Entries Tagged as 'Light Novels'

Immoral Darkness

July 7, 2011

Released by DMP in 2008 Immoral Darkness by Miyu Matsuda is a single-title yaoi light novel with a fairly typical set up with this genre, namely the romantic relationship between a male teacher and a male student. The student is handsome Shiina Jun who keeps people at a distance, wears fake glasses to look cool, has a family who completely ignores him when he's home, and who is sleeping with a rich older woman for money. His math teacher Sasagawa Tetsuya is always wearing a dirty white lab coat at school and looks rather demonic, even on the cover. Shiina often wonders if they have something in common, as Sasagawa seems to have a similar lonely air about him. One night, after leaving his lover, Shiina finds himself surrounded by a bunch of punks after money. Sasagawa sees his plight and rescues him, but in exchange shoves Shiina into a bathroom and rapes him. And so their troubled relationship begins, against a backdrop of things between Shiina and his family hitting rock bottom. Sasagawa claims he wants to save Shiina, but does he really?

The novel is told exclusively from Shiina's POV, so its hard to discern Sasagawa's motives or thoughts throughout. It would have been nice to know what he was thinking, but the bulk of the novel focuses more on Shiina's personal issues particularly with his family. After his parents and brother go on a trip and leave him locked out of the house, he reaches out to his kindly homeroom teacher, and gets a taste of what a family should be. This melts his icy nature, and he begins opening up to his classmates more. Only then is he ready to deal with Sasagawa, but it requires Shiina to actually try to trust someone again, which isn't easy for him, especially when he uncovers another dark secret about Sasagawa.

If you haven't read much yaoi you might be scratching your head at the idea of a relationship forming from a rape, but it is fairly common in the genre. As with most such set ups, Shiina's protests are half-hearted and he both loves and loathes the experience. Still, if it isn't your thing, you may want to skip this one. As a fan of such series as Passion, it doesn't bother me. A bit more aggravating is the lack of real focus in the supposed romance. Sasagawa himself isn't a particularly likeable person. Beyond the rape, he is very overbearing and seems to have little regard for Shiina's feelings, life, etc though he is redeemed in this regard at least slightly later. He engages in stalker like behavior several times, is very crude, the unwashed lab coat is just gross, and he often acts like an obnoxious child at times. In particular, there is a scene when he cruelly and coarsely outs Shiina without any regard for how it will affect him, just because he was jealous. While Passion's Hikaru does have some jealousy issues, he is at least cute and likeable. Sasagawa has no such saving grace.

Still on the whole, this isn't a "bad" novel, if you like this area of the genre, and I read it through in one day. Being from a few years ago, the translation is a bit rough, but not so bad as to make it unreadable. It's printed in a smaller format with the old style spines like Tokyo pop used for early manga, making the spine overly tight and ripe for loose pages with too many rereads. It uses the original Japanese cover, with English text of course, and the single color page is well done. With English-translated yaoi novels being in short supply, this one is a acceptable addition to one's library.

Rating: C

Kieli, Volume 1: The Dead Sleep in the Wilderness

July 1, 2011

While browsing the Yen Press site, I stumbled on the light novel series Kieli, by Yukako Kabei. Per their page there, it spans at least nine volumes and as far as I can find in Amazon Japan, that's the full length of the series. The story premise sounded interesting. Being so pleased with Yen Press' release of Spice & Wolf and wanting to try some more light novels, I decided to do a rare blind buy and get the first two volumes of the series. Kieli is a reclusive, isolated girl, having been left orphaned and a ward of the town after her grandmother died. She has no friends at her school, no other family, and seems easily forgotten by those around her. And no one knows she can see and communicate with ghosts friends other than "Becca", the spirit of a former student who is Kieli's only "friend" and her roommate.

Kieli isn't a particularly happy person, and one gets the impression that she feels very much invisible and unloved. Then while playing a regular "game" with Becca going home, they meet a man named Harvey, who can see Becca as well and is rather rude to her. Becca recognizes him as an Undying, one of the last of a group of immortal soldiers used by the Church to take over then marked of execution once their usefulness was done, and suggests she and Kieli play a cruel trick on him. Kieli is appalled which leads to a fight and Becca doing the trick alone, with unexpected consequences. This eventually leads Kieli deciding to join Harvey as he journey's to take the Corporal, a spirit that haunts a radio, to the place of his death. He is, after all, the only living person she's met who actually seems to understand her.

Overall I found the story to be quite good. Kieli is initially very withdrawn and with good reason, but you soon find that she has a good heart, a strong will, and a friendly personality when she's not being constantly downed by those around her. Harvey is similar in some ways. He rarely talks and shows little emotion, but as you come to know him his reactions to various situations make it easier to tell what he is thinking and feeling. The Corporal is a gruff character, and oh when his temper blows better watch out, but the dynamic between himself and Harvey is interesting. Having been long dead, he of course offers a different perspective on the situations they encounter as they travel.

