Book Girl ~Today's Snack: First Love~
A brief short to introduce myself to the premise - it does help that most of the books are in English, so I can read if I want, but I think I'll be able to obtain all that I need from the anime material. This is basically animated synesthesia. I wonder what jokes about Touko's "taste" in books would be like... or if they were the catalyst for the entire series in the first place. So when people talk about food porn, this is sort of what that's like, except with literature. Using metaphors in a story is a thing since time immemorial, but what if the metaphors are the story?
Book Girl ~Memoire~
So these aired over the course of three weeks before screenings of the movie, to provide more context. That's one way to get more people coming to see it again and again. Fantasy, tragedy and (romantic) comedy apiece. Nanase's and Touko's were cute, while Miu's... "difficult" is the right term here. When Japanese media deals with topics like this, it's not always with a gentle hand, and gets right to the emotion of the thing.
Book Girl Movie
Several bits of novel were skipped over, and it looks like the most dramatic story was chosen. Miu is a broken person, but I don't want to demonize her. Her heartbreak was more tragic (and central to the movie) than Nanase's, but Nanase's silent rejection at the end tugged at the hearstrings just as much. She endured herself to me pretty well in one OVA.
The whole meta idea of a book about books, and a book that was adapted into a movie becoming a book that was adapted into a movie, really does draw attention to what the strengths and unique features of otaku-based fiction are. So much of it has become metafiction. Touko's role in the movie wasn't quite as big as I thought it was going to be, but she had that planetarium moment near the end that more than made up for things. It's her story, so it all comes back to her in the end. Not the greatest anime movie I've seen. As a standalone film, it holds up, and the mildly supernatural element of Touko keeps it something I think is worth analyzing. It certainly made me want to read the books.
Only one more book-based anime to go in this quartet. It started with action, and so shall it be bookended with action, while still playing to the strengths of Kokoro Library and the literary allusions/name-dropping of Book Girl. Tomorrow, it begins.