Archive for the Light Novel Category


Light Novel: Maria-sama ga Miteru ~ Farewell Bouquet (マリア様がみてる フェアウェル ブーケ)

August 24th, 2012

The number one question in every fan’s mind as we read each successive Maria-sama ga Miteru novel is…is this the last one? This can’t go on forever, can it? Well, no, it can’t go on forever, as much as we might wish it could. But as for the first question, I have no answer. As with the last several of the books in the series, the ending is written so that if we never got another one, this would be a fine place to end the series. However…however… Maria-sama ga Miteru ~ Farewell Bouquet (マリア様がみてる フェアウェル ブーケ) ends at the end of July of Yumi’s third year at Lillian Jogakuen High School. I just cannot believe that Konno-sensei will just end it here. She could, definitely. But there’s the Sports Festival, and the Culture Festival and Christmas, and New Year’s…and Valentine’s Day (and the half-day date contest)…and the chance/need for the 2nd-years to find soeur and the elections…and then there’s graduation.  I cannot imagine that we won’t be given the opportunity to end our time with Yumi and her friends with great wopping tears at graduation. I will not believe it.

But.

We might, and I can’t promise we won’t. Japanese fans are asking the same question, mind you, and we won’t know until we see more chapters appear in Cobalt Shueisha. (Btw, according to the Cobalt website, the upcoming November issue, will include a Marimite section on the enclosed Drama CD.)

In the meantime, Konno-sensei is being mean and teasing us unmercifully, with novel titles like Hello Goodbye and Farewell Bouquet. I mean, really.

So the book begins with a teacher meeting up with a student on the school grounds and being taken to the Rose Mansion for some herb tea and a long chat. The teacher, Katori Maki-sensei, has been around for quite a few of the novels, and we’ve come to like her quite a bit.

The stories that fill the spaces between Maki-sensei’s time at the Rose Mansion are a pile of some really odd stories. In one, a student wants a teacher to be her onee-sama, and finds that she’s her big sister for real. In another a female art teacher is abruptly asked to make cookies by a male teacher who finds himself presented with cookies that look like, well, breasts.  My favorite story includes a radically intelligent way to teach history to bored teen girls – imagine the clans and houses as a bunch of boy bands! Seriously, I thought that was genius.

But the real story, although it takes up the least space, is the story of why Maki-sensei is taking a leave of absence from school. And, ultimately, it’s Yumi that arranges for an impromptu, beautiful and topical herb bouquet from the Yamayurikai to Maki-sensei. This ribbon story includes cameos from all our principles.

I want to make sure I mention this: Maki-sensei has a whole scene in which she absolutely assures herself (and us) that she will not be quitting teaching, that she will be returning. I’m very glad that she was made to make that point. I’m really tired of anime/manga/games/novels clinging to the outdated and tired quitting work after getting married or pregnant thing. This is as 20th century in Japan as much as it is in the US.)

And last, the final chapter is a lovely interlude with Sachiko and Yumi enjoying tea together and a gentle admonishment that this moment in time is to be enjoyed for itself.

Another delightful book. If it is the last – and it could be – it was wonderful. Time to have a cup of herb tea and think about the best moments we’ve shared with the lovely ladies of Lillian. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 9





Light Novel: Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 1 (ミニスカ宇宙海賊(パイレーツ))

August 8th, 2012

When I was in Tokyo last December, I found, picked up and put down the same one novel over and over. I’d see the cover and think “Oooh!” pick it up, see that the title was Miniskirt Space Pirates and put it down again. I must have done that half a dozen times.  Well, I sure felt like I had dropped the ball on that when I started to watch the Bodacious Space Pirates anime. ^_^;; So, later that winter I added the first volume of  Sasamoto Yuuichi’s novel series, Miniskirt Space Pirates (ミニスカ宇宙海賊(パイレーツ) to my Amazon JP order.

It’s taken me a few months to get through this book, but right off the top, I have to say that it was totally worth it. I am glad I had seen the anime first, because a great deal of the kanji in this novel is above my reading level. Having context for what was going on meant that I missed less than if I had been reading this cold.

