A Little Princess Sara - one of my only few to several 10/10 anime. An anime not just inspired, but really closely following the book "A Little Princess", by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1st published in 1907.
I really wanted to make a review for this epic anime for a long time now, a show that nearly nobody knows these days and I will do it by describing, almost completely spoiler free of the action, my favorite 3 characters that make 90% of the show, listed by preference.
1. Sara Crewe - the absolute best character design a human being can have, I feel she's better than Jesus Christ every time I think about her. She practically makes the whole show hit you in the gut like a rocket fist, cutting your air supply. Without her, the show would probably be almost unwatchable even for infants, as it stands it's completely unmissable if you like sorrow-type anime, no matter the age. What can I say about Sara!?... You get it from her inspired design right away: her superb hairline, her magnificent kind eyes, her exquisite manners, her opened mind by reading loads of fantasy books, her mind-numbingly kind voice only surpassed by her tender character and impossibly kind and resilient heart. The show practically takes this 10 years old jewel of a girl and throws her into Hell, making a mockery out of her soft hands, distinguished face-lines and upbrought sophisticated manners and character. Her only comfort being Becky, Peter, Ermengarde and Lottie, 4 poor very young people that have been struck by Sara's true nature, that nobody except them want to see or accept. I love Jesus Christ, but he's got nothing on Sara.
2. Becky - a peasant, younger Sara. Don't know how else to describe her! :)) Absolutely lovable this girl, in spite of her lack of education as education in those times could be afforded almost exclusively by the rich, she's humble and respectful to a fault! Poor and ever wanting for food and affection in a world full of strangers that exploit her, she's working from dawn to dusk to pick up Sara's inexperience and incapacity to work as hard, working more than an adult person and never complaining. She can't afford to, and the little money she makes in the near slavery she had to enlist, sent to her mother and her little brothers and sisters far away in the country, so they can live; as their father died and in Victorian England there was no notion of social assistance yet.
3. Lavinia - surprisingly a favorite to me after I've seen this show multiple times, in multiple stages of my life, as it's the character every viewer loves to hate. On solid accounts, as she portrays the absolute villain born out of superficiality and spoiled upbringings (but not the only one), she's every ugly bully's source of inspiration. The amount of pettiness this girl has is the largest in the known Universe, it's incredible and a real joy of pain to watch it being riveted on the rest of the characters, battering and humiliating them psychologically and sometimes even physically. A friend of mine, expert in the anime world called her the worst villain in all of anime's history, and I can't contradict him one bit. If she'd been Lucifer's daughter, her father would've been proud of her. If without Sara the show would be unwatchable, without Lavinia the show would definitely lack bite and blood, figuratively speaking. ^^'
Witnessing all of this, it's safe to attest A Little Princess Sara is nobody's right to ignore, it's simply too good, too unmissable for comfort. There was never a show that depicted more true the saying "They don't make them like this anymore!", they truly don't.
