Emma (anime and manga)

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Emma

エマ (Ema)
Genre	Drama, Historical, Romance, Seinen
Manga: 'Emma'
Authored by	Kaoru Mori
Publisher	Enterbrain CMX manga Kurokawa TOKYOPOP BonnierCarlsen Planeta de Agostini Sangatsu Manga Kadokawa Shoten
Serialized in	Monthly Comic Beam
Original run	30 August 2002 – 12 April 2006
No. of volumes	7
TV anime : Emma - A Victorian Romance
Directed by	Tsuneo Kobayashi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Network	Animax, BS-i, Various UHF Stations Animax
Original run	2 April 2005 – 18 June 2005
No. of episodes	12
TV anime : Emma - A Victorian Romance: Second Act
Directed by	Tsuneo Kobayashi
Studio	Studio Pierrot
Network	Various
Original run	April 2007 (scheduled) –
No. of episodes

Emma (エマ, Ema^?) is a Japanese seinen manga by Kaoru Mori. The manga has also adapted into a TV-anime series, entitled Emma - A Victorian Romance (英國戀物語エマ, Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma^?).

Set in Victorian London at the end of the 19th century, the story is about a maid who falls in love with a member of the gentry. However, the latter's family disapproves of him associating with people of the lower classes.

1 Overview
2 Manga
3 Anime
- 3.1 First season
4 Characters
5 Trivia
6 Bibliography
7 References
8 External links
- 8.1 Official websites
- 8.2 References

[edit] Overview

Both the manga and anime versions of Emma are unique for being set in a setting seldom visited by either medium without some fantasy or speculative element. The author and illustrator of the manga, Kaoru Mori, is a self-professed Anglophile, and attempted to recreate 1885 London with meticulous detail. The manga has a cult following in Japan, Europe and North America, even going as far as opening an Emma-inspired and themed maid café in Shibuya^[1]. Its popularity has sparked an interest in English maid cosplay, even going as far as having the official Emma anime website selling Emma's "costume" for ¥45 000. ^[2]

[edit] Manga

Emma, as seen in the manga.

Emma is drawn in a meticulously crosshatched pen and ink style, and Mori is noted for the depth and accuracy of her research in creating the characters and settings. A companion reference called the Emma Victorian Guide has been published to explain many of the unfamiliar and obscure historical references.

From volume 3 of the manga on, Kaoru Mori hired a historical consultant, Rico Murakami, to ensure the historical accuracy of the manga. Murakami also became the historical consultant for the anime series.

Emma has been awarded an Excellence Prize at the 2005 Japan Media Arts Festival, along with the Tezuka/Urasawa manga, Pluto. ^[3]

Emma's serialization run in Enterbrain's Monthly Comic Beam ended on 12 April 2006, at 52 chapters. The author has since been creating further stories in the same setting, but focusing on characters beyond Emma and William. These "Further adventures" are also published in Comic Beam.

[edit] Anime

Emma and William

The manga was adapted into a TV-anime series, entitled Emma - A Victorian Romance (英國戀物語エマ, Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma^?), directed by Tsuneo Kobayashi and scripted by Mamiko Ikeda, and produced by Studio Pierrot and Tokyo Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS). The first season of the anime series premiered between 2 April 2005 and 18 June 2005 across Japan on several UHF TV stations, BS-i and the CS TV network Animax, who have also later aired the series across its respective networks worldwide, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, also translating and dubbing the series into English for its English language networks in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and other regions.

The anime series is to be continued onto an upcoming second season, Emma - A Victorian Romance: Second Act (英國戀物語エマ第二幕, Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma Dai Ni Maku^?), set to continue the story, which is scheduled to air in Japan on numerous television stations from April 2007. Featuring the same production team, including director Tsuneo Kobayashi and screenwriter Mamiko Ikeda, the second season was first announced by the anime's official website in August 2006 and the September 2006 issue of manga publisher Enterbrain's Comic Beam magazine, in which the original manga has been serialized. ^[4]

[edit] First season

[edit] Episode titles and airdates

(2005-04-02) The Present (贈り物)
(2005-04-09) Two Worlds (二つの世界)
(2005-04-16) The Confession (告白)
(2005-04-23) Mudie's (ミューディーズ)
(2005-04-30) Dinner Party (晩餐会)
(2005-05-07) The Visit (訪問)
(2005-05-14) Crystal Palace (水晶宮)
(2005-05-21) Pocketwatch (時計)
(2005-05-28) Alone (ひとり)
(2005-06-04) Missing One Another (すれ違い)
(2005-06-11) Past (過去)
(2005-06-18) Lily of the Valley (スズラン)