The story is pretty much the same as it is in the anime. The first novel is covered by the first 5 episodes of the anime and there is strikingly little changed or cut out. I expected long, lingering obsessive descriptions of ships or technology (as one gets in military and gun-fetish manga and novels) but…no. This is classic Space Opera – the technology takes second place to the people. The only semi-major fact that was changed for the anime (and I have no idea at all why it was…) is that Marika’s mother, Ririka, in the anime was a Bentenmaru crew member who was nicknamed Blaster Ririka. In the novel she was a captain in her own right and was known as Captain Ririka (a name she puts quickly aside when it’s brought up in the story.) The scene where she teaches Marika how to shoot in a combat situation actually is a rather touching mother-daughter bonding moment. ^_^

Other than that, I felt no major changes were made. Which was all to the good. One of the key things I liked about the anime was that the girls of the Hakuoh Jogakuin yacht club were left to find their way through various situations on their own. Neither Misa nor Kane, Bentenmaru crewmembers acting as faculty advisors, stepped in as the Odette was being tracked or hacked into. Jenny, Lynn, Chiaki, Marika and the members of the yacht club are allowed to make their own choices. They are given the opportunity to be as brave and competent as they can be  – and they rise to the challenge.

As usual when I complete a novel, my wife asked me “Did you like it?” Unreservedly, the answer this time is…yes. I will have to up my reading game for the next one.

Ratings:

Overall – 8

I have one small complaint. It comes at the very end of the book when Marika’s captain’s costume is described. We are told that Marika’s costume include a miniskirt for ease of movement. Dear men – miniskirts are not easier to move in. They are considerably *less* easy to move in than longer, looser and more flowy skirts or pants. Please stop using that as a reason to put the girl in a miniskirt, it just makes you look pervy *and* dumb.

Oh…the title? Editors decided to name the series that. So…yeah.





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 8

March 6th, 2012

When we left Yomiko at the end of Volume 6 (before the unrelated romp that was Volume 7), she was imprisoned by Dokusensha and we had no idea what had happened to Nancy at all.

At the beginning of R.O.D., Volume 8, all is made clear.

Yomiko is indeed imprisoned by Dokusensha, but is released from her cage to have dinner with Ou-En and the woman who heads Dokusensha, who goes by the name “China.” China looks like a little girl, but is as old as Gentleman himself…indeed, she tells Yomiko that she was Gentleman’s wife, back in the ancient past when humans were first roaming the savannah of Africa. She tells Yomiko a history of humanity that, while compelling, is completely at odds with all written and fossil records. China agrees and explains that those have been faked in order to disguise the truth.

Meanwhile, Nancy has been imprisoned in a submarine deep in the ocean, to keep her from escaping  – if she should phase out of her bonds, there is quite literally nowhere to go – the water pressure would crush her before she could make it to land. She is not fed, has nothing to drink, is hung uncomfortably from her arms and is in her underwear, so she is cold. She is not allowed to sleep, either.

China takes Yomiko on a tour of the Dokusensha Library, which fills the cavity of a mountain. China speaks plainly to Yomiko, and asks her to join Dokusensha. Yomiko thanks her for the offer, but refuses. And repeatedly, politely, she asks after Nancy.

Yomiko is sent back to a nice room, rather than a cage, where Ou-En brings her books to read (and remains there, while she does, since he can neutralize her paper-user skills.) She is then visited by Faust who gives her a copy of the book Donny was reading when she first met him. He asks her again to marry him and when she refuses, declares that she is his enemy. The next time they meet, he says, he will kill her.

In the meantime, back in London, Wendy returns back to her apartment to find Nenene in near hysteria. Nenene tells her a horrific story about how she killed a man that day. Crying, shaking, Nenene recounts how a thief broke in to the apartment, and she killed him, then dragged his body to the dumpster in the back. Calmly, Wendy insists they go to the police. Nenene gets even more hysterical crying, and confesses that it was a lie…she needed to know how honest Wendy was. The two women hold each other for a bit until Nenene pulls herself together and admits that, while they were in Yomiko’s, Donny’s, apartment in Tokyo, she found Donny’s diary. She hasn’t read it, but she feels that she needed advice about what to do with it. Wendy, obviously, can be trusted, and so the two put their heads together.

