Archive for the Light Novel Category


Light Novel: R.O.D, Volume 12

July 7th, 2019

We left the gang back in 2014. Yomiko, Ou-En and the Five Sisters had teamed up with China, leader of Dokusensha, in an attempt to keep the Gutenberk Paper from Gentleman and Joker. Wendy and Nenene were attempting to sneak out of China through tunnels carved under the Himalayas in a vehicle driven by a guy named Shark.  Nancy had caught up with Drake and his team in their submarine and were on their way to find Yomiko.

Got it?

Good, because not much of it is relevant to R.O.D., Volume 12.

Nenene and Wendy do make it out of the mountains and, after turning down several heartfelt proposals from Shark, Nenene has a proposal of her own. Weary and car sick, she suggests to Wendy that they go home. And so they do, never to be mentioned again.

The bulk of the book is a series of extended battle scenes. China and Gentleman duke it out for dozens of pages, some of which include Yomiko saying “…!” or just “!”.  After China goes down for the last time, Ou-En takes on Gentleman and here, at last the book gets weird. Joker is watching from his airplane, the Victorious, and makes some vague threats to Drake’s group and Yomiko. Morris reappears from a previous volume to serve Joker tea. China isn’t dead again, so Gentleman calls on the animals in the wilderness around them to attack.

Yomiko is injured. She creates a ball of paper around herself so we all expect a massive evolution but, predictably, when her evolution is complete, she looks exactly the same.

Gentleman has all but killed Ou-En when Faust finally appears and absorbs Gentleman’s life force. Both Gentleman and China are now really dead. Turns out the Gutterberk Paper was powering Ou-En, and when Faust draws it out of the young man, he threatens Yomiko with a choice to “Read…or Die.” Yomiko chooses protect Ou-En, even going so far as to sacrifice the book Donny gave her to bring Ou-En back to life. In return he gives her the black book with black pages that they’ve all been looking for.

“Well?” Nancy asks as the story winds down. “What will you do now?”

Narrator voice: We never learn what Yomiko does next.

Instead we see Morris serve Joker tea and when they finally get a clear image of the battlefield all that is there is Gentleman’s body and a bunch of dead animals.  Unsurprisingly, Joker has no clue what happened.

At last Drake goes home to his daughter Maggie, who asks where he’s been. And, so, he begins to tell her…

…and that’s it folks, thanks for coming by today! Hope you grabbed a drink and had a snack before you go and see the rest of the….

…

…

What. The. Actual. Fuck. Kurata-sensei.

I sat through school girls uniform, and comprehension contests and you whining about working while at Anime Expo a decade ago and this is what I get? DUDE. Not okay. Hire a ghost writer if you have no ideas.

If the series had wrapped up in Volume 10, as it should have done, even if it were a mash of incoherent whatever, it would have been acceptable. But waiting this long for incoherent whatever is just vexxing.

Here’s what *should* have happened:

China and Gentleman should have killed one another.
Ou-En and Faust should have fought one another, then Yomiko should have taken down Faust, brought Ou-En back from the dead with the book.
Eeverything with Joker the same. Sure let Morris serve him tea 3 times for no reason.
Nancy should have taken wounded Yomiko back to Japan, where Nenene was waiting.
Wendy should have gone back to the British Library one last time to tell Joker to stuff it.
Then Drake should have gone home to Maggie.

It really would have been very simple to end this series well.

Ratings:

Art – 5 Okay, but always of the wrong things
Characters – 9
Story – 0
Yuri – 0
Service – Meh.

Overall – It is a thing that has been read. It has lost the shelf space it has been taking up for years. Bye, R.O.D., you died an ignominious death.

I’m sorry about it too, but from now on, I’m sticking with the anime.





Yuri Light Novel: Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について)

June 23rd, 2019

At the beginning of 2019, the first volume of the Yagate Kimi Ni Naru side novel focusing on the character of Saeki Sayaka, Touko’s close friend and Student Council Vice President, surprised the heck out of me, with its grasp of the character’s voice and insight into this young lesbian’s development as a person.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite, Volume 2 (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について) was even better.

The story begins with Sayaka already in high school, already the VP of the Student Council and very, very aware of Touko’s sudden interest in this first-year student. Sayaka is hyper-vigilant of Touko’s glances, the way she introduces and stands near this girl, Sayaka knows…and understands…that she’s lost her chance with Touko.

The story then backs up to how she meets and becomes friendly, then friends, with Nanami Touko, a woman who surpasses her academically and in every other way. A woman she is content to follow, a woman she knows she cannot have, but is unwilling to give up on the idea of. Until Yuu comes along.

