Yuri Light Novel; 384,403 km ~ Anata ni Sarattara

October 20th, 2009

When I see a book with illustrations by Kurogane Kenn, my first thought is, “Oh, this is going to be great, I can tell.” I’m willing to bet that my tone of voice is not the same as many of yours would be if you were to say that. ^_^;

And so I did say, when I first came across 394,408km ~ Anata ni Sarattara, a light novel written by Kousaka Hio and illustrated by Kenn.

The novel primarily follows the singular obsession of Miyuki for classmate Rise. Miyuki is an honor student, ojou-sama type, but in reality, her family is not rich and she is not able to follow Rise to an elite school after elementary school. But that doesn’t stop her from obsessing about her. For eight years.

When Miyu’s father suddenly hits the lottery, her first and only concern is to get into the same elite school that Rise attends. With her excellent grades, it’s no problem at all. At last, Miyuki can be reunited with her beloved Rise who, by the way, has no idea at all that Miyuki feels this way. Miyuki had asked Rise to be hers, back in 1st grade and is now determined to realize that dream.

On the way to meet Rise, whose class is inexplicably on the floor above her own, Miyu runs into the “Silver Witch,” green-eyed Mikado Maria. Maria smells the scent of lilies about Miyuki, and invites her to join her “Romantic Love Study Group.” After an odd, lukewarm reunion with Rise, Miyu is approached by the president of the Morals Committee, who recruits her to join the Romantic Love Study Group in order to infiltrate and get the dirt on their repulsive, filthy behavior. Immediately, Miyu can see that the President has some feelings for Maria, but whatever. Since Rise’s a member, she’ll do it.

The first day in the RLSG is not easy. Witch Maria plays with people like toys and it’s immediately obvious that the group follows her whim. She makes Rise and Miyuki flirt for them all, and they end with a kiss. Frustrated that it is merely a kiss between friends, Miyuki walks away from the group.

After witnessing Maria and Rise doing more than just kiss, Miyuki challenges Maria to a duel to win Rise. Maria calls for the match to be strip poker, which Miyu loses, but in the end she does gain Rise.

The rest of the book is them having sex. Sometimes from one perspective, sometimes from the other.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Character – 6
Yuri – 10
Service – 10

Overall – 7

The title, by the way, is the distance between the Moon, of which Miyuki has always fancied herself the Queen, and the Earth, which of course is Rise (her name even contains the character for Earth.) But I think Sean Gaffney said it best when he asked if that was the distance between this book and literature. ^_^

6 Responses

  1. scareknee says:

    The synopsis actually had me up till strip poker, which I then proceeded to roll my eyes. It sounded intriguing up till then, kinda like chatting with a nice girl/guy, but then finding out they have a creepy fetish or something.

  2. schenkus says:

    Actually 384,403km is the average distance between the moon and earth (not sun).
    The distance between moon and sun would be about 150 million km.
    I guess one can’t trust the “science” in light novels.

  3. @schenkus – My mistake – you are correct. I’ll fix that right away.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Hi Erica! Any chance this will be translated into English? I lack the skills needed to read in Japanese! I wish I could though!!

    Thanks!
    Pixiey

  5. @Anonymous – I doubt it. I hope not. It’s absolute filth.

  6. J says:

    I was actually pleasantly surprised by this book, mostly because I was expecting it to be so much worse. I was prepared for it to be written in a way that would ask me to join Miyuki in her insanity, but it wasn’t. I appreciated how the switching of perspectives in the latter third of the book allowed us to see how far off the mark Miyuki’s perception of her world is. I certainly wouldn’t be tempted to say it was a good book overall, but there were certainly aspects that entertained me. I won’t recommend it to my friends, but if a sequel appears I’ll probably buy it.

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