[edit] Opening and closing themes

Opening: "Silhouette of a Breeze" by Kunihiko Ryo
Closing: "Menuet for EMMA" by the Tokyo Recorder Orchestra

[edit] Broadcasts

Animax, who have broadcast the series across Japan, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Asia and other regions.
Chiba TV, tvk Yokohama Kaihoku, TV Saitama, TV Aichi, SUN-TV, RKB Mainichi Broadcasting Corp., BS-i, and CS TBS Channel.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Emma is the main protagonist of the story. She falls in love with William Jones from the first time they meet. Originally from a poor seaside Yorkshire village, she was kidnapped as a young girl to be sold to a London brothel. She managed to escape, but became lost in London. She managed to work odd jobs for food, until she was taken under the wing of Kelly Stowner, as her maid. Under Mrs. Stowner, Emma was taught to read, write, and a variety of other subjects.

Voiced by: Yumi Toma

William Jones is the male protagonist of the story. He is the eldest son of the "House of Jones", a very wealthy merchant middle class (or gentry) family. As the eldest son of the family, he is under tremendous stress to not only take over the family business but also marry into another wealthy family, preferably into the peerage. He developed feelings for Emma after their first meeting. He often intercepts her coming from Covent Garden on Regent Street.

Voiced by: Tokuyoshi Kawashima

Kelly Stownar is Emma's employer and William Jones' former governess. She married at the age of 18, but lost her husband two years into the marriage, and did not have any children. Young and educated, Mrs. Stowner decided to become a governess, and tutored William and his siblings with an iron fist. Right before retiring, she met Emma, and took her in as her maid.

Voiced by: Taeko Nakanishi

Prince Hakim Atawari is William Jones' best friend, who is a prince from India, and acts as a foil for William. He and William both attended Eton College. Somewhat of a womanizer, Hakim's straightforwardness and outgoingness is a clear departure from William's reservedness and dislike for social events. Hakim usually has his servant harem accompanying him and travels with a full complement of servants and elephants. Like William, Hakim was captivated with Emma the first time he saw her.

Voiced by: Yuji Ueda

Eleanor Campbell is the young daughter of a viscount who falls in love with William. Her feelings for William are often reinforced by misunderstandings from William's courtesy and accommodation. Though her family is of the peerage, her family's financial situation is deteriorating. Due to this, her father very much wants Eleanor to marry into the wealthier, but lower class, Jones family.

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi

Al is a local Jack of all Trades who knew Kelly Stowner's husband, Doug, when they were children. She often calls upon him to fix things around her house and shares her concerns about Emma with him. His relationship to Kelly is ambiguous. Most times, their banter makes them seem like siblings.

Sarah is a minor character and the clerk at Leyton's, a shop in London often frequented by the characters of Emma. Like Emma, Sarah has come to the attention of many a young gentleman in local society. Unlike Emma, Sarah is less reserved and often puts her foot in her mouth during her scenes. This does not, however, detract from her charm. Often, her comments serve to spur the various characters of Emma to make decisions and take action.

Stephens is the Jones family butler. He is often a gobetween for William and his father, and his duty to the head of the house, Mr. Jones, often forces Stephens to seem uncaring of William's difficulties concerning his courtship of Emma. Several times, during the course of the series, Stephens has been at the sharp end of some gentleman's displeasure through no fault of his own, but his tact and devotion to the Jones family resolves every situation in a face saving gesture of servility.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

The Japanese title of the anime is written using a couple of kanji from before the adoption of simplified characters after the end of World War II, which reflects the usage of kanji in the time period the story is set in. In modern Japanese 英國戀物語 (Eikoku Koi Monogatari, lit. English Lovestory or Lovestory in England) would be written as 英国恋物語, the characters for country and love being replaced by their modern variants. The series' official English title is Emma - A Victorian Romance^[5].

Emma appears on all the cover of the seven volumes of the manga series.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

At the end of volume 2 of the manga, where the story takes place in King's Cross Station, the artist seems to have mixed up the location with Euston Station, as the platforms shown have wrought iron arches as in Euston Station as opposed to the brick arches in King's Cross Station. J. K. Rowling makes this same mistake when writing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This was rectified in the anime where King's Cross Station was recreated in meticulous detail.

In chapter 2 of the manga, William is seen playing with a model aeroplane of unknown make but resembling an early 20th century design. For the same scene in episode 1 of the anime, the aeroplane is changed to a model of Henson's Aerial Steam Carriage.

Spoilers end here.