Sanzoku no Musume Ronja

It is hard to not make a biased review of this show if you are from Sweden, which I am. "Why?" you may ask.
This show is based on the story "Ronia the robbers daughter" (Ronja rövardotter), written by one of Swedens most beloved author Astrid Lindgren and made into a movie in 1984 by Tage Danielsson. The movie by Tage Danielsson is one of the top 10 most watched movies in Sweden. Even today it is impossible to escape this movie if you grow up in Sweden.

Because of this swedes will ether hate or love this show. I personally is biased towards loving it. ... Therefore, If I were to make a complete review, it would probably be an awfully lot of text, ending with a strong recommendation to go and watch this show now. I will however only talk about some things I find especially worth mentioning about this show.

In my opinion the show manage to do the original story justice.
The series faithfully follows the book, takes some inspiration from Tage Danielssons movie while adding the well known Ghibli flavor to it. The result is original and nostalgic at the same time.

The series is slow paced and really spends time fleshing out the characters. Don't expect any fast-paced action-filled adventure. This series likes to take its time and let the moments sink in. While watching this I have noticed things about the story, characters and environment I never thought about in the original.

When it comes to bizarre creatures, Studio Ghibli are masters. This story contains some strange creatures which is depicted in a very Ghiblish way. The most successful one in my opinion being the Harpies. These evil birdlike creatures was meant to be scary in the original story. Tage Danielssons version of them may be scary if you are a 6 year old child. But the Ghibli Harpies gives me goosebumps every time I see them.

The animation is done with CGI, which is unusual for a Ghibli production. Sadly it makes some scenes look a little bit too synthetic. In other scenes they have manage to squeeze in enough filler animation in between everything to makes the characters feel more organic and alive.
When I first started watching the series I had some problems accepting the CGI animations. I had hoped for a classic hand-drawn Ghibli production. But I guess this was the tradeoff they had to do to make it a 26 episode series.
After a couple of episodes however I stopped noticing it.
For most people I think the animation is where this show will stand or fall. Its not bad, but its not what you would expect.

Some will probably find the protagonist Ronja to be a little annoying in the first 3 or 5 episodes. While she is out exploring the world she finds even the simples things in the forest very amusing. She is constantly laughing intensely at everything. This is a passing phase and won't be that extreme the whole series.

Now go and watch this show!

Ronja the Robber’s Daughter is a show that I will be the first to admit that I’m severely biased against. The main reason is that as a swede I grew up watching the live-action version of this story, based from the children’s book by Astrid Lindgren. So rather than fight the inevitable, I wish to dedicate this review to comparing the two adaptions.

The animation is what one notices first as it is far from the usual. With a 3D-style that looks like it came straight out of a video-game, Ronja the Robber’s Daughter has a very different look, which may or may not scare some ... people off, though I would say that one gets used to the 3D rather quick.

Nature plays a large role in the series, to the point that one could almost call it its own character. Thanks to its amazing backgrounds you can’t help but admire the atmosphere. If you ever need to convince someone to go out camping, show them an episode or two of this. The one aspect that it lacks though is variety, while the live-action version portrays nature both as something beautiful and something that could easily kill you with its overwhelming power, the anime has a tendency to go for nothing but cuteness.

The story is intact and when it arrives at the more memorable scenes it manages to portray them well. The main problem comes from how stretched out it is. This series told a story in 26 episodes that could have been told in 12. Many episodes can literally be skipped as they involve nothing but pointless filler. While it is a Ghibli-production and one should go in expecting a lot of slice-of-life elements, I can’t help but feel that it worked against it more than in its favor this time.

When comparing the characters in each adaption I found the live-action version to be better. The dialogue in the anime tends to come off robotic and unnatural, which is a consequence of translating the story a bit too literally. The way that Ronja smiles and giggles constantly at the slightest thing nearly drove me nuts at times, and her father Mattis was portrayed as far less of an unstable and dangerous man, and more like a screaming drama-queen. Where I will say it caught me off guard was toward the end, where the characters start to reflect on what has been done and what their future holds. The father-daughter relationship comes to a good climax, and Ronja’s make-believe brother Birk in particular was developed in a way that gave me chills.

Overall, Ronja the Robber’s Daughter is a dragged out and cutesified version of the original story. Fans of Ronja are better off rewatching the live-action version or reading the book. It does however offer great art, a decent ending, and a few great scenes in between. If you are a big fan of slice-of-life or Ghibli this will be an okay watch.

