Oyayubi Hime Monogatari

The eternal dilemma which is always brought up infront of Anime and cartoon lovers, by those who are close minded is “These animations are for children, not for grownups.” As a result, you find a lot of Anime lovers resorting to Anime with evident superficial markings so that they could prove that Anime is not in actuality for children. Some examples of superficial markings is the presence of violence, blood, fatal injuries, or sexual intercourse. This way of looking at things is not accurate, because some Anime on the outset - such as Deadman Wonderland – look like they contain a lot of blood, gore ... and violence, but their storytelling in general is unoriginal, weak, and most importantly, immature. The Anime Thumbelina: A Magical Story, on the outset, looks very childish and is made for kids, and it lacks any semblance of violence or gore. The surprising thing is that this Anime is more suitable for adults than, let’s say, an Anime that actually entails all kinds of violence in it. So, what is the general rule that is applied to knowing precisely if a work is for children or for adults? Hopefully after describing this Anime, you’ll get a better view.

The story is an adaption of the novel by writer Hanz Anderson, by the same name of Thumbelina, and it talks about a princess who is the size of a thumb, who comes out of a flower and faces many who would like her hand at marriage, until she settles in a true and loving relationship. The Anime adapts this in a light manner, and tells the story from a different angle. The main girl, Mia, is a normal human girl, who makes her mother exhausted due to her bad demeanor and shady shenanigans. Due to this trouble that Mia is causing, her mother seeks the advice of an old woman so that she could help her out with her issues. The old woman gives the mother a book by the name of Thumbelina, and the mother takes it before she falls asleep on her rocking chair, and is later picked up by Mia. Unfortunately for Mia, the book imprisons and traps her in it’s fantasy world, and from there on, Mia tries to return to her own world and her mother, and her true size as well, since she became much smaller upon entering the fantasy world. In that book, she will face a lot of enemies and circumstances, and form a lot of friendships as well in each passing episode. This is the body structure of the story, it is classic, and is ready to be filled with well-developed characters and a strong narrative. The script is very well done in the sequence of events and the speed at which they take place in, is intelligent in showing the necessary details. The writer is proficient at writing the script, and he respects the mind of the viewer.

The Anime’s beginning is straightforward and spectacular, where the viewer gets to know the titular character Mya and the general goal of the story in a clear manner, and it contributes to sculpting a road for the writer to take later on in the story. The Anime is episodic, and each episode is different from the other, but they are all related in the fact that they have the general goal of adventure. Due to this, some episodes will turn out excellent while some others will turn out to be fairly average, and with that I find that the average mean score for all the episodes is fairly good.

The main characters which are reoccurring in most of the episodes have a lightweight depth and are easy to understand, but they are still fairly developed, and that is something which makes it easier for the younger viewers to follow the story and understand the events that are taking place, while the older viewers are not deprived of any depth in the story as well. The most beautiful aspect of the story is that the development of the main characters, and that of the heroine are very concrete, and it begins to show more and more in a logical and natural way over time, and this is a professional achievement when it comes to storytelling.

The secondary characters, or the guests of each episode, are complete in their compositions and are fairly developed. The ending is intact and beautiful, although being normal, and it was in dire need of a touch of brilliant directing to make it better, not better writing. There are some light negative points in weaving certain events and reaching their significance, and a lack of excellence in some episodes, and this deprives the storytelling in this Anime from reaching the highest level of writing, but does not deprive it from achieving a high quality nonetheless.

All of the camera angles and movements have a significant meaning, and they contribute to the narration and making the Anime more exciting. The visual backgrounds throughout the Anime’s run are beautiful and very well done from a technical standpoint, and are filled with important details, to the point where they reflect on the personality of the characters that live in them, giving off a deep backstory for them, and contributing to making the story highly credible. The drawing of the movements and the characters maintain their quality throughout the Anime’s run, as most of the episodes contain incredible drawings and visuals, and there are episodes which are even greater, especially when those episodes become plot driven in a big way.

The character design is imaginative and brilliant, even the secondary minor characters look unique in their own way, since each design reflects on the personality and traits of a character in a correct manner, without the need to make them look as outlandish as possible. The color palette is brilliant, especially when it comes to creating indoor lightning and mixing it in a way that comforts the eye and contributes on making the events more focused. The sound effects are also brilliant, as well as the music, which is harmonious with the events of the story and effectively contribute to aggregation and integration.

All in all, this is an Anime that walks a fine line when it comes to writing, creative in showcasing it’s themes and has some of the best pacing in Anime. The characters are all well developed and lovable, appropriate for both young and old audiences. As for the old person, who suffers from the eternal dilemma of Anime being a children’s medium, this one proves otherwise. Don’t let the outer design of something fool you, rather let the essence of something be the most important. Plenty of times do we see something that looks like it was made for adults, but is in fact contextualized for a young audience of little experience in life, and plenty of times do we see a work that looks like it was made for a young audience, but rather becomes apparent through it’s context that it was clearly done for an older one.

I seen this twice and re-watching it again, I really think its underrated, also a very rare gem of early anime too.

Story - This story is really a twist; it has elements of the story of Thumbelina base off Hans Christian Andersen but goes its own way.
A woman whose fed up of her daughter's bratty attitude went to the town's witch and ask what to do, the elderly witch gave her a book called 'Thumbelina' and told her to read it to her daughter.
When she get home, she told her daughter Mia about the story and started reading it; a few pages in the ... story the Mother felt asleep and Mia decide to read the book however she suddenly grow smaller and smaller.
Mia started her adventures, made friends along the way as well while heading to a kingdom to get back home and avoiding the evil witch and her magic.

The story like I said has some elements of Thumbelina and a hint of the Wizard of Oz too while still being its own.
Characters like the Toads and the mouse appear in the story as well with other creative characters.

Characters - I'll admit their pretty descent but the only grew we see is our Main Character.
Mia is indeed a total and ungrateful brat, like kids mostly are when she suddenly shirk down; she was helpless and scare while still being bratty but along her journey, she starts being less of a brat.
-The side characters are fun and cute too, Noble and Hoppy are super cute.

Art- The art is good old school anime style, bright and colorful to dark and mysterious. True gem.

Sound - Thou I did watch the dub, the voices were okay and I'll admit Mia's voice gets annoying at first but gets better later on.
The music is wonderful and magical.

The only down side I'll admit is the Witch Character, thou I won't say anything about it.

This is a wonderful story to watch, and I want to find the DVD to this since its a cute story.