My favorite scene comes early as Sayaka, having seen the casual relationship between her classmates Aika and Midori, asks Touko is she can speak with her in private. Touko jokes in asking if Sayaka is going to confess to her? Sayaka cannot even begin to imagine how to do that at this point, although yes, she wants to. But no, Sayaka simply wanted to know if she and Touko could call each other by their given names. Touko jumps straight to calling her “Sayaka” with no honorific, which settles the matter. It was a sweet, earnest and heartfelt scene which provides excellent insight into Sayaka’s still-quite serious personality. She’s learning to fake casual sincerity, but when she’s actually sincere, she is very serious indeed.

The story walks us through specific interactions as Sayaka finds herself happily dragged in Touko’s wake. She joins the council because of Touko, learns about Touko’s sister, and her motivation for the play. As their third year in high school dawns, Touko and Sayaka are, for the first time in differing classes, but that is not what concerns Sayaka. As they turn away from one another at the bulletin board, Sayaka sees Touko walk towards that first-year who, through no fault of her own, has stolen Sayaka’s chance at high school love.

And then the final 9 pages begin and my eyes could not have gotten bigger. But first….

Sayaka does not identify herself as gay in this novel, but she does admit to Touko, during a conversation about being confessed to, that she has been confessed to…by another girl. And that they had dated. The next page begins with Sayaka thinking,”There. I said it.” This is the closest she comes to saying anything about her interest in women generally or Touko specifically…although we know that she will at least once before the end of high school, admit the truth to the subject of her feelings (presuming we are caught up on the manga up to Volume 7.)

But back to those last pages. The entire novel had, up to that point, been written in 3rd person. The final pages switch to 1st, as “I” am sitting in a far corner of the college campus, when a woman comes around the corner. “I” can see that she is crying. The girl apologizes and I offer some civility as comfort.

(At this point I – the reader – thought we might have been getting another glimpse at Miyako’s meeting with Riko, which followed this exact pattern. About which I have a little rant, if you will indulge me: “Random Woman A meeting Random Woman B in a random corner of the campus” is cute, but it also effectively strips any possible queer identity from the characters. It’s not like they met at a LGBTQ mixer, book club, class on gender studies, at a bar, live music show, volunteer opportunity or any one of the dozens of ways two women might actually meet. Nope. Two couples in this series just happened to meet when one person came running around a far corner of the campus to have a good cry and the other just happened to be there. I bet the odds on that are good. /rant /eyeroll/sarcasm

The two women end up sitting next to one another in a class. The formerly crying girl asks if “I” am a first-year. No, “I” am a second-year. “Oh, so you’re my sempai.” “I” am amused by this, and at this point has made it clear that the first-year reminds us of Yuu… and of our failed high school romance. “I” am absolutely aware of three previous school romances and how each of them was a failure of a sort. “Sempai, huh?” The first-year asks the narrator their name and “I” reply, “Saeki Sayaka.” As the pages come to a close, Sayaka is contemplating her future…and this woman.

And then the book ends, and I flipped the page and re-read the advert for a 3rd Saeki Sayaka novel for like the 49th time.

We are going to get a novel about Sayaka after the manga. Ahhhh!

I do not expect any more queer identity in this upcoming book than we had in the previous two, but it would be nice if, you know, Sayaka got to ask someone out who liked her the same way. I’m not asking for much, I don’t think.

Ratings:

Art – 10 Once again, art by the series creator, so….
Story – 8 A much stronger sense of Sayaka’s feelings for and about Touko, that we could not get from the manga
Character – 10
Service – 1 Not really this time
Yuri – 7 This book is chock-full of Sayaka’s thoughts about being attracted to Touko for all the reasons.

Overall – 9

Once again, I am pleasantly surprised to have fully enjoyed a novel by Iruma Hitoma, in which the tone and feel of the character as we know her is captured well. And I look forward to the sequel as it takes us into new territory.





Yuri Light Novel: Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について)

January 20th, 2019

Yagate Kimi ni Naru Saeki Sayaka ni Tsuite (やがて君になる 佐伯沙弥香について) has radically changed my opinion of this whole series. For the better. But it was a radical change. 

When we begin this book – presuming we have read the Yagate Kimi ni Naru / Bloom Into You manga or have seen the anime – we already know most of this story. Sayaka has told us most of what will happen. So none of it will come as much surprise. The narrative follows Saeki Sayaka from elementary school through high school. 

In the first section of the book, we learn about a girl she went to swimming lessons with who was – clearly, from our point of view, much less clearly from hers – infatuated with her. 

This is followed by a more detailed retelling of her first relationship with her sempai from choir, an upperclassman who asks her out and later breaks up with her after leaving for high school.

