Anime / The Story of Perrine

The Story of Perrine (ペリーヌ物語 Perīnu Monogatari, lit. "Story of Perrine") is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation. It is the ninth production in the World Masterpiece Theater series, based on the French novel En Famille (aka Nobody's Girl) by Hector Malot. The series aired from January 1, 1978 until December 31, 1978, spanning 53 episodes. It was dubbed and exhibited in many places like Philippines, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Iran, etc.

Like the original book, it follows the adventures of the French-Indian teenager Perrine Paindavoine as she reaches for the northern village of Maraucourt, where her grandfather lives, and makes a life for herself there. It quite expands on the story, however, to make it last longer: it begins before Perrine, her ill mother Marie, their donkey Palikare and Perrine's puppy Baron's arrival to Paris (how the book began, save for Baron's presence) and follows the two there, before it more or less retakes the original plot...

Notable as the title character being one of the first voice roles for a then-teenaged Hiromi Tsuru, eight years before Dragon Ball sent her career into the stratosphere.

Aside of what the novel offers, these are the series' tropes:

• Abled in the Adaptation: In the original novel, the Old Man at the Gates (called Grain-of-Salt in the book) is described as being one-armed, and Onnel (called "Father Ninepins" in the book) has a wooden leg. Neither is true in the animated adaptation.
• Adaptation Expansion: As mentioned, it adds a bit more of "meat" to the story:
  • The book starts with Perrine and Co's arrival to Paris and is followed by Marie's death. The anime begins few after Edmond's death in Bosnia and spends around a third of the story showing how Perrine, Marie, Baron and Palikare got to the capital, with Marie dying a little before the second half.
  • The incident where Perrine has her money stolen by a dishonest baker and then collapses of malnutrition is expanded and changed. Perrine is aided against the thief by two local people instead of La Rouquerie and Palikare and later buys food from a honest grocery person. She "properly" passes out after her meager supplies have run out, then Baron looks for help and manages to find Palikare and La Rouquerie, who take her to an hospital and then to Maraucourt.
  • In the book, Vulfran properly identifies Perrine as his granddaughter at the very end. In the series, it happens a little earlier.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: In the book, Vulfran learns out about Perrine's true identity a whole year after she arrives in Maraucourt. In the show, he finds out by the end of the same year that she arrives.
• Adapted Out: Rosalie's aunt Zenobie is not present in the show.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed. Rosalie's younger brother, Paul, occasionally annoys Rosalie and Perrine by being Constantly Curious and a Tagalong Kid, but he is almost never intentionally obnoxious. In fact, he is actively helpful at times, bringing useful supplies while Perrine is living in the hunter's hut, and keeping Baron company when she is at work.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Much of the supporting cast in Maraucourt, like Rosalie and Fabry, receive additional focus and scenes that were not present in the book.
• Back for the Finale: Both Marcel and Palikare return in the series finale.
• Bait-and-Switch: After smuggling a Croatian rebel past some Austrian soldiers, Perrine and her mother are prevented from leaving town by the soldiers on the following day. They fear that they have been found out, but it turns out that the soldiers had stopped them because their captain wanted to get his photo taken.
• Barefoot Poverty: Averted in episode 30: when one of Perrine's short boots breaks due to overuse, she doesn't go barefoot since she works in a factory and it'd be extremely unsafe. She first ties it up with a rudimentary cord, then makes a hemp sole for it, and after saving up some francs she gets enough supplies to make both a pair of shoes and a camisole.
• Bilingual Bonus: The series is dubbed in Japanese, but written text is shown in French or English as appropriate.
• Blind Seer: Vulfran, to a more down to Earth level. He suffered almost complete blindness from a stroke he had some time ago, but he's capable of identifying his staff by hearing their voices and footsteps. (Truth in Television, logically.)
• Bloodless Carnage: Even when characters are said to sustain bloody injuries, blood is almost never shown onscreen. The main exception to this is that some bloodstains are visible on the operating table while Vulfran is having his eye surgery.
• Broad Strokes: Many plot points from the book are adapted into the series, but the details of how they come about are changed.
  • In both the book and the series, the candy man in Paris gives Perrine a pair of candies. In the show, however, he does this when they first meet, whereas in the book, he does so to comfort Perrine after her mother dies.
