Comic Book / Anne: An Adaptation

Orphan and foster child Anne Shirley is an unexpected addition to the household of Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, who live in the Avon-Lea apartment building with many others; they don't expect her, but after Marilla hears of Anne's past, they can't bear to send her back. Through her many misadventures in the half a year they spend together — where Anne forms a friendship with Diana Barry and foeship with Gilbert Blythe — the Cuthberts learn to love her, and she learns to love them and someone else in her life too.

Compare Anne of West Philly for another modern comic book retelling (that has a Race Lift) and Anne Of Green Gables 2017 (which tells the original story in an abridged form).

Anne: An Adaptation contains examples of:

• Adaptation Deviation:
  • Avonlea, rather than being a town, is the apartment building Anne and the Cuthberts (and many others) live in, called Avon-Lea. Many of the main characters live there, on different floors.
  • Since Matthew is the handyman at the Avon-Lea apartment building rather than a farmer, he does gardening of the flower bed outside in a nod to their farm.
  • Anne's interest is in zines for her writing expression rather than short stories.
  • Anne hits Gilbert over the head with a whiteboard instead of a slate for pulling her hair.
  • Anne, instead of nearly drowning while reenacting The Lady of Shalott, nearly drowns while walking across rocks in the ravine to go meet up with Diana in their secret grotto; she's still saved by Gilbert passing by. She later falls off a third-story balcony walking on the edge as a dare during Josie's birthday party (instead of at a tea) instead of a roof, but still breaks her ankle. It's Matthew and Marilla that take her to the hospital.
• Adaptational Diversity: Along with Anne and Diana being queer as well as a gay-friendly store called Blair's, the Avon-Lea apartments and Anne's middle school are diverse with many minor characters (like Josie and Ruby) and background students as people of color. Ms. Allen introduces herself with her pronouns, and one of the students, Charlie, uses they/them pronouns.
• Adaptational Gender Identity: Charlie Sloane introduces themselves by saying they use they/them pronouns.
• Adaptational Hairstyle Change: Marilla is portrayed with very short brown hair with a grey streak, instead of long hair she keeps pinned up.
• Adaptational Job Change:
  • Rather than a farmer and keeping house, Matthew is the handyman of the Avon-Lea and Marilla is an accountant.
  • Ms. Allen (instead of Allan) is the teacher who runs the Zine club instead of a minister's wife.
  • Anne's first teacher Mr. Phillips is now Ms. Phillips, the principal of the school.
  • Diana's Aunt Josephine is a famous wealthy artist.
• Adaptational Romance Downgrade: Gilbert and Anne do not have a romantic relationship — both because he's a jerk that Anne takes a long time to forgive, and because Anne falls for someone else.
• Adaptational Sexuality: Anne likes girls and realizes this when she hears that Diana was asked to the winter dance by Moody and talks about it with Marilla who tells her plainly that girls can ask girls out too. Diana is also queer, and she comes out to her and says she likes Anne after Anne falls off the balcony and breaks her ankle. They attend the middle school dance together as a couple.
• Adaptational Timespan Change: From five years in the original down to about half a year here.
• Adapted Out: Many of Anne's more minor classmates are not included.
• Age Lift: Minor, but Anne is twelve instead of eleven.
• The Alleged Computer: The database server social worker Alexandra Spencer uses to keep details on foster placements keeps crashing and losing data. This is how the Cuthberts ended up with Anne instead of a younger child, as their information requesting a much younger child was voided.
• Berserk Button: When Rachel Lynde calls Anne skinny and awkward looking and says things about her red hair and freckles, Anne explodes at her, calling her a bloated old hag before storming off with tears in her eyes.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Anne sees a beautiful pink dress in a thrift store window when she and Marilla are getting her some new clothes to wear. It's much too big for her though at twelve, so instead she gets a nice button-down shirt. She wears the shirt when out at the theatre with Diana's Aunt Josephine, and the dress is gifted to her at the end (altered to fit her) for her to wear to the winter dance.
  • One of the zines Anne trades for is about coming out, which makes her reconsider telling Diana how she feels. Diana comes out to her first.
• Compressed Adaptation: The book takes place over the course of half a year — part of the summer and the first semester of school — instead of over five.
• Demoted to Extra: Jane and Charlie are downgraded to additional students in the Zine club, though Jane also attends Josie's thirteenth birthday party.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Anne has to cut her hair after she and Diana fail to dye it black. Unlike the original novel where this is intended to be a shameful thing, she's complimented on it and it's part of her queer awakening.
