Archive for the Light Novel Category


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.





Random Thoughts on the Strawberry Panic Light Novel Omnibus (English)

June 16th, 2011

SPN2There’s two things you need to know up front about today’s post about Strawberry Panic: The Complete Novel Collection.

1) This not a review. I’ll explain why in a moment.

2) I worked as the Copy Editor on this book and so, if you find any typos, I declare them things that were found, but inexplicably not corrected. Kapeesh? ^_^

Okay, so, this isn’t a review because realistically, you either LOVED Strawberry Panic anime, manga and/or Light Novels and nothing I will ever say will sway you from your opinion or you didn’t love it and ditto. And, at least for the first two novels, I’ve already reviewed them in English.

It’s also not a synopsis because I did that already too, when discussing the original three volumes in Japanese.

Instead, I’m going to jot down some random thoughts about the series.

Thought 1 – I want to congratulate and thank Seven Seas for another excellent adaptation from Japanese into English. If at any point you think the books sound utterly ridiculous and no one speaks that way, you should thank the translators and editors for perfectly capturing the tone of voice from the Japanese.

The original novels were written in a tone of voice I don’t have a word for, so if you can think of one, let me know. The tone is faux-serious, overformal and precious, yet so facetious and corny that it’s hard to take any individual sentence seriously, much less whole conversations. Oh, wait! I have it – a new word to describe this! I will call it moego, the language of moe. ^_^

Well, these novels are written in full moego, let me tell you. As I read, I keep saying to myself – no one speaks that way. And really, no one does.

Thought 2 – The one genuine negative comment I have about this book is that it is both an omnibus, but made with thin paper. So it feels…impermanent, but clunky. The originals were all Light Novels, which are printed in a small size and made to be a quick read, so can get away with less than stellar paper, precisely because they are “Light” novels. This collection has too much bulk to be easily carriable and yet is made kinda crappily, so it won’t survive being carried around in a book bag or briefcase well.

Thought 3 – I feel bad for this book, because there are very few anime/manga reviewers who can really do it justice. The very intelligent reviewers out there will look at this thing like a piece of three-day old dead cod. They won’t “understand” it, (as few have “understood” A Certain Scientific Railgun.) The problem is that these novels are a franchise extender for a franchise few of them are likely to have seen, even fewer to have enjoyed and Light Novels as a whole puzzle them – as they expect, y’know, *stories* in a novel and not meaningless drivel wrapped in detailed discussions of school uniforms.

As I said on Twitter the other day, manga is generally not written for people to get into, the way a novel is. Manga are frequently written for people who already have a hook into that thing to try something like that thing. With Strawberry Panic!, if you’re not a Yuri fan, there’s darn little here to appeal. (Unless the reviewer is a *very* good reader and can hear the moego for the broad parody it is.) With few exceptions, the reviewers who are likely to “get” this omnibus are going to be unashamedly uncritical fans who love the series, but won’t get what’s actually going on in the novels. I desperately hope that a few people I know and respect will review this book for what it is, loving it for the lovable bits and laughing heartily at the hilarious bits sprinkled throughout.

I will, of course, do my best to do all that. I just hope that I’m not alone in this. I can almost see the look on Brigid Alverson‘s or David Welsh‘s face trying to read this wholly inexplicable thing….(Or Ed Sizemore or Kate Dacey or Melinda Beasi or just about any reviewer I respect, honestly…. Sean – it’s all on you, I think. Help me out here!)

Thought 4 – Drinking games. It’s a toss up who cries more – in Novel 1, I’d say go for Chiyo. In Novel 2, Hikari. In Novel 3, just drink every time Chikaru shows up and does nothing.

Thought 5 – Finally! This book is the first time my Commanding Officer, Ana M. and I have had a chance to work together on a book since Inukami! For that alone, I love this book with all my love.

In fact, I do love this book. It’s hilariously funny and, in a few cases, there’s a teeny bit of romantic something or other. Thank the gods my memory of the helicopters was not some fever dream, but actually part of the story. Phew. Dodged that bullet. ^_^ In fact, I believe that, overall, my synopsis of the novels from Japanese stand solid. When I’ve read this whole thing at once, I shall endeavor to once again synopsize and properly review, knowing that, if God is indeed in his heaven and all is indeed right with the world, that shall be the very last Strawberry Panic post I will ever write.

Until then, dear readers!





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 6

May 26th, 2011

Yomiko and Nancy team up against the powerful Dokusensha! Finally! As you’d expect sparks fly, walls are phased through, paper is flung…and it’s not quite as excellent in book form as it would be animated.

Yomiko, if you recall from Book 5, has inadvertently handed the Guttenberg paper over to Dokusensha’s paper user, Ou-en. To correct this mistake, she has taken on the task of traveling to China to retrieve the item. In China, she almost immediately runs into British Library agent Nancy Makuhari.

