xnader - 2017-02-07 10:23:52

91/100

One of the most ambitious anime series I have ever seen. This series takes 6 famous old, Japanese stories and animates them, each with a different director. Each story is extremely complex, dark, and thought-provoking. The atmosphere that are created in each story is brilliant, and reaches a quality which is hard to find in many anime. There are 6 different stories in total:

“No Longer Human” - Episodes 1-4
“In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom” - Episodes 5-6
“Kokoro” - Episodes 7-8
“Run, Melos!” - Episodes 9-10
“The Spider’s Thread” - Episode 11
“Hell Screen” - Episode 12

The episodes however do range in quality, from very, very good to stone-cold masterpiece. Here is my score for each of them:

“No Longer Human” - 91/100
“In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom” - 81/100
“Kokoro” - 88/100
“Run, Melos!” - 96/100
“The Spider’s Thread” - 94/100
“Hell Screen” - 93/100

If anything, just watch “Run, Melos!” because I think it’s one of the all-time best anime works ever produced.

carol14 - 2016-01-31 17:36:21

This show is an anime adaptation of six literary classics in Japan. Each of the works highlights the complex nature of the human mind and explores thoughts and feelings. The show as a whole is probably among the best in terms of psychological anime out there. Each story is around 1-2 episodes except the first one which is 4 but most of manages to convey the core message exceptionally well with some exceptions. 
The first story being adapted is No Longer Human and this is the only one that gets 4 episodes. This is also the most well made and well developed in my opinion. The story focuses on the troubled mind of a congressmans son and his twisted perception of society. The story is dark and gloomy as the congressmans son is slowly being crushed under his own ego. Each episode is deeply laden with sadness that makes the heart grieve, but also hope. All in all the anime really makes you understand why No Longer Human is the most read literary work in Japan. 
Story number 2 is Under Cherries in Full Bloom which is supposed to be about how people need to speak their mind to live a peaceful life. The artstyle and awkward use of humour makes this story the least well adapted in my opinion though. The lightheartedness of the story also feels out of place after watching No Longer Human. 
Story number 3 is Kokoro which is a bittersweet story of love, lust, friendship, trust and jealousy. You will deeply feel the characters emotion as you watch this story. The author of the story is called the "Charles Dickens of Japan" which might give an idea of what the story is. 
Story number 4 is Run, Melos! and is probably the most straightforward story in the anime. it centers around the quote “Is it more painful to wait, or to make someone wait?" and is about a playwright waiting for a friend to come and meet him. 
Story number 5 is The Spiders Thread is probably the story with the most action. It is supposed to be a moral story told to children but the with the anime being aimed at a mature audience makes the story have in my opinion unnecessary gore and violence. It just being one episode makes the story feel a little basic but the animation was pretty nice to look at. 
Finally story number six is Hell Screen and after No Longer Human this was probably my favourite of them all. The story is about an artist working for the king that can only paint what he sees. One day the king tasks him to paint Hell which makes the painter have to recreate scens of Hell in real life for him to be able to paint it. It is pretty gruesome and manages to get its point accros perfectly in just one episode. 
Overall this was a dark and complex anime that I greatly enjoyed. It is not for everyone but I recommend it to people who love psychological and dark shows. And also to people who love to read and might want to see really good adaptations of literary work. Each story is bound to have a different impact on the viewer but I am confident to write that in terms of animation and sound this anime brings out the best of the classic literary works it is based on. Some stories work better than others but overall this was a must watch at least for me. 

uhartmann - 2015-11-01 16:12:26

 Aoi Bungaku Series aka Blue Literature Series is one of the first anime I saw, which can be considered strange since most new anime viewers go for the simple shounen types of anime, that have a straight forward plot and maybe some moral stuff that can be ignored completely. 

I have always been a fan of psychological stuff, from movies to tv series, I've tried to see them all, some were amazing some were utter disappointments. So when I started watching anime I decided to check out how the Japanese do with the psychological themes, boy was it a nice experience with this one. ABS is based on 6 classical Japanese literature's, each of them highlighting the complex and fickle nature of the human mind. 

The first arc is the longest being 4 episodes, the other 5 are all 2 episodes and non of the are connected in any way, so it can be considered as 6 different anime. You may prefer some arcs over others, but they all send a message that the world and its society is one cruel place full of violence, madness and betrayal or you can put it as being overpowered by those with authority. To understand the story you might need some thinking, think outside the box as one might say. The messages it tries to send are dark and you can't expect the characters to have a happy end. 

