Line #19 Anime/ThreeThousandLeaguesInSearchOfMother


1	[[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2016_09_06marco_de_los_apeninos_a_los_andes_1978s.jpg]]
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3	3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (母をたずねて三千里 Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri) is a Japanese anime television series directed by Creator/IsaoTakahata and aired in 1976. It is loosely based on a small part of the novel ''Heart'' (''Cuore'') created by Edmondo De Amicis, i.e., a monthly tale ("racconto mensile") ''From the Apennines to the Andes'' (''Dagli Appennini alle Ande'')[[note]](the Ligurian Appenine mountains reach to the Gulf of Genoa, where Marco comes from; Anna works in Argentina, which shares the Andes mountains with many other countries like Chile, Bolivia, etc.)[[/note]], widely expanded into a 52-episode epic. It's also a part of the famous ''Anime/WorldMasterpieceTheater''.
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5	The story follows an 8-year-old boy named Marco Rossi, who lives with his family in the port city of Genoa during a very harsh economic crisis. His parents Pietro and Anna, plus his brother Tonio, work hard and do their best, but they barely can make it month by month... so Anna takes a fateful decision: to go to Argentina, in South America, and work there to help.
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7	While this seems to work more or less fine at first, soon Anna's letters stop arriving, and nobody knows what's going on. Since Anna's last letters imply that she had fallen gravely sick, Marco decides to go to Argentina himself and see if Anna is fine or not. With his brother's pet monkey Amedio in tow, Marco boards a ship and leaves his homeland, determined to find his beloved mother no matter what.
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10	!! ''3000 Leagues in Search of Mother'' includes these tropes:
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12	* AdaptationExpansion: The basis for the series is a mere ''chapter'' of the book ''Cuore'' by the Italian writer Edmondo D'Amici, so the series itself takes the basic idea and timeline and builds a whole story from there by inserting SliceOfLife episodes with Marco and his remaining family (his father Pietro and older brother Tonio) preparing for the travel, Marco befriending a nearby family [[PuppyLove and especially]] the middle daughter Fiorina [[spoiler:and finding them again in Argentina]], the addition of Tonio and Marco's pet monkey Amedio, etc.
13	** The remainder of the novel was made into a ''second'' series by Nippon Animation in 1981, titled ''Ai no Gakko Cuore Monogatari'' (愛の学校クオレ物語, ''School of Love: The Cuore Story''). This series aired on Tokyo Broadcasting System, not Fuji TV, and was thus not part of the World Masterpiece Theater despite sharing many of the franchise's tropes.
14	* BlushSticker: Marco is fairly plain in looks, save for his perpetually red cheeks.
15	* CanonForeigner: Amedio, Peppino and his daughters (Concetta, Fiorina and Giulietta), etc.
16	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Peppino and his family go to Argentina first and then reappear in the story.]]
17	* DelicateAndSickly: Anna's last letter to her family implies that she's not in good health and the Rossis ''very'' seriously fear that she will die in Argentina. [[spoiler: When Marco finally finds her, she's so ill ''and'' so depressed that she's rejecting one last operation that could save her life, despite the pleas of her doctor and her {{benevolent boss}}es. Seeing Marco again gives Anna the strength to go through the surgery, and she's saved.]]
18	* DubNameChange:
19	** The series itself is better known as "Marco" or, to a lesser degree, as "From the Appenines to the Andes".
20	** In the second Latin-American dub, Fiorina is re-named Violetta (probably to keep the ThemeNaming between her and her sisters).
21	* InterSpeciesFriendship: Amedio has this not just with Marco, but with Fiorina's CheerfulChild baby sister Giulietta.
22	* IWillFindYou: Marco will freaking '''find''' his mommy, no matter where she is! It's even lampshaded in the opening song. [[spoiler:[[EarnYourHappyEnding And he does]].]]
23	* ThePampas: The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahía_Blanca Bahía Blanca]] arc largely consists of Marco traveling through the pampas with [[spoiler: Fiorina's family]] to reach the eponymous city.
24	* NumberOfObjectsTitle
25	* ProlongedPrologue: It takes the show about 15 episodes to even get Marco on the boat that'll take him to Argentina.
26	* SearchingForTheLostRelative: Marco, an 8-year-old Italian boy, looks for his missing mother in Argentina.
27	* ShipTease: Marco and Fiorina, in a PuppyLove way.
28	* SillySimian: Marco's monkey companion Amedio's cute antics insert a bit of comedy in the very melodramatic story.
29	* TruthInTelevision: The whole deal with Italians (and non-Italians) immigrating to Argentina [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Argentines really]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_European_immigration_wave_to_Argentina happened]], so the Rossi family's situation was probably quite more common than one would think in modern times.
30	* YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle: Sorta. ''Every'' time Marco gets leads on his MissingMom's whereabouts, it turns out she and the family she works for has moved away and further into the country already. [[spoiler: He finds her in Tucumán, located near the Andes. Meaning, he not only had to go from Italy to Argentina but ''track her down through Argentina itself''..]]

Context Anime / ThreeThousandLeaguesInSearchOfMother