Anne Shirley

Episode 8

It is confirmed – rather than jumping ahead several chapters, the Matthew Incident last week was an addition made by the anime, showing us something that was only mentioned in the book. It's one of the few choices I've adamantly disagreed with in this adaptation (I mentioned a couple of others last week, so I won't repeat them here.) It's followed by another, albeit one that I think more comes down to cultural differences than adaptation decisions. And maybe it's a bit of a badge of honor to the show, albeit an honor I doubt it was vying for: episode eight has, without a doubt, the most unhinged recitation of Hilaire Belloc's poem “The Frog” I have ever heard. It's a silly poem, and it has Belloc's well-chosen economy of words to drive that home. It doesn't need the overexaggeration and frog sounds this version gives it. That doesn't mean that the show's interpretation is wrong, of course; just that it's not to my taste, although there's perhaps an argument to be made that it's in keeping with Victorian music hall performances. (Which this concert isn't, but that's just being picky.)

Anne getting to perform at all, especially in the bigger town of White Sands, is a major triumph. Not even Gilbert was asked to perform, and he tied for first place in the Queen's exams with her! Even more impressive is that she's reciting alongside a professional elocutionist, Mrs. Evans, who chooses a much more traditional poem to recite, Percy Bysshe Shelley's "The Flower that Smiles To-Day". Anne's first selection is Carolina Oliphant's "The Maiden's Vow", and while you couldn't hear it in the Japanese (or at least, I couldn't), from the subtitles you should have seen that it's written dialectically in a Scottish accent. It's also a song rather than a poem; Oliphant originally set it to a traditional Scottish tune. That makes it more of a challenge for Anne to recite, because she has to count on her performance to sell the meaning of the piece. It's also a poem that shows us that Anne may be growing up, but her romantic nature remains essentially the same. She may be quieter at fifteen than she was at eleven, and she may use fewer large words in her daily conversation, but she still chose the most dramatically romantic poem she could for her performance – and it may not be entirely a coincidence that it's about a maiden vowing never to wed. (Not that Gilbert notices if it is a jab in his direction. He's delighted to see Anne succeed.)

This episode feels devoted to the fact that Anne is growing up. The signs are both subtle and not, from the fact that she's no longer wearing a pinafore over her dress to her being a bit more contemplative as her goals shift from melodrama to going to what's basically junior college. Putting her hair up for the first time is a major signifier of her maturing; girls doing that while letting their skirts down was a visual indication that they were women. (Likewise, Gilbert is wearing long pants these days, another marker of the passage of time.) It's interesting to note that Anne's performance outfit, though indicative of adulthood, is also fairly old-fashioned compared to those worn by the other ladies on stage. Her skirt is much wider than fashion dictates (more 1860s than 1880s), and her sleeves are longer and fuller as well, with her collar higher. Those two petty girls sitting next to her onstage absolutely knew that she was the “country bumpkin,” and they were almost certainly making nasty remarks on purpose, out-Josieing Josie Pye.

Things are coming up roses for Anne right now. She's top of the Queen's examinees, had a successful performance, and is secure in being "Just Anne" with plain red hair. We're almost to the end of the first of Montgomery's novels, which means that nearly half of the series' run will have been devoted to Anne of Green Gables with Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island getting not nearly as much space. But since the first book is my favorite, I can't complain too much – even if that makes me worry about the adaptation's pacing growing even faster.

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Anne Shirley is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.