It took me very long to make an review, but here it is, ladies and gentlemen. Now, as you can probably guess, this will be yet another review of yet another anime show from Nippon Animation, as you can see from the page of this anime itself. Now, if you've been reading my reviews, before, you might already know who they are and how many anime shows they had made. But the one show that i've been wanting to review and that i have never once did, was in fact an anime show from the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise. And what great way to start 2024with an review of an anime that isn't as popular worldwide, but is still an cultural icon in Japan, than today's review: "Flanders No Inu", also known in english as "The Dog of Flanders".

The Dog of Flanders was an anime series that aired in 1975, animated by Nippon Animation (Go figure), and it is based of the novel series written by british author "Ouida". There has been many adaptations of Flanders novel made in the past, even before Nippon's own adaptation from the 70s. But unlike most adaptations, this one attempts to follow the novel very closely all the way to the end, with some some more details and additions to the story, here and there. And also, unlike most movies and TV shows' adaptions of the novel, the 75' anime series was, just like the original novel, itself, absolutely beloved by the majority of Japanese audience. So much so, that not only the show lasted for 52 episodes, succeeding on following the novel, perfectly, but giving an true ending to the already beloved anime show. Making this anime one of the most memorable anime shows in history. It was an subject for homages, parodies, and even had been referenced in many anime shows, even to this day. Like for example, Subaru from Re:Zero, had an phone that uses the same tune from the classic anime from 75' as his ringtone. And a much more recent example is CAPCOM's recent remake of Resident Evil 4 game. Which has 3 animated commercials that pays homage to the 75' anime, basically parodying both The Dog of Flanders and the RS4 game, all while being animated by Nippon Animation, itself. Quite an coincidence, don't you think?

But enough all that, you're here for the anime, right? So how does this anime hold up, compared to most anime shows that i've seen over the years, and how does it hold up compared to the majority of all the adaptions of Flanders novel by Ouida? Let's find out...

But first things first, i want to address that i've finished watching the anime with Portuguese translations made by two fansub groups. One is the Brazillian fansub by Proxy Fansubs, while the European one was made by SilverDragoon fansubs. This was because i prefer watching and reading in Portuguese than in English, because it's much easier for me to understand the story, alittle better.

Okay, i'm done rambling, here's the synopses:

The story is about an young boy named "Nello Flanders", who lives in an village with his grandfather "Jehan Flanders", as a poor family who have the finances problems. Despite this, they were an happy family, together, who spend everyday, working hard to transfer and sell milk to the city of Antwerp, just so they can afford enough money for food. One day, Nello encounters an dog named "Patrasche", who's constantly getting whipped and abused by his owner, who forces him to take the cart full of jewelry everywhere they go, just to sell the jewelry stuff for a quick buck. Nello feels bad for the dog and wanted to give water to Patrasche, but gets interrupted by the owner who pushes the kid away from the dog and continue their work. As the story progresses, Patrasche starts to feel completely out of it. He hasn't eaten anything, drinked anything, not even having a good rest or sleep, at all. So the owner, seeing how weak he's gotten, to the point of not even be able to move a muscle, at all, instead of giving him food or water or helping him out to make him feel better, no, he holds the dog to his own arms, throws him againts the grass floor and continues his work without his own dog, leaving him to die. Good god! Talk about despicable!

A few minutes later, Nello and Jehan finds that same dog that Nello saw a few days ago, sees him lying to the floor, left to die. So Nello, feeling sorry for the dog and hating to see an innocent animal to die because of overwork, decided to bring him to his home with his grandfather, to help and take good care of him. Luckily, Patrasche managed to survive, thanks to Nello and Jehan's good caring for the weak dog. And from there, Nello and Jehan decided to keep the abandoned dog as his owners. So for the rest of the series, Nello and Patrasche would spend their times, together, as companions, where they can play around, relax, and do things as most good childrens do, like helping out his grandfather on his job to sell milk in Antwerp.

There are also some subplots that also accompanies the story moving forward. Both good things and bad things happening to Nello's life. Such as Nello becoming an painter, his relationship with his friends such as Alois, George and Paul, the owner trying to take Patrasche away from Nello and Jehan, Nello's grandfather's health deteriorating in each episodes more frequently, some of their neighbors leaving the village like Mrs. Nulette, people like Hans and Mr. Cogez misjudging and unjustifying Nello as the route of all of their foolish problems, an arc where Alois leaves the village to go to england, in which she gets sick there due to all the anxiety and hardwork at her british school, and all lots more.

