This seemed like a really nice anime, usually enjoying anime adaptations of classic stories and fairy tales I love, I really liked the anime vibe. However, there were a few things that niggled me about this particular anime adaptation of A Little Princess.
Firstly, like someone else has mentioned here, it consists of a whopping 46 episodes for what is only a 10 chapter book, with the live-action Wonderworks mini-series only consisting of 6 episodes, and the Alfonso Curran 1995 live-action film only being 1 hour and a half, clearly proving just how excessive and unnecessary it was to drag it out this much, with a lot of it clearly being fillers. Likewise, as someone also mentioned, as much. It clearly did not need to be this long, as I remember being at coming to episode 16 and thinking "Oh were in the second half of the story so we must be relatively near the end now" but then realized I still had another 30 episodes to go which just seemed ridiculous! I actually had to skip to the last couple of episodes, realizing that most the rest of the episodes would just be fillers to drag it out this much. As someone else has also mentioned here, there was too much focus on Sara and Lavinia's rivarlry, which definitely wasn't as focused upon in the book, and this just felt unnecessary, dragged out and overemphasized.
I also definitely agree with what someone else has said here about the ended, how they annoyingly changed and undermined it by having Sara stay as a day student at the seminary even after she regains her fortune and moves in with Carrisford, which just didn't seem right to be, as like the other reviewer has said here why should she have stayed there after all she went through there and how she was treated?! It undermined the original purpose in the book where she was supposed to move on with her life, and she could still have easily seen the likes of Lottie and Ermengarde regularly given she lived just next door, so I found this really annoying.
What I found most annoying though was that Sara actually ends up getting Carrisford to donate a whopping £100,000 to the seminary, which particularly undermines and goes against the point the original book was trying to make of leaving those who mistreated you without any advantages that they were originally trying to use you for, in this case Miss Minchin using Sara to benefit from her wealth, by leaving her with nothing, because that is what she deserved after the way she treated Sara, which the original book was trying to make a point of. It meant that Miss Minchin faced even less comeuppance than she did in the original story, and made Sara a more passive character with her not only forgiving those who mistreated her so easily but also even giving them a big chunk of her wealth despite the fact they did absolutely NOTHING to deserve it. It's not like Miss Minchin even seemed to do anything to try and make it up to Sara before or after this either, not that she ever could do anything to make it up to her of course given that the way she treated Sara was, and she was, as she was always meant to be, an non-redeemable villain, so why have Sara forgive and end on good terms with her. It just really annoyed me, having seemed really stupid and ridiculous to me. As if it wasn't annoying enough she gets no real comeuppance in the book, she actually gets rewarded her, which is just most infuriating! Also what was with the other two antagonists, the two cooks, who were absolutely horrible and abusive to Sara and Becky, suddenly coming into the Christmas party dressed up like Santa, with all the children gathering round them-there was no real explanation for this whatsoever, just yet more villains suddenly getting treated nicely as if they never abused innocent children!
Sara and Lavinia suddenly parting on good terms also didn't feel right, and was again changing and undermining a part of the original novel, being something that never happened and was never supposed to happen. The 1995 live-action film also does this, but here it is more annoying, as Lavinia in this version is even more horrible than that version, and it got annoying 'cause they of course really dragged this rivalry out of course. I mean why suddenly "reform" these villains without them actually having done anything to redeem themselves, while also just defeating the whole idea of leaving the villains behind so you can get on with your life and prove yourself to be the winner, having not let them win and destroy you. I mean yes it was annoying in the original novel how all the villians got of scot-free, but here they were just suddenly forgiven and treated as goodies in the end as if nothing had happened and when they did nothing to redeem.
This Sara was also a bit too sweet and syrupy, as I feel a lot of adaptations seem to view her in black and white, making her either too sweet and passive or too mouthy and pert, when I feel Sara was supposed to be something between these two poles.
