Heidi, Girl of the Alps #01 (English Subtitles)

It took four decades, but we finally have the Heidi series with English subtitles. Much thanks to the dedication and hard work of the fansub community, who worked across many years and several different parties to provide us with the final, and most significant, masterwork of Isao Takahata, Hayao Miyazaki, and Yoichi Kotabe. This landmark series spearheaded Japan's anime boom in the 1970s, and became an international success around the world. Heidi may be the first truly "global" anime series.

I've raved about this classic series enough times, so I don't feel the need to add to the hype. I've long argued that the three World Masterpiece Theater series of the 1970s - 1974's Heidi, Girl of the Alps; 1976's 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (Marco); 1979's Anne of Green Gables - are the true masterpieces of the Takahata/Miyazaki canon. The Studio Ghibli movies owe everything to these three, like short novellas derived from the great epics. And everything comes back to Heidi.

To all of the Ghibli Freaks out there who are weeping over the retirement of Hayao Miyazaki and the fading away of Studio Ghibli, have we got a surprise for you. You thought you've seen everything? You've only scratched the surface.  Here's the first episode of Heidi, with 51 more episodes to follow. After that, 52 episodes of Marco, 50 episodes of Anne...oh, and 26 episodes of Future Boy Conan. Why the heck don't Western Miyazaki fans know about Future Boy Conan? Isn't that the weirdest thing?

Ah, well. Here is episode one of Heidi, presented with English subtitles. Isao Takahata was the director, Hayao Miyazaki the scene designer and "idea man," and Yoichi Kotabe the animation director and "character designer" (the first time this term was used in an anime production, coined by Takahata).