Les Misérables

is a Japanese anime series by Nippon Animation, and is the first installment in the famed World Masterpiece Theater series in ten years after Remi, Nobody's Girl. It is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel, Les Misérables, and the fourth anime adaptation of said novel (following two adaptations from the Japanese television program Manga Sekai Mukashi Banashi, and a 1979 TV special produced by Toei Animation).

It premiered across Japan from 7 January 2007 on Fuji TV's BS Fuji broadcast satellite network, and contains 52 episodes. It also aired in Japan on Animax from April 2007.

Plot
Set in 19th century-era France, the series begins with Cosette, a young girl, traveling with her mother Fantine, who is trying to find a job and a place to live, but have always been shunned away due to few employers hiring single mothers. When her mother is promised with the prosperity of working in the big city, Cosette is separated from her in the hopes a caretaker named Thénardier will watch over her while her mother earns some money. Unfortunately, this was a trick and the caretaker is a corrupt man who makes Cosette his indentured servant, or more precisely: his slave. Then, the kind mayor of the town that Cosette makes her new home in - formerly a convict named Jean Valjean - sees how winds of change are so detrimental for children and families, and decides to do something about it, but forces Cosette to go on the run to escape his returning past.