The is an

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

television series which aired on

Nippon Television JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as (NTV) or Nippon TV, is a Japanese television station serving the Kantō region as the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned and operated by the , a sub ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

for 34 episodes from 25 April to 26 December 1986 in the 7–7:30 pm

time slot Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically radio and television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule. Modern broadcasters use broadcast automatio ...

. The series was unusual in that each episode (with only a couple of exceptions) was a stand-alone story based on popular and well known modern Japanese stories. The series was sponsored by Sumitomo Life Insurance. The branch offices and agents of Sumitomo Life Insurance heavily promoted the series with posters in their offices as well as commercials directly after each episode.

Synopsis

The title of the series was derived from the

Nippon Animation is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with its headquarters in their Tama, Tokyo, Tama City studio and an administrative office in the Ginza district of Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō. Nippon Animation is known for prod ...

series ''

World Masterpiece Theater is a Japanese TV animated series that showcased an animated version of a different classical book or story each year from 19:30 to 20:00 on Sunday on Fuji TV. It aired from 1969 to 1997 and from 2007 to 2009. It is commonly abbreviated to ...

'', creating a ''Japan Masterpiece Theater'' series. While each story would be told in 1–3 episodes, they shared a common theme of "modern Japanese classics", and were designed to emulate the success of the '' Princess Sarah'' series. Each episode (or set of episodes) retells using animation a popular modern Japanese story from the past 100 years or so.

List of episodes

Titles marked with ◎ were released by Shinchō Bunko in a manga form. Titles marked with ★ were part of the series released by Kin no Hoshi. Sources:

References

External links

青春アニメ全集
(official Nippon Animation site)

(official DVD site) {{Nippon Animation 1986 anime television series debuts Central Park Media Comedy anime and manga Drama anime and manga Historical anime and manga Horror anime and manga Nippon Animation Romance anime and manga Boxing in anime and manga Supernatural anime and manga Nippon Television original programming Sumitomo Life 1986 Japanese television series debuts 1986 Japanese television series endings