Anime Expo takes place over the weekend including or closest to American Independance Day, and being one of the largest conventions in the country as well as near the US branches of many a Japanese company, it was not surprising that Idea Factory International chose that time to announce the English langauge release of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! -Pirates of the Disturbance-. (Yes, that's a long title, but that's what you get when you add a subtitle to an already long title with a subtitle.)
I've read a few of the books, watched both seasons of the anime, and wrote a little about the series, so when a game was announced I hoped it would eventually be localized given the series' popularity. But I was uncertain this would happen given that it was a licensed title, meaning more stakeholders would be involved, and this was an otome game, which is growing but still a rather niche genre in the US.
Because of that niche genre bit, it was probably inevitable that someone was going to raise a fuss over Catarina not being able to date women.
You see, in the series, Catarina is a high school girl reborn as a character in the otome game she was currently playing at the time of her unfortunate demise. She uses her knowledge of the game to avoid her character's inevitable death or exile (depending on the ending) and in the process makes the rest of the cast fall in love with her by being a nice person who encourages them and cares about their problems (though some of that was motivated by trying to avoid getting killed/exiled by them or their loved ones).
So even though the setting is that of an otome game and there is some lampooning of otome game tropes, Catarina's romantic interests includes both boys and girls. This is where the potential fan expectation mismatch comes in.
My Next Life as a Villainess introduced a lot of people to otome who had never given the genre a second thought, and as a result don't have a clear image of what is it or what the tropes are. For instance, the idea of having a villainess at all runs from extremely rare to non-existent, but because of the series, there are a number of fans who will ask around for otome games just like the one in the anime only to learn that no such game exists outside of possibly the indie scene.
Hearing that Catarina is having an all new adventure in an otome game, might lead such a player to assume that they will get to date any of Catarina's would-be love interests, leading to disappointment when they leave that only the male options are available.
Of course that's the case. Because this is an otome game.
The market for romance games is fairly segmented in Japan and each runs with their own tropes. There's BL and yuri for queer relationships, galge (or bishoujo) for male protagonists romancing women, and otome for female protagonists romancing men. You don't have everyone can romance everybody else games except possibly in the indie scene. (In the English speaking world, there is a small movement to create a new grouping called amare that covers that niche.)
On occasion there are otome that will include one same sex or non-binary romance option, but the majority will be male. That's the expectations of the audience. So when My Next Life as a Villainess was announced by Otomate, Idea Factory's otome label, everyone familiar with the market knew that it was going to be male options only. In the world of My Next Life as a Villainess Catarina's admirers are split between four boys and three girls, so there was no way to accomodate all seven of them and fit in genre convention, and trying to chase multiple audiences would likely result in a significant chunk of the players feeling they paid for content they don't care about.
Otome visual novels generally aren't like picking a romance option in Mass Effect or Fire Emblem where the romance consists of a few scenes wrapped around a larger central story. Depending on the game, as much as 90% or more of the path from start to finish can be unique to a particular love interest, which is why I often break out otome into multiple posts on my blog. There is such much that can be unique to each route and all the dialogue is voiced in a game that mostly consists of reading text.
While there is certainly a subset people who would play every route in the game no matter which gender the love interest is, the otome player who is more an otome fan than a Villainess fan might be disappointed when half the routes aren't something they would be interested in playing. Similarly, fans who want to set up Catarina with one of the girls might not be interested in having the boys as options at all. It's a big ask for someone to pay full price for a romance game when they know don't care about half the love interests before they even get started.
And the thing is, Otomate is its own label for a reason. Everything it makes is otome and there are annual events in Japan like Otomate Party which are dedicated to fans of its games. It's a brand. If a game comes out of Otomate, it had better have female protagonists romancing male love interests or it has no business being there. I know of one blogger who bought the Japanese version of the Pirates of the Disturbance game without having watched the Villainess anime or read the books because playing otome games is something she does. Otomate would not win points with its core audience's expectations by deviating from their brand.
So, one might ask, why didn't the IP holders go with someone else?
I'm sure they considered the possibility of giving Catarina a chance to have a happy ending with everyone, but there are two things I think that made it inevitable any romance game for My Next Life as a Villainess was going to be otome. First, there's the fact that it's a parody of otome, and a creative team that works within the genre will likely be able to lampoon it with love better than an outsider. And second, it's just not a good fit anywhere else. Galge tends to be the closest romance subgenre to mass market (the venerable Fate stay/night and all its spin-offs started as an adults-only galge), but Catarina is not male nor does she fit the self-insert nature of most galge protagonists. Yuri is even more niche than otome, leaving otome as the only pre-established option.
