There are two problems with Note Yori Yasui Koi (ノートより安い恋) “The Love That Is Cheaper Than A Notebook,” by Morita Kisetsu. And both of them come from the same place, I think.

But before we even get to the problem with the book, let me start with this – the collection begins with dark grey letters on a black background. Seriously.

Go ahead…click the image.

But that wasn’t really the problem with this collection. The first – and most pressing – problem was this: Of the seven stories included in this collection, how many of them do you think are about two females who are in love with one another? If you said, “None,” you’d be correct.

The second problem is an extension of the first. Each story features a couple who are unequal in status (sempai/kouhai, adult/child, god/human, witch/human) and each story is basically focused around one conversation between that couple, but repeated seven times or so in the course of 50 pages. There’s a palpable lack of tension between the protagonists and conviction or caring on the part of the writer. Instead of a collection of Yuri, by which *I* mean stories where two females fall in love, or are in love, with one another, this is instead a collection of Yuri by which Yuri Hime means a female taken out any kind of real life context, plopped down to share the story frame with another female and any conversation between them will somehow be contrived to be considered “Yuri.”

I’m continually frustrated by Ichijinsha’s inability to find a single good author of anything remotely lesbian-ish for their “Yuri novels.” This collection of short stories isn’t dire, but it’s not entertaining, either.

The two stories that were the best were the least real .

One in which a girl, tired of life, meets a witch in the woods and lives with her, until she falls for her. They share a single kiss which destroys the witch, but frees the girl to rediscover her true love, a female classmate (which the author cleverly has her refer to as a boyfriend so we don’t get the secret before the witch does, I have no idea why.)

The second is the relationship between a girl who becomes the priestess for and wife of a god, under somewhat suspect circumstances. After the god conducts a dramatic battle in the form of a dragon with her brother, the river god, both human and god live happily for some portion of time thereafter.

The all-human relationships in this collection are confined to schoolmates, all with a not-particularly compelling hook and one ten-year old who meets and befriends a slacker college student in a completely platonic relationship.. None of these stories contain much of anything that remembles love, although there are a few kisses. And the most excruciating mention of “bodypainting” ever.

The one thing that is remarkable about the book is the slick presentation. The book comes clothed in a thick plastic cover that is perfect for travel. Too bad the contents weren’t worth protecting.

Ratings:

Overall – 3

This is a very non-Yuri collection of Yuri stories. It’s not bad, it’s just not good. There’s no…passion…in any of it. Your mileage may vary of course.

It wasn’t easy, but I stepped up my reading to get this book done in record time, so I could tell you about it while I was still in a Balsa kind of mood. (The next one is several books down on the pile so don’t expect anything for a while.)

Kami no Moribito begins on a, dare I say it?, happy note. Balsa and Tanda, finding themselves with some mutual downtime, decide to go on a trip together. They have a destination in mind, but the real point of the trip is to revisit places they like with a close companion, and eat good food – you know, a vacation.

When they arrive in an inn that Tanda likes and knows the folks who run it, they are catapulted out of vacation into a very complex story. While they are there, Balsa sees a group of nomads manhandling two children and, being Balsa, ends up saving the kids. We learn that the children have had a very, very hard life, which culminated in the raiding party invading their home, killing their father and raping their mother. When their mother died, the two were kept as servants and were just, that very night, sold to slavers.

Having rescued them, Balsa has Tanda tend to their wounds and the fevers they get from them. The younger of the two, Asura, has some kind of vision, or connection, to her people’s god, and it’s not a terribly good thing, by everyone else’s standards. Tanda’s acquaintance and former military man, Sfaru, is convinced that the right thing to do would be to kill her right now.

Tanda tells Balsa not to get involved with the kids, but when he sees she can’t stop herself, warns her to get the hell out, asap. Balsa grabs the girl and takes off.

The next morning Sfaru sends his sons after her, and tells the boy, Chikisa, the story of who the god is, and why Asura is dangerous. Not surprisingly, Chikisa is not particularly thrilled to know that Sfaru is after his little sister, but he’s wounded and weak and a child, so he trusts Tanda and Balsa and waits. Balsa uses all her wits to evade Sfaru’s sons, and fights, and severly, but not fatally, wounds one when he gets too close.

