art by Kuwashima Rein

For general information on this series: Paying to Win in a VRMMO entry

This review is for the first volume of Paying to Win in a VRMMO by Blitz Kiva. The English edition was released digitally by J-Novel Club in February 2017. The second volume is currently being released in English in weekly prepub installments. The series has six volumes out in Japan.

Volume 1

One’s first instinct may be to ask “Why so many light novels set in VR?” — but for official English translations at least, there technically aren’t so many. I imagine there will be plenty more stories in the years to come that deal with virtual reality though, thanks to the improvements steadily being made with real-life technology. It is probably going to remain a hot topic both in Japan and abroad.

The premise for this story is evident in the title itself. Our protagonist, Ichiro Tsuwabuki, is an extraordinarily wealthy genius–and when asked by his cousin to help her find a friend of hers in a virtual reality game, he decides he might as well dominate the virtual world with his near-limitless funds while he’s at it. Though I’m not that into video games (and have never played an MMO), I still found the concept behind Paying to Win entertaining. The rich noble typically holds an antagonistic role in stories, so following Ichiro’s unnaturally speedy rise to power via constant spending makes for an amusing change of pace.

In a way the story isn’t really about him though. The actual character arc is devoted to the friend Ichiro and his cousin are searching for: someone playing as Kirihito, a blatant expy of the protagonist from some popular light novel. The presence of many Kirihitos in the VR game make for many of the story’s funnier moments, but this particular Kirihito ends up as a kind of rival for Ichiro. I’d actually say this volume felt more like a shounen sports manga than a fantasy adventure.

Overall I felt the tone of Paying to Win was about halfway between Sword Art Online and a full-blown parody like Sword Art Online: The Abridged Series. It pokes fun at some of the tropes of VR and MMOs, but it’s still trying to take the characters and their battles seriously. I personally wanted more of the laughs, as I just can’t get myself to care for all the intricacies of MMO gameplay.

The characters meanwhile are a bit of a mixed bag to me. I feel there could have been something more from each of them… Ichiro showed a strong display of wealth, but I would have liked to have seen more of his craftiness, for example. Kirihito meanwhile has a serviceable backstory, but the author also goes to bizarre lengths to keep the player’s gender a secret, which felt both awkward and needless since the story didn’t go anywhere with it. The remaining characters meanwhile are all rather mellow–which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I expected much more colorful personalities from a comedy-driven story.

In the end, I’ll recommend this to anyone looking for a new spin on the VRMMO setup. Sword Art Online fans at least should get a kick out of it, I think?

Cho’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

(art from music video)

• 告白予行練習ヤキモチの答え — Kokuhaku Yokou Renshuu: Yakimochi no Kotae — “Confession Rehearsal: A Solution to Jealousy”
• Author: Touko Fujitani — Artist: Yamako
• The novel: Amazon.jp — Books Kinokuniya — YesAsia
• The fan translation (by Renna): Renna’s Translations
• MAL Entry — Forum

(Note: This site’s central focus is on light novels officially translated and published in English, but at times I will post reviews for stories that have only been translated by fans. Please support the Japanese books that don’t get English releases.)

A Solution for Jealousy

This is the second novel in the “Confession Executive Committee Love Series” of light novel adaptations for Vocaloid songs. The first volume was Confession Rehearsal (or Kokuhoku Yokou Renshuu), and this second volume is titled A Solution for Jealousy (or Yakimochi no Kotae). This series focuses on a group of six friends in high school who get caught up in the game of romance. The first volume primarily focused on Natsuki and Yuu — in this one, the lead characters are Mochita and Akari (as seen on the cover).

A Solution for Jealousy continues with the theme of finding the courage to confess your love to someone. In this case, the shy boy Mochita has fallen for Akari, a girl he has hardly even managed to talk to. Akari meanwhile is described as having her head in the clouds, but to me it seemed she was perfectly normal — she just isn’t that concerned with romance, and hasn’t fallen in love with anyone before. At any rate, the story takes its time in bringing the two together, as they’re both busy with their respective clubs (film and art) and helping out their friends.

I liked the first half of this volume well enough — it was very simple, but it was cute. The second half of the story felt like it lost its focus though, and seemed like it was little more than a rehash of events from Confession Rehearsal. The two volumes (and most likely the third volume) take place during the same time period, but offer different points of view. It’s a storytelling technique I’m fine with, but it doesn’t offer much here. I like that Mochita and Akari are there for their friends and all, but not enough happens to make the slice-of-life material interesting.

These light novels are pleasant enough reads for fans of fluffy shoujo manga set in high school, but they probably won’t hold the attention of anyone else. The recent anime film adaptation does well to condense the first two volumes into one much snappier story, so I’ll at least suggest that if you’re in the mood for something cute.

Cho’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

art by Kususaga Rin

For general information on this series: The Faraway Paladin entry

This review is for the first volume of The Faraway Paladin by Kanata Yanagino. The English edition was released digitally by J-Novel Club in February 2017. The second volume has been releasing in English in weekly prepub installments, with a full ebook set to come out for it at the end of this month (April 2017). The series has two volumes out in Japan thus far.

Volume 1

Once upon a time, there was a shut-in who lived in Japan. He died. But death is only the beginning in The Faraway Paladin, which focuses on the day-to-day swords and sorcery life of the reincarnated Will, from his infancy(!) to his coming-of-age. This introductory volume more or less serves as a prologue to set the stage for Will’s adventure. At first I expected the slice-of-life material of Will’s youth to just be chapter one, but it’s actually the entire book.

Fortunately it’s not a dull read, primarily thanks to the nature of Will’s three undead caretakers. Blood is a large skeleton who teaches Will how to fight. Mary is a mummified woman who teaches Will everything related to worship of the world’s deities. And Gus is an old ghost who teaches Will magic. The central mystery of this volume pertains to who these three figures are, why they are undead, and why they are raising Will. The city this story takes place near has been devoid of human life for many years (only monsters roam the land), so there is that mystery as well. Also, there’s the whole matter of why Will has retained all memory of his past life, and what his role in this fantasy world is meant to be.

This volume does a good job at answering all these questions in a satisfying manner. The author clearly put a lot of thought into the setting, and the prose in general is well-written too. The characters have depth and solid arcs, there are some strong and interesting themes, and it pulls off its serious and down-to-earth tone very well. The artwork is also striking. I can fully understand why everyone is praising this novel as much as they are.

But all that said…

I had a hard time really caring about any of it? Chances are this just says more about me than it does the novel itself, but I just couldn’t get into this one. It’s true that the story moves at a slow pace, but that’s not exactly a bad thing. And I can even accept Will being this everyday-ish boy for his role as the viewpoint character learning about this new world. I originally chalked up my disinterest to simply fatigue toward “trapped in a fantasy world” stories, but Faraway Paladin doesn’t feel like your typical isekai light novel.

It doesn’t exactly have the feel of an epic fantasy novel either, though. While reading this story, it still felt like the author was heavily influenced by role-playing games, and the afterword wholeheartedly confirmed this. I guess then it has the feel of pulp genre fiction… But is there a big difference between that and a light novel? Perhaps it’s best to just say Faraway Paladin is a reactionary work to current LN trends. Or… perhaps it’s not? There are only so many light novels translated into English, so outside of Japan we don’t have a full picture of what’s being written and read.

In an interview following the story, the author might have actually pinned down what it is that truly makes Faraway Paladin feel “different” – there’s no romantic interest in this volume. When nearly every high-selling light novel features the heroine on the cover front and center, Faraway Paladin is actually a breath of fresh air with its focus instead on family relationships. I really appreciate that, and would like to see more of this sort of thing in other series.

