Princess Sara

Sent to an all-girls boarding school due to her father's overseas job, Sara Crewe is a promising young girl who excels both academically and socially in her new life in London. However, her world is turned upside down when she is called into the headmistress' office and informed of news that no child wants to hear: her father has passed away.

Now an orphan, Sara is stripped of her status as a student and is forced to work in the boarding school as a maid in order to support herself. To make matters worse, her once friendly peers suddenly turn against her upon hearing about her fall from wealth. Coming to terms with the unfortunate situation she faces, Sara must learn to persevere and form new friendships in order to regain her dignity as well as her identity.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Crewe, Sara Main

Shimamoto, Sumi Japanese

Becky Supporting

Ichiryuusai, Teiyuu Japanese

Peter Supporting

Sakamoto, Chika Japanese

Doll, Emily Supporting

Minchin, Amelia Supporting

Nashiwa, Yuri Japanese

Legh, Lottie Supporting

Watanabe, Naoko Japanese

St. John, Ermengarde Supporting

Yaosaka, Maki Japanese

Chrisford, Tom Supporting

Nakamura, Shuusei Japanese

Carmichael, Janet Supporting

Mukaidono, Asami Japanese

Clothes Shop Owner Supporting

Kamiyama, Takuzou Japanese

Kurokawa, Fumio Director

Nakanishi, Ryuuzou Script

Kamata, Hidemi Script, Assistant Production Coordinat

Kusuba, Kouzou Storyboard

Reviews

Dec 3, 2019

Rayaxe

Recommended

[Spoiler free review]
I'm going to keep this review short, because there's not a lot to say about this show. It starts off pretty weak with more than 10 episodes of build up before the actual premise is reached and then it suddenly gets good. The thing about it though is you could always see where the plot was taking you well in advance, and it just turned into an observation of a constant cycle. It was a loop of witnessing the main character's unconditional kindness, followed by a harsh dose of cruelty and finally a few tears shed and determined vows are made before the ... reset button is pressed. However, this doesn't mean it didn't have enjoyment to offer, it just didn't surprise me often.

When the anime gives you a bone, to makes you think subsequent progression is finally on it's way, it violently tugs it away from you to remind you that there is nothing idealistic about the main character's position. It reminds you that only at the end will you get to savour the bone. And that it did. The ending was no surprise, but I feel like it would be unfair to fault it based on the ultimate outcome as apposed to rating the execution of it. I was prepared to see how they would execute the end and progress towards it and. While the execution was unexpected, it made me feel more disappointed than I had been in a while. The ending, metaphorically speaking, was like seeing an oil drum, filled with all the liquid idealism that the other episodes were starved of, pierced sharp by a pickaxe from a quarter bellow the top of the container - leading to it's contents uncontrollably gushing out until the level of it's contents quickly fell bellow the hole and thus stopped spilling. This ultimately meant that the built up was wasted as no one really got their just deserts. In fact, the ending pretty much excused all the heinous cruelty we witnessed and essentially touted forgiveness on the basis that it all worked out in the end anyway. This would be fine if it were not for that fact that the moral of the story ended up being "don't mistreat people that seem like they have nothing to give, or else they might just not give you loads of money in the future" - with an emphasis on the word "might", since all the antagonists in the plot were spared a serving of revenge and rewarded...
I think it's clear that I was deeply disappointed by the ending and felt betrayed for investing time into the plot. I was especially annoyed by the fact that the most hate worthy antagonists were portrayed as good people void of maliciousness, when the complete opposite was the fact. It's impossible for you to think that the the character who spent the whole series bullying most the other characters in a disgusting fashion did not despise the main character, simply because she said it - but was in fact her ally in disguise who did nothing to aid her. I was extremely confused by the character who fit this descriptions having an immediate transition from antagonist to ally.

