Ie Naki Ko Remi (家なき子レミ) (Nobody's Girl Remi) is a 1996 anime series produced by World Masterpiece Theater. It is adapted from the French novel Sans Famille by Hector Malot. Spanning 26 episodes, the anime ran from September 1, 1996 to March 23, 1997 on Fuji TV, though it was pulled from syndication because of low ratings. Kōzō Kuzuha served as the anime's director, while Man Shimada was tasked with the scriptwriting.
Remi is a normal young girl living in the French village of Chavanon with her mother and sister. One day, her father comes home and is unusually cruel to the family. Remi learns that she was found in Paris as a baby and isn't their real daughter. Disoriented from being injured on the job, Remi's adoptive father tries to sell her to a slave trader, but she is saved by a traveling vagabond named Vitalis, accompanied by his three dogs: Capi, Dolce, and Zerbino, and his pet monkey, Joli-Couer.
Remi can't go back to her mother, so she decides to join Vitalis's troupe as a performer. But they travel around a lot, and the job of a traveling performer is harsh, and when tragedy strikes, things don't go peachy keen for Remi. But she'll keep on going. She kind of has to, considering all that happens to her.
This anime series was was later aired by the anime satellite television network, Animax, who translated and dubbed the series into English for broadcast across its respective English-language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, under the title Remi, Nobody's Girl, as well as other languages.
Not to be confused with Nobody's Girl, the novel by Malot that led to another WMT entry: The Story of Perrine.
Ie Naki Ko Remi provides examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: After Gaspard is arrested for kdnapping Remy, she finds out that Mrs. Mulligan is her long lost mother. They reunite through tears, having discovered the truth thanks to Remi's Orphan Plot Trinket. Mrs. Milligan then adopts the rest of the orphans. In the original book, only Remi is adopted by the Milligans and there's no kidnapping or Orphan's Plot Trinket.
- Adaptation Distillation: It had to be shortened to 26 episodes due to budget constraints, they changed Remi into a girl, they cut out certain things, and they changed various character designs.
- Adaptational Diversity: Gender example - the anime has significantly more female characters than the novel, even Gender Flipping the main character into a girl.
- Adaptation Expansion: They did, however, expand completely on one part of the story—the part where Remi meets Gaspard (or Garofoli in the original) and stays with him — and ran with it all the way through.
- Adapted Out: In the original novel, the Greater-Scope Villain was James Milligan, Remi's uncle who wanted him out so that he could get his grubby little hands on his brother's fortune. He isn't present in the anime. Other characters not present in the anime include the Driscolls and the Acquins.
- Aerith and Bob: Remy, Maria, Mattia, Pierre and Cosette are names you'd expect to hear in a French setting. "Nana" isn't, being a Japanese name (though she's French). Said character is also a Canon Foreigner.
- All Abusers Are Male: The anime portrays most male parental figures (such as Jérôme and Gaspard) as abusive dads motivated by Greed, while female parental figures (such as Mrs. Milligan and Anna Barberin) are always kind, caring and ready to adopt children in need. Though Vitalis and Mattia's father defy this, being benevolent fathers to Remi and Mattia respectively before they died.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Here
is the Arabic version of the Japanese theme song, sung by Rasha Rizk. - Ambiguous Time Period: Because the anime loosely adapts the novel and takes many liberties (like making the protagonist a girl and omitting the swan arc), it's hard to tell if the setting is the same era. Not helping is that World Masterpiece Theater has a habit of inflicting Setting Update to their adapted works, like changing the setting of Pollyanna from 1900 to 1920 and changing the setting of Katri, Girl of the Meadows from the 1850s to World War One.
- Animals Respect Nature: Vitalis' dogs and monkey love flowers and fellow humans alike. The Savage Wolves, however...
- Animated Adaptation: Of Sans Famille by Hector Malot. This actually isn't the first time Japan adapted it; previousy in 1977 Madhouse had produced a more faithful version of the book.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Navarre seems to be a nice guy on the outside, but his true identity is the thief, and he pinned his crime in Vitalis.
- Black-and-Grey Morality: One one hand, you have characters like the orphans, who steal and nip for a living, but that's because they live in poverty and have to appease an abusive caretaker. Then there's people like Jérôme (willing to sell children), Pollinel (willing to buy children) and Gaspard (a child beater who even kidnaps Remy to blackmail her biological mother Mrs. Milligan.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The show can go from nice and light hearted to dark and heartwrenching within the same episode.
