I’m kind of disappointed that this novel didn’t make some a pun with the word “maid.” How about something like “Maid in Akihabara?” Oh, wait, that’s an actual TV show…

Book Blurb:
In Tokyo’s Akihabara district, eighteen-year-old Aaliyah is a new maid (aka waitress) at a hopping maid café where otaku (guys devoted to manga) convene to drink tea and talk comics. Aaliyah is determined to make a splash–and her adventures are recounted in this sparkling diary.

Aaliyah’s motto is “I won’t lose, even if I’m about to.” She plans to design a maid photo book, create a super-duper event, and solve all the fanboys’ problems with her brainchild: “A Maid’s Dimly Lit Counseling Room.” But something’s wrong, and it’s not just Aaliyah’s bad Japanese. Why are the other maids suspicious of her? Why is the maid café’s recent hire an incredibly handsome waiter, and why is he madly in love with her? It turns out Aaliyah has her own secret. Now it’s time to find out the truth about the girl who’ll follow her dreams and fantasies anywhere and do anything to become the perfect maid!

Review:
Maid Machinegun is sort of a light novel, in a really loose sense. It’s more of a collection of essays about being a maid, written by our protagonist, Aaliyah. From this maid-in-training, we learn about the quintessential foundations of maid-dom. What skills are necessary? What are the charm points? What goes on during a maid cafe interview? At some point in the story, weird stuff starts happening and we get a pseudo-story going on.

Maid Machinegun is probably best left to those who are interested in the maid cafe subculture. I say this because I’m not really interested in the subculture myself. The novel is written from the point of view of an 18-year-old maid, then translated into English. There are a lot of culture references (I got many, but not all of them) that are explained in the back of the book. These references make it really difficult to get into the book if you aren’t already very familiar with Akihabara culture. But if you were familiar, you’d probably be reading the book in Japanese.

I guess my biggest beef with this book is that it’s just sloppily written. I understand that it’s written by an 18-year-old, so it’s not going to be Faulkner. But there’s just so many non-sequiturs that are supposed to be cute that don’t make any sense. Maybe there’s something lost in translation, but I have a feeling it’s just the result of someone writing a novel when they should be posting in a personal blog. Sure, the novel is supposed to be a series of online essays, but that shouldn’t mean that the quality of writing should be so low. Simply put, entire blocks of the novel could be removed without any real effect, besides making the novel shorter (and much more readable).

Another criticism I have for this novel is the title. Maid Machinegun might sound really cool, especially when the cover also has a picture of a maid wielding a compact machinegun. But like I mentioned earlier, a large portion of the book is just Aaliyah going on about being a maid. The last fifth of the book may or may not contain actual machineguns.

Overall, Maid Machinegun was kind of a pain to read. The cutesy writing and my lack of interest in maids (I mean, there’s about three pictures in this entire novel, and then a whole lot of words about maids!) probably ruined any chances for me enjoying this novel. If you’re interested in the actual workings of being a maid, you might like this. I’ll just stick with stuff like He is my Master.

Many thanks to Del Rey for sending me a review copy of Maid Machinegun!

Seven Seas Entertainment has announced that it has licensed two yuri school manga titles: Hayate Cross Blade by Shizuru Hayashiya (Onegai Teacher, Strawberry Shake Sweet) and Akatsuki-iro no Senpuku Majo by Mera Hakamada (The Last Uniform). The company also announced two yuri novel titles: Girls Love and Girls Revolution.

I’m not too interested in the novels, but I really do want to read Hayate Cross Blade. I bought it a while back but I later found out that it doesn’t have furigana, which basically made it unreadable for me. So it’ll be cool for me to finally be able to read it.

Incidentally, right now I’m reading The Last Uniform (Saigo no Seifuku) and it’s pretty enjoyable. I mean, there hasn’t been any ***** or ****, but it’s cute.

Basically, Seven Seas is blazing a trail in releasing yuri stuff right now. I read a news article a while back about them licensing yaoi too, which I don’t approve of. But as long as they keep supplying the yuri, I’m in 100% support mode!

My Shakugan no Shanathon trilogy ends with my review of the Light Novel. Actually, I think it should’ve started with the novel, since it was the source material for the manga and the anime… Oh well.

