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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_blue_literature_series3.jpg]]
2
3->''The essence of a masterpiece is "blue".''
4
5''Blue Literature'' (''Aoi Bungaku'') is an anthology anime produced by Creator/{{Madhouse}} in 2009 featuring adaptations of six classic Japanese works of literature then-recently reprinted under the Blue Literature Series label, and is similar to ''Anime/AyakashiSamuraiHorrorTales'' in that each story uses a different team and art style. These works are:
6
7#Osamu Dazai's ''Literature/NoLongerHuman'' (episodes 1-4; character designs by [[Manga/HikaruNoGo Takeshi]] [[Manga/DeathNote Obata]])
8#Ango Sakaguchi's "In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom" (episodes 5 and 6; character designs by Creator/TiteKubo)
9#Natsume Soseki's ''Anime/{{Kokoro}}'' (episodes 7 and 8; character designs by Takeshi Obata)
10#Osamu Dazai's "Run, Melos!" (episodes 9 and 10; character designs by [[Manga/ThePrinceOfTennis Takeshi Konomi]])
11#Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "The Spider's Thread" (episode 11; character designs by Tite Kubo)
12#Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Hell Screen" (episode 12; character designs by Tite Kubo)
13
14Incidentally, the last two stories take place in the same setting (or are at least adapted as such), although the only common character is the nation's emperor.
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16Oh, and like we said earlier, these are old (and long ago translated) stories, so only the bits this anime added, namely ''Kokoro''[='s=] [[POVSequel "Winter" episode]] and "Run, Melos!"'s FramingDevice, will be spoiler-tagged.
17
18----
19!!This series as a whole exhibits the following tropes:
20* MoodWhiplash: For example, we go from the incredibly bleak and depressing ''No Longer Human'' to "In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom," which features slapstick humor even more over-the-top than ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' gets (and is a [[TheMusical musical]]... albeit in the mold of Theatre/SweeneyTodd) and then it becomes bleak again.
21%%* TwelveEpisodeAnime
22
23!!The individual stories exhibit the following tropes:
24
25[[foldercontrol]]
26
27[[folder:No Longer Human]]
28* AdaptationDistillation: A lot of details were heavily altered from the novel:
29** The trigger for [[spoiler: the double suicide]] happened because he was [[spoiler:wangsting over running out of money.]]
30** The original narrative was read as a journal. In the ending of the novel, the readers discovered that a man has found Yozo's notebook and began searching for the people in Yozo's life after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII ended]
31** Yozo developed [[spoiler:a morphine addiction]].
32** Yozo's death was left (even more) ambiguous in the novel. He started living in isolation with a family caretaker
33* ChickMagnet: Yozo draws women like mad, but is at a loss as to how to act around ''anyone''.
34%%* CompilationMovie: It'll have a bit of extra material and get released to theaters.
35* CreatorBreakdown: The book is widely considered a semi-autobiography. The show acknowledges Dazai's gradual breakdown by noting that earlier stories (such as the later broadcast "Run, Melos!") were (relatively) happier.
36%%* DrivenToSuicide: Twice! And that's just twice for Yozo; Yoshiko also tries it after her rape.
37%%* EarCleaning: Back in school, Yozo [[HoYay to another boy]].
38* HowWeGotHere: The arc starts with Yozo reminiscing his failed love-suicide attempt.
39* [[KickTheDog Kick the]] [[strike:[[KickTheDog Dog]]]] [[KickTheDog Kitten]]: The head of the secret police does this to a stray he'd been petting just before setting out to tail Yozo and Horiki. It was more of a shove than a punt, though.
40%%* RedScare: The police do a routine inspection because of this.
41%%* ScreamerTrailer: Some flashbacks.
42* SnowMeansDeath: Yozo's spiral into decadence and depression culminates in his collapsing in the middle of a snowy street, ready to die...
43* SnowMeansLove: ...until Yoshiko comes along and shelters him with her parasol, giving him the will to live again. They later marry.
