Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (OVA)

Title: コゼットの肖像, (Kozetto no Shozo)
Animation production: Daume
Episodes: 3
Genres: Horror, psychological, romance
Original Run: April 11, 2004 to Dec 22, 2004
Theme songs:
1. "Main Theme" by Yuki Kajiura
2. "宝石 (Hoseki; Jewel)" by Marina Inoue
Official Site

Plot: Based on the manga by Asuka Katsura, Petit Cossette, is a three episode OVA series follows a young college art student named Eiri Kurahashi who works part time at his uncle's antique shop. One day, he discovers a Venetian wine glass in the shop and every time he touches the glass cup, he sees an image of a young, blond, lolita girl. This makes Eiri become so infatuated with this girl that he ends up wanting to learn more about this mysterious girl which he keeps seeing inside the wine glass. Later, Eiri does make contact with the girl when he discovers a portrait of her painted by a artist named Marchello Orlando. Also, he learns that this girl's name is Cossette and she was murdered 250 years ago during the 18th century. Then, Cossette tells him that if he really loves her, then he should be punished for all the sins that Marcello had done. Which eventually, Eiri discovers that Marchello was the one who killed Cossette. Then Eiri is taken to Cossette's "wine glass world" where he is physically tortured by her. While he is being physically and mentally tormented by her presence, he asks himself this question: what does Marchello's punishment has to do with his love for Cossette?

Review:  This animated series mostly focuses in the artistic visuals than the character development and the story line. Although this is not a bad thing for this anime. It actually tries to be different from the usual animations that are out there.


There isn't much of a character development in this story. There are other characters in this anime besides Cossette and Eiri. However, the side characters aren't really that important to be mentioned here. Throughout the anime, they are mostly worried for their friend Eiri, as he becomes more and more distant from them. His friends has no knowledge of whats really going on with him. And that they suspect that Eiri has a girlfriend and think that this might be the cause for his strange behavior. Other than that, there isn't much to say about these side characters. It seems like the only purpose for these side characters was to show how Eiri has changed from an average Joe to a obsessive love freak.

However, the visual art for this anime is very good. As you watch this anime, you can tell that the animators has put a lot of effort to create such an haunting and surreal environment. The cinematography for this show tries to be creative by showing all possible different camera angles. It even takes its' time to pause at each different trinkets and objects that are around the antique store and other places. There were a lot of quick transitions from scene to scene and it took me a while to absorb the information in that particular moment in order to make sense of this story. Speaking of story, it's pretty much straightforward and there's nothing complex about it. In addition, there's not much depth to be explored in this story however, the visual are very attractive and motivated me to continue to watch as the plot unfolds.

This animation is interesting to watch, if you have an eye for artistic visuals. But if you want to see a solid character development and story line, your not going to get much out of this anime. But other then that, this show is artistically good looking and it grabs you by the heart into a whole new dimension.