As for going it alone, I suspect that the cost of advertising a romance game to the general masses would be too much for the amount of people who would likely buy it (who again, likely have their own romantic preferences). Even if it meant cutting out half the would-be lovers to make sure that Otomate could also release it to its regular fans who are fans of the genre rather than Villainess itself, it would allow the game to remain closer in spirit to its source material (while being financially viable) than anything else.
The anime stakeholders, and quite likely author Satoru Yamaguchi himself, signed off on the deal so everyone knew going in what the concessions were going to be.
Would I have played all the options if they were put in? Sure! I like the characters and I find the in-fighting in Catarina's "harem" entertaining. But I have my romance game preferences too, and if half the love interests were women in a game I had no prior connection to, the hurdle to get me to play that game versus another otome would be much higher. It would have to be a game that's recommended to me by a friend, or the developer reached out to me as with Kiss the Demiurge. And it's likely the stakeholders were cognizant of that.
Showing posts with label my next life as a villainess. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my next life as a villainess. Show all posts
Monday, July 10, 2023
Monday, December 27, 2021
My Favorite Books of 2021
2021 was a year of reading comfort fiction, mostly because I was in cancer treatment for so much of the year that I just wanted to read what I already knew I would enjoy. Hence, a lot of later volumes in various series.
Normally I list the twelve books I enjoyed the most, but this year because of all the series' reading and because I mostly read volumes back to back, I'm just going to group everything by series and include book/volume numbers. I didn't start any new series. This is all ongoing stuff.
My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 4: Strategem by Yoshiki Tanaka
We finally see all the politicking in the previous volume pay off as the Dominion of Phezzan makes its move and Reinhart decides to make use of their subterfuge, bringing him one step closer to claiming the imperial throne for himself. He feels a lot better in this book, less distant, perhaps because he's getting over his grief. Yang's chapters aren't quite as good this time around, perhaps because he has less to do. This isn't a particularly space battley volume and while his grand strategy insight is as good as ever, his government doesn't like to hear what he has to say, as usual.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vols 2-3 by Satoru Yamaguchi
In Vol 2 Katarina continues her quest to avoid getting a "bad end" as the villainess of the otome video game she's been reincarnated into. Now that she's a teenager she finally goes off to the magic academy, beginning the game proper, but this time around due to her bond with her potential adversaries it's clear the story will play out differently. There is surprisingly a "bad guy" character who shows up to give the story a little oomph in the finale, but otherwise it ends just about the way you'd expect.
Vol 3 is a little stranger since Vol 2 wraps up the premise of the series, but it was clearly popular enough that the author or his editors wanted to continue so what we get is a stand alone volume of Katarina meeting new people, getting into more trouble, and causing more people to be smitten by her. It's all right, but feels a bit like filler.
Baccano! Vols 8-10 by Ryohgo Narita *
Baccano volumes 8-10 cover the 1934 Alcatraz storyline as well as Nebula Corporation shenanigans in Chicago. For anime-onlies, this arc covers where Ladd Russo wound up after he was pulled off the Flying Pussyfoot and finally puts Huey Laforet's plans into action. Firo gets some pretty awesome moments as he has to operate solo inside Alcatraz for much of this arc and he really gets to put his alchemic knowledge to good use. The best mostly new to us characters are probably the twin homunculi, Sham and Leeza, who have been mentioned before, but get to finally take the stage in this arc.
Shadow of the Fox Vols 2-3 by Julie Kagawa
Soul of the Sword and Night of the Dragon are the second and third books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, continuing and concluding Yumeko's journey to stop the summoning of the dragon god in a pseudo-medieval Japanese setting. We get more POVs as characters previously denied a spot in the narrative limelight get their own stories to tell, but I found I didn't like the diluted focus as much. The ending was similarly mixed for me. Parts I liked, parts I didn't, though the journey towards getting there was very good.
The Protectorate Vols 1-3 by Megan E. O'Keefe *
Velocity Weapon, Chaos Vector, and Catalyst Gate are the three books in the trilogy. If you like action sf with careful worldbuilding, this is an excellent choice. It's got spies, military operations, government conspiracies. The two timelines running through the first book are amazing as I couldn't help wondering how they were going to resolve. I love Sanda and Tomas, they have great chemistry together, even when things aren't working out, and Bero is possibly one of my favorite AI characters ever. (There's nothing quite like a sulky warship.) It's all quite good.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol 3 and 4 by Martha Wells *
Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy are the third and fourth novellas in the The Murderbot Diaries, bringing the titular Murderbot full circle with the decisions it's made since the end of the first novella. It still hates caring about people, because oftentimes people are stupid and caring makes this hard, but it still cares anyway, making Murderbot highly relatable.
