Slice of Life (1976)

Perrine travels across Europe with her mother, a photographer, in a cabin drawn by a donkey. They are heading to a small village in northern France, the home of Perrine's dead father.

Perrine doesn't know that they are unwanted in the village; Perrine's father left the village after having quarrelled with his father (Perrine's grandfather) and married in India against his father's will. After her mother falls ill, Perrine has to sell everything, including her beloved donkey Palikare, to pay for medicine.

Mother dies in Paris and before dying tells the girl that she has to make her grandfather love her before he knows who she really is. After a journey full of hardships, Perrine finally arrives in the village where she learns that her grandfather is the rich owner of the factory that feeds all the villagers.

Presenting herself under a false name, Perrine gets a job on the factory, searching for a way to the heart of her grandfather.

(Source: ANN)

Motherless since birth, Pollyanna was an ordinary happy-go-lucky girl, leaving peacefully with her father, the vicar. Then one day her life changes completely when her father dies and she has to live with her aunt whom she has never met before. In the beginning, she seems to be detested by her but as time passes, they develop a very strong bond.

(Source: ANN)

After his father's sudden death, Ceddie moves to England as an heir to his grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt.

The Earl is a stubborn and selfish old man. Gradually, however, Ceddie's innocent love opens the Earl's heart and changes him into a caring and generous person.

This is based on "Little Lord Fauntleroy" by F.H.Burnett.

(Source: AnimeNfo)

Nan Harding is the new student at Mr. and Mrs. Bhaer's school. Everyone thinks that she is a pain in the head, but not Mrs. Jo. Together with the other kids, they all embark on their personal adventures and misfortunes while learning in school.
(Source: ANN)

Chinami Ebihara is girl with a strange ability to generate electromagnetic waves when her emotions run high. However, since this "ability" affects anything electrical, it resulted in her having to transfer from school to school when she was younger. As Chinami, now 18 years of age, transfers to a new school, she once again affects the electronic devices in the school, but this time, when another student, Kotaro Kannagi, sees her do this, he becomes obsessed in studying her "TYPE-E" ability.
(Source: ANN)

Based on a seinen manga by Kikuchi Naoe and Yokomi Hirohiko, serialised in IKKI.

The "story" is that a manga artist is asked by her boss to accompany him and a travel-writer on various train trips around Japan and draw a manga about it.

The kicker though, is that it's completely non-fiction —the creator really did go on all these trips, and the manga simply records what happened, with no embellishment. There's a little disclaimer at the front that says "This is non-fiction, so I apologize for the lack of drama," and indeed, it mostly is just about them riding trains from place to place, waiting on platforms, etc.

The "travel writer" turns out to be a super train-otaku who has vast knowledge of the train network, but also micro-manages all their trips, planning every detail down to the second. He cares mostly about following the schedule and successfully achieving his planned goals (e.g. visiting all stations on a line in a completely bizarre order to accomodate infrequent trains). The mangaka doesn't really care about trains; she's cynical, sarcastic, and rather lazy (she mainly just looks forward to the next eki-ben); he's completely gung-ho as long as he's following the schedule, and the inevitable conflicts are pretty entertaining.

Throughout, though, it feels real —if you've travelled by train in Japan it will all seem very familiar, not just the scenery, but also the atmosphere and feel— and the artist does a great job of pacing and applying little tweaks to keep it consistently entertaining. In an additional bit of recursiveness, some of the characters who show up in the manga (who of course are real people, who really did show up) do so because they (really) read previous episodes of the manga!

In addition of course, you can learn about various out of the way and interesting Japanese train lines and stations; some of them really do look cool. There's always this vague sense of surreality about it however, the trips are all planned by the train-guy (goal: visit all 9,843 stations in Japan) who seems to consider everything as part of a checklist rather than an experience to be enjoyed. You learn a bit about train-otaku culture too; there's really only the one guy in the story, but train-otaku culture is a sort of constant peripheral presence.

(Source: AniDB)

Nello Tarth is a poor but happy orphan who lives with his grandfather Jehan in a little village nearby Antwerp. Nello has a talent for drawing pictures and has been fascinated by it since he saw one of Rubens (a famous artist) pictures as a little boy. Helping Jehan with the daily milk delivery to Antwerp, Nello one day discovers Patrash, a working dog who has been mistreated and abandoned by his former owner. He treats the exhausted animal and after a little while a close and dependable friendship develops. Alois Cojez, the daughter of the richest and hence most influential man in Blacken Village, is Nellos best friend. When Nello decides to become an artist he has to experience firsthand the ignorance and cruelty of the villagers. Especially Alois father thinks of him as a slacker who cannot earn his living by drawing pictures. Nontheless Nello perseveres and never gives up to achieve his dream and to win their appreciation and respect while strenuously struggling with his poverty.

(Source: ANN)

Romeo is a kindhearted and courageous boy living with his family in a small village in Switzerland. Unfortunately, Romeo becomes the interest of a man named Luini, known as "The God of Death," who is infamous for buying children and selling them as chimney sweeps in Milan. While visiting the village, Luini burns down Romeo's family cornfield in an attempt to have Romeo as his own. With the cornfield gone and his father sustaining a head injury trying to put out the fire, Romeo bravely sells himself to the God of Death in order to help his family afford a doctor.