The animation is one of the best I have seen, production value is high. The look of the anime adds to the atmosphere and makes the show really creepy, the first arc No Longer Human utilizes this to perfection and is a prime example how something should be animated. Also the characters were designed by 3 famous manga artists Takeshi Obata (Death Note and Bakuman), Tite Kubo (Bleach) and Takeshi Konomi (Prince of Tennis).

Sound was great. The soundtrack fits certain parts like it should, it doesn't have an OP and the ED was good, nothing spectacular. The anime doesn't have an English cast, probably never will, so since I am not a Japanese speaker I can't say anything about the Japanese dubs. Although I will mention that Masato Sakai does do the emotions really good for the characters he plays. 

Overall this is something that sheds new light on the term psychological and is a worthy contribution to the anime scene. It won't please everyone, as its meant for a smaller audience, so don't expect something like Naruto or Bleach from this. Morbid and depressing, its not for the faint of heart, with some of the best animation, also a great insight in Japanese Imperial history and the worlds cruelty in general. While each arc is different, they keep a consistent feeling of intensity on the viewer. Not to mention it's done by the highly famous studio Madhouse. 

If you want to see something with a psychological take, but different from something you are already used to in anime, this is the show you SHOULD watch, not very known but it deserves all of the praise and is one of Madhouse's best works to date.

harry.hauck - 2014-12-26 20:45:12

Disclaimer- I have not read any of the books this anime is based off of, so I approached this review and this anime assuming they followed the original stories very closely.
Summary-

   My attraction to this anime began with the cover art.  It looked very similar to the art style for Death Note (an anime which I highly appreciate) and I thought that, if nothing else, this anime would have an art style that I could appreciate more than other animes.  What I was greeted with was a masterpiece that far surpassed my expectations.  One I would recommend to anyone willing to view something with a little more depth.

Story-

   I had no idea what to expect going into this anime.  I thought it would be one story over 12 episodes, only to find out that it is six different stories.  Each story was very interesting and portrayed in a way that made them easy to follow.  Older novels like these tend to bore me, but whether due to age or animation, I found them thoroughly enjoyable.  My favorite two stories were No Longer Human (eps 1 -4), Run Melos (eps 9-10) and Hell Screen (ep 12).  Because of how this show is made, these sections can be watched individually without any background.  They were very gripping and I am strongly considering adding Dazai's works to my list of books to read.

Animation & Sound-

    Each of the six stories has a different animation style, adding to the complexity of this rating.  Each is well done, but some are more unique and innovative than others.  Run, Melos stands out as my favorite section with respect to animation.  It has a fantastic scene where as the tension increases and the viewers blood is pumping the characters literally come out of the pages of the book and begin battling, the desk being the backdrop.  Kokoro has a very interesting character design, K, where I felt they did an excellent job of showing his largeness, going even as far as to slant his eyes, making him look like an ogre.  To add to this, the key animators for the show were famous persons such as Tite Kubo (Bleach) and Takeshi Obata (Rurouni Kenshin).  There were a few audio tracks that were placed at the right time and fit the scenery very well, earning it a high ranking for me.

Character-

    There isn't much I can say about each individual character, there are too many.  In each section the characters fit their purposes very well, but no anime was long enough to give proper character development

Enjoyment-

    The only thing stopping me from giving this section a perfect score is that at some points in the anime the story did seem to drag.  I am a personal fan of excess in anime, and while this show did manage to have a few scenes that showed what anime can do in this regard, there wasn't enough to counter the scenes that dragged for me.

wwill - 2013-12-16 01:21:30

Aoi Bungaku Series, in short, is a series a of Japanese literature adaptions that have had at least some key influences on future literary works in not only Japan, but the rest of the world. This won't be a review done in the more structured sense where I take my time to talk about each aspect of the show, but rather it'll be a review where I talk about each of the adapted stories, then make an overall impression on the show.

First off, we have No Longer Human, originally written by Osamu Dazai and takes up episodes 1 through 4. No Longer Human follows the story of a high schooler who lost his vision of life and starts to slowly destroy himself by doing drugs, becoming an alcoholic, attempting suicide, and things of that nature. This is one of those stories where you want the protagonist to succeed, but you know that he probably won't. No Longer Human does a great job of showing off the more depressing side of human life, with one of the biggest key points being betrayal. I would have to go out of my way and say that No Longer Human is the best adaption from Aoi Bungaku Series as its the most fleshed out one and it doesn't feel like it was rushed.