The story of this anime, as you can guess, it's definitely something else entirely. What could've been an relaxing and cute show at first, would have such interesting arcs, characters and episodes that would push the story's greatness, even further. I loved everything about this anime. It basically not only adapts the story of the novel perfectly to give an great introduction to the story of Nello Flanders and his dog, Patrasche, but also adding a few new things to the story to give it an much richer story than it already had. Each arc has served a purpose to the story and gives Nello and the rest of the cast perfect character developments. Not to mention that many of its moments really leaves an mark onto everyone's perspective on the anime. Some making you smile, others making you laugh, or sad to see, or in some cases, getting frustrated and angry at it (But in an good way). My personal favorite arc in the entire anime is Nello becoming an painter. This is because this subplot has gave Nello so much growth in personality and character, thanks to many of the things happening to him, from the loss of his grandfather, to being blamed for the things he never did. Which leaves to him building all the confidence and hope that he would finally succeed on becoming an painter and finally get to go to school, just like his friend Alois, but to no avail. Which of course leaves us with what i call it "The saddest, yet, satisfiying ending to an masterpiece of anime i've ever seen". But in respect to this anime's greatness, i'm not gonna try to spoil it and ruin the surprise for everyone to see.

But yeah, the story of this anime is indeed, an beautiful journey that i had with this anime. No. Questions. Asked.

The characters are all great. Aside from Andre, who didn't do much in the story, and probably the most boring character in the series, the rest of the cast are all great. Not once have i ever felt tired of seeing them every now and then.

Starting with Nello, the boy who has gone through so much things happening to him, despite all the hardships and tribulations, he always maintained true to himself. Showing his kindness to thoses in need, not ONCE has he ever holded a single grudge againts anyone who stands in his way, even if he gets misjudged and accused for the things he did nothing wrong. He's also quite an strong kid. And no, i'm calling him like overpowered hero, but rather, a pretty strong kid who can help out his grandfather on transfering the milk to Antwerp, taking care of those who get sick, and there's even an arc where he took care of his uncle (Who unfortunately, i couldn't remember his name at the time of this review, gomen ne! XP), while trying to cut a very huge tree down all by himself. Which shocks me to this day, because, how can an kid, at the age of 9, would manage to cut down an huge, gigantic tree, while his uncle is sick? HOW!? That's what i love about Nello and why he's my favorite character in this anime. Despite getting all misjudged and treated unfairly by the villagers and even with no way to fight back, he always stayed strong until the anime's tragic end.

His companion, Patrasche, is also an wonderful character, too. This is the kind of dog that i would love to have as my companion. He's the type of dog who always wanted to stay loyal to his new owner and wanted to help out whenever they need. Despite being abused by his previous owner, he still wanted to help Nello and Jehan transfer the milk to Antwerp. Much like Nello, Patrasche has always maintained strong and faithful to himself, still loyal to Nello, no matter how much faith or hope is lost, and no matter how many times they get unjustified. Truly... One of a kind.

Aside our two MCs, we also get other characters who are also just as fantastic as the MCs and do serve a purpose to the story, as well. There's Alois, who has been Nello's best friend until the end of the series, Nello's grandfather, Jehan Flanders, his two new friends George and his younger brother, Paul, his kind neighbor, Mrs. Nulette, and her female pet duck named "Kuro", Alois parents, the down-to-earth mother Mrs. Cogez and the awful father Mr. Cogez and that piece of human trash named "Hans" who constantly blames Nello for stupid shit that Hans himself did. Despite being side characters (except Alois, who's pretty much an main character, too, at this point), each characters has their own purpose to the story. Either helping out Nello when he's in deep trouble, like Alois, George and Paul, or when he's getting bombarded with harsh criticism towards him, such as Mr. Cogez and Hans. While the middle are the people who are very supportive for Nello's life, like Jehan, Mrs. Nulette, Mrs. Cogez, his uncle who lives in the tree, and among others. Either way, all of them did an fantastic job as characters, and with the exception of Andre (Who is, again, an boring character to see in the anime), i pretty much loved everyone in this anime. Even Hans and Mr. Cogez, who both i loved to hate on them for both being pieces of shits.