The novel is mostly told from Kieli's perspective, but we do occasionally get to peek at Harvey in a more limited POV. The first novel primarily serves to set up the main characters and getting them together, establishing the relationship between Harvey and Kieli, and the journey to lay the Corporal to rest. It also gives us some good background on the Church and its place in society, and the threat that hangs over both their heads from the group.

The writing style is well done, and as I've come to expect from Yen Press, the translation is well executed. As with some of their other light novels, its published in a more standard paperback size and it includes the full color images in the front. It was certainly good enough to lead me to want to read more, and I quickly tore through volume 2. I now have 3 & 4 in my "to read" piles. If I had to voice a complaint, I'd have liked to see more on Kieli's powers and the origins of them, however having now read volume 2, I can say it is coming. :-)

Rating: A-

Spice & Wolf, Volume 1

January 26, 2011

As I mentioned in my review of the Spice & Wolf anime series, the basis for the story is a series of light novels written by Isuna Hasekura, with illustrations by Jyuu Ayakura. Since I wrote that review, Yen Press has released the third light novel volume, so I picked up all three over the holiday season.  First, I must note that if you are interested in the light novel series, be advised that Yen Press first released the series with a photo-realistic cover, rather than the original covers. After the backlash from fans, they began releasing the volumes with a slip cover that had the photo-realistic thing, and then the original as the main book's cover. Alas, some places still have the first form of the first volume, so if you order online you might get stuck with that cover. I was happy I was able to get the 2 & 3 volume with the slipcovers as I tossed them immediately.  Of course, if you like the photo-realistic thing, then you're good to go either way.  I've put both covers for the first volume to the right for comparison.

So on to the light novels. Thus far I've read just the first volume, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Twenty-five year old Kraft Lawrence is a traveling merchant who dreams of owning his own shop in a town on day, but is content with eking out his lonely existence until then, making deals and building his reputation and wealth. After a seemingly normal stop in the town of Pasloe, he finds himself with an unexpected hitchhiker, a beautiful, naked girl who calls herself Holo and claims to be the wolf God who was once responsible for managing the harvests in the area. The people have grown tired of what they consider her capriciousness, though, and now rely more and more on technology, so she wants to return to her home on Yoitz, to the north. After some initial reluctance and disbelief, Lawrence agrees to take her along with him and see her to her home. In exchange she promises to help increase his profits along the way. 

As they travel together, however, they find themselves drawn to one another, but it isn't until Holo risks herself to save Lawrence when he falls into a dangerous situation do they start to admit, at least to themselves, how much they care for one another. There are hints at a larger story forming, particularly around Holo's desire to return to Yoitz as Lawrence heard the town was destroyed long ago, but has yet to reveal this to her, and of course there is always the question lurking in the back of one's mind of whether a wolf-god being can have any sort of future with a human.

I found the volume to be well written, with perhaps a higher language level than I usually see in light novels. The translation is quite well done so the text flows smoothly, a blessing considering some of the hideous translations we've seen in the past (yes, I'm looking at you Digital Manga and the hideousness that was Ai no Kusabi.  Yen Press' release is also nice, going with a good blend of a more standard American novel size (presumably lowering costs) while retaining the initial color pages found at the front of the novel.  And as they corrected what I see as an error with the covers, I can really find no complaint about the release. Even the cover price of $10.99 is pretty reasonable, considering most manga volumes are now the same price and have far less content.  While I liked the anime, I found the light novel more satisifying with its richer, deeper amounts of detail, particularly when it comes to what the characters are thinking and feeling at various crucial points. The events in this volume are depicted in the first six episodes of the anime, which is where the initial relationship between Lawrence and Holo is formed.  I was surprised to discover how many changes the anime made to these chapters, though, with one of the most major being the changing of Pasloe village's Yarei from male to female.  In the anime, she was a a potential love interest for Lawrence, while in the novels he was nothing more than someone Lawrence thought of as a compatriot.

So whether you have seen and enjoyed the anime, or just find the story premise interesting, I recommend picking up this novel series. Get all the volumes available you can because you will want to keep reading after you finish the first. As of the time of this post, the first three are in stores, with volume 4 due in June.  So far, Yen Press has solicitied the first six volumes of the sixteen that form the series, so hoping they will not pull a Tokyopop and drop the series before it is done. So far, though, they seem to still be keeping up their usual release schedules and I haven't seen any signs of delays or the like. As it is owned by Hachette Group, though, I think it may be more poised to finish it out than the traditional manga publishers seem to be, so its worth taking the chance on.

Rating: A+

Blood+: First Kiss

June 3, 2008

Back in February, I reviewed the first volume of the Blood+ manga adaptation. As I mentioned there, in addition to the manga adaptation, two light novel adaptations of the original Blood+ anime series were written and published in Japan. Both are licensed by Dark Horse, and the first volume of the main series, also entitled Blood+, has been released. Written by Ryo Ikehata, the series is illustrated by Chizu Hasahi. Each volume is subtitled, so to avoid confusion for the rest of the review, I'll refer to this first volume by its subtitle of First Kiss. Unlike with the manga, the main novel series is a fairly straight novelization of the anime events, with First Kiss covering the events in the first fourteen episodes of the series, with the introduction of the characters and Chiropterans, and the trip to Vietnam. All of the novels are divided into two "books", which each book divided into two parts and each part into varying numbers of chapters.