These two sections are marked by some brilliant tone of voice. I’ve said that I don’t much care for Iruma’s writing (I recently finished another novel by them and will not be reviewing it here, unless I get desperate,) but Nakatani-sensei’s touch in Sayaka’s voice and the illustrations by her makes me think she was intimately involved in this work. The Sayaka we know (and whose narrative voice we are familiar with) from the manga is captured perfectly in the exploration of human relationships by an interested, but mostly uninvolved, outsider….a tone that I am 10000% sure I will not be alone in recognizing as similar to my own internal thoughts as a young person.  Sayaka can see that someone else is interested in her; she is equally interested in and confounded by this. Her internal monologue seeks to make sense of the feelings she receives and those she does – and does not – feel in return. 

The volume ends when she enters a new high school and meets Nanami Touko and utterly, completely, falls for her. 

So, since we knew all this, how did it radically change my perception of the series? Let’s begin with the title. In Japanese the title is “Yagate Kimi ni Naru,” which I, as a typical American, translated from the first person – “In the end, I will become you.” The transliteration “Bloom Into You” is not much of a help, since again, as a westerner, I presumed a first person subject. 

I was wrong.  As I read this novel, I realized how wrong I was. The subject is not first person…it is second person. “In the end, you will become you(rself).” And with that realization, I saw what I had never seen before – there is only one plot in the manga, but that plot applies equally to every character. Every character is in the process of becoming themselves. In retrospect that seems kind of “duh” for this series, but when you realize how it all is being handled by Nakatani Nio-sensei, it suddenly becomes really rather extraordinary. We are of course watching these children become themselves, but holy shit we are watching an intentional narrative of these children becoming who they are and learning to verbalize and accept themselves and…wow. The same plot applies as much to Sayaka as it does for Touko and Yuu. And Maki. And Miyako. And everyone else.

I said from early on in the series, that I was giving Nakatani-sensei the benefit of the doubt. I have no doubts left; whatever happens from this point on, this novel has proved to me that she deserves my trust.

Ratings:

Art – 10 well, since the creator of the original did the illustrations, that stands to reason
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 complictated

Overall – 9

I’m being asked if this will be licensed. A few years ago I would have rolled my eyes and said no way. Nothing happens, But, depending on how well Bloom Into You is doing for Seven Seas, they might want to consider it. These days, all I can say is “I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” I will say that this was an easy read and much less plodding than Iruma’s original works I have read.





Yuri Light Novel: GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2 (English & Japanese)

July 30th, 2018

“We are having a well-balanced symbiotic relationship.” 

This week, it was my sincere pleasure to announce the new venture by GL Bunko, who are  releasing Yuri Light Novels in English and Japanese on US Kindle. The first foray for this venture was GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2, by Nayo with illustrations by Shio Sakura, translated by Momoko Saito. 

The story follows Misaki, a student entering Amanotsuka Girl’s School. As she jumps the wall to make the entrance ceremony, she’s discovered by a beautiful student who asks her to confirm that she doesn’t want to become a maid. Easily enough confirmed, Misaki finds that she has actually agreed to be Himeko’s maid because, in this school there are only girls in the Socialite course who are rich and girls in the Home Economics courses who vie to serve them as maids. 

Misaki, enrolled in the Home Economics course, doesn’t want to be a maid and Himeko, who is a Socialite, doesn’t want a maid, so they agree to pretend to be maid and mistress. And it all works out. 

Except that Misaki – who doesn’t want to be a maid – is not great at all the maid things she’s expected to learn. And her roommate, who wants desperately to be a maid, is envious to the point of mania. Kirara begs one of the Socialites in order to become her maid, so a test is set in which she  – and Misaki – will prove their fitness to be “Seraphs,” maids who serve the Socialites, for a promise of a maid’s job after graduation. (Other students agree to become maids for the duration of school only, as “Exousia”*.)

GIRLS KINGDOM 1 & 2 was a lot of fun, with some important reservations. The art is satisfactory but, as might be expected, illustrates scenes that might not need illustration. Of these, the illustration of the first part’s climactic moment was the most satisfactory.

The translation is not polished. It’s not incorrect, per se, but it’s not grammatically correct English, either. Everything in the book is completely understandable, but the individual phraseology is sometimes strained or fantastical. On the other hand, some of those phrases end up being brilliant, such as Misaki describing the Socialites as “surreallistically wealthy.”  The book also needed a bit more proofreading, as small typographical errors are frequent.  

