Book lust.
Aug. 3rd, 2006 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwen[...and other kinds of lust. But that's further down.]
OMG I need to live in Japan.
So I can buy lots and lots of Japanese novels.
Except living space in Japan is so expensive, I probably wouldn't have space for them.
Oh, the dilemma.
...yeah.
So my recent obsession (?) has been reading the novels on which anime series are based. I started with Ginban Kaleidoscope -- I can't really say why; I just really liked the story, and it happened to be available at the local Kinokuniya, I guess. Plus it's a light novel, which means more furigana and less obscure kanji to break my language skills. I was kind of surprised by how much dialogue there was, without much description in between. But having seen the anime, I subvocalize all the dialogue with the respective voice actors, so it's kind of nice. Previously, I'd attempted to read the Kyou Kara Maou novels, but I was turned off by the fact that they're written in first person. But somehow I've gotten to really like the fact that the Ginban novels are written from Tazusa's POV. After all, she drives the series with her arrogant and sarcastic view of life, so it's neat to get inside her head. Maybe I'll go back to the Kyou Kara Maou novels someday, since that series is similarly made interesting by the culture clash as viewed through Yuuri's eyes. Just like Suzumiya Haruhi just wouldn't be the same without Kyon's narration.
I guess I'm just so used to omnipresent/omniscient narration in most English stuff I read. And I certainly could never imagine writing anything of my own in other than third person. [Okay, except for "The Planets", but that's because I wanted to practice writing in different voices.] It's kind of different in Japanese, perhaps partly because of the way I've learned the language, or just because of the way the language is. See, the grammar is all different depending on the narrator. First person narrators speak in conversational Japanese, but third person narrators are much more formal. I guess I've encountered both in anime, so it's not that either is more or less familiar, but . . . I dunno. I need to read more before I can say.
So yeah.
I was kind of frustrated by how all of the new anime these days are either based on manga, novels, or games. [Of some 20 or so series I either am following right now or have on my "to watch" list, KIBA is possibly the only one that I don't know for certain is based on something else.] I really, really want to watch something that's original. Perhaps it's naïve to think that then, at last, we will get a coherent series without a condensed storyline or rushed ending. But at least I'll know I won't be missing out.
The reason I'm making this rant right now is because I just finished watching Mirage of Blaze. I kept thinking that this series must have lots of great fanfiction. There's so much space in which to work, and so many hurting, angsty characters to play with. The story had tons of plotholes, and doesn't really end, but hey, that just offers more possibilities, right? But all the fics I've seen so far are one-shots, and there aren't even many of those.
Seriously. This series should have been the next Tokyo Babylon. It's so beautifully dark, and it's wrapped up in all this historical background and supernatural goings-on, and both boys are so tormented, it's like they take turns. There are just so many ways for the fangirls to spin it. [I haven't had much time to sit down and think about this as yet, but the more I watched the series, the less I could figure out who was uke and who was seme. But that could be a good thing, too. And then there was that scene that went from, uh...whatever stereotype it is that Seishirou x Subaru tends to be, NC (?) to hurt/comfort. That totally made my head explode. (...yeah. I need a dictionary of slash terminology.)]
But... I don't know. I guess a badly done series will still be a badly done series.
And then it turns out that it's based on this really long novel series. (Kinokuniya lists 40 volumes proper, and maybe some other random stuff, but I've seen auctions on Yahoo! that say "all 54 volumes".) Thus why I need to live in Japan.
My sister went on a school-organized trip to Japan recently, and I got her to buy me the 13 Scrapped Princess novels (plus the 5 supplements, but I didn't ask for those). Because we'd just rewatched the series, which reminded me both of its awesomeness and it's compressed story-ness. Now I can have the whole story. [Yes, I know that they've been licensed by Tokyopop, but I refuse to settle for translations.]
Oh, and I guess I should say that this whole novel thing really began with Twelve Kingdoms, which is probably one of the series more famously based on novels, and which ended because the novelist didn't like the way the anime was going. But there are online translations of various bits of Twelve Kingdoms, so I'd been settling for those.
My desperation for the Mirage of Blaze novels has cooled somewhat since I first found out about them this afternoon, because I've started to wonder whether I'd actually be able to understand the BL in novel form. I mean, I've glanced at a few Shin'ichirou/Nanami Sukisyo stories that were posted at Manganews, and I wasn't really interested. (Granted, those were explicit yaoi, so it might be different. But then again, it might not.) So, maybe I'll be able to impose a bit of patience.
