The Anime That Connects Two Of Agatha Christie's Greatest Detectives

In the eyes of many, anime is nothing but shonen shows — stories about guys with spiky hair and superpowers that fight with the power of friendship. And yet, the medium is also filled with adaptations of literary classics. Even if the U.S. didn't really care about anime until "Dragon Ball," "Sailor Moon," and then "Pokémon" premiered in the '90s, international fans — especially in Latin America — know anime best thanks to "World Masterpiece Theater."

This was a TV show produced and distributed by Fuji TV that would adapt a different classical book or story each year, airing first from 1969 to 1997 and then getting a revival from 2007 to 2009. It was through "World Masterpiece Theater" that Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata got their start in animation, with shows like "Anne of Green Gables," "Heidi, Girl of the Alps," and "Marco, 3000 Leagues in Search for Mother." These were hugely popular shows and also a rather cool way of experiencing these literary works — other adaptations include "Les Misérables: Little Girl Cosette," and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer."

Even outside of "World Masterpiece Theater" Western literature has served as the source material for plenty of anime. There are extremely loose adaptations that make for some remarkably creative shows like "Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo" bringing Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of revenge to the year 5053, and also there are some surprisingly faithful adaptations of unusual novels — like "Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple."

That's right, Poirot and Marple, as in Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, the two famed detectives from Agatha Christie novels, together at last — and way before Kenneth Branagh even thought about attempting it in live-action. If you ever wanted to see the great mustache himself solve crimes with the spinster detective in animated form, this is the show for you.

From director Naohito Takahashi, who also did the fantastic and super dark 1997 "Berserk" adaptation, "Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple" was made by Oriental Light and Magic company in 2004 and broadcast on NHK. Though in the books, Poirot and Miss Marple never actually meet, but the anime imagines that they share in some cases thanks to their common link — an original character named Mabel West. West is Jane Marple's great-niece, who starts working as Poirot's new assistant (and is always accompanied by her pet duck). Even with the addition of that character, and some smaller changes in a few episodes (mostly related to changing the stories' settings to the 1930s) the anime is surprisingly faithful to Christie's work.

Anime is filled with great detective mystery shows, and even if (sadly) "Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple" isn't available to stream legally, there are other shows with the same vibe. There is "Moriarty the Patriot" which reimagines Moriarty as a hero of the common folk fighting the upper class, or "Apothecary Diaries," a fantastic medieval China-set mystery show, or the more recent "House" inspired anime "Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective."