Bungaku Shoujo (film) [Book Girl]

Screenshot from the very beginning of the film Bungaku Shoujo.

It's been an hour since I finished watching the film "Bungaku Shoujo" by the time I start writing this. I can't actually describe on what level I liked it, because it's the first time a film have given me goosebumps from being so good! It has only happened with music and that isn't very often at all. In other words - Bungaku Shoujo had me take away every favourite anime, manga (Japanese comic) and character from the favourites on my profile on MyAnimeList.net. Just thinking of the film gives me shivers out of pure joy, because I gotten to see such a good film.

The film is about Konoha Inoue, a seemingly normal second year high school student. One day early in his first year, he sees a girl reading a book under a Magnolia tree. But she suddenly does something slightly odd... She rips a pages and eats it! The girl - who is a second year named Touko Amano - notices Konoha and to keep her secret she forces him to join the literature club of the school.
Now he has to write "snacks" for Touko to eat, even though he had decided to never write again due to an incident earlier on. What's more, Konoha is actually a best-selling author under a female pseudonym!

I won't say everyone will like this film, but I definitely think it's worth a watch from everyone! The film has a bit of everything - comedy, drama, romance, mystery.
The soundtrack is by one of my all time favourite composers, Masumi Itou - also known as Hikaru Nanase - who made soundtracks anime series such as Scrapped Princess and Angel Sanctuary. It's fits the film extremely well.

The film itself is an animated adaptation of a series of novels I have yet to read. The series is called "Bungaku Shoujo", which in English is translated to "Book Girl", though the film is usually translated to "Literature Girl". The novels - Which, by the way, are called "light novels". More about that in a bit! - are by Mizuki Nomura. There are a total of eight novels in the series and so far two of them have been translated to English and the third is scheduled to be released in July this year. You can guarantee this series is in my to read-list!
The books in English are available at amazon for those interested.

Now, to the explanation of light novels. These Japanese novels tend to be directed towards high school students and younger, with a simpler language and more furigana - a pronunciation and reading aid for kanji, the Japanese characters - but more play with words and pronunciation. Sadly these puns can be lost during translations. It's not unusual for light novels to have illustrations either, and they have in recent years become more popular and the popularity has led to more adaptation to comics, games, animated films and series and live-action films.

So! I hope you will watch the film and I sure hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Though, as I said, I don't think everyone would like it. Which is too bad! (laughs) It's a great film, after all.
At the end of the day, this film gets 7 stars out of 6 from me!