Anne Shirley

Eleven-year-old orphan Anne Shirley has spent her life moving from one family to another, always hoping to find a place where she truly belongs. When she is sent to live with elderly siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert at Green Gables, a quiet farm in the town of Avonlea, it is quickly revealed that she is there by mistake. Having expected a boy able to help out with farm work, the Cuthberts are surprised to instead receive a young girl with a vivid imagination and a flair for the dramatic.

Despite the Cuthberts' initial hesitation, Anne's energy, intelligence, and charm soon win them over. Anne settles into her new life, experiencing many things for the first time—such as attending school and making close friends—as she learns to navigate the joys and challenges of growing up.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shirley, Anne Main

Inoue, Honoka Japanese

Cuthbert, Matthew Main

Matsumoto, Yasunori Japanese

Cuthbert, Marilla Main

Nakamura, Aya Japanese

Blythe, Gilbert Main

Miyase, Naoya Japanese

Barry, Diana Main

Miyamoto, Yume Japanese

Pye, Josie Supporting

Sasamori, Aki Japanese

Gordon, Philippa Supporting

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Stacy, Muriel Supporting

Orikasa, Fumiko Japanese

Barry, Minnie May Supporting

Oomori, Nichika Japanese

Allan, Mrs. Supporting

Hikami, Kyouko Japanese

Kawamata, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Koizumi, Kisuke Sound Director

Yamada, Naoko Episode Director, Storyboard

Awai, Shigeki Episode Director

Reviews

Sep 27, 2025

Marinate1016

Recommended

Well-written

Anime adaptations of western novels are usually hit or miss. Most of the time the staff will have to make some compromises that result in the story not being nearly as impactful in anime format as it is in the book or live action. Totally not the case here with Anne Shirley. It’s hard to believe this is from the same studio that gave us the utter disaster that Tower of God season 2 was. Going from that to a masterclass in storytelling like this is insane. This was truly an amazing experience and one of the best anime of the year. It’s a shame ... it had to air at such a stacked time. Getting to follow Anne as she developed from a problematic little girl to a bold, educated, intelligent and strong young woman was so cool. The story taking place with this backdrop of feminism and a rapidly evolving Atlantic Canadian society where women are able to have more agency and take on roles outside of the home was really cool. I’m a sucker for epic stories that follow a character throughout their entire life and truly make you feel apart of it, all the ups and downs, the joy and sadness, Anne Shirley has all of it. While it didn’t cover Anne’s entire life(first 3 books out of 8), it covered such a crucial part of her and had so many emotional moments that left me in tears and introduced me to so many characters who feel like family. If you enjoy well written historical fiction and great side characters, Anne Shirley’s a must watch for you. This is easily one of the best anime adaptations of a western classic ever.

Anne’s journey is without a doubt the best part of this series. While some parts are condensed to make it more suitable for an anime viewing experience, I generally felt like we got to see Anne grow up right before our eyes and it’s paced in such a way that the passage of time elicits an emotional response from you. Think of it like how you’d feel watching your child grow up before your very eyes. There’s this feeling of pride and happiness, but also sadness knowing they’re getting older and going off to start their own life. Anne’s development is so well done and just like anyone in real life, it’s full of challenges and obstacles, seeing her overcome these difficulties and come out stronger on the other side is so satisfying. The writing in this adaptation is so good that my mood became intrinsically linked to these episodes. If Anne went through a rough time and lost someone close to her, I’d be torn up all weekend. Conversely, when Anne has her big milestones, I was over the moon. The biggest achievement of this adaptation is making you feel like you’re in the story, right there with Anne and the other characters as they go through their lives. In many ways, it has that soap opera feel, that sort of pull to keep audiences engaged and watching for decades as the cast evolves. To me, Anne is so amazing because she’s committed to doing things her way. This story takes place in the late 19th century when women didn’t have the same rights and expectations that men have, yet Anne is determined to make something of herself besides being a housewife. As someone who finds nothing more attractive than an intelligent and driven woman, Anne is an extremely endearing character to me and I admire her dedication and perseverance. The fact she gets rejected at numerous points and doesn’t let it discourage her, but uses that to fuel her and remains committed to achieving her academic and career goals is so admirable! As someone who’s dealt with rejection a lot throughout my own life, I related to her a lot. My only complaint with Anne is that she’s so slow on the uptick with romance, but she does start coming around by the end, so I’ll give her that. If anything, I suppose that’s an example of how well written she is. Romance isn’t the end all be all to her character in an era where being married defined a woman’s status and worth. Anne defines her own value and tells her own story.

