The Great Passage (Fune o Amu) 2016

Firstly, thanks heaps to Aria for the recommendation!

On the surface, The Great Passage is kind of a gentle drama but the characters are just as passionate and committed as the heroes featured in any action anime.

And that was one of my favourite things about the series too; it’s easy to relate to someone who pursues a dream, who struggles.

If you decide to try The Great Passage one day, you’ll also get a bit of romance and small comedic moments throughout, along with classic bittersweet stuff common to a drama.

Not to undersell those elements, but the main draw for me was the story’s obsession with words and language – which is entirely natural, considering that it’s about a publishing department trying to create a dictionary.

Yeah, that’s right – the anime is about making a dictionary, seems niche, right? Again, something I loved about the show!

And while technical aspects – all things I loved – of the job definitely appear onscreen (such as how to chose and catalogue words, or print considerations like discussions of GSM) it’s probably just as accurate of me to say that the show is about the people who make a dictionary.

Certainly nothing jumped out for me as an issue*, though I was a little sad that the story followed the novel it was adapted from in one area, since that meant the anime included the same significant time jump.

I mean, obviously it had to happen, no arguments there, but I wanted more time with the characters and the felt that the skip ahead did lessen the impact of ending somewhat.

Having said that, I loved The Great Passage and would definitely watch it again one day.

4 Stars

* Well, just one issue. There was a slight fantastical element to the series – namely, the existence of a workplace actually that supportive, dedicated and intellectually challenging did seem a bit too good to be true, sadly 😀

Review Count: 149 (Still planning to mark my 150th review, so just continuing the countdown).