It really seemed like a nice concept, A Little Princess as an anime, it really did, but these things just really niggled me to be honest, so I guess it's just a missed potential really, like this could've been pretty much perfect if they'd just fixed all these things.
Firstly, like someone else has mentioned here, it consists of a whopping 46 episodes for what is only a 10 chapter book, with the live-action Wonderworks mini-series only consisting of 6 episodes, and the Alfonso Curran 1995 live-action film only being 1 hour and a half, clearly proving just how excessive and unnecessary it was to drag it out this much, with a lot of it clearly being fillers. Likewise, as someone also mentioned, as much. It clearly did not need to be this long, as I remember being at coming to episode 16 and thinking "Oh were in the second half of the story so we must be relatively near the end now" but then realized I still had another 30 episodes to go which just seemed ridiculous! I actually had to skip to the last couple of episodes, realizing that most the rest of the episodes would just be fillers to drag it out this much. As someone else has also mentioned here, there was too much focus on Sara and Lavinia's rivarlry, which definitely wasn't as focused upon in the book, and this just felt unnecessary, dragged out and overemphasized.
I also definitely agree with what someone else has said here about the ended, how they annoyingly changed and undermined it by having Sara stay as a day student at the seminary even after she regains her fortune and moves in with Carrisford, which just didn't seem right to be, as like the other reviewer has said here why should she have stayed there after all she went through there and how she was treated?! It undermined the original purpose in the book where she was supposed to move on with her life, and she could still have easily seen the likes of Lottie and Ermengarde regularly given she lived just next door, so I found this really annoying.
What I found most annoying though was that Sara actually ends up getting Carrisford to donate a whopping £100,000 to the seminary, which particularly undermines and goes against the point the original book was trying to make of leaving those who mistreated you without any advantages that they were originally trying to use you for, in this case Miss Minchin using Sara to benefit from her wealth, by leaving her with nothing, because that is what she deserved after the way she treated Sara, which the original book was trying to make a point of. It meant that Miss Minchin faced even less comeuppance than she did in the original story, and made Sara a more passive character with her not only forgiving those who mistreated her so easily but also even giving them a big chunk of her wealth despite the fact they did absolutely NOTHING to deserve it. It's not like Miss Minchin even seemed to do anything to try and make it up to Sara before or after this either, not that she ever could do anything to make it up to her of course given that the way she treated Sara was, and she was, as she was always meant to be, an non-redeemable villain, so why have Sara forgive and end on good terms with her. It just really annoyed me, having seemed really stupid and ridiculous to me. As if it wasn't annoying enough she gets no real comeuppance in the book, she actually gets rewarded her, which is just most infuriating! Also what was with the other two antagonists, the two cooks, who were absolutely horrible and abusive to Sara and Becky, suddenly coming into the Christmas party dressed up like Santa, with all the children gathering round them-there was no real explanation for this whatsoever, just yet more villains suddenly getting treated nicely as if they never abused innocent children!
Sara and Lavinia suddenly parting on good terms also didn't feel right, and was again changing and undermining a part of the original novel, being something that never happened and was never supposed to happen. The 1995 live-action film also does this, but here it is more annoying, as Lavinia in this version is even more horrible than that version, and it got annoying 'cause they of course really dragged this rivalry out of course. I mean why suddenly "reform" these villains without them actually having done anything to redeem themselves, while also just defeating the whole idea of leaving the villains behind so you can get on with your life and prove yourself to be the winner, having not let them win and destroy you. I mean yes it was annoying in the original novel how all the villians got of scot-free, but here they were just suddenly forgiven and treated as goodies in the end as if nothing had happened and when they did nothing to redeem.
This Sara was also a bit too sweet and syrupy, as I feel a lot of adaptations seem to view her in black and white, making her either too sweet and passive or too mouthy and pert, when I feel Sara was supposed to be something between these two poles.
It really seemed like a nice concept, A Little Princess as an anime, it really did, but these things just really niggled me to be honest, so I guess it's just a missed potential really, like this could've been pretty much perfect if they'd just fixed all these things.