Princess Sarah is a 1985 Japanese Anime series produced by Nippon Animation and Aniplex, based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1905 novel, A Little Princess. Spanning 46 episodes, it originally premiered in 1985 across Japan on Fuji Television as the 11th series of Nippon Animation's World Masterpiece Theater. It was also later aired across Japan by the anime television network, Animax, who also later broadcast the series across its respective networks worldwide, including its English language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, dubbing and translating the series into English under the title Princess Sarah. Animax's adaptation was the series' only English translation, and the series has yet to be commercially released in the United States. The series has also been selected as one of the best 100 Japanese anime series of all time by viewers of TV Asahi. In the Philippines, Princess Sarah was aired on ABS-CBN in 1993 with some rebroadcasts since then. Its popularity inspired a live-action film Sarah... Ang Munting Prinsesa, and a primetime TV drama series. The show was also a huge success among Arabic viewers and widely popular. The show was dubbed to Arabic by a Jordanian company. Sarah’s character name was changed to which is the show’s name too.
Story
In the year 1885, the story follows Sarah Crewe, a young daughter of a wealthy English father, Ralph Crewe, living in British-ruled India. She starts attending an all-girl's seminary boarding school in London, where she excels in her studies and is loved deeply by many of her friends and classmates. Tragedy strikes when Sarah's father passes away and her family goes bankrupt, leaving her to become a poor orphan. The school's headmistress, Miss Minchin, takes advantage of this situation and makes her a maid in the school, trying hard to make her life as miserable as possible. However, Sarah, with the help of her friends, perseveres and tries to endure all her hardships until redemption comes at last. When Miss Minchin continues to mistreat her further, Sarah befriends Mr. Carmichael who wanted to rescue her from Miss Minchin's mistreatment until she meets her father's lifelong friend Tom Carrisford who lives next door to the seminary. Tom decides to adopt Sarah to redeem himself over his guilt for the loss of her father and to restore her status as a diamond princess. Miss Minchin angrily confronts Tom to get Sarah back to the seminary but to her dismay Sarah has already been adopted, causing her to return to the seminary in shame as her younger sister Amelia angrily berates her for the mistreatment she had put on Sarah by making her a maid and forcing her to stay at the horse stable, making Miss Minchin emotionally regretful for her actions. In the end, Sarah waved goodbye to her friends in the dormitory as she and Becky return to the British-ruled India by travelling in the cruise ship.
Characters
;Sarah Crewe ;Maria Minchin ;Becky ;Lavinia Herbert ;Ermengarde St. John ;Lottie Legh ;Amelia Minchin ;Peter ;Jessie ;Gertrude ;Molly ;James ;Ralph Crewe ;Monsieur Dufarge ;Ram Dass ;Tom Carrisford ;Mr. Carmichael ;Donald Carmichael
Staff
Original work: Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess
Two songs, performed by Satoko Shimonari, were the opening and closing themes of each episode. The opening theme song is, and the closing theme is. Both have lyrics by Rei Nakanishi, music by Kōichi Morita and were arranged by Katsuhisa Hattori.
Episodes
Adaptations
The anime was remade into a live-action film by Star Cinema in the Philippines under the title Sarah... Ang Munting Prinsesa in 1995 starring Camille Prats as Sarah Crewe. The movie was also dubbed in several languages and subbed in English. In 1996, Camille Prats was nominated for Best Child Actress at the FAMAS Awards. The movie was digitally restored and remastered by ABS CBN Film Restoration Project to a more high depth 1080p HD format, and was also released back into the cinemas along with a Red Carpet premier. The movie is also set to be sold on DVD by ABS CBN. The anime was remade in 2007 into a television series, also titled Princess Sarah, by ABS-CBN in the Philippines. Starring Sharlene San Pedro as Sarah Crewe, the drama was aired on ABS-CBN's Primetime Bida evening block and worldwide on The Filipino Channel from November 12, 2007 to December 21, 2007. The series was shot in Camp John Hay in Baguio City and the Coconut Palace in Manila. Unlike the 1995 Filipino film and the Japanese anime series it was based from, which in turn was based on Burnett's original novel, the "teleserye" adaptation took further creative liberties from the original story, with Lavinia as Miss Minchin's daughter, Ram Dass being depicted as a female sorceress, and fantasy elements being introduced in the story.
