The Answer Studio’s Anne Shirley anime is a visually driven adaptation of L.M. Montgomery’s classic Canadian novel series released in the competitive Spring 2025 anime season. The first episode of Anne Shirley follows in the footsteps of the beloved 50-episode Anne Shirley anime from 1979, and the second episode sends a positive signal as a strong follow-up to a great premiere.
Anne Shirley Episode 2 — «I Love Pretty Things» — celebrates inspirational themes core to the original novel in a brand-new light. The second episode delivers on everything fans loved about the first episode without losing any momentum. Fans’ expectations are high for this adaptation of such a beloved novel, and Anne Shirley Episode 2 proves just as charming and true to its source material as the premiere.
Anne Shirley Episode 2 Follows Up on Themes Introduced in the Premiere
Anne Is a Child Desperate to Find the Place Where She Belongs
Anne’s plucky and eccentric nature quickly charms Matthew Cuthbert in the first episode, «It’s Such an Interesting World.» Matthew and his sister, Marilla, may have anticipated adopting a boy who would help work on the farm in Green Gables with them, but thankfully for Anne, they’re quick to adapt to the idea of adopting a little girl and giving her a loving home to thrive in. While it’s fairly obvious to the audience that even reserved Marilla wouldn’t give up a child simply because she’s a girl, Anne’s not so sure.
The first episode ends with Anne sleeping her first night at Green Gables, afraid to hope that she would be able to call such a heavenly place her home. She stands under a wash of moonlight in the bedroom window and prays fervently to be adopted by the Cuthberts and to have Green Gables be her home. The second episode begins on a melancholy tone that represents Anne’s insecurity about not being allowed to stay. The episode’s tone shifts when Marilla and Matthew tell Anne the good news that she can stay on one condition: Anne must behave like a good and proper young person. This interaction sets Anne on the path to cultivating a sense of belonging throughout Anne Shirley Episode 2.
«I’ll try to be so good! I’ll do my very best! However, it will be uphill work, I expect.» — Anne Shirley
Anne Struggles With Her Sense of Belonging in Anne Shirley Episode 2
Marilla's Coldness Presents a Major Obstacle for Anne
Though Anne bonds with Matthew right away, Matthew doesn’t make any major decisions without his sister, Marilla. Matthew believes it’s proper to defer to Marilla on decisions about Anne’s care since she’s responsible for raising her while he does most of the manual labor around Green Gables. It’s only natural for a child to want to find a home, and to a certain extent, Marilla understands this. Still, Marilla is a pragmatist to her core, and it’s not until she’s around Anne that she starts to remember some of the finer parts of a child’s experience.
One of the two major themes in the beginning of the Anne of Green Gables novel, and in the anime’s second episode, is the pursuit of community and belonging. She doesn’t just want a roof over her head; she wants to feel like she belongs somewhere and to someone. Belonging is critical for Anne as a child who is highly cognizant of how much she’s been tossed from home to home. Because of this instability, Anne is stuck on the idea that she’ll only be kept if she can be «good» enough in Marilla’s eyes. Anne also requests to call Marilla by a family endearment, like Aunt Marilla, because she wants to feel like she belongs to Marilla, specifically. Anne seeks the unconditional love and safety that any child craves. Marilla resists this idea, failing to truly understand Anne’s needs.
Anne continues struggling to conform to expectations when Marilla introduces Anne to Mrs. Lynde in Anne Shirley Episode 2. Mrs. Lynde wastes no time in running roughshod over Anne’s insecurities, speculating aloud over Anne’s supposedly unfortunate looks and red hair. Predictably, Anne loses her temper and hollers at Mrs. Lynde with every ounce of force in her tiny being. This is the first opportunity for Marilla to discipline Anne, and also her first time sticking up for Anne to someone who she likes and sees every day. Ultimately, Marilla, Anne, and Mrs. Lynde handle the conflict very well, a feat that strengthens her relationship with Marilla as well as her self-confidence.