Story:
Invaders from the Crimson Realm have come to Earth looking for something called the Power of Existence. Whoever possesses this profound power will control the very quintessence of reality. To the rescue comes an enigmatic young girl with fire in her eyes. She may be cute and petite, but she’s endowed with enough preternatural strength to save the entire universe. Plus, she’s got a really big sword!

Analysis:
Out of the all of the versions of Shakugan no Shana, the light novel contains the most story in the first volume. We get the complete arc involving Friagne and Marianne, his love doll. I noticed that a lot of the superfluous things that happen in the anime are left out, such as the appearance of the other Flame Haze, Margery Daw, or the stuff with the corpse collector. This was actually pretty nice since it kept the story concise and focused on the task at hand.

Like the manga, the disappearance of the real Yukari Hirai was left out (DiGiKerot was right). I still think that the anime version handled this better, where Yuji tried in vain to save Hirai but failed.

It may just be that I’ve been spoiled by the animation and manga versions, but the action scenes in the novel didn’t really do that much for me. It’s a lot easier for me to see stuff happen than for me to try and reconstruct Shana’s elaborate flipping and sword moves in my head. Maybe I have a bad imagination? The novel does better in describing the internal emotions and thoughts of the characters through dialogue and narration. I guess it’s a mixed bag, and you have to do all three to get the whole experience! Luckily I have all three…

The dialogue is especially useful when the book is trying to explain Shana’s tsundere-ness of not understanding her emotions of love, and getting all mad about it. Weird fact: I think Shana only said “urusai, urusai, urusai!” once in the novel. I guess it took a few novels for the catchphrase to actually catch on?

The Actual Book:
Not much to say here. There’s a few color illustrations in the beginning of the book to get the image of the characters in the reader’s head. These are a lot like the ones that were in the Boogiepop light novels. Then there are black and white illustrations here and there to keep things interesting.

Props for including the illustration of Yuji checking out his mom’s chest. For the torch, I mean!! But yeah, maybe I’ll check again, just to make sure… Nope, not a torch. Let me check again.

Conclusion:
If you’re into the whole Shakugan no Shana thing, the light novel is a nice read. It keeps the story a lot more concise than the anime, and it expresses the actual characters pretty nicely. The first part of Shakugan no Shana is by no means the most exciting part, but hopefully Viz will continue to translate the novels to the parts where the story gets rolling.

Many thanks to Viz Media for sending me a review copy of Shakugan no Shana: The Girl With Fire In Her Eyes – Volume 1!

Seven Seas, the Kodomo no Jikan cancelling publisher, has just announced a crapload of stuff at Anime Expo, according to AnimeOnDVD. Here’s the whole list:

• Dance in the Vampire
• I, Otaku – Struggle in Akihabara
• In God’s arms (yaoi) aka Kamisama no ude no naka (yaoi)
• Strawberry Panic manga, light novel
• Vamp!
• Kage Kara Mamoru (light novel)
• Zero no Tsukaima
• Hatsuoki Shimai (yuri)
• Voiceful (yuri)

The ones I’m looking forward to are Kage Kara Mamoru (because I actually liked the anime) and Zero no Tsukaima (I’m assuming it’s the light novels as well). There’s also Strawberry Panic, that one random yuri thing that’s getting a manga and light novel. I’ve never heard of any of the others.

Say what you will about Seven Seas caving in from the Kodomo no Jikan thing, but I still think they’re a good publisher. Perhaps it’s the amount of yuri that they license that leads me to this conclusion… Plus they’re one of the few companies (along with Tokyopop) that are getting into the light novel arena. They publish good stuff that the bigger companies wouldn’t consider, and for that, they’re cool with me.

Now, if only they could prevent their titles from being delayed so often…

The neverending struggle between Boogiepop and the Imaginator finally comes to a conclusion in part 2 of Boogiepop Returns. I guess that means it wasn’t really neverending…

I complained about the fact that Boogiepop doesn’t actually defeat the Imaginator in the previous part of the novel, but he/she finally does in this one. Basically, we’ve got a continuation of the plotlines of Asukai Jin turning into the Imaginator, Spooky E brainwashing people to find the Imaginator, and Taniguchi Masaki pretending to be Boogiepop.

