Princess Sarah

The series is based on Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1905 novel A Little Princess, but the promotional pamphlet actually cited the 1888 edition, whereas the anime is mainly based on the expanded 1905 re-edition of the novel.

The story's setting was placed about 20 years earlier than the original novel, making it closer to Burnett's earlier 1887-1888 short story 'Sara Crewe, or What Happened at Miss Minchin's' rather than the full 1905 novel.

While the novel spans about seven years starting when Sara enters school at age 7, the anime compresses the story into about one year, starting when she is 10, and shows her becoming an orphaned servant much earlier in the narrative (episode 11 out of 46, versus chapter 7 of 19 in the book).

Several plot additions not found in the novel, such as the strong emphasis on bullying, a poor street boy among Sara's friends, Sara being cured of a serious illness by her friends, her expulsion from the school, and her eventual forgiveness of Lavinia after donating money, were already present in a 1978 anime adaptation of the same novel featured in the anthology series Manga Fairy Tales of the World.

The plot device of Miss Minchin discovering the attic 'magic' and accusing Sara of theft, rather than being from Burnett's novel, was actually introduced earlier in the 1917 film adaptation of A Little Princess and the 1939 film Little Princess with Shirley Temple.

The original character Peter, a street-smart carriage driver boy who becomes one of Sara's closest friends, was created specifically for this anime adaptation and does not exist in the original novel.

This was the first entry in the World Masterpiece Theater series to use an eye-catch (a short transition scene), depicting the doll Emily blinking in a rocking chair by a half-open window; this device continued through episode 12 of the following series, Little Lord Fauntleroy.

The show's ratings rose steadily toward the end of its run, with the final episode reaching 27.8% (Kanto region, Video Research), the second-highest rating ever recorded for a World Masterpiece Theater series.

Within the story, Sara reads Lottie the tale of Cinderella, and the maid Becky compares her own situation to the 'Cinderella' nickname, while Lottie's dreams feature imagery reminiscent of Disney's 1937 Snow White and of Little Red Riding Hood.

The anime was selected by viewers of TV Asahi as one of the 100 best Japanese anime series of all time.

The series inspired a 1995 Filipino live-action film, Sarah... Ang Munting Prinsesa, starring Camille Prats, and a 2007 Filipino television drama adaptation starring Sharlene San Pedro that introduced fantasy elements not present in the source material.

In the Italian dub, many character names were changed—for example Sara Crewe became Sara Morris and Emily the doll became Priscilla—and the French dub, based on the Italian version, also altered several names such as Miss Minchin becoming Mademoiselle Mangin.