Archive for the Light Novel Category


Yuri Novel: Escalation – Die Liebe (エスカレーションディ・リーベ)

April 28th, 2008

Today’s review  is dedicated, once again, to 828-san.

Back in November 2007, I reviewed the Cream Lemon: Escalation light novel. It was pretty good, for what it was. The language was flowery and the overall emotion behind the BDSM was really very sweet.

In stark contrast, Escalation: Die Liebe (エスカレーションディ・リーベ) was written by a man (how can you tell, Erica? you ask. I answer – it’s seriously obvious,) with limited sexual imagination. Also, for whatever reason, it is not a “Light Novel,” it is full paperback novel size, but still has illustrations. They are still quite laughable, as they were in the original.

The plot (tell me when you stop laughing and I’ll continue) of Die Liebe starts with Naomi-sempai abusing Rie a bit as a good-bye present and leaving her to pick up the pieces at school. Arisa, the student Rie chose as her pet at the end of Escalation is disappeared and instead we get a stoolie called Yukari and the target of her affection, a whiny, soppy kid named Tomoe.

Rie and Midori see Tomoe crying against a tree on the first day of the term and Rie decides that that girl will be her new pet. Only, uncharacteristically, she seduces Tomoe’s roommate Yukari first in order to something something…because it makes no sense at *all* that she needs more than a “You – Me – Now,” gesture at Tomoe and be able to have her. And, um, btw, the girl you seduced, Yukari? She is your pet. In case you didn’t notice. Midori is also written completely out of character. Suddenly popular, she is head of the tennis team, and really nice. Um…okay. Whatever floats your boat.

The entire novel follows Rie’s pointlessly complex plot to get Tomoe. There’s a lot of nothing that goes on and remarkably little sex. …And the author has a spanking fetish.

I believe that Die Liebe is the novelization for a game of the same name. I can only say that if it follows this novel, it’s probably *dire*. ^_^

What this novel did make me long for was to see Naomi come back bringing Arisa with her, and for me write a 5-girl pileup fanfic using the same girly, flowery language used in the original novel. ^_^ (How convenient, I have time now to work on it!)

Ratings:

Art – 4
Story – 4
Characters – 5
Yuri – 10
Service – 10

Overall – 5

Unlike the original, this wasn’t pretty good, not even – not especially – for porn.
As a conversation piece – this book is total win, however. ^_^





An Open Letter To Publishers of Manga and Light Novels

April 1st, 2008

Today on Tiamat’s Disciple (link via Mangablog,) there was an interesting post about how Light Novels are failing here in the west, a point of view that has been echoed by publishers and others. In a moment of weakness, I wrote a comment and in another, I want to share it with all of you, and hopefully, a few of the publishers that might possibly see it.

**

We’re bumping up once again on the dichotomy between “projections” and reality.

In Japan, LNs have magazines of their own, the audiences of which overlap, but do not completely merge with, the audience of either anime or manga for a series.

The Japanese LN audience is well established before a collected volume is ever put out. Fans are drawn into LN sales through advertising in anime, manga, CDs, live performances and other media, like web radio.

The same is true with manga (through weekly, monthly, bimonthly and quarterly manga magazines) and anime (TV and satellite station weekly and monthly distribution.) Advertising is constant, word of mouth is a negligible factor.

Bring these media over here where there are – completely legitimate – delays to releasing a series in any medium, where word of mouth and “next big thing” are just about the only advertising done and where the audience has been trained by itself to feel entitled to immediate, free and “good enough” releases.

So when I see that LNs, or any other medium, are selling “below projections” I roll my eyes. Who is projecting that suddenly 5000 people will spontaneously want to buy the Light Novel upon which an inexplicably terminated, unfinished, although lush, anime was based – an anime that came out several years ago, no less.

I love LNs, myself. Even those that are brainless rip-offs of their own series, in a desperate attempt to wring more money from a cash cow. *I* am the correct audience for Maria-sama ga Miteru LNs. I am older, I keep up on the series as it comes out in Japan, and I have discretionary income. Is the average 15 year old girl – who has never heard of Maria-sama ga Miteru, and why on earth would she pull out an LN called Mary Watches You anyway, ever truly likely to read it, much less buy it?

