TOEI Les Miserables (1981, dubbed)
Just finished watching the English-dubbed Toei Les Mis from...1981, apparently , according to the old video warnings about NOT COPYING THIS TAPE , thanks FBI
it's ...well it's Concise, in that it's about an hour and fifteen minutes long
It's also extremely focused on JVJ , to the point that almost nothing he's not directly participating in is ever shown on screen, so that, for instance, JVJ has to be standing there awkwardly in the background while Marius and Cosette make out in the garden. But also he's not there for some things? like Fantine's death, which is announced in this by Javert telling Valjean that SHE'S DEAD, SHE DIED, SHE'S DEAD , DO YOU HEAR ME, DEEEEEAAAD and then bragging about how he called her a whore and told her Madeleine was a liar and threatened her child and killed her with stress while Valjean was gone!??!?!? Maybe he's just got a morbid streak on account of being Edgar allen Poe
(yep, that huge-forehead-having, sideburnless bookworm is Javert!)
Oh yeah, it's Very Dubbed Anime of the Early 80s. My fellow Endstage Cold War US Kids will know what that means in terms of Quality. We are not allowed a moment of silence onscreen, things are wildly overexplained , there's a whole lot of Internal Monologue Voice for the silent scenes with no mouth movement, and the dubbing in the final sequence makes Valjean Live even while the animation is very clear that no he does not.
But on the plus side we DO get Fantine fighting for her own rights, Javert blatantly saying he let her attacker go because HE was a rich person and SHE is a Lowly Poor, a general pro-democracy/ pro-revolution summary of the early 19C in France, Cosette learning that Marius (and. Gillenormand. For Some Reason.) are keeping her from her dad and actively arguing back, and Valjean carrying Marius like this:
Marius btw has a forehead that Hugo should be happy about:
which must be what wins the heart of Space Princess Cosette
who even sort of looks like her mom! Fantine has a wonderful sense of rightful anger and a great design that could easily work for Enjolras too, which is of course ideal:
unfortunately Toei Enjolras looks like This
There is no Eponine. There is no Gavroche. There is no 19th Floor.
There ARE some pretty cool art choices made , though! and there is a link to see it free on Internet Archive , right here!