- "I believe that no matter what, you can always find something to be happy about."— John Whittier
The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love (愛少女ポリアンナ物語) is a 1986 anime produced by Nippon Animation and the twelfth entry in World Masterpiece Theater franchise. The anime is based on two novels - Pollyanna and its sequel Pollyanna Grows Up written by Eleanor H. Porter. It was directed by Kuzo Kusohara.
Pollyanna is a cheerful girl whose parents have died at young age. She is sent to Beldingsville to live with her aunt Polly Harrington, who she's never met before. Before he died, her father, a Church Pastor, told her to always be glad, mentioning that the word "joy" is mentioned 800 times in The Bible. Thus Pollyanna invented "The Glad Game", a game where she always looks for something to be happy about, even in the darkest of situations.
Aunt Polly isn't exactly sweet on her niece coming to stay. She's cold and aloof, and her personality does not mesh well with Pollyanna's optimism. She also doesn't like that Pollyanna has a pet squirrel and loves all sorts of critters - she hates animals, and also rebuffs Pollyanna's Glad Game. There's also the fact that as a Country Mouse, Pollyanna's proximity to nature and tendency to treat everyone she meets informally clashes with Harrington's view that women of her family must be Proper Ladies, a standard that even Pollyanna's own mother rejected.
All the other neighborhood children think Pollyanna is quite the oddball, with her funny habits and unrelenting kindness. However, they warm up to her, and so do the adults that previously rejected Pollyanna. It turns out The Glad Game can be quite the benefit if you know it right, and helps many, many people. Being a Blithe Spirit, Pollyanna's presence changes Beldingsville forever.
The anime ran from January 5, 1986 to December 12, 1986, ending at 51 episodes.
The anime provides the examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: A given since it's trying to compress two whole novels into a 51-episode anime series, with a few deviations here and there, as well as a few Canon Foreigners.
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime version adds more information about Aunt Polly's relationship with her older sister Jennie (Pollyanna's mother) in the past.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
- The Italian one was sung by Cristina D'Avena.
- It has an Arabic
one.
- Artistic License: At many points the American flag is shown, and it always has the wrong number of stars.
- Bears Are Bad News: In Episode 2, Pollyanna and Karen are chased by the bear in the forest. Fortunately, they're saved by a hunter wandering the area and kills the bear.
- Big Fancy House: Most of Beldingsville's residents live in large, fancy mansions.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: James Kent is the blonde, Jimmy is the brunette, and Pollyanna has pretty red hair.
- Canon Foreigner: Karen and Mary are anime-only characters that weren't present in the book.
- Children Are Innocent: So much. Pollyanna is an orphan who wants to be loved by her aunt but is constantly rejected, and uses the Glad Game to cope. James is a young boy with big dreams, but is disabled and constrained to a wheelchair. Jimmy never knew his parents and grieves when his Only Friend moves away. It's also shown that Polly didn't have the best childhood either.
- Coming of Age Story: Like most World Masterpiece Theater works. In this case, it's about an American orphan in the 1920's adjusting to her new life in a foreign city.
- Costume Porn: A lot of gorgeous period gowns are seen thanks to Ruth Carew and some of the upper class Beldingsvillians, not to mention the various Imagine Spots of Pollyanna and James in varipus situations.
- Downer Beginning: The first two episodes focus on Pastor John’s deteriorating health and death. Afterwards, Pollyanna is sent to live with her aunt, who is cold to her.
- Flowers of Nature: When Pollyanna is hunting for strawberries with Karen, we see many, many pretty flowers. She also mentions that flowers are one of the things she's grateful for.
- Foreshadowing: In episode 2, a member the Ladies Aid Society finds a black velvet dress in Pollyanna's size (instead of it being bigger or smaller and needing appropriate sewing work). Mrs White sees this as a bad omen, since she believes children shouldn't wear black. This is also the episode where Pollyanna's father dies, and the next episode shows Pollyanna wearing the dress to his funeral.
- Gratuitous Italian: When Pollyanna moves to Boston, she gets lost amongst the crowd, and stumbles upon a group of Italian-Americans. They all start saying various things in Italian (the Japanese voice actors do their best to stick the pronouncation of it), which confuses Pollyanna as she doesn't understand any of it and she runs away distressed.
- Heroic BSoD: Tom loses the motivation to work properly around the house when Chilton dies. He snaps out of it when Jimmy reminds him of Tom reprimanding him for cursing God for Pollyanna’s accident and asking Tom if he was lying about what he said back then.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Jimmy likes Pollyanna, and feels envy about her friendship with James. This is despite the fact that there's nothing between them.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Mrs. White from the Ladies Aid Society. Sure she's prickly and stern, but does genuinely care for Pollyanna's well-being, takes her in after her father's death, actively protests sending Pollyanna to live with her aunt and wants to adopt her, and even buys the girl her first non-charity bin dress.
- Kids Driving Cars: In the opening of the anime, Jimmy drives a car with Pollyanna in it.
- Named by the Adaptation: In this version, the name of Mr. Pendleton's dog is Talim, while Dr. Chilton's horse is named Coney.
- Parental Substitute: The women of the Ladies Aid Society all helped raise Pollyanna, with Mrs. White most likely to scold her for her tomboyish behavior.
- Phenotype Stereotype: The Italians Pollyanna meets in the Boston arc are slightly tanned, and have dark hair. Also per the stereotype, they're very chatty and act like jerks.
- Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Pollyanna predominantly wears pink (though her overalls are red) but James and Jimmy, her two closest male friends, always wear blue.
- Public Domain Character: Pollyanna, Jimmy, James, Aunt Polly, Millie, Jennie, John.....almost everyone is this, since the novel was written before copyright was established.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Episode 43 has Mr. Durgin expressed disappointment about Dr. Chilton's death to God in the gardens.
- Recap Episode: Episode 26 has Polly remembering her memories with Pollyanna while waiting at her niece's operation, realizing how Pollyanna's [resence has changed her life significantly.
- Roaring Twenties: The anime takes place during the very beginning of the decade at 1920 (the Great Depression era), unlike the novel which was set in the 1900s.
- Scenery Porn: Pollyanna grew up in a very rural area. The anime reminds us of this by showing lush greenery, strawberries and very pretty flowers, amongst animals like bears and squirrels.
- Setting Update: The original book was set in the 1900's, but the anime is set in the 1920s.
- Shipper on Deck:
- Pollyanna is this to her Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton.
- In Episode 48, Sadie seems to think that Pollyanna and Jimmy are meant for each other. She also supports Mr. Pendleton and Mrs. Carew.
- Stylish Sunhats: Sadie Dean is a stuck up, snobby little girl who lives next door to the Cariou family. She accuses Pollyanna of being a thief because of how scruffy she looks. Sadie also wears a straw hat with a ribbon on the top, and another pair of ribbons that are used to secure it against her head. See here.
- Train-Station Goodbye: Happens twice in the show. In Episode 24, Dr. Chilton reveals to Mr. Pendleton that he witnessed Jennie and Pastor John leaving Beldingsville to go to West. Then in Episode 25, Pollyanna, Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton go to Boston for Pollyanna's operation.
- Wham Episode: The show gets really serious after episode 20 where Pollyanna is struck by a car and finds out in the following episode that she may never walk again.
- Woodland Creatures: The park in Boston has a specific example with squirrels. James attracts them like a magnet because he always carries around food with him.
