Ie Naki Ko

A journey through MadHouse chapter 4: a telenovela for children and otakus.

Remi is the story of an adopted child who was sold by his adoptive father to a circus company. If you think that is the worst thing that could have happened to the child, it is because you probably have not made it past the first chapter. Remi, more than an anime, seems to be a bet to see who can break the child the fastest before taking him to his end. Despite all the unfortunate scenarios he gets into, REmi manages to get ahead thanks to his personality and the education he received ... from his buyer.

Despite what stands out the most is the drama and the misfortunes, the story has a good balance of sad and happy moments so as not to turn Remi into a martyr. It is a story that teaches us that there are good people and bad people in the world, that it is our job to take care of ourselves when we are getting to know a new person. Without a doubt, Remi was sold as a child, but when the story ended, we could see him become a little adult.

On the negative side, the worst thing about this anime is the narrator. Each chapter has a brief introduction made by the narrator and don't doubt that when that voice that knows everything wants to give a spoiler, it will do so and without stopping. You are constantly bombarded with spoilers of the story and you can't even control it because the narrator is so agile that when you least expect it, he has already told you how the anime was going to end.

If you want to get into old animes, this is a good option, since you will most likely have it available because it has dubbing in many other languages. If you have the opportunity to see it, enjoy it a lot since it is a story that you will not see again for a long time.

Nobody's Boy Remi, or "Sans Famille" in French is one of the monoliths of classic anime. Coming from the 1970's, directed by the prolific Osamu Dezaki and equally prolific art director Shichiro Kobayashi; written by famed French writer Hector Malot known also for his sister novel En Famille, or the 1978 anime adaptation Perrine Monogatari by Nippon Animation - Well known for their adaptations of classic literature under the moniker World Masterpiece Theatre or at the time of its airing, Calpis Family Theater. Helmed by two of the greatest studios of their era MADHOUSE and TMS, you have a show with so much riding on ... it that you could only count other anime with the same level of prestige on about two hands.

Put simply, this anime is critically acclaimed and the question remains whether or not it deserves it.

Chronicling a portion of titular character Remi's early years, this story follows him not quite as a teenager yet upon being sold by a travelling performer and learning to survive as what is essentially considered for the era as an extravagent beggar. Trekking across the harsh landscapes of France with no ensured stability, Remi and his master Vitalis are tasked with a simple yet incredibly arduous task - To live day to day. Like providing everyone with shelter on a rainy night, or having enough bread to split evenly between the entire troupe; always moving towards a new destination of aspiring onlookers that are willing to throw you a morsel of financial reprieve. The life of one who performs from town to town is difficult and many people don't look upon you with envy, but rather pity.

Remi is a sad but endearing story that provides a look into a life that truly isn't a fair one. Remi experiences more loss, heartbreak and hardship than most people experience in their entire life in the span of a few years. Melodrama that doesn't happen because it has to, but because it's inevitable. The journey of life isn't a straight road, but a rough pavement filled with potholes. They may appear easy to avoid when looking at them objectively, but the human heart doesn't think objectively nor does it allow itself to easily perceive those potholes. So you fall, grab on at all costs and do everything you can to climb back up.

The question that someone may ask themselves is "why continue to be a travelling performer? Why not find a job in a mine or farm or something more stable"? What purpose is there in living day to day, town to town, extravagently scrounging for money off the goodwill of others? Why practice a hedonistic sense of purpose that can very well lead you to a path of obscurity? There are questions that you can't answer definitively, and trying to find the answer isn't the goal. Vitalis' goal with Remi isn't something you summarise with a sentence to accentuate his aspiration to do so. He wishes to share his love, passion and regrets in life to give another the chance to survive in a brutal world willing to cut you down when you least expect it. He desires to teach Remi of life itself, and the many kinds of joys that exist within it.

The truth that Vitalis offers isn't an objective one, but of many truths that he learned through a long, hard and fulfilling life. One that allowed him to appreciate and love an aspect to life. It's a commonality for older people to hand down their wisdom to younger generations. It may appear as bothersome, presumptuous or out of touch to many younger people, but the reason is often because they've simply lived longer. The older you get the more you realise just how much you can appreciate the sanctity of a satisfied life. And it's interesting when you consider that he's the oldest recurring character in the show.

