Archive for the Light Novel Category


Otherside Picnic, Volume 3

April 17th, 2020

In Volume 1 we met mystery hunter Sorawo, who nearly died while visiting an “other” world that had access points in our own and Toriko, the beautiful blonde who saved her life. In Volume 2 Toriko and Sorawo and their broker for artifacts, Kozakura, learn of the research into this other world, known as the Ultrablue. Sorawo meets an admiring kouhai, Seto, and proceeds to do everything she can to distance herself, all the time haunted by the mysterious Satsuki Uruma, who clearly connected with the hearts of Toriko and Seto, but whom Sorawo sees as a threatening and manipulative presence.

Now in Volume 3 of Otherside Picnic, after a terrifying brush with death and madness at the end of Volume 2, Sorawo and Toriko decide to take a more aggressive view of the UB, and face it head on. They customize an agricultural vehicle and head into the world to try and map it. With Sorawo’s one UB eye and Toriko’s transparent hand, they have the ability to see the reality of creatures in the UB. But Sorawo can see something that she’s not telling Toriko, who is becoming more and more dear to her. Sorawo can see that Satsuki Uruma…is watching them.

We get a few random glimpses into both Sorawo’s past, which helps explain a lot about her, and Toriko’s, which doesn’t, but offers tantalizing hints. They encounter a foe whose UB ability is deadly and, for the first time, we run into something that actually frightened me as a phenomenon. As a result I kind of want to talk about the horror author Iori Miyazawa bakes into this series. The author’s notes fascinate me, because they are themselves a kind of second-hand urban legend that the work purports to draw upon. “I read this on a board that’s gone now…” is pretty much the Internet version of  “a friend of a friend told me….” The horrors themselves are random and inexplicable, often being “explained” away by something even more inexplicable, which is charming, but doesn’t make the scare any scarier…unless it coincides with something you, personally, carry. Then it’s fucking terrifying.  ^_^

You may remember we tend to stay in Ikebukuro and we know the corner where the Junkudo is across from the ramen shop well. Yes, that ramen shop with a long line is real. The line starts about 10:30 in the morning and goes all day until the shop closes. It’s mostly Japanese folks, but sometimes has foreigners in it…and it’s on my list of things to do, to get on that line and eat there. ^_^ Well, a few years ago, my wife and I had a scary and strange experience nearby. I won’t get into details, but suffice to say the whole scene outside that Junkudo make me deeply uncomfortable to the point of being genuinely terrifying. Which is when I realized how Miyazawa’s horror works.  All the stories need to do is to evoke a place or a feeling that already scared you, and you’ll fill in the rest. Stories of weird beach houses and toilets in the middle of the hotel room, or strange looking constructions in the middle of the woods might not get you, but if you had stayed in a creepy beach house, or a really weird hotel room or saw some kind of bizzarro structure in the woods, you’d be looking for that light switch as you walked down the hall. ^_^;

Volume 3 ends with an important moment, but one that can’t really be considered a climax until we see if anything will come out of it. Toriko and Sorawo need a heart-to-heart ….but it’s not Satsuki Uruma that they need to talk about.

shirakaba’s art is less-irrelevant than usual, which was nice. Hats off to translator Sean McCann and editor Krys Loh, because translating made up fake horrors and making them make sense is way harder than translating things that exist and making them make sense.  

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 3
Yuri – 6

Overall – 9

Volume 3 is available on Kindle, Bookwalker Global  and directly from J-Novel Club.  Volume 4 just came out in Japanese in March, so I imagine it will be a while before we’re getting the next installment! If you can’t wait, you can grab it digitally on Bookwalker Global, as well!

 





Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 3 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について)

April 5th, 2020

Saeki Sayaka, very serious, prone to overthinking things, has met someone who will change her life. Edamoto Haru, first year in college has confessed to liking Sayaka, and now she needs to decide what to do about it.

In Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 3 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について), we get to ride along as Sayaka overthinks the whole thing in the most lesbian ways possible. ^_^ Haru, who tends toward being bright and energetic, in exactly the way Sayaka isn’t, is honest about her feelings. And, thankfully for us, patient as Sayaka works her way through what exactly her response ought to be.

