The world of anime and manga is surprisingly more diverse than you would first think. Beyond the genres it created, there are anime based on all kinds of stories. Seriously, there's even an anime based on the Trapp Family! More to the point, there are many anime adaptations of classic novels and works of literature.
Some of them adhere to being faithful to the source material, while others used a classic book as just a starting point, but regardless, it proves there's always new life to be found in a good story. Today, we're looking at some examples. Be warned, spoilers abound for both the original books and the anime.
10 A Little Princess
A wealthy young heiress, Sarah Crewe, finds herself a scullery maid at the mercy of her cruel headmistress, Miss Minchin, after the death of her beloved father leaves her penniless. After much struggle, she is eventually rescued by her dead father's business partner whose been searching for her all along.
The classic story was eventually adapted into a 1985 series, Princess Sarah. The series was especially popular in the Philippines, where it eventually was adapted into a live-action movie and later a drama. The book was also the inspiration for the anime series, Strain: Strategic Armored Infantry, which turned the story into a mecha series. The story was also adapted into episodes of Manga Sekai Mukashibanashi, an anthology anime that adapted stories from around the world.
9 Pollyanna
In this classic novel, a plucky young orphan is taken in by her spinster aunt in New England. Along the way, her sunny personality rubs off on the people around her, eventually spawning a series of books.
In the 1980s, the book was made into an anime by Nippon Animation, lasting 51 episodes, later incorporating elements from the sequel, Pollyanna Grows Up.
8 Lottie and Lisa
In this classic German children's novel, two identical girls, raised in Vienna and Munich, meet each other at a summer camp and, after a bad start, realize they are twins each being raised by their divorced, single parents. The girls switch identities to meet the parents they never knew and hatch a scheme to get them back together, 0nly to learn their father plans on marrying another woman...
If it sounds familiar, it's because it's what The Parent Trap is based on. The original novel has quite a history in Japan, however, having inspired a live-action film, Hibari's Lullaby, released ten years before the Disney version. In the early '90s, the book was later adapted into a 29 episode anime series.
7 Little Women
Following the lives of the four March sisters (Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy), this classic novel was loosely based on the life of its author, Louisa May Alcott. It later inspired Little Men and Jo's Boys. Before you ask, nobody says, "And then they realized, they were no longer little girls: they were little women"
During the 1980s, the book saw not just one, but three anime retellings: a special in 1980, Little Women in 1981 and Tales of Little Women in 1987. Long before Breaking Bad, actor Bryan Cranston was actually one of the voice actors on the original special's English dub. In the 90s, an anime based on Jo's Boys was also released.
6 Daddy-Long-Legs
In this classic American novel, a young orphan is granted an education by a mysterious benefactor on the condition that she must write him a monthly letter, without ever knowing his identity, dubbing him the mysterious "Daddy Long Legs." During her studies, she falls in love with the relatives of one of her classmates but realizes he might never be interested in an orphan. In the end, however, the man she loves is revealed to be her "Daddy Long Legs" all along.
In 1979, an anime special based on the story was released, with a television series later being released in the early 1990s. Around the same time, Sailor Moon creator loosely adapted the story into a manga called Maria.
5 Peter Pan
The little boy who would never grow up actually originated in J. M. Barrie's The Little White Bird, before being given his own book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. However, Barrie would later popularize the character through a stage play. Throw in Sandy Duncan and the rest is history.
In 1989, the character became the star of Peter Pan no Bōken. In an interesting bit of trivia, many of the Japanese voice actors who worked on the dub of Disney's Peter Pan also appeared in this series, including Chikao Ohtsuka, who voiced Captain Hook in both.
4 Les Miserables
Victor Hugo's classic story of redemption revolves around the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his orphaned ward, Cosette, with the eventual Paris Uprising looming in the background.
There have been quite a few anime versions of the book over the years: the 1979 special, Jean Valjean Monogatari, and episodes of Manga Sekai Mukashibanashi. One of the more recent incarnations is Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette, which focuses on Cosette. Written as slightly more child-friendly than the original, we still see Cosette losing her mother and being enslaved by the Thénardiers, but this time she gets a puppy!
3 Anne of Green Gables
In this classic Canadian novel, a plucky young orphan girl...anyone noticing a trend here...comes to Prince Edward Island after she is accidentally adopted by the elderly Cuthbert siblings, who actually wanted a boy to help with the farm chores.
In the late 1970s, an anime adaptation was released, with future anime legend Hayao Miyazaki on the crew. Proving popular, the series got a prequel series in 2009 and even a movie in 2010.
2 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum's classic American fairy tale has inspired so many films and stage shows, people might forget the story was originally a book. It's also had quite a few anime adaptations over the years.
In 1982, the first book was adapted into a theatrical anime film. A few years later, the series was adapted into another, unrelated anime series, lasting 52 episodes and adapting the few of the later books in the series. By the 90s, another anime series, Space Oz Adventures, came out, this time giving the story a sci-fi setting.
1 Ovid's Metamorphoses
Ovid's Metamorphoses, which recounts many classic Greco-Roman myths, is one of the most influential works in Western literature, so it only makes sense it would get an anime film.
Produced by Sanrio, of Hello Kitty fame, Winds of Change, also known as Metamorphoses or Orpheus of the Stars, casts a little boy and girl in the stories of "Actaeon," "Orpheus and Eurydice," "Mercury and Herse," "Perseus and Medusa," and "Phaëton," all set to disco music. Yes, disco music.