Normally I list the twelve books I enjoyed the most, but this year because of all the series' reading and because I mostly read volumes back to back, I'm just going to group everything by series and include book/volume numbers. I didn't start any new series. This is all ongoing stuff.
My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 4: Strategem by Yoshiki Tanaka
We finally see all the politicking in the previous volume pay off as the Dominion of Phezzan makes its move and Reinhart decides to make use of their subterfuge, bringing him one step closer to claiming the imperial throne for himself. He feels a lot better in this book, less distant, perhaps because he's getting over his grief. Yang's chapters aren't quite as good this time around, perhaps because he has less to do. This isn't a particularly space battley volume and while his grand strategy insight is as good as ever, his government doesn't like to hear what he has to say, as usual.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vols 2-3 by Satoru Yamaguchi
In Vol 2 Katarina continues her quest to avoid getting a "bad end" as the villainess of the otome video game she's been reincarnated into. Now that she's a teenager she finally goes off to the magic academy, beginning the game proper, but this time around due to her bond with her potential adversaries it's clear the story will play out differently. There is surprisingly a "bad guy" character who shows up to give the story a little oomph in the finale, but otherwise it ends just about the way you'd expect.
Vol 3 is a little stranger since Vol 2 wraps up the premise of the series, but it was clearly popular enough that the author or his editors wanted to continue so what we get is a stand alone volume of Katarina meeting new people, getting into more trouble, and causing more people to be smitten by her. It's all right, but feels a bit like filler.
Baccano! Vols 8-10 by Ryohgo Narita *
Baccano volumes 8-10 cover the 1934 Alcatraz storyline as well as Nebula Corporation shenanigans in Chicago. For anime-onlies, this arc covers where Ladd Russo wound up after he was pulled off the Flying Pussyfoot and finally puts Huey Laforet's plans into action. Firo gets some pretty awesome moments as he has to operate solo inside Alcatraz for much of this arc and he really gets to put his alchemic knowledge to good use. The best mostly new to us characters are probably the twin homunculi, Sham and Leeza, who have been mentioned before, but get to finally take the stage in this arc.
Shadow of the Fox Vols 2-3 by Julie Kagawa
Soul of the Sword and Night of the Dragon are the second and third books in the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, continuing and concluding Yumeko's journey to stop the summoning of the dragon god in a pseudo-medieval Japanese setting. We get more POVs as characters previously denied a spot in the narrative limelight get their own stories to tell, but I found I didn't like the diluted focus as much. The ending was similarly mixed for me. Parts I liked, parts I didn't, though the journey towards getting there was very good.
The Protectorate Vols 1-3 by Megan E. O'Keefe *
Velocity Weapon, Chaos Vector, and Catalyst Gate are the three books in the trilogy. If you like action sf with careful worldbuilding, this is an excellent choice. It's got spies, military operations, government conspiracies. The two timelines running through the first book are amazing as I couldn't help wondering how they were going to resolve. I love Sanda and Tomas, they have great chemistry together, even when things aren't working out, and Bero is possibly one of my favorite AI characters ever. (There's nothing quite like a sulky warship.) It's all quite good.
The Murderbot Diaries Vol 3 and 4 by Martha Wells *
Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy are the third and fourth novellas in the The Murderbot Diaries, bringing the titular Murderbot full circle with the decisions it's made since the end of the first novella. It still hates caring about people, because oftentimes people are stupid and caring makes this hard, but it still cares anyway, making Murderbot highly relatable.
Monday, January 18, 2021
My Favorite Anime of 2020
Ironically, despite spending so much time at home due to Covid in 2020, I actually watched less. Part of it was a lull in the number of series I was actually interested in, but also (as happened last year while I was dealing with cancer) my daily ritual of coming home and watching a half hour of anime while eating dinner didn't happen anymore. It wasn't that I wasn't eating dinner anymore, but the ritual changed and I ended up reading the news instead.
I did see a few things though, and here they are, presented in the order I watched them.
Carole & Tuesday
When this first came out, I remember it being a "big deal" because the series was from the same director as the beloved Cowboy Bebop, but the reason I watched it was more for the music and the light sci-fi touch to the story, which places it on a terraformed Mars where musical acts are supported by computers that will generate the hit songs for them. The first half is a lot of fun, the second not so much, but the two leads are energetic (one being a person of color who isn't drawn as a caricature) and the music is fantastic. It feels very much like a love letter from the Japanese director to western music.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
I was already planning on buying the novel series before I started watching, and after I did, that cemented it. The series is obviously fond of romance games and since protagonist Catarina has been reborn inside the last video game she played, she actually knows some of what's about to happen and she doesn't like it! Catarina's attempts to avoid death and exile (as the villainous rival character) start from her childhood years and she's so caught up in trying to cheat fate that she completely misses how good everything has become for her.