44%%* TitleDrop
45[[/folder]]
46
47[[folder:In the Woods Beneath the Cherry Blossoms in Full Bloom]]
48* AnachronismStew: The story is implied to be set in the Heian Period. That doesn't stop the iPods, photo-taking cellphones, bubblegum, {{Meganekko}}, GratuitousEnglish, and references to cosplay.
49* AnimationBump: The animation during the dance sequence of the first episode is awesome. The rest of the episode, average.
50* BattleAura: Parodied; one of Shigemaru's marks starts powering up, only for Shigemaru to ''slap him in the face'' and resume robbing him.
51%%* BishieSparkle: Akiko's main weapon.
52%%* BlindWithoutEm: Shigemaru's youngest "wife".
53* BreakingTheFourthWall: Shigemaru will occasionally talk directly to the audience or complain about incorrect narrative slides.
54* CameraAbuse: Blood splatters onto the camera.
55* CherryBlossoms: Of the grotesque sort. Appropriately so; the theme of the original story is pretty much Cherry Blossoms Mean Death.
56%%* DissonantSerenity: Akiko embodies this trope.
57* DrivenToSuicide: Metaphorically speaking, Shigemaru. By cutting himself off from society, represented by Akiko, he has committed a form of suicide.
58* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything? when one of Shigemaru's marks pulls out a thin, short katana, Shigemaru pulls out his thick long machete.
59%%* EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: Akiko.
60%%* FemmeFatale: Akiko.
61%%* FollowTheBouncingBall
62%%* {{Gorn}}: The severed heads.
63* GratuitousEnglish: One of Shigemaru's ex-wives is a blue-eyed blonde who speaks in badly-accented English. However, on paper the English is good for the ''most'' part. ("Pork... is most favorite food in my life!") The first musical number in Chapter 1 also peppered with English.
64* LongHairIsFeminine: Akiko's hair is long, perfectly straight and impeccably groomed, as opposed to Shigemaru's wives, all of whom have shoulder-hair length (at most). Compared to them, Akiko is very feminine and sophisticated.
65* LoveAtFirstSight: Shigemaru falls hard for Akiko, who takes full advantage of this.
66* ManChild: If Akiko doesn't get her way, she'll generally go for this trope then whiplash to super-FemmeFatale mode.
67* ManipulativeBastard: Akiko
68** Possibly subverted, depending on your point of view. Akiko ISN'T actually all that manipulative. Usually she just tells Shigemaru once, 'do it or I won't be your wife anymore'. She never needs to confuse, weedle, control his actions or thoughts, or even use emotional blackmail all that hard. The issue is really that Shigemaru is so obsessively hooked on her that it takes months or even years of being a mass-murdering psychopath before he gets over it. And she THEN reveals that even her weak threats of 'leaving him' were empty, since she's just as hooked on him. It's no wonder he snaps and kills her.
69** The message left by Akiko to her servant ("Wait for us, we will return soon") suggests that Akiko was merely playing along until Shigemaru calmed down and that she intended to convince him to come back to the city. We never really find out for certain if Akiko did feel something for Shigemaru or if she saw him as her puppet.
70* MindScrew: The ending makes enough sense until the couple is covered in cherry blossom petals and is no longer there when they blow away.
71* MoodWhiplash: There's the above transition between stories, but the story itself features plenty of it, flipflopping between slapstick humor and our protagonist killing people in cold blood, [[MindScrew for some reason]].
72%%* TheMusical: No, really.
73%%* MyGodWhatHaveIDone
74* RoomFullOfCrazy: The house where Shigemaru and Akiko live quickly becomes this, as Akiko fills it with her severed-head collection.
75%%* ScreamerTrailer: As Shigemaru strangles Akiko.
76%%* SqueakyEyes
77%%* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness
78%%* TitleDrop
79%%* TokenMiniMoe: Shigemaru's youngest wife.
80* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: Shigemaru's so scared of them he goes [[AxCrazy batshit insane]] in one encounter!
