Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette

Japanese: レ・ミゼラブル少女コゼット

Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 52

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 7, 2007 to Dec 30, 2007

Premiered: Winter 2007

Broadcast: Unknown

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Nippon Animation

Source: Novel

Genre: Drama

Theme: Historical

Duration: 24 min. per ep.

Rating: G - All Ages

Statistics

Score: 7.91¹ (scored by 9,600 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #766²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4071

Members: 29,721

Favorites: 278

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

In 19th century France, a struggling single mother, Fantine, leaves her three-year-old daughter Cosette in the care of her new acquaintances, the Thernadiers. Unfortunately, Cosette's caretakers prove to be anything but loving, and the poor girl is subjected to repeated abuse and forced servitude. Still, she endures the torment in the hopes of seeing her mother once again.

One night, while doing errands for her host family, Cosette is assisted by an honorable stranger named Jean Valjean. After a brief conversation with the young girl, Jean acknowledges her as the type of person he has been seeking and rescues her from the clutches of the Thernadiers. They make their way to a nearby town where Cosette enjoys a new life thanks to her savior.

Under Jean's guidance, Cosette promises to help others with her newfound freedom. She pledges to heal the nation, ensuring that no one else suffers her fate. Though the road ahead is paved with tragedies left by the French Revolution, this idealistic girl will not rest until France is freed from poverty and suffering.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Alternative version:	Jean Valjean Monogatari, Gin no Rousokutate
Summary:	Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Specials

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Valjean, Jean

Main

Sugawara, Masashi
Japanese

Cosette

Main

Nazuka, Kaori
Japanese

Thénardier, Éponine

Main

Sasamoto, Yuuko
Japanese

Javert

Main

Matsuyama, Takashi
Japanese

Gavroche

Main

Kobayashi, Yumiko
Japanese

Pontmercy, Marius

Main

Katsu, Anri
Japanese

Enjolras

Supporting

Kishi, Yuuji
Japanese

Alan

Supporting

Katsu, Anri
Japanese

Combeferre

Supporting

Hatano, Wataru
Japanese

Courfeyrac

Supporting

Takemoto, Eiji
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Yamamoto, Kouji

Producer

Sakurai, Hiroaki

Director, Storyboard

Hayase, Hiroyuki

Sound Director

Akagi, Hiroaki

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Kaze no Mukou" by Yuki Saito

Edit

Ending Theme

"Ma maman (Watashi no Okasan)" by Yuki Saito

Reviews

May 22, 2023

Firechick12012

Recommended

(4/24/2023: I decided to completely rewrite my old review, as it's not up to par with my current reviews and is embarrassingly overly fangirly. For some reason MAL wouldn't let me just replace the old one with new content, so I had to delete my old review)

The year was 2007. It was around that time that I was really starting to dip my toes deeper into the anime fandom beyond just Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever was airing on TV. I was browsing some anime websites, and a promo picture for a new anime called Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette caught my eye. It looked interesting ... and I wanted to watch it...but at the time, little to no fansubs for it existed, and the few people that saw the anime hated it, dismissing it as a watered down version of the original novel right out of the gate. Back then, I wasn't familiar with the original Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables, but I watched the few episodes that received subs and I liked it a lot. But Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette wouldn't receive completed fansubs until 2011 (Thanks, Licca Fansubs!!), around the time I started college. During that time, I learned that Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette was actually made as an attempt to revive the World Masterpiece Theater franchise, which was notable for adapting Western children's novels into Japanese animation, from the early 70s up to 1997, then from 2007-2009. Unfortunately, the attempt to revive WMT failed, and since Konnichiwa Anne ended, no new WMT anime have been made. Which is a damn shame in my opinion, because as of this writing, I've seen a good majority of the WMT, this anime included. While I do consider Dog of Flanders to be better, I'm thankful that I got to watch Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette, because it introduced me to the WMT as a whole and was one of the anime that helped refine my personal tastes. And because, honestly? Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is pretty damn amazing. I did review this when the fansubs finished, but looking back, my old review for it is pretty overly fangirly and not up to standard with how my reviews are now, so I'm writing a new one.

