"Bungaku Shoujo" Movie

Bungaku Shoujo (“Book girl” / “literature girl”) is a disappointing nothing burger of content. While it doesn’t do anything explicitly wrong (no obvious plot holes or random points that make no sense), it also doesn’t do anything well enough to warrant any level of praise. It’s just so…. Bland. Starting off with a premise about a girl who literally eats words was a great idea, yet the movie fails to do anything noteworthy with that promising concept. Why does she eat the books? How did she start? Does she eat anything else, or is she a magical entity only requiring literature for sustenance? I’d love to know, but unfortunately, we don’t get this information. Yes, I am aware there are OVAs attached to this, but this review is talking solely about the movie on its own, and after being this disappointed I can’t be bothered to watch the other connected media. So yeah, Bungaku Shoujo is the epitome of mediocre- truly boring, but not so bad that I can justify rating it any lower than a 6.

wow, what a movie... This has to be the hardest piece of work to write a review on. For some it would be easy: why can't that psycho die already. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone who gets really involved with the characters or wants to watch a good romance. You'll hate it a lot. Even if you are someone who likes yandere characters for fun, this movie will still make you mad. I think it has a lot of to do with how the characters are paired. Imagine putting Menma and Yuno together with a boy who plainly lacks testosterone. First of all, no normal person who wants to write an appealing love story would ever attempt to put those three types of people together. Having said that, I do admit that a story such as bungaku shoujo is not meant to be an appealing love story. Normally you would expect cherry blossoms trees in high school shoujo dramas, but in this you have magnolia trees. That's the first place where I realized this story won't follow the norms. I researched a little on this tree's meaning in the Japanese culture, and not to my surprise, it is associated with healing. I guess that can be assumed to be the central theme to this movie. It's a beautiful theme, so if you can get over the wrong pairing of personalities, three forth of the story will be appreciated. I would have rated this movie higher if it weren't for the senseless ending. It was too sudden for the psycho to turn into a kindergarten teacher and the loyal puppy to wag its tail at someone else. It didn't make sense to me at all. Those types of people don't have revelations and reliefs that quickly. But again, the majority half of the movie is very well told with a good pace. The characters themselves are pretty good too, especially the literature girl, and there is a good amount of mystery that will keep you interested. If you are looking for something that looks normal and feels normal but just a tiny bit not quite right, give bungaku shoujo a try. You might end up appreciate its (for the most part) beautiful narration. Production I.G. has adapted some seriously unique and beautiful novels. I still would classify this movie as one of them despite how much I regretted having seen it.

Disclaimer: I haven't seen/read any OVAs/specials/sequels/prequels/manga/novel related to this movie. Hence I have judged the movie on its own merit. The most overwhelming feeling throughout the movie was of confusion. I watched it on a streaming site so I had the priviledge of going back 5 seconds everytime I did not get something. But what I felt overall was that this movie is not suitable to be seen in cinema. The art and sound were fine (maybe good but not according to my taste). The story was poor. The plot has many moments where I felt that the characters' reactions, dialogues were very contrived. Overall, if we see the plot map, it is a very average plot. The characters are very unrealistic. Escpecially the MC. He doesn't seem to have any sense of right or wrong and is also incapable of thinking for himself. This is very evident and seems to be the intended character trait for him. However it is the only character trait he has and it becomes painfully difficult to like him. The literature girl is a typical selfless anime angel. That is her only character trait. I suppose the bit about eating stories is to only facilitate writing of deep sounding (albeit nonsensical) dialogues and is not really a character trait. *spoiler paragraph* Miu is probably the closest thing to an antagonist this movie has. The problem I have with this movie regarding Miu is not unique to it. It is the problem I have with most anime where villains get redemption. I am all for redemption of villains but I also need repentance and atonement with it. What I felt with this redemption was it was like that of Akito's in Fruits Basket: The Final. There is no repentance let alone atonement. Speaking of Fruits Basket, I think Hanajima Megumi's (Saki's brother) line, "You musn't assume liking him gives you licence to say whatever you want", with the extension 'and do whatever you want', summarizes the critique of Miu's action and her character [very imp: it is just what i found disagreeable about miu and this is not a criticism of the movie or miu's characterization]. Well bad characters (i mean like villains) do exist but what makes it bad in the movie is unconditional forgiveness for them that other characters are so eager to show. Overall, I found the characters to be the weakest link in the chain. Even the average overdone plot was better than the characters.

About halfway through the movie, I was PRAYING that the unhealthy codependency of Miu and Inuoe would be resolved. During the rooftop scene, I was losing my mind. I was like, "PLEASE don't portray this as romantic!" I'm glad that Miu's issues were resolved, and Inuoe found happiness elsewhere. Their relationship was so unhealthy, and I'm so glad that this wasn't portrayed as adorable dependency. Maybe I'm a sucker for a good and healthy relationship, but I was very happy with the ending. I gave 7/10 because it was REALLY drawn out and the art was meh. But the story itself was pretty good!