I feel bad about not being more excited about this one, but I can still at least recommend it to everyone who likes a good fantasy story. Chances are I’ll give the second volume a try at some point, and maybe then I will have a better feel for what works and what doesn’t in regard to this first volume.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

(artwork by Takuminamuchi)

~A guest review by Frog-kun~

This is a review for the Strawberry Panic! light novel series, written by Sakurako Kimino. The series consists of three volumes, which were first published by Dengeki Bunko in 2006. Seven Seas released an English translation of the series in omnibus format in 2011. The first volume was translated by Michelle Kobayashi, while the latter two volumes were translated by Anastasia Moreno. The series is currently complete in both English and Japanese.

Vol 1 to 3: The Complete Novel Collection

It may be hard to imagine given its relative obscurity these days, but Strawberry Panic! was the anime series that introduced the yuri genre to the West. It was one of the debut yuri titles for Seven Seas, and evidently the genre has proved popular enough for the company to continue publishing yuri manga to this day. Unfortunately, Strawberry Panic! remains the only yuri light novel series to receive an official English translation. It’s also far from the best of what this genre has to offer, although it may still be worth your time if you’re a fan of cute romances and high school melodrama.

The story of Strawberry Panic! is, to put it bluntly, a storm of genre clichés. Set in a Catholic all-girls school? Check—there’s even three of them! Girl pines over her best friend who will never love her back? There are at least four girls who do this. Girl hopes senpai notices her? That applies to pretty much every pairing in the story.

Most of it is harmless and entertaining fluff, but do be warned that the novels feature some of the more problematic lesbian stereotypes. It’s made explicit in the narrative that this is yuri of the “Class S” variety—many of the girls engage in lesbian relationships as performance and will “outgrow” it when they leave school. One character, who is referred to as the school’s “only true lesbian”, hates men because of a trauma she suffered in her youth.

Perhaps the most damning thing one could say about the lesbian romances in these novels, however, is that they simply aren’t very interesting. Strawberry Panic! is an ensemble story, so it covers a lot of different pairings, but sadly none of the couples are well-developed. The characters spend each volume retreading the same emotional ground, often repeating identical-sounding lines. Readers looking for a satisfying lesbian romance would be best served elsewhere.

Strawberry Panic! does work as an entertaining soap opera, though. The plot revolves around a competition between three ultra-prestigious all-girls schools to decide the best couple, and the novels work best when all these ridiculously wealthy girls use their cunning and resources to outdo each other, all the while maintaining a friendly spirit of competition. The story starts off slow at first, but over the course of its three-volume narrative, there are a number of twists and turns that will keep readers on their toes.

The translation is straightforward and readable, although there a few things worth pointing out for those who aren’t familiar with the original Japanese. Firstly, the translators make the unusual decision (for light novels) to retain the Japanese honorific suffixes and include translation notes. This is all for the sake of ensuring “maximum authenticity”, as the foreword puts it. This does make the “older sister/younger sister” dynamics more explicit for English readers, but it may be awkward to read things like “Shizuma-oneesama” in an English novel, even for those who are used to honorifics in their manga and light novels.

I’d also like to note that the translation’s handling of the prose and dialogue ends up feeling somewhat disappointing, despite the claim for authenticity. The original Japanese is a lot more flowery and prone to purple prose, and while I appreciate how the translation simplifies the writing for the sake of readability, it does end up feeling a little plain. I was also disappointed that the overly affected “rich girl” speech patterns are abandoned in translation, except for a few occasions where a characters says “Golly!” In English, these supposedly well-bred girls are prone to saying things like “hell” and “nice pair” (in reference to breasts), and it simply doesn’t match up with how they’re described in the prose.

All in all, however, I thought that Seven Seas put out a great release with this series. The omnibus edition, which you can still buy cheaply from Amazon and other online retailers, contains all three volumes of the series. It’s a great buy for English light novel collectors, especially considering how so few light novel series have been completely translated into English at this point. My only complaint is that the original color pages from the novels are printed in black-and-white, but c’est la vie.

Strawberry Panic! may struggle with some mishaps along the way, but it’s still an interesting and quirky little series that is worth checking out if you’re into yuri and melodrama. It might not have been my cup of tea, but I’m glad this series was translated into English. Let’s hope that more yuri light novels find their way into the English book market!

Frog-kun’s rating: Maybe Recommended

(art by Sidu)

For general information on this series: Kagerou Daze entry

This review is for the third volume of Kagerou Daze by Jin (Shizen no Teki-P), featuring art by Sidu. The English edition was released by Yen Press in January 2016. In July 2017, the seventh volume will release in English, catching the series up to Japan.

Vol 3 — The Children Reason

Like the previous two volumes, Kagerou Daze: The Children Reason tells two stories. Similar to volume 2 specifically, the A story of this one follows unfamiliar characters at some past time, while the B story continues the present-time adventure/misadventure of the Mekakshi-dan gang. And over the course of the volume, we get a few more pieces of the puzzle that is the overarching storyline of Kagerou Daze as a whole.

Kagerou Daze is a series I recommend in general, but some volumes (or more specifically, some stories) are better than others. In this case, I did not really enjoy the A story of volume 3, which follows two new characters: a boy named Hibiya, and a girl named Hiyori. These two children, who I’m guessing are around 10-12 years old, are tough to like. Hibiya is both bratty and spineless, and his obsessive crush on Hiyori is… somewhere between bizarre and uncomfortable. Meanwhile Hiyori is about as self-absorbed as an ice queen-in-training can get, and her valley girl dialogue (like, um, yeah) grew tiresome quickly.

Needing someone close-at-hand to verbally abuse, Hiyori enlists Hibiya in departing the countryside with her for a short summer vacation in the big city of Tokyo. There they meet Konoha—a mysterious character whom readers of volume 2 will be aware of, but not exactly be familiar with. The volume becomes more interesting at this point, once connections with the central Kagerou Daze plot are unveiled.

The B story for volume 3 has the advantage of featuring the more engaging ensemble cast—but with only half of a short book to work with, we don’t learn a lot more about any of them in particular. My favorite scene of this volume is probably a short exchange between the former shut-in Shintaro and the morally-dubious Kano, but the dialogue does little more than hint at vague (but presumably tragic) events of the past. I keep waiting for the big explanation behind certain plot points, but the revelations continue to be delivered on a drip-feed basis.

Of course, more volumes are already out, so I only have myself to blame for not keeping up, ha ha. I plan to read more, so it’s just a matter of finding the time. Despite not liking some of the characters, I still found this volume fun to read, thanks to its informal yet colorful prose. Lines such as “It sounded like the shell-shocked drone of a boy who had Seen Things” and “I couldn’t guess why he so valiantly fought against Mr. Sandman a second ago” make for an entertaining read.

Cho’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

Welcome to the NHK

This review is for Welcome to the NHK, a standalone novel written by Tatsuhiko Takimoto (with cover art by Yoshitoshi ABe). The English edition was released in October 2007 by Tokyopop.

Welcome to the NHK

This book had been in my to-read pile for a long time. I had figured it would probably be a good story, but I also had the suspicion it would be pretty depressing. In this instance, my hunch was accurate on both counts. Welcome to the NHK is well-written and well-worth reading… but it’s definitely not a happy story. Though I had often heard it billed a dark comedy, I found the plot to be first and foremost focused on the uncomfortable character arc of the protagonist. What jokes there are, I would probably place under the category of “cringe humor.”