Psycho-Pass 3: First Inspector
The movie that wraps up Psycho-Pass Season 3. Surprisingly, given the limited run time, it manages to do exactly that in a satisfying manner while also setting up for a fourth season. Not every question gets answered, but it hits all the major ones while still being entertaining as a movie. Watching Season 3 beforehand is a must, as there is no attempt to get the viewer up to speed.
Norn 9
Adaptation of the Norn9 visual novel following a group of young people gifted with special powers on a journey to see the World on a magnificent flying ship, the Norn. I liked this a fair bit better than most otome adaptations because of its effort to integrate multiple storylines while still serving up the main plot. In some cases it actually does better than the source material, and the original ending is on par with those in game (or even better for some characters).
Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense
This isn't really a series for the ages, but it's a nice look at what virtual reality gaming can be when it's not trapping people in the world of the game or turning everything into a death match. Maple is a complete VR MMO newbie and as such, makes new player mistakes in her character build because no one honestly expects anyone to play like that, but she makes it work. She's so good natured that no one really faults her for playing her way (especially since playing her way actually works for her) and even the people in rival guilds are really just rivals because they're having a guild vs guild match and not because people bear grudges. This makes it a nice series to cuddle up with.
I did see a few things though, and here they are, presented in the order I watched them.
Carole & Tuesday
When this first came out, I remember it being a "big deal" because the series was from the same director as the beloved Cowboy Bebop, but the reason I watched it was more for the music and the light sci-fi touch to the story, which places it on a terraformed Mars where musical acts are supported by computers that will generate the hit songs for them. The first half is a lot of fun, the second not so much, but the two leads are energetic (one being a person of color who isn't drawn as a caricature) and the music is fantastic. It feels very much like a love letter from the Japanese director to western music.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
I was already planning on buying the novel series before I started watching, and after I did, that cemented it. The series is obviously fond of romance games and since protagonist Catarina has been reborn inside the last video game she played, she actually knows some of what's about to happen and she doesn't like it! Catarina's attempts to avoid death and exile (as the villainous rival character) start from her childhood years and she's so caught up in trying to cheat fate that she completely misses how good everything has become for her.
Psycho-Pass 3: First Inspector
The movie that wraps up Psycho-Pass Season 3. Surprisingly, given the limited run time, it manages to do exactly that in a satisfying manner while also setting up for a fourth season. Not every question gets answered, but it hits all the major ones while still being entertaining as a movie. Watching Season 3 beforehand is a must, as there is no attempt to get the viewer up to speed.
Norn 9
Adaptation of the Norn9 visual novel following a group of young people gifted with special powers on a journey to see the World on a magnificent flying ship, the Norn. I liked this a fair bit better than most otome adaptations because of its effort to integrate multiple storylines while still serving up the main plot. In some cases it actually does better than the source material, and the original ending is on par with those in game (or even better for some characters).
Bofuri: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense
This isn't really a series for the ages, but it's a nice look at what virtual reality gaming can be when it's not trapping people in the world of the game or turning everything into a death match. Maple is a complete VR MMO newbie and as such, makes new player mistakes in her character build because no one honestly expects anyone to play like that, but she makes it work. She's so good natured that no one really faults her for playing her way (especially since playing her way actually works for her) and even the people in rival guilds are really just rivals because they're having a guild vs guild match and not because people bear grudges. This makes it a nice series to cuddle up with.
Monday, January 4, 2021
My Favorite Books of 2020
My 2020 reading year didn't go off as planned, particularly in regards to picking up new reading material, but with all the staying at home that had to be done, I ended up mostly reading backlogged physical and ebooks.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
I picked this up for Kindle a while ago when it was on sale for a quarter (!), figuring I'd never get it cheaper short of going to a library. It's one of those books I'd always heard about, but never read while growing up, and while the Vietnam allegory is pretty apparent once you get to the middle section of the book, a lot of the societal changes come off as insensitive as best and homophobic at worst. Though the protagonist tries to be a decent guy and avoids being a jerk to any of the numerous gay characters that appear later in the story, he never gets comfortable with the thought that a queer society could be just fine even if it's not for him. If you can ignore all that (and it's all over the later parts of the book), it's not a bad story about a soldier just trying to find his own piece of heaven, but it hasn't aged well.