Ronja is really a very cute series! I had the highest expectations about it because it was the first animated series made by Studio Ghibli, even knowing that was used digital resources on it.

To begin with it, the story is based on the book written by a swedish writer named Astrid Lindgren, and tells us the tale of Ronja, daughter of Mattis (a bandit leader) and Lovis, his wife. She lives at the Mattis's Fortress (originally Mattisborgen), which consists on a abandoned castle, split in half by a thunderbolt that struck it on the day Ronja was born. After the storm, the rival bandit clan, ... Borka's Thieves, takes half of the fortress. Some time later, Ronja meets Birk, Borka's son, and they become friends, even against their fathers will. When the clash between the clans gets worse, Ronja and Birk decide to leave the fortress, starting to live together within a cave hidden in the forest.

Mattis's desire to retrieve his little girl makes him ask for a truce with Borka, reducing the rivalry between the clans a little bit. The book consists on a parable about affection and conflicts at childhood between father and daughter, the discovery of love and independence, the wisdom of a life side by side with the nature and tolerance, at a broad sense. It was translated to a bunch of different languages, and it is an international success.

You can notice that the art is a bit different than Hayao's designs, because Goro decided to bet on digital resources (while Hayao preferred to draw all Ponyo's scenaries by hand, for example) on his animations. But that's not a real problem, considerating that he was the director of Tales from Earthsea or Kokurikozaka kara, that we all know how awesome it was.

The synopsis of the animations seems a little more fanciful than the book's, but the essence is the same: Ronja is the only and loved daughter of Mattis, who's a good hearted leader of a colorful and funny group of bandits, that lives on a huge castle at the forest. Ronja was born while a storm was raging, but her personality is cheerful and loving. And much like her father, she has a good heart, but at the same time, is a reckless girl. She starts to study the misterious creatures that live at the forest, meeting other children and then, starts to question her father's behavior.

Polygon Pictures is a 3D CG partner of Studio Ghibli on the series. It will be the first time that Goro Miyazaki will be running an animated series for television. Satoshi Takebe (from "From Up on Poppy Hill") will be the responsible for Ronja's soundtrack. And that's fabulous, I love him!

Sanzoku no Musume Ronja or "Ronja - Daughter of the Thief (or Robber)" have a captivating cast and a promising story.

To me it looks so awesome as any other story coming from Studio Ghibli, and I was waiting for months until the series went out. And, if you want to know, I really loved the first five episodes. The story follows the original plot, the characters are incredibly sympathetic, the music is nice and the scenarios are gorgeous. The harpies from story are scary and the interpretation of the "wolf song" was great. I'm not the kind of people who dislikes 3D animation, although I saw some people complaining about it. Probably because I sincerely trust the Studio, and I will for sure keep watching this series!

Futhermore, Ronja and Birk are also cute together... Even giving me agony for being too naive or jumping off cliffs as if they were jumping out of bed.

Story: 9

Its funny, but sometimes it becomes a little... Weird. Especially Mattis. But Ronja's momma always save it.

Art: 9
I think it's really cool, like I said before. When you get used with the 3D effect, you will find it awesome too.

Sound: 10
The songs are beautiful and clean. Even as a musician, I really have nothing to complain about.

Character: 9
They are nice, even if sometimes the adults look a little childish and the kids too adult.

Enjoyment: 9
It's a funny and loving story. It seems to get better and better. I hope it continues this way.

Overall: 9
Give it a chance, guys! I said it was cute so many times, but I really think it is!

I had high expectations for this anime for two reasons: It's animated by Studio Ghibli and it's based on an awesome novel I like a lot. The anime maybe didn't live up to all my expectations, but it was a very enjoyable watch. It's a sweet and cute anime with a good and occasionally very deep storyline with enough humor and some moments that can be even frightening and cruel.

I had difficulties getting used to the CGI animation used with the characters and that was the main disappointment to me. Although after a few episodes it wasn't something that was constantly distracting me, I was ... paying attention to it throughout the series. On the other side, the background art was very beautifully excecuted and the forest felt fresh and real.

The series is very relaxed and for some people the slow pacing might be a negtive issue. For me, however, the slow pacing worked well. Both the characters and the watcher were given time to enjoy the nature and the atmosphere and get into the mood of the series. I also found the pacing to be nothing forced or strained - the series developed on its own momentum and nature was given a large part just as it has in the original novel.

Although the series is most of the time quite childish, the themes are mature. I was surprised how well the more serious scenes were executed. Also the way the children's feelings are portrayed is wonderfully natural and sweet.