The story follows Satou, who has dropped out of college and become a hikikomori–a shut-in who has minimal contact with the outside world. He rarely leaves his tiny apartment, spending most of his time being depressed, and trying to find ways to be less depressed. Dwelling on anything related to his current state makes him depressed–and when his attempts to break free of this funk end in failure, that makes him more depressed. To take his mind off things, he usually sleeps, drinks alcohol, looks at porn, or takes various drugs. When he’s tired of blaming himself for his misfortune, he comes to the remarkable conclusion that all societal ills are in fact caused by the NHK, Japan’s public broadcasting organization.

The story does a great job of getting into Satou’s head, portraying quite vividly what kind of thought process lies behind a depressed individual’s decision-making. It is understandable why the prose in general feels so real though, when the author’s afterword reveals that Tatsuhiko Takimoto has lived as a hikikomori himself for an extended period of time. He stresses that Welcome to the NHK is not autobiographical, but acknowledges that writing about Satou felt much like writing about himself.

Even a hikikomori is not an island, and in the second chapter Satou gets a visit from–who else?–the Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Okay, technically it’s an unnamed missionary church handing out Awaken! magazines.) One of the visitors though is a girl around Satou’s age named Misaki. After another unexpected encounter or two she decides she’s going to help Satou out of his hikikomori rut.

I found Misaki to be the most pleasant surprise of this novel. At first I assumed she would simply be a cutesy heroine who would save Satou simply by her being sweet and friendly, but she turned out to be much more nuanced of a character than that. There was more to her motivations than I expected, and in terms of personality she actually came off as surprisingly mean at times (and not in a tsundere anime-trope kind of way). In other words, she felt realistic and human, and I don’t think the story would have worked as well as it did if she hadn’t been.

All in all I found Welcome to the NHK to be an engaging read, but it’s definitely not a pleasant story. It’s about how the expectations of adult life and the reality of it are very different things. It’s a punch in the gut. Reading it reminded me much of YA “problem novels” actually, which make a point of not hiding any of the unpleasant aspects of the real world. This one just followed a slightly older protagonist, and happened to be set in Japan.

The translation for this book is solid, so if you can find yourself a copy (and are up for something more serious) I recommend picking it up, along with Chain Mail and Calling You. These are all great standalones that Tokyopop brought over back in the day. I think I would like to see more of this sort of thing get localized? Action-packed fantasy adventures are entertaining of course, but sometimes we need a novel that “hits close to home” and gives us a heavy topic to reflect upon.

Cho’s Rating: Strongly Recommended (so long as you’re all right with some depressing content)

(art by Abec)

~A guest review by Frog-kun~

This is a review for volumes 1-4 of the Sword Art Online: Progressive light novel series, written by Reki Kawahara. The English edition was first released by Yen Press in March 2015, and the translation has since caught up to the Japanese publication. The series is still ongoing, with four volumes currently available in both English and Japanese.

Sword Art Online is a series that likely needs no introduction to light novel and anime fans at this stage, although the spinoff series Sword Art Online: Progressive may be a bit less familiar to some. Simply put, it’s a “reboot” of the Aincrad storyline, promising to tell the story of how each floor in the game was conquered. Depending on your feelings about the original series, this may or may not be an appealing prospect.

Above all, Sword Art Online: Progressive appears to have been written with an eye for addressing the common criticisms against SAO. Kirito reprises his role as the main character for this series, but he’s not the godlike gamer he was in the original series; instead, he just seems like a perceptive kid who often needs help from others to balance his overspecialized talents. The other characters in the world of SAO get a chance to shine in Progressive—most notably Asuna, whose journey from newbie to VRMMO veteran is one of the main focuses of the reboot.

Worldbuilding was always the strongest aspect of Kawahara’s stories, but it’s even more impressive in this series. One of the things I liked most about Progressive was its emphasis on the social dynamics in the VRMMORPG setting. The lives of other players were often touched upon in the original series but were never really delved into. In Progressive, we’re given a clearer picture of the guild politics, and the various side characters play key roles in moving the narrative forward. This makes the game world feel as if it’s populated by people instead of just serving as a canvas for Kirito’s exploits.

The tone of Progressive is also quite a bit different from the original series. Although the possibility of death is at the back of everyone’s minds, the characters also spend a fair amount of time simply enjoying their adventures. The overall feel is quite laid-back, perhaps because the reader is assured that Kirito and Asuna can’t die at this stage of the story. The same thing doesn’t apply for many of the side characters, however; the main source of dramatic tension in Progressive comes from the idea that most of the new characters could perish at any moment.

Arguably, the biggest problem with Progressive is that it spends too long exploring all the facets of its world. The first four volumes are unusually thick for light novels, but they still only cover the first five floors of the game. I personally didn’t find the padded length to be a problem, although there were admittedly some parts which repeated game mechanics that the reader would already know about. These exposition parts were always thoroughly woven into the character interactions or the immediate plot, so they rarely felt dry or repetitive to me, although your mileage may vary.

As solid as the narrative of Progressive is on paper, it wouldn’t have been so enjoyable without strong prose and diction. Stephen Paul’s translation is one of the best I’ve encountered from Yen Press, to the extent that I would rather read Sword Art Online in English over the original Japanese. The translation particularly shines when it comes to the dialogue, giving each character a distinctive yet naturalistic way of speaking. Although Progressive is a distinct step up from his previous works, Kawahara isn’t particularly known for writing witty dialogue–but the translation has a way of making even the stock Japanese phrases sound fresh and full of personality in English. Sword Art Online and Progressive are both worth buying for their English translations alone.

All in all, Sword Art Online: Progressive marks just how much Reki Kawahara has improved as a writer over the years. Given that he began writing Progressive a full ten years after publishing the original SAO web novel, it’s natural that his abilities would grow noticeably. Progressive isn’t a hugely innovative work, but it gets the storytelling fundamentals right, delivering a classic adventure story that should appeal to readers outside the “VRMMORPG” or “Overpowered MC” subgenres. In many ways, Progressive is the MMO survival story that many of SAO’s critics thought the original series should have been. I also have no doubt that preexisting SAO fans will get a kick out of Progressive too, particularly fans of Kirito and Asuna’s relationship.

Just be warned that this series is not getting a conclusion anytime soon. So far the series has been averaging about one volume a year, so at this rate Kawahara may be writing Progressive for the rest of his life. But when the installments are this good, I don’t mind waiting for the long haul.

Frog-kun’s rating: Strongly Recommended

Art by Miyagi

For general information on the series: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers entry

This review is for the first volume of Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers by Ishio Yamagata (with artwork by Miyagi). The English edition was released by Yen Press in April 2017. The second volume will be released in the following months (August 22, 2017). The series ended in Japan, after six volumes.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers – Volume 1

Mysteries can be set in any locale, but rarely do they put a setting’s full potential to use to create such an engaging story. Fortunately, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers delivers an ingenious fiction filled with both suspense and fantasy.

The novel unfolds as a group of heroes assembles to fend off the evil that will be resurrected on short notice. But while the legend states that six valorous fighters will do the job, a seventh enters the fray and instils doubt within the group. This leads to a story of psychological detective work to find out who’s the intruder.

And this mystery is truly intriguing. There’s a wealth of elements contributing to the premise, some of them drawing heavily from classic fantasy–for example, the use of magic and concoctions to subtly replace forensics. Repurposing those elements is refreshing for both genres, though things do feel a little too convenient at times.

Ishio Yamagata also isn’t shy of subverting fantasy tropes (the whole “seven instead of six heroes” is just the tip of the iceberg), breaking apart the usual clichéd characters. No one is almighty and perfect, and everybody can be considered a threat, especially under the conditions of this volume. And thanks to the constant profiling, readers can delve into the backstory and motives of every “hero,” grounding some basic behavioural patterns into our minds to start searching for the possible culprit.