As for the animation, i'm quite impressed with how much effort has been put into this one anime in 75'. It does look pretty good for 1970s standards. Each of the characters and the background animations are very well detailed and animated solidly. You can feel that the animators are doing what's best of the anime, since this is an adaptation of an novel by Ouida. Yeah, i get that people are gonna disagree with me on this because they think that this anime's animation hasn't aged well and all that stuff, but come the hell on, people, it's an anime from 1975. Of course the animation isn't always gonna look as good as today. But does that stop the anime from still looking good? Nope. I still think that the anime, on it's own, still looks pretty good, even if it has aged a bit. I'm probably more forgiving to old vintage anime than i am for garbage like Migi & Dali or Tokyo Mew Mew New, where the animations are so atrocious, it doesn't matter how much they tried. Atleast The Dog of Flanders still is pretty good in animation department.

As for the audio, i think it's still pretty good. Atleast there's not that much deteriorated noises in the audio, and the music is still pretty good, although, there were some instances where the music would end up cutting off shortly after someone else starts talking. Strange. The opening and theme songs "Yoake no Michi" and "Doko Mademo Aruko Ne", both sang by Doraemon's singer, Kumiko Oosugi, are absolute cuteness overload. I loved especially the opening theme song. It's very pure, cute, and leaves you making a happy smile to your face when you listen to it, even to the point of hearing the song in your head for a good amount of time (What the hell am i talking about?).

And as far as the voice acting goes, many of the actors did a great job voicing the characters. Not counting Patrasche (Because he's just an animal who make bark noises and nothing else), we have Michie Kita (Who did Togenishia from Hana No ko Lunlun) voicing Nello Flanders, Reiko Katsura (Who did Akabe in Jungle Kurobe) voicing Alois, Hiroo Oikawa (Who did some characters in Lupin The Third's second anime series) voicing Jehan Flanders, Taeko Nakanishi (Who did kelly Stowner from Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma) did Alois' mother, Mrs. Cogez, and, by the way, Taeko is also the voice of Mrs. Nuletta in The Dog of Flanders' 1997 remake by Nippon Animation (Coincidence, i think?), while in this 75' version, Mrs. Nulette is voiced by Haru Endo (Who did Lisa in Romeo no Aoi Sora), Masako Sugaya (Who did Remi in Ie Naki Kou and Uran from 80s' Tetsuwan Atom), Shouzo Iizuka (Famous for voicing Nappa in Dragon Ball Z), voices Patrasche's original owner (Who's called Enzou, by the way), just to name a few. The point i'm trying to cross, is that each voice actors gave their all for the characters in this anime and all did a great job voicing them. Easily the best part in the entire anime show.

So to conclude this, to say that this anime is an cultural icon in Japan, i was NOT kidding when i said it. The anime made such an impact to that country, that i've been told that most of these Japanese tourists literally went to Belgium, Antwerp, just to pay a visit to the same locations that Nello and Patrasche had been in the show, as well as seeing the statues that references Nello and his companion. If that's the case, is that an surprise?

The Dog of Flanders isn't just an masterpiece of anime, it's an work of art. Becoming an example of how you make an good anime in every way possible. Not only the anime managed to be faithful to the original novel by Ouida, but also succeed it in every way possible. The story, the characters, the animation, the music, the voice acting, the audio quality, the visuals, it was all perfect from the groundup! And Proxylain wasn't kidding when this anime is the meaning of life. It really tells and teaches such good morals about life and how you need to treat it kindly, that even to this day, Japanese audience has at the very least referenced this anime for years and years. This anime managed to impress me, as someone who lived in Portugal, and introduced me to the World Masterpiece Theatre franchise, in an great way, possible. And i'm not gonna lie, i was happy, sad, angry (In a good way) and had all those emotions in this one anime show. That's how impressive this was.

If you're looking to watch this anime with your family or with your childrens, DO IT NOW! It's your chance to give this anime an opportunity to shine and give as much love as it deserves. It truly is... One of a kind. And The Dog of Flanders gets an very deserved 10 out of 10!

So with that said, that should end my review of this anime. My name is José Diogo, and i'll see you all on the otherside.