So, overall it's not perfect and the CGI is a drawback, but neverthless it is very good and especially suitable for someone who enjoys a good storyline and atmosphere in a relaxed pacing.

Well, this was good! I was initially worried about the CGI-animation of the characters, but got used to it pretty quickly. It is very nicely done and gets you thinking about Zelda: The Wind Waker's art. Even if I still would have prefered a traditionally animated interpretation of the story, I don't think this is something that should stop people from giving this series a fair chance. And the background paintings is extremely good looking, it truly is a feast for the eyes to see swedish nature depicted in this way!

With as much as 26 episodes the series gets a long time to adapt the ... book in a fair way, which it does from beginning to end, with some extra fluff that doesn't take away anything from the experience. If you would compare it to the old swedish movie from the 80's, this is definitely the more true to the book. This is because all the relations, events and characters gets the time they deserve to be built up properly. In the movie they basically just piled up all the key scenes as tightly packed as possible, without giving any emotional connection to anything. This is where Sanzoku no Musume Ronja succeeds splendidly.

However, something they did not succeed in was that special feeling of norse fairy tale creatures. The interpretation of the rumphobs (rumpnissar) is pretty awful, both personality-wise and appaerance-wise. The wild harpies (vildvittror) maybe would have worked in a more detailed 2D-animated style, but now they look too flat and cheap. A good equivalent to their classic catchphrase, "Nu ska blodet rinna!" (literally: "now the blood shall flow") is also missing. The gray dwarves (grådvärgar) and the unearthly ones (de underjoriska) were okay though.

Something that the series managed, that neither the old movie nor the book did, was to give all the robbers in Matt's Fort their own distinct personalites. I greatly appreciated this. And also, the interpretation of Skalle-Per was terrific.

Besides some dumb mistakes, like the fact that they pick blueberries and raspberries in spring (they don't become ripe until late summer), the swedish nature is depicted well. Sometimes the tempo maybe was too slow, but this helped more than becoming a hindrance. The thing I missed most from the movie was all the beautiful accapella harmony songs.

This is most definitely the best work of Goro Miyazaki so far. But then he also got really good source material from the great Astrid Lindgren! A fantastic story that always is relevant to people in all ages. Strongly recommended to everyone, give it a fair chance!

Astrid Lindgrens story really comes to life in this anime, which is a great adaptation and manages to make fans of the book feel right at home while still managing to excite them.

If you enjoyed the book you owe it to yourself to watch this anime, it does the source material justice, and it will make you feel like a little kid again. There is so much ejoyment to be had in this anime wether you've read the book or not.

The characters are great, there are moments of joy, moments of sadness, and everything in between.

If you want to watch a good and heartwarming anime ... Sanzoku no Musume Ronja is a great option. You won't regret it.

Initially, I was thrown off by the 3D animation for this, and I regret that immensely. The story had me engaged in every single episode and this far surpassed my expectations. You follow Ronja throughout, and the only experience what she experiences, meaning at no point do you see what is happening in situations she is not involved in (unless it is in her imagination or if she is told a story).


This is Ghibli's only television series, and I believe that will be heavily why a CGI approach was taken for this. While it does feel very strange to watch at first, you very quickly ... come to love the art style and it seems to bring more life into these characters, and I can't see myself enjoying this as much if it were a normal 2D animation, which I myself find quite shocking.


From the getgo, you have a recurring song throughout, which is the Wolf's Song. This is a lullaby sang by Lovis to Ronja to help her sleep - every version I hear of this sounds beautiful. The opening and the ending songs are ones you can't help but sing along to.


Birk Borkason - A 10-11-year-old boy who lives with his mother, Undis, and her father, Borka. He is Ronja's best friend and close companion throughout the series.

Lovis - Mattis's wife and Ronja's mother, she takes care of all of the Robbers and acts as a strict/stern mother to them all, including her own husband.

Mattis - Ronja's father and Lovis' husband, as well as the Robber chieftain.

Ronja - A 10-11-year-old girl who lives with her mother, Lovis, and her father, Mattis. She is also the protagonist.

Skalle-Per (Crazy Old Man) - Also known as Noddle-Pete in the English version, he is the oldest of the Robbers and as such can no longer participate with them, and has known and looked over Mattis since the day he was born.

For starters, I believe that if you can get through the first few episodes, the series is one of the best that you can watch. It's similar to a novel, where the change is slow, but compelling. Once through the little parts, it becomes fantastic.

