| Creator: | Fumio Ishimori |
| Native Name: | 風の中の少女 金髪のジェニー |
| Genre: | Music, biography, romance |
| Director: | Ryō Yasumura |
| Producer: | Mutsuo Shimizu (TV Tokyo) Takaji Matsudo Shun'ichi Kosao (Nippon Animation) |
| Music: | Hideo Shimazu |
| Company: | TV Tokyo Nippon Animation |
| Country: | Japan |
| Language: | Japanese |
| Network: | TXN (TV Tokyo) |
| Num Episodes: | 52 |
is a Japanese animated television series produced by Nippon Animation which ran for 52 episodes on TV Tokyo from October 1992 to September 1993.[1] It is based on the 1854 song "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" by Stephen Foster.
This work depicts the childhood of the composer Stephen Foster and his wife Jane McDowell Foster Wiley. The original is the novel based on the biography of Stephen Foster, written by Fumio Ishimori. Among music-themed anime, this work is an anime whose theme is not only music but also biography, and depicts the childhood of a noted composer, but the anime itself has almost nothing to do with the real Foster or his wife. It is one of companion volumes of the World Masterpiece Theater, broadcast on TV Tokyo from 19:30 to 20:00 on Thursday.
This work is the last anime based on Western literatures which was produced by Nippon Animation. In fact, there are no anime based on Western literatures in anime that were first broadcast since 1993, except for Fuji TV's World Masterpiece Theater series.[2]
The story begins in a small town in Pennsylvania in 1838. Jeanie MacDowell is a cheerful and beautiful girl with light brown hair (although this could be perceived as being blonde hair). Jeanie enjoys playing the piano and loves taking piano lessons from her mother.
Steven, a good harmonica player, and Bill, a boy who is good at playing the banjo, are great friends of Jeanie's. They enjoy playing music together like a small band.
Jeanie's happy life changes dramatically after her mother suddenly passes away. Experiencing many difficulties and learning the importance of life, she decides to devote her life to helping many people suffering from illness.
Jeanie's father.
Jeanie's mother.
Jeanie's stepmother.
Bill's father.
An illiberal teacher.
A snobbish student who dislikes Jeanie.
Bill's domestic dog. It goes well with the Jeanie trio and can even save them from the crisis.
The music collection of this work is titled as "Mirror of Memories", which is also the title of the ending theme, and occasionally inserts narrations by Mitsuko Horie who acts as the main character Jeanie McDowell.[3]
This series is almost completely different from its 1992 counterpart.
During the civil war a girl living in Virginia, named Jeanie, waits for her old boyfriend Robert to marry him, according to a childish promise, but the war makes the things complicated and, Robert comes back as northerner soldier.Only with the conflict's end, and many misadventures, their dream will become true.
Episode list
The series was broadcast in the Arab World on several Middle Eastern networks, titled ابنتي العزيزة... راوية ("My Dear Daughter").
In France, the series aired starting on December 23, 1996, on French TV channel TF1, during the children's program Club Dorothée. It aired as Le Rêve de Jeanie ("The Dream of Jeanie"). Only 38 episodes out of the total 52 were aired on French television, leaving episodes 39–52 unreleased on television on France. The anime was never released on DVD in France, and only received a TV airing.
In Italy, it aired on the private television channel Italia 1 in June 1994, titled Fiocchi di Cotone per Jeanie ("Cotton Balls for Jeanie"). It has since been released on DVD by Yamato Video with both the original Japanese audio and the Italian dub. The Italian version also had its own theme song, "Flakes of Cotton for Jeanie", performed by Cristina D'Avena. It has also been published on a streaming channel on YouTube under "Yamato Animation" by Italian anime distributor Yamato Video.
In Spain, the series was broadcast on the private television channel Telecinco in 1997, titled Dulce Jana ("Sweet Jana"). The Spanish version also had its own theme song, "Sweet Jana", performed by Sol Pilas. The show aired in three Scandinavian countries in 1996: in Norway (as Jeanie Med Det Lysebrune Håret) on NRK in September; in Sweden (as Jeanie Med Ljusbrunt Hår) on SVT2 in August; and in Denmark (as Jeanie Med Lysebrunt Hår) on DR2 in May. The anime was again being broadcast in all 3 countries in 1998 on the Scandinavian version of FOX Kids.
In Indonesia, it was broadcast on RCTI, Lativi, and Spacetoon in mid-2000s.
In the Philippines, it was aired on ABS-CBN in 2002, rerun in 2004, and was rebroadcast on QTV-11 in 2010.