Daddy Long Legs - Judy Abbott, Jervis Pendleton

       This episode picks up with Judy being taken by Walter Griggs to see John Smith (daddy), Judy tells herself that she must go see daddy before she thinks about her desire to rush to Jervis’s side. As Mr Griggs is driving Judy to daddy’s house she is bombarded by her conflicting emotions and loyalties between daddy and Jervis.

        As their car enters New York city they are caught in a traffic jam caused by bad weather and accidents, Judy seeing that they’ll be stuck for a long time asks Mr Griggs how far away is daddy’s house? He tells her that it’s close by. So Judy has him draw her a map and she heads off on foot. While Judy is traveling on foot she encounters many interesting things, and finally she makes her way to daddy’s house. Judy in frantic rush, searches the house for daddy until she finds a room with a cane propped up by the door. Judy enter the room looking  for daddy but sees that no one is inside the room, then a figure enters the room, at first Judy can’t see who it is because of the bright sunlight bathing the room.

         Once Judy is finally able to see daddy clearly, she is shocked to see that daddy long legs is Jervis. At first, Judy is speechless, then Jervis tells Judy that he just couldn’t bring himself to tell her that he was John Smith. Jervis then asks Judy if she can every forgive him? After a split second delay, Judy tells Jervis that there’s nothing to forgive and she rushes into Jervis’s arms.

         As Jervis and Judy are embracing, Judy tells Jervis that she won’t let go of him again, and Jervis tells Judy that he also won’t let go of her. Jervis then falls to the floor, as Judy is rushing to Jervis’s aid Walter Griggs walks in and sees the situation and tells Judy that he’ll get a doctor for Jervis.

           As Judy is waiting in the front room, Walter Griggs gives Judy a coffee and a scrapbook and he tells her to read the book. The book contains pictures from the time that Jervis spent with Judy and the other girls, and the book also contains all of the letters the Judy sent Jervis and John Smith. As Judy is reading through the scrapbook, a unsent letter addressed to Judy falls out of the book, and Judy decides to open the letter. The letter is from John Smith explaining to Judy that he John Smith is really Jervis, it also explains to Judy how he first got interested in her because of her essay from the orphanage, and how he over time came to love her. Jervis also explains that he felt that he couldn’t reveal his identity to her until after he finished his job as her guardian then he could finally come to her as just a man and tell her that he loves her. He also tells her that he had hoped that she would build up her courage until she could tell him about her real background. Finally, Walter Griggs tells Judy that Jervis is calling for her, Judy enters his room and takes his outstretched hand and stays by his bedside.

          As the dawn breaks over the city, Jervis’s fever has broken and he awakens to see Judy at his bedside. The series then moves forward four years into the future with Judy writing her final letter to daddy long legs. Judy and Jervis were married at the Lock Willow church, with all of Judy and Jervis’s family and friends in attendance. Julia and Jimmy are now engaged to be married after Jimmy finishes his post graduate degree, Sallie has left school and is now involved in the family business and she is still seeing Bob, and Judy says that she’s now a college student and Jervis’s wife at the same time. Well, that’s all for this episode and the series.

        Well, this episode wraps everything up quite nicely for the three girls. Judy had finally gotten to meet her “daddy long legs” for the first time, and she got to resolve her feelings for Jervis in a most satisfying way. Julia and Jimmy seem to be very happy as a couple with a wedding in their near future. Sallie seems to be happy with her role in her family’s business, but it still looks like she still is wishy washy about her relationship with Bob (that’s the same old Sallie).

       This episode also did a nice job of explaining why Jervis felt that he couldn’t just come out and tell Judy that he was John Smith. The unsent letter to Judy also did a nice job explaining how Jervis’s interest in Judy as innocent young girl slowly turned to romantic love as the years passed.

      Overall, this series was a great example of how good plot and character development can create an intriguing and engrossing anime series. In a few days I’ll write a post explaining why I feel that this series in many ways surpasses and exceeds many of the newer anime that cover the same territories.

        This episode begins with Judy writing a long letter to daddy explaining all the thing that happened to her over the past several months. First, Judy tells him that there is only one week of school left until her graduation, and she also tells him that she received a letter informing her that a woman’s college has granted her a scholarship. Then Judy goes on to tell daddy about all the things that happened with her true love Jervis, how Jervis told her that he loved her and his marriage proposal, Judy’s rejection of his proposal because she loves him and feels he would be better off without her. She tells him that she couldn’t tell Jervis about her orphan background, and she asks daddy if she should try to conceal her past and try to live as a false Judy her whole life?

 

        Judy also makes her final request of daddy, she asks him to come to her graduation ceremony and give her some advise on what to do, she tells him that he’s the only one she has now. later, Judy get informed by Mr Melnore that she’s been chosen to be the class valedictorian and will give the graduation speech. Then Julia gets a phone call and finds out that Jervis will be attending their graduation ceremony, and that Julia and Sallie shouldn’t tell Judy about it. After the phone call  Julia tells Sallie that her uncle didn’t sound very well at all. Judy then gets a letter directly from John Smith (daddy) telling her that he’ll come to her graduation and he’ll meet with her in-person for the first time.

         On graduation day, Julia, Sallie, and Judy are waiting by the gate for their family and friends. The first to arrive is Bob and Jimmie and they give their best wishes to the girls, then Julia’s parents show up and they tell Julia that uncle Jervis won’t be attending because he collapsed as soon as he returned to New York. Julia’s parent tell her that Jervis is very sick and that he only has a 50-50 chance of a recovery and that as soon as the ceremony is over they’ll will leave for New York to see him. Julia rushes to Judy and tells her that she has to go see him because Jervis still loves her very much, but Julia’s mother runs over and tells Judy that this has nothing to do with her, Judy not knowing what to do runs off in tears.

        Judy rushes to a phone and tries to place a call to Jervis but he’s so ill that he’s not allowed to have any calls or visitors. Judy decides to go to New York, and as she’s rushing to get a cab she decides that she should have told Jervis about her past so that she wouldn’t have hurt him so much. But, before Judy can get into a cab she’s intercepted by Sallie and her teacher and they tell Judy that she has she has to get her diploma and give the speech because daddy is waiting for her.

         After Judy gets her diploma she has to begin her speech, as Judy is preparing to begin her speech she asks daddy to lend her his courage. Judy, after starting her pre written speech decides to put it away and begins to bare her soul to the audience. Judy tells the audience that at first she had doubts about the good will and charity of people but because of her guardian’s support of her for the last three years without asking anything in return gave her faith in the good will of people. Judy then tells the audience that she grew up in a orphanage and was very poor but thanks to her guardian’s support she has been able to attend this wonderful school. At that moment, Julia tells Sallie that she didn’t think that Judy would confess her secret in front of so many people, Sallie asks Julia if she knew Judy’s secret all along, and Julia admits that she knew Judy’s secret. Judy goes to tell everyone how thankful she is to everyone who gave her the support and courage to be finally be able to come to terms with her past and the courage to move forward without anymore secrets. When Judy finally finishes her speech most of the audience is in tears and they give her a standing ovation.

         Once Judy steps down from the stage she is meet by Julia, Sallie, and her teachers. Julia tells Judy good job and now she doesn’t have to be afraid of anything anymore. Then Walter Griggs meet Judy and tells him that she must come with him because John Smith is very ill, Judy rushes off with Griggs. But Julia chases Judy down and she tells Judy that Jervis still loves her and that she has to go see him right now. As Judy gets into the car with Walter Griggs,  she tells Julia that she still loves Jervis very much, and that she should tell Jervis that for her and that she’ll go see him as soon as possible. This episode ends with Judy driving off to see her daddy (John Smith). Well, that’s all for now.

       Throughout the entire series one of the major issues has always been whether or not Judy would ever be able to come to terms with her past?  Would Judy always hide from it and therefor always live in fear of being found out, or would she be able to transcend and embrace her past and let the chips fall where they may?

      When Judy found out about Jervis’s serious illness she assumed that he got ill because he was heartsick over her rejecting his marriage proposal, and she thought that if she had only told him about her background that he would have understood that she wasn’t the right person for him. Well, I think that she should have told him earlier about her background, but because of the quality of Jervis’s character I don’t think it would have mattered one bit to him.

       So, when Judy took the stage to give her graduation speech she decided to lay bare her soul to everyone, and when she told everyone about her background she held nothing back, no more lies, no more half-truths. But, Judy also expressed her overwhelming gratitude to everyone that made her transformation from a poor orphan girl to the educated young woman standing before you possible. Judy also tells everyone that with the love and support that she now has that she can finally release the negative feeling she has about her past and fully discuss them with everyone.

        As Judy is giving her speech, I found that watching the crowd’s reaction was priceless. Most of the crowd is touched at a very human level and brought to tears, but Julia’s mother is shocked that she would have the nerve to admit her low class origins. Julia on the other hand is happy and proud of the fact that Judy had the courage to tell her secret in front of everybody, and she tells Judy afterwards the she no longer has to live in fear. From the moment that Judy revealed her secret to the crowd, she was finally able to break free of the chains that anchored her to the past, in affect it released her from bondage. For Judy to be able to reach this point she had to come to the conclusion that most people are good at heart and will judge her on the content of her character and not her background.

         With only one more episode remaining it will be interesting to see how the various loose ends of the series are tied up; does Judy and Jervis get married, does Sallie and Bob’s relationship continue, will Julia and Jimmie stay together, and who exactly is daddy/John Smith.

 

         This episode begins with Miss Sloan celebrating the holiday back at the dorm when Judy comes running back home in tears, she won’t tell Miss Sloan anything. Next next morning, Judy gets a phone call from Jervis but she refuses to get out of bed to take the call. When Miss Sloan goes to get Judy she finds her in tears, and Judy begs her to tell Jervis not to call her again. Back in New York, Jervis, Sallie, and Julia are worried about Judy, and Jervis confronts his sister in law about what she said to drive Judy off, she just laughs about it and says that a well brought up lady wouldn’t have run off like that.

       Then Jervis’s sister in law tries to convince him to get together with Cathrine, the banker’s daughter, but he tells his sister to butt out and to mind her own business. Back at school, Judy tries to rationalise the situation by saying that a orphan like her could have never married someone from a family like the Pendletons, Judy tells herself that she has to forget about him and when she thinks about it she’ll pretend that it was just a happy dream.

 

      The next day, Judy receives a letter from Jervis but she can’t bring herself to read it, and Jervis tries to send Judy another letter but she refuses to read that one also. Then right before the New Years holiday Sallie and Julia return from New York so the can spend their last holiday together with Judy before they graduate. Then Judy receives a wedding invitation from Lock Willow Farm and it asks her to attend the wedding of Amasai and Carrie, but Judy’s afraid to go since she might run into Jervis there, but she soon gets a phone call from Walter Griggs asking her to attend the wedding on behalf of her guardian Mr Smith.

       The girls arrive at Lock Willow Farm by carriage, and along the way Judy resolves to not run from Jervis, she tells herself  that they must talk it over like adults, but she decides that she must not hurt Jervis. Once at the farm, Judy receives a warm welcome from the Semples, and they also give a nice welcome to the other girls. Inside the house the girls get to meet Carrie, and then Judy runs into Jervis but her reaction to him is cool and distant.

          Later, Judy is busy helping Carrie with her wedding dress, and Mrs Semple sends Jervis and her husband out to catch some fish so they can get out of the way of the wedding preparations. As Judy is adjusting Carrie’s wedding dress Carrie tells Judy that she might be wearing one soon, but to Carrie’s dismay Judy tells her that a wedding dress isn’t in the cards anytime soon. After dinner Mr Semple takes Sallie and Julia to another room to talk, and Jervis asks Judy if they can speak alone for a minute.  In the hallway Judy tells Jervis that she’s sorry that she couldn’t return his letters or his phone calls, Jervis then asks Judy if she’ll step outside with him? But Judy tells him that she’ll have a talk with him tomorrow and Jervis agrees that they’ll talk tomorrow.

       Carrie and Amasai wedding ceremony goes off without a hitch, Jervis keeps glancing at Judy during the ceremony trying to get some read on her mood. After the wedding ceremony, Jervis tells Judy that he wants to support her in every way then he asks Judy to marry him and he offers her an engagement ring. Judy asks Jervis why he’s joking with her, and Jervis demands to know if his sister in law said anything to Judy? Jervis tells Judy that he loves her and he asks her if she feels that same way? Judy says that they live in two different worlds and that she couldn’t make him happy and she also wouldn’t be happy, she also tells him that she never loved him and that he can’t be her friend anymore.

        Just after Judy tells Jervis that they can’t be friends anymore a group of wedding guests barge between Jervis and Judy and they knock the ring from Jervis’s hand and it gets trampled into the ground. As Jervis is searching the ground for the ring Judy walks aways leaving Jervis by himself. Later, as Jervis is saying his goodbyes to the Semples, Judy is in tears as she watches Jervis from upstairs because she just might be seeing Jervis for the last time. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this episode should have been the perfect Cinderella ending to Judy’s story. But, because of Judy’s lack of self confidence and her not properly valuing her own worth she let Jervis’s sister in law poison her thinking. Judy has always been so worried about concealing her orphan past that she never considered the possibility that after spending three with the girls at the school that they would be willing to accept her as a friend even though she comes from a lower class. Judy should have considered  the fact that If her classmates reject her after three years of friendship then they weren’t real friends to begin with.