Adjacent to this, the story-telling is the kind of overblown tropes made so popular by years of derivative “girls’ school Yuri” narratives, such as Strawberry Panic!. So, along with the maid/mistress plot, we get the pleasure of an extended scene of buying underwear at exorbitant prices, so we learn – in detail – that the wealthy girls are surrealistically wealthy and all about the underwear Misaki is wearing. It’s critical to the plot though…is a thing I’ll never say. ^_^;

A climactic “battle” of table manners fill the final pages of the book. If you did not already know how to eat escargot when you begin this book, you will by the time you finish. 

I don’t want to say “nonetheless” but, nonetheless, given the book’s technical and narrative shortcomings, I enjoyed it immensely. I say that with all sincerity.The unpolished translation actually served the comedy aspect of the book well. What might be less beneficial if the book were to have been a drama worked here…presuming that this was meant to be a comedy. If this book was meant to be taken seriously, (as some reviewers on Amazon JP do,) then maybe it didn’t work so well. But one can never really tell with reviewers, can one? ^_^ 

Yuri was confined to a fantasy ideal of maid/mistress relationships, but Himeko and Misaki are kind of cute together. This book is firmly in “parting the gauze curtain” territory of girls’ behavior. There is no reality here, in setting, speech or behavior.

I had a lot of fun reading this novel, despite the underwear (what is it with Yuri novelists and underwear? It’s not that interesting, folks) and random groping scenes. There are 7 parts of this series available in Japanese, of which this is 1 & 2, as stated in the title.  I will definitely read the next one in the series. 

Ratings:

Overall – 7 Not “good,” per se, but very enjoyable.

Thank you very much to the folks at GL Bunko for the review copy.

If you have picked this up, I will be very interested in your thoughts in the comments! 

 

*Because I can’t help myself, I learned that Exousia (ἐξουσία) is a feminine Greek noun meaning “conferred authority.” But you know I thought of Exodia from Yu-Gi-Oh every time I saw it.





Light Novel: Mikagura School Suite: Stride After School

November 6th, 2017

Last spring we had the pleasure here on Okazu of reading a Guest Review by Mariko S on Mikagura School Suite Anime. In that review the protagonist, Eruna, was described as “an unusual/interesting heroine …. She is that rare anime heroine who has absolutely no lack of self-confidence. She always thinks she can handle whatever happens, and when she loses or someone is nasty to her she fights back with jokes and smiles and energy. She doesn’t mope or cry once. …you can’t help but love Eruna.”

This got me feeling hopeful, so when One Peace Books sent m a copy of the first volume of the Light Novel series, Mikagura School Suite: Stride After School, I happily made space for it on my to-read pile. And now have I read it. 

What a strange Light Novel. ^_^; The author is credited as “Last Note” which seems fitting.

The book appears to be a prequel to to the anime. We begin by meeting Ichinomiya Eruna, the aforementioned confident protagonist. But what may appear to be confidence in the anime turns out to be something closer to delusions of grandeur with a side of unhinged in the LN. But never in a bad way. Eruna just has a selective memory, which rarely includes most rational deductions based on normal external stimulus. If Eruna were to be reaching for a hot coal, and you screamed “Don’t touch that!” she’s likely to assume that you mean, because she’ll have a magic power that will make her unable to feel their heat. That kind of “confidence.”

Eruna is a generally lazy, unmotivated person. Eruna is also interested in girls. She choses the school entirely because of the beauty of the girl in the catalog. But when she goes to take her exam (running extremely late) she is basically alone in a room. The exam, which she has been told is really hard, isn’t. And she still sucks at it. Nonetheless, she’s accepted. This quickly becomes a pattern…no one explains anything, Eruna, too delusional to realize she’s missing info asks nothing useful and fails to be even remotely competent…and still she gets into the school. She’s told only that she must join a club, that all the clubs are culture clubs and they battle. The battles determine the student’s status in the school. We and Eruna are told these things about half a dozen times and by the end of the book, we know nothing more than that. Thanks, Eruna.

Because Eruna is the protagonist, of course she’ll be fine, but I have to admit a couple of times I wanted to put her through a wall. In any case, it was a good exercise in being inside the mind of a character I couldn’t cope with at all. ^_^

The art by Akina is blocky and kind of appealing, in a way I’m finding it hard to describe. It’s sort of Pixiv-y or fanartish, maybe?

Ratings:

Story – 7 Silly, goofy, contentless wackiness
Art – 7
Character – 5 Everyone is in on the school except Eruna, so no one explains anything
Yuri – 4 Eruna is absolutely into girls
Service – 0 Not really

Overall – 7

So with all the wackiness and nonsense, would I read the next book? I think I might, if only to see if anything about the school is explained at all. It was an entertaining, if occasionally vexing, read. Thanks to the folks at One Peace for the review copy!