• Foreshadowing: Marilla hears from the social worker that placed Anne with them, Alexandra Spencer, that Anne is a sensitive kid (especially about her looks) and she lashes out in anger when scared or hurt; doing so resulted in her being removed from one home placement. The next chapter has Anne blow up the same way when Rachel Lynch says she's skinny and awkward and makes fun of her red hair and freckles.
• Framing Device: Each chapter starts with drawings and doodles from Anne's diary; she's introduced writing in it hoping to eventually get a stable home. She starts off drawing on lined paper with a ballpoint pen (as she doesn't have anything better) before she's given a unlined one by Marilla as a gift.
• Gender Flip: Mr. Phillips is now Ms. Phillips, the principal of the school and black.
• Girlish Pigtails: Anne wears these and is an active, young girl that the Cuthberts didn't expect the exuberance of. (This is partially because the original Anne wore pigtails.) She has them until she has to have her hair cut from a bad dye job, but unlike the original, she's not shamed for having short hair and it's made part of her queer awakening.
• Hair Color Angst: Like the original, Anne hates her red hair and thinks she'd look better with another color.
• Imagine Spot: Anne has one about how much more pretty she'll be with black hair before she and Diana dye it, with disastrous results.
• Interclass Friendship: Anne is an orphaned foster kid who's been bounced from home to home, while Diana is the daughter of Marilla's boss and her and her family live in the penthouse. It later upgrades to the start of a relationship.
• My Hair Came Out Green: Anne and Diana attempt to dye Anne's hair black with leftover dye gifted to Anne by Josie her older sister Trudy used. It ends up a muddy moss green and after Marilla can't book an appointment with her hairdresser to fix it, Anne has her cut it all off.
• My Nayme Is: Anne is clear at her arrival that her name is spelled with an E at the end.
• Parental Abandonment: Anne's parents died when she was a baby so she remembers nothing of them.
• Race Lift:
  • Ruby Gills is changed from white to black, as is the also-now-female Mrs. Phillips.
  • Josie is now Ambiguously Brown (as are Moody and Jane).
• Rage Breaking Point: Gilbert Blythe starts picking on Anne her first day of school by scribbling over her work in her sketchbook. He mocks her poor math skills and steals her pencil sharpener as a joke (which stresses Anne out as she doesn't want the Cuthberts to think she's irresponsible with things they give her), and she tells him to leave her alone and stop touching her stuff each time. When he keeps pulling her pigtails during a math quiz she's struggling with, she finally snaps and hits him over the head with the whiteboard she's using.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Anne gives one to Gilbert while they're waiting to speak to the principal after Anne hit him over the head with a whiteboard, after Gilbert tries to play his teasing off as jokes and says she can't take one. She lets him know pulling her hair hurt and that he'll be forgiven by his parents and the school, but foster kids get a bad rap from the start and get judged just for being so — and while he'll get to go home to his parents regardless, she's fearful that she's going to be kicked out of the Cuthberts' home for acting out and it's the best place she's ever stayed. It makes him go silent, and then he confesses to Ms. Phillips that it was his fault for goading Anne into hitting him and he should be punished more.
• Setting Update: The book is moved to the modern era and from the fictional Avonlea on Prince Edward Island to an apartment building in an unstated city in Canada.
• Shout-Out: The play Anne and Diana attend with Aunt Josephine is an Alternate Show Interpretation of A Midsummer Night's Dream that moves the setting to winter.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Matthew does not die by the end of the book. He doesn't even have a heart attack.
• The Stations of the Canon: Many of the major events of the original Anne of Green Gables are hit, with some updated for the modern setting. However, Anne's incidents with Marilla's misplaced brooch and accidentally getting Diana drunk (and her younger sister Minnie getting sick) are all left out entirely.
• Unadoptable Orphan: Anne opens the book lamenting that she's been through multiple foster homes — fifteen in total — and hopes for a permanent home. She's also not expected by the Cuthberts, as they expected someone much younger (shown by Mathhew's car having a child's car seat in the back). One of her failed homes was because she had an anger incident with her caregiver treating her badly and she exploded at them. She gets one with the Cuthberts by the end, who realize just how much they want to keep her after she falls from the balcony, and tell her before the dance that in the new year they'll start the process to formally adopt her.