Name of Series:

World Masterpiece Theater Mini Vignette Series Part 1

 Manufacturer:

K&M

 Date of release (estimated):

July 2001

Price (singly in ¥):

200¥

Sculptor:

Kagawa Masahiko

No. of Pieces in the series:

5

Secret (SP)/Chase:

None

Variants:

Sepia version of specific piece, clear crystal variants available as well.

Size:

Around 3.5-4 cm

Availability (in Singapore):

Can't be found locally anymore.

Other Remarks:

This is the start of a popular Kagawa created mini vignettes series for the 70s World Masterpiece Theater anime series. It is so popular that it came with 5 full color K&M series (including that for Heidi and Red Hair Anne), and 2 sepia versions (best selection and Heidi); 4 series so far under Horico and 2 series of bottlecaps WMT animals for Sapporo beverages.

HaHa o Tazunete sanzen ri
(3000 League in search of mother)

Derived from Frédéric Goetzinger's Meisaku webpage:
Marco is a young boy, who lives in Genova at the end of the 19th century. Italy was then in depression, and his mother had to leave to find a job in Argentina. But after a while, she stops sending any letter to her family stayed at home. Marco, who is very anxious not to hear anything about his mother, decides to set of in search of her, and to go alone in Argentina. The series is the chronicle of the boy's journey.

On the left is a combined vignette of the pieces from this series featuring Marco, Fiolina, Fiolina's father, Peppino and the little monkey, Amedeo, doing their street act. The pieces fitted nice to form a complete vignette but by itself, each piece looked like a complete vignette as well, cool concept. I'll go in details of each piece below.

Marco & Amedeo

Marco and Amedeo dancing to the tune of the musical box of Peppino, and the former is fascinated by the latter's agility.

Really like this piece with Marco seemingly enjoying himself in the street act. His dancing pose is not awkward and he is positioned firmly on the stone base. His pet monkey, Amedeo looks really adorable with his hand stand. Pay close attention to the small details like the newspaper on the floor as well, truly in Kagawa's style.

Fiolina

Marco's street performing friend, Fiolina here fiddling around with a string-controlled puppet.

Very nice vignette with Fiolina nicely sculpted as Kagawa has done a good job as always with little girls' faces. Fiolina like Marco is nicely situated on the base with little difficulty. The little puppet seemed like be alive with Fiolina's control while the mini theater on the backdrop with the title, "Prof. Peppino" which I assumed it's the puppet's name (after Fiolina's father of course) is a nice addtion.

Peppino

Fiolina's father, Mr Peppino supposedly is a talented street performer, shown here creating delightful music via his faithful winding musical box for the children to dance to.

Mr Peppino, due to his pose tends to fall backward, much unlike Marco and Fiolina who are more stable onto the base. Peppino's sculpt is quite nice actually, certainly has that classic Italian artist look (as if I know what that is). The musical box and the tools bag on the groud plus all those coins, and newspapers littered on the floor really add life to this vignette.

Rascal from Arigama Rasucaru
(Rascal Raccoon)

Derived from Frédéric Goetzinger's Meisaku webpage:
The story of the great friendship of the young American Robby North and the raccoon Rascal.
As his name implys, Rascal is quite a handful, and this hugely popular animal friend is still very popular in Japan with tons of merchandises available in the retailers (alas Hello Kitty, Doraemon). This series has the most number of vignettes dedicated to it over the 3 parts.

In this piece, you can see our dear raccoon friend in a "tight" situation as he seemed stuck on the intersecting branch to a old tree trunk. Kagawa's always do a good Rascal vignette and this piece is one of my fave as Rascal looked really adorable stuck on the tree. Love the trunk and browning leaves, a good autumn feel to it.

Nello & Patrasche from Furandasu no inu
(Dog of Flanders)

erived from Frédéric Goetzinger's Meisaku webpage:
In spite of his talent and his love for painting, the young Nello knows he will probably never become a famous artist. He's orphaned from a poor family and now lives alone with his Grandfather and helps him in his work. Fortunately, "supported" by his friend Aloa, and the big dog Patrasche, that he once took in while it had been beaten and abandoned by its master.
This 1975 production came after the hugely popular Heidi series and was able to live to it's predecessor's success and featured one of the most tragic ending in Japanese anime history. (perhaps the piece in Part 2 can make you understand better).

This vignette is really nicely done once again as master Kagawa managed to convey his message about the joyous moment cherished by these 2 good friends cum companion. Nello looked really joyful with his play with Patrasche while the old Fleming dog isn't too well done for me. I also like Nello's fallen hat and his drawing which has slipped off his hands as well.