Archive for the Light Novel Category


Light Novel: Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower (English)

March 7th, 2013

BookGirlv6In 2011, I reviewed a Light Novel, Book Girl and the Famished Spirit. In that review, I noted that there was a character who had all the signs of being a classic anime/manga lesbian. Attractive, smart, accomplished and far more mature than the characters around her, Maki was a perfect candidate for the “Yuri” character. Her apparent obsession with Tohko, the Book Girl of the title, clinched the deal for me.

In the first volumes of the series, Maki is a peripheral character, half deus ex machina, half Mephistopheles. And while she appears from time to time just enough to torment Tohko, her existence has not been a major presence. Until now.

Book Girl and the Undine Who Bore a Moonflower revolves around Maki, her family history and a curse and a duty that she bears and would very much like to be rid of.

As in the other Book Girl books, we are introduced to the “book” around which the entire narrative is built, given the true history behind the relationship of that book to the story and a new, alternate ending to the historical narrative and the current matter at hand. If that sounds a little complicated, it’s only because it is – and that is exactly why it’s worth reading the series.  The lead character is a bit of a carp, but he and everyone around him are fleshed out to a considerable extent in these first 6 volumes.

Which is both good and bad. One hopes that the characters do what we want them to do, rather than what they do do. For us, that would mean Tohko letting her apparent tsundere facade drop and allowing Maki to paint her nude, a meeting of hearts and minds, followed by… Yeah, but that’s not happening here. ^_^;

Once again, I agree with the age rating on the back. There’s some adult concepts, themes and scenes that I could have handled at 11,  but your mileage – or the mileage of a YA you’re giving the book to –  may vary.

Ratings:

Art – 6 I wish the pictures were of scenes I wanted illustrated
Story – 8
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Fanservice – 4, for the ultra-coy way the end was presented

Overall – 8

If you don’t mind that Maki is not really a lesbian, but she may be bisexual, that Tohko reads a lot, but doesn’t learn much about human nature, and that Inoue is more naive than anyone ought to be at his age, this series is well worth your time for the sheer love of books and storytelling in which it revels.





Light Novel: Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 2 Ougon no Yureisen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 2 黄金の幽霊船)

February 21st, 2013

Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 2  Ougon no Yureisen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 2 黄金の幽霊船) opens with a stowaway on the Bentenmaru and ends with two transfer students into Hakuoh Academy’s Yacht Club. In between is a centuries-old mystery, a gene bank in the form of a golden spaceship, and several space battles, all of which make for a rollicking tale of intrigue and space piracy.

If you are watching the Bodacious Space Pirates anime, this novel is the arc on Disk 2 of Volume 1. Seventh Princess of the Serenity Royal Family, Gruier Serenity, (with an uncanny resemblance to another princess named Serenity,) hides away on the Bentenmaru, in hopes of hiring the pirate ship to assist her in finding the Legendary Gold Spaceship.

Marika befriends the Princess and accepts the commission because who wouldn’t? ^_^

We get to experience Marika’s newfound confidence as Captain of the Bentenmaru and watch her crew rally around her with complete support of her decisions.

Nothing in the novel is significantly different from the anime, right down to the secret underground restaurant at the space relay station where Ririka works. (Or, I should say, if there were differences my Japanese wasn’t up to noticing them.)

The key point of the arc is that Marika has stepped into her father’s shoes and found that they fit rather well. And now we have a Princess or two on our side. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Interestingly, this book series is getting links for Kindle versions which don’t yet exist on Amazon JP. I’d love it if they put this series on Kindle, I’d like to see if I could buy the next book that way. I bet there’s region restrictions, though. Oh well, on to Volume 3, however I can get it. ^_^





Light Novel: Oshaka-sama mo Miteru: Cho Nankai Mondaishuu (お釈迦様もみてる 超難解問題集)

January 6th, 2013

Reading O-Shaka-sama mo Miteru: Cho Nankai Mondaishuu (お釈迦様もみてる超難解問題集) it suddenly dawned on me why I simply do not enjoy this series as much as I might. And with that, I formulated a new rule of writing for myself:

If you create a really great ensemble of characters and then spend a lot of time with a really irritating character instead, people will not like your story.