I did pick up a one-shot BL-ish novel by the same publisher from Kinokuniya last time, so I will use that as a test case. And then Kouga Ninpou Chou (the novel on which the Basilisk anime is based) will tell me whether I can handle the old-fashioned Japanese. [Considering I couldn't understand the Basilisk raws, this is doubtful.] But I tell you, if I find a Yahoo! Auction with the complete series whose seller will ship internationally, I may not be able to hold back.
It's strange. I already have a long enough "to read" list of English books, but I've never felt the urge to buy them all. [Well, once or twice in the past, but that ended with buying a couple David Brin books and the LotR segment of the HoME books.] Maybe it's reverse psychology with the Japanese novels: the harder they are to obtain, the more I want them now now now.
Theoretically, the San Francisco Kinokuniya has the first 12 volumes of Mirage of Blaze but they're also supposed to have the first half of Seimaden. Last time we went there, they said they'd mailed those back to Japan (WTF?), and then helpfully asked if I wanted the English versions. Bah!
And, since I read Japanese novels even slower than English ones, which I already read plenty slow enough, who knows when I'll ever get through these? We already had the Kino no Tabi novels, and my sister got the first Suzumiya Haruhi novel, too. Not to mention the Japanese version of Return of the King I got, although since I've read that in English, that's not so pressing. Oh, and a translation of Journey to the West.
And if I ever finish these (ha!), there are plenty of other series based on novels, including the best show of the season, Saiunkoku Monogatari.
I think my future house will need a pretty big library indeed.
ETA: I thought I should note that, although I talk about the schizophrenic pairings in Mirage of Blaze as if they were a feature, one of the main reasons I want to read the novels is to see if they might not be a little more sensical therein.
ETA2: I win.
OMG I need to live in Japan.
So I can buy lots and lots of Japanese novels.
Except living space in Japan is so expensive, I probably wouldn't have space for them.
Oh, the dilemma.
...yeah.
So my recent obsession (?) has been reading the novels on which anime series are based. I started with Ginban Kaleidoscope -- I can't really say why; I just really liked the story, and it happened to be available at the local Kinokuniya, I guess. Plus it's a light novel, which means more furigana and less obscure kanji to break my language skills. I was kind of surprised by how much dialogue there was, without much description in between. But having seen the anime, I subvocalize all the dialogue with the respective voice actors, so it's kind of nice. Previously, I'd attempted to read the Kyou Kara Maou novels, but I was turned off by the fact that they're written in first person. But somehow I've gotten to really like the fact that the Ginban novels are written from Tazusa's POV. After all, she drives the series with her arrogant and sarcastic view of life, so it's neat to get inside her head. Maybe I'll go back to the Kyou Kara Maou novels someday, since that series is similarly made interesting by the culture clash as viewed through Yuuri's eyes. Just like Suzumiya Haruhi just wouldn't be the same without Kyon's narration.
I guess I'm just so used to omnipresent/omniscient narration in most English stuff I read. And I certainly could never imagine writing anything of my own in other than third person. [Okay, except for "The Planets", but that's because I wanted to practice writing in different voices.] It's kind of different in Japanese, perhaps partly because of the way I've learned the language, or just because of the way the language is. See, the grammar is all different depending on the narrator. First person narrators speak in conversational Japanese, but third person narrators are much more formal. I guess I've encountered both in anime, so it's not that either is more or less familiar, but . . . I dunno. I need to read more before I can say.
So yeah.
I was kind of frustrated by how all of the new anime these days are either based on manga, novels, or games. [Of some 20 or so series I either am following right now or have on my "to watch" list, KIBA is possibly the only one that I don't know for certain is based on something else.] I really, really want to watch something that's original. Perhaps it's naïve to think that then, at last, we will get a coherent series without a condensed storyline or rushed ending. But at least I'll know I won't be missing out.
The reason I'm making this rant right now is because I just finished watching Mirage of Blaze. I kept thinking that this series must have lots of great fanfiction. There's so much space in which to work, and so many hurting, angsty characters to play with. The story had tons of plotholes, and doesn't really end, but hey, that just offers more possibilities, right? But all the fics I've seen so far are one-shots, and there aren't even many of those.
Seriously. This series should have been the next Tokyo Babylon. It's so beautifully dark, and it's wrapped up in all this historical background and supernatural goings-on, and both boys are so tormented, it's like they take turns. There are just so many ways for the fangirls to spin it. [I haven't had much time to sit down and think about this as yet, but the more I watched the series, the less I could figure out who was uke and who was seme. But that could be a good thing, too. And then there was that scene that went from, uh...
But... I don't know. I guess a badly done series will still be a badly done series.
And then it turns out that it's based on this really long novel series. (Kinokuniya lists 40 volumes proper, and maybe some other random stuff, but I've seen auctions on Yahoo! that say "all 54 volumes".) Thus why I need to live in Japan.
