valadaemalek Review of A Little Princess Sara

A Little Princess Sara (1985)

As a Standalone Anime series, it's okay. As an adaptation of the book, it leaves a lot to be desired..

[6/10 · 8 March 2019]

For starters, this is the second closest adaptation there is of the book after the 1986 version, but I didn't personally agree with the characterization in the version. Sara's character is considerably dumbed down in this. She's also much more passive as well. In the book, Sara stood up for herself when she had too, and the way she did it with her imagination was awe inspiring. She also had a temper and could be proud and arrogant at times. Anime Sara is nothing like this. And her dialogue sucks. I've lost track of how many times she's said "Yes, Headmistress" in this and that's all she's given as dialogue really. Many of the parts of the book that show her strength of character, such as the scene with the story of the King Albert and the end, where she comes up with the idea to feed the homeless children, are replaced by other characters coming up with these ideas instead of her, which further weakens her character. Also in the book, she rarely cried, and if she did, it was a big deal. In this, all she seems to do is cry. The headmistress is treated like a monster, but then in one of the later episodes is given a 15 minute Freudian excuse for her behavior and then is redeemed in the end. I preferred the ending of the book, where Sara does not forgive her and does not return to the school, because, after the way she was treated, why should she? They also lay on the mistreatment of Sara in this a bit too thick. At times it's very tragic, and at other times it's almost comedic the way Sara is treated like a perpetual butt monkey. The villains (the cook and housemaid) don't seem to have lives as all they do is pick on poor Sara, and the seem to only do it to be evil, rather than because they've been abused, mistreated and are depressed themselves. In the book, her life was dismal because of all the work she had to do, but the people mistreating her also led dismal lives of hard work that left them without time to constantly track Sara's actions and life. The creators seem to have forgotten that this is supposed to be about Sara overcoming her misfortunes with her imagination. There is very little of her imagination in this at all. The story instead focuses on her rivalry with Lavinia for much of the series, which was barely mentioned in the book. The pacing is also slow as molasses. This is a 46 episode series based on a book with about ten chapters, so there is a lot of very repetitive filler. There is one part in the series that is very realistic, which is the part where Sara gets sick from being over-worked. There's a new character named Peter who wasn't in the book at all. He serves a potential love interest. I have nothing to say about Peter other than i don't know why Sara didn't go and live with him in the first place since she would have been happier there than at the school. In the book, she had no such option. The detail in the setting of Victorian London is absolutely amazing though. You really get a feel for how life was back then for both the upper and lower classes. Overall, this is a decent series. Its' relaxing to watch, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece.