The series has been broadcast three years after The World of Hans Christian Andersen (Anderusen Monogatari, 1968), an eponymous and thematically similar feature film produced by Toei Animation.

The film and the series also have in common composer Seiichirō Uno, lyricist Hisashi Inoue, screenplay writer Morihisa Yamamoto and voice actress Eiko Masuyama.

The English adaptation by Noel Judd kept the original jazz-rock Japanese musical score, while often altering some character names and dialogues, sometimes in order to change overly sad endings (as in episode 5).

The English adaptation of the series also served as a basis for dubs that aired in other countries outside Japan during the 1980s, such as Italy (in syndication), Germany (Sat.1 and Kabel.1), Catalonia (TV3), Bulgaria (BT1), Mexico (XEQ-TV Canal 9), Greece (ERT and ET3[1]), Turkey (TRT) and in the Middle East (Kuwait Television).

A selection of episodes (in no particular order) was first released in January, as 5 single DVDs: "The Ugly Duckling", "The Little Mermaid", "The Red Shoes", "The Wild Swans" and "The Little Match Girl" along with "The Snow Queen".