Customer Reviews

Emma - A Victorian Romance Season 1

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If the typical shounen series is the equivalent of a summer blockbuster, Emma is the equivalent of a good Masterpiece Theatre entry, perfect for disabusing people with the impression that anime consists only of mecha and fanservice and warming the soul on a cold winter's day.

The basic formula is nothing special. William Jones, a member of a relatively newly rich family, pays a visit to his aging former governess Kelly Stowner, now a retired member of the middle class. In the process he promptly falls for her personal maid Emma, hired as she's getting on in years and needs help with the usual household chores, in spite of his father increasingly pressing him to pay suit to Eleanor Campbell, the daughter of a family he would like to combine with. The fun really starts when William's outrageous, self-assured, hookah addicted friend Prince Hakim Atawari arrives from India for a visit. When Hakim starts crushing on Emma and makes a move, William finally starts to realize that he can't be happy without Emma. But with their class differences, the road to true love won't be an easy one. They do have two things going for them, however - Mrs. Stowner, who wants to secure the happiness of the two young people she loves as her health declines, and Hakim, who quickly recovers from being shot down by Emma once he becomes aware of his buddy's interest and sets himself to ensuring that they wind up together...

The two major strengths of the series are it's amazing detail (Victorian London is a character in itself) and the avoidance of having the characters become cardboard cutouts. Although basically a good guy, William isn't a saint, and his refusal to cut things off with Eleanor in his attempts to appease his father is borderline cruel. Hakim could have been a first-class jerk but becomes much more as the series progresses, giving William verbal smackdowns as the audience's surrogate, and repeating as necessary. Things always liven up when he's around. Eleanor, who could have been written as a money-grubbing she-devil, is extremely sympathetic and has genuinely fallen in love with William, trying desperately to figure out what she's doing wrong when she's not at fault and William won't be honest with her. It's even possible to be slightly sympathetic towards William's father, who knows that a relationship between William and Emma would likely completely undo all his hard work to get the family where it is.

For romance fans in general and fans of Victorian England and Jane Austinish novels in particular. Just note that there are only subtitles and no English dub (we're lucky a chance was taken on distributing it at all), you'll want to avoid the spoilish Gazette booklet until after watching it through, and this is only Season 1 of 2 - which means, of course, that it ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

A lovely little series that really grows on you. The story of William and Emma is not fast-paced, but it's probably one of the more true-to-life deceptions of romance you'll ever see. The setting of Victorian London is almost the third main character, it's realism giving you an educational view of another world.

This was such a wonderful series! It is strictly romance. The characters are lovable even the blond girl that was in love with our main man. It is a very deep and interesting storyline that you will want to watch from beginning to end because of the ending in this box set you will be looking for the other wondering and hoping that thing will turn out for our fair maiden Emma and the man who loves her. Truly a wonderful,beautiful anime with some good old fashion romance that's sure to captivate everyone. It is pretty safe for teens and pre-teens to watch although there is a nude scene in the second box set which isn't supposed to be taken sexually well pretty much all you see is her butt and everyone has seen a butt in their lives I'm very sure of that.

This is based on the manga, in which Mr. William Jones meets Emma, a working-class maid in Victorian London, and the finds himself drawn to her. The disparity between their social classes may make a relationship difficult, but William is determined to try. The series follows Emma's daily life and duties as a maid as well as William's life as a member of the gentry. I have to admit, I had trouble empathizing with both William and Emma (although there were several supporting characters that I liked a lot) because their inaction and their reticence with their thoughts and feelings made it seem like they didn't care about each other enough for me to care. Basically, I didn't really feel anything about the story of the relationship, although it was nice.

But the art! Mori's depiction of Victorian London is spot-on and beautiful, from the urban scenery to the clothing to the interior decorating in the homes. The street scenes are particularly exquisite, in my opinion. The characters are also nicely animated, of course, but the backgrounds and details are so lovely that I almost want to have this playing on a tv at all times, so I can just glance over whenever I want to and drink it in!