Next, there's In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom, originally written by Ango Sakaguchi and takes up episodes 5 and 6. It's pretty funny, actually. Not the story, but rather that I found this adaption to be the worst one from Aoi Bungaku and that it comes after what I thought to be the best adaption in No Longer Human. Anyways, Sakaguchi's story revolves around a bandit meeting this woman, whom he abducts, and their "romantic" relationship from then on. If you told me to describe this story in three words, I would tell you that it was "Boring and forgettable." There was literally nothing about In the Forest that made it worth talking about. It felt like the plot was everywhere and that some of the events taking place, such as our lovely head collecting spree, just felt like they were placed there just for the hell of it. This certain adaption looked extremely pretty, but it feels like it would be better for you to just read the actual literary work for this rather than spend around 42 minutes on it.

After our disappointment, we're put back on the tracks with Natsume Soseki's Kokoro, which takes up episodes 7 and 8. Kokoro shows the friendship between two seemingly different, but actually very similar, men and their fight against loneliness. The really interesting thing about Kokoro was that Madhouse decided to animate both sides of the story, which was not actually included in the original novel. The adaption and original story both show off the style of writing Soseki did with his novels, isolation, perfectly. The pacing felt slightly off with this work, but overall it was a very well done adaption.

Following Kokoro comes Run, Melos!, another story originally written by Osamu Dazai, taking up episodes 9 and 10. Run, Melos! is a retelling of a Greek tale regarding the concept of trust between two close friends. The question to start off the adaption really gets this point across, with the question being "Is it painful to be the person who waits? Or is it more painful to be the person who makes others wait?" The story shows off not only the Run, Melos! tale going on, but also a tale between two friends who were both going to move to Tokyo together before one of them left the other behind. I can say that this easily rivals No Longer Human as being the best adaption in Aoi Bungaku. Not only does it present its theme in an extremely unique way, it also gives the entirety of Aoi Bungaku a change of pace compared to the past three works.. It is an extremely heartwarming tale and just shows off more of Osamu Dazai's genius by showing a completely different style of writing from Dazai's end in this adaption.

The final two stories are, in a sense, connected with each other, which makes sense seeing as they come from the same author, Ryunosuke Akutagawa. The first story is The Spider's Thread, which is a story about a man who has murdered many people and is executed for it. It's interesting in the sense that it vaguely shows off the regret of the murderer as he's placed in hell for what he has done. However, it did feel like it was on the weaker side, even when the hell scene came on. Finally, we have Hell Screen, a story about a painter who is hired by the same emperor in The Spider's Thread to paint a scene of Japan for him. I felt like this story showed off a better interpretation of the emperor's tyrannical ways. What really made this adaption worth it was the last scene when the painter wants to paint a picture of a human being burned by the infernos from hell. The music that accompanied that very scene really made the story worth it, though to be fair, the rest of Hell Screen was also extremely well done, showing off someone making a sacrifice to show off what he truly believes in. Also, before I'm asked, the reason why I believe these two stories are connected is because the protagonist in Hell Screen is shown at the end of The Spider's Thread and because the fucking emperor is still there.

Overall, the stories that took place in Aoi Bungaku Series were great with the exception of In the Forest. The guys over at Madhouse made sure they did justice to all of these novels by showing off that the reason they were evergreen. The man at the start of each episode also gives some great insight on how the story was written in the first place, as well as the story of the author's path into writing each work. I would recommend this to people looking for a more depressing anime, as well as to anyone who is into Japanese literature. I would also recommend that you give some of these adaptions source material's a read.

rae80 - 2013-08-27 12:00:50

Where do I start with this one?This anime is a hidden gem,close to a masterpiece.You have a collection of 6 stories told in 12 episodes,the first one being the longest,and probably most depressing.You also get a weird story with the character designs by Tite Kubo and while the message was brilliant the storytelling was just weird.Basically what I learned after watching this anime is that the universe doesn't give a damn about you

Story 9/10

You might like some arcs more than others but they are all enjoyable and have a deep meaning,heck the 3rd one was my favorite,I don't think I've ever seen the difference of perspectives portrayed so well before

Animation 10/10

Beautiful animation and character designs,if you think the mc from the first story looks like Light Yagami you're right.It's made by the same guy

Sound 9/10

Each arc has their one different tracks,some really creepy to fit the mood

Character 9/10

All the characters are interesting and you get a lot of them with these 6 arcs

Enjoyment 10/10

I really enjoyed this I wasn't bored for a second

Overall 9/10

I really recommend it if you're in the mood for a dark depressing anime