I came across the phrase “January in Japan” on booktok or somewhere online (as these things usually are), and it stayed with me. Most of it was tied to Japanese literature: quiet novels, reflective reads, books that feel best suited to slow days and long evenings. It wasn’t a genre so much as a feeling. A temperament.
And if this structure works for books, I figured it could work for adaptations too.
That thought became this newsletter.
What follows isn’t a list I’ve “completed” or a ranking of favourites. It’s a framework: 31 Japanese book-to-screen adaptations, one per day. Some are films, some are series. Some are anime, some are live-action. All of them originate from novels, manga, or short stories, and all of them translate literature into something visual, emotional, and lived-in.
Okay, enough talk. Let’s begin!
(for the sake of my sanity, I’ve arranged them alphabetically)
- Battle Royale | 2000 | 113 minDirected by: Kinji FukasakuGenre: Thriller
Battle Royale, based on Koushun Takami’s novel of the same name, imagines a near-future Japan where a class of schoolchildren is forced into a state-sanctioned death match. What unfolds is not just violence, but a grim meditation on authority, fear, and adolescence under pressure.
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold | 2018 | 116 minDirected by: Ayuko Tsukahara
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
Before the Coffee Gets Cold or Café Funiculi Funicula, adapted from Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s bestselling novel, is likely one of the most widely read Japanese books of the last decade, especially among readers drawn to reflective fiction. Set in a small Tokyo café where time travel is possible under strict rules, the story is less concerned with changing outcomes and more with emotional reckoning.
- Belladonna of Sadness | 1973 | 87 minDirected by: Eiichi YamamotoGenre: Psychological Drama, Adult Animation
Belladonna of Sadness, inspired by Jules Michelet’s 19th-century nonfiction book La Sorcière or Satanism and Witchcraft: The Classic Study of Medieval Superstition, is less a conventional adaptation and more an act of radical reinterpretation. Told through still illustrations, drifting narration, and bursts of psychedelic colour, it follows a young woman whose sexual violence and social exclusion lead her toward witchcraft and rebellion.
- Byakuyakô | 2006 | 11 epsDirected by: Yasuharu IshiiGenre: Drama, Mystery
Byakuyakô or Into the White Night, adapted from Keigo Higashino’s novel Journey Under the Midnight Sun, centers on two children bound by a violent incident whose lives unfold in parallel but never truly intersect again. Told through fragmented episodes across years, the film traces how guilt, secrecy, and devotion shape them into emotionally isolated adults.
*One of my favourite Higashino books.
- Colorful | 2010 | 127 minDirected by: Keiichi HaraGenre: Adult Animation, Drama
Colorful, adapted from Eto Mori’s novel, introduces us to a lost soul reborn into the body of a fourteen-year-old boy who has attempted suicide, slowly uncovering the weight of his regrets, family strain, and isolation. The film approaches depression with deliberate restraint, finding meaning in small, ordinary moments, and suggests that living is not about sudden redemption but the slow, uneasy act of learning self-compassion.
- Confessions | 2010 | 107 minDirected by: Tetsuya Nakashima
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Confessions, adapted from Kanae Minato’s novel, opens with a middle-school teacher calmly revealing to her class how she plans to avenge her daughter’s death. What follows is a meticulously structured descent into guilt, cruelty, and moral corrosion, where revenge unfolds through confession rather than confrontation.
- Fish Story | 2009 | 112 minDirected by: Yoshihiro Nakamura
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
Fish Story, adapted from Kotaro Isaka’s novel, stitches together multiple timelines linked by a seemingly insignificant punk rock song. What begins as a series of disconnected, almost trivial moments gradually reveals itself as a meditation on chance, belief, and the strange ways art ripples outward.
- Hibana: Spark | 2016 | 10 epsDirected by: Ryuichi Hiroki
Genre: Drama
Hibana: Spark, adapted from Naoki Matayoshi’s semi-autobiographical novel, features two aspiring manzai comedians bound by friendship, rivalry, and a shared sense of artistic inadequacy. Stretching across years of small gigs and smaller victories, the series treats ambition as something grinding rather than glamorous.
- Himitsu | 1999 | 119 minDirected by: Yojiro Takita
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Himitsu, adapted from Keigo Higashino’s novel, opens with a family tragedy that defies logic: after a fatal accident, a man’s wife awakens in their daughter’s body. The film then moves into an emotionally intricate examination of grief, identity, and parental love, as the impossible arrangement forces each character to live alongside loss in plain sight.
*I can vouch for the book; it’s unlike anything else I’ve read.
- I Want to Eat Your Pancreas | 2018 | 108 minDirected by: Shinichiro Ushijima
Genre: Animation, Coming-of-Age, Drama
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, adapted from Yoru Sumino’s light novel, centers on an emotionally detached boy who forms an unexpected bond with a classmate hiding a terminal illness. Their relationship unfolds through shared routines and unhurried conversations, grounded more in presence than romance.
*It also has a live-action adaptation, if that’s more your lane.
- If Cats Disappeared from the World | 2016 | 103 minDirected by: Akira Nagai
Genre: Fantasy, Drama
If Cats Disappeared from the World, adapted from Genki Kawamura’s novel, begins with a dying man being offered more time in exchange for making things disappear from the world. As phones, films, and finally cats vanish, the story turns inward, reflecting on memory, attachment, and the understated value of everyday connections.
- Ikiru | 1952 | 143 minDirected by: Akira Kurosawa
Genre: Drama
Ikiru, directed by Akira Kurosawa and inspired by Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, presents a lifelong bureaucrat who is forced to confront mortality after receiving a terminal diagnosis. Stripped of routine and status, he begins searching for a reason to live beyond paperwork and habit.
*Not into black-and-white classics? There’s a modern reimagining too—Living, starring Bill Nighy—and, it’s one of my Letterboxd four.
- Josee, the Tiger and the Fish | 2003 | 116 minDirected by: Isshin InudoGenre: Romance, Drama
Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, adapted from Seiko Tanabe’s short story, brings together a reserved university student who forms an unlikely relationship with Josee, a sharp-tongued young woman who uses a wheelchair and fiercely guards her independence.
*There’s also a lovely anime adaptation if you’re in the mood for something animated. Or, if you lean toward Korean cinema, check out the reimagined version titled Joseé, starring Nam Joo-hyuk—who, not that it matters, just happens to be my favourite Korean actor.
- Kamikaze Girls | 2004 | 102 minDirected by: Tetsuya Nakashima
Genre: Buddy Comedy
Kamikaze Girls, adapted from Novala Takemoto’s novel, pairs two girls who should never logically cross paths: a Rococo-obsessed Lolita devotee and a tough, loyalty-driven biker girl. Set against a hyper-stylised rural Japan, the film turns fashion, rebellion, and friendship into acts of survival.
- Last Samurai Standing | 2025 | 06 epsDirected by: Michihito Fujii
Genre: Action, Period Drama
Last Samurai Standing, based on Shogo Imamura’s graphic novel, reimagines the samurai code through a brutal survival contest where warriors fight not for honor, but to stay alive. Set at the uneasy edge of tradition and modernity, the series strips bushidō of its romance and replaces it with desperation, strategy, and moral compromise.
That’s Part One.
If even one entry here nudged you toward a book you hadn’t planned to read or a film you weren’t sure you were ready for, then this was worth putting together.
Part Two awaits in the next newsletter.
— Piggy x
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