Watashi ha Ongaku de Naguritai: Band Yuri Novel (わたしは音楽で殴りたい: バンド百合小説) by Yuruico Vraisravana is the very last item I picked up in February 2019 when I was in Japan for Comitia that was left unread. And now, more than 2 years later – it has been read!

Novels are slow going for me, simply as a matter of circumstance. I do my reading at night before bed and my eyes are already tired from the day. A few pages at a time is about all I can manage. And this novel is nearly 400 pages long. At least it wasn’t in a teeny-tiny font. ^_^

The story follows Nagi, a young woman who is at loose ends. She’s graduated high school and is in university, but is sort of floating aimlessly with no particular desire. Her lover is a teacher with whom she has had a relationship since middle school and if that wasn’t enough to make you hate Sensei, they are also a complete jerk to Nagi as a matter of course.

One day, Nagi meets Mare, an old schoolmate. Mare is on the way to a live show and invites Nagi along…and Nagi’s life is completely changed. Although she doesn’t “understand” rock and roll, she’s rendered helpless as Chimera sings from the stage about how life has no meaning. At the end of the show, Mare finds Nagi on the floor, her eyes filled with tears. Mare takes Nagi to a karaoke room and there, discovers Nagi has a great voice. Once again Mare invites Nagi out – this time to audition with her band, Asiatic Hybrid (which, by the way, is the name of a lily.)

The bulk of the story involves Nagi and the band adjusting to one another. Nagi is sleeping with Yomi, the drummer and band leader, but she’s running after the girl with black hair, Chimera. The band struggles to find their sound. Toa, on bass, seems detached a lot of the time, Mare is starting to sound jealous of Nagi’s increasing influence and Yomi and Nagi are maybe more serious than they are admitting. When Nagi asks to write the lyrics to their next song, things come to a head with Mare. Mare and Nagi spend an all-nighter confiding secrets and working on their song – together.

Nagi tries to find her sound and to understand rock and roll. As the big contest is upon them Chimera dissolves her band. When Nagi tracks them down and demands to know why, they say that it’s just time. She’ll have one chance and one chance only to beat Chimera. Chi, the girl with black hair, signals her support and Nagi and the band go out and kill it.

The book wraps up with Nagi and Yomi rededicating themselves to studies, the band continuing to play and Yomi and Nagi admitting that they love one another.

When I got the book, I also had received a mini disk with the band’s song. I had very clear idea of what I thought the band members looked like as I read this book, and when I finally watched the music video for their single…this was not it. ^_^ But it was fun to see this and now you too can see Asiatic Hybrid and listen to their single, Recollection:

I was surprised that Nagi was a soprano. I don’t know why, really. There’s also a lovely little voiced promo which nails what I imagined as Yomi’s voice.

Ratings:

Art – Not in the book, but the videos, and while nice, not the image I had at all.
Story – Not bad.
Characters – Totally worked, no one that felt out of place
Service – Gonna call Sensei on this. Yuck
Yuri – Yomi and Nagi were a boot I was waiting to see drop. It never did, for which I was glad

Overall – Solid 7

Honestly, it wasn’t a bad novel at all, just needed a bit of editing in places. As a purchase at Comitia, two thumbs up from me and I’ll borrow a thumb for giving out the companion CD as well. Yuri girls band story with a happy ending, plus media mix for the win. This novel is available on JP Kindle, or from Melonbooks, and you can download the song, Recollection for free from Booth.pm. Melonbooks also has a some of Yuruico’s other publications, or you can check them out on Pixiv.

This is kind of a long review for a doujinshi novel…but it took me 2 years to read it, I’m gonna talk about it a bit.