Tales of Little Women - Jo's Nightmare

In 1987, an anime adaptation of the book Little Women was released. It was broadcast on Fuji TV that following year and the adaptation was introduced to the USA in 1988 on HBO. I enjoy this series because of the characters being likable and the animation being very good.

But precisely, I'm not here to discuss the history of the show, not even my opinion. I'm here to tell you about a lost episode I have encountered. I'll tell you that this episode had some elements and similarities to a lost episode of Teletubbies called Liminal Spaces. Enough chit chat, let me tell you my story of how I saw this lost episode.

I had just finished my day at Community Base and I was ready for the weekend. When I got home, the first thing I did was go on my computer and watch a normal episode of Tales of Little Women. I was watching that one episode entitled Skating on Thin Ice which was the episode where Jo threatens Amy after she burns her novel.

A few minutes into the episode, I saw that the mail truck was at my mailbox putting some mail in it. I paused the video and went to see what had come. I brought the mail inside and noticed that I had received a package from my grandmother.

There was also a note that said that I had received 5 video tapes. I was a little worried thinking that one of them was going to be another lost Teletubbies episode, but as I opened it up, the first 4 tapes were normal, the 4 normal tapes were Thomas Gets Tricked And Other Stories, VeggieTales: Where's God When I'm Scared, Here Come The Teletubbies and Disney Sing Along Songs: Fun With Music.

The 5th VHS was rare. It was a Tales of Little Women VHS but it was distributed by Strand Home Video. The cover consisted of Jo March in what looked like a realistic rainy forest. The VHS was titled "Tales of Little Women: The March Family And Other Stories."

"Seems interesting, maybe they are just trying to go for a bit of a dark atmosphere." I muttered.

I made myself some leftover spaghetti and a glass of orange juice and then I inserted the tape into my VCR and it began. It first began with the Strand Home Video logo and it played 2 normal episodes of the show which were The March Family and Meg's First Dance.

The next episode began with a warning that said this:

"This episode was made by Kozo Kuzuha before he was fired from Nippon Animation due to a scene involving dark nature and graphic violence featured in the episode. It is not to be viewed by children or people with sensitivity issues. Watch at your own risk!"

"Oh boy, a lost episode! Let's do this!" I muttered once more.

The intro was normal like on the other 2 episodes. The theme song ended and went straight to the episode. It showed a shot of the March house. It was raining as the sky looked rather gray and raindrops were falling from the sky. The episode was titled "Jo's Nightmare."

"Wait a minute! Isn't there already an episode similar to that?" I questioned.

Jo was looking out the window of her bedroom with a happy face. She then said to Meg, "Don't you think it's relaxing when rain comes down onto the street Meg? Even the sky looks beautiful."

Meg replied with, "Why of course it is. But I hope I can go out safely tomorrow."

Jo said, "Where are you headed?"

Meg then said, "I've been invited to a party as they think I'm adorable. So I'm going to be taking the afternoon off."

"A party? Wish I were invited." Jo said.

Suddenly, Mary (The mother of the family) said, "Girls, dinner is ready!"

The sisters walked down the stairs and went into the dining room. The meal they were having was chicken noodle soup.

"Yum, chicken noodle soup. My favorite!" Jo said.

After dinner, bedtime came. Meg and Jo got into their beds already in their pajamas. Jo soon noticed that she had forgotten to put out the light, so she got out of her bed and blew out the flame in the lantern. (Or was it a candle?)

As Jo closed her eyes, she began to have a dream sequence.

The dream began with Jo in her bed. The sky was beginning to become bright. Jo woke up and yawned.

"Morning already? How time flies!" Jo said.

Then, she went over to the bathroom which I don't think was ever shown from when I watched the original show. She steps into a bathtub which had water in it and began relaxing.

"This is the life!" Jo said.

All of a sudden, a knock on the door was made. Jo got confused and then said, "Um, come in?"

Amy was the one at the door. She said, "Meg asks that you keep it down a bit. She's trying to get some extra rest for her party tonight."

Jo agreed and continued on with her bath. After she finished, she quietly went back to her room to get dressed.

Then Jo went downstairs and saw Beth and Amy eating some breakfast.

"So, how are you guys doing today?" Jo asked.

"Just fine." Beth replied.

Meg then began to wake up. However, a portal was right in front of her. The portal had a very shocking resemblance to the one from the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

"Jo, Beth, Amy, come look at this!" Meg shouted, trying to get their attention.

The 3 sisters ran up to her room as Amy asked, "What is it?"

"It looks like a portal has appeared in our bedroom!" Jo said.

"Exactly, this portal leads somewhere. I feel like we should see where it goes." Meg said.

"Allow me to do this. I myself want to be the first expert to go through the portal." Jo said.

The portal looked like a real life city. But it was rather hard to make out what the city was.

Meg then asked, "Are you sure about this Jo? What if it lurks somewhere dangerous?"

Jo replied, "Relax sisters, if I'm able to survive this trip, I'll let you know what I saw."