The fault lies not in our stars – it lies in the lies that the companies are calling their “projections.” If the Japanese companies are dictating the number of books they think American companies can sell, then it’s time to grow a pair and *make* them understand that, without the barrage of advertising and the streams of distribution, their projections are as real as the worlds in their LNs.

We’ve all been talking about the fansub/scanlation issue to death. LNs are not failing because of scanlations. They are failing because it is time for American companies to stop acting like beaten curs. Stop sticking your collective tails between your collective legs and state the facts as they are. The American buying audience is a few thousand strong – at best. Stop lying about it. Rework your projections and admit that you’re all working in a teeny-tiny grassroots industry. Then grow it for real, like every other company has to – through advertising, promotion and quality products. If fandom bitches that it’s not good/fast/cheap/free enough, tell them to fork over money or stfu.

The boom is over – now let’s get down to business already.





Yuri Light Novel: Strawberry Panic!, Volume 1 (English)

March 16th, 2008

…A pure world within the walls that was reserved only for young ladies. A world of classes, sports, friendship and love, as well as mental and emotional bonds and passionate physical aches.

All of it existing only between girls.

Or, as that last line might be reinterpreted by the fandom:

“All of it existing only between ******girls*******!!!!!!!!111111111111one”

LOL

First, many, many thanks to the fabulous folks at Seven Seas for the opportunity to review the first volume of the Strawberry Panic! Light Novel series in advance. I previously reviewed the Japanese edition of this novel, and Volumes 2 and 3, as well and, by the time I was done with them, I was *dying* to get my hands on a copy of the translation. And now that I have, I can say that Seven Seas has not let me down one single bit. This translation was just about perfect. Not a single moment of eye-popping absurdity has been altered.

It was the uniform of the venerable St. Miator Girls’ Academy, which every single girl desperately wanted to attend.

(Was that every single girl in the world – or every *single* girl? I think the interpretation’s up for grabs. lol)

The overall tone of voice – that pretentious, overformal, precious tone, favored by moe fans everywhere, was captured perfectly. My kudos to the translator and adaptor.

Hikari came off as fragile, Amane as admirable, Miyuki as snarky, Shion as raging against the machine, Shizuma as a playgirl, and Nagisa as…Nagisa. Tamao isn’t as pervy as she is in the anime, Chikaru seems to be written by two different people – the one who acts like she’s pulling the strings and the one who thinks she’s barely interested, and Kaname…is nuts.

Kaname drew a red rose seemingly out of nowhere and offered it to Amane.

“Please give up; this is our fate. It’s all right. It only hurts in the beginning….”

And the Etoile competition is, to quote Tamao, a “festering pile of trickery.” She’s right, too. ^_^

I enjoyed every second of this novel, for the amusingly over-the-top tone, the heavy beating with the Yuri stick, and the fact that while I thought it hysterical, I am sure to get many emails and comments on how “beautiful” a story it is. My answer in advance, is to once again quote from the book:

Of course, most of the young ladies used their judgment when they heard those legends. But there were some who really believed them. …And yet those same young ladies grew into fine women.

Ratings:

Art – 6 (I’ve revised this down, because it’s too cute for some of the characters, who are supposed to be seen as sexy, or sensual, or masculine.)
Story – 6 (I’ve revised this up, because I’m no longer weighing this series against anything I take seriously)
Characters – 7 (Ditto)
Yuri – 9
Service – 8

Overall – 7

Translation – 9
Adaptation – 9

Strawberry Panic! is stellar as a comedy. Fans who don’t see that will find it to be stellar as a Yuri novel, because it is indubitably Yuri and therefore must be excellent. ^_^





Yuri Light Novel: Shiroyuki Gakuen Oneesama Itadakimasu!

