[MiniYopExplorer]

Little Trivias concerning the animation series:

- There were over 33 million Japanese people in front of their TVs to see the 52th and the last episode of the series, aired on December 28th, 1975.

- Hayao Miyazaki worked on the series as an animator (on episode 15, according to AnimeNewsNetwork). Despite considering the audience rating as really high (which was 30,1%, according to Video Research and a survey from the Kanto Area), which is the highest audience rating for a "World Masterpiece Theater" work, the well-known anime director commented on the series as a "work like a garbage".

- There are many differences between the animation series and the original novel of 1872 : from the fact that Nello was not 10 years old (in the series) but 15 years old (in the original novel), to Nello's death that townspeople discovered near noon on Christmas day (or the day after the last episode of the series). The scene where Nello and Patrasche were held by angels to heaven were imagined and directed by Fujio Dokura, the then-president of Calpis, the series sponsor. Dokura was a real Christian and held the idea that "death was not the end, but a triumphal return to heaven".

- Takeo Watanabe, the music director and composer of the series, won the 1975 Nippon Columbia's Golden Hit Award for his composition of the opening theme, "Yoake no Michi", sung by Kumiko Osugi and the Antwerp Children's Chorus.