Baccano! Vol 6: 1933 <First> The Slash -Cloudy to Rainy- by Ryohgo Narita
More Baccano! The series works much better in the 1930s than the 2001 of the last installment, and we get to return to the woes of our favorite mobsters. In particular, this book focuses on Tick and Maria, who were minor characters previously, when Luck Gandor sends them to negotiate with some new hoodlums in town, who happen to be Jacuzzi Splot and his gang! Dallas is finally pulled out of the river, Firo has to deal with the psychological burden placed on him by inheriting Szilard's memories, and Ronny from the Martillo family gets to hint at his true colors. There's a lot going on as usual and Narita's sense of comedic timing is on point, knowing exactly when to turn the worst tension into an incredible joke.
Baccano! Vol 7: 1933 <Last> The Slash -Bloody to Fair- by Ryohgo Narita
The second half of the Slash arc ramps up with Vino being called into back into action after having been a non-appearance most of the previous book, and we get to see him and Chané as a romantic couple for the first time, which is a bit weird if you haven't watched the anime, because the specifics of how they became a couple are skipped over for another time in the books themselves. Tick and Maria go through their own bit of character development making them worthwhile additions to the pre-existing cast. Though they're clearly as morally impaired as most of the cast, I can't help rooting for those two.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
I'd been wanting to read this ever since I heard this was Sherlock Holmes in space and Watson is a spaceship. I'm not sure I see the parallel between The Shadow's Child and Watson, other than through being a detective's partner, but Long Chau is definitely a far future Holmes; prickly personality, eccentric habits, and all. This was a really swift read and The Shadow's Child is a fantastic narrator, but the mystery was solved a little too easily for me. Still, I'd definitely be interested in a sequel.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vol 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi
If you need a light and fluffy read, this is a surprisingly short first volume that serves as a sort of extended prologue to Katarina's plans to avoid getting either exiled or killed. Katarina is initially the spoiled daughter of a duke until she hits her head one day and realizes that in her previous life she used to be a teenager in our world until she got into a car accident while riding her bike. More than that, she seems to have been reborn as the rival character in the last video game she was playing, the otome Fortune Lover, and the rival doesn't have a single happy ending in the game! Now that she's armed with knowledge of her future, Katarina puts plans in motion to change her fate, but she's also prone to overthinking things and/or making strange jumps in logic, making multiple characters wonder just what happened to the duke's daughter.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot continues to be a fantastic narrator, though I wasn't sure where the story was going considering the ending for the first book. Being a construct of few wants (other than good entertainment), Murderbot didn't seem like one to go off on unnecessary adventures, and the answer is searching for what really happened that caused it to start thinking of itself as Murderbot in the first place. The soul searching was worthwhile, but I wished that had been the climax of the story instead of the other plot thread, which I was much less invested in. ART was the highlight of the book though and I'm disappointed the research vessel and Murderbot parted ways at the end.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 3: Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka
Though I enjoyed the previous two LoGH volumes, the first third of Endurance was aptly named, spending an enormous amount of time on setup and political maneuvering before getting to the central conflict (the worst part being that the setup ends up being for a future book and not the current one). Yang's chapters continue to be a highlight, given how politicians and enemy combatants alike really don't know what to make of the guy. Reinhard's chapters are unfortunately more distant. Emotionally he's suffered a great loss since the end of the last book, but his loss is also the audience's loss as it makes him a much harder character to relate to. No doubt some of that is intentional, but I found I just didn't like his chapters as much.
86 Vol 1 by Asato Asato *
The first book of the 86 series is surprisingly weighty for a light novel series and was originally conceived as a stand alone so there's no need to commit anything further. Though it's primarily a war story following a remote commanding officer of the ethnic majority and her squadron composed of the oppressed minority, it's laced throughout with an exploration of government sanctioned racism and how privilege can blind otherwise "nice" people. Lena's growth over the course of the story, and realizing that it may be impossible for her to ever truly become a comrade to her soldiers, is quite frankly a conclusion I didn't expect to be reached. The combat and war segments are good too, but it's really the interpersonal relationships between Lena and her squad that make the book sing.
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
There are essentially two stories in this book; one following a mining operation on 22nd century Mars with a strong hard science fiction slant, and a one following the crew of the 18th century sailing ship the Daedalus, which is pursuing pirates and a rogue alchemist across the solar system with a golden age science fantasy feel. (Think of the animated Treasure Planet movie or the D&D Spelljammer setting.) The sub-genre mixing is fun and unusual, but I developed a strong preference for one storyline over the other, and the two take a long time to meet, so reading was an uneven experience. I kept wanting to hurry up to get back to the team I liked better.
