned them a while back. When Alois thanks him, he explains Patrasche found them, so Alois rewards the dog with a huge meal.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Nello (blonde), George (brunette), Paul (redhead). George and Paul are brothers, while Nello became their friend after saving Paul from drowning.
• Bowdlerise:
  • Downplayed, but the Italian dub removed two episodes because they were too disturbing for their child audiences.
  • The English version of the 1997 movie cut some scenes, such as Ensor abusing Patrasche and downplaying Nello's romance with Alois, but still kept the Downer Ending.
• Capitalism Is Bad:
  • Nello and his grandfather live in excruciating poverty and their attempts to climb out of it define a good part of the story. Hans is also a cruel, greedy landlord who desires the Cogez family's wealth, and frames Nello for a fire because he'd rather save money than spend it. He had always been threatening to kick out Nello and his grandfather before that by raising the rent. Nello and Patrasche eventually die because they can't find access to safe housing and food.
  • Alois' abusive father uses his wealth to control his daughter and threatens to have her punished for interacting with a "poor" boy. Ironically, he himself was born poor, but once he became rich he began looking down on them despite the fact that their origins were no different from his.
• Children Are Innocent: Nello remains smiling and at peace even as he dies and is taken to Heaven. His last words are asking Patrasche if he's cold.
• Coming of Age Story: It's a story of a little boy and his dog trying to keep their home running because the other adults in their lives are either dead or unable to. And unfortunately, they never grow up.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: Possibly why Patrasche looks like an Akita/Shiba Inu rather than a Bouviers des Flanders, though to be fair in the book he's mentioned to have "wolf-like ears", "a big head" and "sturdy legs".
• Creator Provincialism: Averted, and that's why the setting seems so unusual. The story is set in Belgium, but since the showrunners are Japanese and have no idea how Belgium is supposed to look like, the end results come out looking like the Netherlands, with Alois wearing traditional Dutch clothing and a white sling, and Nello wearing clogs.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Nello being a 10 year old and doing odd jobs for money, and the gratuitous child abuse that follows. Thankfully, in modern day Belgium, child labour under the age of 16 is criminalized.
• Downer Beginning: The series begins with the death of Nello's mother and him having to live with his grandfather. Though his grandfather loves him so, he's a disabled man and can't work.
• Downer Ending: Nello and Patrasche die while Alois desperately searches for them, and by the time her father has swore to atone for how he treated them it's too late.
• Dramatic Irony: When it's her birthday, Alois tells Andre she believes Nello will be the first to arrive. Nello in fact is the last to arrive and very late, because him and Patrasche were looking for her favourite flower amongst the wilderness.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: No. Nello and Patrasche died as they lived, in immense suffering. Though they do go to Heaven at the end and never suffer sadness and poverty again, so you could read it as this trope.
• Flowers of Nature: When Nello and Patrasche go to the forest, it's full of a variety of different flowers. However, they seek a specific one for Alois' birthday present. Alois later tells Nello that it's the best present she ever received.
• Gorgeous Period Dress: When the boat full of visitors arrives at Belgium, we see many poofy gowns and parasols.
• Gray And White Morality: Ensor's abusive tendencies were because of his alcohol addiction, while both Hans and Alois' father both broke because of how they treated Nello. When he found out that he was innocent, Alois' father began crying and begging for his forgiveness, saying if he'll ever see Nello again, he'll adopt him as a son and have him study wherever he likes, and even Hans deeply regretted his actions and vowed he'll never be a bad person again.
• Heroes Love Dogs: Nello, Alois, George, Paul and Jehan love Patrasche and he adores them back. Patrasche even manages to win over Baas by discovering the 2,000 francs he had lost, which kick-starts Baas' reformation and changing opinion of Nello.
• Lighter and Softer: The original book was much darker, with Nello's grandfather losing his leg in a war and Ensor dying after getting into a brawl.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Subverted and inverted since both Nello and Aloius wear blue and pink; Nello with his blue cap and pink coat, and Alois with her pink skirt and blue shirt.
• The Power of Love: Alois becomes drawn to an illness at one point, and she is so sick that she can't even bring herself to face Nello and her friends. Nello, however, refuses to leave her side and continues to draw for her and visit her, and Alois manages to heal.
• Phenotype Stereotype: This being Belgium, a good chunk of characters have blonde, dirty blonde or light blonde hair, and many (including Nello and Alois) have Innocent Blue Eyes.
• Scenery Porn: The accidental Dutch-inspired setting leads to this anime being one of the most gorgeous looking WMT entries to date, with beautiful tulips, serene skies and pretty rural scenery. The accidental Dutch-inspired setting leads to this anime being one of the most gorgeous looking WMT entries to date, with beautiful tulips, serene skies and pretty rural scenery. Nello works as a milk delivery boy so we get to see the many gardens and natural beauty of Belgium, and it's also alleged that the architecture depicted in the series were modeled after the Bokrijk open-air museum.
• Snow Means Death: Nello and Patrasche freeze to death, until angels carry them both to heaven, with Nello being pulled in a cart by Patrasche to join his mother and grandfather.
• Wham Episode: Episode 47 and everything that follows - Nello is blamed for the windmill fire and the town is worried they will starve since winter is coming.