Amy said, "Good luck out there."

Jo saluted and walked into the portal. The portal then closed as Meg, Beth and Amy sat down on the bed getting worried for Jo.

"What if she doesn't survive?" Beth asked.

We then see Jo, and apparently, the city that she was in was Bonney Lake, which is in Washington. She was in front of 2 stores which were Starbucks Coffee and Sprint.

This really confused me, given that it looked like product placement. But I continued on with the episode anyway.

The Sprint logo had a 2005 design instead of it's old design from the olden days. There were also some cars that looked like they came from modern times.

"What is this place?" Jo asked.

"Welcome to the future Jo March." A man who sounded like George Carlin said.

"Who's there?" Jo said, getting worried.

"Do not be afraid. My name is George, and you have just traveled to 2019. This is what it looks like." The voice said.

"Boy, so this is the future huh? Better get some information about it." Jo said.

Jo then took a look around some places like a forest which happened to be in a cloudy state. As Jo walked through the forest, it began raining.

"Yuck! It's raining. I gotta find some shelter." Jo remarked.

She then kept walking around while at times getting soaking wet. Jo called out George's name a few times but he was somehow not responding, which baffled her. Luckily, she found a cabin. She walked up to it and opened the door.

The inside of the cabin was pretty dark. Jo found a match on the table and picked it up. There was for some reason a piece of sandpaper on the table, so she lit the match on the sandpaper.

Jo put the match inside a lantern in the cabin. The room began to lit up while Jo found some firewood on the floor. Once the room was fully lit up, she went to go sit on the couch.

But before she sat down, a piece of regular paper was on one of the cushions. Jo picked up the paper, and it turns out that a note was written on it.

The paper was telling Jo to leave the cabin, or else.

"Oh my goodness, looks like I've entered someone's cabin without permission. What am I gonna do?" Jo said in a worried manner.

A knock was heard out of nowhere. A loud sinister tone played as Jo gasped in shock. The sinister tone also scared me due to it being loud.

"George, if you can hear me, something's wrong here. I think I'm purposely trespassing." Jo shouted.

"I, think you're gonna die. There's nothing I can really do Jo." The voice responded.

"No! Please! At least talk to whoever's going to kill me. I'm too young to die!" Jo shouted, while becoming sad like she was going to cry.

"Goodbye Jo." The voice said.

Jo then burst in tears and began crying. Her cries were the same exact cries she made in "Skating On Thin Ice". This scene went on for about 25 seconds while Jo kept begging for the voice to come back.

Just then, a familiar figure bust in through the door. But uh, it looked oddly strange. The figure resembled what looked like one of the reaper suicide bombers from Infamous.

"Now wait just a minute, they put this in the episode? What is it doing here?" I questioned.

The suicide bomber spoke in a voice that sounded low pitched and demonic. "What in the name of the lord are you doing in my shed? I don't like visitors."

Jo, still in tears responded, "Please sir, I didn't know this was your cabin. Forgive me. I'll do anything for you. Just don't hurt me."

"Your apology is rejected. Time for you to die!" The figure replied.

The bomber then took out a shotgun and shot Jo in the knee. Jo screamed like her actor was screaming in agony. Apparently, the scream was so loud that I covered my ears.

Jo continued crying, but it sounded like a woman crying really hard.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Jo asked in a really sad voice.

"Because you violated the law by sneaking into my property." The person in the suicide bomber outfit responded.

He then pulled out a chainsaw and began starting it up.

Jo screamed the word no about 5 times as the suicide bomber person kept walking up to her in a point of view style.

Once he got close to Jo, the screen cut to black as Jo can be heard screaming in agony and the chainsaw kept on killing her.

It then showed Meg and Jo's bedroom while Mary March and the rest of her daughters were trying to wake Jo up as she keeps screaming.

"Jo, wake up, you're having a bad dream!" Meg shouted.

"We're here for you. It's gonna be okay." Amy remarked.

Jo eventually did get up. Then she started crying again, only her cries sounded like her actual crying this time.

Mary gave Jo a hug and told her that she will be alright.

Meg said, "Maybe a glass of hot chocolate can cheer you up."

Amy then said, "I love hot chocolate."

They both headed downstairs to the kitchen. Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy and Mary all sat down with their cups of hot chocolate. Jo proceeded to tell her family about the dream she had while still feeling sad.

As Mary gave Jo another hug, it showed the outside of the March house at night while it's still raining. It

And then the credits played which felt normal.

After the credits, the Strand Home Video logo played again and the VHS ended for real.

I felt a bit sorry for Jo in this episode, but the way that figure killed Jo in the episode was highly disturbing.

I removed the VHS from the VCR and put it back in it's case. I did have some thoughts on smashing the tape, but I really didn't want to upset my grandmother if I were to tell her what I did to the VHS.

After all, it would be a waste of her money.

I later wrote an email to Fumio Kurokawa about that episode. He said that Kozo Kuzuha made the episode and was abruptly fired after making it. Just keep away from lost episodes if you can.

The End