Marilla & Anne Grow Much Closer in Anne Shirley Episode 2
Marilla & Anne Share a Surprising Amount of Personality Traits in Common
It’s easy to set the stage for how charmed Matthew is by Anne. Anne and Matthew have a very sweet dynamic that’s immediately apparent, and the second episode takes the time to set up Marilla and Anne’s relationship by starting to highlight how similar Marilla and Anne are. They are both strong-minded ladies, and Anne Shirley Episode 2 is a delightful vignette of their first clash of wills as Marilla and Anne learn how to be a family together as Marilla navigates how to raise such an extraordinary and sensitive young girl.
Anne never gets anything past the astute and conscientious Marilla. Marilla may not be able to predict Anne, with her big emotions and streaks of creativity, but she can certainly read the girl like a book. Midway through the episode, Marilla is mortified to hear Anne went to church with her hat covered in wildflowers. She lectures Anne, who tearfully tells Marilla that she worries that she should be sent back to the orphans’ asylum because she can’t help but disappoint her.
Anne is no doubt being dramatic, but so is Marilla in the scene as she broods over her neighbors’ benign gossip over a hat full of wildflowers. Nevertheless, Marilla and Anne’s mutual bout of dramatics resolves in another beautiful moment where Marilla healthily dissolves the issue by reassuring Anne in no uncertain terms that everything is alright, firmly informing her that Green Gables will always be her home, echoing language that Anne had used herself earlier in the episode when she had asked to call her «aunt.»
«This is your home. You belong to Green Gables.» — Marilla
Anne Feels Like She Really Belongs After Making a Bosom Friend
Diana Barry Goes From Being Anne's Neighbor to Her Closest Friend
In the Anne of Green Gables novel, there’s a sad scene where Anne wishes so fervently for a friend in her pain and loneliness in the orphans’ asylum that she pretends her reflection in a window is her best friend named Katie Maurice. After Marilla and Anne find their footing, Marilla suggests that Anne meet the neighbor’s daughter, Diana Barry. After finding herself a home and a family, Anne’s next challenge becomes making a «bosom friend» in Anne Shirley Episode 2.
A bosom friend is a best friend who understands her heart and soul, with whom she shares secrets and dreams. Every child longs for friendship, especially best friendship, and Anne’s flair for the dramatic is both silly and relatable, as many understand her strong feelings about the importance of best friends, even if they wouldn’t use language as poetic as hers to describe the concept. This theme of friendship and Diana Barry’s part of the story is only just the very start, as friendship is one of the major themes in Anne of Green Gables.
Episode Two Is a Darling Continuation of How Wonderful Episode One Was
The Answer Studio Balances Artistic License with Loyalty to the Source Material
Anne Shirley Episode 2 is an excellent follow-up to the well-received first episode, which balances a neat storytelling pace that kept true to the events of the Anne of Green Gables novel without feeling rushed. The tone of Anne’s story matches Anne’s feelings, but it isn’t dictated by them, giving the audience some distance from her feelings but enough closeness to empathize with her ups and downs. The Anne Shirley anime team’s creative choices are charming and true to the spirit of L.M. Montgomery’s characters, setting, and story arcs.
The nonverbal storytelling established in the first episode continues in «I Love Pretty Things,» from the affable and clumsy way Matthew sneaks up to Anne’s room to check on her while she’s grounded for yelling at Mrs. Lynde to Marilla’s comical look of abject horror when Anne says that she wishes her Sunday school dress was more fashionable. Anne Shirley also does an effective job of checking in with the characters who aren’t the protagonist, like showing the little heart-to-hearts between Marilla and Matthew at the kitchen table after the workday is finished, including their discussions about Anne.
Anne Shirley‘s anime episodes are only a little over 20 minutes long, and yet there’s so much character work and storytelling events in both episodes thus far. Nothing feels rushed, and the characters’ personalities feel as if they are unfolding in a natural way. The animators and series writers even make time for small and beautiful, easily overlooked little moments in the Anne of Green Gables novel, like when Anne and Diana use books and candles to send Morse code messages to each other from their bedroom windows at night. With no signs of slowing down, the next Anne Shirley episode promises to deliver the same mix of childlike joy and sentimentality that fans have loved so much about the first two episodes.