The Venusian Gamit by Michael J. Martinez
The third book in the Daedalus Trilogy and the one with the best pacing. You can really see how Martinez's craft improved since the first book, and there are fun moments like the two dimensions meeting up again. I wasn't surprised to read in the notes at the end of the book that Martinez wrote the trilogy for Weatherby. You have to really like sailors on 18th century ships to write this stuff! It was an exciting read all the way up until the end when I realized that not all of my questions were going to get answered. But if you don't sweat the details, it's satisfying enough.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart *
Set in an East Asian themed island nation, The Bone Shard Daughter mostly follows the struggles of Lin, the imperial princess who is desperate to prove herself worthy of being her father's heir, and the smuggler Jovus, who is looking for his missing wife. The world building is quite good, particularly the imperial constructs, and I'm really interested in seeing Lin's path forward after all the upheaval at the end of the book. It's not going to be an easy one!
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa *
Really impressed by this Japanese-inspired fantasy that introduces just enough Japanese language that the culture comes across, without overindulging. Yumeko and Tatsumi work well as the dual narrators with their differing attitudes and points of view, and they're distinctive enough that they can be told apart by narrative voice alone. This is the first in a trilogy and the end of the book is very much a break before starting another story arc rather than a complete ending.
These are the twelve books I enjoyed the most, and in the order I read them. My top three picks of the year are marked with an asterisk (*).
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
I picked this up for Kindle a while ago when it was on sale for a quarter (!), figuring I'd never get it cheaper short of going to a library. It's one of those books I'd always heard about, but never read while growing up, and while the Vietnam allegory is pretty apparent once you get to the middle section of the book, a lot of the societal changes come off as insensitive as best and homophobic at worst. Though the protagonist tries to be a decent guy and avoids being a jerk to any of the numerous gay characters that appear later in the story, he never gets comfortable with the thought that a queer society could be just fine even if it's not for him. If you can ignore all that (and it's all over the later parts of the book), it's not a bad story about a soldier just trying to find his own piece of heaven, but it hasn't aged well.
Baccano! Vol 6: 1933 <First> The Slash -Cloudy to Rainy- by Ryohgo Narita
More Baccano! The series works much better in the 1930s than the 2001 of the last installment, and we get to return to the woes of our favorite mobsters. In particular, this book focuses on Tick and Maria, who were minor characters previously, when Luck Gandor sends them to negotiate with some new hoodlums in town, who happen to be Jacuzzi Splot and his gang! Dallas is finally pulled out of the river, Firo has to deal with the psychological burden placed on him by inheriting Szilard's memories, and Ronny from the Martillo family gets to hint at his true colors. There's a lot going on as usual and Narita's sense of comedic timing is on point, knowing exactly when to turn the worst tension into an incredible joke.
Baccano! Vol 7: 1933 <Last> The Slash -Bloody to Fair- by Ryohgo Narita
The second half of the Slash arc ramps up with Vino being called into back into action after having been a non-appearance most of the previous book, and we get to see him and Chané as a romantic couple for the first time, which is a bit weird if you haven't watched the anime, because the specifics of how they became a couple are skipped over for another time in the books themselves. Tick and Maria go through their own bit of character development making them worthwhile additions to the pre-existing cast. Though they're clearly as morally impaired as most of the cast, I can't help rooting for those two.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
I'd been wanting to read this ever since I heard this was Sherlock Holmes in space and Watson is a spaceship. I'm not sure I see the parallel between The Shadow's Child and Watson, other than through being a detective's partner, but Long Chau is definitely a far future Holmes; prickly personality, eccentric habits, and all. This was a really swift read and The Shadow's Child is a fantastic narrator, but the mystery was solved a little too easily for me. Still, I'd definitely be interested in a sequel.
My Next Life as a Villainess: All Roads Lead to Doom! Vol 1 by Satoru Yamaguchi
If you need a light and fluffy read, this is a surprisingly short first volume that serves as a sort of extended prologue to Katarina's plans to avoid getting either exiled or killed. Katarina is initially the spoiled daughter of a duke until she hits her head one day and realizes that in her previous life she used to be a teenager in our world until she got into a car accident while riding her bike. More than that, she seems to have been reborn as the rival character in the last video game she was playing, the otome Fortune Lover, and the rival doesn't have a single happy ending in the game! Now that she's armed with knowledge of her future, Katarina puts plans in motion to change her fate, but she's also prone to overthinking things and/or making strange jumps in logic, making multiple characters wonder just what happened to the duke's daughter.
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Murderbot continues to be a fantastic narrator, though I wasn't sure where the story was going considering the ending for the first book. Being a construct of few wants (other than good entertainment), Murderbot didn't seem like one to go off on unnecessary adventures, and the answer is searching for what really happened that caused it to start thinking of itself as Murderbot in the first place. The soul searching was worthwhile, but I wished that had been the climax of the story instead of the other plot thread, which I was much less invested in. ART was the highlight of the book though and I'm disappointed the research vessel and Murderbot parted ways at the end.