81* {{Yandere}}: Akiko's request to Shigemaru is to kill all his other wives so it'll just be the two of them. Then she goes straight-up CuteAndPsycho and has him kill people for her own amusement.
82[[/folder]]
83
84[[folder:Kokoro]]
85* AdaptationDistillation: The original novel was split into three parts and had another character only referred to as the narrator. The anime only showed the middle section and omitted the part where [[spoiler: Sensei had been betrayed by his uncle and feared that he is no better after what he did to K]].
86* AudibleSharpness
87* BittersweetEnding: Both of them. In "Summer," Sensei gets the girl but is guilty over K's suicide for the rest of his life; in "Winter," [[spoiler:K realizes she actually ''does'' love him, but commits suicide anyway because he can't bring himself to take the girl Sensei loves]].
88* BloodSplatteredInnocents: Sensei wakes up to find a bit of K's blood has splattered onto his face.
89* DiegeticSwitch: The girl plays the main theme for the "Kokoro" segment on a koto and a piano in the "Summer" and "Winter" episodes, respectively.
90* DrivenToSuicide: K.
91* {{Gonk}}: They went out of their way to make K look as grungy as possible. And his ridiculously slanted eyes don't help matters.
92* HighPressureBlood: Apparently when you slit your throat, every drop of blood bursts out of the wound in a single instant.
93* LoveTriangle: Sensei loves the girl (it may not be an full-on relationship, but her mother is all for it and Sensei has "dibs," having lived with them all this time), but she loves K, who is too loyal to Sensei to let himself reciprocate. [[DrivenToSuicide Doesn't lead to a very happy ending]].
94%%* NoNameGiven: Everyone.
95* POVSequel: "Summer" is based on the original novel and shows Sensei's perspective; "Winter" shows us K's side of the story. And for whatever reason, the episodes are inconsistent in that they take place during the titular seasons.
96* ScaryShinyGlasses: Sensei in "Winter," nearly all the time.
97* SoundtrackDissonance: A light, peaceful piano tune plays over both bittersweet endings.
98[[/folder]]
99
100[[folder:Run, Melos!]]
101%%* AdaptationExpansion: A FramingDevice is added.
102* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Joshima died but he and Takada were able to make peace]].
103* CreatorBreakdown: An in-universe example comes in the form of Takada's struggle to deal with a bout of this when it comes to "Melos"'s ending, almost.
104* FramingDevice: A man named Takada has to write a story to be adapted to stage titled "Run, Melos!" while dealing with memories from his school days about his best friend, Joshima; [[WriteWhoYouKnow their relationship is very similar to the story's protagonist, Melos, and his friend, Selinuntius]].
105* LargeHam: Everyone in the stage segments--kind of hard to avoid, being a Greek-style play. Dionys gets special mention, though.
106* LighterAndSofter: Compared to the others, this segment had a BittersweetEnding.
107* {{Motif}}: The Melos segments are portrayed as a theatrical play. Complete with stage hands, even.
108* WriteWhoYouKnow: During his CreatorBreakdown, Takada has trouble dealing with the parallels between himself/Selinuntius and Joshima/Melos, and considers making Melos never show up to save Selinuntius as result. However, it turns out that [[spoiler:''Takada'' was Melos all along]].
109[[/folder]]
110
111[[folder:The Spider's Thread]]
112%%* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: That spider...
113%%* DemotedToExtra: The Buddha from the original story.
114%%* MindRape: The gist of Kandata's stay in hell.
115%%* RedEyesTakeWarning: Kandata.
116%%* TitleDrop
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:Hell Screen]]
120* CrapsaccharineWorld: The viewer can already tell that the setting is pretty screwed up behind its Brazil-level colorfulness by the end of "The Spider's Thread," but this episode gets to really show off how terrible the monarchy is.
121* MadArtist: Yoshihide gradually turns into one.
122* MundaneMadeAwesome: Yoshihide's painting.
123* SmugSnake: The king.
124* TitleDrop
125[[/folder]]
126

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