After a while I found out that Yen Press had licensed the original novels (named Book Girl) and that the first 2 novels were released already. I finished the first novel a while ago and I'm currently reading the second one. I'm really loving the novels up until now. A few days ago I asked myself "If I love the novels this much, why didn't I enjoy the movie as much as the novels?"
That's why, after 8-9 months, I decided to re-watch the Bungaku Shoujo film and I can tell you that I enjoyed the movie a LOT more. It was way less confusing and it was fun to see and hear the characters you've met while reading the original source material.
Bungaku Shoujo The Movie adapts the fifth novel in the series. Don't be scared off by this; it also adapts the beginning of the first novel and apparently also the last novel's end. I can't confirm this though, since I haven't read it.
Bungaku Shoujo’s story and plot development is great. I won’t give you a summary, you can find that at the top of the page and I won’t discuss the story either since I don’t want to spoil you for this amazing movie. All I will tell you is that you will be surprised by its developments and that the references to original Japanese literary works work out great in this film. You will have to pay attention or you are bound to get confused.
The film’s art and animation is beautiful; the skies look realistic and are absolutely stunning, the backgrounds are vivid and they feel photorealistic. The character designs are simple, but they’re good enough to distinguish the characters and they fit their personalities perfectly. The overall animation quality is great; it’s fluent and doesn’t have any inconsistencies. The camera angles in tense situations are perfect, it really helps building the atmosphere. I can say that Production IG put a lot of effort into making Bungaku Shoujo pure eye candy.
But we definitely mustn’t forget the sound. Bungaku Shoujo features an all-star seiyuu cast with amazing performances, especially Aya Hirano. I’m no fanboy of hers, I think she’s a good seiyuu and that’s about it. I’ve only heard her in comedic/not-so-serious roles, but her voice acting in Bungaku Shoujo was exceptional. Voicing a complete nutjob is not easy, but Hirano managed to pull it off. It was amazing and totally refreshing since we don’t hear Hirano’s dramatic voice a lot.
But wait ‘till you hear the film’s score. The music pieces used were just… absolutely beautiful. They helped building the atmosphere at just the right moment. Whenever it was Touko acting silly, or Miu acting creepily, it was amazing. It just got to me.
Bungaku Shoujo has a great variety of characters. There are no stereotypes to be found, almost all of them are great original characters. You can actually sympathize with most of the characters and they’re all likable. Except for Miu then, but she is one of the best characters of this film. She is the focus of the movie and there’s definitely more to her than meets the eye. A large mystery surrounds her, and this movie is dedicated into shedding some light into her dark past.
Miu isn’t really a likable character but she does get the most character development which makes her the best character of this film. You may even be able to sympathize with her. That’s what I did, and I felt incredibly sorry for her throughout the film, even though I hated her for the most part.
Touko is a refreshing character. Even though the title of the film directs to her, she isn’t the main character of this film; Konoha and Miu are. But that doesn’t mean she’s not important. She helps Konoha out multiple times and she always pops up at the right moment. If we didn’t have Touko with her literary knowledge of almost every single book written to date, we wouldn’t have been able to find out Miu’s wish.
Konoha isn’t your typical male harem protagonist. Sure, he might be slightly dense at times, but he does a great job portraying the tragedy of him and Miu throughout the film.
I can honestly say that the characters of this film are beautiful and that they feel… realistic. And I know eating pages of a book isn’t realistic, but not a single action in this film felt… stupid or lame. I could completely understand what everyone did and why.
SUMMARY
I enjoyed Bungaku Shoujo The Movie the first time and I loved it the second time. If you want to fully enjoy the movie, you should read the first 2 light novels (called Book Girl in English) or watch the prequel OVA, 3 episodes in total. You will enjoy and like this movie a lot more if you do so.
Bungaku Shoujo’s presentation is great; amazing art and animation and outstanding voice work by an all-star seiyuu cast with a mind-boggling music score makes this one of the highest quality animated films I’ve watched. The story and characters are original and well thought out in which you can completely sympathize with the anime’s great cast of characters.
Bungaku Shoujo is a must-see for drama fans with a slice of mystery and romance.
STORY = 8
ART/ANIMATION = 9
MUSIC/VOICE ACTING/SFX = 10
CHARACTERS = 9
ENJOYMENT = 9
OVERALL SCORE = (STORYx2 + ART + SOUND + CHARx2 + ENJOYx3)/9 = 8,88889 = 9
Final score for Bungaku Shoujo = 9/10 (MUST WATCH.)
