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* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The series adds period colour, fleshes out several key characters (Miss Minchin, Ermengarde, Lavinia), expands on some who were only mentioned in passing in the novel (Monsieur Dufarge, Aunt Eliza, Molly the cook). It also adds an important character, Sara's carriage driver [[Plucky Comic Relief|Peter]], who quite understandably has a [[Puppy Love|crush]] on her, played mostly for laughs.
* [[All Is Well That Ends Well]]: Sara {{spoiler|recovers her fortune and is adopted by her father's best friend}} and Becky {{spoiler|is saved from drudgery and becomes Sara's companion}}. But what of the villains? Not only do they [[Easily Forgiven|get off scot-free]], but they undergo a last-minute change of heart, and everyone is friends at the end.
* [[Alone in Aa Crowd]]: After Sara {{spoiler|leaves the seminary}}, she spends some time wandering around the streets of London in a daze, until she is knocked down and berated by an unfriendly passer-by.
* [[Alpha Bitch]]: Lavinia
* [[Amoral Attorney]]: Solicitor Barrow, who is portrayed as even more unpleasant than in the novel, and ill-mannered to boot - for example, he puffs away at his cigar in front of Miss Minchin.
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* [[Costume Porn]]: Sara's clothing is portrayed in this way at the beginning. There's an even more dramatic example at the end, when she reduces Miss Minchin to incoherence by {{spoiler|simply meeting her in a [[Pimped-Out Dress|diamond-encrusted dress]], and sweetly greeting her with "Hello, Headmistress!"}}
* [[Cultural Translation]]: The Italian dub makes some changes that are difficult to explain, but may be the result of this. For starters, the title becomes "Lovely Sara", whereas Sara does not consider herself particularly "lovely"; neither is her personal appearance the point of the series. Perhaps even more unnecessarily, the names of several characters are changed: Lottie (Charlotte) becomes Lalla, Emily becomes Priscilla, etc. Considering that both those names can be translated into Italian (Carlotta and Emilia), one wonders what exactly the dubbing squad had in mind.
* [[Darkest Hour]]: In keeping with the general tenor of this series, there are actually three of them. First, when Sara {{spoiler|is on the point of dying of fever, and Dr. Wilde writes her off.}} Second, when {{spoiler|the Magic is discovered by Miss Minchin, and}} Sara is sent to sleep in a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|stable]], in the dead of winter. Finally, and most heartbreakingly, when Sara leaves the seminary, and is reduced to [[The Little Match Girl (Literature)|selling matches]]. {{spoiler|Things work out well in the end, though.}}
* [[Despair Event Horizon]]: Sara comes perilously close to this on two occasions. The first is when she's mistaken for a beggar by a generous little boy, and given sixpence - she controls herself at the moment, but returns to her room and weeps her heart out in a scene that will leave few viewers unmoved. The second is when she is unjustly thrown out of the Seminary, and wanders the streets of London, lost and alone, while a mournful, childlike song plays in the background. However, with a little help from her friends (Becky the first time, Peter the second), she just manages to survive.
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: Mr. Carrisford, who {{spoiler|turns out to be Sara's father's childhood friend - he not only retrieves their original losses on the diamond mines, but becomes incredibly wealthy, and adopts Sara at the end.}}
* [[Disappeared Dad]]: Captain Ralph Crewe dies in India, alone and ruined, believing that the diamond mines have failed. His actual death is not shown on-screen - the news reaches the Seminary through Captain Crewe's solicitor, and Sara is shown going realistically through all the stages of grief. It's perhaps fitting that, in the very last episode, Sara travels to India to kneel before his grave.
* [[Driven Byby Envy]]: In episode 39, Lavinia tells Ermengarde that this is one of the motives for her constant cruelty to Sara. {{spoiler|To be precise, Lavinia originally envied Sara because she was wealthier, prettier, and better at French than her. However, even after her fall, she still behaves in a dignified and serene manner - and Lavinia cannot bear this.}}
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Pretty much the point of the story, the [[An Aesop|moral]] being that if you persevere in doing what is right and stay true to your principles, you will be rewarded, regardless of how much degradation you have to endure along the way.
