Princess Sarah/Heartwarming

If the recipe for a successful drama is to balance these with moments of despair, then Shokojo Sera succeeds in spades. Here are some of the many examples:


 * Sara "adopting" Lottie, the youngest child at Miss Minchin's Seminary, who has lost her mother.
 * Sara and her father taking Peter on as her carriage driver, after his father was injured and unable to come to work.
 * Sara comforting and befriending Becky, and pleading for her to not be punished after she had accidentally spilt a tureen of soup.
 * Becky making Sara a pincushion for her birthday - out of the precious shawl her grandmother had given her when she came to the city to work.
 * Sara saving Ermengarde from her classmates' taunts, and later saving her from a beating by Miss Minchin.
 * Peter rushing to Sara's defence when her belongings are taken away, and helping her with her shopping and other errands.
 * Lottie climbing up to the attic alone, despite being terrified, just to see "Mamma Sara".
 * Peter helping Sara send a letter to Bombay, to find out the truth about her father's death.
 * Sara's French teacher, Monsieur Dufarge, who encourages her to keep hope, and stands up to Miss Minchin over her treatment of Sara.
 * Ermengarde nursing Sara when she falls seriously ill, and Becky's midnight journey to get medicine for her from Ermengarde's Aunt Eliza.
 * Lottie - and eventually all the students - standing up to Lavinia when she wants to take Sara's doll, Emily, away from her.
 * Sara finding a fourpenny piece, buying herself buns from a kindly baker - and then giving all but one of them to a younger child who is even worse off than she is.
 * A kindly dressmaker (the same one who sold Sara her doll, Emily) helping her out when she is in trouble due to Lavinia.
 * The "Magic" - Sara and Becky mysteriously receiving food, warm clothing and blankets from an anonymous benefactor when they are at their lowest ebb.
 * The episode in which Amelia Minchin hurts her back in a fall, and Sara looks after her - in which we also learn why Miss Minchin is the way she is.
 * Peter taking Sara in when she is cast out of the Seminary - despite his father being unemployed and his mother seriously ill, they not only offer her shelter but help her find work.
 * Donald Carmichael's kindness towards Sara, including his gift of sixpence, as well as buying matches from her when he sees her out in the cold.
 * Sara's letter to her mysterious benefactor, who turns out to be her father's friend, Mr. Carrisford. In a touching scene, we see him read the letter and hear Sara's voice speaking the words she has written.
 * The end of the penultimate episode - in which Becky, believing that she will never see Sara again, trudges up to her attic in tears ..
 * Sara's reunion with her friends, and their Christmas celebration. Rarely has "Joy to the World" sounded more joyful.
 * Plenty of them in the live-action drama, seeing how this was based on A Little Princess.
 * Being severely humilated by Maria and getting hit with tomatoes by her classmates, Seira was about to lose all hope. Finally, Kaito (who had been offered money to go to high school as long as he doesn't help Seira, even angrily yelling at Seira at one point why something couldn't go right in his life for once) chooses to do the right thing and help Seira, getting hit by the tomatoes instead and getting her out of the room and abandoning his chances to go to high school.
 * And after the Romeo and Juliet play that Seira couldn't be in, Kaito meets up with her after the play was long over and requests to see her performance of Juliet, the role she always wanted to play.
 * A moment with resident Stoic Kaori after she claims that her family has a policy to keep out of each other's business, which included not coming to Class Visitations. Until her older brother came and simply wanted to check up on her. The smile on her face as he waved at her was not so subtle.