In the Oshaka series we have Yuuki, Arisu, Kobayashi and Takada all of whom are fun to follow. And no matter how many of these books there are, Andre-sempai will never, ever be a fun character. He’s a self-important jerk at the best of times. So when you keep taking the focus off your fun characters to spend time with the jerk, it’s going to make readers grumpy.

This book deals with the end-of-term exams and the four first-years’ issues with them. Yuuki is, predictably, a good if not outstanding student. Arisu is in the top ten of their year. Takada barely passed last semester and Kobayashi failed just about everything that wasn’t math. Andre-sempai spends much of the first two thirds of the book importuning the younger students to “Study, already” to the point of obsession. He’s not wrong – members of the Student Council do need to keep their grades up, but his constant nagging was merely that – nagging.

In the end, everyone’s grades jumped but Arisu, who remained #7. So yay, but what an annoying story.

The final third of the book is what happened on the day after New Year’s Day and why Yuuki was at Sachiko’s house when Yumi arrived. Once again I adore Sayoko, Sachiko’s mother more than anyone. And once again we spend a few moments in Yuuki’s head wondering if Kashiwagi is gay…or, not really wondering, just sort of mentioning it, just in case we forgot that he might be. The more Yuuki wonders about it, the less I’m convinced. It seems too much like service.

I don’t hate these novels – and we know that Andre-sempai isn’t in the Hanadera Council next year – so I’m sticking with the series to see what happens. I expect the next one deals with the Student Council elections and, maybe, Valentine’s Day.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

It was nice to see Sei again…. ^_^





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 9

October 2nd, 2012

As Volume 9 of R.O.D begins, Yomiko Readman and the head of Dokusensha, the woman known as China, are flying through the air on one of Yomiko’s paper airplanes, when the mountain that held the Dokusensha headquarters explodes.

Joker, having heard no word from Yomiko or Nancy for days, learns of the explosion and tunes in by satellite. When he sees that the “explosion” is an eruption of paper flowers, he gets the message from Yomiko loud and clear.

Yomiko and China enter the woods around Dokusensha HQ, only to encounter Ou-En and the 4 sisters and learn, belatedly, that Gentleman was seen at Dokusensha HQ. The news is received with solemnity, as it is accompanied by the news that Gentleman has slaughtered many of the Dokusensha members and destroyed HQ.

While sitting around the fire that night, trying to convince the sisters that she doesn’t have any intention of harming China, Yomiko learns that Ou-En feels affection for her – she remind him of his sister and of a previous lover. As they share their stories, they are joined by a tall, strapping and very naked man…Gentleman has arrived.

Nancy spends an important interlude with Drake’s team undressing and dressing in her normal bondage-gear outfit.

Meanwhile, in India, Nenene and Wendy are doing something. I’m not sure what, because they were on their way to China, but hey, whatever. While Wendy is out, Nenene reads more of Donny’s diary.

Donny recounts the time just before the British Library moved to its current location, when he’s begun meeting up with Yomiko at random times at the BL. Her 16th birthday is approaching and he promises that he’ll celebrate it with her. But Joker sends him out of town that day – and Donny doesn’t have Yomiko’s address or phone number. He runs into her later, and as he’s apologizing, a voice over loudspeaker invites them into the new BL. They take a private tour of the new location, shepherded by Joker’s voice, eventually finding themselves in the King’s library, surrounded by the original manuscripts of some of the world’s greatest literature. Yomiko says that this is like a dream, at which Donny asks her to dance. Alone in the King’s Library, they dance, while paper flowers rain down upon them.

When Yomiko asks for a kiss to make her night complete, Donny blows it completely and kisses her on the cheek.

So, with two novels to go, we really still don’t know much about the Gutenberk paper, Donny or Gentleman or Joker or Dokusensha or Nancy or, really, Yomiko.

Ratings:

Art – 4 Almost every picture was carefully crafted to skeeve me, except the one of Donny kissing Yomiko, which was just awkward.
Story – 7 Had some good bits and some less good
Characters – 8
Yuri – 0
Service – 8

Overall – 7

More Yomiko and Nenene dammit!





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