Hello everyone, and welcome to Wrong Every Time. Today I’ve got all sorts of anxieties plaguing me, and thus have decided the perfect thing to clear my mind is a visit to Green Gables. When last we stopped by, Anne had just celebrated her adoption into the family by declaring war on the neighbors, affronting Rachel Lynde with such venomous barbs as “how would you like it if someone called you red-haired and freckled!?” Lynde was deeply scandalized by this display, but fortunately, Anne is as good at melodramatic apologies as she is at cutting insults, and thus peace was eventually restored.

When all was said and done, the ultimate result of Anne’s misadventure was actually a deepening of her bond with Marilla. Anne’s reluctant caretaker is at last beginning to feel a sort of motherly affection for her charge, and you just know that Anne’s going to be testing that bond with relish. Let’s see what nonsense she gets up to this time, as we return to the blooming hills of Green Gables!

Episode 8

Apparently we’re onto the first episode storyboarded by Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, Space Runaway Ideon, and much else besides. The man has a distinctive and impactful style, regularly crafting compositions with a cinematic eye for depth and drama, and exploiting a variety of favored visual tics across his work, such as his fondness for screen-in-screen compositions during action scenes. I’m eager to see how he adapts to Takahata’s direction here

Gosh, this opening is such an emotional palate cleanser. It’s been a tough few days, but this opening’s irrepressible sense of journeying back to a beloved home can still cheer me up in moments

That Lake of Shining Waters shot that we end with feels almost like a frontispiece book illustration, complete with an ornate picture frame, further enhancing the sense that we’re diving into a beloved book

“Anne’s Impressions of Sunday School.” Oh boy. Given what we already know of her takes on prayers and religion, I can’t wait to see what blasphemous business she gets up to in an actual house of worship

Also love how these episode titles are already cheekily playing off our understanding of the characters. By now, “Anne’s Impressions of” would feel like a threat in almost any circumstance, a promise that Anne is going to raise hell simply by being herself

And our very first shot of the episode further indulges that promise, as we see Anne with her head half-tucked behind a door, clearly scheming about something

When Marilla approaches, she flees to her windowside and opens a book, determined to evoke the most picturesque scene upon Marilla’s arrival

Already we’re getting some nice storyboarding – that first sequence built a tiny dramatic arc just through Anne’s positioning, and this shot of her at the window is cozy and symmetrical

Marilla has new clothes for her, which she intended to be a surprise, but of course Anne has already figured out her scheme entirely. I love how well this interaction expresses Anne’s personality: she had the intelligence and patience to actually wait for Marilla to arrive with the clothes, but then can’t help but eagerly explain precisely how she knew what Marilla was up to. She tries very hard to be an ideal child, but she’s just got too much insight and enthusiasm to manage it

“Do you like them?” “I’ll imagine that I like them.” Oh, Anne. Even her attempts at politeness can’t overcome her fundamental Anne-ness

Anne is disappointed because the dresses aren’t pretty. And indeed, they all look much like the shapeless, drab dresses that Marilla herself prefers

“I am ever so grateful, but I would be ever so much gratefuller if you made one of them with puffed sleeves.” Smooth, Anne

“I’d rather look ridiculous when everyone else does, than plain and sensible by myself.” This series benefits so tremendously from largely pulling its dialogue from the original novel. There’s wit, rich personality, and often a sense of lyricism in its dialogue, which is a frustratingly rare thing in anime

Marilla suspects Anne will be too preoccupied with puffed sleeves to study her Sunday school lesson, and Anne readily agrees

To be fair to Marilla, these dresses are still a vast improvement over Anne’s current outfit, which seems more like a burlap sack with limb holes cut out of it

Where God and Marilla have failed her, Anne’s imagination is happy to provide. Interesting choice to not visually convey her fantasy here, instead offering the charming yet slightly sad vision of her simply swaying in her room, imagining the grandeur of the dress that will never be

As ever, the next morning’s establishing shots of Green Gables are enchanting

Marilla has some kind of persistent headache

Unsurprisingly, Matthew hasn’t gone to church in years. I imagine he’d find it stuffy, tedious, and somewhat overwhelming. He’s like a gentle but easily startled bear

With Marilla sick and Matthew being Matthew, it falls to Anne to walk herself to Sunday school