The story thus manages to place a usual premise (find the traitor inside a group) in an unusual setting. By pulling this off, it also sets the tone for future volumes where a feeling of mistrust will linger on the group. All of this happens while actual relationships flourish in the background, serving as the hope for the heroes’ victory.

My only minor complaint, other than some of the overly-practical fantasy objects, would be the unpredictable nature of everyone’s abilities. While it helps mystifying the story and keeps the reader’s interest, I feel it amplifies the possibility of plot contrivances in later volumes.

Nonetheless, Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers is a pleasant and subtle story, and an essential read for both fantasy and detective novel fans. Hopefully, later volumes will keep readers on the edge of their seats just like this impressive opener.

Melody’s Rating: Strongly Recommended

On one dark and stormy night, Viktor Frankenstein has used God’s tools to create life. “I had desired it,” he narrates in utter horror, “with an ardour that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” This creature he has created is grotesque and should not be in this world; all he could do was run back to his apartment and cower to bed.

That is the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus. It is titled so because Prometheus brought fire upon humanity and was cursed to be eaten by vultures and revived forever in a never-ending cycle of life and death.

Biscuit Frankenstein by Akira is Frankenstein: The Postmodern Prometheus. It is a reimagining of that cautionary tale. But unlike Shelley’s novel, Biscuit Frankenstein is not a warning against innovation; it is a warning on humanity as a whole.

The year is 1999. Nostradamus’s predictions claim humanity will be wiped out before the turn of the millennium by an unknown disease. Corpses of young girls turn up in the streets sliced up or crumbled like a piece of cookie. This disease comes in different forms and their symptoms resemble certain types of pastries. The protagonist, Biscuit, is nothing but a collection of body parts stitched together because of her biscuit-like affliction. One touch and she would crumble. But she can attach new body parts without any problem and therefore becomes an ageless immortal through this, sometimes changing her sex in the process. She only uses the body parts of people who have tried to harm humanity by replacing their own body parts with their own. To her, they are selfish and it is why the apocalypse is happening. Her mission is thus to find a way for humanity to survive.

Akira, the writer, is no stranger to surreal premises and wacky ideas. He has written touching family stories of wacky people (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki), the hikikomori complex in the context of the metaphysical wars in Shintoism (Sasami-san@Ganbaranai), and a romance comedy filled with crossdressing characters (Ikemen Kanojo). What makes Biscuit Frankenstein worth talking about from the rest of his usual catalog of crazy ideas is its depiction of transhumanism.

Today’s Frankenstein creatures are tomorrow’s humans. Characters who have rebuilt themselves with body parts are intersex and don’t subscribe to gender norms. The distinction between the sexes has more or less crumbled with the rest of the humans afflicted with the disease.

Those are the best parts of Biscuit Frankenstein. Its characters talk at length about the meaning of biological sex and gender, though maybe a bit too much, and what that means for them in the future. The paternal and maternal figures we take for granted have been toyed with in the novel to show how little this matters in the new age of humanity. Men can be mothers and women fathers. The old order is being vanquished by a new chaos that humanity isn’t used to yet.

This exploration of gender is what got the attention of The Japanese Association of Gender Fantasy & Science Fiction. Impressed by the work, the association gave the grand prize Sense of Gender — the Japanese version of the James Tiptree Jr. award in America — to Biscuit Frankenstein. To this day, the book is the only light novel entry in the organization. In Akira’s commencement speech, he writes that light novels amidst all the anime tropes on the surface have something philosophical within and believes there are light novels that dive into the philosophy of sex and gender better than his work.

It may sound like Akira is being humble, but he is very honest about this work. The book suffers from him trying to wrap up several gigantic ideas into one light novel volume. He cites several texts regarding biological sex and seems to have tried to summarize their findings in characters’ dialogs; these dialogs, while being the most interesting, drag the novel down to a snail’s pace and makes it hard for me to read the book. Some of the research also feels irrelevant to the work. For some reason, there is a chapter wholly dedicated to virtual reality. Reading about TCP/IP connections in a book dedicated to the collapse of humanity and rise of transhumanism feels pointless.

But Biscuit Frankenstein, in its grotesque beauty, shines as an introductory text to light novels about gender. Gender is becoming a relevant subject of debate as time passes for me personally. I think about the social consequences of gender all the time, but this book puts it in the context of consciousness and the meaning of humanity. Even in its least interesting moments, the book gives me time to think about the world and its strange approaches to gender and what it means to be nonbinary.

What does it mean when we change sex or constantly ponder about gender? Are we our own Frankensteins playing with our own bodies in weird, twisted ways? Or is it to find and create a new identity for ourselves that we not only find comfortable but progressive for all of humanity? Maybe we think about all this crap because that is part of humanity’s goal: to survive.

I find that even the most mediocre books can provoke damning questions about how we live our lives and that may be the lasting effect of Biscuit Frankenstein on me. I may forget that I have ever read it, but it has made me more aware of who I am and who I want to be. It is just one step of the many steps of the ladder I have to climb in order to attain the truth.

For the people who want to have a taste on the progressivism found in light novels and Japanese literature regarding gender, Biscuit Frankenstein is a good starting point. Everyone else could try reading the first fifty pages or so and see whether they’re into it or not.

Kastel’s rating: Maybe.

Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers

For general information on the series: Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers entry

This review is for the first volume of Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers by Ishio Yamagata (with artwork by Miyagi). The English edition was released by Yen Press in April 2017. The second volume released in August, and the third will come out in December. At the moment there are six volumes for this series in Japan (plus a bonus “Archives” volume).

Volume 1

It’s about time I caught up on some light novel reviews… I’ll start with the first volume of Rokka, a novel that turned out much better than I expected.

Rokka takes the basic premise of a group of heroes in a fantasy world going out to defeat an all-powerful evil enemy, and adds a very interesting twist: someone in their group is a traitor. The prophecy the world relies on proclaims that six powerful warriors will find themselves marked with a magical crest–they are the chosen ones deemed worthy and capable of saving the world. But when seven such individuals gather together, it can only be assumed one of them is working for the enemy.

The story is thus a clever mix of fantasy adventure and mystery. Everyone has not only the legions of monsters to contend with, but also each other. Since every teammate is a suspect, it’s difficult for the heroes to truly work together or feel united in their already-perilous quest. It is this aspect of the story I found particularly engaging, as there were times for each of the seven characters to feel like a prime suspect. I had to keep changing who I guessed was the imposter, and in the end I still ended up surprised by the climactic reveal.

There’s a good cast of characters here. The lead protagonist in particular stands out in this volume, as the author plays with reader expectations of the typical shounen fighter hero. Adlet is loud, brash, determined, arrogant–annoyingly so, in all honesty–but the author actually gives good reason for all this via his back-story, and for me he ultimately became a surprisingly nuanced and likable character. It’s largely up to him to solve the big mystery, and the lengths he goes to in order to do so in turn took me by surprise.

There’s a nice variety to the rest of the characters, and their interactions were entertaining to read thanks to their clashing personalities. Some lean toward quiet, serious, calculating, or detached–others lean toward wild, sketchy, harsh, or impassioned. It was enough to make me wonder why some of them were ever considered for the task of saving the world, which I found to be another interesting topic to speculate on while reading.

I would recommend this to anyone who liked either fantasy or mystery. It’s a well-crafted read with a great translation and some nice and unique artwork.

