Katri, Girl of the Meadows (牧場の少女カトリ) is a 1984 anime produced by Nippon Animation and part of World Masterpiece Theater series. It is based on the Finnish novel Paimen, piika ja emäntä written by Auni Nuolivaara. It ran for 49 episodes, airing every Sunday in 1991.
A few years before the start of World War One, Katri's mother left her daughter behind to work in Germany. Katri now lives with her grandparents. With Finland under Russian occupation, the residents in rural areas have had little or no news about the war and Katri is anxious about her mother's return. To make matters worse, Katri's grandparents' farm isn't doing well and their only cow had been killed by a bear. Katri decides to help her grandparents by working in a neighboring farm.
Katri is sent to house after house looking for work, and encounters a colourful cast of characters along the way - the annoyng, yet brilliant Maruti, the foulmouthed, yet endearing Pekka, the dedicated freedom fighter Akki and the passionate, happy Lotte. All these and many more help shape Katri for a new life outside of Palki Village, with Katri deciding what she wants for her future.
The anime provides examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: Katri and her mother have a happy reunion, and when Katri becomes older, she decides to be an author. She writes about the Finnish countryside and the novels become bestselling works. In the original novel, Katri is never re-united with her mother, and gets married to Santeri Ruuhiniemi, having fallen for him because he was a pure hearted soul.
- Adaptational Deviation: The anime takes liberties with Katri's age (making her a small child instead of an adult), adds many Canon Foreigners as her best friends and gives them the spotlight, takes place in a World War I setting and also leaves Katri without a love interest.
- Adaptation Drift: The Canon Foreigner elements (such as the Kuusela family drama and Akki's strive for a free Finland) are expanded upon, overtaking the Love Triangle drama of the novel.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Inverted. This anime takes place during World War I and the Finnish revolution for independence is a key part of the latter half of the series.
- Adapted Out:
- In the novel Katri had a sister named Leena who always had her back. In the anime, she's cut out.
- In the novel Katri had an ex-husband named Juuso who was so nasty to her that she left. She eventually fell for Santeri because of his heart of gold, such as when he defended Leena from strange men who harassed her at the market. In the anime, she doesn't have a love interest and she's aged down.
- The anime also cuts out Katri's eventual love interest Santeri, and his lazy slob brothers Iivari, Vilppu and Matti.
- Annastiina, who spreads rumours about Katri and intended to marry Santeri. At the end of the novel, she's kicked out of his house.
- The scheming merchant Tervola, who robs Matti out of his inheritance was also cut out. This is despite the fact that he drove most of the conflict in the original novel.
- Aerith and Bob: "Katri", "Martti", "Pekka" "Viljami", "Anneli", "Tame", "Akki" and "Beine" are typical names you'd expect to hear in Finland. Now, "Carlo", on the other hand...
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Here is the Dutch
one, but do note that Katri's name was changed to Nathaloe there. - Amazing Technicolor Population: Mikki, the cat Katri receives from Sofiya, has purple fur and emerald green eyes.
- Ambiguously Christian: The residents of Palki Village - there's a Bible in the library that Katri has been reading ever since she started living there. Katri herself doesn't show any inclination to religion.
- Animated Adaptation: Of Auni Nuolivaara's 1938 bestseller Paimen, piika ja emäntä. The novel was so obscure it wasn't known outside of Finland, but this anime boosted it worldwide.
- Bait-and-Switch Credits: One of the scenes in opening credits shows Katri using a bugle to call the cows. However in Episode 23, she failed to use it due to her shock in encountering a bear.
- Bears Are Bad News: Katri's experiences with bears have always been bad, from killing her cows to scaring her when she stumbled upon them by accident.
- Big Damn Reunion: Katri and her mother Sarah finally reuniting after three years of separation - a lot of tears are shed.
- Big Fancy House: At least three major ones: the Räikkölä house, the Halma house and the Kuusela house. All have many rooms and their own farms with tons of animals.
