Having talked yesterday about Light Novels, I felt it was most appropriate today to discuss Yen Press’s edition of Book Girl and The Famished Spirit, the second of the Bungaku Shoujo Light Novel series. I reviewed the first in the series, Book Girl and the Suicidal Mime over at David Welsh’s Manga Curmudgeon. For the tl;dr crowd – it was fantastic. A truly compelling read. You should seriously run out and get it right away. Get extra copies for your library and friends.

Book Girl and the Famished Spirit, follows the same formula as the first. Konoha is a high school second-year student who carries the baggage of two life-altering episodes. A girl he loved deeply killed herself while he stood there, unable to do anything to stop her. And he wrote a novel that was an award winning best-seller – only, he wrote it under the name of the girl he loved and as a result can tell no one. The subsequent nervous breakdown from the pressure of being famous (but not really) turned him into a recluse. Konoha has managed to pull himself back into society, but is still prone to panic attacks. And he still writes. Only this time, he confines his writing to short stories, “snacks” for his book-eating Book Club president, Tohko.

While Konoha fills Tohko’s appetite for stories, Tohko has set up a post box on the school campus to feed her desire for adventure. In this second novel, the genre is “horror” as a ghost leaves mysterious and desperate messages, which leads them to encounter a horribly skinny girl Hotaru, her “ghost” Kayano and the gothic horror romance that drives their story.

These novels are rated for 15+ and where I felt that the first book could easily be enjoyed by a precocious younger reader, I strongly feel that the age rating is justified for this book. This is not a light Light Novel. Creeping psychological horror fills most of the second half. To some extent the ending is actually a cop-out, to which I can only say, thank heavens! The alternative would have been quite appalling.

Each one of the Book Girl Light Novels is steeped in the idea of “Books.” A book – a classic of literature, whether Japanese or Western – runs through and intertwines with the plot of the story, almost as another character. Anyone even remotely familiar with the “book” will immediately gain hints as to the backstory of the plot, but Nomura doesn’t make it that easy, even if you have read “the book.” She throws book McGuffins into the plot, pointing you in the direction of Agatha Christie or Souseki Natsume, before she reveals the *real* book behind the book. In some ways, her unnatural attention to books leads me to believe that this series is an elaborate prank to make teens want to read literature they’d probably have to read for school, anyway. And it works, too! I’m dying to read every last reference in this series.

I say the books are steeped in the idea of “Books” – you’ll note that I do not say “Writing.” Despite Konoha’s brush with fame and his duty to his President, we learn nothing about how he writes, and only barely anything about what he writes. This is a book for readers, not writers.

Since I am reviewing this book here on Okazu, you must realize by now that there is at least *some* smidgen of Yuri.

Most of the romantic tension in this series is decidedly heterosexual. Konoha does not “like” Tohko, but is sometimes aware of her as a girl, as opposed to just a weird-ass person. The romances (such as they are) in both this book and the first are likewise straight. And there’s a girl who likes Konoha, but shows it by glaring. However.

We are introduced in the first book to the Granddaughter of the school chairman, the obscenely rich, highly connected, ridiculously smart and talented, Maki. Maki wants to be a painter, but her school is renowned for their orchestra. Her grandfather insists, therefore, that she conduct. She agreed on one condition – that she also gets a private painting studio. So, when we meet Maki, she is painting. Art seems to be her first love. Her desire for Tohko to pose nude could be just a tease, but there was some quality about her relationship with Tohko – beyond the teasing and the fact that she fit all the criteria (better looking, smarter, talented) for a Yuri character – that made my Yuri sense tingle. In this second volume, we learn the truth of her feelings for Tohko. I won’t give any of it away, but let’s just say that my Yuri sense was not wrong.

Technically speaking, I think the translation is excellent – by which I mean that I forgot I was reading a translated book – with one exception. They tried *just* a bit too hard with Ryuto. But it was otherwise seamless and for that, I offer a nod of appreciation to Yen’s staff. I don’t have the original to compare the reproduction to, but don’t very much care what was changed – this was a book about reading for readers that made an excellent read. That pretty much hits all my buttons just the right way.

