While there are many popular anime based on manga and light novels, there are several more based on classic novels and literature from all over the world. Whether they come in films or full-fledged animated series, and whether they are the very first adaptation of the work or just one of many, they are proof of the enduring love for works decades or even centuries old.
Some of these adaptations strive for accuracy to the source material, but many others, such as Gankutsuou and Romeo x Juliet, add their own wild spin to the stories by altering the characters or setting.
Gankutsuou
This adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Count of Monte Cristo takes the story not only into the far future but into space, with one of the most unique visual styles in anime. Interstellar society is buzzing about the sudden arrival of the mysterious Count of Monte Cristo. Though outwardly charming, the Count is cunning, cold-hearted, and bent on destroying the people responsible for his past suffering, no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.
The show's protagonist is Albert de Morcerf, rather than the Count himself. He and the audience watch from the outside as Edmond Dantes' revenge plot exposes his family's dark secrets and tears his perfect world apart. Albert grows from a self-centered teen who hates the Count for ruining his life to a compassionate young man who forgives Edmond and is set to become a better person than his father Fernand.
Les Misérables: Shoujo Cosette
Victor Hugo's 1862 doorstopper Les Misérables has been adapted into several films, the 1980 Boublil and Schönberg musical, one of the best movie musicals based on books, the 1998 fighting game Arm Joe (yes, really), and this 2007 anime. As the title indicates, the protagonist of the show is Cosette, rather than her adoptive father Jean Valjean.
The show follows Cosette throughout her life, from living on the streets with her mother as a toddler to falling in love with and marrying revolutionary Marius Pontmercy as an adult. It even skips past where the novel ends to show Cosette with her own young daughter. It is an installment of World Masterpiece Theater, a series of anime productions that specifically adapted classic literature.
Aoi Bungaku
While Bungou Stray Dogs bases its main characters off of famous Japanese authors and their stories, Aoi Bungaku adapts these authors' tales directly in a must-watch single season anime. Its episodes include adaptations of Osamu Dazai's "No Longer Human" and Ryuunosuke Akutagawa's "Spider's Thread" and "Hell Screen."
Fans of this obscure show love it for its accurate portrayal of the original stories' dark tone and upsetting view of life and humanity. Its art style (particularly its use of color) complements this atmosphere as well. The stories it chooses to adapt, one after the other, paint an extremely bleak and nightmarish picture of both the world and the mindset of its authors.
Yuukoku No Moriarty
This 2020 adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories (published from 1886 to 1927) features Holmes' most notorious enemy, Professor James Moriarty, as the main protagonist. Born into nobility, Moriarty deeply resents the aristocracy and the cruelties they perpetrate against the lower classes. He plans to overturn the class system by burning British society to the ground.
Joining the ranks of most iconic adaptations of Sherlock Holmes ever, Yuukoku no Moriarty faithfully and excellently portrays not only Holmes and Moriarty's iconic cat-and-mouse dynamic but also Moriarty's cold intelligence and manipulative personality. Despite wanting to help people, Moriarty has a malicious streak a mile wide and does not care how much innocent blood he spills in pursuit of his goal.
The Tale Of Genji
This 1987 film is an adaptation of what is believed to be the world's very first novel, written by noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the eleventh century. The novel chronicles the life of Hikaru Genji, an emperor's son who is stripped of his rank by his half-brother after their father dies, as well as his romantic exploits and attempts to work his way back into aristocratic society.
The film adapts only the first thirteen chapters of the novel, before Genji's demotion and exile from the Heian imperial court. While some may be turned off by its slow pacing, its fans appreciate its beautiful art style and excellent musical score. It is directed by Gisaburou Sugii, who also directed the film adaptation of Arashi no Yoru ni.
Sinbad No Bouken
From humble beginnings in a poor fishing village to eventual glory as an all-powerful king and warrior, this prequel tells the life story of Sinbad, High King of the Seven Seas. He travels the world, conquering Dungeons and becoming the master of seven Djinn, gathering the friends and allies he needs to build his own kingdom.
Sinbad no Bouken's parent show, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, is based on The Thousand and One Nights, but its cast is much more loosely based on the novel's characters, and its plot is wholly original. This show uses a few more storylines from the original Sinbad the Sailor tales, such as Sinbad being trapped in a valley of giant snakes, being sold into slavery, and allying with a king by the name of Harun al-Rashid.
Akage No Anne
Another installment in World Masterpiece Theater is this 1979 adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1908 novel Anne of Green Gables. The Cuthbert siblings intended to adopt a boy, but the orphanage mistakenly sends a cheerful, talkative girl named Anne instead. When she is allowed to stay anyway, Anne quickly falls in love with her new home, making friends and having adventures.
This adaptation is notable for having two legendary names in anime on its staff. Isao Takahata directed, and Hayao Miyazaki worked on scene-setting and layout, which was six years before they would found Studio Ghibli together with Toshio Suzuki and Yasuyoshi Tokuma. The show was so lastingly popular in Japan that, in 2009, a prequel series, Konnichiwa Anne: Before Green Gables, was released.
Hakugei Densetsu: Legend Of The Moby Dick
In the year 4699, young orphan Lucky Luck is desperate for a way to save her planet from the monstrous white "whale" (space pirates' term for a massive robotic spaceship) Moby Dick, the terror of the Nantucket Nebula. She finds the possible salvation of her home in Captain Ahab, the legendary whale hunter, disguising herself as a boy in order to join his crew.
It would be incredibly difficult to faithfully adapt Herman Melville's over 200,000-word 1851 epic into a 26-episode anime, so Hakugei Densetsu mostly...does not. It is an extremely loose adaptation, borrowing only a handful of characters and even fewer plot points in order to tell a much simpler science fiction story.
Magic Tree House
Several classic Western children's stories have been adapted into anime as well. One such adaptation is of Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, which has been going strong since 1992. Kid siblings Jack and Annie discover a treehouse, in which they can travel to any time period just by reading a book about it.
In 2011, a movie was made (thus far the only film adaptation of the books), with Hiroshi Nishikiori (Angelic Layer, Azumanga Daioh) directing and Akira Senju of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fame composing the score. This film mixes together several plots from books one through thirteen and sees Jack and Annie braving the Cretaceous period, the town of Pompeii on the day of Vesuvius' eruption, and more.
Romeo X Juliet
Shakespeare is surprisingly not as popular a choice to adapt into anime, but there is one show based on arguably his most famous play, albeit one that takes many, many liberties with the classic story. On the floating isle of Neo Verona, the Montague family slaughters the ruling Capulet family, with baby Juliet being the sole survivor. As a teenager, she swears to destroy Montague, but falling in love with Montague's son Romeo complicates things.
Shifting the story to a fantasy setting adds several new, dramatic elements. These include Juliet moonlighting as a masked vigilante, winged horses with the tails of dragons, and a magical tree that requires human sacrifices to keep Neo Verona in the sky. If not an accurate adaptation, it is at least an entertaining one.