        Judy also displayed surprisingly little faith in the man she loves, if Jervis truly loves her like he says he does then she should have had faith in the fact that he would still love her even after she reveals that fact that she’s an orphan. So, in the end Judy must come to terms with who she really is to be happy. What is Judy?  Is she just a low class orphan girl, or is she now a properly educated young lady, or is she a combination of both, when Judy can accept and transcend her past she’ll be able to live a full and happy life without being afraid of her ghosts from the past.

       Winter has come to the campus and Christmas vacation is fast approaching, Judy and Sallie have been invited to a party at Julia’s house in New York. Sallie worries about whether her custom dress will be nice enough for the New York elite, and Judy worries about whether John Smith will let her attend the party or he will force her to stay at the school. Julia tells Sallie and Judy not to worry, and that her guardian will let her attend the party and besides Jervis will be attending the party.

       Judy’s worries are soon dispelled when she gets a package from Walter Griggs, it contains a designer dress, a pearl necklace, and other accessories, plus a letter telling her to attend the party and see how polite society functions.

     Once the girls arrive at Julia’s house they quickly change into their dresses and head out to the party, Judy becomes separated from Julia and Sallie while looking for Jervis. She becomes confused and nervous about being separated from her friends and about being surrounded by strangers. Later, Julia’s mother sets up a situation where Judy will be embarrassed in front of the whole party while she tries to explain her family situation. But, Jervis shows up at the last minute and takes the attention away from Judy, Jervis and Judy try to talk outside but he’s drawn away from her by his brother in law (Julia’s dad).

       Later, some of the women at the party corner Judy and they ask her about her background and Judy quickly excuses herself. Jervis and Judy finally run into each other again, so Jervis takes her to the dance floor where they start dancing. Julia’s mother seems shocked to see Jervis and Judy dancing so closely, and soon Jervis is pulled away about a business matter, he tells Judy that he’ll be back soon.

      Once Julia’s mother sees that Judy is alone she tells her that she wants to talk with her about her background. She tells Judy that just having her around Jervis would start rumors about him and his family, like Judy’s is just after his money, plus he really doesn’t love her anyways. She also tells Judy that she had her investigated and she knows about Judy’s pitiful past, so if Judy just goes away she won’t tell anyone about it even her daughter, continue to attend school and graduate, nobody has to know anything.

        The pressure is too much for Judy and her confidence collapses around her, and she thinks that she was silly and stupid for thinking that she could be with Jervis. In tears, Judy flees from the party and Julia’s house. Jervis seeing what happened from a distance runs after Judy but his sister blocks his way, he demands to know what his sister told Judy and she just laughs at him saying that he wishes he knew. Jervis rushes past her to search for Judy but it’s too late, Judy has already left the property in a car heading back to the school. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, as Walter Griggs suggested Judy really learned how “polite society” functions, it seems that Judy got to close to the sun and got burnt. While it was alright for Judy to be friends with Julia, but once her mother found out how close her brother was getting to Judy she decided to act. In the past, Julia’s mother has stated that feelings shouldn’t a factor in relationships, you have to consider the business implications before all else.

       But the real issue is not whether Julia’s mother discovered Judy’s past and will spill the beans or not, but when will Judy finally come to a understanding and acceptance of who she is. Once Judy can come to grips with who she really is than she can let those around her know about it. Then it’s up to them to accept or reject Judy, they will have to weigh and value the Judy they have known for the past three years versus the orphan girl Judy. If they chose to reject Judy’s friendship because of who she was in the past then it’s shame on them for placing more value on where she came from over who she is. 

 

          This episode begins with Judy feeling terrible about not seeing that Julia was having serious personal problems, so she searches the campus looking for Julia. But we see that Julia has arraigned a meeting with Jimmie at the restaurant they first meet at, and when Jimmie arrives he is confused about what Julia wants. As Jimmie is making coffee for them, Julia tells him about her parents wanting to arraign a marriage for her, she’s wants him to saw something like don’t get married but all he can say is that he thinks she can be happy, and Julia gets very upset and she leaves the restaurant in tears.

         When the owner goes inside he sees Jimmie cleaning up the mess and he asks Jimmie if he’s OK with Julia running off in tears. Jimmie comes to his senses and rushes out after Julia, but it seems that he’s too late. Jimmie calls the school looking for Julia, but Judy answers the phone and learns what happened with Julia, but before Judy can get more information from him Julia’s mother grabs the phone and demands stuff from Jimmie.

       Judy rushes into town to look for Julia once she knows the full situation, also Jimmie is looking for Julia too. Julia makes her way to the train station and asks for a ticket on the next train out town, this is a all time classic movie line. Judy catches Julia just as she’s about to board the train and they have a heated argument with Julia saying she’s leaving and Judy telling her not to run away. As Judy tries to stop Julia from boarding the departing train they both fall to the ground just as Jimmie arrives, Julia breaks down in tears and tells them that she doesn’t know what to do.

      When Judy and Jimmie phone Sallie telling her that they’ve found Julia, Julia’s mother rushes into town to get her daughter. Once she arrives there she finds Julia bandaged and sedated from her injury, and she is told that Julia must rest until the evening. But, her mother tells the driver to carry Julia to the car, Judy intervenes, asking Julia’s mother whether she cares about her daughter’s health, and she tells Judy of course I do. Then Judy asks the woman if she cares about her daughter’s feelings and happiness, and the woman laughs at this by saying that Julia’s still a little girl and she’ll do what her parents tell her to do and she’ll learn to be happy with it.

 

     It turns out that Julia was faking her injury and she gets up and thanks her friends for their support and she tells them she’ll be going with her mother. But, she says that she’ll go to the marriage meeting and turn the guy down with words from her own lips. When Jimmie hears this, he tells Julia he’s glad she’s not getting married, and then he asks her out on a date totally frustrating Julia’s mother.

        Julia’s mother is not the only one who’s frustrated, in the confusion of helping Julia with her problems Bob is left waiting at the school for Sallie to show up for their date. But, Bob’s not alone, he has Jervis to keep him company, it seems that Jervis was supposed to take Julia out on a date for her seventeenth birthday. The two guys seem to be pretty understanding of the whole situation once Miss Sloan explains what caused all this chaos, so they content themselves in playing chess until their babes return. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        Well, as this series begins it’s last episodes and the girls head towards adulthood things begin to sort themselves out.

         Julia has finally stood up to her mother and told her that she’ll be choosing her future path for herself. Several times in the past, Julia has been dragged around against her will by her mother, and at times she seemed like a bird in a guiled cage. Well, it seems that Julia has gotten her wish with Jimmie finally having given up on Judy and turning his attention to her in a serious way.

        Sallie, where do I begin? It seems that things are also looking good for Sallie, Bob seems to be absolutely infatuated Sallie. Now, if only Sallie could get over her man fright, it looks like she likes Bob, but every time the prospect of her being alone with him or him even just touching her by accident seems to turn her into a hysterical ten year old. I understand that she’s a good girl but her reaction to Bob seems a little immature for a girl/young woman of seventeen. Back in the days of Daddy Long Legs, girls/young women of Sallie, Julia, and Judy’s age seriously had to consider marriage partners, the medium age of marriage for females was 21 meaning half got married younger and half got married older, so having to think about marriage at age 17-18 was a real possibility.

       Now, lets talk about Judy. Out of all three of the girls Judy’s love life seems the most advanced and stable, she and Jervis have both professed their love to each other and there at the kissing stage. Both Jervis and Judy had the opportunity to break it off but decided that they really wanted a relationship together. The only two real issues between them will be the issue of Judy’s background, she’s told no one that she’s a orphan and a poor girl. The second issue that might come up is the age gap between them, Jervis is ten years older than Judy, but after Judy graduates high school in a few months if she and Jervis doesn’t have a problem with it than who is anyone else to complain.

         But, overall the last couple of episodes will be interesting; will the girls get their guys, will the girls get into the colleges of their choices, and will Judy finally come to grips with her background? I can’t answer these questions yet, but watching it all happen will be interesting.    

        This episode begins with winter coming to the school, and Judy notes that the changing seasons coincide with how all the girls are changing from girls to women. Judy’s seventeenth birthday is this weekend, and Jervis’s birthday is also coming up. Sallie tries her hand at makeup and she also offers to let Judy try some on but Judy refuses saying that she’ll look better without.

         After class is over Sallie invites Judy and Julia to go shopping with her, but Julia refuses saying that she needs to find some books to read. Later we see Julia in the library looking forlorn and lonely even though she was quite cheery with Sallie and Judy, and then we see her looking through a football guide. As Julia is returning to the dorm Julia gets a phone call from her mother, she tells Julia that she has to come home this weekend to be introduced to the son of a real estate agent that her father setup. Julia gets angry and refuses to meet the boy but her mother says she has no choice and to quit being selfish. Julia tells her mother that she in love with Jimmie McBride, Sallie’s older brother, but her mother says that she’s lying.

        Later back in her room, Julia thinks over the disagreement she had with her mother and Julia admits that she’s really in love with Jimmie. Julia is in pretty dark spirits until Judy and Sallie return from shopping, it seems that Julia needs to talk over her problems but she doesn’t want to spoil the cheerful mood.

       Later that evening we see Bob all dressed up for his date with Sallie, Bob tells Jimmie that he has a phone call waiting for him. It seems that Julia has called Jimmie and has asked him to meet her tomorrow and he agrees to meet her. As Sallie and Judy sleep peacefully Julia is awake thinking about her situation then at first light we see her pack up some clothes and head out before the other girls wake up.

        Judy is awaken by a commotion occurring outside the dorm, Julia’s mother has arrived to pick her daughter up but she refuses to follow the proper procedures. Judy goes to Julia and Sallie’s room to wake her up but she discover that Julia is missing. Sallie has no idea where Julia is at but she notices that Julia’s favorite traveling dress and bag are gone, and then the girls realize that Julia has been acting strangely the last couple of days. When Julia’s mother barges in she discovers that her daughter is missing, Judy tries to cover for her but her mother is pissed, Judy figures that Julia needed to talk but instead ran away. Judy tells Sallie to stall the mother while she goes to look for Julia.

       As Sallie is talking with Julia’s mother Judy overhears Julia’s mother question Sallie about her brother, and Judy hears Julia’s mother tell Sallie that Julia stated that she was in love with Jimmie. Judy feels terrible that both she and Sallie didn’t pick up on Julia’s need to talk with someone, Judy rushes out of the dorm in an attempt to locate Julia and talk with her. Well, that’s all for this episode.

        In the last episode Judy experienced a lot of self-examination and introspection to achieve some form of inner truth about her feeling for Jervis, and she was finally able to express them to him. Now, Julia is going through the same internal struggle, while Judy’s struggle was with her inner self, Julia’s struggle is with her inner feelings and her relationship with her mother. Julia might able to tell Jimmie that she loves him like Judy did with Jervis, but Julia’s real problem will be in dealing with her mother.

        In past episodes, Julia’s mother and even Julia have talked about relationships and marriage in terms of a business deal, she tried to explain to Judy that Jervis’s meeting with the daughter of another bank owner made business sense, while this made sense to Julia the logic didn’t make Judy’s feelings of love for Jervis any less. Now it’s Julia’s turn to have to deal with the business/social concerns that her parents want to place on her vs the feelings of her heart, and I bet that it will be very difficult to impossible for her to ignore her love for Jimmie.

        Also, as the series approaches it’s final couple of episodes the fun and games are over with, in the beginning the girls were exactly that, girls. Their concerns were with things like cake, pretty clothes, occasionally one upping each other, and vacations. Now, the girls who are almost women are concerned with the more weighty issues of college, relationships and maybe marriage, and what they’ll do as adults, goodbye childhood and hello adulthood.

       This episode begins with Judy thinking over her failed romance with Jervis, and she has a terrible dream about her confessing her love to Jervis in New York with her orphan background coming back to haunt her. Judy is so upset over her lost love that she even goes to church to pray, and when Julia and Sallie see her so sad Julia tries to help but Judy just runs off in tears.

       When Judy checks her mail she finds a rejection notice from her publisher explaining that the product she sent in is not up to snuff, and she thinks back to Jervis’s suggestions for improvement. Judy decides to call Jervis because she realizes that her fears about him can’t be true, he would never be like that, but she can’t reach him because he’s on a business trip. Judy gets caught using the phone by Miss Sloan but Julia covers for her. Later, Julia tells Judy to forget Jervis because he just got introduced to the daughter of another bank owner so Julia says that it will probably be a corporate marriage of convenience. Judy tries to blow it off by saying that she never had any feelings for him, and that she was sad about her novel being rejected.

