If you browse /lit/, you should watch this anime. If not, you can still watch it and have fun. Most of the comedy and cute moments are pretty accessible. As a bonus, at least the yuri ship is still alive after the last episode. Take that Euphonium. Bernard-jou Iwaku is a short comedy series featuring essentially a memetastic representation of the average reader on /lit/, the kind of person constantly asking for what books to read, how to read, what lists to consult, and whether completing the holy trinity will ever allow her to amount to anything, all while never summoning the motivation to finish thevast repository of literature that the show manages to fit into tiny three minute segments.

In many ways, it's quite likely that the mangaka for this show is a frequent visitor to /lit/. Some of /lit/'s most valued traditions, from degrading the literary merits of Haruki Murakami, to acting aloof from the intellectual depths of our favorite hermit, Thomas Pine Cone, to pretending that we read "some" of a top 100s list in order to hide the pathetic quantity of material we actually read this year, are featured in some form in the show. All we need now is some John Green, debates about translations, William Gaddis, and a book club trying to get through Zettels Traum and we'll basically have 2016 /lit/ in a nutshell.

To be kind of serious for a moment though, I think Bernard-jou speaks to more than just readers trying to get into the continentals. It's a sort of twelve episode celebration on reading (and not reading), one where I think everyone can identify with the obsessive science fiction fan, or the arduous task of finishing novels like Moby Dick or Remembrances of Things Past or feeling a bit smug about having read a book long before it was turned into a movie. Bernard-jou, in many ways, is both a cool little inside joke for ardent readers to feel good about the idiosyncrasies of their hobby, but it's also a cute and refreshing self-parody of the idea of reading and the small little ploys, habits, and tendencies that others see in readers that can make them seem ridiculous at times.

The show also boasts a rather wide list of books to read, most of which I would probably recommend. To be honest though, if you watch this show to get a list of recommended books, maybe you're already beyond help. Start with the Greeks instead.

10/10, I fell for the meme.