is a twelve episode Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series featuring adaptations inspired by six short stories from Japanese literature. The six stories are adapted from classic Japanese tales.

Happinet is an entertainment company. History In February 1968, Hiroshi Kawai left Bandai to establish his own toy business. Kawai founded on June 7, 1969. In September 1972, it changed its name to . Tōshō merged with two other companies, and , to ...

Hakuhodo DY Media Partners is a Japanese advertising and public relations company. It is headquartered at Akasaka Biz Tower in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. History Hakuhodo is one of the oldest advertising agencies in Japan and was founded by Hironao Seki at Nihonbashi-H ...

, McRAY, MTI, Threelight Holdings,

Movic is a Japanese company which specializes in the publication of trading cards, figures, CDs, and other general media related to the anime industry. Movic is a part of the Animate group. Anime involved in *'' Ah! My Goddess: The Movie'': Producti ...

, and Visionare were involved in the production of the series. Character designs were provided by manga artists

Takeshi Obata is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He first gained international attention for '' Hikaru no Go'' (1998–2003) with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for '' Death Note'' (2003–2006) ...

(#1–4, 7–8),

Tite Kubo , known professionally as , is a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He is best known for his manga series '' Bleach'' (2001–2016), which had over 130 million copies in circulation as of 2022. Biography Kubo was born on June 26, 197 ...

(#5–6, 11, 12) and

Takeshi Konomi is a Japanese manga artist, known for creating the manga series ''The Prince of Tennis''. Financial standing Every year the National Tax Agency releases a list of the highest income tax payers for entertainers in Japan. The higher someone's inc ...

(#9–10).

Stories adapted

* ''

No Longer Human is a 1948 Japanese novel by Osamu Dazai. It is considered Dazai's masterpiece and ranks as the second-best selling novel ever in Japan, behind Natsume Sōseki's ''Kokoro''. The literal translation of the title, discussed by Donald Keene in his ...

'', by

Osamu Dazai was a Japanese author. A number of his most popular works, such as '' The Setting Sun'' (''Shayō'') and ''No Longer Human'' (''Ningen Shikkaku''), are considered modern-day classics. His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Murasaki Shiki ...

(episode 1–4): The path of a man with intense feelings of alienation towards society and the feeling of "humanity". * ''Sakura no Mori no Mankai no Shita'', by

Ango Sakaguchi was a Japanese writer of short stories and novels and an essayist. His real name was . Biography Born in Niigata, Sakaguchi was one of a group of young Japanese writers to rise to prominence in the years immediately following Japan's defeat i ...

(episode 5–6): A forest bandit finds a beautiful maiden in the forest and takes her to be his wife, but she is more than she seems to be. * ''

Kokoro is a novel by the Japanese author Natsume Sōseki. It was first published in 1914 in serial form in the Japanese newspaper ''Asahi Shimbun''. The title translated literally means "heart". The word contains shades of meaning—notions of the he ...

'', by

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known around the world for his novels ''Kokoro'', '' Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', '' Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work '' Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of British literature and writer ...

(episode 7–8): A young man lives in Tokyo as a renter with a widow and her daughter. He invites his childhood friend to come live with him, hoping to help him out of his depression. When his friend falls in love with the widow's daughter, it drives a rift between them. The story is narrated twice from different points of view. * ''

Run, Melos! is a Japanese short story by Osamu Dazai. Published in 1940, "Run, Melos!" is a widely read classic in Japanese schools. The story is a reworking of Friedrich Schiller's ballad ''Die Bürgschaft'', which tells the story of Moerus and Selinuntiu ...

'', by Osamu Dazai (episode 9–10): A playwright writes a play based on the story "Run, Melos", and deals with his own feelings of betrayal towards his childhood friend. * ''

The Spider's Thread is a 1918 short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, first published in the children's magazine ''Akai Tori''. Plot summary Shakyamuni is meandering around Paradise one morning, when he stops at a lotus-filled pond. Between the lilies, he can see, t ...

'', by

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , art name , was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize, is named after him. He committed suicide at the age of ...

(episode 11): Kandata, a cruel and evil bandit, is executed and lands in hell. The one good thing he had done in his life was to not kill a spider he met in the city. The spider drops him a thread to climb up into heaven. His elation is short-lived, however, as he realizes that others have started climbing the thread behind him. * ''

Hell Screen is a short story written by Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. It was a reworking of ''Uji Shūi Monogatari'' and originally published in 1918 as a serialization in two newspapers. It was later published in a collection of Akutagawa short stori ...

'', by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (episode 12): Yoshihide, the greatest painter in the country, is commissioned to draw his greatest work, an image of the king's country inside his mausoleum. In the despotic king's realm, Yoshihide can see nothing but the suffering of the commoners. He decides to make his last work a tribute to the country as it really is.

Reception

Emmanuel Bahu-Leyser from the French Animeland found it exceptional to have such realistic, deep and mature stories to be adapted into anime. He went further by describing the series as a gold nugget both culturally and technically. On the negative side, he noted that the adaptation quality is uneven between the teams.

References

External links

Official anime website
* Madhouse (company) Anime series Takeshi Obata {{anime-series-stub