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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
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| Rent | 10 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2263#1552] | |
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For whatever interest Bungaku Shoujo's premise had for me, this movie proved to be quite the mixed bag. The movie is focused on male lead Konoha meeting with the titular heroine of the movie, Touko, who has an unusual interest in eating pages from books with the girl helping out Konoha in dealing with the strained relationship he has with former girlfriend, Miu, related to his past in submitting for a writer's contest. The strained relationship negatively effected Konoha's interest in writing and much of the movie is focused on trying to have the young man regain his confidence to write by moving past whatever problems he had with Miu. It is this element to Bungaku Shoujo's storyline that is the mixed bag for me. The movie makes comparisons of the relationship with Miu and Konoha to Kenji Miyazawa's classic literary work, Night on the Galactic Railroad, with Konoha trying to figure out some cryptic hints about the ending to the movie alluded to by Miu. While this dramatic parallel has its potential, the movie suffers from the fact that it has some genuinely shallow and unlikeable characters that kill ones interest in this exploration. Nanase and Kazushi don't get much in the way of depth nor do they have any major relevance within the story and Miu made for the worst and unlikeable character in the movie because of her hateful and irrational behavior in her actions, even with the tragic backstory presented on her character. Why Konoha continued to be committed to Miu despite the girl's self-destructive, cruel and unlikeable character was baffling to me. Genuinely, I was more interested in the relationship of Touko and Konoha's characters as it helped save this movie from complete mediocrity for me. Touko's character was the most interesting of the lot for me with her unusual penchant for eating pages from books and obsessive interest in literature, yet was also able to keep calm and remain genuinely likeable throughout the dramatics of this movie. Konoha even came to see her as a major companion to help him through the mess he goes through with Miu throughout the majority of the movie. The chemistry between these two made for the fun and heartwarming moments to this otherwise subpar movie. Only major issue I have is that the movie never provides any depth to Touko's background as it seems the makers of Bungaku Shoujo made the film under the assumption you would have already read the light novel source material for the movie. Visually, Bungaku Shoujo was quite beautiful on the eyes as it sported vivid scenery with vibrant colors and plenty of detail. Vast camera shots of night skies and the city landscape are quite the sight to behold in this film, especially a later scene when the characters are in a planetarium. Character designs get similar treatment with their details and while not the prominent element of the movie, animation is still quite fluid for the movie as characters and vehicles move about at a natural pace and moving camera shots move about rather nicely as well. Overall, Bungaku Shoujo was a bit of a mixed bag for me. While I enjoyed the chemistry between Touko and Konoha and some of the literary parallels it established with the movie's main plot, the movie suffers from having limited depth on some major characters and Miu being too unlikeable of a character for me to genuinely care about. I think your mileage will vary on whether or not you will enjoy this movie to its fullest. Last updated Saturday, November 24 2012. Created Saturday, November 24 2012. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Jan-Chan
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[series:2263#967] | ||||||
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A 17-minute preview has been released.
Last updated Saturday, May 01 2010. Created Wednesday, December 30 2009. | ||||||||
Other Sites
| Name | URL |
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| Japanese Movie Web Site | http://www.bungakushoujo.jp/ |