On his way to Milan, Romeo meets a boy named Alfredo Martini and they quickly become friends. Just as Alfredo is sold to a different master, the two boys swear eternal friendship and vow to meet again. As a chimney sweep, Romeo faces many hardships and abuse, especially from his master's family and a gang known as the Wolf Pack. But after reuniting with Alfredo, the two form a fraternity of chimney sweeps called "The Black Brothers," who will learn to fight against the Wolf Pack and help each other in times of need.

Lucy's family moves from England to Australia planning to run a big farm. Starting a new life proves to be full of frustrations. Their agonizing days of despair continue until they finally obtain their farmland. However, Lucy and her sisters enjoy a range of new experiences such as discovering exotic animals and meeting with aborigines and other new people.

(Source: AnimeNfo)

Young beaver Chuck's adventure with his little friends. When thy are in trouble, Chuck often asks his father to help them out.
(Source: ANN)

Tom Sawyer is a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River in the mid 1800s. Along with his best friend Huckleberry Finn, he spends his days ditching school, fishing, climbing trees and having adventures.

(Source: ANN)

Omake Special from the final DVD volume. The Special storyline has very little to do with the original series outside of having some of the same characters, and has a completely different storyline which does not fit into anything which came before it.

(Source: AniDB)

After being deserted by her parents, 11-year-old Miyori shuts her heart from the rest of the world and denies any form of human relationships. She was entrusted in the care of her grandmother who lives near a forest. Miyori will take a walk in the forest where she felt a strong sense of loneliness in the forest which seems to have nothing. However, she soon encounters unbelievable things and gradually realizes that the forest is more than what it seems...

(Source: ANN)

Akari Mizunashi dreams of life after attaining her goal of becoming a Prima Undine, but upon waking realizes that she might not actually have the confidence to run Aria Company on her own. Wary of the future, she seeks advice from her mentor Alicia Florence—one of the three great "Water Fairies" of Neo-Venezia.

Much to Akari's surprise, Alicia reveals her own struggles of the past, but also shares the steps she took in overcoming her self-doubt of running the company and taking on an apprentice. Finding solace in her teacher's words, Akari prepares to embrace whatever trials she must overcome on her path toward achieving her dreams.

Life in Brailsford Junction, Wisconsin, is simple and quiet for Sterling North, who spends most of his free time caring for animals. With his mother in the hospital and his brother fighting on the Western Front, the boy lives only with his father and his dog Hauser.

One weekend, cutting away from his usual chores, Sterling, his friend Oscar, and Hauser head off on a fishing trip. On their way to the river, his dog catches a scent at the base of a tree. Unearthing a raccoon's nest, the two boys find an orphaned kit. A passing hunter has killed the kit's mother to make a fur hat, leaving Sterling to adopt and care for the orphaned raccoon.

Torn by his fracturing family, a brother in the trenches, along with the ailing health of his mother, Sterling's bonds with life and the world around him are kept together and strengthened by life with his new friend, the "ring-tailed wonder" and scoundrel, whom he names Rascal.

Shiratori Nagisa is a pink haired singing idol, continually badgered by her father to find new disciples for the family dojo. In an attempt to gain free-time as a normal kid, she cuts her hair and cross-dresses as a high-school boy. "Ootori Nagisa" enrolls in a run-down school, falling in love with a rival school's gang leader, Nosaka Akira. She soon finds out Nosaka-kun is a fan of Nagisa - The Idol. Keeping up the charade, they manage to sneak time together. Rivals for Nagisa's affection, BOTH their dojo-running fathers, as well as martial artist animals and an up-in-coming Idol conspire to make thier lives a complicated as possible.

(Source: ANN)

This story is about a girl, Candy, who is an orphan. She is a nice and optimistic girl and she has a warm heart. When she was a child, she lived in an orphanage called Pony's Home. She had a good friend called Annie. And she met the "Prince of the Hill" who is a important person in her life, on the hill behind the orphanage.

She was adopted by the Leagan family. What's awaiting her are the bad-hearted Neil and his sister, Eliza. One day, in the rose garden, she met a boy, who is identical to the "Prince of the Hill" who she had met in her childhood. His name is Anthony. Thereafter, a fantastic story that she has never expected begins.

(Source: AnimeNfo)

Candy returns to Pony's Home and she meets a girl who has lost her parents and doesn't associate with the other kids. In order to cheer her up she decides to tell her about herself from the moment she was found by Miss Pony and sister Lane to her decision to leave the boarding school in England and walk her own path.

(Source: ANN)

A continuation of the television series.

Remi is a boy living happily with his mother in the French countryside. But everything changes when his estranged father comes home and, in desperate need of money, reveals that Remi is adopted, and sells him. Heartbroken, Remi ends up with Vitalis, a traveling musician, and his troupe of animal entertainers. Together, they travel the country in search for Remi's real parents, along the way learning the harsh lessons of life. A deeply moving story about friendship, loss and the pursuit of happiness.

(Source: AniDB)