 

       But inside her room Judy has a good cry, and then she asks herself how did a orphan like her expect anything other than what happened? Then Judy reminisces about her experiences with Jervis over the last three years, and concludes that she is alone again just like when she started. Judy tries to concentrate on her school studies but she is still distracted about her broken relationship with Jervis. Then Judy receives a letter from Jervis and just as she is about to throw the letter in the trash she gets called to the office.

 

      Once there she finds out that she has received a letter from her guardian, it contains a check for $100 and he says that if Judy will continue to accept his support throughout high school he’ll drop his objection to her applying for a college scholarship. He also says that the check is a gift for all her hard work she’s done in school, this really lifts Judy’s spirits and makes her really happy. Judy then writes her guardian a heartfelt letter of thanks for his support, and she also tells him she lost her dearest friend but she still has her good friends Sallie and Julia. Then Judy decides to write a farewell letter to Jervis so she opens his letter, and in a written note Jervis says he’s sorry for all the misunderstandings and he wants to meet her a 5pm at the back gate, Judy rushes off to meet him but she’s very late.

 

       When she gets there he’s not at the gate and as Judy is standing there under a street light a car pulls up and Jervis gets out. Judy rushes into Jervis’s arms where she tells him that she cares for and loves him, and he tells her that he loves her too. Judy asks about his arraigned marriage and he tells her that she turned him down before he could do the same. Jervis then takes Judy into his arms and kisses her and then Judy kisses him back, and they stand under the street lights embracing each other. Well, that’s all for this episode.

         After watching this episode of Daddy Long Legs I’m reminded of why I love old school shojo anime so much. This episode brings out or at least confirms the feelings that Judy and Jervis have for each other to the forefront. While Judy tried to come up with reasons that she and Jervis could never be together, such as age, class, and so forth, deep down in her heart she loved Jervis, and the more she tried to deny those feelings the more sad she became.

         Jervis has been attracted to Judy for some time, but he always seemed to hurt her when he tried to be a combination of a close friend and a father figure to her. He spoke more about his concerns for Judy’s future than he truly listened to her hopes and dreams, and as he tried to have her take a more conservative path Judy lost her luster and shine. But I think that Jervis was finely able to put his worries aside and just say I love you to Judy.

       This is classic old school shojo of the highest order, girl loves boy but is unsure or her feelings until it’s almost too late, boy loves girl but he can’t figure it out until he’s almost lost her for good, differences in upbringing and class that seem almost to large to bridge, then it’s all made better with the words “I love you” and a kiss.

October 17, 2008

Daddy Long Legs episode 33 review, two lonely hearts pass in the fog!

Posted by animewriter under Daddy Long Legs, Drama, Kid friendly anime, Shojo | Tags: anime, anime drama, Anime Series, Daddy Long Legs, shojo anime |
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       This episode begins with Sallie and Julia urging Judy to get ready and change for the party at Princeton, Julia is torn between going to Jimmie’s party and meeting Jervis at 3pm. But, Judy is angry at Jervis for him taking her guardian’s side about her writing and her future schooling.

        As time passes Judy begins to get more upset that Jervis doesn’t understand her any longer until she breaks down in tears. Meanwhile, Jervis is waiting with flowers at the school’s gate, he hopes he can smooth things over with Judy, and 3pm passes with Judy still not meeting Jervis at the gate.

         At the Princeton party, Jimmie is dancing with Julia, when the band takes a break Jimmie pulls Sallie to the side and he asks her where Judy is? Sallie tells him that it didn’t look like she wanted to attend, Sallie suggests that it might be because he didn’t send Judy a invitation. Jimmie tells Sallie that he sent Judy her invitation first, and that he only sent Julia a invitation because Judy wanted him to send her one. Just as he’s saying this, Judy is listening from a distant and Julia overhears the whole conversation, Julia is shocked and drops her glass.

       Julie is in tears of rage and embarasment over how she was treated and how half the party now knows, Judy tries to talk to Julia but she Just tells Judy, how would you feel if someone treated you that way. She goes off on Jimmie about how she knows that he likes Judy but she thought that he sent her an invitation out of courtesy, and she hoped that being around him would make him change his mind about her, Julia also asks Jimmie “are you a man”? Meaning how could he treat a young lady this way.

        After a moment of inner thought Jimmie agrees with Julia about how he treated her, he begs her for her  forgiveness, and he also apologizes to Judy for putting her in this situation. Back at the school, Jervis is still waiting for Judy, and it’s getting late. When Judy realizes it’s 5pm she rushes from the party back to the school but Jervis is gone. But he left flowers with the dorm mother miss Sloan, once Judy realizes that she wanted to she Jervis she runs to her room and cries herself to sleep.

       A few days later Judy gets a package from Jervis, it contains a copy of her novel with editing suggestions, and a letter from Jervis telling her to write a great novel. Later, Julia tells Judy that she’s calling Jervis and if she wants to talk to him she can join her on the phone. After Julia calls Jervis she hands the phone to Judy and leaves, Judy tells Jervis that she wants to see him in New York but he tells her no, he tells her he’s busy and he’ll call her, Judy thinks it’s over and she apologies to him and hangs up the phone.

        Later, Judy sits on her bed and thinks about her relationship with Jervis and all the good times she had with him. Judy then comes to the conclusion that Jervis doesn’t like her because they live in two very different worlds, and then she symbolically tosses her novel in the trash, ending their relationship. Later that evening Jervis is at a business dinner and it seems that he’s been setup on a blind date but he’s not having a good time. He looks at his watch and leaves the dinner abruptly making the excuse that he has a important matter to look into.

          Later that afternoon, Sallie and Julia are playing basketball when Julia notices Judy by herself. Julia asks Judy if she’s going to see Jervis, and Judy tells her that Jervis was too busy, Julia tells Judy that Jervis likes her and he’s just making an excuse. With a look of utter depression Judy tells Julia that it’s OK and she needs to hunker down and study hard for college. As this is occurring, Jervis is trying to get through to the school but miss Sloan is on the phone, and eventually he gives up on trying to call Judy. Well, that’s all for this episode.

          Well, this episode opened the taps, and the melodrama and tears flowed like a raging river, God this is why I like classic shoujo. I could really understand the raw pain and emotions that both Julia and Judy experienced in this episode. When the series first started Julia was a spoiled rich girl, but as the years have progressed she has matured greatly, she might still be rich but she is now a very nice girl. Jimmie has also finally realized how much pain and distress he caused Julia and Judy, and for him the phrase “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need” might apply here.

          Now for Judy and Jervis, Judy loves Jervis but she feels that due to her screw ups, and her perceived class differences with Jervis, their relationship it’s over. Jervis strongly likes (maybe loves) Judy but due to his trying to guide Judy’s future course might have damaged what he liked in Judy, her always cheerful try hard nature. In the end their relationship problems are caused by them not being able to express their honest feeling towards each other. Once Judy comes to realize that she has worth beyond her class she’ll be able to tell Jervis that I’m Judy and I love you regardless of who I am, or who you are. Also, once Jervis can tell Judy that because he loves her so much he might have been a little more worried about her future then he should have been, then everything will be right with the world.

          Tears, pain, longing, misunderstandings, joy, redemption, and the need to be loved by someone is why I love the shoujo classics like Daddy Long Legs, Candy Candy, Princess Knight, and The Rose of Versailles. Sometimes when I watch modern anime with it’s lolicon, moe, and harem themes; and it’s stories that are super micro-targeted to a specific group of otaku, I look towards the “classics” to see how badly the modern art of anime storytelling has fallen.

       This episode begins with Judy writing Daddy a letter about her goal of receiving a scholarship to college, she also tells him that she has received some scholarship applications to college due to he writing skills. Later on, Judy and Sallie both get invitations to a party being held at Princeton, but Judy tells them she didn’t get a invitation to the party because Julia didn’t get invited. That evening Judy calls Jimmie and tells him to invite Julia, but Jimmie makes Judy agree to come to the party if he invites Julia.

       A few day later Julia receives her invitation to the Princeton party, and Judy gets a letter from Walter Griggs telling Judy that her guardian does not wish that she that she tries for a scholarship and that he will support her education throughout college. Judy is very upset about his letter and she writes him back saying that she will continue to pursue the scholarship and that her roommates worry about her feelings than he does, and she tells him that she wants to earn her place in the world.

        As time passes, Judy spends her time trying to write, then one afternoon Sallie brings Judy a message from Jervis telling her to meet him at the train platform at 4PM. Judy rushes off to meet him at the station, and he invites her out on a date on Sunday. They talk for a while and they end up arguing about Judy’s decision to try and make it on her own, Jervis tells Judy that the world isn’t as nice as she thinks it is. Judy accuses Jervis of being just another rich guy like her guardian, and as Judy runs off, Jervis tells her he will be waiting to meet her at 3PM on Sunday.

       On Sunday Judy is in her room while Sallie and Julia are getting ready for the party, and after her argument with Jervis she is torn about meeting him for their date or going to the party with the other girls. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, in this episode Judy must deal with two major conflicts in her life. The first conflict is her ongoing problems with Jimmie and Jervis, she views Jimmie as a brother not as a boyfriend, and he seems to be having trouble dealing with this issue. Judy needs to be much more forceful with Jimmie about this, she needs to come right out and bluntly tell him that he only a close friend.

       The second issue that Judy must deal with is her conflict with her guardian about her scholarship, he feels that she should let him pay for her college, and she feels that she wants to try and support herself. Jervis tells Judy that she should just let her guardian pay for the school since that his job as her guardian. Jervis tries to tell her that it won’t be as simple as she thinks it will be, and he also told her that her last draft novel really wasn’t that good and that she has to be much better to earn a living.

         At the heart of Judy’s problems is that she wants what every person wants as they head towards adulthood, she wants to be a self-reliant person, living by her skills and hard work. While her guardian and Jervis feels that she’s trying too hard Judy feels that they are doubting her talents and abilities, this is a classic example of a child feeling that they are almost ready to leave the nest.

        This episode begins with the girls starting their senior year of high school, Judy makes the observation that all the girls now have seemed to have matured from girls to women. Judy also comments that most of the girls are now making adult decisions about their futures, like marriage after graduation or what college to attend if they are going to continue their education. Also, Sallie gets invited to a date this Saturday, Sallie and her date Bob are nervous about being alone so Sallie makes it a group date with Judy, Julia, Jimmie, and Jervis coming along too.

        The girls wait for their dates in front of the movie theater, Bob and Jimmie show up a little late, Jimmie tries to grab up Judy but Julia intercepts him first. Bob and Sallie are attracted to each other but very nervous around one another, so Judy tries to calm Sallie down but she’s almost so nervous she can’t even be around him. Later while Judy is in the lobby she wonders why Jervis is so late.

        As Judy is waiting in the lobby she sees that Jimmie has ditched Julia he invites Judy for some tea. While having tea Jimmie tells Judy that he really likes her and he wants to know if she is seeing anyone and what she thinks of him. Judy tells him that she’s not seeing anyone but she has someone she likes but she doesn’t know if she should like him. Jimmie continues to pressure her about going out with him as Jervis walks up to them, he seems to have overheard the gist of the conversation.

       As Julia and Sallie arrive at the table where Jimmie, Judy, and Jervis are at there is tremendous tension between Jimmie and Jervis because Jimmie can tell that Judy likes Jervis. After a while, Jimmie storms off with Bob in tow, Julia blames the situation on Jervis, so he decides to leave. As Jervis is leaving, he thanks Judy for what she said and Judy blushes as he touches her shoulder. Well, that’s all of this episode.

          Well, with episode we are approaching the beginning of the end, the girls have now started their senior years of school. As Judy said at the beginning of the episode the girls have now changed into young women, and their concerns are now those of young women, college, jobs, and maybe marriage.

        The main point of this episode is about what do the girls really want? Sallie is clearly attracted to Bob but she is so nervous that his touch almost drives her into a panicked frenzy, she leaves Bob so flustered that he just leaves after the end of the movie. Julia really wants Jimmie as her boyfriend and she does everything that she can to try and make it happen. Judy is attracted to Jervis and she even told Jimmie that she has someone that she likes.

       Now to the guys. Bob really likes Sallie and he is very nervous around her but he tried to make the date go well but Sallie’s behavior spoiled his attempts, of the three guys I feel the sorriest for him. Jervis likes Judy and he lets her know his feelings in indirect but clear ways and Judy clearly understands his feelings. Jimmie wants Judy as his girl but Judy told him that she has someone else that she likes, he needs to get over her and pick Julia or some other girl.

        What I find amusing about this series is that the three main girls and guys are perfect catches for anyone, almost unrealistically so. Julia’s comes from a super rich family, Sallie’s family owns a factory,  Judy has a rich guardian, and all three girls attend a ultra elite girls finishing school. Jervis is a bank president, and both Jimmie and Bob attend Princeton and are on the football team. The cast of main characters from Daddy Long Legs puts the casts of 90210 and Gossip Girl to shame with their status.

 

        This episode begins with Judy arriving at Lock Willow Farm for the summer and she describes in a letter to Daddy that after two months she is still upset about him not allowing her to spend the summer with Sallie and Julia. Then the Sempleton’s show Judy a telegram informing them that Jervis will be stopping by for a visit, Judy is very excited and has to get ready to see him. When Jervis arrives they throw a surprise party for him, and Judy and Jervis share shy glances with each other.