I’m not going to spoil any of this for you because, although we may or may not get a print version of Volume 2 in time for June, we are likely to get the digital version. Instead of spoiling this ending with a detailed synopsis, I’m just going to call out a few things that I really particularly enjoyed. You’ll get to read it when it comes out in English and you can squirm through every lesbian thing Sayaka does – or doesn’t – do. 

Haru quickly takes to telling Sayaka to call her ‘Haru,’as one might expect. On brand for her, Sayaka continues to call her ‘Edamoto-san’ well into their relationship. It’s kind of a joke, kind of being an asshat, and kind of endearing…and, as I say, very on brand for Sayaka. My favorite scene in the book might well be when Haru pushes the point and Sayaka calls her “Edamoto” without the honorific. ^_^;

I loved the moment when Sayaka, standing alone in her room just stops and says out loud, “I have a girlfriend.” Squee.

As we know from Volume 8 of the manga, Sayaka meets Yuu while with Haru, and she kind of expected Yuu to tell Touko. Yuu stands her ground and tells Sayaka that it’s her responsibility, not Yuu’s. The conversation that Sayaka really has to have with Touko does happen here. I was so relieved, honestly.

Iruma Hitoma did an exceptional job of writing for this series. For an author I’ve found to be inconsistent, every one of these three volumes absolutely hit the mark for Sayaka’s voice and personality. Of course the art was on point, as well, given that the character creator was doing the art, but something more than that was apparent here. For one thing, every scene that ought to have been illustrated was. That’s unique for light novels, which so often emphasize irrelevancies in the art. And, in every image, the two characters were shown exactly the way we know them to be. I’m not sure I can explain this correctly, but you’ll see when you read it. Sayaka’s composed, staid way of holding herself, Haru’s more mobile expressions and body language…and the final picture, the satisfaction on Sayaka’s face, all were perfect.

Ratings:

Art – 10
Story – 9 A solid relationship story from the perspective of a young lesbian
Character – 10
Service – 3 A couple of small things and a big thing
Yuri – 9 A solid relationship story from the perspective of a young lesbian

Overall – 9

A better end to the Bloom Into You / Yagate Kimi ni Naru series than I could have ever imagined back in 2016, when I reviewed the first volume of the manga. A very satisfactory ending for Sayaka. I wish her and Haru (and Yuu and Touko) well.

Oh! I forgot to mention….I grinned throughout this book. It was really just that spot on. ^_^





Yuri Light Novel – Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 1 (English)

February 23rd, 2020

“…even though I was a kid, I didn’t want to feel like I was lagging behind. ”

When we meet her, in Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka Volume 1, Sayaka is a very intelligent and privileged child, experiencing her own life at a remove. She does things because not doing them seems like more of an obstacle than doing them. She wants to continually push herself to be better than those around her. Not to feel that she is more than them, but just to be the best at that thing. She’s used to praise and strives to get more of it. To be the best, she’s sacrificed experiences she didn’t know she was missing. Normal things like playing with friends and reading novels are not things that have much value to young Sayaka.

In the first part of the novel, Sayaka encounters a girl of her age in swimming class who clearly finds her fascinating. Sayaka, being very intelligent, comes very close to understanding why, but she she avoids facing the issue head on. When the girl tries to become someone Sayaka might like, Sayaka has to face the fact that the girl is a better swimmer than her. And when the girl and she share an intimate moment, Sayaka runs away. Something inside her has opened and she is afraid to face that, too.

The second half of the novel flips the story. When a sempai confesses to Sayaka, it’s her turn to try and become someone her Sempai will like, which requires her to do things she might not otherwise care about.

“A part of myself I hadn’t known about had been laid bare, exposed to the wind.“

We watch as Sayaka convinces herself that she is in love with her sempai – knowing, from our perspective that the older girl’s affection isn’t more than a passing fancy. When she is spurned, Sayaka becomes, for the first time, angry at having been used. Sayaka decides that she won’t be used again, but when she changes school, she learns another important lesson – that the universe thinks vows like that are hilarious. And once again, Sayaka is not the best in her class.

The work for this book by Seven Seas is seamless, with credits for everyone who put their time into the production. The translation by Jan Cash & Vincent Castaneda nicely preserved Sayaka’s measured form of expression. It was easy to hear this in her voice.

