Archive for the Light Novel Category


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.





Yuri Light Novel – Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! Volume 2

December 23rd, 2019

Once upon a time there were three women who were just fucking done with the everyday sexism of the sexist society in which they lived. They had all experienced any number of ways in which they, despite the fact that they worked twice as hard and were twice as good as the men around them, were never given the credit or the benefit of the doubt and that every individual man required them to prove their worthiness to him, individually, and none of those men ever bothered to share that information with other men, so the women had to prove themselves over and over and over and over again endlessly.

Oh, sorry, I was thinking about Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris. It’s just completely coincidental that the exact same story also applies to Tanya, Nadine and Laplace, the protagonists of Sexiled: My Sexist Party Leader Kicked Me Out, So I Teamed Up With a Mythical Sorceress! Volume 2.

Tanya, Laplace and Nadine, known collectively as Lillium, are the most powerful party in all of Pajan. They are nonetheless subject to the systemic misogyny of life in Ode. Overpowered as they are, it doesn’t concern them much other than as a thorn in their shoe, endlessly pricking and wasting their time and energy.

When they are approached by the Princess, they are provided an opportunity to right an old wrong, and change things from the top down. To do that, Laplace must confront her own past and the man who raised her to be a powerful weapon – the Court Mage, Maxwell…her father.

I knew I was going to like this volume when I read this tweet, by translator Molly Lee:

And I did like it. For one thing, the main part of the plot delved into Laplace’s backstory, and it addresses the one real weakness of the first volume, Laplace’s tendency to kiss Tanya without her explicit consent. Although it does explain why, I wish it had emphasized a little more that it’s not right…even if Tanya ultimately doesn’t mind.

Maxwell turns out to be a distilled essence of all the mediocre men ever and it was deeply satisfying to see him defeated, but that was probably one of the least important things that happened in the novel. Lilium giving hope – and opportunity – to the people of Ode and greater O’toyok area are far more powerful. Two of the most important things to occur are the gelling of Tanya and Laplace’s relationship into something more mutual and permanent and the final moment when Tanya meets a young man who was motivated by Lilium to follow his dream. His sincere thanks changes Tanya’s perspective on her work and opens her eyes to the fact that they are providing an example and a way for anyone.

Ultimately, the fight scenes and even more the scenes where Laplace transforms her prison into a luxury suite, are icing on a revenge narrative cake.

The weakest bit, in my opinion, is the fact that Maxwell has specifically been manipulating the laws in Pajan in order to make women’s lives miserable because as a mediocre man, he wanted endless revenge on women. It would be nice if we could sweep away misogyny by removing one misogynist from power, but real life is not that simple.

I will part here from my respected peers Yurimother and Sean Gaffney, when it comes to the art. They both found Kazutomo Miya’s illustrations to be a weakness, while I very much liked them and significantly preferred it to the art of the first volume, which I found created a sense of severe dissonance between the characters as described and seen. The art here is less finished which never bothers me – I quite like pencil or pen sketches – but far more importantly, it reflects the actual characters as described in the text.  It drives me crazy when art and text are at odds.

In some ways this story was so on the money, especially the scene about Nadine’s glasses and the court’s insistence on heels, just as the #KuToo and no glasses for women controversies landed in real-world Japan, that it felt a little too current. As it turns out these were just coincidences of ghastly real-world misogyny. Whee.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 10
Characters – 10
Service – 7 With actual intent. On purpose.
Yuri – 8

Overall – 10

There are any number of things seeded into the text upon which a third novel could be built and I’ve already let Kaeruda-sensei know that it’s selfish of me, but I really want a Volume 3. ^_^

 





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

December 22nd, 2019

When you watched the Bloom Into You anime, you saw it. Maybe you understood it. Probably if you were queer, you had lived it.

You saw the way Sayaka held her coffee cup, the way her fingers tightened around it before she asked what was clearly one of the most difficult questions of her entire life to date, “Are you and Hakozaki-sensei dating?” You saw it and maybe if you’re queer, you knew what it felt like on a visceral level. The first time you said the thing. You probably knew the tightness in your muscles when you first saw someone looking at you and understood that they were looking at you that same way that you were looking at them. That you had something in common. The thing.

This is why it was so important to me that Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 1 captures Sayaka’s inner voice so well. Not because I identified with her (although we are all her, in some way,) but because of this.

As I read the first of what I hope will be three novels, this was the moment when I knew I why her voice was so important:

As my senses sharpened, the path ahead grew brighter and clearer. My defenseless heart was exposed to the picturesque sunlight. And as I observed my current self neutrally as if from the outside, I finally realized something.

I was angry.

Right now, I was incensed. But why? I plumbed the depths of my heart for the answer.

Sayaka has spent the first 14 years as a spectator in her own life. This is the moment when she ceases to observe and begins to participate.

In this volume, we learn about Saeki Sayaka from two key moments in her life. The first part of the novel follows 11 year old Sayaka’s encounters with a girl her own age who, we can see from our distance, is in love with – or more probably correctly, desires – her. Sayaka has a bit of a sense of it, but it’s not until she experiences desire that it make sense to her. The second half of the book follows her when she is approached by someone who claims to love her, who she comes to love and who, ultimately, hurts her. And when she begins to understand herself, finally.

Saeki Sayaka and I differ in one very concrete way. I read a lot of fiction as a child. This is not an aside, or an irrelevant comment. Sayaka guesses at and correctly identifies her emotions as she experiences them. Had she read fiction, she would not have needed to guess. ^_^ But we know, because we are told it, that she doesn’t care for fiction. It is a testament to the author’s grasp of Sayaka’s voice, that we can be inside her head as she objectively discusses the range of emotions she’s experiencing. It was so wholly consistent with what we knew of her, I had to be impressed. As I’ve said in previous reviews, I consider Iruma’s writing inconsistent and wasn’t sure that the Sayaka we knew would be reflected here. When I reviewed the Japanese edition, I was happy to note that it was.

I’m even more pleased to report that the translation, by Jan Cash and Vincent Castaneda, with adaptation by Jenny McKeon, and editing by Nibedita Sen and Jenn Grunigen, preserved that voice in the English edition. (I’m also chuffed as heck to see my friend Julie Davis as Managing Editor on this volume! For one thing that means that Seven Seas has gotten to the point of size, volume and sophistication as a publishing company to be hiring managing editors which is a very good thing.) I trust this team to do the best possible job with a character I actually want taken care of. ^_^

Their hard work means I don’t have to spend my energy making the novel work and can instead spend my energy resenting Yuzuki-sempai and enjoying Sayaka watching herself swear to never fall in love again, then almost immediately fall in love with Nanami Touko. ^_^

Which is how it should be.

Ratings (same as the Japanese volume):

Art – 10 well, since the creator of the original did the illustrations, that stands to reason
Story – 8 In and of itself, not riveting, but it nails the character’s voice.
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

For the interior life of a young lesbian, told in a way that is completely consistent with the character as we know her, Bloom Into You: Regarding Saeki Sayaka, Volume 1 is a very good book.

Thanks to Seven Seas for the advanced review copy!