So Vitalis brings Remi up to follow his passions, but he does so not as a watchful hawk. Remi lives his life with Vitalis' upbringing keeping him in check, but never to dictate how life should go. Remi always reminds himself of what Vitalis would tell him in his moments of hesitation. Vitalis represents Remi's conscience and moral compass.

It goes without saying, Osamu Dezaki + Shichiro Kobayashi is arguably the greatest pair of old anime. No director understands Kobayashi's truly emotive, naturistic vision as well as Dezaki does. As someone who popularised so many directing techniques he's able to bring out every bit of Kobayashi's potential as a visionary. It's shot composition galore. Despite being 51 episodes this show almost never sees visual compromises in the layout or storyboard. All forms of stylistic and tasteful budget cuts are used to avoid overly complicated animation. Now sure, a more modern eye may look at all the still frames and think they're looking at a slideshow. Despite Dezaki being known for popularising the postcard memory technique among others, I would hardly regard anime directed by him as lacking in the animation department.

When you compare a similar show like Anne of Green Gables, the most apparent detail in Remi is how lively the animation itself is. Many shows of the era had far less in-between frames than you may typically see in anime today as animation is considered the most important visual detail for newer anime, but Remi manages to have more detailed animation than most TV anime that came out years after it. Part of the impressive nature is how it so cleverly hides the use of reused animation. Unlike say an anime with transformations, Remi's obviously far more grounded and exists with real world settings in mind. But as long as you're placing these animations within appropriate contexts you can use a completely different setting and you would never notice the same dancing animation is being used. These are treated as you would a transformation or signature attack in other anime, they're the animations given extra attention likely animated on more 2's instead of the usual 3's or 4's (in layman's terms it's animated more smoothly) for the purpose of being reused. It allows any typical animation not reused to particularly pop out with a lot of movement.

Now animation is all well and good but the real star here is Kobayashi. No contest. I'm not going to speak on all significant anime he's worked on as I haven't yet seen them all so it's not my place to make declarative statements accounting for general readers, but I will say that up to this point in all his anime I've watched this is my favourite work of his. This is including Rose of Versailles, Berserk, Windy Tales, YKK, Castle of Cagliostro and Utena, to name the most notable ones I have seen. You could chalk this up to my obsession for rural, early/pre-industrial settings or if you want a word to search up, cottagecore. I know I'm biased, but I think there's more to it than just that. This does in heavy part credit Dezaki for his incredible sense of constructing a scenario for Kobayashi, and needless to say that practically every anime Kobayashi's worked on looks great. But there's something deeper, more profound to be discovered within this experience to me.

I've watched an interview with Shichiro Kobayashi (toco toco ep. 17 if you want to look it up) and while many quotes stuck out the one that struck me the most was "I love this scenery, because there is nothing" which cuts to a simple footpath, a tree overhanging the pathway, shrubbery on the right and the left with a hilly terrain, and a man carrying a package with his pomeranian following closely behind. He then proceeds to stop in his place and sketch what I described in his own image. Kobayashi deeply understands the intimacy of art. A landscape portraying a rural footpath isn't just that to anyone, it can be heavily nostalgic; a pocket of time that's captured forever. It can be sad, reminding you of walking your dog during a dark time in your life. It can even bring a tear to your eye in ways you can't describe with logic. Art captures the emotions of an artist and presents itself to the viewer in however way their mind wishes to perceive it. It can reveal emotions you may not have realised you even possessed.

Shichiro Kobayashi's love of "nothing" is a love for his surroundings. Landscapes that you pass by everyday. Mountains, trees, footpaths, lakes, houses, towns of all sorts are pulled from his heart and transported onto paper. Remi is an anime that spends most of its time walking past these places just beyond your bank of memories, around the corner of that cliff or beyond the horizon and by god does it show in this series. There are so many still frames in this show that belong in official art books. From the many breathtaking parallaxing landscapes, astounding colour palettes that capture the warmth and harsh cold perfectly, to the postcard memories that are probably the best and most well utilised I've ever seen - Remi is a visual marvel that not only stands above and beyond practically all anime of its era and a few years following it, it represents a pure romance that goes beyond its story and directing. I feel like this is one of the reasons why Figure 17 is another one of my favourite Kobayashi anime, his sense and passion for naturalism within art is unmatched in anime which is what gives him the reputation of being quite likely the greatest art director anime ever saw.