The score is perhaps equally beautiful, from the title music to the incidental music to the dances. The soundtrack is full of lovely instrumental pieces that I listen to all the time on my iPod. They are wonderfully evocative of Victorian England.

Another great thing about this anime is that it shows us life in the Victorian times. Mori has done an incredible amount of research about the period, and includes not only aspects that we all know (and love to see), like horse-drawn carriages, tea services, dinner parties, etc, but also includes lesser known aspects and trivia, such as Mudie's lending library. This DVD set includes a "Victorian Gazette" booklet with additional information about the story and the Victorian period, and also wonderful illustrations. This booklet makes the DVD package a must-buy, since it's not available through other avenues.

I was very pleased with this product. The series is so beautiful and has wonderful characters and a charming story. The box is covered in beautiful artwork from the series. Each disc is in it's own thin DVD case featuring more beautiful, large colour pictures from the series.

It also comes with a fascinating little book called Emma: Victorian Gazette. It is completely in black and white and is designed to be similar to a magazine, including little advertisements in between the articles. It is full of information about England and Victorian life including many illustrations taken from the series. There are even real life photos comparing Kaoru Mori's illustrations to the real locations in England.

I highly recommend this box set. It is high quality.

Not your average anime series. This tender drama is smart, very well researched and true to life. You can't help but hope that love will conquer all. Wonderful to watch!

Emma, a maid who works for a retired governess, falls for the eldest son of the gentry, William Jones. The governess, Kelly Stownar taught him when he was young. When Emma and William first meet, which is so funny, you can tell that he really loves her. Emma, a quiet, hardworking, maid-of-all-work does too. They think about each other when they're apart.
In this first half of the story, you see William who is supposed to inherit his fathers business, doesn't really care about it. He's very interested in innovative gadgets and loves to daydream. Emma, a maid who is not one at heart, seems very much like a proper lady. Mrs. Stownar taught her everything. I know it is because of that, she wants more of what life can offer her, but feels that she cannot change her destiny. She rejects many proposals of marriage.
While William meets her every chance he can get, major conflict happens. His best
friend from India, Prince Hakim comes to visit, elephants and all. He falls for Emma. It definitely makes him upset. Williams Father, wanting him to be serious forces him to go to an invitation to a ball. It is there that he meets and dances with Eleanor Campbell, who immediately is taken with William.
There is comedy, sadness and blunt reality between the rich and the commoners. It ends on a sad note, yet with a message of hope for both William and Emma. Which is a great lead in to part two. If you love slow paced romances, and a different type of Cinderella story, then this is definitely worth the purchase.

Amazing animation, extream detail wisks you away to late 1800's victorian erra like a time machine.

The Story is endering and makes you want to watch till the very end.

The only thing to note is that this show scacrifice much development of majority of the side characters for the emense detail of this victorian world, save for those who have a direct impact with Emma. It may seem dissapointing for those who want to know more about these side characters. But this show is not about them it's a love story between two people and status is the enemy. With the vastness of side characters with an even larger world to emerse in, it never looses focus of the point. it's a love story between two people.

While I'm not quite sure that it lived up to the hype that followed it, it certainly earned it. The story presented in this series is strong in how different it is. It's a slow moving, quiet, character drive period drama. Once you move past the differences and look at the series for what it is, you're still left with something above average.



The characters and story are strong in their own ways. While the pacing and humor of the series will try the patience of everyone at some point, the romance and characters will keep you coming back. I can understand someone loving this series but I can also someone saying that they hated it. There is a middle ground though and even though I never found myself particularly attached to this series I was sad to see the first season end. I may not be counting down the days until I see the second season but I am at least left with wanting more.

This is one of the best anime's I have seen. The anime is very well drawn.
You really see the London of 100 years ago.

And the story, it's a great story so far. With the ending of every episode I wanted to know how it continued.
So I watched it in 2 days.

If you like a good story, romance and anime then this one is for you.