* [[Easily Forgiven]]: After all that she's been put through, Sara not only lets Miss Minchin off the hook, but {{spoiler|makes a donation of several thousand pounds to the Seminary}}. This is a notable deviation from the original novel, and an example of Sara's [[Turn the Other Cheek|general policy of forgiveness]] throughout the series, though it's set up by Amelia Minchin's revelations about her sister's painful past in Episode 40.
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* [[Girl Friday]]: Becky to Sara, after the latter loses her fortune.
* [[Girl Posse]]: Jessie and Gertrude play this role as foils to Lavinia.
* [[Good Samaritan]]: Mrs. Brown, the baker, in the episode where Sara {{spoiler|finds a sixpence when she is starving. Sara then continues the chain reaction by giving all but one of her buns to a starving beggar-girl, Anne.}} Donald Carmichael, on two occasions: {{spoiler|when he mistakes her for a beggar and gives her sixpence, and later when he buys matches from her on a cold winter day.}} The dressmaker mentioned below (see [[Redemption in Thethe Rain]]) also qualifies.
* [[Gray Rain of Depression]]: Rain is to [[Shokojo Sera]] what fog is to [[Bleak House]], and the weather symbolizes the mood of the series for most of the second half of the anime.
* [[Halloween Episode]]: Near the end of the series, the Seminary stages a Halloween party, which Sara is [[Throw the Dog Aa Bone|allowed to attend]] thanks to Amelia Minchin's intercession. She even gets to take part in the party games with the other girls, and helps Lottie carve her pumpkin. However, this being ''Shokojo Sera'', things go horribly wrong: {{spoiler|Lavinia and her friends terrorize Lottie by dressing up as ghosts, causing her to drop her lantern and accidentally set the stable on fire, unknown to her. Sara ends up taking the fall for this, and is thrown out of the Seminary as a result.}}
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: Miss Minchin undergoes one at the very end. She is even seen holding the Seminary cat in her arms, in a fairly obvious example of [[Pet the Dog]], to indicate this.
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Sara, when {{spoiler|[[Miss Minchin]] pushes her past her breaking point, causing her to leave the Seminary.}}
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* [[Kick the Dog]]: Miss Minchin ''literally'' does this towards the end, when she sends the Seminary's cat, Cesar, flying with a boot while in a foul mood. {{spoiler|The cat gets its revenge in the same episode, though.}}
* [[Lonely Doll Girl]]: Sara becomes one when she is exiled to the attic and forbidden to speak to her former classmates: apart from Becky, her only companion is Emily, the precious French doll that her father gave her as a parting gift. This makes Lavinia's attempts to take Emily from her [[Moral Event Horizon|close to unforgivable.]]
* [[Make Way for Thethe Princess|Make Way For The Bitch]]: Lavinia eats, drinks, and breathes this trope. With a vengeance.
* [[Maiden Aunt]]: Aunt Eliza. She's rather absent-minded, and Ermengarde's father thinks of her as stupid. But she dotes on her niece, is [[Nice to Thethe Waiter|courteous even to Sara's coach driver, Peter]], and her skills at making herbal medicines eventually {{spoiler|save Sara's life.}}
* [[Meido]]: Sara's French maid, Mariette, is portrayed in this way - despite her nationality, she is a kind and quiet girl who gives Sara valuable insights into the lives of servants. [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] with Becky, the scullery maid, and later with Sara herself - they are dressed as maids, but there's ''absolutely'' no [[Fan Service]] intended.
* [[My Greatest Failure]]: Mr. Carrisford, though dismissed as having "cheated" Ralph Crewe by Solicitor Barrow (episode 19), is basically an honourable man who is haunted and driven ill by guilt at having failed his friend. In fact, his initial motive for helping out Sara is that he [[My Greatest Second Chance|sees an opportunity to atone for his past errors]].
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* [[Puppy Love]]: Peter has got it bad for Sara, and they certainly make a cute couple in episode 19.
* [[The Pollyanna]]: It's easy to see Sara as one, but her optimism and resilience draw more upon [[Yamato Nadeshiko|Eastern]] (or Victorian English) ideas of modesty, submissiveness, morality and deference to authority. To elaborate: she does not try to be "glad" about all her adversities, but rather tries to bear with them bravely, and is by no means perennially smiling - in fact, she is even shown grieving realistically for her father. As if to highlight this, [[World Masterpiece Theater]] gave us a true example of this trope the next year (1986) with, you guessed it, ''The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love''.
