"Sora ni akogarete, sora wo kakete yuku ano ko no inochi wa hikoukigumo."

[nausicaa83]

And a new entry for the Reading Bingo!



For the "A Book Your Friend Loves" square, I chose Richard Parks' Yamada Monogatari - Demon Hunter, as I first learned of this book thanks to the lovely entangled_now. It's a collection of short stories set in the Heian period in Japan, told from the perspective of a demon hunter. In a way, it reminded me of the Dresden Files, with its marriage of supernatural setting and hard-boiled detective stories. Sadly, it lacks what the Dresden Files have in abundance: a compelling main character. Lord Yamada has no soul. He's good at his job, he drinks to forget, he has a reprobate priest for a friend. This is literally all we know about him. And while the world around him feels real and alive, bursting with creatures and stories and driven characters, Yamada feels no more than a puppet moved around by the writer. In a way, he's merely a shikigami. Which is truly a pity, because Mr Parks obviously knows a lot about Japan, and he's very respectful of the mythology he's writing about. And while I found it a bit annoying when the characters would take time to explain to each other things that are common knowledge in Japan, with dialogue that was obviously meant for Western readers, it was just a minor flaw. The soullessness of the main character is quite the unforgivable sin, though. I struggled to finish the book, even while I was enjoying the various plot twists, and I scoffed loudly more than once at Yamada's frequent self-pity sessions.

Anyway, twenty down, only five left to go!

Comments

[entangled-now.livejournal.com]

It was that picture of the boy facing a skinless giant beyond the wall that basically told me, 'yes, you must watch that.' I'm only up to 14 because I've been renting the series. The second half of the first series I think has just become available.

I have this weird thing with anime where I don't really have a preferences, but if I start watching a series with subtitles that's the only way I can watch it. But if I start watching it dubbed I have to finish it like that. I get attached to the character voices.

[nausicaa83.livejournal.com]

It's the same for me too. For example, for me Full Metal Alchemist's Edward is Vic Mignona, even if I adore Paku Romi and I've seen the japanese version more than once. But the first voice is just the right voice in my mind. ^^

I still have to hear the english voices for Attack on Titan, but from what I read they're really good. The problem with the original dubbing for any anime is obviously that having to read the subtitles, I can't fully appreciate scenes where they talk, because my eyes are staring at the bottom of the screen. I can't wait to watch AoT in the dubbed version mostly because I can't wait to watch all those wonderful landscapes and animation without having to bother with reading subs. *_____*