- Canon Foreigner: Martti, Pekka, Helena, Akki and Sophia weren't in the original novel.
- Celebrity Cameo: In Episode 48, Vladimir Lenin shows up at the restaurant in Turku. Akki is intrested and tries to talk to him, bleieving that he can assist his dreams of Finnish independence.
- Coming of Age Story: The anime is about little Katri coping with the loss of her mother during World War I (she's not deceased! She's just working abroad) and having to be the man of the house in her absence. She makes many friends amongst her new odd jobs, and they help her find her true passions. She eventually decides to become an author.
- Distant Finale: In final episode, Katri becomes a writer and wrote many novels about her experiences in Finnish countryside.
- Downer Beginning: The anime starts off on a light-hearted note with Katri tending to the farm as usual, but soon her family's cattle is slaughtered by bears and she has to work a job to save them from falling into poverty.
- Everyone Is Related: Julis' father and Beine's grandfather are cousins, meaning Katri and Maruti are distantly related. However this only comes up once.
- Evil Aunt: Mrs. Kuusela's aunt Iirela starts out as one who detests Katri for being intelligent despite being poor. She mellows out later after Katri saves her life in Episode 47.
- Flowers of Nature: Though Finland is often clad in slow, there are many instances of beautiful flowerbeds on the grassy fields on the village's farms.
- Food Porn: The anine depicts food in a very stylized and gorgeous manner. Especially pancakes, which Katri is served in bed after her injury.
- Foreshadowing: Every time Katri learns how to read and write and emphasizes the importance of education. In the future she becomes a successful novelist.
- Gang of Bullies: Katri and Aapeli come across three bullies at the village twice.
- Gratuitous Foreign Language: The anime has a lot of Finnish-language names and references.
- Grey And White Morality: The anime is dramatic at times and told from the perspective of little Katri, but it falls into this. Most characters are good (but not nice), and the only truly evil characters are the police (who arrest Akki for supporting the independece of Finland) and Hanna (who physically abuses children and animals and at one point even tries to have Katri sold to Human Traffickers).
- In Name Only: The main character's name and occupation are pretty much the only thing in common with the novel character. Apart from that, the two stories are wildly different.
- Lighter and Softer: The anime version is lighter in tone than the novel (lacking the Love Triangle drama between Katri, Santeri and Annastiina and Tervola swindling the Ruuhiniemi boys out of their inheritance), but it doesn't stray away from serious topics like Akki being beaten and repressed by the police for his activism and Lotte losing her husband in World War I.
- No Antagonist: Since the anime cut out Tervola, there's no main villain in the series, unless you want to count Hannah (minor character who was Put on a Bus later) and the Russian police from Akki's subplot (who show up in a few episodes and don't have a huge impact on the story later, and everyone forgets them in favour of the next subplot).
- Phenotype Stereotype: The work is set in in Finland, so a lot of characters have extremely pale skin, blonde hair and light blue eyes.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Almost all the named female characters wear some form of pink (Katri, Ulla, Emilia, Sofia, Lotte, Alina...) while many male characters such as Akki and Pekka wear blue.
- Public Domain Character: Paimen, piika ja emäntä was published before copyright laws, so all the characters are fair game.
- Ruritania: Palki village is a lighter variant of this trope, as it's snowy and beautiful with a tight-knit community. It's full of Farmers Daughters, and most people there don't go to school and learn how to read.
- Scenery Porn: The anime is set in Finland, with Katri working at lush farms thanks to her Green Thumb. Where there isn't snow, there are lots and lots of pretty flowers. Here's an example◊.
- Setting Update: The original novel was set in the 1850s, but the anime bumps it up to World War I.
- Shout-Out: Some of the books Katri likes to read are the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen, Alice in Wonderland and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
- War Is Hell: Carlo Kuusela is killed in war. We never see it, but we see his widow Lotte grieving, as well as the fact that this means her son will grow up without a father.
- World War I: The anime takes place in 1915, a year after the first World War began.
