Japanese Reading Report: 24 November 2024

This week I flew to America. During the flight I was able to read a little bit but, aside from some manga on top of my normal quota, the entire two-leg journey was only about one day of normal reading. I finished 魔法少女リリカルなのは, started reading 痴人の愛, in addition to a bunch of other things. Check it out below.

魔法少女リリカルなのは

So Nanoha comes to an end. At the twilight of this series we get one big, final revelation. Fate is a clone ! The science-fiction trappings of the series added a nice twist to what I expected to be a standard magical girl series.

It doesn't take long for the affected character to overcome the grief caused by her misfortune, and she re-enters the fray by the end of the following episode. A fast turnaround, but the curtains were closing just as fast so, why not? Her final monologue is fairly powerful, but I think the story was missing some more conflict here, and instead it more or less ends there.

The resolution of the story also came fairly suddenly in the second-to-last episode, giving the final episode space to act as a farewell to the characters なのは was able to meet. I really liked the symbolic trading of ribbons between なのは and フェイト.

サーシャちゃんとクラスメイトオタクくん

The themes and content didn't deviate far from the first volume. サーシャ and 藤原 continue their playful demi-romance.

A mini-arc I enjoyed this volume involved 藤原 finishing the draft of his first eromanga—a story about a submissive girl and a dominant boy. サーシャ reads it enthusiastically, but she's disappointed by the final product, saying that it lacks an honest expression of 藤原's tastes. After some conversation 藤原 decides to flip the roles, reworking the story to focus on a submissive male character.
This story is revisited later in the volume. サーシャ rereads 藤原's new draft, loves it, and they celebrate his win. It was a nice exploration of the role of honesty and introspection in the creative process.

This volume also includes a little Russian-language lesson. サーシャ explains how middle names are passed down by fathers to their children, with a little twist. Male children take the father's given name and append -(o)vich, and female children append -(o)vna.

The volume sort of touches on サーシャ's backstory. Her mother and father have separated and she lives alone with her mother who spends a lot of the time out of the house. Her father still lives in Russia and has started a new family.

Unfortunately I won't be reading any more volumes until at least February 2025 because I don't have access to my physical book collection. Ah well.

カードキャプターさくら

Cute Hermetic feet.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the five episodes I watched of this. The animation was absolutely gorgeous, さくら and her daily life are rendered with so much care and attention. I loved how tender and warm the world felt. I had heard vaguely of (though it wasn't the impetus of my interest in the series) a romantic tension between さくら and her older brother's classmate, 雪兎. Being so early in the series, it's hard for me to judge the situation, but so far it seems like little more than one-sided infatuation from さくら. I suppose it remains to be seen how 雪兎 returns the affection as it goes on.

I am a bit worried the series won't have legs for 70+ episodes simply due to the formulaic structure of episodes. Each episode so far hasn't deviated much from: 1) Introducing some daily life vignette, 2) introducing a Clow Card covertly disrupting things, and 3) さくら and friends figure out how to capture it. It's an oversimplification, maybe, but the show is definitely very firmly in the "monster of the week" subgenre at this (admittedly early) point.

A few small visual notes:
Even more than なのは, this show has some absolutely phenomenal costume designs. The "magical girl" outfits, supplied by her friend 知世, are all extremely cute, and I think it's a genius move to encourage outfit changes every episode. The daily-life outfits are also well designed. It's a very pleasant show to watch for that reason.
I noticed that さくら grows magic wings on her feet just before leaping off a building in episode 1. なのは also used Hermetic wings to fly. I wonder if there's a shared inspiration.

痴人の愛

This is my next novel after finishing Lolita. After I mentioned reading Lolita, this book was recommended to me by someone saying it has similar themes. This book was written in the 1920s, so it predates Nabokov's book by about thirty years. I suppose I'm getting deep into a particular kind of storytelling at this point.

This book is about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a fifteen-year-old waitress at a cafe. 君子 is infatuated by Westernness because of Japan's honeymoon with the Western World. He perceives ナオミ, whose name and physical features resemble Western girls more than her peers, as a perfect future wife.

Like Lolita's Humbert, 君子 mostly talks about ナオミ in terms of the value he sees in her as an asset. It was interesting to read him say that, while ナオミ is not the most attractive woman he's ever seen, other qualities, such as her youth and malleability, make her the perfect girl for him.
Unlike in Lolita, 君子 sort of goes through some courtship rituals in order to spend time with ナオミ. That's kind of an indictment a time and culture which would permit such a thing, really. There was a fun line where 君子 describes his perfect house, with a maid and a caged bird, and follows it by saying that he wishes ナオミ would become both.

I've also found it interesting that ナオミ likes to read. Reading is kind of an intellectual hobby (and probably signalled intellect even more in 1920s Japan) so it implies a richness to her personal life that I appreciate.

I've found it far more approachable than the Japanese translation of Lolita, and even more approachable than 太宰治, however it's still quite challenging. A lot of Japanese novels of the time deviate quite a bit from contemporary Japanese. A few common words use unconventional kanji (云う instead of 言う for example) and some uncommon words are used with a higher frequency (to be fair, this could also be attributed to a particular author's preference).

ダンダダン（漫画版）

Continuing directly from the previous volume, volume 17 is set almost exclusively within the cursed game board. 桃 and ズマ discover some new mechanics of the game, progress towards (what they imagine is) the end of the board, and get hit with a little cliff hanger. It's kind of a shame バモラ has been so snubbed in this arc, because she's #1 girl.

ダンダダン（アニメ版）

Another low-energy episode to start. A welcome change of pace from the previous episode. This one mostly focused on integrating 愛羅 into the party, developing the romantic tension between オカルン and 桃, and introducing the next major threat.

ストレッチ

This is a manga by the same author as ヴァンピアーズ. I read it on the plane to fill in some time. I honestly don't have much to say about it, except that it didn't hold my attention very well. Some of the stretching advice made me think about my own relationship to my body, flexibility, and health, though. That's something.

ルックバック

Kind of a weird one to be right at the bottom because it was definitely a highlight of the week. I've been anticipating this movie (mini movie? short film?) since it was announced because the manga version of this was actually my introduction to 藤本タツキ. This story easily remains one of my favourites of the last few years. I adore the way it uses a few simple moments to create a highly emotional beats. Definitely a must-watch film if there ever was one.