Literature has everything that digital media needs be it video games, Western cinema, or anime adaptations. Anime has a separate fan base of its own and it is huge. In this article, we are going to read about 8 anime adaptations of some classic literature that are worth watching. From Shakespeare to Dostoevsky, this article has the best of classic literature.
Anime Adaptations of Some Classic Literature that are Worth Watching:
Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette
Victor Hugo’s amazing novel Les Miserables has been adapted several times. As the title of the adaptation suggests, the main character of the story is Cosette and not her adoptive father named Jean Valjean. The plot follows Cosette’s life, her life in the streets as a toddler with her mother to Cosette falling in love and marrying Marius Pontmercy. It ends with Cosette with her daughter.
Yuukoku No Moriarty
Yuukoku No Moriarty is the 2020 adaptation of Sherlock Holmes stories which features the most infamous enemy, Professor James Moriarty as the protagonist of the plot. Born into the upper class, Moriarty profoundly dislikes the nobility and the brutalities they commit against the lower class. He plans to turn over the class system by destroying the British society to the ground.
Hakugei Densetsu
It is the year 4699; a young orphan named Lucky Luck is frantic for a path to protect her planet from a massive white robotic spaceship Moby Dick, the horror of Nantucket Nebula. Luck finds her possible salvation of home in the legendary whale hunter Captain Ahab, disguising her as a boy to join their crew. It is a loose adaption and it borrows only a few characters and fewer plot points to narrate the story in a simpler short sci-fi story.
Romeo X Juliet
The adaptation shifts the story slightly to a fantasy setting adding a few new and dramatic features which include – winged horses roaming with tails of dragons, Juliet moonlighting as a masked vigilante, and a supernatural tree that needs human sacrifices to keep Neo Verona in the sky. On the floating isle of Neo Verona, the Montagues murders the ruling Capulets, and baby Julie is the sole survivor. As a teen Juliet falls in love with Romeo, Montague’s son complicates her oath to destroy the Montague family.
The Flowers of Evil: Aku No Hana
The Flowers of Evil is the title of an erotic poetry collection by the notable Charles Baudelaire. The original book of poems was straightforwardly enthused by the changing views of culture during the industrial upheaval in 19th century Paris and featured tangled subjects of death and sex that a lot of readers found outrageous.
Banana Fish
There is no denying J. D. Salinger’s influence on the youth culture, especially his work Catcher in the Rye which according to critics is one of the first young adult writings in literature. Banana Fish wears its impacts proudly, recognizing in the first episode that the turn of phrase is a reference to one of Salinger’s short writings in which the protagonists come to a catastrophic end.
Gankutsuou
Gankutsuou is the adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 published novel The Count of Monte Cristo. It does not only take the story to the future but the far space with the unique anime visual features. The interstellar society is busy talking about the sudden arrival of the enigmatic Monte Cristo. Though the Count is charming from the outside, he is cold-hearted and cruel and veered toward ruining everyone responsible for his past misery.
Fate/Stay Night
This list would be incomplete if it did not mention one of the most famous franchises in anime history. Saber is based on King Arthur and the focal fight in this series is the Holy Grail War. The series borrows its favorite bits from both fiction and fact across ages – and why not? Where else can the anime lovers watch Sasaki Kojiro and Heracles fight King Arthur?
