Uh, guys, that's not light brown...
The Girl in the Wind: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair (風の中の少女 金髪のジェニー) is a 1992 anime produced by TV Tokyo. It is loosely inspired by the Stephen Foster song of the same name. It ran from October 15, 1992 to September 30, 1993, and had 52 episodes in total.Set in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, during the 1860s, The Girl in the Wind: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair chronicles the life of Jeanie MacDowell and her friends Stephen Foster and Bill. The three live a happy life full of music and fun until Jeanie's mother suddenly passes away from an illness. This motivates Jeanie to travel to New York to become a doctor, to save people from the same fate her mother faced. Stephen and joins her, as he dreams of becoming a composer. The anime is about their adventures from moving from one state to another, and how they struggle towards success.
Despite being based on the Stephen Foster song, it actually has very little to do with it in terms of plot. The plot was written by Shiro Ishimori, based on Foster's own biography. Also, despite the name, the anime depicts Jeanie with blonde hair, funnily enough.
Also worth noting that since this anime is set during the The American Civil War, a major theme is anti-black discrimination and how it affects Bill, the Token Black Friend of Jeanie and Stephen. There is also an element of Values Dissonance in how the MacDowells own a black servant (Bill's father, "Big Joe", though the anime is just following Foster's autbiography in this regard).
Not to be confused with Kinpatsu no Jeanie, a 1979 anime also inspired by the same song and has a similar name.
The Girl in the Wind: Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair has examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The anime adapts the writings of Stephen Foster's biography, but retells them from Jeanie's perspective, hence Jeanie's home life getting more focus.
- Adapted Out:
- Many key figures of Stephen Foster's life, since this anime is told from Jeanie's POV.
- Both Stephen Foster and Jeanie MacDowell had Massive Numbered Siblings in Real Life, none of which appear in the anime.
- The Alleged Steed: Stephen's horse, Thunder. The horse was strong and sturdy in it's youth, but as in the current, it's age really shows with it's sickness and inability to race.
- The American Civil War: The anime takes place after this time period. Jeanie and Stephen are amongst many characters that decry anti-black racism.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: Here is the Arabic
version of the theme song and here is the Spanish one. Also has German and Italian ones. - The Big Race: Early in the series, Stephen and Robert have a bet (with Stephen wagering the pendant Jeanie gave him) on which one of them will win the horse race. Stephen ends up losing because his horse, Thunder, is ill on the day of the competition.
- Big Applesauce: Jeanie goes to New York for medical school after graduating from the convent.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Daniel Peters. He visits the orphanage with the intention of adopting a child. However, the staff clearly know he's doing it to polish his image since he's a candidate for the mayor, and refuse to let him.
- Cat Fight: Stephen and Robert at one point argue over the affections of Jeanie. However, after recognizing each other's talents in composing music and playing the piano, they apologize and move on as friends.
- Christmas Episode: Jeanie goes home for Christmas, but is unable to attend the party and stuck with housesitting duty instead. Two theieves also happen to try and rob the MacDowell house, but are scared off by Jennie pretending to be a ghost.
- Coming of Age Story: The anime is about three young childhood friends, Jeanie, Stephen and Bill, trying to follow their dreams and become just like their personal heroes in 1800s era America.
- Contrived Coincidence: After being sent away at to a convent school, Jeanie reunites with Stephen while doing volunteer work at an orphanage.
- Deep South: The story takes place in Pennsylvania, but has Jeanie and Stephen aim for New York.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: While the series takes place after the enslavement of black people was abolished, it still prominently features anti-black racism - for example, Bill is falsely accused of being a thief and about to be arrested if it wasn't for someone else's intervention.
- Eagleland: The anime takes place in Pennsylvania, then San Francisco, then New York. The main characters live in very rural areas of the Deep South and work Down on the Farm.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Jeanie's dog, Tray, senses when the robbers are about to ransack the MacDowell house and also makes sure to protect her from them.
- Flowers of Nature: Jeanie lives in the very rural and green Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, and the fields are full of lush greenery and pretty pink and yellow flowers.
- Foul Fox: Jeanie and her friends once find a fox in a hunter's trap and set it free. The fox proceeds to attack their chickens.
- Grey And White Morality: No character is truly evil and even the worst of the Hate Sinks have their humanizing moments.
- Historical Domain Character: The main three characters and their families. Though, a lot of stuff is Adapted Out.
- In the Blood:
- Jeanie's father is a doctor and her mother is a nurse. The anime is about her following her dream of being a doctor and studying at medical school, being inspired by Stephen telling her that recently, the first woman in American history became a doctor.
- Bill strives to be strong, just like his father Big Joe. He practices carrying around heavy things and lumbering, and is also tutored by him in doing odd jobs.
- Lighter and Softer: The anime is loosely based on Stephen Foster's autobiography, though some liberties are taken - the uglier parts are Adapted Out to be more fit for the kids.
- Love Triangle:
- Stephen and Robert both like Jeanie, which puts a strain on their friendship.
- Jeanie and Julia also both like Stephen, and Julia is a bit pushy towards him. She later accepts that he likes Jeanie and moves on.
- Official Couple: Jeanie and Stephen, to the surprise of no one. They've pined for each other since childhood and eventually marry as adults.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Unsurprisingly, since this is 18th century America (Pennsylvania to be exact), most characters have blonde or light-coloured hair. The only notable characters with black hair are Bill (who's black) and a few minor characters.
- Private Tutor: Jeanie receives one in Sandra, who also functions as a substitute parent when Frederick MacDowell and Diana Johnson aren't around. Unfortunately, she's a very ill-tempered woman and very racist.
- Shown Their Work: Frederick MacDowell (Jeanie's father) was indeed an anti-racist who opposed white supremacy. Not only did he encourage the first black medical student from Western Pennsylvania to apply to Harvard Medical School, he also wrote a letter of recommendation for the student and helped part of his tuition.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Bernard sells "medicine", which is actually swamp water in a bottle. It becomes dramatically ironic when his own wife falls sick and he's desperate to save her.
- Would Hurt a Child: After Jeanie foils the aforementioned robbers, they're so resentful that they plot to get revenge on her later by kidnapping her and holding her ransom. When Jeanie tends to one of the robber's injured legs, they realize she's a good person and let her go. Jeanie, Stephen and Bill agree not to turn them over to the sherrif.
