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Meiken Jolie (Belle and Sebastian) is an Anime that ran between 1981 and 1982 on NHK (Japan's public broadcaster), based on a series of French novels. It was exported then to other countries in Europe and Latin America where it became very popular. The English and French dubbed versions, both of Canadian origin, also aired in North America during the '80s on channels like Nickelodeon in the U.S. and TVO and Radio-Canada in Canada.
It follows the adventures of a boy called Sebastian who lives in the Pyrenees mountain range with his adoptive grandfather, brother and sister, one day he meets an enormous white dog (Appropriately enough, a Great Pyrenees) who is being wrongly accused of attacking people and becomes friends with her, he names her Belle and alongside his tiny dog Poochie, decides to cross the Pyrenees in search for his Gypsy mother. They have many adventures and make many friends in their way while avoiding the authorities hunting for Belle.
When the series ended on NHK, Mysterious Cities of Gold took over its time slot. Like MCoG, Belle and Sebastian in its Japanese broadcast ended each episode with a brief live-action documentary highlighting the show's real-life setting. Both shows would also have English dubs made in Montreal with many of the same actors, which would both air on Nickelodeon.
Not to be confused with the culty admired indie rock band Belle & Sebastian which also got its name from the books. Also not part of the World Masterpiece Theater, though it shares many of that franchise's tropes (and staff members).
- Adaptation Displacement: Based on the French books Belle et Sébastien
- Bad Cop, Incompetent Cop: Inspector García and Officer Muñoz respectively.
- Berserk Button: Angelina is not thrilled about Sebastian longing for his birth mother when she feels she's been an adequate mother to him. In episode one, she gets so upset about this (due in part also to him getting into a scrape with other neighbourhood boys) she has to be restrained from beating him.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Do not threaten Sebastian in front of Belle, in the case of humans, most of them cower over her enormous size, and in the case of animals, like a pack of wolves, she truly lives up to her nickname "The White Demon".
- Big Friendly Dog
- A Boy And His Dog
- Cool, Clear Water: Brutally subverted in one episode.
- Cool Old Guy: Sebastian's adoptive grandfather, Cecil.
- And Pedro's grandpa.
- Dub Name Change: For an unclear reason, Belle's name in the original Japanese version was changed to Jolie (sometimes Romanized as Jolly, which is basically what "jolie" means in French). Also, Angelina became Anne-Marie in the English dub.
- Ear Worm: The opening.
- Free-Range Children
- Disappeared Dad / Missing Mom: Sebastian and Lena respectively, it is mentioned that Sebastian's father was an Italian who died before he was born, and Lena's mother died at childbirth.
- Evil-Detecting Dog
- Gentle Giant: Belle.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: If Sebastian sounds like Nobita Nobi or Conan in Japanese, there's a reason for that, and her name is Noriko Ohara. And Angelina is Dorami.
- Ill Girl: Lena.
- Inspector Javert: The authorities chasing Belle.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: The English dub opening is an instrumental of the Japanese version.
- Kick the Dog: Literally, Garcia Inspector loses his patience once and kicks Poochie in anger, prompting Belle to attack him.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Lena again.
- Name's the Same: Sebastian's mother was in the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain, not the ones in California. In case you wonder why he never made it to the ocean.
- Parental Abandonment: Sebastian, since his Gypsy mother left him with his adoptive family (promising to return one day for him) because of her people's laws about having a child with outsiders.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the original book, she died in childbirth.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Poochie.
- Puppy Love: Lena and Sebastian, she actually kisses him at the end of one episode.
- Three Amigos: Belle, Sebastian and Poochie.
- Ungrateful Bastards: Near the beginning of the series, some of the villagers testify against Belle even after she saved their lives, because they still want to be able to claim the reward for capturing her.