Speaking of which! Thanks to Seven Seas, I had a review copy of this book and I found that Microsoft Exchange has a read-out-loud feature with several voice options…including, oddly, two different choices of “Japanese” woman’s voice. You are probably familiar with the kinds of odd intonation and syllabic mis-emphasis that one encounters in machine reading. In this case it actually increased the uncanny valley of the whole thing. Imagine a Japanese Sayaka reading this English-language translation of her journal, if you will, out loud, with all missed emphasis and missed pronunciations that come with reading a language one is not wholly fluent in and you’d not be far off what the e-book sounds like read by Microsoft “Ayumi.” So that was a little surreal. ^_^

As a tone piece that beautifully captures the inner voice of a young woman with a tendency to think deeply about things without providing herself the context, this book is excellent. The voice with which Sayaka is presented is exactly the voice we hear from her in Bloom Into You. As the story of a young lesbian, it rings true, and lacks most of the kinds of service I feared we’d be subjected to.

Ratings:  the same as the Japanese edition

Art – 10, by Nakatani-sensei
Story – In and of itself, not riveting, but since Sayaka is the reason I follow the series…8
Character – 10
Service – 3 bathing suits and changing rooms
Yuri – Well, now…this is hard. I’m calling it a 5 because it’s so complicated

Overall – 9

The only weakness in the book was within Sayaka herself. I wish she had been encouraged to read more fiction….she might have found everyone’s behavior far more comprehensible if she had. ^_^

Thank you very much Seven Seas for the review copy of this book and for everyone’s hard work. Additionally, thanks to Hitoma Iruma, who did a very decent job of portraying Sayaka as we understand her.

I will be getting the third volume of this novel series in Japanese as soon as it comes out – I’m really looking forward to meeting college-age Sayaka!





Yuri Light Novel: Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 1 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月)

February 21st, 2020

In late Edo Japan, she was cool,
That successful businesswoman Vlad Dracul.
With Satuski her guard
Who was handy with a sword.
My complaints with this book are minescule.

Kunoichi Bettegumi Igarashi Satsuki, Volume 1 (くノ一別手組ー五十嵐五月) sold as kunoichibettegumi in Japanese on US Kindle, by china, with illustrations by ooshimakaoru was a gigantic ball of utter nonsense that I enjoyed every single moment of.

In the late Edo period, foreign ships were officially repelled from Japan. In Yokohama, foreigners were allowed to conduct business and live in a ghettoed area, but not everyone is happy about their presence…hence the Bettegumi, a team of for-hire bodyguards who the government hired out to foreigners.

All of this is true. All the rest of this book is not.

Igarashi Satstuki is a swordswoman hired to be the bodyguard of one Vlad Dracula, a successful English businesswoman, who wears men’s clothes, has red eyes, silver hair and dead white skin. Satsuki’s initial impression of Vlad is to shudder in horror. Satsuki doen’t like foreigners to begin with, but lesbian vampire foreigners are just too much to imagine. Oh yes, Vlad is indeed a lesbian. Night after night she either visits female entertainers after hours, or she has them visit her. It drives Satsuki mad, that Vlad likes wandering around as it gets dark, putting both of them in danger.

While accompanying Vlad on her perambulations, Satsuki meets Clare, a girl who works at the bank. Satsuki asks Vlad to teach her English, so she can communicate with this cute young lady who subsequently falls hard for the dashing swordswoman. Satsuki and Vlad end up saving Scarlet, an English admiral’s daughter, who ends up joining their group for the rest of the book. Scarlet starts out imperious and rude, but becomes a fixture from that point on. Scarlet and Vlad add themselves to Satsuki’s date with Clare. Satsuki fights off a provoked bear, and takes on a group of provoked anti-foreigner ronin and generally makes herself swoon-worthy. Vlad teases her and Satsuki pushes back. And in the end, all four of the women end up in a sleep-over at Vlad’s place. And then the book ends. Mid-sentence.

The story is filled with the kind of touches one expects in a fanfic – use of outdated terms where we have equivalent terms that will do; random bits of culture (Japanese unagi is vastly superior to English jellied eels, we are assured); not-quite-correct uses of a foreign language – for instance, English – that are meant to set the tone, but instead tend to throw one out of the story. In this case, English is actually a part of the story, and when it works, it works. When it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. In a scene designed to show Satsuki that she and Clare are of similar common class, the language Clare uses isn’t just coarse, but incoherent. Oh well…. ^_^

While one might expect that a character named Vlad Dracula,with silver hair, pale skin and red eyes, might be sensibly be assumed to be a vampire, we don’t see her sucking anyone’s blood until way towards the end. Kind of interestingly Satsuki’s reaction is not “Holy Shit! You’re sucking her blood!” but more like “Wow, what are you….oh, forget it. Weirdo.” Vlad is the least boring vampire ever, to her credit.