  • In the book, Perrine loses five francs to a dishonest baker. In the show, she gets her money back with the help of some local farmers, but she loses the five francs anyway in the next episode when she insists on paying back a flowershop owner for Baron's destruction of his stock.
  • Like in the book, Fabry is the first person in Maraucourt to learn about Perrine's true name and identity. In the show, however, he finds out her name by happenstance and later convinces her to tell him her full story, promising to be a Secret-Keeper. In the book, Fabry is sent specifically to investigate the possibility that Perrine is Vulfran's granddaughter, and confirms Vulfran's suspicions when he returns. This role is instead filled by Vulfran's lawyer in the series.
• The Bus Came Back: Perrine encounters Marcel once and Palikare twice after parting ways with them, before reuniting with both of them again in the finale.
• Canon Foreigner: Baron the dog, the foreigners from the first 16 episodes, Rosalie's father and little brother, and Vulfran's lawyer, Phillip, are absent from the book.
• The Cavalry: In Episode 13, Perrine and her mother get stuck while crossing the Alps and are at a loss about what to do. They are saved when the father of Joseph (a stable hand who they'd helped earlier) shows up and assists them across the most difficult stretch of the mountain pass.
• Chekhov's Gun: The photo of Perrine taken in the first episode is later given to Mrs. Bontempelli as a memento of her long-lost daughter, who apparently resembles Perrine.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Grandmother Françoise is the first person who notices that Perrine resembles her father Edmond. When she mentions this to Vulfran later, it sparks his realization that that Perrine may be his grandchild.
• Christmas Episode: The second-to-last episode takes place mostly on Christmas Eve, and features Vulfran getting Christmas presents for Rosalie's family and inviting Fabry to his mansion for dinner.
• Composite Character:
  • Vulfran has two nephews in the book, Theodor and Casimir. In the series, only Theodor is present, and takes up the roles of both.
  • In the book, Phillip the lawyer's role in the series was partly split between a banker (who informs Vulfran of Edmond's death) and Fabry (who reveals to Vulfran Perrine's true identity). In this way, Phillip and Fabry in the series can also be considered Decomposite Characters of the version of Fabry from the book.
• Cool Old Lady: Duchess Caroline, La Rouquerie, and Grandmother Françoise are all older women who sympathize with Perrine and provide great help to her at different points of her journey.
• Defrosting Ice King: The Old Man at the Gates comes across as a greedy miser at first, but after getting to know Perrine (and being told off by Marcel), he becomes more helpful towards her. It is implied that this inspires him to start behaving more generously towards the other tenants on his property as well.
• Demoted to Extra: Perrine's tutor in the book, Mademoiselle Belhomme, is not shown or mentioned in the show, though her presence is implied in Episode 51, where it is mentioned that Vulfran has arranged a private tutor for Perrine.
• Despair Event Horizon: Out of provisions, exhausted, and suffering from illness during her solo travels, Perrine makes her way into the woods to die. Fortunately, Baron gets help from Palikare and La Rouquerie, who rescue her.
• Disney Acid Sequence: Extremely tame compared to most examples, but the scene in the opening where Perrine blows on a dandelion and she and Baron then fly off by grabbing onto its seeds stands out, as such fantastical imagery is not seen at all in the rest of the show.
• Doomed by Canon: The animated story starts off before the point at which the novel begins, so Marie's death more than 20 episodes in comes as less of a surprise to those familiar with the original work.
• Downer Beginning: The first episode begins peacefully, with Perrine talking cheerfully to some Bosnian men... and it cuts to a local graveyard where Marie is tearfully mourning for the dead Edmond, and Perrine has to comfort her.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After enduring an arduous journey, losing both of her parents, nearly dying from starvation, living alone on little money and resources, and adopting a fake name out of fear of rejection, Perrine finally gets to live a happy, luxurious life as herself with a doting grandfather.
• Easily Forgiven: Perrine doesn't seem to harbor much of a grudge against Talouel and Theodor despite all the trouble they gave her during her time as Vulfran's secretary (which includes Talouel causing her to fall and injure herself as well as Theodor shooting her dog). Vulfran makes a point of mentioning this to Talouel, and it's implied in the final episode that Perrine continuing to treat them with kindness and respect causes them to put aside their remaining animosity towards her (similar to how Perrine's mother had dealt with the rival photographers during their travels).