Ratings:

Art – 6 Cute, but too light and airy for this novel
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 4
Service – 1

Overall – 9

Book Girl and the Famished Spirit is not a gentle book. It is waves in a storm crashing on the rocks, salty and cold. It tastes of dark, dark, bittersweet chocolate.

I absolutely loved this book.

Vertigo (ヴァーティゴ) by Fukami Makoto, is a story of a cop and her ex-army partner as they track down and defeat a criminal operation that has been killing people all around Tokyo.

On the one hand, Vertigo is an incredibly crappy science fiction novel, with “cybernetic’ everything and “nanotubes” used in the stupidest, least convincing way possible. All the women are clothed in form-fitting bodysuits (with the occasional tactical vest thrown in for good measure) or otherwise scantily clad, yet somehow fully protected. For instance, Reo’s halter top there on the cover is “armored mesh.” Uh-huh.

On the other, Vertigo stars two strong female leads, neither of which back down in a pinch, neither of which flinch from a fight, whether hand-to-hand or projectile.

On the one hand, the art for the book portrays women with such exceptionally large breasts, hips and contoured nipples and crotches that it pretty much ruins your ability to see them as anything but human-shaped milk cows. You can get a sense of that from the cover image. To drive my point home, here is a picture of Nako, a side character, one of Reo’s ex-lovers. The picture is Not Safe For Work or Brain. Don’t come screaming to me if you click it.

On the other, one of the characters, ex-army, now police detective in training, Hashibe Reo, is an out lesbian in a long-term relationship that is not broken up or even threatened by anything in the plot and there’s a discussion of when same-sex marriage became legal in Japan and how it was a good thing all around for everyone. Reo loves her lover Rina and Rina loves her back – they are considering marriage. And we end the book pretty sure that Reo and Rina will get married, after all.

On the one hand, dedicated police detective Natsume Shizuka kills her own neglectful mother who she thought had been dead for years.

On the other, Shizuka ends the story with a nice girlfriend, a new job and a happy ending.

One the one hand, the plot combines Chinese terrorists, an illegal fight club, (a scene in which Reo and Shizuka are inexplicably required to kiss each other by a passing stranger, but otherwise has nothing to do with the plot,) a possible Christian cult, and an evil pharmaceutical company.

On the other, the actual plot had just about *nothing* to do with any of the above. Except the evil pharmaceutical company.

On the one hand, gang rape as a form of torture was used as a main plot point, and on top of that, the book included childhood flashbacks of threats of rape and a brother that was forced to do child porn and subsequently killed himself.

On the other, the after-trauma situation was handled with grace, sensitivity and honesty.

Reading Vertigo has been a challenge on several levels for me. The kanji, sci-fi/military/police procedural as it is, was *way* above my level of comprehension. I was dedicated and experienced enough to grasp a lot from the context and lucky enough to know more than the average otaku about hand-to-hand combat, so I actually understood (and enjoyed) the bit about Capoeira and could figure out a lot of the rest. But man, do I so not know the words for a lot of normal business things. ^_^

It’s pretty apparent from the predictability of the plot, that this was written to become a movie – and if it does, I’m sure it will be successful. It has pretty much something for everyone (well, everyone likely to go see a scifi-action-suspense-movie like this.)

I can’t say I liked it, but I also can’t say I didn’t. It was both really awful and really good at the same time – sometimes in the very same sentence. In conclusion, I have to say, Vertigo was an aptly named novel.

Ratings:

Art – AAAAUUUGGHHHH MY EYES!!!!!
Story – 2 and 9 all at once
Characters – 9
Lesbian – 9
Service – 10 Googolplexes

Overall – I’m feeling dizzy. Pick a number. That’s what it was.

Today review marks a wonderful day – the addition of yet another new Okazu Superhero! I want to welcome and thank with all my heart and the parts of my brain that don’t hurt, Mari Kurisato, for sponsoring today’s review!

Kayamori Sakurako is the granddaughter of the head of the Sacred Tree Blue Heaven Style of sword fighting. On her first day of high school, her grandfather names her his heir, and awards her the sword name “Kuzuha,” the fourth woman in the family to bear the name.

