Story of the Alps: My Annette

***Alps Story: My Annette*** is a 1983 Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation. 48 episodes aired on Fuji TV.

It is based on the children's book *Treasures of the Snow* by Patricia St. John and set in the Swiss mountain village of Rossinière.

## Plot

### Background

Annette Barniel is a 7-year-old girl who lives with her father Pierre and mother Francine in Rossinière, a quiet mountain village, Switzerland. The family has very close relations with that of little Lucien, Annette's close friend, who lives with her mother and Marie, her sixteen year old sister. Annette lives a carefree childhood, until her mother Francine dies on Christmas Eve giving birth to her little brother Dany. An intense relationship will develop between Annette and the baby, from mother to child. From now on, the child will replace the mother in the housework and will raise the child with deep affection.

However, the father soon realizes that the situation for such a young girl is becoming unbearable (Annette never complains, but she even has to leave school to take care of the newborn), so she writes to her old aunt Claude to invite her to live with them. The old lady will fit perfectly into the family and become a second mother for Annette.

### Five years later

Annette is 12 years old and has developed a sweet, but also very strong character. For her sweetness she is well liked by everyone and for her intransigence and determination she is respected even by school bullies, who prefer to turn off rather than make her angry. She is still the caring little mom of her little brother, who is now 5 years old, and Lucien continues to be his great friend of all time.

Precisely because the relationship between the stubborn Annette and the tender Lucien is so deep, it is also very troubled. The quarrels and quarrels between the two are very frequent, which are always resolved after a few days with a reconciliation that makes their friendship stronger and stronger.

And it is precisely because of a small argument that the drama takes place. The previous Christmas, in fact, Annette's family "expanded" with the arrival of an ermine puppy that Dany had called Klaus and who had become her most inseparable friend. Now we are on the eve of Annette's birthday and Lucien had quarreled with her friend about accidentally breaking the mirror given to her by Aunt Claude, so in the meantime she carved a pendant in wood for Annette (as a birthday present) and a small animal as a gift. for Dany, with the hope of making peace with her friend as usual: a few days earlier, in fact, the boy had injured Klaus, who had broken a wooden statue while playing and this had caused the quarrel with Annette again. But little Dany, very innocently, confides to him that Annette is still very angry and has no intention of inviting him to her party. Lucien is very upset by this revelation and unleashes with Dany, starting to argue with him too. In the ensuing scuffle, Lucien tries to snatch the wooden statuette he had just given him from his hand and have it returned to him; Klaus to defend Dany attacks Lucien by biting him, the latter, in retaliation, takes him and promises Dany that he would throw him off a cliff if the child does not apologize, Klaus bites his hand and falls, but Dany, in an attempt to take him back, will fall from the cliff, disappearing from Lucien's sight.

The boy is hit by a tragedy bigger than him. He knows he has done something terrible, he believes he has killed Dany, destroying the lives of all those who love him. He would like to go back, but he knows it is impossible: what he did will never have redemption. Fortunately Dany is not dead, he is found unconscious at the bottom of the cliff and recovered by his father, but the diagnosis is nevertheless merciless: the little one in the fall has badly fractured his leg and will have to walk all his life on crutches.

Now Lucien is outcast: he is pointed out by the villagers as the one who ruined the life of little Dany forever and he closes himself more and more in himself, refusing everyone's company. Only a few people remain close to him: Annette's mother, sister and father, who basically loves him as a son and understands that it is not right that the poor boy should bear such a terrible guilt. But Annette no, she doesn't forgive. The fraternal friendship with Lucien that had colored his childhood suddenly turns into cold hatred. Although her father tries to make her think, she knows that because of Lucien her little Dany will remain invalid forever and that for this she will never be able to forgive him.

Lucien is prostrated by the situation (he will even think about suicide) and will try in every way to reconnect at least with Dany, since with Annette everything is now compromised. At this point, a fundamental meeting will be with the old hermit Peguin, a skilled wood carver who lives in a hut in the forest isolated from everyone, who will in fact be his father and teach him everything he knows about wood carving. Lucien gets very good at carving figures and spends weeks on build a small but perfect Noah's Ark with all the animals, to be able to give it to Dany as a sign of friendship. But when the boy brings the beautiful gift to Dany, Annette chases it away and destroys the ark she had built with so much love. He would never have to go near his little brother again: a gift wouldn't be enough to give Dany's leg back.

### Annette and Dany

Summer has passed and a competition is held at school: the most beautiful artifact among those created by the children would have won a prize. All the children of the school participate with passion, but they quickly realize that Annette will win: she is making a beautiful sweater for her little brother, a first prize sweater. Lucien also wants to participate by carving a wonderful prancing horse: he too wants to give it to Dany and hopes to win the first prize to make the gift even more precious.

We are on the eve of the race and Annette is passing by Lucien's house. He sees the wooden pony on a table under the porch, left to dry after painting, and realizes it is a wonderful object and his sweater, however well made, will have no hope of winning. And at this point she does a terrible thing: unseen and driven by the resentment she feels towards Lucien for what had happened to Dany, she throws the horse to the ground, destroying it.

Lucien finds his creation irremediably ruined and is shocked, but the most shocked is Annette, who looks back on her gesture with horror. She suddenly realizes that an angry and evil Annette lives inside her and this sudden revelation amplifies the terrible remorse she feels.

Since Lucien cannot participate in the race, Annette wins the first prize with her sweater: everyone congratulates, but she is unable to look her former friend in the face in shame. Lucien had done something terrible, but deep down he had no intention of hurting his brother. Instead she had deliberately done a wicked and nasty gesture, with the sole purpose of hurting another person. Even Lucien in his heart knows that the culprit of the destruction of his horse is Annette, but he does not dare to tell anyone: he realizes that if it were known, he would never have the chance to make peace with what continues to be. despite everything, her greatest friend.

This event however will cause Annette and Lucien to reconnect very slowly. Eventually the girl, destroyed by remorse and shame, will confess her guilt to Lucien and since he had immediately forgiven her, the friendship will be renewed. But something is now definitively broken, the friendship is no longer the carefree one it once was. A wooden horse can be carved again, but little Dany continues to walk on crutches and will do so all his life: Annette knows this and Lucien knows, even if they carefully avoid entering the subject.

One evening Marie, Lucien's sister, who works in the distant city of Montreux as a waitress, says she has discovered that a famous orthopedist is a guest in the hotel where she works, who seems to work wonders with his innovative operating techniques. The doctor is leaving the following morning for Lausanne, so it is too late to contact him: given the late hour, there are no more means to reach the distant city. And here Lucien realizes that perhaps this time life is offering him another chance to redeem himself. Unseen, he leaves his house in the night and, despite the blizzard that breaks out, he sets out among the mountain passes in a desperate race under the snow to reach Montreux before dawn.

Lucien arrives in the city, after hours of walking, exhausted and almost frozen and manages just in time to contact the famous doctor and to interest him in the case of little Dany. The baby will be operated on and after a few months of convalescence he will be able to walk again without crutches. Finally, between Annette and Lucien there is no longer any dark area and the two boys will resume their great friendship to the end.

## Cast

* Keiko Han as Annette Burnier
* Sanae Miyuki as Daniel Burnier
* Eiko Yamada as Lucien Morel
* Rihoko Yoshida as Marie Morel
* Osamu Kobayashi as Pierre Burnier

The anime had one opening and one ending theme. The opening theme is "Annette no Aoi Sora" and the ending theme "Edelweiss no Shiroi Hana", both performed by Keiko Han (潘恵子).