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.
