It must be Wednesday. Oh, look at that, it is. Snow complicates everything, I’ve learned…even working from home. So thank heavens we have another Guest Review from George R to pick up the slack! The floor is yours, George! 

While over in Japan I picked up the first Taisho Yakyuu Musume novel. This is the original work which launched the manga and then anime series. I decided to take the bit in my teeth, the book in my hand and forge ahead without dictionary. This had the advantage of making it easier to read on the train (or station platform, like Fumi in Aoi Hana) but meant foregoing taking notes while I read. So this review will skip any detailed description of the novel in favor of comparisons with its two offspring. The first novel covers more time than the first manga, but less than the anime, only extending to the first practice baseball game.

While previously reading the manga I was curious whether it or the anime was closer to the original novels. It turns out that Itoh-sensei stayed much closer to the novel than the anime producers, and I think he was the perfect choice to draw the manga. I wondered about aluminum bats and the spring-based resistance training harnesses: both of these come straight from the novel, and are part of Noe’s strategy to beat the boys. Tomoe also helps with some innovative training ideas from her martial-arts background.

The novel delivers in one area that attracted me to this series, a good Taisho era feel. In fact at the end, we’re even given a small bibliography of books about the era. The Taisho era (1912-1926) was one of continued change and growth for Japan. Starting from an almost medieval level at the start of the preceding Meiji era, Japan built herself to be recognized as one of the 5 great world powers by 1919. Both politically and culturally the era saw a rise of the liberal movement. It also saw the beginning of long slow road of the woman’s rights movement in Japan.

The novel capitalizes on several trends of these times. The introduction of baseball is an obvious one, but the very middle school the girls attend is also emblematic. The mere 52 of these in Japan in 1900 had grown to 576 by 1924, the time of this story. The Oukakai the girls form fits right in with the blossoming of women’s associations during the era, as does the tea party Akiko hosts. I would have liked to see this party in the anime, too. The girls not only show they are nice modern young ladies, they also invite a couple respected intellectuals to the party and are able to use them to thwart Akiko’s father’s attempt to block her from playing baseball.

The cast are still the same smart gals that we’ve learned to love, who won’t take “you can’t do that because you’re a girl” for an answer. And I enjoyed spending more time with them. You need a higher setting on your goggles to see the yuri in the novel. However, we’re still treated to a tasty range of flavors of friendship among the girls.

Ratings:

Art – 7 (though not much, it’s a light novel after all)
Story – 6
Characters – 8
Yuri – 1
Service – 2

Overall – 6

I enjoyed this novel, though it’s not my top for the year. I fear I have been spoiled by the anime, where I feel the adaptation far surpasses the original work. While the novel treats the girls with more dignity than the manga, I feel the anime did better than either. I still recommend this to light novel fans who enjoy strong girls or the Taisho era.

Excellent, George. It sounds like a fun read, and one of those unusual cases of the anime just being better than any of the other media for the series. Both kind of disappointing, but also pretty amazing and cool. Now all we need is an anime company picking up the series for distribution here in the West to make the series a real home run. ^_^

It’s never a good sign when the clothes are a character in a story. There is the occasional exception to the rule, that’s true, but more often, it denotes a lack of certain qualities that make a story compelling. Qualities such as plot and character development.

And, indeed, Ai Yuri Gakuin Youkoso (愛百合女学院へようこそ) does lack both a plot and any character development. It goes so far as to have thoroughly unlikeable characters, as well, so the fact that most of them seem pretty miserable or are made to be miserable isn’t really that troubling. The only troubling thought that might possibly disturb a reader is that someone out there is actually enjoying this book.

Ichigo is a diminutive and infantile girl who dresses in clothing made by her beloved and adoring adoptive mother. (I do need to point out that this was the single likable quality of the book. Ichigo’s parents died when she was a baby and she absolutely loves and is loved dearly by her adoptive, doting parents.) Because the clothes her mother makes are so cute, Ichigo does not want to wear the school uniform, which is blue with big ugly red buttons and a scarf that clashes. This school is not supposed to have a dress code, which was a big selling point for Ichigo, but when she gets there, she finds that the pressure to conform is harsh. The Secretary and Treasuer of the Student Council, two odious twins Mariko and Ririko, conspire to torture her and ruin her clothes as often as possible. Even the teachers are assholes about it.