       Later that day the postman arrives at the farm and Judy receives a letter from a New York publishing company telling her that they will publish one of her short stories in a upcoming issue and they also include a check for fifty dollars as payment. Jervis and everyone else is very impressed with Judy’s good luck and her entry into adulthood.

 

        That night Judy and Jervis have a conversation under the stars about how Judy feels and what she wants for her future. Jervis listens to what Judy has to say very closely and he is very supportive of Judy, and he tries to give her kind advice.

 

       The next day, instead of going to church with the Sempletons, Jervis and Judy sneak off to do some fishing at the river. After catching and cooking some fish, the weather starts to turn bad on them, so they decide to head back, but they get caught in a storm. As they rush back towards the house the storm gets very bad and Judy falls down a slope while Jervis is stuck watching her fall.

      Judy is injured and trapped at the bottom of the slope so she tries to make her way out of the ravine. Judy is very scared and manages to find some shelter under a overhang just then Jervis finds his way to Judy. Judy throws herself into Jervis’s arms and he hugs her right back, and they stay like that for a long time.

 

      The next day as Jervis is leaving the farm to head back to New York Judy thanks him for helping her the other day, then Jervis kisses her on the cheek and tells her to call him by his first name. Just before he drives off he tells Judy that he looks forward to her blooming into a beautiful flower. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, in this episode quite a few interesting things occur to Judy. Firstly Judy succeeds in getting a story published in a New York magazine and she gets paid for writing it. The Sempletons and Jervis give their congratulations to Judy for entering the adult world of pay for work.

      Then as the episode progresses Judy confides a lot of her personal feelings to Jervis, feelings that Judy has never shared with anyone before, you can almost feel the growing connection between the two. Then for probably for the first time in Judy’s life she needed someone else’s help when she fell down the slope.

      It seems that as Judy has gotten older (she’s now about 17) that Jervis has become interested in courting her (he’s about 27), in the context of the time period of the show, pre-WWI it would be perfectly acceptable for a young man of Jervis’s age to court a high school senior. Back in those days girls from proper upper middle class or wealthy families would expect to be courted by guys that could properly take care of them according to their lifestyles so that meant that only college graduates or guys with an established careers would court them.

       As this series comes to a close it will be interesting to see how Judy will make her choices, and if or when she chooses to reveal her orphan background, and how those around her will react to the news.   

      This episode begins with Judy reflecting on the things that have happened since she’s left the orphanage and how she doesn’t want to go back to that life, so she can’t disobey the orders of her guardian. Judy spends the stormy night alone remembering the past and having mixed feelings towards her guardian John Smith, while he has shown her great kindness she feels that he hasn’t thought of her feeling much, so she vows to get better at writing so she won’t have to depend on anyone in the future.

       As the storm gets worse the power goes on and off in the dorm and eventually Miss Sloan and Judy end up together, and try both try to act like the storm doesn’t bother them but it does. The next morning is bright and sunny and Miss Sloan and Judy both finish packing for the summer, Miss Sloan asks Judy if she wants a ride to the station but Judy tells her she’ll walk there instead.

     As Judy walks around the campus she reflects on her life and how she thought she would be free once she got out of the orphanage. When she makes her way to the school’s gate she sees someone from her past, Sadie.  After an awkward first few minutes, Judy invites Sadie to the restaurant where she, Sallie, and Julia hangout at for some lunch. Judy asks Sadie why she’s in town and Sadie tells her that she’s on her way to Atlanta for a job, and that she was finally able to get out of the orphanage. At lunch Judy catches up on the news about everybody from the orphanage, almost everybody Judy knew has either been adopted, left, or retired.

     While walking to the station Judy and Sadie talk about a lot of things, and when they get to the station they say their goodbyes. Before Judy leaves she asks Sadie if she’s changed and Sadie tells her that she’s still the same Judy as before. When the train pulls away, Judy realizes that she’s been spending too much time brooding about what should have been or dwelling on the past. Judy also realizes that everyone is already on their own paths, so she must more towards the future. Well, That’s all for this episode.

       I feel that this was a pretty sweet episode even if the first half was basically a recap of Judy’s experiences as an orphan and her time at high school. But the heart of this episode is about moving towards the future and transcending the past. Sadie’s visit with Judy was a great catalyst for kicking starting Judy, Judy’s been brooding about the orphanage and the past but Sadie made Judy realize that almost everybody she knew is moving down a different so the actual possibility for her returning to the orphanage is zero. Judy now understands that she must walk down her own path to the future and make what she can out of the opportunities given to her.

     Lastly, while Judy thought that she would be free once she left the orphanage she still feels trapped, but it’s a prison of her own creation. As Judy is growing up to be a woman, she must comes to grips with who she really is, the only reason the past holds fear for Judy is because she lets it. When Judy is finally able to look in the mirror and accept what she sees then she can tell everyone who she is; Judy Abbot, a woman, a former orphan, a good honest person. Then she can let people choose to accept her or reject her, the ones that do are her real friends, and the ones that don’t aren’t worth a second thought.

    

      This episode begins with Judy writing a letter to John Smith explaining that she has found her goal, Judy will become an author. Judy received a letter from a magazine publishing company and they really like her work and they want her to send future stories to them because they might want to publish them. Later, Judy gets a phone call from Jimmie and as he is about to ask her out Julia buts in and she decides to meet him in town, and she hangs to phone up before he can talk with Judy.

     When the girls meet Jimmie in town he tries to ask Judy on a date but Julia ends up inviting herself along and spends most of her time with Jimmie. Later that day, Jimmie invites Judy to spend the summer with Sallie and him at their parents’ summer house, Judy accepts saying that daddy will probably say yes.

      A few days later Judy gets a letter from Walter Griggs stating that he wants Judy to spend the summer at the Lock Willow Farm, just like last year. Judy is upset and writes back asking why she can’t spend the summer with the McBride’s, she thinks that it’s unfair to not be able to spend the summer with Sallie and her family.

       On the last day of class Judy checks her mailbox for a letter and says since John Smith hasn’t replied he must have agreed with her position and will allow her to go to the McBride’s. That night Judy has packed for her trip to the McBride’s, but in the middle of the night Miss Sloan brings Judy a telegram from Walter Griggs, and the note tells Judy to go to the farm as ordered. Judy is very upset because the letter contained no explanation as to why he won’t let her go to the McBride’s.

      The next day Judy breaks the bad news to Julia, Sallie, and Jimmie, and Jimmie tells Judy to just say the telegram never arrived but Judy can’t do that. After Jimmie leaves, Judy is very upset and she goes back to her room and vows to become independent and not have to rely on anyone. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, this episode ends Judy’s, Sallie’s, and Julia’s junior year of high school, while this should have been a happy occasion for everyone it wasn’t for Judy. After spending the Christmas and New Years holidays with Sallie and Jimmie’s family Judy really wanted to spend the summer with her friends. But her guardian, John Smith wanted her to go back to the Lock Willow Farm again.

      When Judy first left the orphanage Judy lacked any normal life experience, so spending the summer at the farm opened a whole new world to her. But, now Judy has close friends and her world has grown wider so spending the summer at the farm seems kind of closed in scope to her. Also, Judy is starting to mature rapidly, while Judy honors her guardian’s decisions she no longer feels that orders without explanations are very respectful towards her. These small incidents between her guardian and her just fuels her drive to become independent and self-supporting.

      Also, it was quite funny watching Jimmie trying to hookup with Judy while Julia tries her best to get Jimmie’s attention. As I have said in earlier reviews Judy’s relationship with Jimmie will cause problems in the future, she views Jimmie as the brother she never had while Jimmie sees her as marriage material, Judy has told Sallie this before but she needs to tells poor Jimmie, so Julia can hookup if Jimmie is willing.

June 8, 2008

Daddy Long Legs 27, Judy’s first job.

Posted by animewriter under Anime Series, Daddy Long Legs, Drama, Kid friendly anime, Shojo | Tags: 1990 anime, classic shojo, Daddy Long Legs, family friendly anime |
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      This episode picks up with Judy returning from her job interview, she is still upset at being accused of being a thief, but she still takes to job because she wants to work towards independence. Julia is on the phone with with Jervis when Judy walks in,  and Julia puts Judy on the phone with him and Jervis is concerned that Judy will have a hard time with both her job and her school studies. Judy gets angry because everyone assumes that all she’ll do with her money is spend it on dresses and other such things.

      Judy begins her tutoring job and has nothing but problems with the two girls, they are very poorly behaved, and it’s a power struggle between her and the two girls. Judy notices that the family has a lot for problems, the mother and father argue constantly, the father is never home because he’s always busy with work, and the mother can’t bring herself to tell him that they need him more than the money he earns. Judy doesn’t know what to do about the kids and she starts to gets very down on herself.

     On her way home Judy runs into Jimmie, and he makes the observation that she’s not acting like her normal self, aways happy and outgoing. After her talk with Jimmie, Judy starts using a new approach to tutor the girls and this seems to work better. But, after Cindy tries to show her mother some of her work she just blows it off, and this upsets Cindy very much. The girls storm off telling their mother that they hate her and their father, and Judy tells the mother that the girls are just lonely.

      So, Judy begins to show the girls how to have fun and play, and her torturing job begins to have an effect on the girls. The girls begin to behave better and they start to study properly, the girls seem to enjoy the combination of learning and playing, but the stress of working and studying soon starts to take a toll on Judy. A while later, Judy receives a letter from Walter Griggs stating that her guardian formally requests that she quite her job and devote her time to her studies, also Judy passes out due to lack of sleep or stress or shock from the request.

     So, Judy must go to the girl’s house and inform them that she has to quit because her circumstances has changed, and the girls aren’t happy about this. But, the mother seems to have learned from Judy’s example and will now spend more time with her daughter’s. Judy writes John Smith telling him that she quit her job, but she still valued the work experience saying that she would have never learned about working from the classroom. Well, that’s all for this episode.

       Well, this episode continues with the theme of Judy’s drive to become more independent. Judy whom has always been supported by John Smith’s money in high school feels that he has given her enough financial support and is looking towards the future. She wants to earn a scholarship to college to cover her tuition, but that still leaves the issue of how to cover her living expenses. So Judy tries working a part-time job for a while, and she becomes fairly good at tutoring girls.

      But as Judy soon discovers, working and studying is a pretty tough combination, her school work starts to become more difficult to complete. What really pisses Judy off is how almost everyone, the girls’ mother, the maid, and even Jervis think that Judy will just waste the money she earns on silly things. Judy because of her circumstances is getting more concerned about Independence, this is because of everyone not being aware of her true situation, despite her attending an school for wealthy and upper middle-classed girls she really is just a poor orphan girl attending the school on someones charity.  

     This episode begins with Judy and Sallie playing basketball, and when they take a break Julia comes over and starts talking with them about the future. Julia says that after they graduate next year that she’ll be going to college because a good education will help her in social circles, she asks Sallie and Judy what will they do when they graduate? Sallie says that she doesn’t really know, her brother is in Princeton on scholarship, Julia tells her that a scholarship doesn’t really matter because Sallie’s parents can afford to send her. Then Julia says to Judy that I guess college doesn’t really matter to you because she can go back home and stay with her rich guardian and then maybe marry some man of good social status?

     After their talk Judy really starts to think of the future, mainly what to do after graduation. She is very grateful towards John Smith for paying for her high school and feels that she needs to become independent, so she looks into earning a scholarship for college.

     A few days later the girls decide to go into town to do some shopping, and Judy comes to the realization that even if she earns a scholarship she’ll still need money for living expenses. While in town Judy sees a flier for a private tutor job, the job pays thirty dollars a month to teach two little girls. Judy applies for the tutoring job and decides to write her guardian John Smith telling him about her goal of earning a scholarship and the tutoring job.

     Judy gets a interview for the tutoring job, the two girls Karen and Cindy give Judy hell  even before the interview starts. The girls’ mother asks Judy some standard questions like why do you want to teach, and why is a girl from a prestigious school wanting a job and so forth. After a rough first meeting it looks like Judy got the tutoring job, and she having a rough time tutoring them.

     A few days later Judy gets a letter from Walter Griggs tells her that her guardian John Smith disapproves of her taking a tutoring job, and that she should spend all of her time studying and that if she needs more money here is a bigger check. Needless to say that Judy is angry about the letter, she’s doesn’t need more money she wants to prove to her guardian that she can become independent in the future. Well, that’s all for this episode.

     Well, this was a very interesting episode the girls are really starting to think about the future, up until this point the girls’ lives were filled with concerns about dances, classes, plays, and other minor things. But now they are starting to talk about things like, graduation, college, and even the mention of marriage.

     Julia thinks that Judy situation is very good, graduate then go back to live with her rich guardian, and then marry a man of high social status. But, Judy worries about the future, being a orphan an having her tuition paid by John Smith is great but sooner rather than later she’ll have to become independent and be able to support herself. Her situation is much worse than Julia’s or Sallie’s situation, Julia comes from a rich family, and Sallie’s family is upper middle class and they own a family business. Judy has never told Sallie or Julia about her true situation.

