Studio Ghibli has announced an animated series based on Swedish author Astrid Lindgren‘s Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, to have its Japanese debut this fall.

The show will be directed by Goro Miyazaki, son of Hayao, and it’ll be a first television series for the studio and the director. Says Goro:

Ronia the Robber’s Daughter is a story not just about a girl who grows into adulthood, but it is also a story about the love and growth between a parent and a child, and a story about the bonds between friends. My goal is to create a work that everyone, from children to adults, will be able to enjoy.

Published in 1981, Lindgren’s Ronja Rövardotter is the story of Ronja (Kirsty or Ronia, depending on which English translation you have), born to the chief of a band of robbers, and expected to inherit his position in adulthood. On the day of her birth, the robber’s castle home was split in two by a lightning bolt. In the years between then and the beginning of the story, the other half of the castle has been taken over by a rival clan. Ronia meets and befriends the only son of the rival band’s chief, goes on many fantasy adventures with him, and eventually heals the rift between the two groups.

Of course, you might know Astrid Lindgren better as the creator of Pippi Longstocking. I have only one problem with this series, and that is that it doesn’t have a release date in a country that I live in or a language that I speak. I shall have to wait patiently and drool over screen caps and advertising.

(via Anime News Network.)

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