March 6th, 2008

I wasn’t planning on doing a review today at all, but as long as I could keep it short, I thought I might manage one. Of everything on my “to review” pile, the thing I have the least to say about is Shiroyuki Gakuen Oneesama Itadakimasu!.

This light novel is about Kuramoto Yuuri, and her next door neighbor who admires (and desires) her, Takanawa Seiro. Yuuri is the perfect onee-sama; classic beauty, smart, all the girls adore her, etc. For her part, she enjoys the adoration, surrounding herself with blushing young beauties and playing with their feelings. Little does she know that she is *so* perfect that there is a group of evildoers out to get her. Seiro arrives on the scene fortuitously and saves her. The whole truth comes out – Seiro is actually an alien and the enemy is a group of aliens (who wear silly catgirl costumes) called the Black Cat somethingorother and who are out to get Yuuri for her DNA.

The rest of the book is basically all the characters having sex. Seiro and Yuuri are actually in love, so their sex is consensual and kind of sweet. The rest of the sex is either punishment, coercion or non-con.

…and that’s all there is to say and about this book, really.  ^_^

There’s pictures, it is a Light Novel after all. There’s nothing at all to say about them.

The only thing left to say, really, is that after I read it, I noticed that the author has a website listed so I went to visit it, expecting to find a hack like myself who wrote this for a paycheck. But no…this is a professional author who (according to his author’s note) intended this book to be a science fiction novel. When I stopped laughing I said to the wife, “You know, just saying that the girl is an alien does NOT make a story science fiction.” ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 2 unless you look at it as a comedy, then 3
Characters – 3 we know *parts* of them very well
Yuri – 10
Service – 10

It dawned on me that the Service rating is really a tremendously crucial thing – other Yuri bloggers are all male and don’t discriminate between stuff like this and stuff like, say, Love My Life. Sure they are both Yuri, but there’s Yuri and there’s this. ^_^





Light Novel: Maria-sama ga Miteru, Kira Kira Mawaru

January 14th, 2008

On my first day in Tokyo, I went to the Manga no Mori in Ikebukuro, walked into the store and was confronted by dozens of Yumi faces, all laid out dozens deep. The newest Marimite novel was on sale. ^_^ I’m only sorry that I couldn’t get a picture for you, because there were *a lot* of books in those piles. And I saw those piles in every manga store I went in to. It made me smile every time.

Of course I nabbed a copy – and decided to read it without dictionary or anything. Just read it, like a book.

Sure, I missed stuff, and some conversations were kind of hard to follow. But you know it felt so good to just pick it up and start reading and be able to follow enough of the story that I can report back to you.

Kira Kira Mawaru comes after a massively climactic novel in which many important spoilers occur, so it’s pretty fluffy bunny light. And, as a result, I almost stopped reading it as soon as I began. Because you see, I have a written statement in my house in which I posited the premise of the final book of the series – and this was it. So I opened the book, read the first line, and closed it in panic. ^_^

This definitely *could* be the last book in the series. It ends in a way that if Konno never wrote another word, the series could end handily right there. Which depressed me no end. I won’t be happy until the next book comes out, proving that there is a next book. ^_^

In any case, Kira Kira is about a day at the amusement park. Yumi and Sachiko are joined on their date by Yuuki and Kashiwagi, Rei and Yoshino, Noriko and Shimako, Tsutako and Shouko and eventually Touko and Kanako. The main plot of the book is that everyone (except for Touko and Kanako, but that’s a different story) arrives late for various reasons and in a bad mood. The reasons why they are late and why they are all out of sorts is pretty much the plot. And in every case, it’s pretty minor. Except…

Shimako and Noriko’s reason for being out of sorts is a massive spoiler which I will not share. I will tell you this – it changes nothing. It’s just a fact. But it is a massively spoilery fact. (If you *do* know what it is, kindly keep your mouth shut. Thanks.)