I hate to end this segment on Kobayashi transitioning into Takeo Watanabe, cause I've already established Kobayashi as the undisputed MVP of this show. But no, I'm not doing this to undermine him at all (it just happened that way.) While a far lesser name than the aforementioned two, Watanabe is by no means a no-name and his work on this show is absolutely nothing to ignore. Most well known for his work on Heidi and Mobile Suit Gundam, Watanabe has a very distinctive style I believe most who've seen any of his shows would recognise fairly quickly. The use of accordion and mallet instruments in many of his tracks are a definable trait, creating a warm European innocence that often comes with the casts of shows he's involved in. There's a modest optimism - a sense of relief that makes you feel comfort in the story's direction. Until the tension rises. Watanabe's mastery of stark tonal shifts is his greatest strength. When the music is happy, you feel happy. When the music is tense, you feel anxious. This is a technique that can be expressed towards many soundtracks, but personally I've always found Watanabe to have an extra element that I can't pinpoint. When you're crying just by LISTENING to Heidi, Perrine or Remi's soundtrack and remembering the atmosphere, you know the music has successfully dominated your emotions.

I don't want to forcibly convey a sappy message of this show down your throat. Everyone knows that this anime is sad, besides it's significantly less depressing when you look at the big picture. Remi rewards your emotional investment. It's not aggressively stomping on your heart and leaving it out in the rain. It may do so occasionally, even frequently. But the message and lessons learned throughout Remi's journey are a testament to human endurance. This doesn't just apply to Remi, but to Perrine which by extension refers to Hector Malot as a writer. Both shows are reminder that people are good deep down. If you're willing to reach out, whether you're desperate for a helping hand or not you'll learn how valuable a bond between two living beings can be.

I don't think Hector Malot ever intended to have Remi summarised as depressing. The point is to understand how emotionally powerful all beings can be when they lean on each other and put their everything in living. When life is hard you work harder, and in turn learn more about the world and yourself. Being a traveling performer isn't about being an entertainer to Vitalis or Remi, it's about challenging yourself in life in a fulfilling way. Hardship brings growth, and growth brings enlightenment. True hardship that comes from living out in the world and getting to experience the best and worst of nature and people. No one can say for sure if enlightenment brings happiness, but maybe your own version of enlightenment will bring you closer to it.

Remi is a boy who doesn't belong to a predetermined fate, because life isn't predetermined. Despite being sold by his adopted parents, his life isn't the subject of pure misery. His life is his own to be decided, and his sense of purpose is something that cannot be understood until he experiences the pain to value and cherish life. And perhaps, maybe when you finally experience happiness, even that might not be enough to understand it. There is no way to know how or when you'll be truly happy, the only thing you can know is to follow your heart at all costs. Your mind may often lie to you and tell you to give up. But your body and soul will always remain intact as long as you cherish yourself with purpose and optimism.

Move forward, Remi.

This anime is based on the book of the French author Hector Malot, Sans Familie, published in the year of 1878. Recelty I got obsessed with this kind of adaptions in anime, I don't have rejects. This story is sad, but at the same time you can learn something in every episode.


Remi is a 8 year old boy that lives with her mother in the small town of Chavannon. He is happy and helps his mother with the cow and learning how to do some other things. But this happiness is interrupted when his father got injured due an accident in the company he ... works in Paris. The father needs money because he is demanding the company, but he lost. Because of this Remi will discover a mountain of lies and his father will... do something Remi and his mother won't like.


What I like about this anime is the animation. Everything moves! The scenario is always moving. The clouds move, the trees move, everything while the characters walk. Just search for the opening and you will discovered what I am saying.

The character development is really good. Everyone is important in the story and we can learn something with them. Remi can learn about how to be strong, no matter the circumstances thanks to the journey he began with the decision of the father.

This anime is a worth to watch, for some episodes the story can be a little slow, but personally everything that happens is interesting. There are any filler episodes. In some we can watch character development, their dreams, their weaknesses, and if other episodes we can watch the story.