Archive for the Light Novel Category


Yuri Light Novel: Wild Bouquet

December 7th, 2008

Earlier this year, Ichijinsha, publisher of Yuri Hime magazine, announced a line of light novels for women – their “Iris” imprint. The line includes romance (straight, BL and Yuri,) adventure and fantasy stories. previously, I reviewed .(period), which was an Action/Yuri story…with little Yuri action. ^_^;

Today I’m reviewing the second Yuri title, Wild Bouquet, subtitled, “In This World of Unblooming Flowers.” This book was written at a slightly more difficult level of Japanese than I usually read, further complicated by it being a Fantasy novel and therefore containing words that were completely made up. Luckily for me the story itself was simple, and the book was better written than . (period). In the end, it took me not long at all to read the whole thing.

As I say, the story is a simple one – in a country where the sum and total of a woman’s existence is to be married, a Princess is brought to the kingdom to marry the King. She will live in the palace for six months until her 16th birthday, when she will become King Leonidas’ consort. Instead, Princess Deriana falls in love with one of her maids, Josette.

Josette is our protagonist. We learn a bit about her early life; she was given away by her parents to a noble’s family to become the companion to their daughter, Soliel. Soliel is now a captain of the guard, and Josette is a maid in the palace.

Like .(period), the Yuri in Wild Bouquet is formulaic. There’s doki-doki moments when they are called for and in the end it’s love – but there’s really no depth to it. First Josette likes Deriana’s company, then the next moment Josette finds herself sick with unhappiness at the thought of Deriana marrying the King, then they are “in love.” There is, of course, no physical compenent to this “love.” Josette does not want to jump Deriana, rip the wedding dress off her and have her way with her. She wants to “hold her close”. Maybe. The most romantic thing that happens between them is that they hold hands.

The plot, too, is a bit pat. Soliel was perfect for a jealousy subplot, but she only provides a moment of angst and in the end is on our side. The *obviously* evil character turns out to be our fairy godmother. I’d kind of like to know why she helped, too. All she says is “I have a reason. Perhaps it’s the subject of the next Wild Bouquet novel, I dunno.

The feeling I have is that this novel is not so much a “fantasy” as a “fairy tale.” As a Yuri fairy tale, it works fine. In fairy tales, the Princes and Princesses do not have bed scenes – or even hot kisses. They hold hands and ride off into the sunset. And so it is here. There’s nothing that would prevent me from giving this to an 11-year old whose interests were leaning lesbian.

My only complaint is that I really would have appreciated a kiss, at least.

Ratings:

Art – 7 (light novel, remember)
Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 7
Service – 0, unless you fetishize “pure, innocent” feelings, then 8

Overall – 6

While it was an easier read than . (period), it was slightly more disappointing. Next time, I want the maid turned knight swinging-into-the-cathedral and saving the princess AND a hot kiss. Thanks.

Check out the review of Volume 2 for the end of the story!





Yuri Light Novel: .(period)

November 14th, 2008

This past summer, Ichijinsha, publisher of Yuri Hime, launched a new line of light novels under the imprint “Iris.” Ostensibly written for women, this imprint included two “Yuri” novels. In the enclosed catalog flyer, .(period), written by Hozuki Luli and illustrated by Kurogane Kenn, is described as “Yuri and gun-action.” I’m glad they labeled it as Yuri, because without that hint, you might not notice.

In fact, the entire book reads *exactly* like a fanfic. Enough detail to get away with the plot, predictable and not very memorable. There’s not much service and it definitely doesn’t have the level of gun obsession that filled the pages of Vanilla. The details on the Italian police system and Mafia were wafer thin, and I don’t know if using “cute” Glocks is really a girl thing, but maybe that’s just me. ^_^;

The story follows the adventures of police investigator Bianca Stradella and gun for hire Nicola (can’t remember her family name at the moment…) as they try to take out the Brancatti family. The Mafia, we learn, killed Bianca’s parents, so she has a life-long grudge, while Nicola, it turns out, is the daughter of a mafia princess. Just like oil and water, fire and ice, Ernie and Bert, the two set out to defeat the bad guys. To make sure we really *hate* the bad guys, they “adopt” a bunch of ten year old girls to use in snuff films and other horrors, so we can feel righteously indignant and satisfied when we kill them.

