[Orphan] Animated Classics of Japanese Literature S01 - Student Days (DVD)

Orphan is redoing as many of the stories from the 1986 anthology series Seishun Anime Zenshuu (translated as Animated Classics of Japanese Literature for its English release) as we can find sources for, starting with the twelve episodes released in North America on DVD. We’ll be releasing the show as individual stories; today’s is *Student Days*, based on a 1918 short story "Notes of an Exam Taker" by Kume Masao. See [this blog entry](https://collectr.blogspot.com/2026/03/student-days.html) for more details.

Kenkichi is an aspiring student hoping to get into Daiichi Koutou Gakkou (First Higher School), the most prestigious prep school in Taisho-era Japan. He takes a room in his sister's house to study and escape distractions,

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but the distractions find him anyway.

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The ending is seriously downbeat; and yes, that's a spoiler.

*The Harp of Burma* will be out in April, providing a more hopeful conclusion to this series.