Allow me to preface this I won't be rating this adaptation when it comes to how faithfully it adapts the source material or how good it is compared to the World Masterpiece Theater version or any other widely liked adaptation - I think there's a lot of fans on the site who'll want to do that, so instead, I'd like to offer my perspective as a bit of an outsider who really loved this show on its own.

See, I only ever read the first book in the series - a Polish translation (as a funny side note, we have no equivalent of "Anne with an E" in Polish, the only equivalent names are Anna and its diminutive form Ania...so releases up until a major 2022 re-translation reduced a pretty vital element of Anne's childhood into a tiny translation note, which I found hilarious back then). And what really struck me was how much focus there was on interpersonal relationships, friendship, and silly little incidents that just happen with no real rhyme or reason, like the wine fiasco with Diana. Given how many books that were mandatory reading at school back then felt extremely samey and tended to consist of 200+ pages' worth of characters speaking in strings of grandiose ideals and religious pathos, the first Anne book was not just a welcome change of pace, but an extremely unique experience that ingrained itself in my head. Possibly a major driving force behind my modern affection for media that puts a lot of focus on character relations.

So, when I heard that not just the first book, but also a few of its sequels would be getting adapted into an anime - with a lot of talent (worth noting - most of them women!) that was previously involved in works that I love deeply and regularly cry about, like Suzume, the post-series Kabaneri movie or King of Thorn - I was really excited! And I'm so, so happy to see that my excitement was not misplaced and we got a profoundly warm and soulful show out of it.

Best I can describe this show is that it feels like browsing a photo album with someone. Despite not being directly involved, you get all sorts of stories from Anne's life, from childhood to her early 20s, both happy and sad, but regardless of whether we're following her mess up coloring her hair or succeed at university, it all feels so intimate and honest, as if you're a ghost watching it all unfold. This photo album analogy is further assisted by the fact we get a lot of really, really pleasant vistas, lots of shots lingering on places that Anne finds interesting or even just random locations the show takes place in, as if to really let us take in the atmosphere and feel like we're truly there, rather than just disregarding where we are in favor of speeding up the pace at which these memories are presented to us.

It's so hard to pick one favourite of those vistas to feature here in order to show you what to expect, by the way! Argh! They're all little masterpieces and I applaud whoever did them to no end.

~~~~

Of sad moments speaking, this was another great strength of this show for me - the way sadder moments were done. Episodes 10 and 19 especially. I don't remember the last time I had to pause watching a show because I was crying so much it actively interfered with me just following the plot. The best part of those two episodes in particular is just how human these moments feel - they're not grandiose, overly poetic and hard to relate to. Rather, they feel real. Like you're experiencing your own sad memories all over again. A relative's untimely passing before you got to say all your goodbyes or even got to know them properly. Someone you know breaking down when talking about death and loneliness. Moments like these were sad, sure, but there was such a genuine, natural beauty to them that I feel is harder and harder to come across in media.

The show is not all sad moments, naturally - in fact, most of it is quite happy or deals with how mundane situations can sometimes be a source of a lot of thoughts in our daily lives. Quite often, the plot is driven forward thanks to characters letting others know about their feelings, often in very "unpoetic" ways, through casual conversation rather than some big moment with tons of hype, or we're given glimpses into who they are that let us build a whole image rather than just them going "hello. I am x. I do y" - perhaps my favourite element of this was how even minor side characters get that quite a bit. I could write a whole separate review of just the Echo Lodge and Mrs. Lavendar subplot, something which lasts maybe one episode and a few minutes in another! Or Roy's sister, a character we see for what, five minutes total?

And of happy moments speaking, I smiled a lot watching this show, too. There aren't just emotional moments that fill you with warmth, but lots of really funny gags, too. Even though my sense of humour was defined by things like Monty Python or Garfield, there were more than a few little gags that made me burst out laughing. One of my all-time favourites was Matthew's awkward attempts at buying Anne a dress, given I experienced my own fair share of situations where I felt overly worried about a clerk commenting on me buying some embarrassing item (look, uhhh, I'm totally buying this Sylvanian Families kitchen set for uhhhh, my totally real niece, okay? I'm not a manchild that really wanted to have my Transformers displayed working at a little cottagecore kitchen, okay?!).

One more important thing to mention is the amount of emphasis the show puts on how vital friendship is to love. Without delving into too many spoilers, a pretty major internal struggle of Anne's comes from her inner conflict: should she pursue the embodiment of her poetic craving for ideal love who can't imagine living without her, or accept that maybe this one other person that she was rivals and eventually friends with makes her feel a certain way? Given how complicated and emotional the answer is, I'll leave that for you to discover.

Naturally, I can't mention friendship and love without bringing up how touching interactions between Anne and Diana were, either. Again, most of my knowledge of that stems from the first book, but I thought it was really nice how much emphasis the anime placed on the multifaceted nature of their bond, even after they go their own separate ways in life. It's not as simple as just "ah, it's friendship" or "ah, there's something more to it, note the clearly sapphic undertones", and I thought that was wonderful - the anime really shows you how fun it is to have someone who resonates with you on a personal level, how thin the line between being friends and being in love can get, and it's awesome how that stays an important element in Anne's life even as she makes new friends outside of Avonlea.

There are all sorts of complex and profound philosophical works out there, and it stands as testament to mankind's endless creativity that there are! But I think having works like this, which ultimately show us that life is all about appreciating the little things and staying true to your heart are just as important. Once again, I cannot quite speak for all of the source material myself so I don't want to judge whether it got that right about the source material or not, but I think this anime did a fantastic job getting it across on its own.

What this anime really highlighted, I thought, is how no matter how poetic we make life out to be, at the end of the day, what's gonna matter is whether we're together with people we enjoy being with and feel like there's some outlet for our passions and emotions available. And that, I think, is a very important thing to highlight in this ever-changing world of ours.