I mentioned the supporting cast earlier and man, they really bring a lot to this story. Anne’s development simply wouldn’t have happened without the contributions of important people she meets along the way. Whether it’s her adopted parents Matthew and Marilla moulding her into a proper young lady, her best friend and totally not yuri bait lover, Diana, encouraging her to pursue her dreams, her rival and totally not the guy of her dreams that she should’ve been with from the start, Gilbert pushing her to be a better student or any of the numerous side characters in the story, they all play a very important role in the story and Anne’s life. They also all became apart of MY life as this show went on, especially Diana and Anne. Their relationship was genuinely beautiful. I think if you get ONE friend in life as real as Diana, you’ve been extremely blessed. Yes, it had the yuri bait undertones, but even without that, I loved every interaction they had and seeing that become less frequent as she and Anne got older made me really sad. That’s something that unfortunately does happen as you get older and pursue your dreams while your friends pursue theirs. This story really nails the feeling of the passage of time and how you can feel sad about certain parts of your life coming to an end, but happy about other parts starting. The constant introduction of new characters at the various phases in Anne’s growth help to establish that sort of feeling.

Can’t talk about this show without going into the romance. Now, Anne might be a romance author on the side, but when it comes to the real thing, this girl is blind as a bat. She can’t see the forest for the trees and appreciate what’s right in front of her. I won’t spoil all the twists and turns on this subject, but suffice to say the Gilbert x Anne ship was one of my favorite haters to lovers ships ever. I appreciate that things develop with them so slowly and Gilbert is nothing but patient and respectful to Anne. He refuses to make her uncomfortable or be overbearing. There’s the old adage about love not being selfish and Gilbert personifies it, even when he gets done dirty by Anne, he stays an outstanding young man and I really appreciate how the author wrote him. Easily one of my fave characters of the year because of his support and friendship for Anne. This was my 2nd favorite part of the story overall after Anne’s individual growth.

It’s really hard to believe this was the same studio that gave us that PowerPoint presentation in tower of God 2. This generally looks amazing, it’s an historical series so you don’t need great animation, but it’s still very solid. The art style is gorgeous and I love the character designs. The direction is underrated in this series, like the whole anime. I think this show had some of the best directed episodes of the entire year, leaving me in tears on multiple occasions. Clearly they put all the staff’s energy and the budget into this show.

Anne Shirley is one of the best shows of the year and it’s unfortunate more people haven’t checked it out. I really could not have asked for a better historical drama story. The characters, writing and production values are just incredible and Anne is easily one of the most loveable leads you’ll ever see. I know this probably wasn’t that popular in Japan, but I hope we get to see the rest of her story animated because she’s become such a big part of my life over these last 6 months. Thank you to everyone involved in this adaptation. Amazing job.

Anne Shirley gets 9 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 27, 2025

Chuy_diazz

Mixed Feelings

A literary classic that couldn't be found in anime format.

Anne Shirley is a classic from the 1900s. It's an extremely emotional story about the entire life of a red-haired girl. It's a coming-of-age story. Initially, this anime had everything it needed to shine. An extremely charismatic protagonist, capable of holding the viewer's attention. Honoka Inoue did a spectacular job with her performance; she carries most of the series. She knew how to adapt to the character's eloquence and was able to connect with her. The animation, while not fluid and beautiful, did have its own essence and charisma. They opted to use static backgrounds so ... that the characters would stand out. The backgrounds were in a very beautiful oil painting style. The story, while lacking a fixed direction, was entertaining enough to watch a pair of siblings raise a girl they adopted due to a mistake made by the orphanage administrator. Up until the first three episodes, everything looked like it would be an anime full of beauty and learning.

The problem arose when they started making abrupt time jumps. Suddenly, a school year passed in 10 minutes, or in two episodes, Anne went from 10 to 14 years old. Due to the lack of continuity, you couldn't connect with the secondary characters because you couldn't appreciate the impact they had on the protagonist's life. You can understand everything about the protagonist because she's the only one who matters to the story. When it comes to secondary characters, even if they're important, like the Cuthberth siblings, it's very difficult to empathize with them because we don't interact with them much. Anne Shirley isn't an anime designed to tell a linear story. It's very noticeable when they focus on episodic stories. When you watch episodic stories, you understand that Anne's life wasn't meant to be told in a linear fashion. They should have always told a story in each chapter and captured 24 key moments in Anne's life to reflect them in 24 episodes. Feelings like romantic love or filial love are handled very superficially. They want you to understand such a complex feeling in one or two chapters. These kinds of stories need more careful handling to reach the audience.

It's not a bad anime, it's not a bad story. It's just that many times you won't be able to connect with it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 27, 2025

BustyKagefusa

Not Recommended

Preliminary (18/24 eps)

Time is the greatest handicap for this generation's adaptation of Anne of Green Gables - "Anne Shirley". Adapting L. M. Montgomery's literary classic about a freckled red-headed orphan girl growing up requires one thing above all else - Time. Time for character development. Time for subtlety. Time for world building. Anne Shirley simply has no Time. No time for real character development, no time for real subtlety, and no time for real worldbuilding.