Cho’s Rating: Strongly Recommended

Your Name

For general information on this novel: Your Name entry

This review is for Your Name, a novel by Makoto Shinkai. The English translation of the book was released in May 2017. Shinkai was also the director of the Your Name animated film, which was a pretty big hit in Japan and overseas. A bonus volume of short stories Your Name – Another Side: Earthbound will release in English on October 31st.

Your Name

I’m a big fan of most of Makoto Shinkai’s films. The feelings of the films’ characters always seem to resonate with me, and are portrayed in an introspective and quiet manner that feels stronger than is typical of an average drama. Five Centimeters Per Second is my personal favorite, and one of my favorite films period. Garden of Words and The Place Promised in Our Early Days are both wonderful. I also liked the recent mini-series for She and Her Cat quite a bit. Your Name is a good one too. I wasn’t quite as enthralled with it as a lot of other people were, but I enjoyed it and recommend it. I can also see why that was the Shinkai film to resonate with a massive audience, as opposed to his previous works. To put it simply, it’s both a happier story and a more exciting story.

The novel of Your Name, which actually released in Japan a couple months before the film released in theaters there, shares pretty much the exact same plot as the movie. There isn’t much in the way of “new” material in the book, so I honestly wouldn’t call it a must-read for those who have seen the film and are looking for more. That said, the book is still a good read. You can consider it another pleasant way to experience the story. And for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, it might be fun to try the book first? It’s pretty short, so it’d make for a quick read. Then you can see how all the scenes translate to the TV screen, with all those beautiful shots of clouds in the sky.

Your Name is about a girl in a mountain village and a boy in Tokyo who switch bodies on random days via their dreams. At first the story appears to be a kind of lighthearted romcom with a sci-fi/fantasy twist, but the plot gets much more serious in the second half. It’s the sort of shift in tone and pacing I’d rather not spoil, so suffice to say things get pretty intense for the final act. The two protagonists meanwhile are very easy to like, and they both have good friends that play a role in many memorable scenes. My only real gripe with the story is a subplot that I felt went unresolved, or at least felt glossed over unnecessarily. The heart of the story though–the relationship between our two leads and the themes that their connection portrays–is handled beautifully.

So all in all this is a good book, but I feel I’d only suggest it to those who have either not seen the movie yet, or are such big fans of the movie that they want to experience the story again in another fashion. Worth noting is that there is also a manga adaptation being released by Yen Press, if you’re interested in yet another way to enjoy the story.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

art by kometa

For general information on this novel: The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku entry

This review is for The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, a novel by Muya Agami and cosMo@BousouP with illustrations by Yunagi. The English translation of the book was released in May 2017. This book is based on the Vocaloid song “Hatsune Miku no Shoushitsu -DEAD END-” uploaded by cosMo in 2007.

The Disapperance of Hatsune Miku

For those who don’t know, Vocaloid is a Japanese computer program for making songs with voiced sound clips. Many of these programs have a manga-style character that acts as the face for each voice, and the most popular such character is Hatsune Miku. I was long aware of Vocaloid music simply by being a part of online anime communites, but eventually I picked up the Hatsune Miku Project Diva rhythm games for the Playstation Vita on a whim and became a bit of a fan. I was particularly impressed by just how varied the songs were, and how creative people could be with their music and artwork. Hatsune Miku is one voice, but sung by thousands of different people.

Many of Hatsune Miku’s songs–and the songs of other Vocaloid characters–tell a story (and often have an animated music video to show it visually). In Japan, lots of the more popular songs get adapted into full-length novels that are sold in bookstores. For Vocaloid-related series getting English translations, you can already find Kagerou Daze and Mikagura School Suite–but The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku is the first to actually feature Hatsune Miku herself as a character. The concept for this story is that she lives up to both the “vocal” and “oid” parts of the Vocaloid name, as in she’s an android who loves to sing.

The plot for this standalone novel is quite straightforward. The protagonist is a university student named Asano who is assigned to a field study to test Miku’s mental and emotional capabilities. By spending time with her, he helps her relate to humans better. As can be expected, Asano quickly sees her as more than just a machine and the two fall in love. The breezy slice-of-life romance ends abruptly though when the science committee tampers with Miku and the plot shifts to Asano and his friends working out a way to free her from their control.

I’m okay with simple plots, but most of this story felt too predictable for me, and I couldn’t bring myself to really care for any of the characters. I felt that more could have been explored regarding Miku’s understanding of things as an android, and why she felt so attached to Asano in the first place. He was just too bland, and his friends seemed to be there primarily for the sake of solving various plot-related dilemmas that arose in the final act.

Disappearance has its cute moments in the first half of the story, but I didn’t enjoy the direction it took in the second half. I will only suggest this one to those who are already really big fans of Hatsune Miku and want to collect all her books.

Cho’s Rating: Maybe Recommended

(pictured: Oregairu)

For general information on this novel: My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected entry

This review is for the second volume of My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong as I Expected, AKA Oregairu. This series is written by Wataru Watari and features illustrations by Ponkan8. So far there are three volumes available in English, with the next set to release January 2018. There are 12 volumes in Japan at the moment, plus three side story volumes.

Volume 2

It’s been about three years since I reviewed the first volume of Oregairu. At the time, only fan translations were available for the series, and it seemed somewhat unlikely that it would be licensed for English release. (Oregairu is published in Japan under a label owned by Shogakukan, while most of Yen On’s titles have come through ASCII MediaWorks labels [e.g. Dengeki Bunko].) Yen Press announced the license in summer 2015 however, and after a couple delays it looks like we’re now getting volumes released at a regular schedule’s pace.

Oregairu tells the story of Hachiman Hikigaya, a pessimistic boy in high school who likes to grumble about everything and glories in his self-proclaimed loner lifestyle. As an outsider to all the cliques in school, he has a unique viewpoint on his classmates and their interactions with one another. In volume 1 he was forced to join a school club that exists simply to assist students with whatever issues they are having trouble dealing with. In volume 2 he continues to begrudgingly help people out, generally accompanied by the stern and commanding Yukino and happy-go-lucky Yui, both of whom make great foils for him in very different ways.

Volume 2 is not a particularly plot-driven book. It mostly just tells a few short stories about how the service club helps out a couple classmates–the first dilemma involving some hateful chain mail circulating in class, the second involving a student who is working a job all night after school. Oregairu is about all we have in English for light novels set in the real world without any fantasy or sci-fi elements, and is probably the closest thing we have to slice-of-life. For those reasons I found this volume a refreshing read, and I also found myself amused by much of the story’s humor. I think it takes some time to get used to the style of Oregairu‘s prose–but once you know what to expect, it becomes more entertaining to see what unpleasant (yet often on-the-nose) remarks Hachiman will make next… and in turn, what holes he will dig for himself to fall into.

I don’t think I’d be quick to recommend Oregairu to everybody, but I do think it’s well-worth trying if you’re looking for something a little more “down-to-earth.” If you can’t relate to Hachiman, there’s still a chance you can at least be entertained by him and his peers.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

Magical Girl Raising Project

For general information on this novel: Magical Girl Raising Project entry

This review is for the first volume of Magical Girl Raising Project. This series is written by Asari Endou and features illustrations by Marui-no. The second volume is set to release November 14, 2017. There are 10 volumes in Japan at the moment, plus two side story volumes.

Volume 1

I wasn’t too sure what to expect from this story when I first heard about it. There was an anime adaptation a while back, but I didn’t recall many people watching it–and those who did watch it didn’t seem to care all that much for it. But then Yen Press announced a license for the light novels. Was there a larger group of fans for this series than I thought? Whether there is or not though, I’m glad I gave this a read. It turned out to be a highly entertaining thriller.