• Hate Sink: The baker who steals Perrine's money not only inflicts a crushing setback on Perrine when the latter is at her most alone and vulnerable, but also stands out among the antagonists of the series in that she is not shown to have any redeeming qualities or sympathetic motives for her actions. Even her baking is implied not to be that great, as one of her loaves of bread on display is hard enough to break a window when thrown.
• Hey, Wait!: Perrine and her mother are stopped by Austrian soldiers after having helped a Croatian rebel escape them, but it turns out that the soldiers' captain had simply wanted to get his photo taken.
• Image Song: The ending theme is a tribute to Baron and his status as a Loyal Animal Companion.
• Kick the Dog: In Episode 40, Baron is shot outside the hut by Theodor. Fortunately, he gets well.
• Loyal Animal Companion: Both Baron and Palikare are very devoted to Perrine, which saves her life when she collapses from hunger and exhaustion.
• Mean Boss: The head manager, Talouel, shows little concern for the well-being of his employees and often lords his authority over them.
• Meaningful Echo: Just before Marie dies, she tells Perrine, "If you wish to be loved, you must first love others." After a tragic fire claims the life of two children, Perrine uses the same phrase to convince Vulfran to attend the funeral of the children.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • The show often alternates between hopeful and sad moments. One of the most jarring examples may be the end of Episode 15, in which Perrine and her mother finally reach France after a narrow escape from wolves, only for her mother to almost immediately fall unconscious from illness.
  • The cheerful ending theme about Baron is played after every episode, no matter how sad or bleak.
• Savage Wolves: Wolves are shown to be a threat to Perrine and her family when they travel through wooded regions.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Zigzagged. The show takes an abruptly darker turn after Perrine and Marie part ways with Marcel, as the following episode has them nearly dying while trying to cross the Alps and the next few have Marie's condition gradually deteriorating. However, Perrine reunites with Marcel while they're staying in Paris, during which Marie passes away. He even realizes that Marie is going to die before Perrine does. Furthermore, Baron is present for the entire series, even in the darker episodes.
• Shout-Out: Les Misérables is mentioned several times. Fabry introduces the book to Perrine and lends her a copy, and Perrine is later shown reading it to Vulfran. Jean Valjean taking on a pseudonym is specifically brought up, forming a Plot Parallel with Perrine hiding her identity while living in Maraucourt.
• Smug Snake: Talouel is a Mean Boss who regularly rubs it in others' faces that he is too important to the operation of the factory to ever be fired. However, he is genuinely shocked when Perrine tells him in the final episode that Vulfran does trust him to run the factory when Vulfran can't be there himself, indicating that Talouel is not as confident as he tries to make himself look.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • In the book, Rosalie has lost both of her parents, whereas her father is still around in the series.
  • An odd example: in the book, Perrine comes across some wild duck eggs while living at the hunter's hut and collects a few as food. In the show, she finds some as well and considers eating them, but decides not to out of sympathy for the parent ducks.
• Spoiler Opening: The fact that Marie only appears in the first part of the OP sequence implies that she dies midway through the story. Other scenes show Palikare nudging the passed-out Perrine (which happens some time later) and Perrine living in a hut (in the Maraucourt days). The fact that Perrine and Baron are the only ones shown overlooking Maraucourt also hints at how they're the only ones in their traveling party to make the initial journey to Maraucourt (though Palikare comes Back for the Finale).
• Spoiler Title:
  • The title of Episode 21 translates to "Last Words". Although it does not directly say whose last words, it's easy to guess from the context of the story that this is the episode where Marie dies.
  • The title of Episode 25 translates to "Palikare! My Palikare!", spoiling his reunion with Perrine. Furthermore, as the episode deals with Perrine hitting the Despair Event Horizon, the title also strongly hints at how she will be rescued.
• Supreme Chef: Rosalie's father is the chef at their family restaurant and his cooking is highly regarded by their customers.
• Villain Team-Up: The businessman Talouel and Vulfran's ambitious potential heir Theodor collaborate to take over the Pandavoine factory.
• You Just Told Me: Phillip confirms Perrine's true identity when he mentions Palikare to her and she both recognizes the donkey's name and identifies his current owner as La Rouquerie.
• Youthful Freckles: Rosalie has them in this version.