There’s no particular coherence to the narrative. We meet people and have experiences that, presumably, in the future will develop, but in this volume are just sort of… there. Despite that, I found this story to be fun and entertaining, which is all I ever expect out of my entertainment!

Ratings:

Art – 8, Vlad’s suits don’t fit her curves, which is a kind of service
Story – 8 Did I mention that Vlad’s a vampire?
Characters – 8 Lesbian vampire and soon-to-be-lesbian swordswoman, serving girl and admiral’s daughter. What more do you want?
Yuri – 7 See above
Service –  Have you read anything I wrote? Yes, service.

Overall – 8

On to Volume 2!

Don’t let the title fool you – there are no kunoichi in this book.

A lesbian vampire is fun
An Edo swordswoman plus one
Add two English girls
With smiles and curls
And your heart will surely be won





Yuri Light Novel: Otherside Picnic, Volume 2 (English)

February 2nd, 2020

In Volume 1, we are taken to the “other side” along with Internet legend-hunter Sorawo and Toriko, a woman looking for her missing friend. In Volume 2 of Otherside Picnic, by Miyazawa Iori, Sorawo and Toriko gain more understanding, but get no closer to the truth. 

The volume begins as the two decide to return to the Otherside to rescue the trapped and desperate group of US marines who wandered in from Okinawa. To do so, they start to put together a map of the entry and exit points. They barter their rescue for guns and weapons, and have started to expand their use of their changed bodies. Sorawo uses her blue eye to see things on the Otherside more accurately and Toriko uses her transparent hand to open portals between their worlds.

While their rescue attempt is successful, Sorawo is forced to make some real-world decisions. College is becoming increasing difficult, with excursions (and recovery) that take a toll on her body and mind. And, she finds she’s getting a reputation for being weird. So when another girl roughly her age asks her for help with a weird thing, she’s not in the mood to oblige. But she ends up helping “Karateka” (her nickname for Akari, who has actual hand-to-hand fighting skills,) anyway and are the three are immediately catapulted into a whole new set of Internet legends together.

Yuri continues to be complicated. Sorawo is attracted to Toriko, and jealous of Satsuki, the missing friend. Akari’s interest in Sorawo makes her more aware of Toriko. Sorawo is being pulled in several directions at once. She wants to help Toriko….but she doesn’t want her to find her friend (who was probably more) Satsuki, who is beginning to look like she may be the center of the horrors they are facing. Sorawo wants to spend time with Toriko, and resents the intrusion of her new kouhai…but also kind of likes her. When Kozakura introduces them to the organization that is researching the Otherside, they learn that they’ve been in more danger than they even realized….and come to a crisis that requires Sorawo to open up to Toriko to save them both. Only, she still hasn’t admitted everything. At some point Toriko and Sorawo are going to have to come clean about Satsuki. I look forward to that. 

The more we’re faced with creepy-to-horrific circumstances of the Otherside, the less realistic the legends seem. Although Miyazawa is at some pains to document the boards on which he learned about them, the less convincing “I wish this board was still in existence” sounds. ^_^ Ninja cats are funny-creepy, but, to be frank, the complexity of “kid on the beach beaten up by thugs, who kill the kid, but then they all turn on you” kind of loses me. I’m not inclined to be taken in by Internet horrors – I was so tired of seeing warning articles about the Momo challenge, I tracked it all down to the hoax it was, before the wikipedia article was written. Nonetheless, the slow-burn of constant horror, slowly building into climactic real/fake horror was a terrific bit of writing and worth re-reading.

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 9
Service – 3
Yuri – 5

Overall – 9

Of everything weird and inexplicable we’ve been asked to believe, the one thing that sticks with me is the “New York style” toilet in the hotel room. I am 100% convinced that that was probably real (although not common or trendy in New York, but maybe it really was in a resort the author visited.) I once stayed in a B&B in Birmingham, England, that had a completely clear-glass walled shower in the middle of the bedroom. It happens.