The premise for this is there’s a popular smartphone game called “Magical Girl Raising Project,” and 16 random winners get to become magical girls in real life. The story follows these 16 characters, who are tasked to earn points and try to become the #1 kindest, most helpful magical girl in the city. Things take progressively darker turns though as the game’s mascot character eggs on the players to obtain points by any means necessary (i.e. stealing the points from their fellow magical girls). Faster than you can say “that escalated quickly,” the game turns into a full-blown battle royale.

I will admit that death game scenarios are a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. (I am, in fact, playing Dangan Ronpa V3 as we speak.) One of my complaints for many action stories is that I don’t feel like the characters we’re following are ever truly in danger, because the author will just have all the heroes “tough it out” and be perfectly fine in the end, even if they get shot by arrows a dozen times or some nonsense. So the death game setup at least gets me to wonder if certain characters are actually going to make it through alive, and that’s a strong hook.

Magical Girl Raising Project volume 1 manages to keep things exciting from start to finish. It’s not a deep story, and there isn’t much in the way of character development–but it’s a page-turner. The sixteen girls are certainly distinctive, and I found it fun to see all the ridiculous ways they manage to use their various special powers. At one point, a ninja and a witch fight a cowgirl who armed herself with magical Soviet weaponry. The best way I can describe the action sequences in this is that they’re all delightfully “anime.”

I recommend this more to those looking for a dark thriller, rather than a traditional magical girl story. I’ll also say it’s well-worth a try for any light novel readers looking for something a little different from the norm. The translation is good, the artwork is good, and the story’s pacing is good. Give it a read, and see if any of your favorite characters survive!

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

(art by Miho Takeoka)

For general information on this series: Book Girl entry

This review is for the seventh and eighth volumes of Book Girl by Mizuki Nomura (with art by Miho Takeoka). The English editions were released by Yen Press in July 2013 and January 2014, and the entirety of the eight-volume series has made it over. Note that volumes 7 and 8 are simply parts 1 and 2 of one big story, which is why I’m reviewing them together.

The end of an era… It’s finally time for me to finish reviewing the Book Girl series. Anyone who has frequented this blog or my Twitter feed will know that this is my favorite light novel series. It’s what really got me into light novels in the first place. And to be completely honest, it’s one of the biggest reasons why I created this blog. I wanted more people to become aware of Book Girl and try reading it. I wanted to find other people who had read these novels, and hear their thoughts on all the stories and characters.

Volumes 7 and 8 compose the first and second halves of the final story, The Scribe Who Faced God. In this grand finale, Konoha’s character arc comes to a dramatic conclusion, and we at last get the full back-story for Tohko. All is revealed regarding her, her cousin Ryuto, and their complicated family situation and childhoods. A lot of smaller subplots from the previous six volumes are also tied up along the way, which felt great for giving this series a strong conclusion that brings all the tragic yet hopeful themes and works of classical literature together. It’s the emotional roller-coaster going through its final loop, then slowing down to a stop at the entry point.

The overarching story arc regarding Konoha and Miu has been settled (back in book 5), so now it looks like Konoha can move on with his life and Nanase (Kotobuki) can actually have a relationship with him. But of course, things can never be that easy… Ryuto suddenly turns grandiose and cruel, and Tohko suddenly drops arguably the most devastating bombshell of the series. Perhaps both of these developments were a long time coming (indeed, there are hints to everything since the very beginning), but it’s still quite painful to read. Poor Konoha. And poor Nanase! And, well, poor everyone I suppose.

Of course, I’ve come to expect broken characters fixating on destroying everyone close to them and/or themselves. That is the bread and butter of Book Girl, watching characters fall apart and then, through the power of classic literature, find it in themselves and in their loved ones to somehow pull through. In this case, the central mystery entails Konoha working out the truth regarding what happened to Tohko’s parents and Ryuto’s parents. Of the four, only the silent and merciless author Kanako Sakurai is still alive (the others having died when Tohko and Ryuto were small children). Konoha has to piece together the past for all these characters, and work out how everything ties to both a work of classic literature (Andre Gide’s Strait is the Gate), and to Kanako’s own novel as well (a work titled The Immoral Passage). The conclusion to all of this is very satisfying, and easily my favorite part of these two volumes.

As I mentioned in my volume 6 review though, I have mixed feelings about The Scribe Who Faced God, and it mostly has to do with what would ultimately become of each of the characters in this story. I won’t give things away here (though perhaps I will in a future editorial), but basically I feel that this final story was a bit drawn-out, a bit repetitive, and a bit… forced? Or maybe I should say I just didn’t want things to play out quite the way they did. Perhaps all of this is fitting though, considering what goes on in this final story. There’s a very interesting theme about authors betraying readers, and readers betraying authors–something that hits close to home for me, as both an aspiring writer and a book blogger.

This is definitely a bittersweet story, and a bittersweet series. But if you like drama, mystery, classic literature, and characters who are extremely three-dimensional, you really need to give Book Girl a read. At the very least, it will give you a lot to muse about and ponder over. Much more than I’ve found in any other series of novels I’ve read.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

Magical Girl Raising Project

For general information on this novel: Magical Girl Raising Project entry

This review is for the second volume of Magical Girl Raising Project. This series is written by Asari Endou and features illustrations by Marui-no. The third volume is set to release March 20, 2018. There are 10 volumes in Japan at the moment, plus two side story volumes.

Volume 2

Just as I wasn’t sure what I was getting into for the first volume of this series, I had no idea how a sequel story would actually play out for Magical Girl Raising Project. Would it just be another random killing game with a new group of magical girls? Or would it somehow follow up on the catastrophe of the first volume, and pull off some kind of more complicated story? The answer turned out to lean more toward the latter, but the second volume ends without fully revealing how this new story ties with the previous one. The “Restart” story arc is a two-parter, so we won’t get a conclusion until volume 3 releases.

One of the biggest differences between this story and the first is the nature of the game that the new cast of 16 magical girls are roped into. They are magically brought into a dangerous video game world, and the goal is simply to defeat monsters and win the game. It’s a setup I personally wasn’t excited about, since it’s such a common trope for light novels these days — but in this case it’s really just a means to an end, as little focus is actually given to the VR-esque setting. The point is simply to place the cast in a series of trying situations that couldn’t be managed as easily in the real world.

The other biggest difference is in the nature of the killings that inevitably ensue. The first volume was very much a Battle Royale style of action thriller, in which characters directly fight and kill one another. The focus of the second volume is shifted somewhat to something more of a mystery thriller, in that certain deaths are being orchestrated by someone in secret. How some characters die is a mystery, who is killing them is a mystery, and why they’re being killed at all is a mystery. And going right along with that, it’s a mystery who is orchestrating the game in the first place, and what the actual purpose of it all might be. Fans of the Dangan Ronpa franchise will feel right at home with this new MGRP story arc.

The fact this story is being told across two volumes also means we get more time to spend with all the characters, and thus get to learn more about all of them and get a bit more of an attachment to them before they die. There were some good surprises to be had in the first MGRP story, but the twists in this one feel weightier and leave a stronger impact. I feel this is largely thanks to the time taken to develop the characters a little further.

Favorite characters of mine include Detec Bell, who liked solving mysteries so much she became a magical girl version of Sherlock Holmes, gaining the ability to talk to buildings; and Pfle, a young Machiavellian aristocrat who zips about in a high-speed wheelchair but manipulates others to do her bidding even quicker. There’s also a child dressed in a hamster suit, who has the ability to turn Godzilla-sized. How great is that? If you liked volume 1 of MGRP, I think you’ll like this one even more. Hurry and read it so that I’m not the only one in pain waiting for the second half of this story to release.

