AniWorthMillennium Old Journal: Tale of Genji
Introduction
Born from a much loved, but lowly ranked concubine, Genji Hikaru is called the Shining Prince and is the beloved second son of the Emperor. Although he cannot be an heir to the throne of his father, Genji spends his life surrounded by every pleasure and love. And yet, his one longing in love is something that even the power of an Emperor can never give him.
(Source: ANN)
Audience ratings
MyAnimeList / Tenrai : 6.85/10 · 3822
| 1/10 | 51 |
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| 2/10 | 29 |
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| 3/10 | 90 |
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| 4/10 | 179 |
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| 5/10 | 410 |
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| 6/10 | 722 |
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| 7/10 | 1040 |
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| 8/10 | 770 |
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| 9/10 | 338 |
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| 10/10 | 193 |
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Audience reviews
4 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
virina_fratino
As a long time fan of the book, I suppose it's only fair to split this review into 2 parts, one for the people who have read the book and one for the people who haven't.
For those who haven't read the book.
First of all, read it, it's good. It's a tough book though, it's a 1400 page monster that sometimes skips 8 years only to spend 70 pages in the exact same location and time. And of course, it's written in the 11th century in the extremely stuck up yet overly emotional Heian court. It's a completely different world with strange traditions and societal expectations. Something that a modern anime adaptation of only 11 episodes can hardly do justice.
And you'd be right to think that, but fortunately this book doesn't really try to completely adapt the story. If you really want to read it…
Read at the sourceFake_Williams
If you are familiar with the "Tales of Genji", this is pretty much a anime adaption about it. While there is a bit of inaccuracies with it especially in the closing of the anime, certain things hold true such as Genji is playboy from the Heian period and is in love with his stepmother who is technically not that much older than him.
My initial reason for watching this anime was to understand the text form of the story better since reading wasn't always my strong point especially when there are many other classes which had my priority (and the fact that anime was enjoyable). Having watch through the first 5 episodes, I was impressed on how well they kept up with certain facts such as the women he had slept with, the look alike of the women (central theme of the book if you ever read it).…
Read at the sourceWillMunny
This is an underrated gem. The visuals are stylized, but quite beautiful and well suited to the subject at hand. Centering on the amorous encounters of Hikaru, the series does in fact feature several intimate scenes, but they are not explicit and to focus on them is to miss the larger point of the work. This is ultimately a poetic, lingering examination of longing, attraction and the multi-faceted nature of love, all set to a dramatic and moving soundtrack.
Read at the sourceandrael
One guy going around seducing various women may seem like a pretty dodgy premise for an entire series. But it manages to avoid being just a trashy harem anime by delving into the characters of each of the women and Genji himself.
If you've seen some of the previous work of director Osamu Dezaki, you will recognize his style in this series: a lot of pan shots and still frames with artful use of filter effects. Apart from helping make a fairly limited animation budget look good, this technique also punctuates the emotion or intensity of a scene and highlights the beautifully rendered costumes and environments. It's almost like watching a shoujo manga come to life. Even when I found myself thinking "What is he doing? Why is she angsting so much?" I couldn't help but be caught up in the emoti…
Read at the source