Drake meets up with and puts together a squad to carry out a secret mission….

In the British Library, Joker, who has not heard from Yomiko or Nancy in days, is told that he needs to look at the satellite feed. Somewhere in China, a mountain is erupting with paper flowers.

Nancy is at her limit. Cold, hungry, thirsty, exhausted, she knows she doesn’t have much more left. When an enemy submarine approaches, the captain orders a torpedo to be shot at the other sub, and she sees her chance. Nancy phases out of her bonds and into the torpedo, where she comes within about 100 meters of the other sub. She moves through the water as quickly as possible and falls from the ceiling onto the captain of the British submarine Victorious, in front of Drake.

Wendy and Nenene board a plane for China, determined to find Yomiko and give her the diary.

Yomiko takes the book Faust gave her, sends up the paper flower signal for Joker to see where Dokusensha HQ is and escapes on a paper airplane…but not alone. She steals China, as well. With the help of a mysterious dragon that appears, Yomiko fights off China’s bodyguards  (five odious sisters, who I really could have done without.) China and Yomiko spend the night in a dark forest, while Yomiko tries to convince China to return to England with her. China rejects the offer, but asks Yomiko to take her somewhere before returning her to Dokusensha.

In front of a statue, Ou-En and Faust meet and Ou-En confirms that Faust has given a piece of the Guttenberg paper to Yomiko. Ou-En lifts the book he holds to destroy Faust where he stands….

And in China’s Forbidden City, Gentleman stands and inhales, remembering that nostalgic scent of dust.

The Epilogue is a short entry from Donny Nakajima’s Diary, describing the day he met Yomiko Readman.

Well hot damn, that was a book full of book. ^_^

While at MangaNEXT, Sean Gaffney asked me if the novel Joker and Wendy were evil or good Joker and Wendy and I had to say that, at the moment, they were neither. What we’ve seen of Wendy up until now is entirely admirable and Joker is ambiguous to the point of being a non-entity.

Unfortunately for us, Yomiko’s aerial battle was somewhat ruined by the annoying sisters who were her enemy. A good fight needs a good enemy and these were not. They were tedious in the extreme. To make up for it, however, Nancy’s escape was extra wonderful. And of course Yomiko’s stylish signal to Joker was special, as well.

But…I find myself waiting impatiently for Nenene and Yomiko to reunite. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 7 If the Bodyguard sisters hadn’t been so tedious, it might have made an 8
Characters – 7 Where the sisters were awful, China’s about a zillion times more interesting than Gentleman to date. C.p., “need a good bad guy…”
Yuri – 0
Service – 6 Of course Nancy’s in her underwear. And we have to mention that every single time and make sure we have a picture of it. Snooze.

Overall – 8

I’m really looking forward to Volume 9. ^_^





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 7

July 19th, 2011

R.O.D. Volume 6 ended with Yomiko in a precarious position. Quite literally, in fact, as she had been captured and put in a giant birdcage in Dokusensha’s Headquarters.

So of course, it’s no surprise at all for Read or Die,Volume 7 to open with Yomiko in her apartment in Jimbochou, rolling around in a pile of books; specifically the series that she she has been reading steadily for four days.

Wait, what?

After about 10 pages of detailed explanation about the “Zoolander Saga,” the scifi series in which Yomiko has immersed herself, I suddenly thought, “Am I reading the right book?” For some reason I expected Volume 7 to pick up at the end of Volume 6. But, no. Volume 7 is a gaiden, a side-story, as we would call it, that has nothing at all to do with the main plot.

Volume 7 continues on its merry way with a convoluted and utterly unfunny scenario in which Yomiko bathes in a large barrel on the roof of her building and is likely seen in her birthday suit by a neighbor who has nothing else to do during business hours.

