Funny and charming Studio Pierrot adaptation of the 1949 manga Anmitsu Hime by Shosuke Kurakane. Directed by Masami Anno (Wonderful Adventures of Nils) and written by Yoshio Urasawa (Nintama Rantaro).
In this first episode, Princess Anmitsu is turning 11, and her parents have bought her a special present from Europe. When the present turns out to be a tutor, Mrs Castilla from the Pudding Kingdom, Anmitsu thinks her birthday is ruined.
However, Mrs Castilla is a Mary Poppins-esque figure, who lets Anmitsu decorate the castle with giant paintbrushes. This brings them into conflict with the chief retainer and the hand maiden, who disapprove of fun and wasting money.
Laden with gags throughout, it starts with Anmitsu taking over the kingdom’s public address system and declaring her birthday a holiday. This leads to all sorts of physical comedy from how the populace reacts.
The biggest part of its charm though lies in the big, open, expressive faces of the Koji Nanke character designs. As well as doing opening and ending animations for Studio Pierrot shows in the 80s, Nanke also did character designs for this and Spoon Oba-san (the Mrs Pepperpot adaptation).
Plus, being an 80’s Studio Pierrot show, they invented a character for the show so that Shigeru Chiba has someone to voice. In this case it’s the swordsman Tanesuke, who repeatedly claims he’s the reincarnation of different historical figures.
