YMMV / A Dog of Flanders (1975)

• YMMV for A Dog of Flanders

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• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: In Japan, this was the most well known adaptation of the story, though with its dubs it can also count as this for Germany, Italy and Philippines.
• Fanfic Fuel: As said below, many Japanese fans did not like the ending. This is why many doujins and fanfictions depict Nello and Patrasche having a happy ending, preferably with Nello marrying Alois and the three growing old together.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Not that there's any competition, but Nello/Alois.
• It Was His Sled: Japanese audiences knew full well how the story was going to end (Nello and Patrasche dying) and sent World Masterpiece Theater tearful letters begging them to spare them. They didn't.
• Moe: Both Nello and Alois are adorable children.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Ensor, the hardware store owner that used to own Pastrache, repeatedly abused the dog, but his vilest act was depriving it of water when it worked, causing it to faint. In Japan, Ensor was so hated, it started a national phenomenon of contempt towards hardware dealers.
  • Hans was always a cruel bastard to Nello and his grandfather, but when he frames Nello for burning down the building, he cements. Because he's responsible for Nello and Patrasche having nowhere to live and starving to death in the snow, many consider him the Greater-Scope Villain of the series.
• The Woobie: Oh god.
  • Nello is an orphan, spurned when he enters an art contest to win money, witnesses his grandfather pass away and is framed for starting a fire by a miserly landlord. The poor child eventually dies when homeless, surrounded by his loving dog Patrasche. Hans and Alois' father cry for him and swear they're sorry for how they treated him, but by then it's too late.
  • Patrasche. He was an abused dog taken in by a sweet boy who wished to save him from his owner, and did his best to help him and his grandfather. After his grandfather's death, Nello eventually turns poorer, and poorer, until they're both kicked out on the streets and left to starve. Patrasche and Nello are too weak to survive the snow and pass away.
  • And what about Alois? She has to suffer from an Abusive Dad trying to separate her from seeing her best friend. She still tries to see him anyway, and their bond is so powerful that when she's sick, his presence helps her recover. A little after Christmas, she desperately tries to find Nello after he's been missing for some time, but he's already dead. At her tender age, Alois lost her best friend and the man she loved the most, and no matter how much her father tries to show he's sorry, their relationship will be irrevocably damaged in the future.
• Toy Ship: Nello/Alois. Despite their young ages, they are loyal to each other through and through and never stop trying to find each other when they're separated.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The Downer Ending being well-known across the world (and WMT not changing it, even outright confirming it with the presence of angels and an afterlife) has led to the anime getting this reputation.