Heidi, Girl of the Alps

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Heidi Girl of the Alps is a 1974 Anime series that ran for 52 episodes based on the famous Heidi's Years of Wandering and Learning Swiss classic children's novel by Johanna Spyri. The adaptation is notable for being directed by Isao Takahata and animated by Hayao Miyazaki - in other words, the core of what would become Studio Ghibli.

It tells the tale of Heidi, a five year old orphan who is pretty much dumped by her aunt on her grandpa, a gruff man with a bad reputation who lives alone in the mountains. Heidi, being Moe Moe, quickly melts the old man's heart and makes a friend in Peter, a goatherd six year older than her, and Grandpa's huge St Bernard dog, Joseph (renamed in many foreign dubs for some reason as some variation on the word "fog"). Just as she has gotten cozy in the Alps, her aunt comes back and tricks her into leaving the mountains for Frankfurt to become the companion of a lonely, rich Ill Girl bound to a wheelchair, Klara Sesemann. Once again, she makes friends with the whole household (except for uptight old hag Mrs. Rottenmeier), but she gets increasingly homesick, to the point that she starts sleepwalking. For her sanity's sake, she's allowed to go back to the Alps, with the promise that Clara will be allowed to visit her there. Which just happens to be exactly what Clara needs for her health...

Heidi was a big success, and it is still fondly remembered in Japan and many foreign countries. Not so much in English-speaking countries, as only a movie-length edited version of the show (put together without Takahata and Miyazaki's input) made it to home video in UK and USA. Video game players (especially those who may have never heard of this version of the story) may recognize part of the opening theme from the arcade game Frogger[1].


Tropes used in Heidi, Girl of the Alps include:
  1. Specifically, the second "yodeling" part