Back in 2014, we reported onGoro Miyazaki, the son ofStudio Ghiblico-founderHayao Miyazaki, preparing to adaptAstrid Lindgren’s Swedish children’s classicRonja the Robber’s Daughterinto a TV series of sorts. Well, that happened, as it turned out and the series debuted in Japan in the fall of 2014 to largely positive reception. It’s surprising that we’ve been waiting around for two years without any North American company attempting to bring the latest Ghibli title to the states - as they did with Goro’s first film,From Up on Poppy Hill- but the wait is seemingly all over now.
According toVariety,Amazon has picked up the series as part of a trio of children’s shows that it’s putting up on its streaming service starting later this fall. Plans are currently set to releaseRonjain November, along withLittle Big Awesome, backed by the creator ofSuperjail!, andThe Stinky & Dirty Show, which less is known about. Ghibli is also involved withLittle Big Awesome, but the Miyazaki name putsRonjain front as one of Amazon’s big releases for the fall.Gillian Andersonis being brought in to lend her voice to the narration of the series, originally done byEndô Fukiko, but no other word yet as to who else will be lending their English tones to the English-language dub of the series. That’s all well and good but the pull for most Ghibli fans won’t be the sound of the voices but rather the exquisite animation style that has made the Japanese juggernaut one of the last truly haloed companies in modern movie-making.
Here’s how the series was described on the show’s Facebook page:
The story is of a little girl named Ronja, the daughter of a colourful robber chieftain who lives in a castle high on a rock in a dark pine forest. She gets to know the creatures of the forest, meets another kid like herself, and questions her father’s life of robbery.
