Ronja, the Robber's Daughter

A girl's coming-of-age in a forest of wonders and dangers.

This Japanese anime adapts a Swedish children's book about Ronja, the daughter of a bandit chief. She grows up in a castle with her father's clan in early-Medieval Scandinavia. When old enough, she explores the forest, encountering both wonders and dangerous mystical creatures. Her life shifts when she meets Birk, the son of a rival chief.

Quick Facts

Genre: Fantasy, drama

Facts from the source article.

Production

This television series, rendered in cel-shaded animation, adapts Astrid Lindgren’s novel Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter. The production involved Polygon Pictures, Studio Ghibli, NHK Enterprises, and Dwango. Goro Miyazaki directed and storyboarded the show, while Hiroyuki Kawasaki managed series composition and wrote the scripts. Character designs came from Katsuya Kondō, Toshio Suzuki created the title logo, and Satoshi Takebe handled the music.

Miyazaki described the narrative as one of love, growth, and the connections between parents, children, and friends, aiming it at all ages. For the ending theme, Kazuyoshi Saito wrote, produced, and played all instruments on “Player,” performed by Mari Natsuki. This marked Studio Ghibli’s first television series. Serious Lunch, a UK distributor, secured worldwide rights outside Japan and Scandinavia, promoting the show to English-language broadcasters at the 2015 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Amazon began streaming it on Amazon Prime on January 27, 2017. GKIDS released the series in the United States on August 20, 2019, through Shout! Factory. Additional licenses went to UYoung Media in China and PTS in Taiwan.

Gillian Anderson narrated the English dub. The BBC also produced a Scottish Gaelic version, “Ronia, Nighean a' Mhèirlich,” which aired on BBC Alba and appeared on iPlayer in 2022 and 2023.

Reception

Critical reception was mostly positive, with praise from The Guardian, Collider, The Daily Dot, Slate, iDigitalTimes, Starburst, and Mir Fantastiki, among others. Negative reviews came from Swedish journalist Yukiko Duke, The Onion's The A.V. Club, and Polygon. The series was commended for its visual beauty and faithfulness to the original novel, but criticized for slow pacing. It won the Asian Television Award for Best 2D Animated Programme in 2015 and the International Emmy Award for Kids: Animation in 2016.