     This episode begins with Judy traveling through the streets of New York looking for the place where she was abandoned as an infant, she eventually finds Bayson Avenue and now is searching for the church where she was left at. Judy finally finds the church where she was left as an infant and she is flooded with thoughts and questions about why her mother abandoned her there.

     A short while later a little girl snatches Judy’s hat, and Judy gives chase and her skirt is torn in the process, then a older lady (Margot) stops the girl and tells her to return the Hat to Judy.  After the hat is returned the two women exchange greetings and Margot tells Judy to come to her house so she can mend Judy’s skirt because she can’t walk around town like that.

     Back at the apartment Margot introduces Judy to Vera, the mother of the children that hassled Judy, Vera is very angry about the trouble her kids caused. Vera sews up Judy’s skirt than the ladies share some snacks together, once her children get home Vera gives them a swat with a ruler for causing trouble.

     Judy sees that the kids are really nice but a little rambunctious, and that their home is a kind and loving home. As Judy and Margot are leaving, Judy tells Margot that this will be a nice memory of her birth city, and they part company wishing to meet each other again.

      The next day Julia, Sallie, and Judy take in the sights and shops of New York, then they are escorted by Julia’s uncle Jervis to a fancy lunch then to the theater for the play. The play affects all three of the girls greatly and after the show Jervis takes the girls back stage to meet the actors. When Jervis introduces the girls to his friend and actress Margot Foster, it turns out to be the Margot from the other day.

     Everyone wonders where Judy meet Margot, and Judy tells them she met her in the slums, Julia is shocked says people like them shouldn’t go in the slums. Judy tells Julia that everyone was nice and kind to her, and Jervis tells them that he meet Margot at an outdoor play that Margot was performing in the slums, and that he is never frighten to be there. Then they ask Margot why she still lives there, and she tells them because that’s where she was born and raised. Then Jervis and Margot see the girls off at the train station so the girls can return to the school. In a letter to John Smith, Judy tells him that someday she wishes to be as brave and as strong as Margot is to admit that she was born and still lives in the slums.

      Well, in the episode Judy finally searches for the location of her birth, and this raises questions of why her mother abandoned her. Judy thinks that her mother must have been sick or near death to have abandoned her, but I think that it’s more likely that her mother was just too poor to take care of her properly, so her mother left her at the church to give her a better chance at life.

     This episode also shows the differences in class expectations between Judy and Julia, Julia thinks that people like them shouldn’t visit the slums, but Judy’s visit to the slums showed Judy that while there might be some shady people there but the majority of the people are good hard working people just trying to get by.

     Also, this episode highlights Judy’s continuing insecurity with her past, Margot freely admits that she was born in the slums and that she still even lives there, but Judy still worries about what people might think about her being a poor orphan, and she even writes that in a letter to John Smith.

 

     This episode begins with the girls starting to study Shakespeare in their English class, the next day their teacher catches Judy, Julia, and Sallie acting out a few scenes from Hamlet. The teacher orders the girls to report to the gym after class,  and when they get there he invites them to participate in an upcoming production of As You Like It.

     The girls accept the teacher’s offer to be in the play, at first the teacher wants to assign the male role to Julia because she’s taller and the role of the daughter to Judy because she shorter. Once Julia figures out that Jimmie and other boys will be watching the play, she argues for the female role. A little while later Julia is shocked to learn that the daughter is supposed to be very ugly, and now she’s stuck with that role.

     The girls pass the days after class doing rehearsals for the play, and Sallie informs everyone that her brother Jimmie will bring a lot of his football teammates and other student from Princeton college. On the day of the play the weather turns bad, the teacher is worried because it’s being perform in the school’s outdoor theater. As the play begins the weather gets really bad and the play turns into a humorous mess, but in the end it all works out. The next day Julia’s uncle Jervis sends the girls a gift for missing their play, an invitation to a performance of Hamlet in New York. Well, that’s all for this episode.

      Well, in episode 24 nothing really important happens, it’s a rather slow episode. The only interesting thing in this episode is how boys/young men are starting to view the three main girls, at the beginning of this series they were seen as cute little girls. But, now the three girls are now almost at the end of 11th grade and are starting to mature physically and emotionally, and now boys/young men are starting to notice.

      Only Julia has taken an interest in the guys so far, she clearly has a major crush on Sallie’s brother Jimmie. Sallie has shown no interest in any guys yet, and neither has Judy, Jimmie is more interested in Judy than Julia, but Judy considers him to be the older brother she never had. Because of Julia’s and Judy’s good natured rivalry Judy hasn’t told Jimmie how she feels, this will cause problems between the two girls in the future. 

April 3, 2008

Daddy Long Legs 23, different worlds.

Posted by animewriter under Anime Series, Daddy Long Legs, Drama,Shojo
[4] Comments 

 

     This episode begins with the girls getting ready for the Christmas break, everyone is busy planning what they are going to do over the break, Judy is planning on writing stories in the dorm until she gets invited to Sallie’s place for Christmas. Julia is very jealous because Jimmie invited Judy to the house for Christmas and she wants to come with them to see Jimmie but her parents want her come to New York, but she tells her parents that she’s going anyway. As the Christmas break approaches the girls go into town to shop for gifts, Julia asks Judy what she’ll get Jimmie and Judy tells her that she knit something for him. Julia makes fun out of Judy’s idea of a handmade gift, but as she tries to shop for Jimmie nothing seems to be the right gift.

     As the days pass, the girls begin their exams and Judy and Sallie both are knitting personal gifts, and Julia still has no luck finding the right gift for Jimmie. After a while, Julia decides to knit something so she goes and buys the most expensive wool and attempts to knit a very complicated pattern, she’s never knitted before and is too proud to ask for help from the other girls. As time is running out, Julia has to break down and ask  Judy for help, and Judy gladly gives her the needed help. On the last day of school Julia, Judy, and Sallie all finish their knitting just in time, and they begin packing for the holiday.

     Later, Julia’s mother shows up at the school to take her to New York, a tearful Julia gives the girls her present for Jimmie as she’s driven off to New York. At Sallie’s country house Judy has a great Christmas with everyone, the girls help out by passing gifts out to the employee’s children of Sallie’s parents company. Sallie and Judy spend time enjoying the winter weather and singing carols. In New York, Julia spends her time attending high society holiday events with her family, she seems unhappy at these events. Later Julia and Jervis talk about what they have to sacrifice in order to protect the family, freedom for social status. Well, That all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well episode 23 was very interesting because it showed how different social classes view the holidays and whats expected from them. Sallie who comes from a upper middle class family celebrates the holiday in a close personal way, she and her family spends the holiday with the employees from her parents’ small factory, they spend time passing out gifts and singing carols. Julia’s family is super wealthy, she has to spend the holidays going from party to party with people she really doesn’t care for. Basically her uncle Jervis tells her they have to sacrifice their freedom for social status. Another interesting thing is how Julia is seriously attracted to Sallie’s brother Jimmie, but Jimmie seems to be interested in Judy, while Judy likes Jimmie she really isn’t attracted to him in boyfriend kind of way, she’s said as much in an earlier episode, she thinks of him as the older brother she never had, this will cause problems in the future because she’ll keep her true feelings towards Jimmie to herself, and that will confuse Jimmie and frustrate Julia.

     This episode picks up right after the point where Judy has finished talking to Leonora’s father, with him telling her that a emergency has arisen and he won’t be attending the poetry reading. When Judy returns to the lecture hall she finds Leonora missing, so she goes searching for her. After searching around the campus, Judy follows a set of footprints into a snow covered field where she finds Leonora collapsed on the ground. Judy carries Leonora all the way back to the school’s medical center by herself, once the doctor finishes his exam of Leonora it doesn’t look good for her, if they can’t get her fever down she might die, so Judy and the girls attempt to contact her father to get him to come to the school.

     The girls being unable to contact him by phone come up with a plan to go get him by car, but those efforts fail, later they find out that she’s no longer in critical condition but must undergo surgery ASAP. When the girls finally see Leonora she’s in pretty bad shape, she keeps calling for her father in a delirium. Miss Sloan tells the girls that she managed to send a telegram to Leonora’s father, and Judy says she’ll spend the night with her. When her father gets to the school the next day Judy jumps all over him for not being there for her, but Leonora says not to blame him and that it’s her fault and that she’s tired of being a burden on everyone, so she won’t have the operation. Judy gets mad at her and tells her to tell her father how lonely and scared she really is, and to stop behaving like a spoiled brat, after this Leonora and her father come to an understanding of the situation. Later, Leonora makes a recovery and does a poetry reading for her class and her father, she then decides to have the operation, so Leonora and her father depart for another hospital in Florida for the surgery and recovery. Well, that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well, with this episode the Leonora arc comes to a end, another sad girl in the snow finds happiness. While Leonora’s father thought working hard and earning a large amount of money so he could buy his daughter things would make her happy he learned that in truth Leonora was sad because she was lonely and scared. He made the only choice a parent could make, he must care for the most precious thing in the world, his daughter, and in the end this choice makes his daughter happier that all the pretty trinkets in the world. In episode 21 of Clannad, Nagisa finds out that her parents made the same decision when she was very young, but in her case she feels sad because her parents gave up everything to care for her properly.

     This episode picks up right after Leonora’s collapse on the basketball court, Judy finds out from the nurses that Leonora has a heart condition and that’s why she missed a year of school. Judy also discovers that Leonora’s mother passed away years ago and her father is her only family, but her father is very hard to get a hold of because of his work.

     When Leonora wakes up, Judy finds out that her father is very busy trying to keep a shipyard in business, and he spends most of his time at work. Later Judy calls her father and tells him that Leonora misses him very much and she would probably enjoy a visit, he says he too busy right now, so Judy has him commit to attending a poetry reading that Leonora will be taking part in before the Christmas holidays.

     As Leonora get healthier Judy and Leonora have a discussion about each others poetry, Judy asks Leonora about her “jump” poem, and Leonora explains that she wrote that when she was on one years bed rest inside a hospital, she wrote that poem to escape the loneliness and pain of not being able to be active. Then Leonora asks Judy about her winter poem that was published in the school’s magazine last year, she correctly guesses that Judy doesn’t have a family and is a orphan, and she also guesses that Judy hasn’t told anyone about it. Judy tells her that’s why she’s the way she is, she could only count on herself and nobody else. After a few days Leonora is released from the infirmary back to the dorm room where she and the other girls soon become pretty good friends, Leonora is also looking forward to her father’s upcoming visit. A few weeks later the poetry reading arrives, as the reading begins Judy, Leonora, and the rest of the girls realize that Leonora’s father is going to be a no-show, and Judy leaves the room to look for him. Later Judy calls the shipyard asking him why he isn’t there and he tells her there’s been an accident and he can’t come to the reading and then he hangs up on her. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well, in this episode Judy and Leonora become very good friends, they truly come to understand each other, after the talk Judy and Leonora have in the infirmary Judy comes to understand the full meaning of Leonora’s “jump” poem. For the first time since coming to the school Judy admits to someone the truth about her orphanage background, and her leading a secret life. Judy finally figures out that Leonora’s comments about her poetry and storytelling are spot on, because Judy is a orphan and has no family all her stories center around a sad and lonely heroine involved in tragic tales.

     Judy tells Leonora that because she always relied upon herself her writing is that way, so that’s why all her stories are about lonely girls, and Judy takes offense when Leonora say they are the same. To Leonora’s thinking she is the same as Judy, her father is very busy, even when Leonora is very sick he seldom visits her, so she considers herself alone. But to Judy’s point of view Leonora’s is far from alone, even though Leonora’s father seldom visits her she is far from alone, Judy has no parents, she would probably be overjoyed to even have a absent parent. But mainly this episode shows us the viewer the hidden meanings inside a authors writing and their thinking, we may truly enjoy their works, but without knowing what their inner thoughts we may truly never know the full meanings of their work. 

 

     This episode begins with the three girls running late for class, as their about to leave the dorm they see Miss Sloan arguing with some men trying to deliver luggage to the dorm, and they assume that a new girl is about to move into the dorm. At class all the girls are gossiping like crazy about who the new girl will be, they assume because of all the luggage that she very rich, and will be like a queen.  A short while later the professor introduces the new girl Leonora Fenton to the class, she’s one year older than the other girls because she’s took a year off from school, and like Judy she’s a writer who’s had stuff published in the school’s paper. At first Judy and Leonora don’t hit it off well, she offers Judy criticism and advice about her writing, but Judy takes it wrong when Leonora tells Judy that if she doesn’t change she won’t improve.