As R.O.D. Volume 6 opens, the two of them sit down to enjoy excellent tea and pastries and be held at gunpoint by a disgruntled client of Nancy’s. When Yomiko shows off her skills, Nancy, who had had a hard time seeing past the goofy, book-obsessed facade, is very impressed. But that quickly turns to surprise and maybe a little fear as Yomiko’s bibliomania exerts its influence over her character and Nancy gets a quick glimpse into what madness looks like. Nancy’s no fool, she knows what she’s looking at, and backs off quickly.

And then, they run. They run in and around Shanghai, through stores and underground tunnels and buildings. And eventually, the come face to face with Dokusensha’s agents.As Yomiko’s skills with paper are mirrored by Ou-en, Nancy’s abilities to change the density of her body and things she touches are mirrored by a Dokusensha agent who can do that too. Which, although the bulk of the book is super-charged action scenes, ultimately was not great reading. There are a few reason why that may be:

First and foremost, I am a character person. The parts of these novels I like best are the characters interacting with one another. The quiet moment at the beginning, where Yomiko and Nancy size each other up over tea was more “fun” for me than the later action scenes.

Secondly, the writer, while usually quite competent, just wasn’t getting me really hooked into the action. I don’t know if he had a hard time writing protracted action scenes (which is totally understandable, as writing action is much harder than showing it) or whether he was rushed and just didn’t have energy to manage it.

Thirdly, having mirror-matched enemies was kind of…boring. We don’t get to see Nancy shine because, in the way of all good sci-fi novels, the bad guy is actually slightly better/more powerful than we are, and ahead of us in the game. You know how it goes. So we barely get to see Nancy kick ass, because she’s being thwarted at every turn. Bleah. What we like in our action is Yomiko and Nancy blowing the bad guys away, not running in second place. This sort of sucked the fun from the action for me.

Fourthly, I have come to realize that I like Yomiko best when she is with Nenene. For the duration of this book, they are apart. Nenene does have some quality time with Wendy, though. When Wendy prepares an excellent lunch for them, Nenene comments that, if she were a boy, she’d take Wendy as a lover, to which Wendy replies, “But, if you were a boy, wouldn’t you already have taken Yomiko as a lover?” Nenene flips out at the insinuation, but Wendy is firm in calling it like she sees it.

The other stand-out scene for me was when Yomiko saves Nancy and, when Nancy (who is clearly not used to be valued by anyone) asks why, Yomiko replies simply, “Because I like you.” These words repeat in Nancy’s brain through the remainder of the book, like a refrain. I felt the cloister bell of future anime series ringing in this scene.

The upshot of the action is that Nancy escapes, but Yomiko is captured by Dokusensha. In the final scene, the traitor Faust appears and gives Yomiko a devil’s bargain – either she must marry Faust, or be killed. Dum~dum~dummm~

Ratings:

Art- Typically ugh – 5
Story – Atypcially ugh – 5
Characters – The saving grace here – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 7 for Nancy’s leather suit alone

Overall – 5

Tune in next time to find out when/how/if Yomiko escapes a fate worse than fate!





CANAAN Light Novel, Volume 2 (下)

May 13th, 2011

Volume 2 of the Light Novels based on the anime CANAAN is, like the first volume, an exact rendition of the anime to text form. Where that worked well for the first volume, the emphasis on action scenes – specifically one-on-one confrontations – made for some really slow reading in this volume.

It’s not that the author is bad, it’s just that the action scenes are literally descriptions of the action portrayed in the anime. So literal that, after a while, it begins to feel like one is reading an RPG which, if you think about it, you kinda are. ^_^

So, after 350+ pages of “Person A does a thing. Then Person B does a thing. ‘Blah, blah,” Person A said,” I found myself replaying the scenes from the anime in my head to remember the energy and passion contained within them. Painful or awkward scenes were especially slow. Hakko’s final hours and Liang Qi’s fate were rather more excruciating than they were in the anime. To be fair, this is probably because it took *me* so long to make my way through them, and not any particular fault of the scenes themselves.

The few good Yuri scenes we had in the anime remained good in the novel. The night before they enter the destroyed village on the Silk Road, in which Canaan and Maria realize just how much they mean to each other, was quite wonderful. And, in the same way, the moment when Canaan sort of belies that by naming their relationship “friends” is just as disappointing to us. However, I’m more convinced than ever that it was not the death knell for Yuri, but the beginning of Maria and Canaan being able to see each other as equals and from that…who knows. It still seems to me that what they had was far more intimate (in an emotional sense) than a friendship.

At the beginning of the series, Canaan is more like Superdog than anything else. Super-powered, cute, a little alien, a little exotic, a lot “what do you do with this?” Maria is naive and helpless. They have to move past those things to be people who can look each other in the eyes squarely. Now, as the story comes to a close, I can see the two of them learning to love one another in a not-childish way.

But, the pages of the story do come to a close and so must this review.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – In my hopeful delusion, I’m going to say 6
Series – 4

Overall – 8

As with the first volume, if you very much enjoyed the anime and wish to level up your reading skills (there is a lot of scientific and military terminology, as well as just adults having adult conversations) you will probably enjoy CANAAN.