is a twelve episode Japanese
anime series featuring adaptations inspired by six short stories from Japanese literature. The six stories are adapted from classic Japanese tales.
Happinet,
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, and Visionare were involved in the production of the series. Character designs were provided by manga artists
Takeshi Obata (#1–4, 7–8),
Tite Kubo (#5–6, 11, 12) and
Takeshi Konomi (#9–10).
Stories adapted
* ''
No Longer Human'', by
Osamu Dazai (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 (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 (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!'', 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'', 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