Little Memole (Tongari Bōshi no Memoru) is an anime produced in 1984-1985 by Toei Animation and Asahi Broadcasting Corporation and aired on the TV Asahi network.
The main character is a tiny little girl named Memole (Memoru), an elf-like alien from a planet called Riruru. After their mini-spaceship crashes, Memole and her people start a new life on the planet Earth. Much of the story is about the friendship between Memole and a human ill girl named Mariel.
The anime is also known as Crocus (France and French-speaking Canada), Memole dolce Memole (Italy), La pequeña Memole (Spain), and La Magia de Titila (Mexico). There is also an edited compilation film in English, known as Wee Wendy. Junichi Sato, later of Sailor Moon fame, worked on this series as an episode director.
This anime provides examples of:
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
- The French opening
is based on the original Japanese theme song, but it's slightly different at some points. - Both the cheery Italian opening and the melancholic Latin American opening are very different.
- The English opening for Wee Wendy is a clear example of Bait-and-Switch Credits and the lyrics are about Christmas for some reason (probably because of Memole's hat which resembles Santa's red hat).
- The French opening
- Badass Adorable: The cute little Memole is also a fearless Plucky Girl who would do anything to help Mariel.
- Cats Are Mean: Memole and her lilliputian friends see cats as dangerous, especially Mariel's cat.
- Dub Name Change: Memole is renamed Crocus in the French dub, Titila in the Mexican Spanish dub, and Wee Wendy in the English VHS movie (which also changes Mariel into Muriel).
- Expy: Mariel is one of Klara Sesemann. A sweet, lonely, rich, blonde, sickly girl who wears a blue dress, lives with her strict housekeeper, because her mother is dead and her father is often away for work. Her friendship with Memole is also very similar to Heidi/Klara, as she befriends a younger, cute Plucky Girl who comes to her house from a completely different place where she lived with her grandfather.
- Interspecies Friendship: The elf-like alien Memole befriending the human girl Mariel.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Mariel, the rich ill girl, whose mother is dead and her father is never around.
- Raised by Grandparents: Memole's parents are still on their home planet and she lives with her grandfather.