     Julia tells Judy that it was inexcusable for someone to say things like that, but the problem is that Judy tells them even she doesn’t think her poems are really that good. To make matters worse the girls find out that Leonora will be rooming with them, they meet her father, and find out that she doesn’t want to be treated any differently than anyone else. Later in the day Judy and the girls go to the library to look up some information on Leonora and Judy finds a old poem of hers and she reads it to them and Judy has to admit that it’s written at a much higher standard then her writing. That night Leonora tells Sallie that she wasn’t trying to say bad things about Judy’s writing she was just offering criticism one poet to another poet, when Sallie tells Judy this she is happy that Leonora considers her a fellow poet. The next day Judy and Leonora have a talk by the basketball court about writing and Leonora tells Judy she doesn’t have much time but Judy tells her she has a lot of time, a while later Leonora and Judy join the other girls playing basketball, Leonora displays tremendous talent while on the court but a short while later she collapses on the court. That’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well, in this episode Judy was in for a big shock, for the first time someone other than the professor has criticized her writing. For the most part everyone has praised Judy’s writing skills but this time Leonora reviews her work in depth pointing out all her weaknesses, she tries to tell Judy that this is only to help her improve, but once you think your great it’s hard to be told you really not that good. After Judy read some of Leonora’s work she realizes that Leonora is a much better writer than her. Leonora really sees right into Judy heart by telling her writing dwells too much in personal loneliness, and all her heroines will be miserable heroines, and that Judy’s writing doesn’t show whats really in her heart. That hits Judy really hard because she really is hiding from the truth about herself, she hasn’t yet come to terms with who she really is, is she Judy the prestigious school girl or is she Judy the poor orphan girl, or is she a hybrid of the two, or is she able to transcend the past completely? Up until now almost all of Judy’s stories has been tragedies about poor suffering girls, the one exception was her winter poem, for the most part Judy’s stories would fit in perfectly on the lifetime channel.

     This episode continues the next day with Judy admitting to herself that she didn’t want the orphans at the diner so she wouldn’t be reminded of her own past, and she also admits to herself that this is very selfish. Judy goes and visits the orphanage and she sees many reminders of her time at her orphanage and that not all of them were sad, but she disagrees with the notion of orphans having to sing for money. The teacher admits that some of the children don’t like singing for money but they have to experience the reality of the outside world, and as for the money it’s all the same, money from true kindness or money helping the rich with their vanity, but they still need the money.

     Judy accompanies the class on a trip to a local farm where the kids begin harvesting apples from the orchard. The children pick the apples for the farmers in exchange eating all the apples they want. The teacher explains to Judy that she has to teach them about the outside world and make sure they get enough food. When Judy returns to the room Sallie is still depressed about her lack of confidence in dealing with the situation, but Judy tells her she re-invited the class to the Thanksgiving dinner, Sallie is happy about this and vows to do her best in making the visit enjoyable. The class shows up to the diner in new clothes that the teacher made them and they sing and enjoy the holiday festivities with everyone else. That’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

Judy’s admission to herself.

     This episode featured a lot of personal growth on the part of Judy, first she had to admit to herself that her issues with the orphans were due to her own fears and not the concern for the orphans. But the most important thing here is that she is forced to look at the issues of  the orphanage and the orphans as a adult. Her experiences as a child growing up in the same environment are valid, but only so far as a child’s prospective. Judy is now almost 17 and her conversation with the teacher is mainly on an adult to adult in nature, while the teacher admits that singing and other such things might not be liked by some the children but they are necessary. One must remember that this is the early 1900′s, several decades before the government took responsibility for caring for it’s neediest citizens. So the teacher tells Judy money is money, money given out of true kindness has the same value as money given for selfish reasons. Judy also learns that the teacher must prepare the children for the real world outside the orphanage, if they can’t take a few stares how can they withstand the harsh outside environment. Judy’s visit to the orphanage also reminded her that while the orphanage was a dark and dreary environment not all her time living there was unhappy, she did have some joyful moments. 

     This episode begins with Judy and Julia helping Sallie do some shopping for the school’s upcoming Thanksgiving dinner, while walking through town the girls stumble upon a orphanage choir singing for donations. When Judy sees this she has flash backs to her days at the orphanage doing the same thing, before the collection box gets to the girls Judy makes an excuse and heads home. Sallie is so moved by seeing the orphans she decides to invite them to the school’s Thanksgiving dinner to share their blessings with them. When Sallie gets back to the room she tells Judy about this and asks for her help, Julia suggests collecting clothes and other things for the orphans, Judy is not very cheerful about the idea. After a while Judy can’t take it anymore and makes a excuse and goes to her room to cry. 

     The next day Sallie has Judy come along to a meeting with one of the orphanage’s teachers, Judy takes a dislike towards the woman because she feels that making the kids sing and so forth is humiliating to the children. Later when Sallie is collecting money Judy tells her that she thinks that using the children to sing for donations is like using them as tools. Later Sallie and Julia go to the orphanage to visit the teacher’s class and they are shocked by orphanage life, so much so that Sallie can no longer deal with them, and it looks like the Thanksgiving visit it off. Judy tells the other girls that even though she was against the visit withdrawing the invitation would be like lying to the children. Judy’s is very angry with Sallie because of this but Julia says she has no right to complain because she never did anything to help the orphans herself, and Judy realizes that Julia is correct. Later that night in bed Judy thinks to herself that she’s upset at how weak rich daughters are, and that she might be changing into a rich daughter herself and if she’s more worried about hiding from the pain of the past then helping the orphans. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well in this episode Judy’s past comes back to touch her again, even though she’s living the life of a upper class girl she still has to come to terms with who she is. At the end of this episode she wonders if she’s turning in to a rich girl herself and if she more worried about her own pain then helping others. In this episode Julia’s prodding of Judy helps her in making a decision, Julia was right in telling her she has no right to complain about Sallie when she’s done even less. When Judy can finally confront her past is when she will have fully matured from an insecure girl into a independent strong woman.

December 24, 2007

Daddy Long Legs 17, Wearing Masks, and a picnic.

Posted by animewriter under Anime Series, Daddy Long Legs
1 Comment 

 

     This episode begins with Judy being upset over all the lies she’s had to tell to keep her background hidden. She asks herself what kind of person has she become, smiling even though she’s really sad inside, and having to live a life that’s built on lies. She even feels that she can’t be a true friend with Julia or Sallie because the Judy they know is a lie. She writes to Daddy Long Legs for advise about these questions but receives no answers to her letters. As the girls prepare for the visit by Jervis, Judy tries to keep upbeat and cheerful even though her inner mood becomes darker and more fearful. Jervis finally shows up and he’s very cheerful to the girls, he loads them into his car and they head off to have a picnic. Julia embellishes the effort required to setup the visit and he tells her it’s important to be honest or boys won’t like her. While driving, Jervis almost runs into a tree stump and has to slam on the brakes, and Judy ends up hanging on to Jervis. When they get to the picnic spot it’s muddy and Julia doesn’t want to leave the car, Judy takes off her shoes and socks and goes barefooted, soon Sallie joins her, and finally Julia joins them rather that remaining in the car alone. After lunch Sallie and Julia head off to have some fun leaving Judy and Jervis alone, Judy tells him that no matter what Julia says about him he’s really not eccentric or irresponsible, and he thanks her for her opinion. He tells her that because people are weak they sometimes put on masks, and he also tells her that he doesn’t force people to try and understand him. Jervis tells her that he wants people to judge him after getting to know him, and after getting to know him then they can decide if they like him or not. This talk really helps Judy, she decides that someday she’ll have the strength to tell everyone that’s she really a orphan then let god decide what they’ll think of her then, but until then she won’t worry about the mask she wears. Well, that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     In this episode of Daddy Long Legs Judy resolves the crisis that has been clouding her heart for a long time. Even though everything has been going well for Judy lately the pressure of her constantly having to lie to Julia, Sallie and many other about her background and previous life experiences almost became too crushing for her to handle. When Judy and Jervis talked about human weaknesses and fears, and about having to wear masks, a lot of pressure was lifted from Judy. In a perfect world Jervis is absolutely right about letting people judge you after getting to know you, but Judy’s only a high school girl and we all know how cruel kids can be. As a adult you can choose who you want to try and be friends with, and you select you friends based on mutual shared experiences and interests and many other things, but school is like it’s own self-contained separate universe your nowhere near as free as an adult is in those choices.

     This episode picks up after the school dance with Julia crushing over Sallie’s brother, and she checks out several books on football from the library. Since it’s Sunday, Julia talks the other girls into going to the town with her, she just happens to take them to the same restaurant where she and Judy met Jimmie last week, but to her bitter disappointment she finds out that he was only filling in for a friend, and he isn’t there anymore. After she finds that out she leaves Sallie and Judy there and heads back to the school. Both Sallie and Judy are shocked when they realize that Julia likes (is crushing on) Sallie’s brother Jimmie, the next day Judy receives a package from Jimmie that includes a Princeton football flag and a letter telling Judy that he likes her and wants to see her again, this upsets Julia greatly. Back in their room Julia demands that Judy tell her what she thinks of Jimmie, and Judy tells her that she likes him and Julia storms out of the room. Sallie tells Judy that she thought Judy would like him, but Judy tells her she has it wrong, she like Jimmie but like a older brother not romantically. Later Judy receives a phone call from Jimmie asking her if he can see her again (this is Judy’s first time being asked out on a date), Judy gets confused and nervous when he says that he wants to know more about her. Later that week, Julia gets a call and she thinks it’s from Jimmie, but it’s from Jarvis and he says he wants to see her and Judy, and Julia says he likes Judy and her stories. Judy gets upset because she feels that she’s living a lie and her that her whole life is a sham. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well just as Judy’s life seems to be going great; she’s out of the orphanage, she’s doing good at school, she’s wining awards for writing, and she’s has two guys interested in her the reality or her perceived reality come out of the shadows to haunt her. Judy’s accepted at school and by friends but she views that acceptance as conditional, she thinks that as long as she viewed as a upper-class girl everything will be all right, she doesn’t have the self-confidence to let the world judge her for who she is as a person not where she came from. But I can’t be too judgemental about Judy, after all she’s only about sixteen years old, she must come to terms with who she really is or she will always be haunted by ghosts of the past. Daddy Longs Legs is really starting to get interesting with the addition of boys to the storyline, one of Judy’s problems is self caused, she tells Sallie that she likes Jimmie as a brother but she can’t bring herself to tell Julia or Jimmie this fact. But after all this series is a early 1900′s version of a Cinderella story, so you have to have the princes see the real inner beauty of Cinderella (Judy) after her glass slipper has fallen off.

 

     This episode begins with the school getting ready of it’s 50th anniversary party, Judy is concerned about not having a date for the dance, and Julia’s rubs it in by telling Judy that even though she’s got lots of nice dresses she doesn’t have anyone to dance with, and she’ll be a wallflower. Judy decides that if she’s going to be a wallflower why not be a beautiful wallflower and goes shopping where she runs into Julia who keeps ribbing her about being a wallflower, but it does Judy some good, she comes to the conclusion that if she’s going to be a wallflower spending more money won’t change that. On the way home Julia and Judy stop for some lunch in town, were a young man helps Judy carry some packages, he is a waiter at the restaurant, Julia is very stuck up and rude to him while Judy is nice to him. As they eat lunch, the waiter kind of flirts with Julia and she ends up blushing, and blows it off. At the dance, Julia ends up with Judy, her three people who promised to be there didn’t show up, and Sallie’s date is late too. At the dance Julia runs into the waiter from the other day and he asks her to dance, she declines passing him off to Judy, Judy dances with him and he’s turns out to be very understanding because it’s her first time dancing. A while later Judy finds out that the guy is Jimmie McBride, Sallie’s older brother, a Princeton football player, and he was just earning a little extra pocket money working in the restaurant. He keeps dancing with Judy until she gets him to dance with Julia to cheer her up. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

Next is a series of screen shots that I call so little time some many possible comments.

Back to the normal screen shots.

     Episode 15 was a nice change of pace for Daddy Long Legs, the normal course for this anime has been mostly about the girl’s school work, but this episode was about issues such as a dance and boys. For the first 14 episodes the issue of relationships with the opposite sex were nonexistent, the girls at that point were about 14 1/2 so they mostly were about school, but now that the girls are around 16 years old, boys and young men are starting to find the girls attractive, and the girls are also aware of the boys now. This episode highlighted the worries of everyday girls of that era, will anyone ask me to dance, am I pretty, will I look awkward dancing, and so forth. What I like about this anime is that the girls are pretty normal (normal for girls of the early 1900′s attending a elite high school), no drop dead beautiful unreal anime girls. Both Sallie and Judy are pretty average looking, they have really nice and sweet personalities, and Julia is the only one of the three that could be considered a looker. Well, Daddy Long Legs will just get more interesting from this point onward with the addition of boys and dating to the school mix. Overall this is a very mild anime, don’t expect anything more erotic than hand holding or at the most romantic levels of passion a kiss.