The chapters still follow the point of view switching like the previous novels, except it seems like there’s a lot more switching going on mid-chapter as well. Even so, the plot seems more concise because I think there’s less characters doing the switching.

Even though I read the previous book about two months ago, I could still follow along pretty well. Which is bragable, since I’m not too good with remembering names, and I don’t even get faces to match the names to!

One of the interesting themes that I encountered (and one that shows up later in the book, which means it was easier to remember!) was that of being brainwashed. Sure, Spooky E literally brainwashed people with his electro-hands, but to a degree, all of society brainwashes its citizens, right? It seemed like a really Japanese idea, since there really is a whole lot of social pressure forced upon you in Japanese society.

I think on a high level, the Boogiepop novels are enjoyable to read with stuff like Karate fights, tasers, electro-hands, and the use of wires as weapons. On the deeper level though, the characters are all pretty messed up, which is interesting. Like seriously, they’re ALL messed up. It sure does make me feel better about myself, being not as messed up. And by that, meaning I don’t have a synthetic girlfriend who makes me dress up as Boogiepop fighting crime, or I’m not in love with my cousin, or I can’t see flowers in peoples’ chests.

So far, Seven Seas has only released these three Boogiepop novels, and I’m not sure if they’re planning on releasing any more. Seems like a good idea, since they’re pretty enjoyable. It looks like in Japan, they’re up to some ridiculous number like, 14. Yikes!

Many thanks to Seven Seas Entertainment for sending me a review copy of Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 2!

Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator continues the “Faulkner lite” reading that the first Boogiepop Phantom novel started. We get new characters, new villains, and even a new Boogiepop!

Story:
The events in Boogiepop Returns happen mostly after the events of the first novel. Duh, it’s called “Boogiepop Returns” for a reason, right? In this installment, Boogiepop faces another enemy, this time in the form of the “Imaginator.” Not only that, there’s also a fat guy by the name of “Spooky E” whose name indicates gangsta rapper, but whose actual identity is more like an alien brainwashing badass.

Analysis:
I didn’t like this novel quite as much as the first Boogiepop one. I think it’s because this is a multi-parter. Since this is only part 1 of Boogiepop returns, there’s still a lot of unanswered questions. For one thing, Boogiepop doesn’t even find the Imaginator. She(?) fights the Spooky E guy, but that’s not satisfying enough!

The novel is interesting, but I just felt as though I wasn’t getting the whole story. Most importantly, the end of the novel didn’t really bring any closure; it just teased you for the next volume. I do like the subplot with the kung-fu expert Taniguchi Masaki (who impersonates Boogiepop and fights crime) and Orihata Aya (who reminds me a lot of Nagato Yuki from Haruhi).

There’s also a funny essay about “pop culture” written by the author at the end of the book. It really makes no sense and it’s more of a weird extra than anything else.

Conclusion:
I find myself liking these Boogiepop Phantom novels because of the ways that the characters interact with each other. It’s all really gritty and realistic, and it seems to explain the plight of Japanese youth (like with cram schools and all those crappy entrance exams), though in a sci-fi setting. I haven’t seen any of the Boogiepop anime, manga, or movies, so I’m really experiencing the story in the way it was intended (minus the whole language translation thing). Seems pretty cool to me!

Many thanks to Seven Seas Entertainment for sending me a review copy of Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator Part 1!

The Boogiepop franchise seems to be one of the more popular in anime and manga. Strangely, I’ve never really gotten into it. When I did decide to get into the series, I chose the original source of the story, the light novel!

The publisher says:
There is an urban legend that children tell one another about a shinigami that can release people from the pain they may be suffering. This “Angel of Death” has a name–Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real.

When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet, Nagi Kirima knows better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop or something more sinister…?

Analysis:
I really don’t envy the people whose job it was to translate this novel. It’s complicated. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character with five chapters in all. Each chapter happens in a different place in the timeline of the story. And each chapter has characters whose names need memorization. I’m pretty bad at that…

I read Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury back in high school, so I guess I was sort of ready for this kind of crazy jumping around. But at least that book came with cliff notes…

Basically, as the story progresses, the reader is able to eventually piece together the events of this sci-fi/horror novel. Of course, the ending is somewhat open ended, and the events are never really concretely explained. This is the only the first novel in a series, y’know.

