Cuore: School of Love

あいのがっこうくおれものがたり

Aired: 1981

A television anime produced by Nippon Animation, based on Edmondo De Amicis's classic nineteenth-century Italian children's novel 'Cuore.' Broadcast on TBS-affiliated stations across 26 episodes, the series follows the fourth-grade boy Enrico of Turin through one school year, structured around his diary, letters from his father, mother and brother, and the monthly heart-touching stories told by his teacher Mr. Perboni-among them the well-known 'From the Apennines to the Andes' (the source story of 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother). Out of small classroom incidents, family interactions and lessons on poverty and patriotism, the show patiently traces how a single boy comes to embrace compassion for others and love for his country. Backed by Yasushi Akutagawa's stately theme song performed by Eri Takeda, Cuore Monogatari remains a model entry in Japan's lineage of dignified literary children's anime.