Recently, manga artist, Takeshi Obata, famous for his work on Death Note and Bakuman, designed a new cover for famous works of Japanese literature, including Osamu Dazai’s No Longer Human and Soseki Natsume’s Kokoro, two of the most popular and highest selling books in Japan.  Articles covering this choice have included the decline of book sales in Japan and companies trying to once again get the younger age groups interested in the classics by redesigning the books by artists whom they are familiar with.

Now these two books, alongside Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s Hell Screen (also illustrated by Obata) and Osamu Dazai’s other famous work, Run, Melos! will be turned into a twelve episode anime, expected to premiere in Japan on October 10th.

No Longer Human was launched as a manga in February and Kokoro was adapted back in 2005.  Run, Melos! has already been turned into an animated special, back in 1981 and again in 1992 as an animated film.

Obata, who is drawing concept art for a number of other unnamed literary masterpieces, will be aided by Bleach’s Tite Kubo and The Prince of Tennis’ Takeshi Konomi in this anime endeavor.  Kubo is working alongside the anime development of Hell Screen while Konomi is doing Run, Melos!  No Longer Human is the story of a person’s alienation from the world, Kokoro is the narrator’s tale of his sensei’s life.  Hell Screen tells the tale of an artist enacting violence in order to paint a picture of hell and Run, Melos! is about a Greek shepherd traveling to visit his sister before his execution.

The anime community appears to be conflicted with this news, as some are upset that now great pieces of literature in other countries are being turned into comics and cartoons, while others can understand the reasoning behind the project, the attempt to raise an interest in reading books once more, a problem for our younger generation not limited to any one country.  Some fans have been in disagreement, not over the notion of books turned into cartoons, but the actual artists that are participating in the anime, the most notable to stir up arguments is Kubo.  Concern in regards to character development and background art from his famous manga, Bleach, have left some in the anime world concerned over the effects this will have on the literary adaptations.  This however, is only one example and is someone’s opinion, not fact.

Please share your thoughts on this news.