This one sneaks up on you. It opens with a kid whose father sailed off on a yacht ten years ago and never came back, whose mother is designing hats in Paris, and whose dog Papi just died under a car, and then it asks you to laugh. And you do, because Spank shows up: a scruffy white mutt with a face that runs through six emotions a second, mugging and scheming and generally refusing to let Aiko Morimura sit in her own sadness. Sixty-three episodes of almost nothing happening, life at the Fujinami house, school, the small daily indignities of being the shortest girl in your grade, and it works because 1981 shoujo TV knew that grief is mostly just Tuesday with a hole in it. There's no spectacle here, no arc to speed-run, just a girl who has lost too much learning to smile at a dog. Watch it slow. It rewards patience, and it will get you when you are not braced for it.

Aiko Morimura is a junior high school student, small for her age, whose life has been heavy with loss. Her father went out on a yacht ten years ago and has not been heard from since. Her mother, a hat designer, has left for Paris and placed Aiko with her uncle, Mr. Fujinami. Then her pet dog Papi is killed in a car accident. At about the same time, a new dog named Spank turns up. He is friendly and funny, makes friends easily and loves to communicate with those around him, and his company slowly brings brightness and smiles back into Aiko's life. The result is a warm slice of life comedy, adapted from a shoujo manga that ran in Nakayoshi.