is a Japanese anime series produced by Nippon Animation, and the first installment in the World Masterpiece Theater series in ten years after Remi, Nobody's Girl. It is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic 1862 novel Les Misérables, and the fourth anime adaptation of said novel (following two adaptations from the Japanese television program Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi, and a 1979 TV film special produced by Toei Animation).
It premiered across Japan on January 7, 2007, on Fuji TV's BS Fuji broadcast satellite network, and contains twenty-six episodes each season, for a total of fifty-two episodes. It also aired in Japan on Animax beginning in April 2007.
Plot Set in nineteenth century-era France, the series begins with Cosette, a three-year-old girl, traveling with her mother Fantine, who is trying to find a job and a place to live. They have always been shunned away due to few employers hiring single mothers. When her mother is promised the prosperity of working in the big city, Cosette is separated from her in the hopes a caretaker named Thénardier will watch over her while her mother earns some money, but this was a trick and the caretaker is a corrupt man who makes Cosette his indentured servant, or more precisely his slave. Then, the kind mayor—formerly a convict named Jean Valjean—of the town that Cosette makes her new home in, sees how winds of change are so detrimental for children and families, and decides to do something about it, but forces Cosette to go on the run to escape his returning, difficult past.
Characters and cast Character(s) Voice actor(s) Cosette Kaori NazukaTamaki Matsumoto (3 years old) Jean Valjean Masashi Sugawara Fantine Emiko Hagiwara Javert Takashi Matsuyama Gavroche Yumiko Kobayashi Thénardier Masahito Yabe Okami (Mme. Thénardier) Mami Horikoshi Éponine Yūko SasamotoYūki Ōtomo (4 years old) Azelma Kurumi MamiyaChihiro Yarita (2 years old) MariusAlain Anri Katsu Enjolras Yūji Kishi Combeferre Wataru Hatano Courfeyrac Eiji Takemoto Jean Prouvaire Yoshinori Fujita Grantaire Norihisa Mori Laigle Ryō Naitō Feuilly Daisuke Matsubara Bahorel Takahiro Yoshimizu Joly Yūki Chiba Montparnasse Kōji Yusa Claquesous Junichi Endō Babet Akio Suyama Gueulemer Tetsu Inada Zéphine Atsuko Tanaka Toron Naomi Shindō Mother Innocente Sayuri Sadaoka Béatrice Miyuki Sawashiro Charlotte Nozomi Sasaki Audrey Haruka Tomatsu Hugues(One of the Thénardiers' youngest sons) Ai Tokunaga Bressole(One of the Thénardiers' youngest sons) Yūko Sanpei Sister SimpliceToussaint Mika Kanai Fauchelevent Takkō Ishimori Gillenormand Tetsuo Komura Marius' Aunt(Mademoiselle Gillenormand) Miyuki Ono Pontmercy Akihiko Ishizumi Mabeuf Bin Shimada Bishop Myriel Chikao Ōtsuka Champmathieu Shinpachi Tsuji Petit Gervais Aiko Hibi Bougon Seiko Tamura Chabouillet Ryūji Mizuno Hucheloup Takuma Suzuki Mylène Miyuki Kawashō
Episodes Fantine and Cosette Jean Valjean's Secret A New Friend, Chou Chou Mother's Letter Javert's Suspicions Cosette's Birthday Lost Eponine Mother's Skirt Thenardier's Malice Madeleine is Perplexed Sister Simplice's Lie Lonely Cosette Jean Valjean and Cosette Their Journey Their Bond The Gorbeau House in Paris Javert Closes In A Forgotten Reunion Cosette is Taken Monastic Life Marius Pontmercy Their Respective Journeys Under The Parisian Sky An Encounter in the Luxembourg Garden Unreachable Feelings Chance Encounters in Paris The Girl Who Ran Away The Found Letter Thenardier's Trap The Coin That Was Left Behind The Quiet Rue Plumet Traces of That Day Giving Up On Reunion Children In The Elephant Patron Minette's Breakout The Ailing of Paris Marius's Miscalculation Cosette and Eponine June 5, 1832 The Night of the Revolution Eponine's Love A Letter from Marius Gavroche's Wish To the Light of the Future The Sewers of Paris Javert's Justice The Bonds of the Hearts Cosette and Marius My Mother The Eternal Ring The Revealed Truth Silver Silver Candlesticks
Staff Original story: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo Producer: Kōichi Motohashi Planning: Kazuya Maeda (Fuji TV), Kōhei Sano, Kazuka Ishikawa Production manager: Ken'ichirō Hayafune Series composition: Tomoko Kanparu Character designs: Hajime Watanabe, Takahiro Yoshimatsu Chief animation director: Tadashi Shida Background artist: Kazue Itō Art director: Mitsuki Nakamura Color design: Tomoko Komatsubara Photography director: Seichi Morishita Sound director: Hiroyuki Hayase Music: Hayato Matsuo Music producers: Hitoshi Yoshimura (Index Music), Daisuke Honji (Index Music) Producers: Yukihiro Itō (Fuji TV), Kōji Yamamoto (Fuji TV), Michio Katō, Ken'ichi Satō Director: Hiroaki Sakurai Production: Fuji TV, Nippon Animation
Theme songs Opening theme: Performance: Yuki Saitō (Index Music) Ending theme: Performance: Yuki Saitō (Index Music)
Reception The anime was dubbed and broadcast in:
Arab World by Venus Centre Italy under the title The Heart of Cosette Hong Kong Iran under the title The Poor: A girl named Cosette South Korea Philippines under the title Ang Pangarap ni Cosette ("The Dreams of Cosette"); discontinued due to Typhoon Ondoy
See also Adaptations of Les Misérables
References
External links
BS Fuji's official Shōjo Cosette page Animax's official Shōjo Cosette page