Cho’s Rating: Strongly Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in paperback or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World

~A guest review by Frog-kun~

This is a review for the My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World light novel series, written by Tsuyoshi Fujitaka and illustrated by An2A. The series consists of seven volumes, which were first published by Hobby Japan Bunko in 2013. The English edition was first released by J-Novel Club in December 2016, and the series is currently complete in both English and Japanese. The seventh and final volume was released in December 2017.

My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World was one of J-Novel Club’s debut titles, although I didn’t pick it up until recently. On the surface, it doesn’t appear to be all that interesting or unusual. I’m glad that I did give this series a chance though, as the first few volumes offer a very amusing take on the “overpowered protagonist” conceit. Unfortunately, the fun starts to wear thin after a while as the overarching plot becomes steadily more convoluted, which it makes it difficult for me to recommend overall.

The biggest problem with My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World is that it goes overboard with the meta commentary on light novel tropes. This has become fairly common with modern light novels, but My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World takes it a step further than most. The characters know that they are living in a story and some of them can manipulate events as if they’re the authors. This leads to a lot of plot-contrived coincidences and unexplained narrative elements that are simply waved off with “that’s just what happens in stories.” The explanations might sound clever as a meta-commentary on narratives, but they’re never satisfying for the reader.

This problem is only exacerbated by all the exposition. There are entire chapters where characters will sit around a table and dump information on each other. I suspect that this is because there is almost no foreshadowing in the world of My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World. Big events sort of just happen and are only explained afterward. The “Divine Vessels War” plot, which begins in earnest in volume 4, is an absolute disaster in terms of pacing and execution; too much of it happens too fast, and far too many plot-important events are glossed over in favor of cracking meta jokes. There are also far too many characters, many of whom only play bit roles but whose existences in the story are justified with pages and pages of convoluted explanations.

Another thing I have to point out about the series is how blasé it is about death. None of the main characters ever die, but plenty of background characters suffer unceremonious deaths, and even the heroes never seem to be bothered about it. For example, the ending of one arc involves hundreds of civilian deaths, but it’s played off as a happy ending and the deaths are never referenced again. This ended up giving me the impression that life is cheap in this story, and made me stop caring whenever the characters were in danger.

All of these complaints will give the impression that My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World is a poorly told story, which it is. Let’s not mince words there. But here’s the thing—it can also be uproariously funny too. Many of the series’ best jokes involve subverting readers’ expectations with well-timed anticlimaxes. There are some tiresome gags (unsurprisingly, the incest jokes are lame), but on the whole, there’s a sense of wit in the style of narration and dialogue that keeps the story readable even when the plot descends into tedium. If you’re a fan of over-the-top fighting manga, you’ll probably get a kick out of the delivery here.

This leaves me with the difficult task of how to recommend this light novel. I’ll say that the first volume is worth reading, and if you’re a fan of the style of the first one, then the second one should be entertaining too. But after that point, the storytelling gets noticeably worse with each passing volume, before finally coming to a limp conclusion. It’s hard to imagine too many people defending the latter half of the story, especially when the best gags are repeated to the point of losing their effect. The charms of My Big Sister Lives in a Fantasy World are simple, and it’s such a pity that the series ended up biting off more than it could chew.

Frog-kun’s Rating: Maybe Recommended (but only the first two volumes)

You can purchase the ebook of volume 1 online via sites like Amazon. This is an affiliate link, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Your Name – Another Side

For general information on this novel: Your Name entry

This review is for Your Name – Another Side: Earthbound, a novel by Arata Kanoh. It is a short story collection tied to the original Your Name story by Makoto Shinkai. The English translation of this book was released in November 2017. The cover illustration was by Masayoshi Tanaka, and the interior illustrations were by Hiyori Asahikawa.

Another Side: Earthbound

It was one year ago that Kastel wrote up a review for the Japanese release of this book, and now I get to share my thoughts on the English release. It’s a bit of an odd one to review in that it’s a collection of four short stories, and they’re intended specifically for those who have already experienced the original Your Name story (either through the anime film directed by Shinkai, or through the novel written by Shinkai). You can find my review for the Your Name novel here by the way, if you’re curious about that.

The first story in Another Side focuses on Taki–or more specifically, Taki while he is living as Mitsuha on random days during the first half of Your Name. A lot of this is just fluff, but it does manage to show how Taki gradually gains a better understanding of who Mitsuha is, and all the things she has to deal with in her hometown. The realization he comes to at the end of the story is particularly interesting to me, in what it adds to the topic of what constitutes an individual’s “true” self.

The second story is told from the point of view of Katsuhiko Teshigawara, one of Mitsuha’s friends. He is the son of the town’s main construction company, and his internal conflict feels right at home for Your Name in general. He loves his rustic hometown, but he is also conflicted by its negative aspects–namely how connections between the few groups in power can effortlessly maintain control over everyone. His friends all want to abandon the place and live in Tokyo, but he’d rather stay and make their hometown a better place. But the question, as always, is how? It’s a surprisingly thoughtful little story.

Next up is a story for Mitsuha’s little sister, Yotsuha. At first it’s about Yotsuha trying to figure out why her older sister has been acting strangely (she considers that Mitsuha has a secret boyfriend, for example), but by the end of the story the focus shifts to Yotsuha’s connection with not only her sister–but also with her mother, grandmother, and so on via long-held family traditions. It’s a fairly inconsequential story that I felt dragged on a bit too long.

While the first three stories were all rather “slice of life,” the fourth is focused instead on a series of flashbacks that deliver the backstory for Toshiki, Mitsuha’s father. This was my favorite story of the lot, probably because it helps fill in what I felt was the main “gap” in Your Name. My biggest gripe with the film was that we never got to see a resolution for the subplot regarding Mitsuha and her father–and though we technically don’t get that scene in full here either, we do at least get to understand who Toshiki actually is. In the film he’s more or less just Grumpy Mayor Dad, but in Another Side we get to learn about how he came to Itomori, how he met and fell in love with Futaba, how much he sacrificed in order to marry her, and what specifically set him down a lonely path following Futaba’s passing.

Perhaps it’s because I felt I could really relate to Toshiki in certain ways, but I might like this short story even more than Your Name? At the very least, I’d say it made me like Your Name more, just in general. Toshiki’s backstory helps bring the themes of Your Name full circle. He is a modern anthropologist studying the old ways of Japan, then has to live in said old ways as a priest, and then abandons them and fights against them with modern ways as a city mayor. But for Your Name to have a happy ending, an understanding and acceptance of both traditional Japan and modern Japan is necessary. I feel that with this in mind, the tale of Toshiki and Futaba ties in quite nicely with the main plot of Your Name in regards to Mitsuha and Taki’s relationship.

As a bottom line, I’d say that I really liked the fourth story, liked the second, and was okay with the first and third ones. If you enjoyed Your Name, then chances are you’ll appreciate this collection of side stories too. And to be honest, I kind of wish there was a second volume to give insight on some of the Tokyo/Taki side characters too? Here’s hoping they’ll put one together.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

You can purchase this book online via sites like Amazon (available in hardcover or as an ebook) and Book Depository (which offers free worldwide shipping). These are affiliate links, so a small percentage of sales goes toward this site.