At first you would think that it would be a light high school story but it has a very heavy drama. As the story went by I realized that it was a mystery story after all. Of course, I've gotten so interested because I just love mystery type of stories but I couldn't be so damn wrong. The story became so dramatic and the characters became so damn cheesy. Why is it that people think that in order to create a good story they have to be overly dramatic? The climax was too cliche and as if it wasn't enough the ending was the cliche of all cliche, the "Chase". What is it that characters always have to run in the ending to chase the other character? Too much drama!!!!!!!

Well, this movie sucks. The story is really confusing and hard to follow. The characters are utter garbage and annoying and it becomes boring really fast. It's such a shame that all that work was put in such a piece of garbage. The part of the girl eating the books lasts only 5 seconds long and it's such a shame that it wasn't explored more as an idea. The animation isn't bad at all but it's dragged down by the plot and the characters which are really unlikeable. I found one of the main characters really irritating because she kept making the same mistakes over and over again and the main guy kept forgiving her like it was nothing. Overall this movie wasn't great and I don't recommend it.

Story: Ok so the story itself I was conflicted about the rating because its a very original story. You wont find it anywhere else however its so rushed that it doesnt flow together at all. As the story goes on it gets more and more confusing with things like the character backstory, the "romance", and connection between characters. Art: so the art was pretty good for the time that it was made. It fit the show well and did a good job of making the visuals really stand out from other shows, however the only complaint is the character models feel off. Their not bad by any means just off. Sound: The sound was probably the best part about this movie. There was music playing during the any important scene in the movie which really made the movie feel emotional. Character: The characters were not done so well. There were 7 "main" characters however only 3 of them had any real screen time. The other 4 had very little involvement on screen and only served purpose for advancing the story between the other 3. In addition there was 1 other person shown in the beginning that hinted at an 8th main character but she only appeared in the intro and the very end of the movie only have a total of about 10-15 seconds of screen time. Enjoyment: The enjoyment was also a little difficult to rate because some parts of the move drew you in but most didnt. overall: i would say that the movie wasnt very good, it felt rushed, this should have been made into either a tv show or a series of movies (ie. garden of sinners) there just wasnt enough time to get attached the characters nor was there enough time to develop much of a romance between any of the characters. And to top it all off the movie doesnt once touch on the summary of what, why, how the girl eats books.

Reading all of those reviews, I've come to realise this movie is hated by many people, although it's loved my many many more, and that terribly saddens me as this is one of my all time faves. If you came here looking for a movie about romance and the obstacles of finding your true love, you've come to the wrong place. This movie focuses on the burdens and twists of life, on the relationship of imperfect people and on loyalty. The story gets a complete 10 from me, although I may say this just because I'm still riding on that high I get after seeing something beautiful. The story is about this girl who eats books instead of food, a literature girl, and her favourite author, a boy traumatized by his childhood friend from when she tried to commit suicide. Characters, they get a ten too. The characters are relatable and realistic, sometimes pitiful and sometimes completely detestable. One thing I loved about this whole thing was the fact that the characters seemed to have feelings, Real life, twisted and dark feelings (I'm talking about you, Miu). I especialy ADORED the fact that the male lead, when his childhood love broke down, didn't say something like 'Well shit, I don't like her anymore anyways' and went running after his new love. He stuck with his childhood friend even when she got all terrible and jealous. He was just there for her, although she wasn't his love interest, thing that doesn't happen too often in animes. He was even ready to go with her into the galaxy, like Giovanni couldn't do to Campabela (that probably isn't the name) (SOB) I must say I understand why people hate Miu. She's weak. But, eh, aren't we all? I truly enjoyed watching this. If you want drama and depressing stuff, you came to the right place. Well, I'm still riding the high so everything I've said could've been exaggerated, but the movie must've done SOMETHING right to get a person so excited, right? ;)

Different shoujo more focused on platonic love, here you will not see them pairing up, it is something rare to see in these demographics, when I saw it at that time it hurt me that it was a dropper, three OVAs and a movie, I think that is enough, then they lengthen it a lot like Kimi no Todoke, highly recommended. I remember the soundtrack was calm and varied depending on the situation.Characters that convey what they feel, with the seiyuus on duty, you manage to understand their motivations, whether good or bad. It is unfortunate that it is forgotten by the new generations addicted to anime. I believe that watching stories with healthy love are better than toxic love and these should be more consumable than stories. Thematic toxic love, changing the subject, guys can also enjoy this type of stories with non-toxic love, so read and watch shoujo so that it teaches you how to flirt comfortably at least to understand them better XD About its ending in a movie at the time I didn't like it because it didn't end as I wanted something more conclusive, but I think that an ending with a hint was good. It left me wanting more at the time I gave it a lower rating of 7, for that very reason I wanted more and they were forgetting it, but after some time I'm glad that they executed the adaptation in this way The bad thing in general, both 3 OVAs and the movie, they leave things out because of the type of format and it is limited, the only thing that fails is the time you see that the doubts it leaves you are not explained in depth, but that is an everyday bread with other longer stories, but despite the fact that this adaptation falls short by leaving loose ends, it is passable and bearable.