Despite spending much of the week recovering from surgery I read way less than I should have! YouTube and Anime largely monopolized my time, but I did manage to finish a short Light Novel and a Manga omnibus
RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM OF BUNNY GIRL SENPAI, Hajime Kamoshida
THE FLOWERS OF EVIL – COMPLETE VOL. 1, Shuzo Oshimi
RASCAL is the light novel source material that was adapted into my favorite anime of the last few years (with the same title). It’s almost impossible to describe, but it’s basically a sort-of science fiction romantic sort-of comedy about a high-schooler named Sakuta and the titular bunny-girl Mai. Sakuta encounters Mai in a library as she is wearing the eponymous “bunny-girl” outfit (that for some reason is extremely big in Japan?) and discovers that somehow he is the only one who can see her. The novel plays out as they develop their relationship and attempt to get to the bottom of what is causing her to disappear from the collective memory of everyone around her. I wouldn’t have thought a series like this would grab me as much as it has, but I love everything about it. It’s cute, it’s funny, it’s touching and it’s clever and conceptually original and deep. I eagerly await both the second novel and the first volume of the manga adaptation.
FLOWERS OF EVIL is one of the most uncomfortable reading experiences I’ve had in a comic. I can only read one or two chapters at a time before I need to put it down. It’s about a high-schooler who, in a moment of degenerate, teenage weakness, steals his crushes gym clothes. Unfortunately for him he is witnessed in the act by a classmate who I can really only describe as the embodiment of pure chaotic evil? She’s seriously a terrifying character who proceeds to TORTURE our protagonist. It feels dark and surreal in the way that David Lynch films do. Taking the angst and darkness that many of us feel as teenagers coming to terms with who we are and our place in the world and manifesting all that as horrific, nightmares that only continue to mount and cause you to squirm in your seat. Highly recommended if you can handle it.
joezone 