'Bungou to Alchemist: Shinpan no Haguruma' Reveals Additional Cast

Vargnatt said:
Drawing classic Japanese authors in a bishounen disguise and cast them in female targeted shows is the new trend or something?

Vargnatt said:


It's not like i have a problem with it, i also do like bishies as a straight woman but don't you think trope is overly used these days? xD

Haganeproductio said:

Authors for sure aren't as overused as Sengoku warlords, but I would say that past two years or so there have been more and more author stuff that it's not too special anymore. Bungou Stray Dogs for sure played big role in the genre, but I would also say that Love Heaven also played a bit of some role also in this whole thing how authors are everywhere now. It's not that it's a new thing to have authors in some series to be honest, as they have existed in anime and games always more or less. But people just haven't noticed it because they don't know about them or Japanese literature in general... Which certain series have tried to fix through years.


I think BunAl stands out from the list not because of my own bias, but because of how closely they work with memorial museum and literature museums, as well as scholars and even relatives of the authors to build the series and teach us about the guys, leaving rest of the learning for players themselves to pick up books and read. Right now it's biggest media focused on authors, that is trying to be loyal and true to the real people (of course not by characters looks, that have been more inspired by their works, name or background rather than what they looked like irl). If we remove the irl connection completely, then Bungou Stray Dogs takes the win easily as biggest "author" media.


Short history of notable modern Japanese literature/author-focused content there has been through years, including anime, manga, games and drama CD series (there is way more content, but they are so unknown or just those kind of info books of the actual authors with 2D ikemen looks that I can't sadly count them in)

*Kitsutsuki Tanteidokoro (original novel in 1999, anime in 2020) [mix of fiction and real history]
*Bungou Stray Dogs (manga in 2012, anime in 2016) [not related to actual authors, just using their names for characters and slight references to their works]
*Bungou Series / Bungou Shikkaku (drama CDs in 2013, manga in 2015) [authors living their second life in heaven, heavy historical references to irl people]
*Love Heaven (mobile game in 2014 but closed down in 2019) [lots of other famous historical people all over the world, but Japanese authors were notable part of cast. More or less references to irl people]
*Bungou to Alchemist (browser game in 2016, anime in 2020) [authors brought back to life to save their name and literature from being erased from our memories and history, very heavy historical references to irl people]
*Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau (mobile game in 2017) [lots of other famous Japanese historical people, but as an otome game, has really warped view of the irl people to fit them better for the game's genre]
*R18 situational drama CD series aimed for women but the name shall remain unknown bc it's not suitable for children at all (2017) [very heavy historical references warped a little bit to fit the genre and theme of the CDs]

And there exists bunch of series with focus on individual authors, especially as manga, but didn't feel like listing them as the list would get huge fast.