While the marketing does place quite a bit of focus on Cosette, and a majority of the series is told from her point of view, the anime does follow the same story beats as the book. 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 slave, and she is subject to their abuse every day. The city Fantine works at is famous for its kindly mayor, Monsieur Madeleine, but what nobody knows is that his real name is Jean Valjean, a former convict who served 19 years in prison, only changing his ways after a bishop is kind to him. When circumstances put Fantine in dire straits, Jean Valjean promises to save Cosette from the Thenardiers so she can have a life. But Valjean is being pursued by the stoic, determined Inspector Javert, a member of the Paris police force who steadfastly holds the "once a criminal, always a criminal" mindset and wants to throw Valjean back into prison by any means necessary.

Now, if you're thinking Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is a dumbed down, heavily sanitized, kiddyfied version of the novel akin to G3 My Little Pony, you'd best throw that expectation out the window, because other than removing the heavier stuff such as Fantine going into prostitution and Javert's suicide (Which I'm pretty sure is because Japan considers it taboo to depict suicide in children's programming), the anime is actually pretty faithful to the book. Probably more so than other adaptations I know of, such as the 1935 and 1998 movies. Several important characters do die in the later half of the anime, and very few get spared. It pulls no punches in its depiction of the June Rebellion arc or the abuse various characters are made to endure. Plus, several characters who don't get a lot of development in the book or whose fates were left ambiguous are not only more fleshed out here, but even receive happier outcomes. To be honest, I'm kind of glad the anime decided to try and be both fairly light and dark, because leaning too much into the darker elements of the book might have made it come across as too edgy. Plus, just because the anime adds a lot more happier moments, including making the ending more hopeful than the book was, that doesn't necessarily mean none of them were poorly written or felt unearned, because in my opinion, I think they work wonderfully within the context of the anime as a whole.

From a technical standpoint, the animation is really good. Not just in terms of its overall presentation, but because of just how different it looks compared to WMT's previous output. Because it was made in the middle of the digital era, Nippon Animation was able to do more with the character designs, backgrounds, and settings that it couldn't back when they were still active. Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette has a much glossier, more refined look about it compared to previous shows' more rustic, rougher outputs, though that's not to say their older shows weren't good. The designs of female characters such as Cosette, Fantine, Eponine, and so on do look a bit more reminiscent of modern anime girls, with big eyes and glossy hair, but like with all of WMT shows before it, there's zero cartoony exaggeration. No chibi faces, no veins popping outside their heads, etc, which is a rule the WMT has always followed for all their shows. The male characters also manage to toe the line between being cartoony and realistic, with more emphasis on the latter without clashing with the show's tone. The actual character motion ranges from being slow to fluid depending on the scene, and it's always remained consistent throughout. The backgrounds are detailed and nicely rendered, and Nippon's depiction of France in the early 19th century is pretty spot-on from what I can see. Admittedly, I don't have as much to say about the soundtrack, as again, it's been years since I've seen the Les Mis anime, but I remember liking it, and both theme songs by Yuki Saitou are beautifully sung and fit the feel of the show perfectly.

If there's one thing the WMT is really good at across most, if not all their series, it's fleshing out their characters and making them as interesting and three-dimensional as humanly possible, and Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is no different. The reason this is so is because the WMT series in general puts a lot of emphasis on build-up, which since most WMT series have 40-50 episodes, they're actually allowed to do more than what 13-26 episode series allow them to do, and actually having it pay off. A lot of said build-up in here consists of the creators fleshing out the characters, bringing the best out of them, and moving the story forward. Every single character, from Cosette, Jean Valjean, Marius, Eponine, Gavroche, and even all the men in the Les Amis, is well developed, interesting, and three-dimensional, each with their own roles to play in the grand epic that is Les Miserables. For anybody who felt that Eponine didn't have much in the way of screen time in the book or in the various other adaptations, don't worry, she gets a lot to do here, both as a kid and as an adult. Basically, Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette has an awesome cast of characters that are portrayed extremely well here, differences from the book notwithstanding, and even with the anime's lighter, more kid-friendly tone, they still retain the depth and nuances they had from the book.