* [[Princess for Aa Day]]: Halfway through the series, the Mayor's wife - who was charmed by Sara's French skills in an earlier episode - announces her intention to visit the Seminary again, and mentions her desire to see Sara again in her letter. As Miss Minchin is counting on her for financial support, she dare not tell her the truth about Sara - and reluctantly agrees to let her take her place in class for one day, wearing clothes kindly lent her by Ermengarde, during which she movingly reads out a slightly bowdlerized version of Baudelaire's ''L'Etranger''.
* [[Promotion to Parent]]: Sara becomes Lottie's "mamma" in Episode 5. At the very end, {{spoiler|Mr. Carrisford}} becomes Sara's new father in all but name.
* [[Redemption in Thethe Rain]]: Brutally subverted. Sara goes out in pouring rain to try and get Lavinia's ruined dress cleaned, and succeeds thanks to a kindly dressmaker. However, on returning, Lavinia {{spoiler|[[Wounded Gazelle Gambit|falsely accuses her of having ruined the dress out of jealousy]]}}, and she is further ill-treated, leading to her falling {{spoiler|almost fatally}} ill.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Two, to classic fairy tales. Early on in the series, Sara narrates the story of Cinderella to her classmates, and an obvious parallel is drawn between her and Becky, which [[Cinderella Circumstances|extends to Sara herself]] later on. "[[The Little Match Girl (Literature)|The Little Match Girl]]" is referenced by a character in the middle, and when Sara decides to {{spoiler|leave the Seminary after being falsely accused of arson}}, she becomes a match-seller herself. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] by Donald Carmichael in episode 43: "Say, Mama... that girl really became the match girl!" In a lesser example, Sara names her pony Jump, which is the name of Dickon's pony in Burnett's other great work, [[The Secret Garden]].
* [[Shown Their Work]]: This series does an excellent job of recreating London circa 1885, complete with realistic social, historical, and even geographical material.
* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Maria and Amelia Minchin are a particularly elaborate example. Maria is thin, with an angular face, bad-tempered, sensitive to any perceived slight, enterprising, [[Kick the Dog|mean to the school cat]], spends her time studying, and is the school's authority figure. Amelia is plump, round-faced, good-humoured to the point of submissiveness, silently takes everything that her [[Onee-Sama|respected elder sister]] dishes out, is good at embroidery and playing the piano, is [[Pet the Dog|friendly to the cat]], is not above reading "women's novels", and is firmly under Maria's thumb. This makes their role reversal at the end all the more awesome.
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* [[Sumi Shimamoto]]: She plays Sara.
* [[Take That]]: Sara endures constant humiliation and degradation at Lavinia's hands, but eventually triumphs through hard work, sheer strength of character, {{spoiler|and good fortune via a [[Deus Ex Machina]]}}. Lavinia ends up crushed and, unable to swallow this, returns to her home country - ''America'', where her father has made a fortune. ''In oil''. It's hard to believe this was unintentional, as the setting is British and all the other pupils are implicitly British; the original novel makes no mention of Lavinia being American, and most of the characters of all other nationalities (Indian, French, British) are portrayed sympathetically - even Miss Minchin has her [[Freudian Excuse]] and an overt [[Pet the Dog]] moment at the end. To take this further, it's tempting to see Sara's story arc as an allegory for post-World War II Japan, which would explain why she often shows [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]-like traits. Also see [[Earn Your Happy Ending]], above.
* [[TeachersTeacher's Pet]]: Lavinia is a straight example: Miss Minchin adores her, because she's wealthy and defers to her. Subverted with Sara - Monsieur Dufarge likes her because of her impeccable French accent, but she's kind to the other students, plays with them and tells them stories, and never gets more than grudging admiration from Miss Minchin - which soon turns to hatred.
* [[Tender Tears]]: Though they're all strong characters, Sara, Becky and Ermengarde all show their sensibility at various points in the show exactly in this manner. Miss Amelia cannot contain hers either, in the episode where {{spoiler|Miss Minchin cruelly returns Sara's unread letters to her father.}}
* [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]]: Miss Minchin receives a ''memorable'' one from her sister Amelia in the next-to-last episode. This also counts as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
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* [[Turn the Other Cheek]]: Sara does this throughout the series, but most spectacularly at the end where she not only returns as a day-scholar to Miss Minchin's Seminary, even though Miss Minchin has made her life hell for months, but {{spoiler|makes a ludicrously high donation}} to the seminary.
