Archive for the Light Novel Category


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.





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!