She runs to a large-ish city, where she heads toward the house of someone who owes her. The old lady, Masa, isn’t thrilled to see her, but takes to Asura right away. When Balsa asks if Asura could see herself living there, for the first time in her life, Asura finds a sense of hope in her heart. Masa offers her and her brother a place to live if they should come back.

Tanda and Sfaru aren’t far behind, though. Although Tanda betrayed him, Sfaru knows that Tanda knows Balsa best and takes him and Chikisa to track down Balsa and Asura. They learn that Balsa has left the city.

Balsa gets an introduction to a guide – she has to nearly break his arm to convince him that she’s worth helping, but once she beats him into the ground, he comes around and promises to lead her and Asura where they are headed…back to New Yogo, by way of the far north.

The book ends there, with Balsa and Asura running for their lives, and Tanda and Chikisa following along with Sfaru.

Of all of the Moribito books, it was probably so far the weakest. There were long chunks of story-telling that weren’t terribly compelling, especially the history of the Taru and their eponymous founder Taru no Hamaya, and a long, excruciating sidebar about the Princes of Rota and the one that fell in love with the daughter of Taru no Tamashi. When I got to a chapter than was three pages of talking about sheep, the story simply ground to a halt.

Nonetheless, once the world building was over, the story – especially the chase between Sfaru and his sons (in which Sfaru, who is also a shaman as well as a fighter, puts his spirit into a hawk to hunt Balsa) and Balsa, who anticipates this, is excellent. Unexpectedly cute is Masa, who wins as the oldest tsundere character ever. ^_^

Also nice were the fight scenes, in which Balsa always wins, even wounded, and the magical moment when she practices spear form under the light of the full moon while the children watch.

Overall – 7

While not the most compelling story ever, I’m interested to see what happens, so definitely will be reading the second book once I get through the other 6 or so books on my pile. ^_^ Balsa’s just that cool.

And here we are at the third of the Moribito series, the last one I have completed. I’m working on another now, but it’s slow going, so you’ll have to wait until I’m finished for that review. ^_^

In Yume no Moribito, we turn away from Balsa for a moment, to take a good look at Tanda. He and Balsa have known each other since childhood, and since then, they’ve been close. But in all that time, neither of them have made the inevitable leap into a “relationship.” Although it’s apparent to pretty much everyone that they belong together, Balsa will not make any commitments, and so, neither will Tanda.

But, while Balsa is staying with him after returning from Kanbal, Tanda learns that Crown Prince Chagum has fallen into a deep sleep and will not wake up. This might not have meant anything to anyone else, but in Tanda’s home village, his own niece has fallen into a deep sleep from which she will not awake. Tanda becomes convinced that it’s not a disease that’s causing the comas, but something that is keeping the children’s spirits from returning to them. Her father calls it a “curse” but Tanda rebukes him and decides that he will enter her dream and find her.

The rest of the book is taken up with Tanda’s adventure. Balsa is once again in the position of watching over his body, while Tanda’s spirit wanders in another world.

Once in the dream world, Tanda discovers that a spirit from this world is appearing to children as someone they know and asking them to join it. In his neice’s case, it appeared in the form of a minstrel she had fallen for. Tanda rescues her, but returns to the dream world to find and rescue Chagum.

Chagum, it turns out, had been called by his beloved, recently deceased older brother, Sagum. Tanda does manage to find the Prince, and with his help, he saves the other souls that have been captured in the dream. But as they approach the threshold of return, Balsa must join them to save them from the creature that has called them. Chagum and Balsa have not seen each other for about 18 months. Not surprisingly, Chagum is taller and starting to look more like a man than the boy she knew. They have a brief, poignant reunion and part again, Chagum to return to his body in the Imperial Palace and Balsa and Tanda to the village.

This series, like so many Japanese novels I’ve read was a lot of setup for a brief, but brilliant climax. But the adventure definitely takes second place to the relationship dynamic between Balsa and Tanda and the reunion scene between Chagum and Balsa.

Ratings:

Overall – 7

Some of the later novels in the series follow Chagum, so I’m waffling about reading them, but we’ll see. I liked him, but for me, it’s all about Balsa. ^_^

Now, back to Kami no Moribito for me!