As investigators, Bianca and Nicola leave something to be desired. In one scene they are literally walking around a town asking for “a guy named Antonio, who knows a priest in Rome named Father Bernino.” /snort/

The chemistry between Bianca and Nicola is entirely manufactured through the most trite of means. They share a bed because it’s cold, they live through gunfights and motorcycle chases and, so, they grow closer, but not really. When they have the required downtime scene in which “affectionate moment D” is called for, it is duly supplied.

The end of the book contains so many clichés that, even when I could not actually read every single kanji, I knew *exactly* what was happening and what was being said. ^_^ It was satisfyingly like every movie/NCIS episode/book/anime ever.  It got to the point towards the end that I started playing a “predict the next scene” game with myself. “Now, we’ll have the “final betrayal” scene in which Bianca learns the unpalatable truth about Nicola. Then we’ll have the scene where she learns that the police were in the Mafia’s pockets all along.” ^_^

Everything played out as neatly as in a Michael Douglas movie, with no deviations from script. And then the end came. And I started to laugh. Having sold her soul and her ideals to regain Nicola, we turn to a lonely room where we watch Nicola sit alone with her memories of Bianca. There is a knock on the door, and these guys from a furniture moving company start bringing a huge red sofa into the room. “I didn’t order this!” Nicola protests, but joke’s on her, it’s just Bianca. Wow, they didn’t even go on two dates – just one mission to defeat the Mafia – and Bianca’s moving all her shit in. ^_^

In terms of Yuri, there is some service of the mild kind – the aforementioned sharing a bed, and “gee, you smell nice” kind of stuff. A few touches and one sort-of sexually tense scene that is aborted before we get more than a quick peck on the cheek. But before the end, Nicola confesses that she loves Bianca to her on tape and seperately, Bianca coming to the realization that she loves Nicola.

That’s it.

The only lesbian thing about the book is the move-in scene at the end. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 4 They could not have picked a less appropriate artist for this book. I like Kurogane’s stuff just fine but, Bianca’s supposed to be 25, not 12.
Story – 6 It wasn’t terrible and it wasn’t good. It *was* too long.
Characters – 6 There wasn’t a single original thing about them, but that’s okay.
Yuri – 5 Like I said, I’m glad they told us that it was a Yuri novel.
Service – 3 For all that there’s a shared bed and maid outfits, there’s not much service.

Overall – 6 (but this, like all my reviews, is only my opinion – the review on Amazon JP gives it a 5 out of 5 stars, so there you go. The art is so *beautiful* and the writing is so *wonderful.* The reviewer was positively gushing. ^_^; I found it to be predictable, but entertaining.)

Do you that everyone in Italy eats nothing but pizza and pannini and drinks nothing but cappuccino?





Yuri Light Novel: Strawberry Panic, Volume 2

July 25th, 2008

Strawberry Panic Light Novel, Volume 2 is the touching story of girls in love at three girls private schools on Astraea Hill.

At Miator, the star, the Etoile of all three schools, Hanazono Shizuma has found herself completely out of control in her attraction to new student Aoi Nagisa. Nagisa is thrown into the competition for this year’s Etoile with Shizuma and, as a result, bears up under a alot of scrutiny and some bullying. Her attraction to Shizuma is so strong that neither bullying, nor knowledge of Shizuma’s past playgirl ways is enough to deter her – but upon learning that Shizuma truly loved her former Etoile partner, she finds her confidence wavering and her resolve starting to crack.

At Spica, the reticent and lone-wolf Ohtori Amane had found herself equally as head over heels about a transfer student, this time the angelic Kotohana Hikari. That Spica’s representative in the Etoile battle is a mere transfer student is so outrageous an idea, former student and famous violinist Kusanagi Makoto comes running back to Spica to sabotage her school’s best chance at winning. In the meantime, Hikari and Amane realize that their love is way deeper than anything they were prepared to deal with – especially Amane, who never cared for expressions of love between women.

