Book Girl (Bungaku Shoujo) is a series of Light Novels written by Mizuki Nomura and illustrated by Miho Takeoka. The novels were published from 2006 to 2011; there are about 16 novels in the series with eight being part of the main story, four being short story collections, and four being side stories.
This story is started with an Ordinary High-School Student named Konoha Inoue. His life is quite normal, but only if one disregards the fact that he is a bestselling female romance writer. During his first year of high school he meets Tohko Amano reading a book. Tohko then announces that Konoha is joining the Book Club. A year later, Tohko and Konoha are still the only people in the Book Club and Tohko is studying for college. One day, his friend Nanase Kotobuki falls down some stairs and is hospitalized. Konoha goes to the hospital to see her, and finds his Childhood Friend Miu Asakura who also wanted to be a writer. At that moment starts a story of drama, romance, and mystery as Konoha and Tohko confront Miu and his pasts to fix what was once set wrong.
There are 5 animated adaptations: 4 of them being OVAs and the one movie — just note that they all adapt the last half of the series, so if you're going to read the books, read them first. In addition, several of the novels have been adapted to manga.
The novels also have a sequel, Bungaku Shoujo: Minarai, set after Touko's graduation. They introduce a new character, Nano Hinosaka, a freshman that joins the Literature Club after falling in Love at First Sight with Konoha.
Bungaku Shoujo provides examples of:
- A-Cup Angst: Tohko
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Tohko (whatever exactly she is) eats stories, but claims not to believe in ghosts (by all indications, she's right).Tohko: It's so cheap when it turns out it was All Just a Dream or because of a ghost. It's just wrong. I don't accept ghosts.
- Bat Deduction: Subverted in Book Girl and the Famished Spirit when the Literature Club receives a letter written in a numerical code and Tohko immediately deduces the meaning based on random associations. It turns out to be a much more standard substitution cipher.
- But Now I Must Go: Tohko still has to go to college.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The rich girl in the movie is instrumental in helping Miu. This is actually Adaptation Distillation as Maki is a major character in the books.
- Chick Magnet: Ryuto and Kazushi
- Clingy Jealous Girl: See Yandere.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Comes with the book eating.
- Clueless Chick-Magnet: Konoha
- Conversational Troping: Lots, given that it's a series about books and writing.
- Deadpan Snarker: Konoha, more so in the novels.
- Don't Like, Don't Eat: Konoha's usual reaction to Tohko's criticism of the snacks he writes for her.
- Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Konoha near a railway crossing when he undergoes a Heroic BSoD after Miu tells him how much she hates him and blames him for everything that happened to her and asks him to get out.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: In the flashbacks, Miu had long hair kept in a ponytail. After her first suicide attempt, she has it chopped short.
- First Girl Wins: Bit ambiguous with this one.
- Freudian Excuse: Her parents constant fighting and her mother's flat out admission to Miu that she couldn't get a divorce because of her(Miu),could be what led to her greatly Yandere tendencies later.
- Heroic BSoD
- Konoha has one every time he sees something in his past.
- Also when Miu attempts suicide for the second time.
- Holding Hands: Tohko does this during Konoha's BSOD to snap him out of it.
- Ingesting Knowledge: Tohko experiences books by eating them.
- I Will Wait for You: Non-romantic variety.
- Manipulative Bastard: Miu seems to show darker shades of this.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Miu. Oh! So much. Everything was a hypotenuse to her as a child for Konoha's affection. From his stuffed Zebra doll to his pet bird (which was ever so brutally murdered by her).
- Obfuscating Disability
- Oblivious to Love: Konoha, justified considering how Kotobuki acts around him.
- Older Than They Look: Takeda
- Patrick Stewart Speech: At some point in each novel, you can be sure Tohko will launch into a lecture about a book that's relevant to the current situation, and in doing so will change how someone looks at the world. Because she's the Book Girl, dontcha know.
- Pretty Boy: Konoha; Ryuto; Kazushi. Lamp Shaded in the first novel where Konoha notes that he used to be teased for having a girly face.
- Romantic Runner-Up: Sorry Nanase, you just weren't important enough.
- Shout-Out
- The manga adaption of "Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime" (did anyone say light novel?) is filled with references and shout-outs to famous Japanese and non-Japanese books. For a while, the story even turns into a modern day reenactment of Osamu Dazai's novel No Longer Human.
- The second book is a Whole-Plot Reference to Wuthering Heights.
- Heck, all the books reference other books.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: At the end of Book Girl and the Scribe Who Faced God (Part 2), Konoha enacts all the conditions of Tohko's love fortune from 7 years ago on purpose. Also a Chekhov's Gun, since this love fortune was first mentioned at the start of Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime, and was treated as a joke.
- Shipper on Deck: Pretty much all of Kotobuki's friends ship her with Konoha.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The reason why Nanase ends up falling for Konoha.
- Spurned into Suicide: Miu. Well, the first time. She was so sad and angry with Konoha for not telling her about him writing the book (thus feeling that he was distancing himself away from her and being as Yandere as she is), that she decided to kill herself right in front of him, so that he'd regret and suffer his entire life. Now, how's that for someone who loves you ?!
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Tohko and Konoha can never really be together. At least, not until six years pass, and even then, they probably won't be together for long. However, this is subverted since they eventually met each other again with Tohko become Konoha's editor, and they get married some time after that
- Stepford Smiler:
- Miu really really hates Konoha and tells him with a smile.
- Chia does not understand human emotions and acts cheerful and stupid to hide it from others.
- Teen Genius: Konoha, who became a best-selling author at the age of fourteen.
- There Are No Therapists
- Tomboyish Ponytail: Miu in the flashbacks.
- Train-Station Goodbye
- Tsundere: Nanase. Lamp Shaded in one of the OVAs when her friend tells her, "What you're doing now is more than tsundere. It's a crime."
- Konoha is a Type B for Tohko.
- Victorious Childhood Friend: It takes a while, but it's all the more satisfying.
- Yandere: Just because you can't have one person does not mean you can commit suicide. And Tohko's foster brother actually wants the kind of girlfriend who'd kill him so he'd never leave her.
