Aoi Bungaku 01

While Madhouse has done a first rate job pissing all over their reputation the last few years, they still managed to turn out at least one really impressive, unorthodox anime every year. Last year's Moryo no Hako clearly whet a few appetites around there for more literary work, so this year we get Aoi Bungaku, an anthology series in which different staffs adapt famous literary masterpieces with character designed done by Shonen Jump authors. Takeshi Obata is a no brainer; Tite Kubo is a bit more of a headscratcher, but one episode appears to have the goofy loonball who does Prince of Tennis in charge of designs, which simply boggles the mind.

The first and longest story up for adaption is Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku.) While I've never read the book -- like so many people in today's modern world, the INSANELY creepy host of the program regretfully informs us, I tend to think of 'literature' as hard to connect to -- but I knew the title (if only because Nisioisin referenced it in his second novel.)
So I can't really comment on how this is functioning as an adaption. What I can say is that it managed to hook me immediately, conveyed an awful lot in a few carefully chosen images, and follows through on that initial promise extremely well. Really looking forward to see the rest -- at least, for the four episodes of Ningen Shikkaku.