When Kuzuha gets to school, she comes across a young man attacking a schoolmate of hers. Although the schoolmate is also a kenshi, a swordfighter, she’s trying to protect the people around them and is, as a result, losing. Kuzuha jumps in and saves the other girl, who turns out to be Kajimoto Ami, a member of the school’s self-policing organization, Luminous Force. Thus Ami and Kuzuha meet…fatefully.

You know how you’re listening to someone talk and you suddenly realize you have no idea what they are talking about and you have to say, “I’m sorry, now who was that and what was going on?”

I felt like that through the entirety of Noblesse Oblige ~ Kayamori Kuzuha’s Resolution. (ノブレス・オブリージュ ~茅森楠葉の覚悟~)

Which is not to say that this was a bad book. It wasn’t. I just kept wondering things like, “so what’s going on here and why do we care?” and “why was this book written, again?” This may makes it seem like I wasn’t enjoying it, but that’s not true. This was a nice novel, in fact, it had some really excellent elements, I just felt like I was missing something, as if it was a franchise extender for a game or something else that I couldn’t find.

I can’t synopsize the plot of this book, because there isn’t actually a plot. The point of view starts as Kuzuha’s, then switches to Ami’s for the rest of the book, except when it switches back in the middle of the story to Kuzuha’s.

The book takes place at Seibou Girl’s Academy, an elite academy for daughters of the nobility (kazoku) and the knightly class (kenzoku). Ami seems to be the sole commoner at the school. That she is part of Luminous Force, protege to the Guardian of the West, does not make her popular, but neither does she seem to be bullied. She is hounded by a random girl who demands that she admit that the reason she’s a Luminous Force member is because she and her mentor, Sayaka-sama, are LOVERS. Ami’s reaction is wonderful. “Lovers?” she thinks. “First I’ve heard of it.”

Kuzuha is trying to integrate being the public heir to her family’s fighting style into her life. She visits another of the Luminous Force members, Guardian of the South, the seventh of her line to bear the name Nanami. Kuzuha’s maid and Nanami fight, but when Nanami attempts a killing blow, it’s Kuzuha who stops the blade with her bare hands. In return for injuring her, Nanami spoils Kuzuha a bit at school.

Ami and Kuzuha are set up by another member of Luminous Force, Eastern Guardian Koyuri, to fight as part of the school festival, but Kuzuha takes a dive. It later turns out that she had never before picked up a shinai in her life, having always practiced with live blades. Ami finds herself sympathetic towards Kuzuha and really, really wants to be friends with her. The more she gets to know about Kuzuha, the more she respects and admires her. It’s obvious that Kuzuha is a truly excellent swordswoman, and the loss to Ami was a gift to the other girl, to cement her position as a member of Luminous Force,

One day, Ami is waiting for the bus when Kuzuha pulls up in her family’s private car. Inexplicably, she tells Ami that she’s found glasses like Ami’s and wants to do her hair up like Ami has. She’s girlishly excited when the her maid tells her they look the same. After asking to borrow Ami’s sword, she leaps out of the car and runs after…the guy who attacked Ami in the second chapter. The kid, not knowing Ami well, except superficially, believes he is fighting Ami, so when he is summarily defeated by Kuzuha’s Pure Sky Cut, they are all pretty sure he’ll never bother her again. When they reach school, they learn that Nanami has taken Kuzuha into Luminous Force as her protege.

Ami retaliates for that act of kindness by bringing Kuzuha’s best friend into Luminous Force so those two can be closer, too.

The final scene, Koyuri pairs Ami and Kuzuha up for a re-match, this time, for real. The end of the book is actually kind of silly, and everyone is laughing by the final page.

And I still have no idea what the book was about. ^_^

However, the sword fighting was really pretty good, until the very end with the Pure Sky attack which is right out of comics. The book had me hooked when Kuzuha’s maid, Kofuyu, mentioned that she uses only a wakizashi to fight. As I’m inordinately fond of wakizashi, (indeed, it’s the only kind of Japanese blade I’m comfortable with, having trained all those years with a two-edged sword, and because of a certain wakizashi I once had the pleasure of bearing…) I just got all tail-waggy happy at that scene.