I thought the novel was really interesting for the most part. I have a hard time with names, so at points I became really confused. The illustrations helped somewhat though. There was also a handy guide in the back of the book (that I only discovered after reading all of it!) that showed the relationships between characters.

The Actual Book:
I don’t know how actual Japanese light novels are set up, but this book was nice. It had a bunch of color inserts in the front with illustrations of all of the main characters. Within the chapters there were monochrome illustrations scattered here and there.

I thought it was slightly weird that the book was the same size as a normal manga tankoubon. I just sorta expect a novel to be smaller than that. I guess it’s because I’ve been reading Tokyopop’s light novels, which are smaller and have thinner (I think) pages. I think the smaller size makes it somewhat more convenient to read.

Conclusion:
I thought the Boogiepop and Others was a good, if slightly confusing, read. In the end, a lot is left to speculation, but that’s how a lot of Japanese narrative works. The story unravels in such a way that it’s engaging if you’re actually up to speed with all of the characters and events.

I also found out that there’s a Boogiepop DVD thinpack that contains the entire TV series and the live action movie. It’s only like $50 so I might just pick this one up.

Thanks to Seven Seas Entertainment for the review copy of Boogiepop and Others.

I just saw this via Anime News Network.

Apparently Dark Horse has licensed the Light Novel of Oh! My Goddess titled “First End.” But the Oh! My Goddess manga (and subsequent anime) was never based on a light novel. This novel came afterwards, and was written by the seiyuu for Urd, Touma Yumi.

So I guess the requirements for being a novelist in Japan are mad voice acting skills… Seems pretty weird if you ask me. Shouldn’t Oh! My Goddess be a popular enough series that an actual writer writes the novel? I guess I shouldn’t knock it until I read it myself, though.

All in all, it reconfirms my thoughts about light novels in general. 2007 is their breakout year!

So DiGiKerot over at Beta Waffle beat me to the Full Metal Panic Light Novel announcement. What he didn’t mention is that Tokyopop is also going to release the Welcome to the NHK light novel! I really like Welcome to the NHK (both the anime and the manga), and like I said before, light novels are gonna be the next big thing. So I’m really looking forward to this.

Also, why the heck isn’t the Haruhi Suzumiya no Yuutsu light novel series licensed yet!? It’d be like a license to print money!

I seriously believe that 2007 will be the year of the light novels. You know, those books with occasional illustrations that a lot of manga and anime are based on? I took a look at the Scrapped Princess light novel, Song of the Forgiven. I didn’t actually realize it was the second book in the series until starting this review!

The Publisher Says:
Shannon and his siblings are squabbling as they continue on their travels. When they reach a frontier town, they don’t realize that an assassin has followed them in – and as a result, the inn is reduced to rubble! They’ll have to pay the money to fix it, but with no job, the three of them take up making mascot and maid costumes. But their lives don’t remain peaceful for long…

Analysis:
I was really surprised when I found out I had read the second book of the Scrapped Princess series first. I thought they were just using the storytelling strategy of starting in the middle… It did take me a while to figure out the characters, probably because I hadn’t read the first book yet.

The story is a mix of a lot of genres. There’s humor, drama, and action. I’d say there’s a good mix. Rather than starting with action (which would’ve been cool), it starts with some character building and comedy by way of a bread shop mascot battle. And crossdressing!

Before you know it, the two siblings Shannon and Raquel are fighting assassin after assassin. There’s also a lot of drama when Pacifica contemplates suicide in order to end her siblings’ troubles. The story goes back to action with a climactic end as the heroes attack a giant blob that’s literally eating the townsfolk they’ve made friends with.

I wonder if the story would have been easier for me to read if I had read the first book prior to this. I found that the first few chapters were a little difficult to get through. The second half of the book went by fast, though.

Conclusion:
Hopefully I’ll be able to read the first book so I can catch something I might’ve missed. Overall though, I thought that book 2, especially the end part, was some good readin’.

Thanks to Tokyopop for supplying me a review copy of Scrapped Princess: Song of the Forgiven.