Sugar Dark: The Buried Darkness and the Girl

• シュガーダーク 埋められた闇と少女 — Sugar Dark: Umerareta Yami to Shoujo — “Sugar Dark: The Buried Darkness and the Girl”
• Author: Enji Arai — Artist: mebae
• The novel: Amazon.jp — Books Kinokuniya — YesAsia
• The fan translation (by Zero Ender): NanoDesu Translations
• MAL Entry — Forum

(Note: This site’s central focus is on light novels officially translated and published in English, but at times I will post reviews for stories that have only been translated by fans. Please support the Japanese books that don’t get English releases.)

Sugar Dark: The Buried Darkness and the Girl

There are a lot of officially-released light novels for me to check out these days, so I haven’t had as much time to look into fan translations lately. But seeing how most of the more popular series are being licensed, I feel this is a great time for fan translators–and readers–to look into the sorts of titles that are more niche and/or experimental. Sugar Dark had been on my to-read list for a long time, and a month or so ago I finally got around to reading it.

At first I thought this was going to be a horror story, but I feel it’s more accurate to call it a dark fantasy/romance. The setting is in a time that vaguely seems to be late 19th century (or possibly early 20th). Our protagonist is a boy referred to as Muoro (“Mole”), a soldier who was wrongfully convicted for murdering a superior officer. He is forced to work digging holes for a remote and bleak cemetery, which turns out to be a graveyard for giant monsters that are kept hidden from the general public. On certain nights he comes across a quiet and ominous girl named Meria, who refers to herself as the grave keeper. What her precise role in the cemetery entails is one of the main mysteries of the story. Meanwhile, on certain days Muoro also meets with a mischievous androgynous individual who goes by “Crow,” who gradually reveals the truth regarding the monsters, also known as “The Dark.”

For a one-line review of this novel, I’d call it “a very slow burn–but one with an exceptional payoff at the end.” The plot twist at the story’s climax took me by complete surprise, and led to one of the best endings I’ve read in a light novel. But that said, it was still a bit of a slog to reach that point. The setup is certainly interesting, and the tone of the story in general is appropriately heavy and gloomy. But the characters are all rather straightforward in terms of personality and how they interact with one another. A lot of scenes in the first two acts thus feel very repetitive–we have to be told again and again how the protagonist doesn’t fully understand plot elements A, B, and C, and there were several points where I couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated by the near-stagnant pacing.

I think your enjoyment of this story will thus depend on how invested you are in the concept and setting, which to the author’s credit is both creative and memorable. I was particularly pleased by the monsters, which in most other books would have been generic giant spiders or ogres, etc — but here they’re eldritch abominations that take some effort to describe their unique and grotesque forms. The way these monsters are dealt with is also creative and memorable, and the decisions Muoro makes upon working out the twisted methods of the cemetery is what ultimately makes Sugar Dark worth reading. If you’re in the mood for a standalone work that doesn’t shy away from grotesque and gory situations, I suggest adding this to your to-read list.

Cho’s Rating: Recommended

Two high school girls desperately in love with each other point their rifles toward the 3,000 cops marching into the school. They want their vengeance and more importantly, their love, to be remembered before they are either gunned down or captured. They kiss and it is that moment — that eternal moment that will sweeten the bitter cynicism of reality like a hint of vanilla in a dark, black coffee.

With that kind of description, Vanilla: A Sweet Partner by Asaura is certainly not the yuri light novel you’d find if you go around asking people for yuri light novel recommendations. They’d think of Adachi to Shimamura or Maria-sama ga Miteru. These works are sweet light novels about girls who really like each other. The deceptive vanilla-ish title of Vanilla might be a total shock to those who, well, just want yuri.

The book begins promising enough at least. A young girl named Kei reminisces about the good times with her parents until her mother dies; her father remarries and she learned what hell was like under the rule of her stepmother. Her stepmother bullies her and destroys any remnants of her past mother’s belongings before influencing her father to shoo her away from the house. Kei leaves, gloomy and desperate for a new life.

But the cliched bittersweet prologue ends here. A cop gets to the crime scene and looks at how much of a goddamn mess it is. He figures that the sniper should still be around here because rifles take a while to pack up and leave. The cop runs around and corners the sniper, but he gets shot instead. All he remembers is his confusion over who shot him: a young woman in a high school uniform.

Kei reappears again as narrator in the next chapter. She wakes up with her new love, Nao, by her side as she smokes a cigarette by the ventilation. The two girls are living a double life: they are high schoolers with no remorse for killing those who have betrayed them. For Kei, it’s her father and stepmother who have stepped on her and her past mother numerous times. For Nao, it’s her brother who ruined her life. This is the only way they know how to alleviate their pains because their voices aren’t heard by anyone, let alone the police. They know they’re seen as serial killers under the law and that the cops are close by.

But they are ready to make a last stand against them if necessary.

The cops in the meanwhile get a lot of attention in the book (they actually have as many insert illustrations as the girls) as they figure out why they are even nabbing the girls in the first place. Written in the most third-person hardboiled fashion possible, internal political strife and claims to good ethics are in the back of their minds as they begin to learn more about why Kei and Nao have become cold-blooded killers in the first place. They realize they are supposed to represent the justice and goodwill of society, but they couldn’t prevent their situations from occurring. And what’s worse: the cops have to arrest them for murdering the people who have tortured them. The cops are arresting the victims for murders they’ve committed. They know they are as responsible as the girls are.

What follows is a complicated, chaotic thriller about the meaning of innocence and yuri in a crime-laden society. One chapter may be about the girls eating candy and cake while thinking about the training program they went into or the arms smuggling they did. Another may be about the cops who bicker against each other while investigating the high school the girls are in. Due to the nature of the chapters and the writing in the book, Vanilla almost seems like it’s written by two writers when it’s only by one, Asaura.

Asaura is probably most well-known for Ben-To, a light novel series about people punching and kicking the living hell out of each other for discounted food box sets. He lives in Hokkaido and loves food, hence naming this light novel Vanilla after the vanilla essence. But he also loves to write stories about guns and the bitter reality we are all in. A perceptive and observant writer, he voices his concerns through one of the police characters about how society is like a bunch of monkeys getting baited by the vanilla plant thanks to its smell; yet, vanilla by itself tastes like nothing.

Vanilla: A Sweet Partner

Isn’t yuri — or at least, the innocence and purity of young girls in love with each other — like that? We can go further than just cute girls and see people who are innocent and having a fun time getting their optimism and hope crushed by the monkeys trampling on the vanilla plant.

That’s the essence of Vanilla: A Sweet Partner. Reality is bittersweet because we force the sweet things in our lives that way. We punish the victims for their crimes against humanity when we should have listened to them in the first place. The innocence of passion and romanticism is thus replaced with our undying love for “realism.” Society is therefore twisted in every meaning of the word possible. It distorts and bends the laws for its own worldview, disregarding that there is actual love out there.

That view of purity is probably why I quite like yuri in the first place. It is an idealism that is quite unlike most fantasies written in the pages of fiction. Plus, there are cute girls being gay — that’s always a plus for me. But the better yuri works in my opinion are those that do challenge societal perceptions of lesbians and queer people in general. They still fight against the “realism” people have developed over the years with a pride and optimism unmatched from anything else I’ve read. Discrimination, misunderstandings, and hate crimes all feature in these works. And yet, the couples in these works regret nothing. They love each other, and that means the world to them.

Vanilla: A Sweet Partner fits along those lines. When it comes to the writing, it may be rough and feel a bit aimless until the climax; however, it has no regrets and pushes itself to the only logical conclusion with its premise. It is in the end a love story that asks its coffee-loving reality-seeking readers, “Does your black coffee go better with vanilla?”

The answer: Of course it does. It is sweet enough to clean away the bitterness of life.

Kastel’s Rating: Recommended, especially if you like the gays