And, at LuLim, the graceful Madonna of the school, Chikaru, pulls strings behind the scenes, and spoils her own harem rotten as she prepares them for a life of cosplay and intrigue.

…Dammit. I was trying to maintain a tone of affected sincerity, but blew it.

Oh well. lol

The book is filled with kisses- who can forget those touching moments when Shizuma gives Nagisa a hickey, or Yaya has her way with Hikari in the pool, or Chikaru gently kisses Kizuna’s butt. Not you – because I will keep reminding you of those things. You will never be allowed to forget them. Every time you tell me that this is a serious love story I will look at you and say – absolutely, especially when Chikaru dressed Kizuna up as a playboy bunny and kissed her butt. LOL

OTOH, Hikari and Amane’s love isn’t maddening. Yes, Hikari cries in every scene (see my review of this volume in Japanese for my suggestion about that) and yes, Amane doth protest too much, but they win hands down for best – well, least irritating – couple.

And I’m *still* annoyed that Makoto didn’t shut up long enough to kiss Chikaru. Makoto is so much more annoying in English, because now I have no excuse to not understand her tortured sentences.

Speaking of which, boo to Seven Seas for not crediting both translators on this book. (In fact, boo to them for not crediting every single person who works on every single book. There are a few books I from them have which only credit translator, adaptor and editor, as if it didn’t take tons of retouching and lettering, layout and production editing to make a book. Bad, bad. People who work on a book – *especially* people like the retouch and lettering people, who have hellish jobs – deserve to be credited.) There was a changeover in translators midway – which was very apparent in at least one thing. At the beginning of the book, Chikaru looks out the window as a white pigeon flew by. Okay, true, doves and pigeons are 1) the same family and 2) the same word in Japanese, but usually to be more symbolic and all, they are referred to in such moments as “doves,” because pigeons are basically considered to be rats with wings by those of us who have ever actually looked at one. LOL

Anyway, the translation smooths out and later on, they are indeed referred to as doves…which makes me wonder why the proofreader didn’t catch that and fix it. It takes a village to make a book, let me tell you. :-)

And in the end, all the lead contenders for Etoile are disqualified and/or pull out, leaving Makoto and Kagome which is still a breathtakingly bad combination.

I remembered this volume as being less servicey, more sincere and slightly more romantic than the first book of the series, and the English edition managed to capture that perfectly. It’s also still wild over-the-top melodrama that makes me think it would make the most awesome live action story ever. Even better than “Passions.” Actually – kind of like a Yuri version of “Passions.”

Ratings:

Art – 6 (one point off for so often illustrating things we don’t want to see and not illustrating the ones we do)
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Yuri – 8
Service – 5

Reproduction – 7
Translation – starts out a little roughly at 6, but moves up to 8

Overall – 7

Little Princess Sara‘s English title is A Little Princess, fyi.





Yuri Light Novel: Vanilla, A Sweet Partner

July 4th, 2008

You may have gotten the mistaken impression from reading these reviews, that I enjoy making a complete fool of myself in public, by laughing out loud and snorting in amusement while on public transportation, airplanes, waiting rooms, etc. This is not true – it’s just that, given the average quality of what I read and watch, I can’t help myself.

Which brings us to today’s review of a high quality lesbian schoolgirl killers Light Novel, Vanilla, A Sweet Partner, by Asaura. And special thanks to Anastasia Moreno for pointing me in the general direction of this work of “literature!” ^_^

Vanilla follows the lives of the totally deranged schoolgirls Kei and Nao and their guns. And the guns of everyone around them. And random gun information, because, you know – guns! Yes, the author is a gun otaku and since I am not particularly enamored of guns in my native tongue, other than the fact that Kei used a Beretta 90 TWO and Nao a Takami rifle, I can’t tell you a single thing about any of the weapons so lovingly described.

On the other hand, I can tell you all about Kei – she’s *crazy*. When we first meet her, she’s recounting how she bit a piece of her stepmother’s ear off, because the woman redecorated her real mother’s room. Kei basically spirals downhill from there – from selfish, spoiled and slightly volent to selfish, spoiled and insanely violent. At first I kind of assumed that she and Nao were professional killers who killed people they don’t like for fun, but no…they just killed people they don’t like because they don’t like them. Sure, the three guys who assualted them in the alleyway…but uh, hello, you were two defenseless girls in the alleyway late at night. Set-up much?

