This is a bit of an experiment. All these three titles are pretty short and I don’t have much to say about them individually, but I might as well make a combined entry that talks a bit about all of them.
Bungaku Shoujo
This one’s a strange 15-minute special about a girl who loves books so much that she eats them. Seriously, she imagines the stories she reads very vividly and compares them to food, only to eat the paper the stories are written on literally. While I liked some of the food analogies, I overall fail to see the point of this release. To me it just seems like a really long commercial for the manga, light novel or whatever this story is based on. There is potential if it can get itself a proper TV-series: if they can make this into a sort-of story about stories, and put more emphasis on the latter than the former unlike what was done here, it might become interesting enough to warrant a watch. But even then it’s going to have to really put work in making its characters interesting. This OVA though… I can only imagine recommending it to someone who already is interested in the source material to have a quick look on what it is about.
Rating: 70/100
The Two Walnuts
This has to be one of the lazier premises of a World War II movie I’ve seen. Instead of just taking a person who actually lived through the hellish period, and expanding upon his or her life, the creators just had to take a kid who lives in 2007 and magically transport her back to a few days before the bombing of Tokyo. The rest of the antics are predictable: while the creators did well in showing the hardships of those times (especially the cruelty to animals is a major theme) it’s just all too easy for the lead character. At the end the creators try to create sympathy by going Tomino, but the melodramatic way in which these deaths are acted out is just a mockery of the real Tokyo Bombings. Stay away from this one, if you want WW2-movies: instead go with those from the eighties and nineties.
Rating: 65/100
Kowarekake no Orgol
Again, this is just a random commercial for whatever manga or visual novel it’s based on. The problem is that it was unbelievably boring, and what impressed me the most was how it kept dodging any sort of explanation of what’s going on. Seriously, every time that it’s about to explain something, it quickly cuts to some sort of boring slice of life scene. That doesn’t really work in a one-shot OVA. At this point we have some sort of story about a guy who finds a broken down android, who dies and wakes up again a couple of times, but how and why are never explained. And on top of that, the characters themselves are boring and cliched, especially their back-stories (or whatever this episode dared to show of them, anyways). It’s obviously a slice of life OVA, so if you like that then be my guest and ignore this mini-review, but for me I only find slice of life around characters I don’t care about boring.
Rating: 60/100
about bungaku shoujo, there’s really a movie being made and the special really is like a long commercial for the movie..
Yes, like gfddsxcvb said there is a movie being made based on this material. This OVA is kind of an introduction to the series and promotional material for the film. I am very interesting in seeing this film.
http://myanimelist.net/anime/6408/Bungaku_Shoujo
Sorry Psgels, but I think you’re kind of wrong about Kowarekake no Orgol.
It’s a original project from what I understand. It’s also a doujin, so it’s basically made by just a group of amateurs. I think it’s quite amazing, considering it’s not done by a professional studio.
I tought the story was quite nice. The main character has lost his family, and is living life like a NEET, he has given up on his music, because it reminds him of everything he has lost. The robot basically takes the place of the family he had lost and gives him some sense of direction, and in the end, even if the robot finally breaks down for good, our main character still find some direction in life and starts playing music again.
about Bungaku Shoujo , not even sure it’s an OVA,it was just streamed to promote the movie that’s coming out,so like it’s been said,it’s like a long trailer to promote the movie,not sure it should be reviewed.
Just review the movie when it comes out
I believe that 3Bungaku shoujo3 isn’t an anime devoid of any interest, it has potential, I thought it was quite fun and gives you a quick look on some of the greatest masterpiece litterature works. I think it may be a good way to discover what all those particularly well-known novels are about, it may turn out good if it’s centered on the different stories just as well as it may turn out bad if it’s centered on the book-eater girl.
i’m not sure about Bungaku Shojo (haven’t seen it yet), but i heard that the story is about a demon-girl that lives by eating stories, not some crazy book-eater girl. if it’s true then i think you’ll treat this series a little different…
Oh, the movie for Bungaku Shoujo should be interesting. She eats the actual paper? Isn’t that a bit unhealthy considering how old the books could be. Who knows where they could have been…
Thanks for the headsup about bungaku shoujo, I definitely liked the source material and didn’t even know about an OVA being released, let alone movie ;b
I agree the premise of Two Walnuts is lazy (TIME TRAVELLL), but I thought it got its emotions in the right place. Some parts came awfully close to Barefoot Gen levels of on screen violence, at least as non-nuke stuff went. I thought it was nice, though the premise could have been more original and less convenient.
I have to agree with Aegd about Kowarekake no Orgel. I think it’s a very sweet story about accepting the present and letting go of the past and about the fragility of life. And yes it’s an original project done by amateurs (some oddly GOOD amateurs at that!).