 

     This episode begins with Judy reading her short story to Sallie, and Sallie thinks it’s pretty good, but Judy has her doubts because the entries for the school contest will probably be very good. Sallie stops the English professor and has Judy give him the story to look it over, and he says since he on the judging committee he can’t help her rewrite it but he can give his opinion on the story. When Judy shows up at his office, he tells her that there are some good parts to the story but most of it could be called plagiarism. This hits Judy really hard, once back in her room she starts crying and tells Sallie and Julia that the professor was right and she won’t write another short story. Sallie tries to cheer up Judy but Julia tells her to leave Judy alone, she tells Sallie that this is the first time Judy’s failed and she’s giving up already. Julia’s words pisses Judy off and she tries writing again but she finds writing really tough going, she misses dinner and gets really hungry. Julia offers Judy some of her expensive biscuits but Judy still mad at her, so she refuses, but hunger is getting the better of her. The feeling of hunger inspires Judy to write a story involving orphans, hunger, escaping, and finding a lost love, the next day Sallie and Julia both think that the story is pretty good, so Judy enters the story in the contest. Both the English professor and Julia ask Judy how she knows some much about the feelings of orphans, and all Judy says is she just used her imagination. The story Judy wrote ends up taking second place in the contest, there was no first place prize awarded. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     In this episode of Daddy Long Legs things are starting to get serious, as we learned in the previous episode the girls are now 2nd year students (juniors) in high school, and where they were happy and carefree in their fist year now there starting to get much more serious, with the girls planning for the future. You hear many of the students talking about attending college, careers, and future goals. Sallie is now on the student counsel and devoting her time and effort to that task, Julia is aiming to be the number one student in the school and really works hard at achieving that goal, and Judy up until now has just been happy attending high school, now she is forced to think about the future. Judy chooses to attempt to win the school’s short story contest, her first attempt at story writing fails, while her story is interesting it is clearly a construction of pieces from her favorite books, she get very depressed by the professor’s criticism of her work. While Sallie tries to comfort Judy, Julia is pretty harsh towards her, and I think that Julia was right in goading her, Julia tells Sallie that Judy’s never failed before, and that’s true, Judy must learn to accept failure, pick herself off the ground, and make improvements by correcting her mistakes. Overall a very nice episode, this episode shows how the girls a changing from just girls in school to young women thinking about the future.    

     Daddy Long Legs 13 starts off with Judy back from her summer vacation, she watches the new students arrive and says it seems like just the other day she was one of them. Judy sees Sallie and Julia for the first time in months and Julia has a new serious attitude towards her studies, she wants to be the best student in the school, and Judy becomes aware of a $25 short story writing contest. At lunch Julia tells Judy that just being well brought up isn’t enough you have to go to university, and Sallie say her brother a Princeton student says girls will need specialized training soon. Sallie says that she needs to find a goal for herself, and this leaves Judy searching for a goal too. Judy decides to try and win the short story contest as her goal, and Sallie gets nominated by Julia as a candidate for student consul, this means big problems for Sallie because she has a intense fear of public speaking. Sallie enlists Judy to help her during the campaign, Sallie starts off strong but has a really rough go at it, she has a hard time being charismatic enough to keep the students’ attention while speaking. Even though she has a tough time she doesn’t give up, Sallie keeps refining her message and starts to get a little traction. Sallie works at the election campaign day and night exhausting herself, the next day the candidates have to give speeches to the student body, and Sallie’s exhaustion, stress, and nerves causes her to collapses on stage. Judy speaks to the crowd telling everyone how hard Sallie worked and that she would be a good representative for the students. Later Julia stops by to tell Sallie and Judy that Sallie barely got elected to the counsel, but a victory is a victory. Well that’s all, below are some screen shots.

     This episode is all about setting goals and working hard to try and achieve your goals, Julia kind of shocks Judy and Sallie into thinking about their futures. Julia tells Judy that being well born isn’t enough these days you need to go to university to be well rounded. Julia forces Sallie to make her political run, at first I thought it was mean of her to do that to Sallie but in the end it helped Sallie to gain more confidence in herself. This episode also triggers Judy into think about putting her writing skills to work. What I really found interesting was how a Japanese anime envisioned a critical period in American history, Jean Webster published the book in 1912 so the story takes place around 1908-1911, that’s pre-WWI (1917), pre-roaring 20′s, and even before women had the right to vote (1920). So some of the issues advocated in this story are very progressive for the times, Julia’s insistence on higher education is very progressive for the time period, it would be perfectly acceptable for well born girls like Julia and Sallie to complete high school and marry well born older men and become society women. Also the election storyline in this episode is very progressive one must remember women in the US did not earn the right to vote until 1920, but in this episode Sallie and other girls are shown competing in a election campaign as tough as any seen today. 

     This episode starts off with Judy up in the farmhouse’s attic where she finds a adventure book, when she looks inside she sees that the book was once owned by Jervis, Julia’s uncle. After talking to her hosts Judy confirms that it is the very same Jervis, and they don’t have high opinions of Julia’s side of the family. George and Elsa talk about their fond memories of Jervis with Judy, and she tells them about the good time she had with him when he visited he school. Judy also finds out that the Lock Willow Farm was owned by Jervis’s family and then he gave it as a gift to George and Elsa for the kindness they had shown him. George and Elsa treat Judy like a real family member once they find out that she and Jervis are friends, and they get a long even better than before. As the days pass Judy gets more in to the flow of the farming lifestyle, but while she tries hard she still continues to goof things up. A few days later Judy wonders if George and Elsa know who her “Daddy Long Legs” is, but at the last minute she changes her mind about asking, she feels that she would have tell them that she’s an orphan and that Jervis and everyone else would find out. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     This episode covers more of Judy’s vacation at Lock Willow Farm, and how she slowly adapts herself to farm life. Judy also spends a large amount of time with George and Elsa enjoying memories of Jervis’s childhood at Lock Willow Farm, and George and Elsa tell Judy how much she’s like Jervis. A big part of this episode is about Judy coming to terms with her past and being able to have the confidence to admit that she’s is a orphan, and let people decide to like her or not like her knowing the whole truth, as one author stated in a book, “you can not change who you are, but you can decide what you do”. Judy has not developed the maturity or the strength to do this yet, so all she sees ahead is a dark corridor whenever she thinks about telling people about her past.

 

     This episode begins with Judy taking the train from the city to the country. Once she arrives at the train station Judy asks for directions to the Lock Willow Farm, instead of getting directions the station manager finds her a ride to the farm. At the farm Judy meets the couple that runs the farm, George is a gruff sounding salt of the Earth type, and his wife Elsa is a large friendly woman who can be as fiery as her husband. Judy finds out that the couple doesn’t like spoiled rich kids, so Judy resolves herself to work hard and fit it at the farm. Judy works hard at proving herself doing tasks like clearing fields, collecting eggs, milking cows, and so on. Soon Judy’s good nature and willingness to work hard wins over everyone at the Lock Willow Farm. At the end of the episode Judy discovers the fact that Julia’s uncle Jarvis stayed at the farm when he was little. Well that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     Well in this episode we get to see Judy spending time in the country for summer vacation, and she learns how to do things around the farm like clearing fields and other hard tasks. But Judy learns not to judge people on first appearances, and not to doubt people’s kindnesses when given. Overall a nice, enjoyable, slow paced episode.

 

     Daddy Long Legs begins with Judy receiving a letter of thanks, and a package of candy from Jarvis for the courtesy she shown him during his visit to the school. When Julia finds out about the candy she is not very pleased telling Judy that she hopes nothing bad is happening to her. We find out from Julia that Jarvis is 27 and still messing around according to her. Julia’s attitude towards Jarvis causes conflict between her and Judy. Judy writes to daddy telling him about Jarvis and how she felt like a normal girl for the first time in her life. Later Judy finds out that the girl dormitory will be closing for three months over summer break, and this upsets Judy greatly since she has no home to return to. The next day Judy receives a letter from the orphanage stating that she can return for the summer if she needs someplace to stay, needless to say this almost destroys Judy. As the school is closing for the summer Judy prepares to return to the orphanage, then at the last minute she is granted a reprieve and Mr Griggs makes arrangements for Judy to spend the summer at a farm. Well that’s all for episode 10, below are some screen shots from the show.

     This episode concludes Judy’s first year of high school, while Judy is doing well in her studies she is still dealing with issues about her past. Judy still has not told anyone about her upbringing at the orphanage, this secret constantly hovers like a dark shadow over her. But the endearing thing about this series is how the simple things in life give great pleasure to Judy. Because of the bleak environment at the orphanage she grew up in, small thinks like a good meal, nice candy, a good book, a clean bedroom, and common kindness bring her joy. Also I enjoy her interaction with her roommates; Julia a blue-blood rich girl has all the airs that go along with her status, and Sallie a upper middle-class girl with Midwestern sensibilities, set up a situation for great value clashes. One thing I look forward to is watching all three of the girls growing up, but the main issue will be if Judy will ever come to terms with who she really is.  

     Episode 9 starts off with Julia asking Judy to meet and escort her uncle (Jervis Pendleton) around the school campus. At first Judy says she doesnt want to do it but Julia says that since she and Sallie have classes all day Judy the only one with free time, so Judy reluctantly agrees. Before leaving to meet him Judy asks Julia what kind of person he’s is, and Julia says he’s a bit strange and doesn’t show up to social events, and this description puts a funny image in Judy’s mind. With Julia’s less than flattering description of her uncle, and his being late to the school leaves Judy with a initial poor impression having not meet him yet. Julia’s uncle shows up really late and takes Judy by surprise, she says some not so kind things before she figures out who he is. Her initial impression is that he a typical rich guy. As Judy escorts him around the campus she gets a better feel for his true personality and changes her mind about him. Judy and Jervis get into a bunch of trouble for climbing on the roof of the dorm and Jervis uses flattery on Miss Sloan to smooth things over. Later Jervis takes Judy to lunch and treats her like a lady, this is a first for Judy. Judy ends up having a very good time with Jervis, and she comes to realize that all rich people aren’t that bad. Well that’s all, below are some screen shots.

     Well episode 9 is finished and it was a very enjoyable 25 minutes of anime. First of all Judy learned several things, one of them is you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Judy assumed that Julia’s description of Jervis was true, and that all rich people are the same, then see discovered that Jervis might seem strange to Julia but he’s pretty close to normal. Then when Jervis took Judy to lunch he treated her like a lady I think that this was the very first time that Judy ever had someone treat her like a lady. He pulled out her seat for her, used a little flattery on her, and even flirted with her a little. So this lead Judy to change her mind about him. And you are about to see something very seldom seen in anime, time and age progression at a normal scale. During these first nine episodes Judy’s entire first year of school is almost finished, That’s about one month per episode. Also during this series you will see the main characters go from girls to full grown young women not just in maturity level but also in appearance. In most anime school dramas the characters may progress from year one to year three but they never really change their appearances like in Sailor Moon, Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, High School Girls, and many other school dramas. True physical and emotional progression is very rare, and many anime that last for hundreds of episodes never have the characters really change, think of the American TV cartoon “the Simpson’s“.

 

     This episode begins with Judy reading her essay to her English class, it is revealed that her essay was published on the front page of the school paper. The professor tells the class that that was the first time a first year student had a essay published on the front page. So Judy sends a copy of the newspaper to daddy so he can read the essay for himself. Judy asks in subsequent letters if he (daddy) has gotten the paper, and read her essay. Judy is disappointed that he has not responded, but she shouldn’t be, remember in the second episode she was told that he would never reply to her in person. Judy takes her exams and fails the math portion, so she must take a retest. Judy falls into a very depressed mood b/c she thinks daddy is disappointed by her exam failure, she also falls ill, and runs off in a snowstorm. After returning to the dorm Judy gets very sick and they have to call the doctor to see her. For all the trouble Judy causes Miss Sloan, she shows real concern for Judy’s health. While very sick Judy writes a letter to John Smith (daddy) saying that he must not care for her, and he probably just throws her letters away, and that since she’s so sick and will probably die it soon won’t matter. John Smith (daddy) sends Judy flowers and a get well letter, and this helps Judy get better Judy later apologises for the nasty letter she sent. Well that’s all for episode 8, below are some screen shots.

     Well episode 8 reveals some of Judy’s weaknesses to the viewers, if you remember that Judy choose not to reveal her orphanage upbringing to her roommates. She lied about having a caring guardian, and living in a large friendly home. So, other than her roommates Judy is alone, she has no parent, brother or sister, or caring adult that she can confide her successes and failures too. She wants John Smith (daddy) to be that person, but in the beginning she was told that Mr. Smith would never answer her personally but she desperately what him to be a real caring guardian. So Judy must deal with many issues on her own, Judy will have to learn to be strong or become a nervous wreck.

 

     This episode starts off with Judy writing another letter to Daddy, and in the letter Judy talks about school and the upcoming Christmas holidays. Later Judy and Sallie are sitting in the cafeteria listening to Julia brag about what she’s doing for the holidays, and Judy is tired of watching Julia show off her new silk stockings. Judy shows distaste for Julia’s bragging, and the girls end up sniping at each other.

     later that evening Judy gets reminded of her recent past, as Ms. Sloan makes an announcement that the church is here collecting for their donation box. Judy has very bad memories of being forced to accept old clothes (trash) back when she was at the orphanage. Julia begins to suspect something strange about Judy and goes to her room to ask her what she’ll donate. Julia causes Judy to go into a complete rage, and Sallie tries to calm the situation down. Julia starts snooping around trying to find out about Judy’s background. Julia finds out that Judy is staying at the dorm over the holidays, and starts asking her about her family, and about the presents that they’ll send her. Julia says Judy is like a orphan, and Judy lies stating that she has lots of family but there all over the country. Just before the start of vacation Judy receives a letter from Walter Griggs, and a Christmas present from daddy, five gold coins ($100  in gold coins, worth about $4500 in today’s dollars, one hell of a gift). She uses the money to buy gifts to back up her story about her family, and get Julia off her back. Well, that’s all for this episode, below are some screen shots.