Putting to one side the digital visuals (especially the backgrounds) that are trounced by Akage no Anne's from 45+ years ago, Anne Shirley does not have the Time nor the Budget to truly ... do justice to the source material. It can't even get a narrator. The pacing is wild, all over the place, and huge swathes of Time are blown passed in an effort to cover the major events from the series. This has simply gutted the nuance and the subtlety from Montgomery's story. Just go watch Akage no Anne and compare it to Episodes 1-10 of Anne Shirley, the content speaks for itself.

Even the events that manage to get adapted are done so to a lesser, and more rushed degree. Anne recovers from her broken ankle like it was nothing, Anne doesn't even touch the water in a scene where she supposedly almost drowned, and by episode 10 - Matthew is dead - and we're supposed to believe that "we've known this man forever". Anne Shirley even goes so far as to remove IDLEWILD due to time constraints. This decision is utterly baffling for anyone who has read the books. There are three integral moments to Anne's loss of innocence, these are Idlewild's destruction, the collapse of the story club, and Matthew's death. As stated above, Idlewild has been completely removed. The story club is seen in one episode and then Never Mentioned Again. And Matthew's heart attack, death, funeral, and mourning is completed in just the first half of a single episode...

And when it comes to character cuts for time, good lord watch out. All the foundational characters in Anne's youth like Mrs. Thomas are completely glossed over. Diana's great aunt Josephine is completely cut, the Allens are barely present, and everyone from Marilla to Josie Pye to Anne's quartet of childhood friends are significantly lesser than what they once were. Removing all these things is a serious detriment to the overall quality... And on the topic of Heart, while the Church is shown a couple times throughout Anne Shirley, the religiosity and spirituality of the original has been scaled down considerably. There are no hymns at Matthew's funeral, Anne rarely prays, and worst of all (as mentioned above) the routine consultations with Mrs. Allen are nearly absent from the production.

Now that the show has ended I can talk about Anne's days at Redmond, her romance with Roy and Gilbert, and her new friends. Guess what, just like the first half, all of these things have been stripped for time and are lacking in detail. The animation (featuring human/horse CGI abominations everywhere) does not improve, and anyone hoping for the off-pacing to get fixed is in for a rude awakening. In fact, the 2nd half of Anne Shirley may have even worse pacing than the first. Forget months and minor events being skipped, now entire years are being blown right passed. Entire school semesters and seasons are covered like a recap episode in a long running shounen series... Worse yet, for the sake of drama and to make up for the lack of good character development, the source material is sometimes changed. Roy kissing Anne is something that never happens in the book, and would be seen as quite inappropriate for the Victorian era - but because Roy is only in the show for a few scenes spread across 3 measly episodes, the creators likely thought they needed to "shotgun" Roy and Anne's short affair. It ends up hurting Anne's character, and it makes the entire last arc come off as fickle.

When it comes to an adaptation, Akage no Anne is superior to Anne Shirley in every way. Akage no Anne, which is considered to be a very faithful adaptation, takes 47 episodes to cover Anne's youth up until the death of Matthew - Anne Shirley attempts to do this in just 10. That should give you an idea of just how much has been trimmed to try and tell ALL of Anne's story... it was a fool's errand. Anne of Green Gables deserves Time. Even the prequel covering Anne's childhood received a 39 episode run time. Trying to aggregate the story of Anne's entire life into just one 24 episode show is foolishness. Sometimes, disappointing can be worse than bad.

Anne Shirley is disappointing because it doesn't trust the audience enough to have sought out the prior adaptations for themselves. We already have adaptations covering Anne's very early life, and Anne's preteen to young adulthood years. It should have been obvious that with the other Green Gables books covered, they could have started with Anne of Avonlea, and moved on to Anne of the Island. Imagine the first 10 episodes of Anne Shirley (near half its episode count) not being an inferior retelling of Akage no Anne, but simply additional time to dedicate to fleshing out the above mentioned books.

Anne Shirley's first half will forever be a rushed recap of Anne of Green Gables, and the latter half will forever be hindered by the first half. It rushes the development of every aspect of the source material, and also leaves itself with even less Time to dedicate to the "new" material... such a missed opportunity.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Anne Shirley Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Softhenic03 - Aug 2, 2025	63 replies	by Aikalukko »» Jan 5, 12:39 PM
	Poll: Anne Shirley Episode 8 Discussion Softhenic03 - May 24, 2025	43 replies	by Beyond7Walls »» Jan 2, 9:26 AM
	Poll: Anne Shirley Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Softhenic03 - Sep 27, 2025	89 replies	by noiseaholic »» Dec 29, 2025 1:10 PM
	Poll: Anne Shirley Episode 23 Discussion IzanaSolos - Sep 20, 2025	48 replies	by noiseaholic »» Dec 28, 2025 5:40 AM
	Poll: Anne Shirley Episode 22 Discussion Softhenic03 - Sep 13, 2025	30 replies	by noiseaholic »» Dec 27, 2025 5:54 AM