We have less info on Nao, but enough to know that her violent tendencies stem from chronic sexual abuse.

So, Nao and Kei love each other very much. Very, very much, they reassure each other a zillion times. They don’t like other people, but they love each other. This is good, because when Kei shoots her father and stepmother in the face in a public place, at least they have each other to rely on as they escape from the police.

Still very much in love, they hide out at their school, where a classmate offers to assist them, because he kind of likes them. But, ultimately, the police track them down and what follows is a long, drawn-out siege which ends with a shootout, but no deaths. Unless I misunderstood the end bit – which might have been the case, because I was a little fried when I read it.

So for Yuri, we get repeated protestations of eternal love and a bunch of kisses, and one implication of maybe some heavy petting – in front of a camera for maximum service. These two are in no way lesbian – but they are definitely Yuri.

Guns, insane, violent schoolgirls and Yuri – what’s not to like?

Ratings:

Story – 6
Characters – 6
Yuri – 6
Service – 5

Overall – 7

Oh and yes – it made me snort on the train. ^_^





Light Novel: Maria-sama ga Miteru: Margaret ni Ribon

June 5th, 2008

In Maria-sama ga Miteru: Margaret ni Ribon, White Day is approaching and Yoshino, Shimako and Yumi have all gathered at the Rose Mansion to plan a way to return the chocolates that they received on Valentine’s Day. They decide to buy candies and make small bags that they will decorate. As they decide on the forms, materials and decorations of the bags, each conversation leads into a short story.

The first story picks up with the current life of former Rosa Chinensis, Mizuno Youko, first-year law student, but forever meddler and onee-sama to everyone around her. Youko’s determination to be a completely different person – say, someone like Sei – fails utterly.

Then we take a moment to look at former Rosa Foetida, Torii Eriko’s, relationship with Yamanobe. This story was the best in the book, as she meets, befriends and ultimately agrees to be rivals with, Yamanobe’s daughter. It was a short story, but very touching and beautiful. We get to see a side of Eriko we’ve never seen before. Great story.

Sean will be happy with the next story, as we follow former Rosa Gigantea, Satou Sei’s, side of the trip to Italy with Kei, her decision to not see or be seen by Shimako, and her immense satisfaction with the parakeet joke. ^_^

Then comes a very short, but absolutely excruciatingly adorable vignette as the three Rosas (and yes, although Rei and Sachiko have not yet graduated, they are acting Rosas) consider dropping the “-san” from each other’s names. While they do manage to call each other by their first names only, they mutually decided that it’s pretty much too embarrassing, so they scrap the idea. It was brutally cute. ^_^

In the course of their conversation, Shimako offhandedly refers to her personal situation that I never told you when I reviewed Kira Kira Mawaru, because it was a spoiler. I am going to continue to not tell you, because it continues to be a spoiler.

The next two stories follow Yumi after she leaves the school. In the first, she runs into Shizuka, who has returned home for a funeral, and in the second she makes her hatsumode (first shrine visit of the year) to an Inari shrine with Touko.

The last story follows the adventures of Yumi’s blue umbrella after she loses it in Rainy Blue. In ten days it is witness to several lives in transition. ^_^ We learn that the person who sewed it up was a guy – he chose pink because it was a cheerful color and he didn’t have blue. ^_^

In the Afterword, Konno Oyuki comments that she didn’t actually set out to name the book after two Shueisha comic magazines (Margaret and Ribon), really. But she realizes that no one will believe her anyway. ^_^Also, she addresses the issue of Sachiko’s graduation and whether this series will end. Do I tell you what she said or not? Do you really want to know? Let me know!

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 9
Characters – 9
Yuri – 2
Service- 6

Overall – 9

This was probably my favorite of all the short story collections. The stories were fun, touching and we got to see the former Rosas just a bit. A wonderful book to sit and read on a beautiful spring afternoon. ^_^