     In episode 7 we see that Judy still has issues about her orphanage upbringing, she continues to lie and cover up her past. Julia has major issues about Judy’s past, and Julia’s issues about Judy will keep resurfacing throughout the whole series. Sallie continues to be a peace maker between the two other girls. All and all, a very touching episode, will Judy ever own up to her past? Will Julia stop being a spoiled rich girl? Will Sallie ever be anything more than vanilla? Only time will tell. 

 

     Daddy Long Legs 6  starts off with Judy getting ready for the first day of classes. She gets in trouble again for climbing on the school’s roof to watch an airplane flying by. When Judy attends her English class she ends up embarrassing herself with her lack of knowledge about authors. Her lack of knowledge is so great that the other students laugh at her and the professor thinks the she’s making fun of him, so she gets tossed out into the hall. After the class Sallie realizes that Judy didn’t know the author, so she takes Judy to the library, and Judy is amazed at seeing all the books. Judy checks out a lot of books as study material, and then she practically reads all night long.

     In the next English class the students are assigned a writing project, they must write an essay about their family life. At lunch Julia and Sallie talk about their essay topics while Judy is very quite, then Julia asks Judy if she’s going to write about her huge mansion? Judy writes Daddy a letter knowing in her heart he won’t reply asking him for some personal information she can use in her essay, but she receives no reply to her letter. At the last minute, Judy writes her essay and shades the truth enough to hide her orphanage upbringing from the teacher and other students. When she reads her essay to the class, she gets praise by the professor and her fellow students for the essay’s quality. In the end she writes daddy confessing her lies, telling him it may seem like a small thing to him but to her it’s a big deal. Well that’s all for episode 6.

     Well episode 6 sets up a lot of the issues that Judy will have to deal with throughout the entire series. First of all, Judy’s poor education at the orphanage hurts her in many ways, especially in the social graces area. Her lack of proper literary knowledge really shows, but the imagination necessary to survive such a bleak environment helps her with her writing. Secondly and most importantly is the issue of her perceived self worth and self esteem, Judy is afraid to admit she’s an orphan, an abandoned child.

     This issue has been seen many times in anime. In NGE  Shinji views himself as weak and worthless, those feelings render him unable to properly engage other people, in other words one can not truly love another unless one loves themselves first. Also this issue is one of the major plot lines in the Twelve Kingdoms  anime, in that animeYouko is unable to become a complete person until she is able deal with her lack of self esteem and character weaknesses, at that point she is able to deal with the world in proper manner. As Daddy Long Legs progresses we will have to see if Judy will gain the maturity and self confidence to tell the world who she really is and let them chose whether to accept her or not.

     Episode 5 starts out with Judy receiving a letter, and this makes her very happy. Back at the room Julia is being very disagreeable with two workmen about her choice in wallpaper, and poor Sallie is caught in the middle. Soon, Judy arrives at their room and the wallpaper issue is solved. After Julia leaves the room in a huff Judy and Sallie open Judy’s letter, and it contains her thirty five dollar a month allowance. Judy and Sallie go to the graduating student sale to look for some furniture for Judy’s room. This episode also features the arrival of the dorm supervisor Joanna Sloan, a women in her late forties or early fifties, she takes great offense to people calling her ma’am instead of miss.

     At the furniture sale Judy buys a lot of stuff, and she is very happy, telling Sallie that this is the first time she’s buying stuff with her own money. Sallie assumes that Judy has had her maid or butler pick her stuff up like everyone else. Judy almost immediately gets in trouble with miss Sloan for causing a commotion in the dorm, later Judy gets it to even more trouble for making a lot of noise. Judy gets punished for breaking the rules by having to hand write a copy for every room. Because miss Sloan was not specific on how she wanted them written, Judy manages to get back at miss Sloan. Well, that’s about all from episode 5. Below are some screen shots.

     Well episode 5 of Daddy Long Legs continues with the character development of Judy, Julia, and Sallie. This episode also introduces miss Sloan, a person I assume will be kind of an adversary of Judy for most of the series. So far none of main players seem to be bad people, Julia might be be a little spoiled but not evil. The main themes for this episode is that the simplest things continue to make Judy happy. One thing I have to mention is that orphanage girls seem to be great at climbing trees, Judy is great at it, and Candy from Candy Candy (1976) is a tree climbing expert. Also, Judy has told nobody about her orphanage upbringing. 

 

     Episode 4 begins with Judy writing daddy (John Smith) and inviting him to the school’s opening ceremony. Judy has a lot of trouble learning the mannerisms of young lady due to her orphanage upbringing. Sallie has been asked to give the opening speech at the ceremony this causes her endless worrying and frays her nerves. Even though Judy enjoys her new surroundings she still misses the other children that depended on her at the orphanage. On opening day Judy waits outside to greet John Smith, but he never shows up, and this make Judy sad. Judy gets to meet Sallie’s and Julia’s parents, and its very interesting to see the differences between them, Sallie’s parents are warm and informal while Julia’s parents are stoic and very formal. At the opening ceremony Sallie gets called up to give the opening speech and freezes up, but Judy saves the day by writing a speech for Sallie on poster board kinda like a written teleprompter.  After the ceremony Sallie’s parents thank Judy for saving Sallie when she had trouble, and the episode ends with Judy writing Daddy a letter. Below are some screen shots.

     Well , another episode of Daddy Long Legs  is done, we continue were we left off at the end of episode 3. From now on most episodes of this series will begin with Judy writing a letter to daddy setting the tone of the episode, and most episodes will end with Judy also writing a letter to daddy basically summing up the emotions of the episode. This episode continues with Judy become aware of her strengths and weaknesses, because of her upbringing she lacks the manners and behaviors to properly fit in with the upper middle class and rich girls whom attend the school. But Judy has a lot of strengths, her writing abilities are second to none, she can think on the fly, and the smallest pleasures in life bring her great joy. It will be interesting to see how she learns to fit in at the school, and how she’ll find her place in life.

     After a couple more episodes of DLL  I’ll start covering another shoujo anime with basically the same storyline, and taking place at basically the same time (Candy Candy). The two anime have almost the same setup but they are almost completely different in terms or how certain parts of American society are viewed. The main difference is one story was created by an American writer, and the other was created by a Japanese writer whom never visited America prior to writing the novel.

 

     Episode 3 starts off with Judy’s arrival in New York City by train, she arrives at Penn. station (Note. Penn. station no longer exits), and her suit case is promptly stolen leading to a chase through the streets surrounding the station. After the thief gets a look at Judy’s meager belongings he no longer wants them, Walter Griggs whom has been following Judy is mistakenly arrested by the police for the theft of the suitcase. On her way to Grand Central station Judy bumps into a man carrying a lot of package making him drop them, she then helps him pick the stuff up, a young girl in the car has the driver give ten dollars for her help, she tries to refuse but the girl tells her to buy some new shoes. Then Judy arrives at the school and rushes up to her room and meets one of her roommates a nice girl named Sallie Mcbride.

     Then Judy’s other roommate arrives, to her surprise its the same from earlier in the day, and her name is Julia Rutledge Pendleton. Judy returns the money that was given to her by Julia, needless to say that the two girls don’t hit it off. Whenever Judy compliments something, Julia bad mouths the very same thing. A little later Judy asks Julia if somethings wrong with her that’s making her so unhappy, this really pisses Julia off. Julia goes on a rant about how the maid and her gardener have bigger rooms than them, and Judy says that she feels sorry of her. Later Julia ask Judy what her father does and Judy says that both her father and mother died when she was young. Judy goes on to describe and hide her orphanage upbringing by just changing the description of the orphanage sightly. Then the girls must get ready for the party being thrown for them by the school’s headmistress, this presents a problem for Judy because she spent all her money on gifts instead of buying clothes for school. At the last minute Walter Griggs delivers Judy a trunk containing a lot of nice clothes including a beautiful dress, so Judy ends up attending the party after all.  That’s all for episode 3. Below are some screenshots.

     Well, in this episode Judy sets off on her journey to school, and we get introduced to three main characters we’ll throughout the series. But, the main point of the episode is that Judy’s upbringing in the orphanage has left her severely handicapped in the social graces area. Julia’s spoiled rich girl attitude is a nice contrast to Judy’s always sunny personality, and Sallie’s middle of the road Mideastern sensibility is a nice middle ground. Well, its going to be interesting to see how Judy fits in with the elite girls at the school.

   

  Judy is informed that she will be attending the Lincoln Memorial Girls School, a man maned John Smith is paying her way (not his real name), he will send the tuition every month and give her an allowance. Judy is told that she must write John Smith a letter ever month explaining how school, and her life is going, she must not thank him for the money, the letters are to be sent to Walter Griggs (John Smith personal attorney). Judy is given a fifty dollar check to pay for her expenses (clothes, travel, and such back then fifty dollars was a huge amount of money approx $2100 in 2005 dollars). While shopping for clothes Judy chooses to spend the money buying gifts for all the children prior to leaving, needless to say this upsets the orphanage director. After Judy leaves the orphanage thinking she offended the other children with her gifts she gets a heart felt send off. Well that’s all for episode 2, below are some screen shots from episode 2.

     

     Well, In my opinion Daddy Long Legs is a good example of a classic shojo anime, this anime features story, feelings, and emotions over action and flash. Judy Abbott is an good example of many of the most popular female anime leads that followed her. If anyone thinks that personality traits in the most popular shojo (young female/ young woman) anime characters are unique one must just look back at previous shojo heroines from series such as Candy Candy, and Daddy Long Legs.

      What made Usagi  (Sailor Moon), Sakura  (Card Captor Sakura), Belladandy  (Ah, My Godess), and Sora  (Kaleido Star) so popular with fans around the world can be directly traced back to much older anime female leads. The traits such as Genki (energetic, full of spirit), Gambaru (not giving up, I’ll do my best), Yasashii (gentle, kind, loving) can be directly traced back to older anime, remember the quote “there is  nothing new under the sun“. If your don’t feel comfortable letting your children watch some of current programing offered by Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon  give this anime a chance. All the messages featured in this series such as, striving for the future, being kind, being adventurous and wanting education, are positive and uplifting. Although this series can be a little melodramatic I’ll put it in the same category as series like Little House on the Prairie, and similar family shows. If you want a sweet, and moral, but not preachy show watch this one.

 

The first classic/older Shojo anime series I will be reviewing is Daddy Long Legs(Watashi no Ashinaga Ojisan). The Daddy Long Legs anime is based on  a novel of the same name written by Jean Webster in 1912. The major difference between the novel and the anime is the age of the main character Judy Abbott. In the novel Judy is 18 years old, and the novel covers her college years. In the anime Judy is 14 years old, and the anime covers her high school years. Daddy long Legs  was broadcasted in 1990, and won a award that year for excellence in children’s television programming.

Below is a screenshot of Judy Abbott singing.

     Episode 1 of Daddy Long Legs starts off on a Sunday at the John Grier orphanage with the orphanage’s children becoming sad after seeing the normal children lead normal lives with their parents. Judy Abbott, one of the older orphans, misbehaves and gets punished by having to write a essay about her behavior. Later in the day the orphanage’s children get paraded in front rich people after church, and they receive symphony, and gifts from the people. Judy Abbott really dislikes having to go through that ritual every Sunday, and she thinks that people show them kindness just so they themselves can feel better.

     Then later that night Judy and the other older orphans find out that the orphanage’s committee will choose one of them to attend high school at the committee’s expense, after their monthly visit. Because of Judy’s energetic, and excitable nature, is told not to cause any trouble. But because of her nature, Judy causes all sorts of problems at the orphanage, and at the committee meeting. Judy is sent back to her room to write another essay after her screw-ups at the committee meeting. Later Judy is told that she was chosen for the high school scholarship biased on her skills she demonstrated in writing her essays. She rushes out of the orphanage’s office to thank the committeeman responsible for choosing her for the scholarship, but all she see’s is the shadow of his body against the orphanage’s wall, so she says she will call him daddy long legs because of his long legs, at this point episode 1 ends.

Here are some screen shots for episode 1

Below are some screen-shots of Daddy Long Legs, and the ending animation.

     Well, here the review. Daddy Long Legs is a true example of a good Shojo anime, Shojo anime has always been about character, and story being above action. In this series we see that the main character, Judy is the heart and soul of the orphanage, for all the trouble she causes, she is the bright light that cheers up everyone else. Episode 1 sets up the series perfectly, we will get to see how Judy does in the real world after leaving the bleak environment of the orphanage. This series is going to be about coming of age, growing up, and developing one’s place in the world. So if you want to watch an anime with a little more story and a lot less action, this is one to watch.