Our wild rose, Julie with her pet Pepe
Nobara no Julie (野ばらのジュリー), or "Julie the Wild Rose" is a 13 episode anime created by Dax International in 1979, running on TV Tokyo note between January 4th and March 29th of that year.
Set in Austria, 11 year old Julie Braun lives in the Tyrolean countryside with her parents near the end of World War One. Unfortunately, while on a picnic with her family, they are killed when they're caught in an air raid. It's not pretty. Julie now must live in Vienna with her uncle's family, consisting of her uncle Karl Clement, his wife Clara, and their children Tina, Heinrich and Johann.
Life in Vienna is different from the countryside life Julie was born and raised in but she tries her best to fit in while keeping true to herself and traditions. Her troubles don't end there - her new family suffers economic troubles, she faces bullying from Caroline and is torn between choosing life in the city and her rural roots. At her tender age, Julie must choose what future she holds for herself.
The series provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Julie finds Alan annoying and rebuffs any attempt of his to get close to her. At first.
- The Ace: Alan is the star student of the school, a heart-throb amongst the female pupils, and is implied to be from a rich family like Caroline based on his dad's car. However personality wise he's quite humble, and takes a liking to the titular Julie.
- Alpha Bitch: Caroline, who loves to humiliate Julie and Tina. In one episode she throws a party and invites Julie and Tania, just so she can shame them for having casual clothes while everyone else has fancy ones.
- Ambiguously Christian: While Julie sings in a choir, it's never stated if she's a believer in Christianity herself.
- Arch-Enemy: Caroline hates Julie so much that when Julie becomes the lead singer at the St. Charles choir, her and her father try to get everyone to boycott her, to no avail.
- Betty and Veronica: Both the rude, aggressive Caroline and the timid, sweet Julie have eyes for Alan. However, Alan only loves Julie.
- Blithe Spirit: Julie's classmates are touched by her courage and cheerfulness. Even Johann, who didn't like her at first, grows to love her.
- Child of Two Worlds: Julie is torn between returning to her hometown in the countryside or staying in Vienna. Lampshaded in one episode where a friend of her father comes to visit, and then cuts his trip short, bemoaning "Julie is no longer Julie of Tyrol...''.
- Country Mouse: Julie is from the Southern Tyrol, Austria. She's skilled at singing traditional and classical songs of her country.
- Creator Provincialism: Averted. The anime is set in rural Austria and urban Vienna, but the staff behind it is fully Japanese.
- Culture Equals Costume: Julie's parents dress like stereotypical Austrian farmers. Many Viennese characters also wear traditional Austrian clothes.
- Dean Bitterman: Downplayed with Julie's teacher Miss Theresia. She is a shrewd woman, but secretly suffers from a broken heart as her romance with Tomas fell through. She becomes happier once she reunites with him.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Julie's parents are killed horrifically in the first episode, with her father trying to shield her mother to no avail.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Male version. Johann isn't too fond of Julie at first, believing her to be another mouth to feed, but quickly grows to care for her.
- Downer Ending: Of sorts. The series ends by saying that Julie has assimilated into Vienna and is a "true Viennese child". Which would be great, except we know what comes next in this time period....
- Dub Name Change: Tomas is Tomasso in the Italian dub.
- Freudian Excuse: The main reason Caroline is so awful to Julie is because on her fist day of school, Julie's cousin Heinrich thought it would be a funny idea to slip a frog into her bag. When Julie opened it in class, the frog leapt on Caroline.
- Good Parents: Carl and Clara, not only to their own children but to their niece as well, assuring her that even in financially strained times, they won't send her away.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: When her boycott of Julie fails, Caroline's final plan is to set up a trap that would injure Julie before she's scheduled to sing at the church, rendering her unable to perform. Unexpectedly, Caroline ends up falling into the trap, and she's exposed for being a malicious little backbiter.
- Limited Animation: Sometimes cutting to live action footage even!
- Love Triangle: Caroline likes Alan, the school's star student, but he likes Julie. Caroline didn't like Julie before thanks to the frog incident, and this gives her another reason to despise her.
- Pastel-Chalked Freeze Frame: Julie watching her parents' death is illustrated this way.
- Phenotype Stereotype: This is Austria, so characters usually have dark brown or blonde hair, and blue eyes.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: A variant with frogs. Heinrich puts one in Julie's bag before she leaves for her first day of school, and it ends up scaring Caroline.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Pepe, Julie's pet squirrel.
- Ship Tease: Julie finds Alan annoying at first, but when Alan shows that he understands her trauma, she begins to have feelings for him and even his parents approve of them dating.
- Shrinking Violet: Julie's cousin Tania, who wants to sing but has crippling stage fright. She decides to become a choir singer instead
- Shown Their Work: The church that Julie is the lead choir singer at is St. Charles Cathedral. Not only is it a real church
, but it's also considered the most important church in all of Austria. - Textile Work Is Feminine: Clara works as a seamstress for extra income, helped by Tania. In contrast, Johann and Karl work at a glass factory.