Nonetheless, I chose to give this anime a 7/10, because as much as much as the ending disappointed, I enjoyed the majority of the series. I got to see Victorian era London is action, and was immersed by the environment. I was impressed by how much detail went in building the atmosphere and I enjoyed witnessing the main character discovering new things about working class London life during that era. Although the cycle I previously mentioned was sometimes damaging to my enjoyment, I don't think many episodes felt repetitive in terms of their content and there was still some progression that remained after the rest button was pressed every few episodes. Although the music was pretty mediocre (even for the standards of anime made during that time), I thought the voice acting was well done and the anime was pretty decent. The paintings of London used in the backgrounds were great too, and as a Londoner, it looked familiar to what I see everyday when I pass or go into old houses and buildings. And finally the characters (apart from a few) were very consistent and were somewhat unique - with my main issue only being the fact that some of the characters didn't seem to retain emotions spawned from previous episodes. Therefor I think it's deserving of an above average score, especially considering how much more enjoyable it was watching it compared to the majority of the other anime I've watched.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 15, 2021

johnbradshaw

Mixed Feelings

This is a recorded conversation between an anonymous producer and screen writer.

Producer (Mr.P): So I want a story that moves people's heart. Can you somehow make that happen?

Screen Writer guy (SW): But I don't understand human's psychology or emotion sir. I don't think I can grasp common sense.

Mr.P: So how about this? We get rid of all that.

SW: Brilliant sir, how about a story about a little angel got abused for almost all the runtime?

... Mr.P: Uhmm I don't think people will like a story about children got abused though?

SW: But with that story, we can have a forced happy ending sir. I think viewers will love it. Besides, I feels quite lazy.

Mr.P: I'm interested. So who's gonna be in it?

SW: Doesn't matter sirs. We will put a little girl as nice as an angel with the most despicable assholes and bullies we can find in the history of cinema.

Mr.P : But isn't that torturous? What about those not bully?

SW: Remember sir? Happy ending? Those others aren't really that important since they're crying half of the time. Aren't girls those time all like that?

Mr.P: Oh right right. My bad, I forgot.

SW: Alright sir. So I think that's it. What do you think?

Mr.P: That's it. So we're gonna have a story about a little girl fell ill to fate (melodrama) who would get abused for almost all the time and somehow got a forced happy end? Without ever fighting for it?

SW: Yeah sir.

Mr.P: I think we got ourself a masterpiece in the making Screen Writer-san. Wrap it up, wrap it up. We're gonna make some sweet money.

All jokes aside, I found princess Sara is amongst the weakest of World Masterpiece Theater. I like her, to be honest, Sara is super kind, I would love to protect her with all my might. But I can't forgive that writing style, be that I warned you before watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 16, 2018

Nate515

Not Recommended

You can cut this anime series down to 30 episodes (mostly from the middle of the series) and STILL display enough of Sara's suffering to make a point - that it's a hard-knock life, for .... uh, ahem...that song does stick doesn't it?

It's dragged out way too long and I ended up skipping through part of several episodes just to get to the conclusion.

It started out as something interesting, but became something rather painful and aggravating to watch. The balance is off. Extremely cold-hearted, evil people all congregated under one building and supportive characters that lacked voice and power to make much of a ... difference during most of the anime. The ending is not satisfying. I understand the important message where "we can all get along" but there's a point where you draw the line to certain people.

It's a decently made anime, but it has too many 'stressful' scenes to watch. I didn't enjoy this anime. The anime itself is a 6.5, but I got to give it a 4, it was more pain then pleasure.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Shoukoujo Sara Episode 46 Discussion AironicallyHuman - Aug 29, 2011	26 replies	by LastLuminescence »» Aug 30, 4:23 PM
	Poll: Princess Sara Episode 14 Discussion FMmatron - Jan 2, 2018	2 replies	by HadiBQ »» Aug 26, 2:32 AM
	Poll: Shoukoujo Sara Episode 45 Discussion Zekkenshin - Oct 10, 2015	6 replies	by Turn_A_Blum »» Apr 16, 9:58 AM
	Poll: Shoukoujo Sara Episode 39 Discussion Zekkenshin - Oct 9, 2015	5 replies	by Turn_A_Blum »» Apr 16, 6:19 AM
	Poll: Princess Sara Episode 38 Discussion FMmatron - Sep 9, 2018	3 replies	by Turn_A_Blum »» Apr 16, 6:16 AM