Bungou to Alchemist

## Introduction

**Bungou to Alchemist** (文豪とアルケミスト, *bungou to arukemisuto*, "Writers and Alchemist" or "Bungou and Alchemist"), officially abbreviated as "**BunAl**" (文アル, *BunAru*), is a multimedia franchise about historical **Writers** (文豪, *bungou*) brought back to life to save their literature from mysterious force called **Taints** (侵蝕者, *shinshokusha*), which are trying to erase literary works and their authors from history. The Writers are transmigrated and guided by an **Alchemist** (アルケミスト, *arukemisuto*) who has been tasked for this job at the **Imperial Library** (帝國図書館, *teikoku toshokan*).

This page is meant to shortly introduce the various Bungou to Alchemist medias with links to individual pages for more information. Only the game itself doesn't have its own page, because our wiki was launched right after the game's launch in 2016 and there was no other media available at the time. So because of that and the fact how the game is the "main media" of the Bungou to Alchemist franchise, our wiki is dedicated for the game and you can find information about it all over this wiki.

*See page **Official Art** for some official artwork, and **Music** for OST of the game and anime. **Glossary** explains all important terminology found especially in the game.*

## Basic Info

### **Release Date**

November 1, 2016 (PC);
June 14, 2017 (Mobile)

### **Staff**

Taniguchi Kouhei (game producer);
Ishii Jirou (world-building supervisor);
Sakamoto Hideki (music);
Other staff

### **Platform**

PC (DMM GAMES website);
Mobile (Android, iOS)

### **Genre**

Simulation;
Fantasy;
Historical;
Literature;
Intended for Women (女性向け, *joseimuke*)

**Bungou to Alchemist** (BunAl) was launched on November 1st, 2016, as a PC browser game on DMM GAMES platform. On June 14th, 2017, a mobile app version was released for Android and iOS users. The PC and mobile app versions of the game are almost identical, and there is support for crossplatform play, allowing players to play same account on PC and one mobile device. The game is only available in Japanese language.

The game is developed by an in-house team working under EXNOA (formerly known as DMM GAMES, but in 2020 the company rebranded to avoid confusion between the company and the gaming platform names). **Taniguchi Kouhei** is the game producer, and initially it was his idea to make a game about Japanese literature in form of portraying characters of famous literary works. In the early steps of the development, the plan was changed and the focus was put on the writers (bungou) themselves and their relationships (see Famitsu Interview). Experienced game maker **Ishii Jirou** was hired to take care of the game's world-building, expanding his field to the anime and the stage plays' world-building too when they became part of the franchise. **Sakamoto Hideki** from noisycroak is credited for the game's music, and he also composed the anime and stage plays' OST. Rest of the staff consists of several engineers, artists (who all have been tasked to draw in similar style) and other people working behind the scenes.

In the game, the player takes the role of an Alchemist, who gets the title of **Special Duty Librarian** (特務司書, *tokumu shisho*) for being both a librarian helping to help run the Imperial Library, but also carrying out duty as a capable alchemist. Most of the writers call the player simply "Librarian". In the anime and other media, the Alchemist is presented as a vague "leader" kind of entity on the background transmigrating and guiding the Writers. But in the game, the player is involved in the Main Story and other things as part of the game's world.

The game is a simple writer-raising simulation game enriched with a lot of stories and gacha systems. The player strengthens the Writers (文豪, *bungou*) through a system of auto-battles and certain gameplay mechanics revolving around collecting various resources and equipment. Managing and spending resources, building teams and clearing Tainted Books (also Events) with them are core gameplay features. Reading the game's stories, researching and learning about the real-life writers, their relationships, literature and literary history in general are optional things to do, but very encouraged by the game's staff.

*For information where to get the game and how to play it, see our **Getting Started** guide.*

## Bungou to Alchemist Print Media

Between 2017 and 2018, four volumes of comic (manga) anthologies (コミックアンソロジー) were published by Ichijinsha, and they were illustrated by multiple freelancer artists. The anthologies are loosely based on the game (referencing content and gameplay mechanics from pre-2021 big update), following multiple writers' daily life in the Imperial Library.

The anthologies aren't considered canon, and were published as promotion for the game.

Novels were introduced to the Bungou to Alchemist franchise in 2019. The volumes have been written by different professional authors, but mostly Kawabata Junichi has been bestowed the honor to keep writing more of these stories, which amend lore and setting from the game.

Each of the novel focus on one Writer and handful of others related to them trying to purify literary works from Taints.