My sister went on a school-organized trip to Japan recently, and I got her to buy me the 13 Scrapped Princess novels (plus the 5 supplements, but I didn't ask for those). Because we'd just rewatched the series, which reminded me both of its awesomeness and it's compressed story-ness. Now I can have the whole story. [Yes, I know that they've been licensed by Tokyopop, but I refuse to settle for translations.]
Oh, and I guess I should say that this whole novel thing really began with Twelve Kingdoms, which is probably one of the series more famously based on novels, and which ended because the novelist didn't like the way the anime was going. But there are online translations of various bits of Twelve Kingdoms, so I'd been settling for those.
My desperation for the Mirage of Blaze novels has cooled somewhat since I first found out about them this afternoon, because I've started to wonder whether I'd actually be able to understand the BL in novel form. I mean, I've glanced at a few Shin'ichirou/Nanami Sukisyo stories that were posted at Manganews, and I wasn't really interested. (Granted, those were explicit yaoi, so it might be different. But then again, it might not.) So, maybe I'll be able to impose a bit of patience.
I did pick up a one-shot BL-ish novel by the same publisher from Kinokuniya last time, so I will use that as a test case. And then Kouga Ninpou Chou (the novel on which the Basilisk anime is based) will tell me whether I can handle the old-fashioned Japanese. [Considering I couldn't understand the Basilisk raws, this is doubtful.] But I tell you, if I find a Yahoo! Auction with the complete series whose seller will ship internationally, I may not be able to hold back.
It's strange. I already have a long enough "to read" list of English books, but I've never felt the urge to buy them all. [Well, once or twice in the past, but that ended with buying a couple David Brin books and the LotR segment of the HoME books.] Maybe it's reverse psychology with the Japanese novels: the harder they are to obtain, the more I want them now now now.
Theoretically, the San Francisco Kinokuniya has the first 12 volumes of Mirage of Blaze but they're also supposed to have the first half of Seimaden. Last time we went there, they said they'd mailed those back to Japan (WTF?), and then helpfully asked if I wanted the English versions. Bah!
And, since I read Japanese novels even slower than English ones, which I already read plenty slow enough, who knows when I'll ever get through these? We already had the Kino no Tabi novels, and my sister got the first Suzumiya Haruhi novel, too. Not to mention the Japanese version of Return of the King I got, although since I've read that in English, that's not so pressing. Oh, and a translation of Journey to the West.
And if I ever finish these (ha!), there are plenty of other series based on novels, including the best show of the season, Saiunkoku Monogatari.
I think my future house will need a pretty big library indeed.
ETA: I thought I should note that, although I talk about the schizophrenic pairings in Mirage of Blaze as if they were a feature, one of the main reasons I want to read the novels is to see if they might not be a little more sensical therein.
ETA2: I win.
haru-haa-haa
Date: 2006-08-04 04:45 pm (UTC)I may be biased against it, though, because everytime I see "Haruhi", the Mayahi song comes into my head. Graah. There it is again.
I finally got KareKano (the manga) in the mail this morning, and I do the same thing too with imagining the voice actors. It's easy with this one since the anime follows the manga so closely (at least for now?)
Re: haru-haa-haa
Date: 2006-08-04 08:27 pm (UTC)Ahhh, KareKano. I think I have the first 9 volumes of something (up to the one where dark!Arima shows up), but it was so similar to the anime I had trouble reading it. Also, that series has a ridiculous amount of text for being manga. @_@ Maybe I'll be less scared of it now that I've read some Japanese novels. At the very least, I'll be grateful for the furigana.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-08 07:20 am (UTC)There's a series of BL books I want to pick up, too -- Flesh & Blood. They're about pirates!
no subject
Date: 2006-08-08 11:36 pm (UTC)I like the Mushishi icon. ^_^
Collecting books is dangerous. I'm not sure why Japanese series just trigger this urge in me, since I usually buy/borrow English series one book at a time. And Japanese series are longer, too. [I still don't understand their love of splitting things into multiple volumes. All the new Harry Potter books are 2 volumes each. And the Da Vinci Code was three. Three!]
Mmm, BL pirates... as if all the PotC fangirling on my flist wasn't enough. :D
no subject
Date: 2006-08-09 06:39 pm (UTC)I think it's [Japanese series length] some kind of cultural aversion to the sorts of inches-thick paperback monsters you find in the western world. If you compressed the JK series into western-lnegth books you'd probably have, I dunno, 7. Instead of 18 or however many there are now...
I got interested in the Flesh & Blood books because I picked up a Drama CD for the series, which has a top-notch cast -- including Junichi Suwabe voicing the main captain. It's, uh, pretty hot.