Something’s Wrong with Us, Vol. 1

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By Natsumi Ando. Released in Japan as “Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteiru” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Be Love. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics. Translated by Sawa Matsueda Savage.

One of the first things I noticed when I began to heavily overanalyze manga artists is that shoujo artists started out in the magazines for younger readers – the Margaret, Nakayoshi and Hana to Yume types – and then, after many years of long and faithful service, graduated to the magazines for adult women – You, Be Love, and Silky. I used to wonder if it was like being kicked upstairs into the House of Lords. I suspect it may be more that the josei magazines come out with far less frequency and are thus easier to handle on a schedule basis. The reason for this drawn out prologue is that this new series is by Natsumi Ando, famous – or infamous – for her shoujo potboilers that ran in Nakayoshi over the years, such as Kitchen Princess and Arisa. And now she’s “graduated” and started a series for Be Love, which seems to be doing quite well given it’s 11 volumes and counting over there.

Nao is a happy young child, who adores her mother, a sweetsmaker who has take a job at a prestigious sweets shop. She’s shy, but makes friends with the cute young boy who’s the heir to the business. Then there’s a murder, which Nao witnesses, and the very same cute young boy accuses her mother of the murder. Fast forward to Nao at age 21, still dealing with PTSD from the murder, her mother having died in custody meaning Nao can’t hold a job, suddenly finding work at the very same sweets shop, whose young heir is now gorgeous… and about to get married. That said, the family seems to be as cruel and overdramatic as ever, and Tsubaki is no exception. Can Nao find out why her mother was framed all those years ago? And can she do it while being used as a pawn… and possibly fall in love?

I will admit that I tend to start off enthusiastically reading Ando series and then gradually lose interest, and I’m not sure if this will be the same. It’s a very good start, though. Ando has used dark, dramatic arcs before, but rarely from the start, and Nao being 21 rather than a teenager helps lend heft to the murder accusation and aftermath plot. Tsubaki seems like the sort of asshole who will gradually be shown to have a nice side deep down that we see in many of these series, but so far he’s hiding it pretty well, and he has a MUCH harder hurdle to clear than simply “I am a rude jerk” to win Nao’s heart. I am expecting, given the nature of the series, that his accusation of Nao’s mother is not all that it seems, and in fact the entire family looks like they wanted a scapegoat… and may want one again. Given that “like accused criminal, like accused criminal’s child” is a thing in Japan, I am in fact expecting it soon.

I haven’t mentioned the sweets, for which I apologize. This book is also all about sweets, and the endnotes are mostly about the nature of them – these are Japanese sweets, not Western. They do help relieve a bit of the darkness that this series exhibits. If you liked Ando’s shoujo drama, her josei drama should definitely appeal. As for me, we shall see how long I last with this one.

Bibliophile Princess, Vol. 1

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By Yui and Satsuki Sheena. Released in Japan as “Mushikaburi-hime” by Ichijinsha Bunko Iris NEO. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Alyssa Niioka.

The great thing about first-person narration is that not only is it a good way to get inside the head of the main character, but it can also be used to obfuscate, and even to fool the reader entirely. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie is probably the most classic example, but Japanese light novels are also filled with narrators who conceal and/or lie about their own thoughts. Fortunately, Elianna Bernstein is not that sort of narrator. No, instead her narration is sort of like a puffball, floating alongside events while missing the point of most of them. This is especially true of the first half of the book, when she tries to figure out why everyone is avoiding her – particularly her fiancee, the prince, who seems to be charmed by another woman. Now, it should come as no surprise to the reader that this proves not to be the case (indeed, so little surprise that I’m spoiling it here). But the journey it takes to get there is funny and sweet.

Elianna comes from a family of book-lovers – indeed, they’re famous for it, and their family are also knowledge brokers of a sort. She does not seem, at first, to be the same – indeed, it’s hard to get much of a sense of personality out of her beyond “loves to read”. She herself tells us about kids calling her “the library ghost” due to her pale complexion, and the current nickname of Bibliophile Princess is only a mild step up. Now she’s seeing her fiancee with another woman. This is it, right? The end of their engagement. Even if it means… shudder… giving back the book that Prince Christopher once gave to her. But is that what’s really going on? What’s more, is Elianna really just an insular book-loving heroine? Or is she actually changing the entire nation in many and varied ways… and then promptly forgetting about what she said as she’s moved on to her next book?