When Ichigo find herself without shoes, surrounded by mud, she is saved, then sexually molested by the President of the Student Council who can’t stop herself because Ichigo is so cute and her clothes are so adorable.

The rest of the book follows the President, Aika, as she has her way with a mostly unwilling Ichigo, until after the twins set Ichigo’s room on fire (thus destroying her closet full of cute clothes) and Aika saves her life. Then Ichigo realizes she’s in love with Aika after all, so it’s okay.

Wow, not too many wrong lessons there, huh? Not that any young, impressionable women are reading this book. This is Fanboy World, with nothing that has the vaguest hint of realism; not people, clothes, situations, nothing.

In fact, this book stank so badly, it’s another good candidate for the shredder. Unless one of you wants it. Tell me if you do in the comments and you can have it. It’s a novel not a comic. However, there are pictures by Chi-Ran, so if you like her work – which I really do not – then you might like it. I won’t even make you work for it. You can just *have* it. Really. Take it. Please.

Ratings:

Art – 6 skilled, yet yucky
Story – 2
Characters – 2
Yuri – 8
Service – ∞

Overall – 2

I guess it’s nice that Yuri FanBoys have an imprint of their very own, but so far, I’m really finding Tiara Bunko books to be pretty darn unfun.

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I have been reading the world’s worst book.

As I’ve been reading it, I’ve been thinking about what makes it the worst thing I’ve ever read. After I tell you what it’s about, I’ll tell you why.

Memeko is an extremely youthful-looking agent of the secret organization Al Hazan, that collects and protects rare eyeglasses. They are attempting to get a hold of the rare and dangerous Medusa glasses that, like the rare and dangerous Gorgon glasses, turn people into stone. Memeko is a Glasses-User, and can make a kind of energy knife shoot from her glasses-wearing gaze.

But, for all her unusual strength with eyeglasses, Memeko is terrified of the world outside eyeglasses. When her handler, Lucia, asks her to attend and infiltrate Misono Gakuin to find the secret to the eyeglass theft that goes on there, Memeko finds it hard to talk to anyone who does not wear eyeglasses. In her homeroom that leaves her with one option – the tall, beautiful Ai.

I will not torture you with descriptions of the scenes that in another action book would be the “secret agent cleaning a gun” scene, or the “love interest and agent getting to know each other scene,” but I will mention that when Ai is saved by Memeko’s super Al Hazan eyeglasses skillz, she falls into the standard pattern of believing in and relying on Memeko.

Let me cut to the chase – the traitor was their homeroom teacher who was obsessed with Ai’s beauty and who stole all the eyeglasses to find the perfect ones for her. He attempts to scare Ai by telling her the truth behind Memeko’s skills, but it backfires and their love for one another defeats his ridiculous plan.

In the end, Memeko returns to the school, not as a secret agent, but as a 16-year old and a friend and probably soon-to-be-lover of Ai. And now she can talk to people who don’t wear eyeglasses, too. Phew. Happy end, except for the bit where there is a implication that there might be a sequel. AAAUUUGGGHHHH!!! As it happens there are at least two sequels. Scary, huh?

Okay, so, here’s why I think this is the worst Light Novel ever. Not because it was badly written. In fact, it was actually pretty well written, so scenes were exactly where they belonged in a genre title like this and the dialogue was exactly the same kind of jaded lines you’d expect from an action-adventure story. No, the real reason I think this is the worst Light Novel ever is because the author clearly felt that if you were going to buy a story called Kanoujo ha Megane-HOLIC (彼女は眼鏡-HOLIC) then you deserved whatever you got.

And he was right.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Characters – 2
Story – 2
Yuri – 2
Loser Fan Eyeglasses Fetishist – 451

Overall – 2

This book actually beats out Adam Smith’s On the Wealth of Nations for the worst book I have ever read. Congrats.