Anime: Anime Sanjuushi

Ahh, another one of those "classics from when I was a kid"! This is a series that is one of those good memories I have of Japanese cartoons, even though I only saw the French dub version. I can easily compare it to Taiyou no ko Esteban and Ie naki ko for the adventurous side and style.

Even though it could be qualified as 'episodic' because of its length, it happily isn't, although it has its share of fillers. The story is built around two arcs: the first one is revolving around Queen Anne and the Duke of Notthingham having a secret, distant love for each other, and when the Queen distractedly gives her famous jewels to the Duke, it is up to the Musketeers to bring it back before the King realizes it at the Ball, and save the Queen's honour. The second part involves the Iron Mask, a famous villain wreaking havoc in Paris and planning to secretly replace the King with his twin brother.

These stories have their fill of adventures and platonic romance, and is somewhat true to the original story written by Alexandre Dumas, although it is altered to be targeted at an audience of kids, and thus not very deeply developed. Therefore, don't expect too many fights nor realistic/historical likeness, except for the names and locations.

If you are a true fan of the book, be warned that Anime Sanjushi will probably disappoint you because it is light and comical most of the time. The characters are also pretty cliché, and except for the strange twist of Aramis being a woman, a fact we learn very early in the series, there isn't much suspense nor character evolution throughout. Simple plot is a key word to describe this adventure anime :)

The animation is pretty standard of the time, although it may take you a while to get used to Jean's really weird nose, and the super dooper hairdo of the Musketeers :) The design of the character and location is simple and colorful, true to the kids anime of the time.

Sound is also average, with a soundtrack made up of the usual synthesizers, variants of the main theme, and a few classical tracks playing whenever the King of France is involved. Nothing original, although the hard-to-find opening song is fun to listen to. I can't vouch for the seiyuu though, but I can say watching the French dub prevented me from cringing whenever a French name would have been said out loud, eheh.

Overall, a good series if you remember liking it when you were a kid. It won't disappoint you even after all those years (like some other series did for me), but don't look for too much depth nor faithfulness to the original story in this one.