The book is in three parts. The first is Elianna’s narration of the “cheating” story, and reads like a standalone short story that an editor told her to expand into a novel. The second comes from other narrators, showing us other perspectives on Elianna, particularly the prince’s. Then we’re back to Elianna, mostly, for a third chunk which also reads like a short story, about a traveling book fair and its people. The first part was the most fun, but I think the last story was the strongest, as it gets into themes of racial prejudice and poverty, as well as seeing Elianna suddenly become an action heroine when she hears someone is about to burn a pile of books. It also shows Elianna gaining depth beyond the fun airhead we saw at the start – her uneasiness as she realizes that she can’t remember the first meeting between her and Chris is well handled.

Not only did the first chunk of the book read like a done-in-one short story, but the book feels like a standalone novel. Still, there are more novels in the series, and I’ll definitely want to read more. Elianna is fun to read, even if, as the author notes, when not reading a book she seems to look at people with a question mark over her head.

Also, Christopher, and particularly Prince Chris, reads terribly to me. I wish he’d been an Edward.

Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! ~A Sign-on-the-Line Wedding Story~, Vol. 1

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By Tsuredurebana and Rin Hagiwara. Released in Japan as “Dareka Kono Joukyou wo Setsumei Shite Kudasai! ~Keiyaku Kara Hajimaru Wedding~” by ArianRose. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Mattias Hirsch.

Sometimes you go into a book with expectations. Perhaps the book is part of a new line of romance novels for young women the publisher is putting out. Perhaps the title features the words ‘wedding story’. Perhaps the cover, which shows the heroine in a wedding gown and a handsome young man, draws you in. Perhaps you read the manga version, which is available on the Renta ebooks site, and every single chapter was filled with a breathless romantic description of what was happening. Indeed, the book does indeed hit all these points. There is indeed a wedding. There are balls where the heroine shines. There is another woman, constantly trying to call out the heroine so that she can prove who’s top dog. There’s even the tried and true “hero asks for marriage of convenience and then gradually falls in love anyway” plotline. The startling thing about this book, though, is that its heroine, Viola, starts the book completely uninterested in romance and Cercis, the hero… and ends it the same way.

Viola is the daughter of an Earl whose landholdings have fallen on hard times, and is used to doing most things herself with a minimum of fuss and servants. She is rather startled when Duke Cercis arrives at her door with a proposal. Well, more of a contract. He has a woman he already loves, but she’s a dancing girl and therefore he can’t marry her and his family won’t approve. So Viola is to be his “show wife”. Viola, after securing enough funding to save her family’s debt, agrees very matter-of-factly, and a year later they are married and she’s living in a fabulous mansion. Wondering what to do with herself at first, she’s soon winning over the servants (and indeed dressing as one), cutting back on the extravagant meals, brightening up the gardens and house, and putting her own stamp on everything while the Duke and his lover live in the cottage elsewhere on the estate. All well and good… but why is the Duke coming over more and more often?

Viola’s narrative voice is all over this book, and it’s a fun one. She has a fair amount of snarkiness to her, but there’s also a heaping helping of unawareness, and those two don’t usually go together. She’s the sort to describe herself as scrawny, plain and flat-chested, and has absolutely no idea why her maids, when given the opportunity to put her in real fashion and jewelry, go absolutely ga-ga. The answer, of course, is that Viola’s scrawny and flat-chested is everyone else’s tall and willowy, and she looks fantastic dressed up. She doesn’t put on airs, she actually cares about the people around her, and she shows absolutely no interest in getting involved with the Duke and his mistress. Indeed, I was sort of hoping for more Duke and mistress – there’s a running gag where the mistress keeps showing up looking for the lady of the manor and runs into Viola (dressed in her normal black “maid dress” and therefore unrecognizable), but for the most part the book is content to gradually work its way up to the inevitable breakup that comes when the Duke realizes he does love Viola after all.

This leads to the climax, where the duke confesses his love, and Viola says she doesn’t really think of him that way. Given that the series is nine volumes long to date, one would assume he will eventually get his point across, but if he’s going to be wooing her, he’d better try a bit harder – rewriting their contract (which had said she, as a “show wife”, could also have lovers) to say she can only love him is not a terrific start. Still, the combination of the oddly shaped not-romance and the intelligent (if somewhat too self-deprecating) heroine makes me want to read further.