Archive for the Light Novel Category


Maria-sama ga Miteru Light Novel: Watashi no Su

May 21st, 2010

Have you ever considered how difficult writing a story without conflict must be? I mean, think about it – no screaming matches, no tears, no throwing things, no hand of god tragic events…what is there to care about?

Would it even be possible to write a story in which everyone was just…nice?

Watashi no Su is that story.

Because the Yumi/Sachiko/Touko era of the novels is over, we now turn our eyes to other characters around Lillian. We are introduced to Momo, a first-year whom we ultimately learn is in Touko, Noriko and Kanako’s first-year Tsubaki class. One day, just as she’s leaving class, she passes out. Eiko-sensei, the school doctor has her escorted home by a second-year, Tamaki. Tamaki is instantly likable and a little goofy-whimsical, reminiscent of Sei. When asked what to call her, Tamaki suggests Tama-chan or Tama-Tama. Momo declines politely and sticks with Tamaki-sama. Tamaki suggests that Momo call her “onee-sama” but when Momo asks don’t they have to be soeur for that, Tamaki’s reply is, “well…why not do that then?”

That night Momo learns that her mother is marrying the younger man she’s been dating for a while. It’s a second marriage for Kaya, Momo’s father died while she was still young. Momoko likes Shuu-chan and is fine with that, and fine that they’ll be moving into his family house.

When they get to meet the family, it turns out that Shuu-chan’s grandfather also has a second marriage – a much younger woman named Tsubaki. And they have a daughter, Momo’s age. You see this coming, right? Yes, it’s Tamaki.

So, when Momo works out the relationships, Tamaki would be her step-great-aunt. Tamaki declines to be called this, so they stick with Tamaki-sama. :)

The rest of the story is just…stuff. Stories from both sides of the family, parties, who’s going to do the laundry when, the stuff I call “playing house.” There is no conflict, except in very small ways, when people share lives.

It’s really nice. Nice to have Momo and her family welcomed by Shuuto’s parents and grandparents, nice to have Shuuto and Momo get along. It’s just…nice. Every chapter is a pleasure to read and the final ‘crisis’ is obvious, small and…my god, it’s nice.

I went into this book wondering if Konno-sensei could make me fall in love again. I mean, let’s face it, Yumi and the gang were charming and lovable and it’s really hard to just set them aside. You keep wondering how they are. :-) Cleverly, Konno places this story in a time and place that the story has already covered, so you *know* where and how they are, which frees you to just enjoy Momo’s story. And by god, what a nice story it is.

Ratings:

Overall – Nice

The Oshaka-sama mo Miteru series is continuing as well. I find I also like Yuuki and his friends and am looking forward to bits that we don’t already know about from the previous novels. Basically, Konno-sensei can write characters that are really likable – which is, in itself, incredibly difficult to do.





Light Novel: R.O.D., Volume 4

May 14th, 2010

There are some inevitable things in the universe. If a conversation covers used books, then one of these inevitable things must surely be the town of Hay-on-Wye. It’s a lovely town, by the way. (Yes, of *course* I’ve been. Do you not know anything about me yet? I’ve been a bibliophile for many years more than I’ve been an otaku)

And indeed, the inevitable happens at the beginning of the fourth Read or Die Light Novel. Yomiko is let loose by her caretaker Wendy for two hours in Hay-on-Wye. And of all the books Yomiko wants most, the only copy is in the hands of someone else. He’s a nice-looking Chinese man, perhaps a little older than Yomiko. He genially suggests that they play rock-paper-scissors for it…and they do. Minutes pass into hours as they keep tying on “paper.” When Yomiko wins by suddenly switching to “scissors” he asks her flat out if she is a Paper User. They discuss her love of books, but she doesn’t tell him why she wants this particular book – one especially beloved by her mentor and lover, Donny.

Upon returning to London, a thin plot about a piece of the original paper that the Guttenberg bible was printed on is wrapped thinly around three things: 1) The guy Yomiko met in Hay-on-Wye is a member of the nefarious “Dokusensha,” an evil organization that is trying to do the exact same things the British Library is trying to do – but for the bad guys, which is to say, not us. 2) Dokusensha has a Paper User too, and this allows us to have wonking great battles on the North Sea and then over London (in which references were made to H.G. Wells) and 3) Nenene.