The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Vol 3: Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka
Though I enjoyed the previous two LoGH volumes, the first third of Endurance was aptly named, spending an enormous amount of time on setup and political maneuvering before getting to the central conflict (the worst part being that the setup ends up being for a future book and not the current one). Yang's chapters continue to be a highlight, given how politicians and enemy combatants alike really don't know what to make of the guy. Reinhard's chapters are unfortunately more distant. Emotionally he's suffered a great loss since the end of the last book, but his loss is also the audience's loss as it makes him a much harder character to relate to. No doubt some of that is intentional, but I found I just didn't like his chapters as much.
86 Vol 1 by Asato Asato *
The first book of the 86 series is surprisingly weighty for a light novel series and was originally conceived as a stand alone so there's no need to commit anything further. Though it's primarily a war story following a remote commanding officer of the ethnic majority and her squadron composed of the oppressed minority, it's laced throughout with an exploration of government sanctioned racism and how privilege can blind otherwise "nice" people. Lena's growth over the course of the story, and realizing that it may be impossible for her to ever truly become a comrade to her soldiers, is quite frankly a conclusion I didn't expect to be reached. The combat and war segments are good too, but it's really the interpersonal relationships between Lena and her squad that make the book sing.
The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez
There are essentially two stories in this book; one following a mining operation on 22nd century Mars with a strong hard science fiction slant, and a one following the crew of the 18th century sailing ship the Daedalus, which is pursuing pirates and a rogue alchemist across the solar system with a golden age science fantasy feel. (Think of the animated Treasure Planet movie or the D&D Spelljammer setting.) The sub-genre mixing is fun and unusual, but I developed a strong preference for one storyline over the other, and the two take a long time to meet, so reading was an uneven experience. I kept wanting to hurry up to get back to the team I liked better.
The Venusian Gamit by Michael J. Martinez
The third book in the Daedalus Trilogy and the one with the best pacing. You can really see how Martinez's craft improved since the first book, and there are fun moments like the two dimensions meeting up again. I wasn't surprised to read in the notes at the end of the book that Martinez wrote the trilogy for Weatherby. You have to really like sailors on 18th century ships to write this stuff! It was an exciting read all the way up until the end when I realized that not all of my questions were going to get answered. But if you don't sweat the details, it's satisfying enough.
The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart *
Set in an East Asian themed island nation, The Bone Shard Daughter mostly follows the struggles of Lin, the imperial princess who is desperate to prove herself worthy of being her father's heir, and the smuggler Jovus, who is looking for his missing wife. The world building is quite good, particularly the imperial constructs, and I'm really interested in seeing Lin's path forward after all the upheaval at the end of the book. It's not going to be an easy one!
Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa *
Really impressed by this Japanese-inspired fantasy that introduces just enough Japanese language that the culture comes across, without overindulging. Yumeko and Tatsumi work well as the dual narrators with their differing attitudes and points of view, and they're distinctive enough that they can be told apart by narrative voice alone. This is the first in a trilogy and the end of the book is very much a break before starting another story arc rather than a complete ending.
Monday, May 18, 2020
Rivals in Otome - My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!
I haven't been in the mood for much anime lately, which is strange considering that I've been cooped up at home, but one series I have been watching is My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! which I had been anticipating for a while since it's a female spin on the more commonly male-oriented brand of isekai.
As a child, My Next Life as a Villainess's protagonist discovers that she used to be a person in our world, but died and was reborn into the last game she was playing, which happened to be Fortune Lover, an otome game where the heroine goes to magic school and gets to fall in love with one of four different men. However, our hapless protagonist has been reborn not as the heroine, but her rival, who ends up exiled or killed on every route of the game.
Not content to let this stand, Catarina begins hatching a multitude of plans to avoid meeting her doom by the time she's old enough to meet the heroine in magic school.
The anime is based on a series of light novels, and it's easy to see that the writer knows their otome games (arguably better than a lot of isekai writers know their MMORPGs). I might write a proper review at some point, but today I want to focus on one particular element of the series, and that's the role that Catarina occupies: the romantic rival.
The reason this role stood out at me is that even though a rival is an easily defined role within the story, I actually had to do a lot of thinking to remember the last otome I played that actually had one and the closest I could come up with was Rika from Amnesia, which I played four years ago. Rival characters don't appear to be that common.
Part of the reason for this is that otome games by their nature tend to skew male heavy on their cast. If the audience is heterosexual female, then time and effort is better spent on providing a number of love interests than building the supporting cast. (At least for games coming out of Japan. A fair number of western developers will make both genders romanceable.)