So as I go into the full review, be aware that I'm writing this a few months after finishing it.


Story (9) - The problem with the story is that it's slow. That is the main problem, it's slow to start and tend to drag along. I believe it would have been best as ... a shorter series, compacting the first five episodes into two or three. Similarly to Kemono no Souja Erin, for those who've seen it, it's a slow start but a great experience when you're into it. So my words of advice, push through the first few episodes and you'll have a good time.

Art (6) - My problem here, and which is why I deducted some points, is that I'm not a fan of CGI. I feel like the series would have been much better if it were done with 2d animation, or at least a mix of the two. CGI is something that is a niche within anime, as I'm sure you know, and for people who watched this just for ghibli, won't like it much. The CGI does get better later on, but all-in-all it's one of the things you have to put up with to start, and know it gets better further in.

Sound (10) - The soundtrack is something I really love within Goro's works, he's able to convey a large part of the story through music, which is something hard to master. The soundtrack is beautiful, and as is the same with the voice actors, at least in the Japanese version. The music is one of the best parts of the series, so that is a definite plus.

Character (10) - The characters are definitely what put this series so high up. Even the people that you're supposed to hate are endearing and you can't help but care for them. Even the minor characters have great stories to them. And if the minor characters are like this, try to imagine the main characters. Ronja is one of the most endearing characters that I've seen in a long time. The thing that is able to differentiate her from other Ghibli heroines is how much of a complex character she is. She's not some girl who has special powers, she is just a girl that loves and fights for what she believes in.

Enjoyment (8) - I think this would have been higher if the first few episodes were easier to get through. The rest of the series is fine, just the first five episodes drag on. For a lot of people, they will have dropped the anime before they're able to get to the meat of the story because of those first few episodes. Overall, it's a pretty enjoyable anime, though. It's very relaxing but compelling at the same time as well. One can't help but think about it even after the anime has ended.

Overall (9) - Like all longer anime, it has it's high and low points. I think this is one of Goro's best works from Ghibli, so if you have the time and willpower, I definitely recommend this anime. You won't be let down.


Extra - If you enjoyed this anime, I would really recommend Kemono no Souja Erin, likewise as well.

After arduously slogging through the first several episodes on people's promises that this gets good later, I can say that they were right and it gets good later.

Ronja remains an insufferable brat through MOST of the story, but you come to care about the other characters enough to make up for it.
Overall it's a very good story (would be better without the painfully dull slog in the beginning), and worth putting up with the beginning in order to appreciate the end.

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My old review below because it's still completely valid for the first several episodes:

The CGI is really bad looking, the character movement and expressions are ... awkward and the lip syncing (even in the Japanese) is really badly off.

The characters themselves are all over-the-top, and the protagonist is utterly devoid of personality and could easily be replaced with a happy puppy instead and you'd barely notice, and she laughs WAY too much at EVERYTHING. It wouldn't be so bad except that they can't just have her laughing as she does things, they constantly cut away to show you a close-up shot of her stopping to laugh at every single thing.

The story starts out looking promising, but there's major flaws as soon as you get into the end of the 2nd episode and into the 3rd.

*MINOR spoilers ahead*

Ronja is sent into the woods ALONE with virtually no guidance, as her first EVER trip outside the safety of her home, and yet somehow, despite running around entirely aimlessly in the heavily wooded forest where she's never learned to navigate, she magically doesn't get completely lost, and her parents are SHOCKED when it even appears to them that she might have gotten lost. She's never SEEN a river before but knows it when she sees it, she's never SEEN a lake before, but knows it when she sees it.
It's only AFTER being rescued from danger that she was told how to avoid the danger. Peek parenting skills...

The pacing is SO insufferably slow that the ENTIRE 3rd episode could have been done effectively in 5 minutes. But no, let's have 25 extra minutes of close ups of Ronja giggling.

I'm not even surprised how not that many people have watched this Ghibli's TV series. I'll just say objectively the good and the bad aspects I found and try to explain why this has happened.

(+) Let's see... The nice thing may be that the characters are goodies, the ambientation is positive... that you may actually cry if you're sensitive enough. It's okay for a relatively young kid that doesn't have anything to watch at the time. And, of course, because this is an adaptation from Pippi Longstocking's Swedish author: Astrid Lingdren.

(+) The characters design were okay, I liked them and reminded me of Ghibli's. ... Some music was nice like the 'Wolf's song'.

