For starters, I'm from Finland myself, so the review is a little biased, and just to mention that this is the only anime to date to be based entirely on Finland. I would recommend this anime for anyone looking for a mostly light-hearted show with a bit of drama, and with a sweet, likable protagonist. If you're interested in Finland, or are a Finnish person, this is a must-watch. In a WW1 era Finland, Katri herds cows with her trusty and clever dachshund, Aapeli/Abel, at a neighboring farm in the countryside to earn a living for her grandparents during troubling times. She meets new friends andall kinds of different people, and different situations while she is working and living day-to-day. Most of the time, nothing exciting happens, and it's just conversations between characters. Sometimes there is trouble, and Katri suffers some hardship from time to time.

This anime is basically comprised of two parts, where Katri works in two different households, in two different environments, learning different things. She faces many types of problems in both places, but one thing that is constant, is that most people around her underestimate her, are spiteful towards her, and belittle her. She proves them wrong, and they usually change their opinion of her, after they learn that Katri is an honest, diligent worker, and a sweet girl with a heart of gold.

This has many educational things about Finland, and they are accurate. Also, this has actually a good depiction of Finland, and almost everything is presented correctly. I was actually shocked that everything written in the show in Finnish is done right, and there are only a couple typos that I noticed. Typically, anime especially from the 70s-80s, don't even get English correctly most of the time, so I feel that they must've had someone whose Finnish, or who knew Finnish language help them.

Both the opening and ending songs are great and memorable, but the soundtrack itself mostly consists of only one song Finlandia-hymn, and many variations of it. The song itself isn't bad, but it plays almost constantly, and felt like it's the only song they play. Art and animation is still good and watchable today, there are certain animations they repeat, especially the background when moving fast. Voice acting is great, and I was surprised to know that Furuya Toru is here as he is famous for many great characters today, such as Amuro Tooru in Detective Conan, Yamcha in DBZ, and as Sabo in One Piece.

I enjoyed this show and found it very entertaining, even in the year 2022. If you liked any other World Masterpiece Theatre anime, or you generally like anime from the 80s, you can't go wrong here.