Charles Synyard (@CharlesSynyard)

Red-faced Anne? Anne Shirley and company getting drunk at Fred and Diana’s wedding? You may believe I double-checked Anne of the Island. Aggrieved to confirm, Anne Shirley, the 2025 anime adaptation of the third Anne book by L. M. Montgomery, changes the scene to have everybody drinking wine. Strong drink, and its absence, play a key role in Montgomery’s fiction, not just about Anne Shirley, but also in her tales of the Story Girl, Emily of New Moon, and Pat of Silver Bush. As is well known: when Anne’s bosom friend Diana Barry was younger, she accidentally got drunk on Marilla’s currant wine, mistaking it for raspberry cordial. This is a supreme scandal, and almost separates the two friends for good. Marilla having made the wine for her own use was even frowned upon. Throughout the books, alcohol is conspicuously absent in PEI society. But in Anne Shirley episode 22, it’s conspicuousy present. Everyone drinks, in an era when the Temperance movement was strong and popular. Moody Spurgeon is acting intoxicated. On the way home, walking alone with Anne, Gilbert suggests they take a ramble to sober up, and she remarks that Marilla and Mrs. Lynde would be shocked if she went home with her face all red! This is all made up, as you can see from the page spread that covers all the portrayed events. Searching “drinking”, “drink”, “drunk”, and “wine”, the only time alcohol seems to be mentioned at all in Anne of the Island is when Philippa Gordon suggests Anne take the $10 prize she’s won from a story submission downtown and get drunk, which Anne does not take, and the playful Phil probably did not mean, seriously. So, why the strong drink? Maybe the makers were unaware that “merry-making” is possible without it. So much for giving the viewer an educational window into a very different time and worldview. To her discredit, Rebecca Silverman, a self-claimed Anne of Green Gables lover from her girlhood https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/anne-shirley/episodes-1-2/.223546 and so put in charge of reviewing each episode for Anime News Network, completely missed this big adulteration in her rundown of episode 22 https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/anne-shirley/episode-22/.228770 preferring to speculate on matters of the heart like an inveterate shipper. So no, as passionately as I love everything Anne, can no longer give Anne Shirley a 10/10, Masterpiece rating. To learn about the true searcher of the kindred spirits, read the books by L. M. Montgomery from 1908 on, and see the World Masterpiece Theater anime from 1979. Nb., for my writings on alcohol and drug abuse in two of L. M. Montgomery’s other great works, see below. The Story Girl: https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/110863607582840825 Emily of New Moon: https://gab.com/CharlesSynyard/posts/112587138431533836 #AnneShirley #LucyMaudMontgomery #LMMontgomery #AnneOfTheIsland #wine #alcohol #drinking #drugabuse #Temperance #adaptations #childrensliterature #childrensbooks #literature #books #anime