Ask John: Is There a Hamlet Anime?

Question:
was Hamlet ever turned into an anime in any way shape or form?

Answer:
I think that we, as anime fans, may frequently overlook the fact that knowing what isn’t available in anime form is as much a part of knowledge about anime as knowing what has been adapted. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know everything about anime, but I do feel confident to claim that I’m more familiar with a larger number of anime than nearly anyone else. Anime has a long history of adapting acclaimed international literature, but certain classical works of European literature don’t seem to be well represented in anime, the works of Shakespeare among them.

Countless anime fans are aware of Gonzo’s 2007 television series Romeo x Juliet – a version of Shakespeare’s tragedy set on an another world. Romeo & Juliet also appears prominently as a school play performance in the first episode of the 2006 Tsuyokiss television series. However, I can’t recall any other significant Shakespearean references in anime form. This does seem an odd situation, as Shakespeare hasn’t been overlooked in other realms of Japanese performance art. Stagings of Shakespearean plays in Japan date back to the mid 1800s. The Shakespeare Society of Japan was founded in 1961. Akira Kurosawa famously adapted Macbeth into his 1957 film Kumonosujo (Throne of Blood), then later used King Lear as the basis of his 1985 feature Ran. The NTV television network produced the live action “Ousama no Shinzou ~King Lear Yori~” and “Romeo to Juliet ~Surechigai~” TV specials in 2007. The 2008 Mirai Seiki Shakespeare TV drama presented stylish and contemporary live action adaptations of several Shakespearean plays. The 2008 live action film Osaka Hamlet, adapted from Hiromi Morishita’s manga, is inspired by and makes references to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Anime seems to be the odd exception in Japanese media that hasn’t produced a variety of Shakespearean adaptations.

There are anime based on classical European literature. For example, Miyazaki’s Laputa and Toei’s 1965 film Gulliver no Uchuu Ryoko are both inspired by Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The 1980 TV series Zukkoke Knight: Don De La Mancha is based on Cervantes’s Don Quixote. Gonzo produced, Gankutsuou, its adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, in 2004. The 1979 Moero Arthur television series draws from Christopher Malory’s Death of Arthur. And that’s not to mention the countless anime adaptations of world mythologies, European fairy tales, and adaptations of more recent classic novels dating from the Romantic period onward to today. However, I’m not aware of any anime based on works including Beowulf, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, Milton’s Paradise Lost (although Angel Sanctuary references Milton’s concept of a war in Heaven), or Dante’s Divine Comedy (although at least studio ARMS is now participating in the production of the American animated film “Dante’s Inferno”).