Aoi Bungaku – Kokoro (thoughts and novel comparison)

Kokoro is one of the most famous Japanese novels by arguably the most influential Japanese author, Natsume Souseki. But with only two episodes with which to adapt a roughly 190 page book, the anime version of Kokoro left out a majority of the novel’s content, and instead offered a new twist on the story’s conflict…

First written in 1914, Souseki divided Kokoro into three parts. The first part, “Sensei and I,” is a first person account of a college student who befriends Sensei and his wife, but comes to realize that Sensei has some hidden dark secrets. In the second part, “My Parents and I,” while still thinking about Sensei, the narrator deals with friction in his family upon his father’s death. The third and most important part, “Sensei and His Testament,” is narrated by Sensei via a letter he writes to the narrator in which he confesses his past secret involving his wife and his friend, K. This third part of Kokoro is so substantial on its own that it’s sometimes read independently from the rest of the book, which is probably why the anime is based solely on this part.

It would have worked perfectly if the anime had three episodes of Kokoro, one for each of the three parts. But instead, with two episodes, it offers two different versions of “Sensei and His Testament,” one from Sensei’s point of view, and is more like the original novel, and next, a completely new version from K’s point of view. The college student who is the original narrator of the novel is left out in favor of focusing on only Sensei and the three principle characters in his life; K, Ojo-san (Japanese honorific for “missus” or “daughter), and Oku-san (Japanese honorific for “wife” or “mother”).

Episode 7 of Aoi Bungaku (or episode 1 of the Kokoro chapter) keeps the same basic conflict, but changes a handful of things. There are too many changes to list everything, so I’ll just discuss the more prominent ones. The relationship between K and Ojo-san is much more explicit in the anime, while in the novel it’s very ambiguous. Some events, such as the scene where Ojo-san wants to sew K’s hakama, and a few of the exchanges between K and Oku-san, did not occur in the novel. And of course, since episode 8 is a brand new retelling from K’s perspective, just about everything in that episode is exclusive to the anime, especially the scenes between K and Ojo-san, i.e, the part where they’re in bed together and the whole meeting at the station to run away thing (and can someone explain to me what that glowing “gift” that Ojo-san gives K is?) Also in the original novel, K does not leave behind those suicide notes referring to the seasons. The Aoi Bungaku series seems to be incorporating different moods with the stories based on the seasons, so that’s probably why they added this.

I don’t mind the fact that the anime decided to leave out the first two parts of Kokoro in favor of two versions of part three. My main complaint is that it didn’t go into enough depth about the inner conflicts and struggles of the characters, nor did it give proper attention to exactly why K committed suicide and how this profoundly affected Sensei’s life, which are the two major components of the novel. The anime had plenty of dialogue exchanges between the characters, but not enough inner character monologues for Sensei and K, which could have explained these aforementioned components. Sensei’s life while being married to Ojo-san and “living in K’s shadow,” while only discussed in part 1 of the book, should have had some mention in the anime in order to show just how impacting K’s suicide was on Sensei. Without this look at the “post-K” versions of Sensei and Ojo-san, nor Sensei’s many inner monologues in the novel that show his wavering feelings and regrets, they come off as rather uncaring and remorseless towards K in the anime. The final part of the novel ends with Sensei implying that he too is going to commit suicide after confessing his past secret. By leaving this out, the anime again fails to show Sensei’s lingering regrets about the whole situation.

However, while I had these issues with the anime adaptation, it definitely wasn’t all bad. Seeing the story from K’s point of view was interesting, and I also like how Madhouse chose an appropriately drab color tone for episode 8, with the exception of Ojo-san’s sunflower colors (and was it just me, or did K look really gigantic in certain scenes? ~_^) The discontinuity between the two Kokoro episodes, i.e., the contrasting seasons and some events, suggests that they’re meant to be taken more as different possibilities of the same story rather than the exact same story from two perspectives.

In conclusion, although I feel that the Kokoro anime adaptation deserved more episodes and more insight into the characters feelings and motives, it was still an enjoyable and refreshing take on this influential Japanese novel.