*See page **Print Publications** for further information.*

## Bungou to Alchemist Stage Plays

In 2019, the first Bungou to Alchemist Stage Play (舞台　文豪とアルケミスト, *Butai Bungou to Alchemist*), officially abbreviated as "**Bungeki**" (文劇), was performed by a gorgeous cast of popular actors. Quickly there followed a sequel after another, and there have been one or two new Bungekis every year.

The stage plays follow Bungeki canon, which is separate from the game's and other BunAl media, but some content from the game have been referenced at times. Bungeki 1-3 are labeled as "season 1", Bungeki 4 onwards is "season 2".

*See page **Stage Play** for further information about the stage plays.*

## Bungou to Alchemist Reading CDs

Bungou to Alchemist Reading CDs (or "recitation CDs") are kind of "audiobooks", where voice actors of the writers read aloud the real-life writers' works (either in the voice of the character or more in their natural voice). Each CD has a special drama track, where two other writers (as BunAl characters) discuss the works together with the featured writer.

The CDs have irregular release schedule, and some real-life writers' works are still under copyright which requires extra efforts to make these CDs possible. While the CDs aren't part of the Bungou to Alchemist game's canon, they still are notable media published under the series' name. They especially appeal to those who like the voice actors or want to "read" (hear) the works of the writers in Japanese language.

*See page **Reading CDs** for further information.*

## Bungou to Alchemist - Gears of Judgment

In 2020, a TV anime Bungou to Alchemist - Gears of Judgment (文豪とアルケミスト～審判ノ歯車～, *Bungou to Achemist ~Shinpan no Haguruma~*) aired between April and August for 13 episodes. It was officially licensed in multiple languages in many countries, which makes it the first (and only) media of Bungou to Alchemist to have official translations.

The anime was animated by **Team Kojima** from **studio OLM**, directed by Watanabe Toshinori, written by Kumagai Jun, and supervised by Ishii Jirou (game's world-view supervisor). The anime's opening movie was animated by **studio Kamikaze Douga**, and the opening song was "**Good-bye**" (グッド・バイ) by utaite group Urashimasakatasen. The ending song was "**Synthesis In a Grove**" (藪の中のジンテーゼ, *Yabu no Naka Synthesis*) by Nanjou Yoshino.

The anime tells an original story not related to the game's story or canon. Akutagawa Ryuunosuke as the main character transmigrates Dazai Osamu to the Imperial Library by the request of a mysterious entity called "Alchemist", because the great writers must be saved from their books before Taints get their hands at their souls or manage to erase the books from existence. Any writers or literature can't be lost, or it will be a disaster to the humankind. That is the mission of the Alchemist, who runs the library with the help of a talking Cat. A handful of writers had already been transmigrated before Dazai's arrival to the Library, and more writers join the mission on the way. Throughout the story, Dazai quickly takes the role of a secondary main character and becomes the key to saving literature from the Taints...

The anime had been the game staff's wish since the game's early days (see Famitsu Interview), however the reception of the anime adaptation was very mixed. It was praised for well-animated opening movie, the opening and ending songs were superb and the newly arranged OST from the game and new tracks were loved by fans. On the other hand, the anime was criticized for completely different canon from the game, many important lore-related things weren't explained at all or they were inconsistent, the story's pacing was poor and it re-used a lot of plot elements from the first stage play. Some writers also didn't get screentime almost at all, or they were portrayed quite different than what they are like in the game.

Different production delays due to covid-19 were believed to have affected the overall quality of the anime to some extent. Kamikaze Douga's staff member Katou Shiori, who was one of the two directors for the anime's opening, reported on X (Twitter) on March 28th, 2020, that they couldn't finish the opening movie for episode 1, so there was used a version that lacked some little details. Starting from episode 2, there was used the finished product (the opening movie had two more intentional variations in later episodes). The anime was scheduled to finish airing by June 27th, 2020, but due to long breaks needed after episode 3 and 7 to finish the anime's production, the last episode aired on August 8th.

A spinoff manga illustrated by multiple artists was published online for free on GANMA. The chapters were released one by one as the anime episodes aired, in total for 10 chapters. The spinoff manga can be read on GANMA's site for free, but there are no official translations available.

Two novels were also published in July and September 2020 to tell the anime's story in written form with little additions that were either specifically made for the novel adaptation (for the sake of better flow of story), or they didn't make it to the actual anime for various reasons.

*See page **Bungou to Alchemist - Gears of Judgment** for further information about the anime.*