And even though this show’s script is so good, it’s simultaneously fantastic at conveying drama visually, using its careful, grounded approach to character acting in order to convey emotional journeys like Anne’s assessment of her new hat. It’s easy to follow her emotional journey from elation to disappoint, onward to stoic acceptance, and then back into warmer climates as she notices the beautiful flowers on her path

The flowers are indeed marvelous. These low-angle shots amplify Anne’s feelings of freedom and elation, emphasizing her untethered joy against the great blue sky

Rather than actually go to Sunday school, Anne has elected to hang out in a meadow and create a flower wreath for her new hat. I’m not sure what Marilla was expecting

And then there’s the delightful orchestral soundtrack. This sequence’s lightly trilling flutes and playful violin melodies naturally evoke Anne’s feeling of being lighter than air as the wind carries her towards the church

At the church, knowledge of Anne’s feud with Rachel Lynde, and her allegedly fearsome temper, has already run through the congregation. Trust Lynde to be a gossip

Man, I thought Anne just had a personal complex about it, but people are really down on her red hair and freckles. Each seem to qualify as divine punishment individually, and together they signify a character who is truly unloved by God

In fairness to Marilla, if she’d been here to prevent Anne showing up with a hedgerow’s worth of flowers on her hat, this meeting would probably have gone a lot more smoothly

Anne announces her arrival to the congregation by tripping, yelling, and sending her flower hat tumbling down the aisle, ensuring every single person is aware of her presence

Unsurprisingly, it takes Anne about two sentences worth of sermon to get bored of God’s grand design, and thus she stares out the window instead

After school, she regretfully tosses her flower garland into the nearby pond. A deeply melancholy moment, as she essentially commits herself to giving up on a little of her natural whimsy in order to better fit into this new community

Ooh, love this composition of the flower garland on the water. With Anne’s reflection in the water above it, the flowers are presented as a sort of halo or crown that she’s abandoning – and because our perspective sets Anne on the top of the frame, it’s as if she’s sinking into the water herself, the once-inviting scenery now leading down into dark waters. A perfect visual illustration of her solemn emotions

Her posture as she walks back home is slow and dignified, possessing none of the exuberant energy of her journey to the church. Character acting once again telling a complete story

Fortunately, she still possesses enough of herself to say hi to Bonny the flower

“How did you like Sunday school?” “I didn’t like it a bit. It was horrid.” Anne is so good

Anne actually seems in favor of a sort of pagan spiritualism that thanks God for all the wonders of the natural world, but that’s a far cry from the biblically grounded faith she’s being asked to respect

Anne’s most important takeaway from Sunday school is that all the other girls have puffed sleeves

“The teacher asked so many questions. I didn’t think it was fair of her to do all the asking.” What a perfectly Anne complaint. She’s willing to be good when it’s demanded of her, but her genuine curiosity makes this lecture-and-response style of teaching seem burdensome and unfair. She’d much rather be engaging in an active discussion, and pursuing the questions that actually interest her

Oh my god, Matthew literally flees the room as Rachel approaches. I love him

And of course, Rachel is just here to blow up Anne’s spot regarding her cool hat. God damnit Rachel

“Why is it more ridiculous to wear flowers on your hat than your dress?” Once again, Anne is full of questions that Marilla doesn’t have particularly satisfying answers to

“I’m afraid I’m going to be a dreadful trial for you, Marilla.” Anne-style apologies always the best

Matthew gives Marilla a gentle push towards an apology herself, stating that Diana will be back tomorrow, and Marilla should give Anne the news. Marilla responds in her usual tsundere manner, but Matthew knows she genuinely feels bad for upsetting Anne so much

Ooh, I love this. Their reconciliation is conveyed entirely through mid-distance shots with no dialogue, allowing their body language to reveal their growing bond

And Done

Gosh, what a great episode that was! I’m not sure how much of this episode’s excellence came down to Tomino’s presence, but it did indeed seem like the storyboards were even more purposeful and dramatically impactful than usual. Both the opening and ending sequences made phenomenal use of wordless sequences in order to illustrate the shifting relationships of our central family, while that middle sequence with her flower hat transformed a simple misunderstanding into an articulation of a full emotional journey. That shot of the wreath on the water was one of this production’s most evocative compositions so far, expressing a very different side of Anne’s complex interiority. Glad to have you, Tomino.

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