I personally didn't have much in the way of complaints about the anime myself, though this is because I haven't read the book yet. I know a lot of people will take issue with the anime removing the heavier elements of the book, like Fantine going into prostitution and Javert's suicide, which is valid, and there are no shortage of adaptations that retain those two things. But I don't think those are reason enough to completely dismiss the anime as a whole. Plus, the first 13 or so episodes can be a bit of a climb, as they focus a lot on Cosette living with the Thenardiers, and it's fairly slow paced, even though I think both are done really well considering how long the anime actually is (52 episodes). If you can get past the slow pacing and the removal of the heavier, darker parts, Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette is an excellently written series from beginning to end, and now that the series has complete English fansubs, it's a lot easier to watch and access! There are also two manga adaptations of Les Miserables, both of which are more faithful to the book's tone and keep the parts that the anime removed: The 2011 manga by Takahiro Arai, which Seven Seas is releasing in the US right now, and the 2015 manga by Udon Entertainment, and while the latter is shorter than the former, I think both manga are awesome recreations of the epic that is Les Miserables, even if Arai's version has the benefit of being much longer, and therefore able to cover the entire story. Say what you will about Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette being happier and lighter than the source material, IMHO it's a way better adaptation than the 2012 musical movie ever was, mainly for the fact that it DOESN'T have useless, unnecessarily gross scenes like Thenardier urinating in a guy's beer cup and a random inn patron having sex with Santa Claus that were clearly thrown in there just for pointless shock humor! Seriously, whoever decided filming those scenes for the 2012 movie should never work in the film industry ever again!!

So yeah, I love Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette. I have a strong attachment to this anime, and it's one of my favorite series of all time. It has great characters, a realistic yet exciting storyline that never goes over-the-top, and it is an utter shame that the WMT revival never got off the ground, because we need more anime like this that actually care about telling interesting stories and characters you can relate to. This anime also helped me discover a blog that to this day I still visit, and said blog introduced me to a lot more anime I would come to love later in love, so I owe Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette that much. So don't be put off by the anime's lighter tone, because if you want to watch something that's not only full of passion, full of evolving characters and a story that has a lot of care put into it, give Les Miserables Shoujo Cosette a shot. I did and I don't regret it.

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Jan 3, 2021

Giann33

Recommended

Story: 8/10
Despite the fact that the story is attractive and outstanding, it does not stop falling into the predictable and simple, however these factors do not prevent the enjoyment of the plot.

Art: 6/10
As for the general animation, it can be seen at a glance that it does not intend to stand out in this way, however it is not entirely bad, since the quality is not reduced throughout the series, in addition to the fact that the style used fits perfectly with the period, on the other hand, aspects such as the characters, are characterized by having a fairly successful design in terms of how ...

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May 16, 2021

AgentBishop

Not Recommended

Informative

i've never been this angry while watching an anime
i really wanted to punch the monitor, this is one of the worst adaptations i've ever seen
this is supposed to be an extremely tragic story, Cosette is supposed to be a symbol of an innocent girl who when through hell

i don't think you guys have seen the previous anime adaptation, the character design was EXTREMELY bad in the older anime adaptation, but in that adaptation the direction was really good, Cosette was truly miserable, there was no fucking Chu chu! (the fucking dog), there was no little brother to secretly help her, there was no happy moment, ...

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Poll: Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Episode 17 Discussion 000rga - Dec 12, 2017	1 replies	by Majod20 »» Feb 29, 9:07 AM
Poll: Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Episode 52 Discussion AironicallyHuman - Aug 21, 2011	13 replies	by FieryKun »» Nov 24, 2023 3:55 PM
Poll: Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Episode 51 Discussion AoiTrinity - May 11, 2013	3 replies	by Vyse_Sohma »» Sep 23, 2022 8:25 PM
Poll: Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Episode 46 Discussion xochandaox - May 23, 2011	3 replies	by EmperorKaido »» Apr 30, 2022 4:16 AM
Poll: Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette Episode 44 Discussion Zekkenshin - Dec 15, 2014	4 replies	by EmperorKaido »» Apr 29, 2022 9:21 PM

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Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

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Characters & Voice Actors

Valjean, Jean

Cosette

Thénardier, Éponine

Javert

Gavroche

Pontmercy, Marius

Enjolras

Alan

Combeferre

Courfeyrac

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Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Available At

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

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