The other element which was excellent was the complete lack of Yuri. It’s not like there weren’t lead-ins all over the place: Kuzuha’s close relationship with her maid Kofuyu, Nanami and Kuzuha, Ami and Sayaka, Kuzuha and her best friend Suzune, Ami and Kuzuha…and you know what? None of them were anything even close to being treated with stupid service. In fact, all the relationships seemed totally organic and normal considering the unreal setup. The one I expected to be totally Yuri-fied was Sayaka and Ami, since they were *clearly* the Sachiko and Yumi of the series, but it never once went there. Sayaka was cool, kind, sympathetic, friendly, scolding, but nothing more. She was a firm/kind mentor, Ami her protege. The end.

When Ami watches Kuzuha defeat the guy, disguised as Ami, her desire to embrace Kuzuha was really, honestly, just to give another girl, a friend, a hug.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Swordplay – 8
Service – 1

Overall – 8

So despite the fact that I really haven’t a clue what this book was about, or who it was for, or why it was written…I liked it. There’s a sequel, about the other Luminous Force member, Harumi. I’m sort of even tempted to get it. ^_^

Here’s the recipe for Ichijinsha’s Iris Bunko Yuri Light Novels:

Take a princess, (must have blonde hair and be 16) and have her told about 80 times that being married is a woman’s greatest happiness, then make her marry someone icky.

Add a savior whose hair, eyes and clothes are all the same color, (she must be female and 17 years old).

Spice it up with sexually suggestive older woman who makes everyone uncomfortable. Fold in horse, carriage, bath scene and at least one kidnapping/arrest.

Soak overnight and cover with a light frosting of being on the run. Read at room temperature.

***

Double Engage: Itsuwaru no Hime ha Kishi to Odoru (偽りの姫は騎士と踊る―ダブル・エンゲージ) best exemplifies, in my opinion, the word “mediocre.” There was nothing wrong with it, although Princess Diana is a tad more clueless than I enjoy in my lead characters. And there was nothing stellar about it, although Diana and her female knight Effie kiss, several times, in a real kiss-like manner, not just chastely pressing their lips dryly onto the other’s.

And, despite the possible threat of men who don’t really care about Effie’s or Diana’s happiness, there’s really only one actually semi-threatening scene and that comes from the female brothel owner who puts Diana on the auction block (where she is, of course, rescued by a disguised Effie.)

There’s even a vaguely sort of semi-realistic conversation about what the two of them will do, since they can’t get married, really, that is thrown in just before they ride off together into the sunset without resolving the issue at all.

Nonetheless, there was no doubt as I read this book that we were just going through the motions.

Which kind of leads me to wonder – why is “entertainment for women” so gosh-darn dull? In “entertainment for men,” women wear very little, but they *do* alot. It seems to me in these Iris imprint novels, the women wear great big fluffy dresses covered in flowers and they get dressed and undressed a lot (something that to me always implies that, regardless of who the imprint *says* it’s for, they expect that audience to be at least in part male) they don’t *do* much. There’s a lot of talk of love and stuff, but what’s the point of a story about a knight and her princess in which the only fight the knight has is with a combat-knife wielding maid? (Well, actually, there is a point. That maid will show up in the other novel in the series, but you know what I mean.)

It’s not like there wasn’t a great set-up, Some years ago, Diana’s throne was taken over and she wants to regain it. Threatened with marriage to someone she does not love in the country to which she has been exiled, she runs away, accompanied only by her beloved Knight, Effie. The king that has taken Diana’s throne is none other than Effie’s father! Effie, renouncing her existence as Princess Euphemia to be Diana’s Knight Effie, swears to kill her father and her two brothers, if she has to, to regain Diana’s throne.

The king dies when they get there and they decide to just, you know, leave. The end.

…

Really, this was not *bad* it just wasn’t *good.* Dear Ichijinsha. Please, no more princess stories. You just don’t know how to write them.

Overall – 5

It turns out that there’s a second Double Engage story, about Effie’s brother Arwain and the combat knife-wielding maid, written by the same author. My wife asked, “Would you read it?” and without hesitation I said, “No way.”