Katri, Girl of the Meadows


Katri, Girl of the Meadows is an anime series based on the Finnish novel Paimen, piika ja emäntä by Auni Nuolivaara. The series was broadcast originally in Japan in 1984 as part of the children's anthology series World Masterpiece Theater, also known simply as "Meisaku from Nippon Animation. The anthology had before and after produced a great variety of animated series based on different children's novels from around the world; among them were and Little Princess Sara. In Europe, where World Masterpiece Theater series have found huge success, Katri, Girl of the Meadows made its way to different countries, including Spain, Italy, France, and Germany. Despite the series taking place in Finland, it has never been published or broadcast there, and most Finns have never heard of it.
The first and last episodes were broadcast English dubbed in the UK on Channel 4 as Little Girl on the Farm and Little Girl goes to School as part of 1987's Japanese Autumn season.

Plot

It has been three years since little Katri's mother left for Germany leaving her daughter behind in Finland, where she now lives with her grandparents. With Finland still under Russian domination, the inhabitants of these lands have had little or no news from the outside and no one knows if little Katri will again see her mother. To make matters worse, things in the Katri's grandparents' farm are not going well, the harvest had been a small one, their only cow had been killed by a bear and the family confronts great monetary problems. Katri wants to help and finds work in a neighboring farm; for a girl of hardly nine years of age the work of a farm is hard and tiring even with all of her enthusiasm and good moods, which is what keeps her standing.

Cast

The opening theme is "Love With You" and the ending theme is "Kaze no Komoriuta", both by Chie Kobayashi.
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