For those unfamiliar with the anime series, Blood+ tell the story of Saya Otonashi, a high school girl with amnesia who can't remember anything of her life beyond the last year. Her otherwise normal life is destroyed when she encounters monsters called Chiropterans, and discovers that she is the only one who is capable of killing them. Joined by the mysterious Hagi, who is her companion, and taken into the care of an organization called the Red Shield, each battle with Chiropterans causes Saya to learn more about the past she has forgotten, a past she realizes she needs to remember if she wants to protect her brothers and her new found companions, not only from the monsters, but from herself.

While the series is a novelization of the show and follows events pretty much right on track with the episodes, it adds more descriptions and more in-depth views of the characters thoughts and reactions to events. David, in particularly, comes across more sympathetically here than he did in the first parts of the anime, and Riku as being less bland. The writing is very well done, flowing well with descriptives that not only helped me remember the scenes from the anime, but visual them with greater depth. I also got a better feel for the individual characters and their motivations. Dark Horse's translation of the work is good, with only one or two minor typos. Like most companies releasing light novels, Dark Horses released the work in the typical manga size, though they did choose to keep the full color front pieces. All in all, this was an excellent read, and it was nice to have a novel keep me busy awhile instead of the usual quick 30 minute read of the typical manga volume. I'm looking forward to picking up the second of the four volumes, Chevalier, in July.

Rating: A

Chibi Vampire: The Novel, Volume 1

May 16, 2008

Okay, it isn't quite as soon as I'd been planning, but as I mentioned in my last review, in addition to the Chibi Vampire manga series, I'm reading the Chibi Vampire: The Novel series. The novel series is written by Tohru Kai, with the manga's writer Yuna Kagesaki providing the illustrations. The first novel was published a few months after the manga was released. So far, most light novel series I read that tie into an manga and/or anime series are either straight adaptations (like Blood+) or the original source material (Trinity Blood). Chibi Vampire: The Novel is neither. Instead, it is actually neatly tied into the manga, fitting within the manga story line at various points. The first novel is set between the events in volumes 1 and 2 of the manga and the second between volumes 2 and 3. The third and forth novels are set in the middle of the forth manga volume, during Karin and Kenta's summer break. The novels, of course, reference events and characters from the manga, but the manga also does the same. I think its great that Kagesaki and Kai worked so well together to enable the novels to work so well with the manga.

That said, one shouldn't think that Chibi Vampire: The Novel is the same as the manga, just in prose. The novel series was published under Fujimi Shobo's mystery label. As such, in each volume, Karin and Kenta get involved in various strange and mysterious events. In the first volume, Karin bites a rich high schooler named Youichiro Juumonji, but Anju's usual memory erasure doesn't completely work. In order to find the girl who "hugged" him and made his life better, Youichiro begins "kidnapping" girls from Karin's school to test hug them. He eventually gives this up and transfers to Karin's school. After quickly figuring out it was her, he begins pursuing her as his good luck charm. Kenta doesn't like any of this one bit. While Karin thinks Youichiro is an okay person, he also sends her into blood overload even worse than Kenta. When she learns Youichiro was behind the kidnappings, though, she isn't sure what to do, because all the girls who were kidnapped were also raped while they were drugged. Karin and Kenta have to figure out what really happened, before Karin becomes the next victim.

As you might guess, the Chibi Vampire novels are a bit more adult, to me, than the manga. Tokyopop puts cute and silly descriptions on the back, and labels them as comedies. While they have a lot of hilarious moments that had me laughing so hard I nearly cried, they also have some serious events happening, with multiple sexual assaults and harassment, attempted murders, and some rather vicious bullying in the four volumes I've read. So if you want silly, immature comedy, skip these, but if you can get past the bad Tokyopop descriptions and are looking for well-written and relatively well developed novels that expound on Karin and Kenta's continuing adventures, with lots of humor but with some nice twists and quite a few serious moments as well, go get these now. I am thoroughly loving them, particularly in reading them along with the manga series. Kai's commentary at the end of each volume also make for fun reading.

Though Tokyopop uses rather poor descriptions, their releases of the novels are otherwise nice. They only slightly modify the original Japanese covers to match the manga releases and the print is clear and large enough for me to read without my glasses but not insanely huge. I do with they would take a page from Seven Seas, and at least keep the color pages at the front. Tokyopop does include them, but they are all converted to black and white. Can't argue with the price point, with $7.99 a volume being right in line with any standard fiction paperback. I just hope that it doesn't end up like some of their other novels, and left uncompleted. So far, though, they seem to be committed to finishing them, with volume five due in July. I'll be picking it up, of course :-)

Rating: A