Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette

Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette (レ・ミゼラブル 少女コゼット, Re Mizeraburu Shōjo Kozetto) (literally "Les Misérables: Little Girl Cosette") is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation, and is the first installment in the famed World Masterpiece Theater series in ten years after Remi, Nobody's Girl. It is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Misérables, and the fourth anime adaptation of said novel (following two adaptations from the Japanese television program Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi, and a 1979 TV special produced by Toei Animation).

It premiered across Japan from January 7, 2007 on Fuji TV's BS Fuji broadcast satellite network, and contains fifty-two episodes; of twenty-six each. It also aired in Japan on Animax from April 2007.

Plot

Set in nineteenth century-era France, the series begins with Cosette, a three-year-old girl, traveling with her mother Fantine, who is trying to find a job and a place to live, but have always been shunned away due to few employers hiring single mothers. When her mother is promised with the prosperity of working in the big city, Cosette is separated from her in the hopes a caretaker named Thénardier will watch over her while her mother earns some money. Unfortunately, this was a trick and the caretaker is a corrupt man who makes Cosette his indentured servant, or more precisely: his slave. Then, the kind mayor—formerly a convict named Jean Valjean—of the town that Cosette makes her new home in, sees how winds of change are so detrimental for children and families, and decides to do something about it, but forces Cosette to go on the run to escape his returning, difficult past.

Characters and cast

Episodes

1. Fantine and Cosette
2. Jean Valjean's Secret
3. A New Friend, Chou Chou
4. Mother's Letter
5. Javert's Suspicions
6. Cosette's Birthday
7. Lost Eponine
8. Mother's Skirt
9. Thenardier's Malice
10. Madeleine is Perplexed
11. Sister Simplice's Lie
12. Lonely Cosette
13. Jean Valjean and Cosette
14. Their Journey
15. Their Bond
16. The Gorbeau House in Paris
17. Javert Closes In
18. A Forgotten Reunion
19. Cosette is Taken
20. Monastic Life
21. Cosette and Marius
22. Their Respective Journeys
23. Under The Parisian Sky
24. An Encounter in the Luxembourg Garden
25. Unreachable Feelings
26. Chance Encounters in Paris
27. The Girl Who Ran Away
28. The Found Letter
29. Thenardier's Trap
30. The Coin That Was Left Behind
31. The Quiet Rue Plumet
32. Traces of That Day
33. Giving Up On Reunion
34. Children In The Elephant
35. Patron Minette's Breakout
36. The Ailing of Paris
37. Marius's Miscalculation
38. Cosette and Eponine
39. June 5, 1832
40. The Night of the Revolution
41. Eponine's Love
42. A Letter from Marius
43. Gavroche's Wish
44. To the Light of the Future
45. The Sewers of Paris
46. Javert's Justice
47. The Bonds of the Hearts
48. Cosette and Marius
49. My Mother
50. The Eternal Ring
51. The Revealed Truth
52. The Silver Candlesticks

Staff

• Original story: Victor Hugo "Les Misérables"
• Producer: Kōichi Motohashi
• Planning: Kazuya Maeda (Fuji TV), Kōhei Sano, Kazuka Ishikawa
• Production manager: Ken'ichirō Hayafune
• Series composition: Tomoko Kanparu
• Character designs: Hajime Watanabe, Takahiro Yoshimatsu
• Chief animation director: Tadashi Shida
• Background artist: Kazue Itō
• Art director: Mitsuki Nakamura
• Color design: Tomoko Komatsubara
• Photography director: Seichi Morishita
• Sound director: Hiroyuki Hayase
• Music: Hayato Matsuo
• Music producers: Hitoshi Yoshimura (Index Music), Daisuke Honji (Index Music)
• Producers: Yukihiro Itō (Fuji TV), Kōji Yamamoto (Fuji TV), Michio Katō, Ken'ichi Satō
• Director: Hiroaki Sakurai
• Production: Fuji TV, Nippon Animation

Theme songs

• Opening theme: Kaze no Mukō (風の向こう)

• Performance: Yuki Saitō (Index Music)

• Ending theme: ma maman (Watashi no Okā-san) (ma maman (私のお母さん))

• Performance: Yuki Saitō (Index Music)

Reception

The anime was dubbed and broadcast in:

• Arab World by Venus Centre

• Italy under the title "The heart of Cosette"

• Hong Kong
• Philippines under the title "Mga Pangarap ni Cosette" (The Dreams of Cosette) however, discontinued due to Typhoon Ondoy.

External links

• Nippon Animation's official website (Japanese)
• BS Fuji's official World Masterpiece Theater website (Japanese)
  • BS Fuji's official Shōjo Cosette page (Japanese)
• Animax's official website (Japanese)
• Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia