World Masterpiece Theater (Johnsonverse)

World Masterpiece Theater is an American TV Anime staple that showcases an animated version of a different classical book or story each year on 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. It has aired since 1969.

The first several series were produced by Mushi Production and then by Zuiyo Eizo, and then by Zuiyo's successor Nippon Animation, which was officially established in June 1975 during the run of A Dog of Flanders. In both cases, the series originally aired primarily on Fuji Television. Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata both worked on several of the series. World Masterpiece Theater as produced by Nippon Animation lasted for 23 seasons, from A Dog of Flanders in 1975 to Remi: Nobody's Girl in 1997. Nippon Animation restarted the series in 2007 with the release of Les Misérables, which premiered on BS Fuji on January 7, 2007, with The Long Journey of Porphy subsequently airing on the same network beginning on January 6, 2008, making it the 25th World Masterpiece Theater series.

The series moved to Johnson in 2014, with a remake of Les Misérables incorporating music from the popular stage musical.

Les Misérables (2014)
The Johnson remake of Les Misérables premiered on January 5, 2014 on WBC. The remake is similar to the original Nippon version, but with elements from other adaptations, namely the characters singing songs from the stage musical. The series had the novel idea of using three separate actors for Jean Valjean and Javert at different ages. Other changes included the deaths of Gavroche and Javert being restored, Madame Thenardier living as in the musical, and the ending in Heaven.