- Cool Old Lady: Children's novelist Carol, who won a literary award for writing a story called "10 Magical Stories''. She is adored by Remi.
- Coming of Age Story: Remy's orphanhood is the center of the story, from her Oblivious Adoption to finding a home in Vitalis (who then unfortunately dies) and her time at the Orphanage of Fear before reuniting with her blood family, the Milligans).
- Compressed Adaptation: The anime expands Gaspard's (Garofoli) relationship with the kids, while cutting out other aspects from the novel, like his knowledge of Vitalis' true identity and the Driscolls.
- Creator Provincialism: Averted. It is based on a French novel, but the staff behind the anime is fully Japanese.
- Cut Short: The anime was eventually pulled off Fuji TV because of low ratings. The final 3 episodes were only available on DVD.
- Downer Beginning: Remy's abusive father shows his wrath towards her for being adopted, curses his wife for taking her in, and tries to sell her to Pollinel's Human Traffickers. Thankfully, she's saved by a kindly Italian performer and becomes a part of his Wandering Minstrel act.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Jérôme sold Remy off because he deemed her a financial burden, but she's actually of noble blood. Had he kept Remy and raised her, Mrs. Milligan would have compensated him handsomely for his kindness.
- Early in the series, Mrs. Milligan offers to adopt Remy, but she's satisfied with Vitalis. It's only after Vitalis dies that Remy finds out that Milligan is her real mother.
- Earn Your Happy Ending:
- Remy witnesses her adoptive father Vitalis die in the snow, alongside two of his dogs, and then resides at an orphanage headed by a resentful caretaker in the form of Gaspard. He subjects her to severe abuse for being a Spirited Young Lady opposed to stealing and standing up for her fellow orphans, and holds her hostage to extort cash from her biological family. To her shock, she finds out that her biological mother is the kindly, aristocratic woman she met in Toulouse, and they have a tearful reunion.
- The children of the orphanage all descend from Dark And Troubled Pasts and have endured Gaspard's physical abuse and neglect for years. They see a Hope Spot in Remy and her optimism, but she's suddenly kidnapped when Gaspard learns that she's the daughter of Mrs. Milligan. Thankfully, the authorities get involved and Gaspard gets quite the beating from the Milligan's attorney, and later, the children are adopted by Remy's wealthy biological mother.
- Flowers of Nature: Remi loves flowers. When the Barberins are selling Rosette the cow, she dresses her up in pretty pink ones, and later, she takes Lise to a field full of them.
- France: The anime takes place in France, and the second half takes place in Toulouse. However, some major characters are British and Italian.
- Gratuitous Italian: The episode titles are written in Italian, as a nod to the original novel.
- Idyllic English Village: The French village of Chevanon, where everyone knows each other and are tightly-knit. It's not so idyllic when her family is driven to poverty and have to sell their cow to survive.
- Lighter and Softer: The 1997 anime is much lighter in tone than the book and the 1977 anime, but it doesn't stray away from the hardships Remi has to face, like starvation, harsh winters, and most of all, abuse from an evil caretaker.
- Melodrama: Of being an orphan in old-timey France, with no one to help you and even the institutions being biased against you and managed by Child Haters. Child abuse is a strong theme in the series, as Remy is almost trafficked, and kidnapped twice, as well as the rest of the orphans having tragic backstories of their own.
- Official Couple: Remy and Mattia - in the end Mattia promises he will become a fine man for her to marry.
- One-Steve Limit: Narrowly averted since there's one character named Nana and another named Nina, but played straight when there are two characters named Pierre.
- Phenotype Stereotype: The English Mrs. Mulligan is blonde-haired and blue eyed, as is her son. Most French characters, however, have red or reddish-brown hair.
- Savage Wolves: Dolce and Zerbino are eaten by wolves, and we get to see Capi discover their corpses.
- Scenery Porn: On par for World Masterpiece Theater works, this anime has many beautiful background and foreground shots. See here and here.
- Wham Episode: Episodes 12 and 13. Dolce and Zerbino get eaten by wolves, and Vitalis dies in the snow, probably from a combination of starvation and hypothermia.
