Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette

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]

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

Yamamoto, Kouji Producer

Sakurai, Hiroaki Director, Storyboard

Hayase, Hiroyuki Sound Director

Akagi, Hiroaki Episode Director

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 7, 2024

Julpen

Mixed Feelings

Spoiler

This show are full of problem that are trivial alone but gathered become the straw that broke the camel's back :

- Eponine highlight Cosette as designated hero and that's why she was removed :
https://files.catbox.moe/gc2ufu.mp4

Cosette live in the same city than Eponine collapsing due to misery but ain't affected at all by it and end up being the typical highly optimistic friendship is magic love is the answer piece of shit character btw both love Marius but one deserve him more than the other apparently

- Fantine have the Rukia/Botan problem : A character that was created with another version of the show in mind, being ... the proof of a last minute change in his initial theme (Valjean stole the show)

About Marius and the ABC arc : So his friend try to fight the gouvernment to make change society and get killed : but thing get better anyway ? It really give me IBO vibes but much worst because Uru ain't singing the ending
It write them off for being dangerous Man-child bursting a tantrum and make without thinking the argument "You make thing worst by resisting bcz of retaliatory action the oppressor could take"

After his arc everyone become blandly nice like Cosette even those who had a serious case of Summoner's Rift mentality like Javert/Grandpa, could it be the magical effect of contact with grass ?

The last episode is chief kiss of being awful : Apparently it was a story about Jean Valjean redemption bcz he stole bread to feed his probably dead of starvation nephews, the title of this should have been "Misaimed fandom The Animation"

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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May 16, 2021

AgentBishop

Not Recommended

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, ... it was hell every second, but here she is happy!! she barely is shown to be scared, she barely is shown to be miserable
because there is always some fucking emotional support from chu chu!
she doesn't get kicked in a way we can see, the physical abuse isn't show, you just see the bruises later on her leg, AWFUL adaptation

did you know the mother sells her teeth? yet we never see this in the anime
did you know the sister (nun) after lying cries her eyes out? yet she just moves on without a single tear in this anime


the music is probably the only good thing about this anime
the animation is too lazy for a story as great as this one

i don't think most of you would read the book or watch the older anime so i suppose watching this garbage is better than nothing, it's just so sad how this anime didn't deliver the true tragedy that characters actually went through

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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