Leading anime streaming platform Crunchyroll brings Bungo Stray Dogs’ latest full-length anime film to feature at Glasgow Youth Film Festival for its first ever screening in the United Kingdom. With a successful anime series having just announced its return with a third season, the unveiling of Dead Apple is the perfect introduction or reunion with the Bungo Stray Dogs’ story.
Written by original author Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa, Bungo Stray Dogs (Literary Stray Dogs) has been serialised in Young Ace magazine since 2012 and picked up by animation studio Bones for an anime adaptation in 2016. The film, Dead Apple, released in Japan in March 2018, reunites the anime’s original staff, from director Takuya Igarashi (Sailor Moon, Ouran High School Host Club, Soul Eater (…)) to screenplay writer Yoji Enokido (Sailor Moon, FLCL, Ouran High School Host Club (…)) to collaborate with original author Asagiri in the writing of the full-length feature, a guaranteed stamp of quality from the elite of studio Bones, home to thriving releases such as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Boku No Hero Academia. Also welcomed back on board from the anime series are the original voice actors, making Dead Apple a proper spin-off of the Bungo Stray Dogs saga.
Bungo Stray Dogs’ original story follows members of the Armed Detective Agency, true investigators of the supernatural while gifted with special abilities themselves. Having based their business in Japan’s city of Yokohama, they take on peculiar cases handed over by the police and look into puzzling enigmas, the unusual cast of characters sharing names with famous literary authors (Atsushi Nakajima, Osamu Dazai, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (…)). The full troupe of investigators are brought back into the full-length feature, the Armed Detective Agency members as well as the shady rivals from the Port Mafia crew to face a brand new threat introduced by the arrival of a mysterious new character along with a suicide inducing fog specifically targeting special ability beings. The electrifying storyline combined with studio Bones’ consistently skilful animation brings a thrilling feature fit for the big screen.
With an exclusive story separate from the original manga and anime’s storyline, Dead Apple appeals both to Bungo Stray Dogs franchise fans as well as newcomers introduced to the saga for the first time. The series, aware of its wide cast of characters, takes the proper measures to include its audience in its entirety as it skillfully immerses the viewer into the Literary Stray Dogs ‘narrative, making the film accessible to most*. With all Bungo Stray Dogs episodes available on Crunchyroll though (licensing limitations may apply), there’s still time to catch up on the series or choose to have it waiting after the end of the Glasgow Youth Film Festival.
Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple will be playing at the Glasgow Youth Film Festival on September 15th at 14:10 (film is in subtitled Japanese). Tickets can be purchased here.
A DVD/Blu-ray release of Dead Apple is expected on the 28th of November 2018.
* Glasgow Youth Film Festival has set an age restriction of 15+ for this feature