The odd thing is that Catarina is not even the only rival in the game. Later in the anime, Mary is introduced as another rival (though as part of Catarina's messing around with the timeline, she's unlikely to ever become a rival with the heroine).
And Mary's probably the reason that we don't have very many rivals. Original Catarina, the one in the game, was an unlikable bully, so chances are players of Fortune Lover like our protagonist wouldn't feel sorry for her after forming a romantic bond with her childhood fiancé. However, Mary, according to the reborn Catarina, doesn't get vengeful or upset. Instead she wishes her fiancé well and runs away in tears when the heroine wins the heart of her beloved.
If I was playing Fortune Lover I'd probably feel like a heel. (And what's with going after engaged men? I realize they're nobles so childhood engagements aren't out of the question, but half the heroine's romance options are technically spoken for.)
But by adding another rival and having Catarina bring the sister of a love interest and the heroine herself (Maria) into her social circle, we end up with a pleasantly gender balanced central cast, which is pretty nice.
Though I play otome for the romantic aspects of the game, I appreciate having additional female members in the cast so it's not one girl and a whole lot of men. One of the best parts of Collar x Malice was Ichika hanging out with Sakuragawa and Mukai and listening to them complain about a dude at work. It felt very real and gave the player as Ichika a couple of cheerleaders to back up her romantic endeavors.
At this point in My Next Life as a Villainess (episode 7), Maria does not appear to be traveling any particular romantic route, nor are any of the men interested in her, so it's probably safe to say that Catarina is no longer a romantic rival. But her machinations have resulted in making just about everyone else in the main cast (regardless of gender) rivals for her. She's too much of a blockhead to realize it, but that makes the series light-hearted fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.
As a child, My Next Life as a Villainess's protagonist discovers that she used to be a person in our world, but died and was reborn into the last game she was playing, which happened to be Fortune Lover, an otome game where the heroine goes to magic school and gets to fall in love with one of four different men. However, our hapless protagonist has been reborn not as the heroine, but her rival, who ends up exiled or killed on every route of the game.
Not content to let this stand, Catarina begins hatching a multitude of plans to avoid meeting her doom by the time she's old enough to meet the heroine in magic school.
The anime is based on a series of light novels, and it's easy to see that the writer knows their otome games (arguably better than a lot of isekai writers know their MMORPGs). I might write a proper review at some point, but today I want to focus on one particular element of the series, and that's the role that Catarina occupies: the romantic rival.
The reason this role stood out at me is that even though a rival is an easily defined role within the story, I actually had to do a lot of thinking to remember the last otome I played that actually had one and the closest I could come up with was Rika from Amnesia, which I played four years ago. Rival characters don't appear to be that common.
Part of the reason for this is that otome games by their nature tend to skew male heavy on their cast. If the audience is heterosexual female, then time and effort is better spent on providing a number of love interests than building the supporting cast. (At least for games coming out of Japan. A fair number of western developers will make both genders romanceable.)
The odd thing is that Catarina is not even the only rival in the game. Later in the anime, Mary is introduced as another rival (though as part of Catarina's messing around with the timeline, she's unlikely to ever become a rival with the heroine).
And Mary's probably the reason that we don't have very many rivals. Original Catarina, the one in the game, was an unlikable bully, so chances are players of Fortune Lover like our protagonist wouldn't feel sorry for her after forming a romantic bond with her childhood fiancé. However, Mary, according to the reborn Catarina, doesn't get vengeful or upset. Instead she wishes her fiancé well and runs away in tears when the heroine wins the heart of her beloved.
If I was playing Fortune Lover I'd probably feel like a heel. (And what's with going after engaged men? I realize they're nobles so childhood engagements aren't out of the question, but half the heroine's romance options are technically spoken for.)
But by adding another rival and having Catarina bring the sister of a love interest and the heroine herself (Maria) into her social circle, we end up with a pleasantly gender balanced central cast, which is pretty nice.
Though I play otome for the romantic aspects of the game, I appreciate having additional female members in the cast so it's not one girl and a whole lot of men. One of the best parts of Collar x Malice was Ichika hanging out with Sakuragawa and Mukai and listening to them complain about a dude at work. It felt very real and gave the player as Ichika a couple of cheerleaders to back up her romantic endeavors.
At this point in My Next Life as a Villainess (episode 7), Maria does not appear to be traveling any particular romantic route, nor are any of the men interested in her, so it's probably safe to say that Catarina is no longer a romantic rival. But her machinations have resulted in making just about everyone else in the main cast (regardless of gender) rivals for her. She's too much of a blockhead to realize it, but that makes the series light-hearted fun and I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.
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