Oh, yes, although this entire novel takes place in the UK, Nenene decides to arrive just as Dokusensha invades the British Library and take her hostage. This gives Yomiko the opportunity to not just have a wonking cool battle over London – she on her paper airplane, Dokusensha with their paper dragon that comes up the Thames – but to rescue Nenene and be her hero. Nenene’s hero. With hugs, and tears, and protestations of “don’t scare me like that” and “I don’t ever want to be apart from you,” and “I want to be with you forever.”

A new character is introduced by the way…and no, it’s not Nancy. Not yet, hold your horses. She comes in the next novel. This time it’s Faust. Like Mr. Gentleman (a name that makes me think of Lewis Carroll every time I read it,) Faust is very old. 400 years of very old. Unlike Mr. Gentleman, he’s lived every one of those years in a 10-year old boy’s body. He looks, honestly, like Junior with his hair cut short and a “I know something you don’t” smile. He was a nice addition to the team, because while his abilities are strictly in the not-dying capacity, he’s a good strategist and a fast thinker. That leaves Yomiko and Drake to carry out the tactics, which works well.

I definitely like it best when Nenene and Yomiko are together and I’m very much hoping that that will be pretty much the rest of the series.They make a very cute couple, whatever they think they think about one another.

Ratings:

Art – 5
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Nenene and Yomiko are together for less than 10 pages and every last one of them filled me to satisfaction.





Light Novel: R.O.D. Volume 3

February 12th, 2010

Meet Wendy Earhart. She’s working at the British Library, mostly because her Best Friend Forever Karen is, as well. Karen is working to pay the hospital bills for her mother who is in a coma. Karen is driven, focused and determined. Wendy’s just sort of there to be there. She likes working at the British Library, but she has no passion about it. She’s there to support Karen.

Until Wendy and Karen interview to work in the Special Weapons Section. They meet Joker, who asks them a question with no right answer: If you were on a boat with a famous author and his priceless manuscript and the boat went down, which would you save – the author or the book? Wendy says she would save the author, because people are more important than books and the author might create more great literature if he is alive. Karen says she’d save the book, because it is irreplaceable and who knows if the author would ever write something good again, but the book can be reproduced and bring joy to everyone. Joker tells them that they are both wrong.

Joker offers the job to both Karen and Wendy, but Karen turns it down. Wendy, who wants both the job and to support her friend, is roundly scolded by Karen who tells her to get her own life. Karen says goodbye to her ailing mother, cuts the life support, then leaves the Library for good, leaving Wendy to find her own way.

Wendy’s crisis starts when she tries to interrupt someone reading in the Library late at night and almost dies for her trouble. And so, Wendy Earhart meets Yomiko Readman, who ultimately tells her that she would save the book AND the man. But you can only save one, Wendy says, to which Yomiko replies, “That’s why I would save both!” Wendy goes back to the Library and accepts the new job.

Meanwhile teen author Sumiregawa Nenene is doing a book signing in Tokyo and she is not having any fun. And to make it all worse, Yomiko is late. In fact, she’s so late the book signing is over when she arrives. And she’s filthy and smelly. And someone is trying to kill Nenene.

Nenene and Yomiko, having defeated the bad guys, head out to Kyoto for the next book signing where Nenene is once again attacked – apparently her new book appears to have been plagiarized from the best seller by Clive Cussler. Cussler fans are not happy at all about this. But Yomiko – and the pelicans of Kyoto’s landmark tower – save Nenene once again. In a moving scene, Nenene asks Yomiko if her book does seem like she lifted the plot and Yomiko admits that not only does Nenene’s book seem like a ripoff of Cussler’s, Cussler’s was better overall. Nenene is very thankful for the honesty and realizes that she needs to grow and mature as a person in order to mature as a writer. She has a lot of fun at the next book signing as a result of her insight.

The final scene is why Yomiko was late. In short – she was stranded on a tropical island – with no books. It was a rather disturbing short with a bitter look at the difference between liking books and being an obsessive-compulsive bibliomaniac.

As with all the ROD novels, the beginning of Volume 3 was a little slow, the action was a little silly and Yomiko didn’t get to be quite cool enough to slake our thirst. But, the time she spends with Wendy and with Nenene she is so charming, that it’s easy enough to forget the bits where she’s freaking out for lack of something to read.

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 7
Characters – 7
Yuri – 2
Service – 2

Overall – 7

Nenene and Yomiko’s reunion and their subsequent heart-to-heart make everything worth it.





Light Novel: Taisho Yakyuu Musume, Volume 1 Guest Review by George R.

February 10th, 2010

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. ^_^





Yuri Light Novel: Ai Yuri Gakuin Youkoso

February 6th, 2010

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.