“Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette” is the latest revival of Victor Hugo’s famous classic novel “Les Miserables.” The series last for about fifty-two episodes and it’s still ongoing at the moment. It is a very complete conversion from the novel itself as Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette is fifty-two episodes long. It’s more than enough to cover everything within the book. For those that have enjoyed reading the novel, the anime series itself is something that’s very much worth looking into. The series covers everything that the book covers that didn’t look to be covered in the Broadway musical and the live-action movie.
This is apart of Nippon Animation’s World Masterpiece Theater series that is responsible for the anime conversion of many great masterpieces of written literature. If you’re familiar with at least one of the conversions of Les Miserables, then you’ll easily understand the plotline behind Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette. So far, this looks to be the only anime adaptation of Les Miserables. It just proves that Japanese anime is a new medium to adapt great movies and pieces of literature into.
The same company responsible for Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette also did an anime adaptation of “Anne of Green Gables” back in 1979. Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette closely follows the life of Cosette, one of the major protagonists of Les Miserables. She travels throughout nineteenth century France with her mother who is trying to find a job and place to live. However, Fantine is have a hard time because she’s a single mother as the various work places tend to shun those types of employees.
From there, Cosette lives with Thenardier the inn owner while Fantine works in the city. However, Cosette is made into a slave forced to do all the hard labor for Thenardier and his wife. That aspect is very important in Les Miserables let alone Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette. After watching the first few episodes, I can see that this series really does Victor Hugo’s work a lot of justice.
All of the characters in the novel are present and do not derive from their novel counterparts at all.
Asides from Cosette, Fantine, and Thenardier, other characters present are: Javert, Gavroche, Eponine, Azelma, and Marius. Everything mentioned in the novel looks to be covered in the anime and vice-versa. It’s an interesting take on how a masterpiece that has been adapted into a Broadway musical and numerous live-action movies has now been adapted and converted into a Japanese anime series.
For those who enjoyed Les Miserables, I very much recommend watching Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette.