One day, Benio has a series of embarrassing encounters with the handsome army lieutenant Shinobu Ijuin (voiced by Katsuji Mori).

Benio encounters Shinobu again when she arrives home that day, and promptly attacks him with her kendo stick, only to receive a shock when her father (voiced by Ichiro Nagai) tells her that Shinobu is to be her husband, due to a pact made between the Hanamura and Ijuin families before Benio's birth.

Moved by this unexpected show of kindness, Benio decides to forget Shinobu and accept Tosei's proposal of marriage.

In the end, Tosei comes to terms with his feelings about his mother and rededicates himself to his business; Onijima returns to Manchuria, Tamaki decides to obey her heart and follow him, and Benio and Shinobu are wed at last.

The anime adaptation of the story, which aired across Japan on the terrestrial TV Asahi network from June 1978 to March 1979, spanned 42 episodes, was directed by Kazuyoshi Yokota (Spaceship Sagittarius, Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics, My Daddy-Long-Legs), and featured character designs by future Ranma 1/2 director Tsutomu Shibayama.

In the final episode, Benio is told that the mysterious Russian count is not Shinobu (Lalissa has a photograph of their wedding day to prove it).

The anime has been discovered by new audiences in the years since thanks to the enduring popularity of the original manga (as well as a live-action movie version of the story released in Japan in 1987).

In 2005, Haikara-san ga Tooru was listed at #95 in a TV Asahi poll of the top 100 animation series of all time, based on a nationwide survey of Japanese of all age groups.

The 2020 performance was Rei Yuzuka's Grand Theater debut as top star of the Flower Troupe; while it was originally scheduled for March 2020, it was delayed and rescheduled due to government COVID-19 restrictions.