Just about the time J-Novel Club announced their license of Otherside Picnic, I picked up the first volume of the manga to get a look at the story. Now that I have read the novel, by Iori Miyazawa, I find that I much prefer the novel to the manga.

Otherside Picnic, Volume 1, follows a woman who researches Internet myths and urban legends, Sorawo. The novel begins as she is drowning and is saved by a beautiful woman named Toriko. They are both on the “Otherside,” a place that is definitely not the normal world, but is accessible from it. They are there for their own reasons; Sorawo is drawn to the Otherside the same way she is drawn to ruins and abandoned places, Toriko is looking for her friend, Satsuki, who disappeared.

As Sorawo and Toriko travel together, encountering the flora, fauna and phenomena of the Otherside – and other humans,  who are there for their own reasons – they find themselves changed, both physically and mentally. And, although they can see that there are changes in their bodies, they aren’t necessarily sure exactly what the changes in their minds mean. As they discuss at one point, are the being of the Otheriside using human fear against them, or is their way of communicating or trying to engage with people? They don’t know and neither do we by the end of this volume.

As with Miyazawa’s other translated novel, Side-by-Side Dreamers, the author works hard to meld understandable, researched phenomena with wholly unique concepts, in a way that makes for an interesting read about experiences we have never considered before. This alone makes this book worth reading. Above and beyond this, the writing uses the cultural vertigo of a world whose rules are wholly alien and unknown to create a unique set of plot twists. By the end of Volume 1, we know enough to not always believe what we see or hear, because Sorawo cannot do so, but we are also reliant upon her for narration, which puts us wholly in her unreliable hands. This makes the reader feel as ungrounded as the protagonists, which is a genuinely terrific trick.

There is Yuri, although I’m finding it hard to describe. Sorawo always notes Toriko’s physical beauty right from the beginning, but early on she begins to feel an attachment that kind of jumps past “friend” to something else. She hardly knows Toriko, but wants to be with her. In her incoherent, misanthropic (and slightly jealous) way, Sorawo almost immediately bonds with Toriko and by the end of the book, it seems perfectly natural that her feelings will at some point be recognized as attraction. Additionally, we also learn that Toriko’s relationship with her “friend” was more intimate, which shifts something in Sorawo.

None of the characters are really likable, but neither are they unlikable. As with the Otheriside, we don’t really understand their rules…possibly because they don’t understand themselves.

Translator Sean McCann did a fine job with the vast vocabulary of Japanese Internet urban legends and the alien Otherside and the inside of a not-particularly-social person’s thoughts. Kudos to him and editor Krys Loh.

All in all, this is a slightly creepy, action-filled, semi-mythic story full of many ups and downs, until we don’t know where the ground is. All we can do it hang on and wait for the ride to be over. I liked it a lot.

Ratings:

Story – 9
Character – 8
Service – 2
Yuri – 5

Overall – 9

Otherside Picnic, Volume 1 is available on Amazon or on the J-Novel Club site in several formats. A sample section of the book is also available to read on their site.  Volume 2 will be available on Kindle  or on J-Novel Club in January 2020.

Many thanks to J-Novel Club for the review copy! This the fifth of their initial Yuri line and of these first 5 only one has not been something that I’d read a second time and consider two of them to be brilliant. That’s a hell of a record to start with. I am just so impressed with these choices, I’m really looking forward to more from J-Novel Club. They’ve made a convert of me. ^_^