On the other hand, I will share with you Yumi, Sachiko, Kashiwagi and Yuuki’s reason for being late. You know that red sports car Kashiwagi drives? It’s not really his, it’s his grandfather’s. (That’s not the reason. Wait for it…) So Kashiwagi and Sachiko arrive at the Fukuzawa house and when Yumi and Yuuki get in the back seat, Sachiko complains that all the streets in the area are narrow, which struck both Yumi and myself as a really odd thing to complain about. After driving for some time, they stop at a gas station and after some back and forthing, the seating arrangements are changed – Sachiko will be driving. In fact, the sexy red sports car they are in is hers. Her grandfather bought it for *Sachiko.* O_O ORLY? Yumi immediately begins to fantasize about sitting in the front seat next to Sachiko driving, only to be harshly yanked back to reality when she realizes that Sachiko is a petulant driver and Kashiwagi is “helping”. Yumi is glad that she’s in the back – she and Yuuki stay very, very quiet for the rest of the ride. ^_^

Give Sachiko some time, Yumi – she’ll grow into the car and fulfill your dreams of sexy red sports car potential. I’m sure of it.

In terms of Yuri, Yumi and Sachiko are hand-holding fools the whole day. At one point as they get onto the Haunted House ride, Yumi holds Sachiko’s hand, enjoying the romance of it and briefly wondering if the boys are behind them also holding hands. Then she white-noises her brain so she won’t think about that ever again.

Noriko and Shimako are practically joined at the hip. I don’t think they let each other’s hands go from the moment they arrive. While waiting on line for the ferris wheel, a couple in front of them kiss and a pack of young boys behind them start jabbering about it. Noriko wonders how they are seen as they stand there and hold hands. As sisters Friends? Something more? (The concept she uses is as close to “friends with benefits” as I’ve ever seen used in Japanese.) She really doesn’t care, and continues to hold Shimako’s hand.

Yoshino and Rei arrive at the place not speaking to one another. But when Yoshino gets sick from overdoing it on the tea cup ride – a pretty painful scene, actually. I was totally ready to slap Yoshino to the moon – Rei rescues her in the most gallant and magnificent way. Rei 10, Yoshino, 0. They make up, of course, before the end of the book.

And Shouko is the winnah on Yuri longing. She doesn’t just watch Tsutako – she *watches* her. She is so overtly gaga over Tsu that it’s a bit embarrassing. But she gets some really good quality Tsu time – even a few personal insights. If there was a couple in this book where I wanted to see one turn and kiss the other, it would be them. Tsu, you dolt. Kiss the girl already. (The wife suggests a great AMV idea – “Kiss the Girl” from Little Mermaid, and all the moments in Marimite where they *should* *just* *kiss* already. Feel free to make this AMV and send it into Yuri Studios.)

By the time they find Touko and Kanako, and are all are together to watch the fireworks, Yumi is surrounded by shiny happiness. The lights around her are sparkling – kira kira mawaru. And definitely, positively, there will be many more days of happiness like this.

The author’s afterword was very intriguiging. She comments how this series has been called many things – among them “soft Yuri” – but what she sees it as is “fantasy.” Not sword and dragon fantasy, but “girls private school” fantasy. These novels are contemporary, but Konno specifically mentions the lack of cell phones in the book as one of the fantasy elements. She points out (as have we all,) that perhaps the school does not allow keitai on the grounds, but that doesn’t explain why they don’t have and use them away from school. She’s very funny about that – for one thing, she says that this is one of the “fantasy” elements in the story, you just have to take it for granted that they do not have cell phones. It’s a handwave you must accept. Secondly, she comments that, you know, when she was in school there *were* no cell phones and somehow she survived. I hear ya, sister. ^_^ The point of all this is – 1) no, they don’t have cell phones and 2) she knows the series is seen as Yuri. That is all.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 7
Characters – 8, except for Yoshino who was a 5 and Shouko who was a 9
Yuri – 5
Service – 3

Overall – 8

Even the wife wonders about my scoring – no, the overall score is not an average of the scores above it. Each score is taken on it’s own on a scale from one to ten. So, a story could, potentially,be high on everything, but if I simply hate it, get a low overall, and vice versa. In case you wondered.