* [[Villainous BSOD]]: Miss Minchin has a particularly protracted one in the next-to-last episode. First, when she visits Mr. Carrisford's house and sees Sara restored to princess status, she is reduced to near-incoherence and makes her way home in a daze. On returning home, she receives a [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|lecture from her sister Amelia]] that reduces her to tears, and finally leads her to admit that she's been a [[Baka|fool]] to act the way she did.
* [[Wide -Eyed Idealist]]: Played completely straight with Sara, though it doesn't end as badly as it usually does.
* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]: Sara is a very good example of a [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] in training, even if we allow for the disparity in cultures. [[Sumi Shimamoto|It's in the seiyuu.]] To wit: she's kind, docile, obedient to authority, and humble despite her great wealth - and she continues to display all those traits even in the worst sort of adversity. She also looks the part, except for the short hair.
 
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* [[Doting Parent]]: Seira's father dotes and spoils her, but in a subversion, she is [[Spoiled Sweet]].
* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: When she is insulted by her sister or feeling depressed, Emiko has a few rounds and starts to ramble angrily about her dominating sister.
* [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma]]: Both Seira and Kaito do this to each other. While waiting for the train, Seira [[Sleep Cute|falls asleep]] and Kaito simply kisses her on the forehead. And before Seira left the school, she gives Kaito a kiss on the cheek.
* [[Easily Forgiven]]: As with the anime, Mimura Chieko and Maria, despite treating Seira like dirt, were forgiven and they both treat Seira much nicer in the ending. Interestingly, it was subverted with the cook, who was demoted to Seira's job and moaned how she should have treated Seira better.
* [[Everything's Better Withwith Princesses]]: Seira, despite not being a princess. And both her and her mother like to say how "all girls are princesses".
* [[Everyone Looks Sexier If French]]: [[Mr. Fanservice|Aran-sensei the French teacher]]
* [[Fallen Princess]]: Despite not being a princess, Seira is one, having went from riches to rags.
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* [[Nakama]]: It would have been quite lonely and depressing for Seira if it wasn't for Kaito, the two mice and Masami helping her.
* [[Nice Guy]]: Kaito.
* [[Nice to Thethe Waiter]]: ''The'' trait that Seira, no matter what the version, always has. She is kind to everyone, even if they treat her like dirt and order her around. Subverted by many others, such as the chef and his wife who mercilessly bully Kaito and Seira around.
* [[Odango]]: Romi, the cute little girl adopted by Seira, wears these.
* [[Only Child Syndrome]]: Seira's mother was an only child and it can be assumed so is her father (or if he had siblings, they are dead), since Mimura Chieko remarks that Seira has no relatives to come and claim her.
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* [[Promotion to Parent]]: After Romi decides that Seira will be her new mother after her real mother died.
* [[Rich Bitch]]: Maria, Maria, Maria. Even when her kind father wanted to visit her at school, she directly told him not to and also renamed herself, so she wouldn't have the name that her father had gave her.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Like the anime, Seira reads "[[Cinderella (Literaturenovel)|Cinderella]]" to a few children in the first episode, foreshadowing the parallel between herself and Cinderella. She even tells the children listening that even if things look bad now, they willl turn out for the better.
* [[Sibling Yin-Yang]]: Friendly, naive Emiko to strict, calculating Chieko.
* [[Slow Clap]]: Kaori mockingly does this to Maria, mentioning how the only reason why Aran-sensei left her the job to greet the French teacher who was coming to the school was because Seira wasn't there.
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** And after Seira gets kicked out from the school for not looking after the school, Maria remarked that it ended too soon and it was a boring ending. Of course, if you've read the [[A Little Princess|original book]], you know it's far from over and not boring in the least.
* [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]]: Kaito's friend Yukari, who Kaito is not interested in.
* [[Used to Be Aa Sweet Kid]]: Surprisingly, Mimura Chieko was this, particularly towards {{spoiler|a young Aran-sensei.}} In fact, when she was younger, Chieko wanted to be the Director of the school so she could teach girls who are less fortunate.
* [[Wealthy Ever After]]: After having her assets unfrozen, along with being adopted, Seira is wealthy once again.
 
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