(-) Well, I noticed from the start that its pace is way too slow even for a 26-episode TV series. It doesn't offer anything exciting until episode 6 more or less. But then again, it slows down again. I'm not saying this is like a rollercoaster plot, because it isn't anything like that. It's just a dead plain straight line from a cardiograph that somewhat increases its pulse a little bit from time to time. Maybe a shorter tv series would have been more delighting.

(-) The 3D tech wasn't still great at the time. Even today is still hard to accept it apart from some few exceptions. The modelling in characters, such as baby Ronja has exactly the same body model as baby Mattis (her father, if you already forgot). The hair looks weird, etc. I liked Lovis characterization, by the way. She's like Pippi being a strong mum but still I needed her to get on a horse.

So why not many people have seen this? This didn't get that much advertisement, it wasn't directed by Miyazaki the father but his son and maybe because, as I said earlier, is too long. Ghibli is best for film and short tv series (I know that Miyazaki has done tv series in the past, but the rest of the studio isn't accustomed to do that and his son is not that good, sorry). And, the most important thing was, that some friend of mine that is a real Ghibli fan had to drop out this in the first chapter... It didn't appeal to him at all and I guess I was chill enough to be able to watch it till the end.

I found out there's actually a live-action movie adaptation for Ronja so find out about that and enjoy it. I think it's slightly better.

The thing I don't like about this series most is that it ends!

"Ronja: The Robber's Daughter" is a fun story about a child who learns to put aside her family's prejudices, stand up for herself, and give everyone around her the strength to eventually learn to do the same, while having to brave the many dangers of the forest. It's a charming tale that will make you laugh, cry, and shake your fist and that mean old bad-guy.

The art and animation of this series is a bit crummy. A few times, you will surely feel like you are watching cell-shaded marionettes rather than a 3D ... anime, BUT I'm sure you will also be feeling like it's fine, because the characters are cool and the story really is a lot of fun.

The first few episodes are just barely good enough to keep watching, but the story gets great around episode 10, when winter comes. Then it's hard to turn off! As a children's cartoon, the plot never gets very complicated, there isn't much suspense or mystery, but it is quite immersive and made me excited about the adventure.

I hope more people will give the show a shot and enjoy it as much as I did.

This story is from Ghibli, so the bar is already high from the beginning. I remind seeing or reading at someplace that Goro intended to do animation for the youngers. That would be his goal with Ghibli. I think he nailed it with Sanzoku no Musume Ronja.
The sound in this is so heart-warming. It looks like someone wants to hug you. It's peaceful and somewhat mystical. It matches the forest and its environment. I loved the opening and especially the ending.
The characters are all full of energy. It maintains a good atmosphere and catches the children's attention. Ronja's father, Mattis, is so over ... the top. But I think we can buy that since he's the leader of robbers. His wife, Lovis, is what gives the show some balance. She's a strong woman who maintains the order there. One could argue about her role as a housewife, depicting her as responsible for feeding the irresponsible male, being the mother of adults that only do little choirs here and there. I won't go against that since I've got a bit annoyed by it. Although considering the story takes place somewhere in the past and the Japanese are quite conservative, that was how things probably worked. I think we can let it lie.
Moreover, is being a housewife a bad thing by itself, or is it the way it's generally depicted that's bad? I don't intend to finish this discussion, since it's a big one. In the end, this is a review, not a discussion topic, so I'll end that here. Sorry, I got a bit carried away. Anyways she's an admirable figure. As I said before, she's a strong woman with a great sense of responsibility and quite a tough-lover.
Ronja, as her mother, is a strong person. As a little child, she's adorable, and her smile is something else. How could I explain that? It's so sincere, so genuine. It's the kind of smile you only see in young children. It's interesting seeing her growth as the series goes on, her adventures, and her first love. As for Ronja and Birk's relationship, Goro followed Hayao Miyazaki's formula of strong women. She's not the fragile princess in love with the perfect prince. Ronja is equal, and although Birk starts a little more knowledgeable about the world, she fastly keeps up with him, creating a good dynamic.
The big let down about this series is that it got lost towards the end, regarding the plot. It builds a charming story, lots of good things to be developed, but Sanzoku no Musume Ronja hurries and delivers a somewhat makeshift end. It looked like the series had to finish before the planned time.
Finally, I enjoyed this series. I think that's how a story for children must be done. And the fact is that when a good story is made, even if it's targeted for a specific public, most of us would enjoy it. So, go watch without worries, it's a good story.