Anime: Aoi Bungaku
I’m going start with The Spider’s Thread, because it was the episode that was shown first and there is a reason for that. So spoiler alert! You have been forewarned.
I’ve come to the realization that most of the adaptations (at least those that I’ve watched) in Aoi Bungaku are not “true” adaptations. What do I mean by that? Essentially they have a lot of creative license and change a good deal of the story. This makes it really hard to compare between the anime and the short story.
The Spider’s Thread is a case in point. While the book version concentrates more of the hell and climbing portions, the anime versions looks at the life that Katanda led before he died. There is a good reason for this which you will realize when we come to The Hell Screen episode. Sure, it does its job in showing us exactly how terrible and evil Katanda is and it also portrays his one good deed of saving a spider (more like choosing not to kill a spider). It doesn’t however give enough credit to the suffering he experiences in hell. It also doesn’t show or for that matter tell us the moral of the story which is a pretty big thing for the book version. It is the whole point of the story after all.
That’s not to say that this episode was bad, it was areally enjoyable. I like how they expanded the world and made it quite fantastical. They also gave Katanda a bit more character although he does turn out quite comical at times. And the scenes that they did for when he was in hell was actually pretty good. It was short but effective.
So, I guess each version has its own merits. I don’t prefer one over the other, I enjoyed both equally and I hope you will as well!
Living. Loving. Learning. 