An Anime series from The '70s adapting the various fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen, hosted by two pixies, Candy and Sukko. It was produced by Mushi Productions, who Western viewers might recognize for their work with Rankin/Bass (who, coincidentally, liked to adapt Andersen's material as well).
The series provides examples of:
- Alcoholic Parent: In the adaptation of The Little Match Girl, the girl's father is a drunkard who beats her up. This is true to the original tale (minus the alcohol) but is often excluded from adaptations.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: To a point with the Little Match Girl's father. He does hit her and is an alcoholic, but is shown to deeply regret his actions by the end of the episode, which we never see in the original story.
- Mood Whiplash: It's Hans Christian Andersen for crying out loud. Some stories are goofy, others heartwarming, and others will break your heart. The animation crew actually enforced this by having different teams handle each story.
- Reused Character Design: For example, The Robber Girl (from the Snow Queen) and The Marsh King's Daughter look exactly alike.
- Series Mascot: Candy and Sukko. Unlike the green-haired girl in Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, they actually get involved with the story, though they rarely talk to the other characters. Though considering half of the stories end with the children dying, they rarely affect the plot.
- Shout-Out: Quite a few to Disney:
- Two separate episodes reference the dress-ripping scene from Cinderella.
- The Wild Swans ends with the witch turning herself into a monstrous dragon to fight the heroes.
- Shown Their Work: The show adapted many obscure Andersen fairy tales, though many stories endured Adaptation Decay.
