Hello everyone!
I thought I would make a little topic dedicated to one of my favorite anime series, Bungaku Shouko!
Bungaku Shoujo was originally a mystery light novel series that got adapted into a film and a 3 episode OVA.
The beginning of the film is quite confusing, which I can imagine would turn some people away. However, things are slowly revealed over time if you’re patient. The confusing beginning could be because the film starts in the middle of the light novel series, haha.
However, don’t be discouraged, as, like I said, things slowly begin to make sense. As an adaptation it definitely isn’t the greatest, however.
Despite it starting in the middle of the light novel series, the characters in the film sometimes act like it’s their first time interacting with each other, even though they had met tons of times before in the context of the previous chapters of the light novels. It’s like the film is inconsistent with what it wants to be. Does it want to act like it’s its own thing, or does it want to act like a continuation of its source material?
For the OVA, it basically just gives some backstory to some of the characters. However, a lot of the content in the OVA was already shown in the film. As a result, it doesn’t really give you much new content that you couldn’t have already figured out yourself.
I also read the first and second volumes of the light novel, although I couldn’t bring myself to read the rest. As a mystery series, it is well… quite confusing at times. Too confusing for me to really be able to continue. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good light novel series, and I can imagine certain people really enjoying it. But for me, personally, the confusing aspects took a lot of the potential enjoyment away. The light novels expect you to know and remember every single one of the character’s names, as it treats you as if you should already be familiar with them, even if it’s their first appearance. That was probably one of my biggest issues with it.
In fact, the first time I tried to read the first volume I was unable to finish it. I actually had to go back and re-watch the film and memorize the character’s names to even have a chance of knowing what was going on, haha.
However, despite my difficulty in understanding a lot of moments (particularly in the second volume), it was shocking to see how much content was cut. The side characters in the film got almost no development, but the first volume alone gave tons of that left-out development to one of those said characters. So much so that I can’t help but to think of that huge amount of cut-content whenever I see them.
In my opinion, I think it would have been great if there was a 25-30 episode series that strictly follows the light novel from beginning to end. Content would have to be cut of course, but they could keep the most important aspects. I would have really loved to see some of that left-out content animated, and I think it would have been very great and successful. I understand that the film might have been a way to get people to read the original novels, but I think a proper episode series would have been a great and reliable alternative to those who prefer things in an animated format.
However, despite my complaints, Bungaku Shoujo is a great stand-alone film that I love more each time I watch it. Each time I get a new experience with the overall story and characters. Although the side characters are not handled in the best way, the main characters are all very interesting in their own ways.
To conclude, I recommend this anime to those who are patient and want something a bit different from the norm.
And to those who have watched/read it, what are your opinions? : D
