I'm watching an anime adaptation of Les Miserables called Shoujo Cosette. It's actually a really good adaption of the novel. Some details are changed or lost, some minor characters are added, and some events are embellished, but overall it's remarkably faithful. There are some things that seem to have been changed to make the show more targeted towards children, like the addition of a stray dog that Cosette takes in early on while under the care of the Thenadiers.

Some other things were taken out, I'm guessing because they thought they would be inappropriate for a younger audience. For example Cosette is never referred to as an illegitimate child and it's stated that the father died instead of how he left them in the novel, though it's still kind of ambiguous. Fantine also never resorts to prostitution after she's fired from the factory.

From the first few episodes I was wondering if it would be too childish, and the light-hearted tone of those initial episodes had me thinking that the series wouldn't match the original tone of the novel at all, but later episodes have been at times emotionally devastating. The downfall of Fantine for example is handled a little differently from the novel, but is still tragic and horrible. Even though it doesn't go to the same specific extremes that the novel does, it's still shocking to see the way the character drastically changes as she loses everything.

I should probably read the novel. I read parts of it for a French class in school, but have never read the entire thing.

I'm on episode 9 (of 52.) I'm not sure whether this series covers the entire story or just some portion of it. It seems like it could go either way at this point, really.

Last Edited By: greybob 03/21/11 10:41 PM. Edited 2 times.