Bungo and Alchemist

Bungo and Alchemist (文豪とアルケミスト, Bungō to Alchemist), also shortened to BunAl (文アル, Bunaru), is a free-to-play collectible card browser game that launched in Japan on November 1, 2016. A mobile version followed on June 14, 2017. The game was developed by EXNOA and published by DMM.com.

Gameplay

In the game, the player takes on the role of a Special Duty Librarian, also known as The Alchemist. Their job is to enter corrupted books and cleanse them using teams of writers, who are depicted as bishōnen. These writers are obtained by the player entering ensouled books to transmigrate and recruit them into the library. The character designs are partly inspired by real-life authors, with each holding a book whose cover resembles one of their actual works, though their hairstyles are entirely original creations.

Development

The concept was first proposed by Kōhei Taniguchi as a game about collecting fictional characters from Japanese literature. After discussing it with Jiro Ishii, they decided to focus on the authors instead. Taniguchi handled concept planning, while Ishii built the world. Initially uneasy about having writers fight with weapons, they settled on the fantasy-like premise of writers entering tainted books, which they liked enough to implement.

The idea of obtaining writers through transmigration came later, after Ishii suggested pulling them out of books, once the library setting was established. Early on, the creators also decided to include writers with strong real-life connections to other characters, aiming to show those relationships. Taniguchi wanted to explore how certain writers might interact, mirroring their real-life feelings toward one another.

Characters

The characters are based on real-life writers, mostly Japanese, with a few from the Western world. The weapons each writer uses reflect their main body of work: blades for novelists and short story writers; bows for naturalist literature authors; whips for writers of popular literature; and guns for poets and children's literature authors.

Anime adaptation

In 2020, an anime television series adaptation by OLM, titled Bungo and Alchemist: Gears of Judgement, aired for 13 episodes from April 3 to August 7. It was licensed in North America by Funimation and later moved to Crunchyroll after Sony's acquisition of the platform.