Thankfully this ends and we’re left with Nenene and Yomiko taking a walk to the most secret store in all of Jimboucho, and thence to a bookstore where, through complications of plot, they end up running the store for an afternoon.

It is Nenene who gets to be cool this volume, taking out a disruptive creepy dude in the store, and garnering applause from the bookstore patrons.

This is followed by a short coincidence that ties the book up neatly and is notable for including the October 1972 volume of Shounen Jump, the significance of which I don’t know, but I bet the author does.

The final pages cover the tragic story of Dokusensha’s paper user Ou-En and his doomed little sister, the death of their parents and how he ended up at Dokusensha.

And so, this volume comes to a close after having been alternatively cute and frustrating  for a little over 200 pages and still, somewhere, Yomiko sits on a perch in a cage in Dokusensha’s HQ, faced with the choice of marrying Faust or being killed by him.

As a  side story, it was cute, but I felt like it was a whole-carbohydrate meal and I was craving protein. IMHO, any volume of R.O.D. without Yomiko going all paper master and kicking ass, is not the greatest use of a volume of R.O.D.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – Silly, but it had room to be awesome and just wasn’t – 5
Characters – Nenene – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 7

Overall – 6

Next volume, we return to our original programming.





Light Novel: Strawberry Panic, the Complete Novel Collection (English)

July 13th, 2011

Strawberry Panic, the Complete Novel Collection, tells the story of Aoi Nagisa, a cheerful, otherwise unexceptional girl who is swept up in high drama at an elite Girl’s Academy when the Academy star inexplicably falls in love with her.

Nagisa is a transfer student and so, as with so many series, a catalyst for change at the old, established St. Miator school. Without meaning to do so, Nagisa brings about chaotic change not only in Miator, but also in sister schools St. Spica and St. Lu Lim. The winds of change in Spica are also heralded by the appearance of a transfer student, Konohana Hikari whho, like Nagisa, finds herself swept up in the drama of a top star of the school. These two transfer students are foils for one another in this popular Yuri series.

Nagisa and Hikari’s adventures in love are, perhaps, the Yuri-est of all things. Here in the rarefied, “peach-scented” halls of Astraea, is a great deal of love between girls, but there is only one lesbian. There are protestations of desire, there are vows to be together forever, there’s petting and kissing and possibly even sex, but there is very little thought of the world outside these halls or how any of this could ever survive graduation. Here in this fantasy world, all the tropes and conventions of Yuri congregate to become the ultimate in parody literature.

In the end, Nagisa gets her Shizuma and Hikari and Amane make the most perfect couple that Astraea has ever seen as Etoile. God’s in his heaven, all’s right with this fantasy, peach-colored world of private girls’ schools and Yuri love. Fu~ fu~ fu~, the wind blows as the cherry blossoms swirl around our lovers.

And so, at last, we come to the end.

This journey began more than 7 and a half years ago, with the news that an anime was being made of a series of short stories about girls in “Yuri couplings.” I read those stories and found nothing but deep loathing for them in my heart. The art was moe, the situations were trite, and the characters lacked character.

The anime and I started off on a bad foot, but over time I grew to enjoy it. The manga and I have never been on speaking terms, but the Light Novels convinced me that there was something more here than just a parody. The Light Novels *were* more than just the kind of parody which the anime carried off – the novels were an incredibly intelligent parody written to be slightly dumb. And so, I began to find myself un-loathing the anime more and liking the novels. As my shackles of preconceptions fell, unbound by the sheer ridiculousness of the novels – and helped by Kaname’s global warming speech in the anime –  I found things to enjoy in the series. Including, but not limited to, the helicopters. Mostly though, it was the overblown, hyper-cute, yet, ridiculously over-formal moego language that appealed to me.

This time, as I read the novels I was able to just enjoy the overcomplicated saga of Nagisa and Hikari as they overcome absurd challenges so that the girls get their girls.

Ratings:

Overall – 9, which is pretty amazing when you think of how far it had to rise to get here.

One last time, I want to thank Seven Seas for making it possible for me to be part of the process.

This review was brought to you by Act 3, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare.