Cover; from YenPress.com

English Title: My Girlfriend’s a Geek
Original Title: Fujoshi Kanojo
Author: Pentabu
Publisher: Yen Press
Age Rating: Older Teen
Price: $10.99
ISBN: 978-0-7595-3171-0
Summary: A collection of blog entries by Pentabu, documenting his ongoing one-sided battle against his fujoshi girlfriend, Y-ko.

Review: When I saw My Girlfriend’s a Geek novel listed on Yen Press’s series page, I just KNEW I had to pick it up. The summary of the book really caught my interest for one particular reason – it sounded like something I could connect to. The summary didn’t really indicate what writing style this book was going to be presented in, but it did give me a bit of an insight of what to expect – a geeky girlfriend and a boyfriend who slowly gets sucked into her geeky ways.

The writing style echos that of other published web-based novels (if you can even call them “novels” in the first place), such as Maid Machinegun and Train Man. Cracking open the book reveals nothing more than an entertaining collection of blog post between November 8, 2005 and October 1, 2006, documenting a year of “one-sided battles” he had with his girlfriend. Bolding and font sizing is used effectively throughout the blog, placing emphasis on outrageous quotes, words, and hilarious inner freak outs. It adds flavour to the already entertaining entries, wonderfully highlighting his 2-years-older-than-him girlfriend’s immaturity, conflicting, and insane mindset.

The entries themselves provide bite-sized glimpses into Pentabu’s daily life with his girlfriend. Or more specifically, all the crazy geeky things she does and drags him into. For instance, she buys an eroge under HIS name online and gives him the nickname of “Sebas” (short for “Sebastian” – I’m sure most of you otaku people are probably thinking Black Butler too, but that’s not where the name’s from; “Sebastian” is a cliché name for a butler in Japan), which ends up being changed to “Uke-Sebas” when Y-ko’s friends pointed out he had uke traits. They’re fun, relatively quick reads that are really sure to have you laughing from some of the slight ridiculousness that goes on, no matter which perspective you’re looking on from.

The full force of the fujoshi aspect isn’t really seen in this book – while Y-ko does occasionally do things seen in a typical BL (boys’ love – in a nutshell, the term Japan uses for yaoi/shonen-ai – the glossary in the back of the book provides a better technical definition) fanatic, she seems more like just a typical female otaku. I was honestly hoping for more fujoshi (if you haven’t caught on by now, it means a BL fanatic) moments to come out of her, but alas, they did not. After all, the mention of her being a fujoshi caught my attention. I am a BL fanatic myself, so naturally, the thought of reading a novel ABOUT a fujoshi caught my attention. I must note that the lack of fujoshi moments didn’t deteriorate the overall awesomeness of the blog entries and Y-ko’s geekiness as a whole. It’s entertaining enough to see her geekiness slowly (VERY SLOWLY) influence her boyfriend. That alone is reason enough to read this book.

I really feel like this is a book I can recommend to anyone who’s even casually into the anime/manga fandoms. As long as you’ve heard of relatively popular series, you should be fine to read. There’s a glossary in the back for terms that people may be unfamiliar with, as well as good explanations and definitions from Pentabu himself inside the blog entries. As long as the thought of BL being mentioned doesn’t make your blood boil, it’s a fine, entertaining read to give people even more of a glimpse into the world of otaku.

I’m sure this book will receive so many different perspective reactions. I can’t help but read it from a[n] otaku/BL fanatic perspective, since that’s who I am (…well, not so much anymore in the otaku aspect, but I still have occasional otaku thoughts!). Y-ko’s logic makes complete sense to me for the most part (like her whole “lottery” way of buying BL manga – Y-ko, I, more or less, do the same thing), with the occasional exception to her weird contradictions and twisting of words. I didn’t really feel sorry for Pentabu all that much, looking for a fujoshi mindset. Heck, I’m hoping to see him slowly obtain his own fujoshi mindset so Y-ko can have random BL discussions with him. That would be thoroughly entertaining for me to read. In fact, he kind of seems to be doing so already. Though, it’s kind of up in the air of how far down that “road” he’s going to go.

If you read this book, I’d actually LOVE to hear your reactions and perspective. Which perspective are you reading from (are you a casual anime/manga fan? An otaku who likes BL? An otaku who doesn’t like BL? A random reader who knows nothing about anime/manga?)? Do you feel sorry for Pentabu or Y-ko? Anything you can connect with? What parts do you find hilarious? And how did you find my review?

Anyway, pick up this book! It’s fantastic and a fun read! I read it in a day, more or less.

Next up? The manga adaption.

First off, if you’re looking for something more than a children’s anime, then you should look somewhere else. Fairy Musketeers is a children’s anime all the way to the end, using elements and a storyline that typically would not be appealing to those who strive for something more mature. However, if you’re looking for a children’s anime, like children’s anime, or do not mind children’s anime, this series is well worth a try. This series could be described as a major fairy tale crossover, combined with mahou shoujo (magical girl) and RPG elements, with a tiny bit of Digimon thrown into the mix.

The storyline is simple. A seemingly normal, young boy with a special item inside of him travels to a magic world with the Three Musketeers (Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Briar Rose) and his childhood friend in attempt to finish the fairy tale his mother used to tell him as a child while being hunted by an evil witch named Cendrillion. The storyline isn’t strikingly unique and you can surely find hundreds (if not thousands) of stories with the same plot. However, breaking down the individual episodes and examining them one-by-one, there are few interesting elements. Fairy Musketeers does a fantastic job taking familiar fairy tale stories and tweaking them to fit the storyline of the anime. Some of the fairy tale stories were tweaked for character back stories that retained a good portion of their original elements (such as Hansel & Gretel and the Gingerbread House), while some of the fairy tale stories were combined together within the main storyline (meaning that two different fairy tales were combined into one; I would give you an example, but it would be a spoiler).

The music is fantastic, in my personal opinion. It sounds similar to other children’s anime soundtracks I’ve listened to, but the quality and the impact of the music does not deteriorate because of the similarities. Each track is scored perfectly for the series, giving emotion and impact to all the battle scenes, the silly verbal fights often between Snow White and Ringo, the pep talks that all the characters give each other at one point, the music that played in Cendrillion’s castle and whenever she makes an appearance, the extremely silly “Bremen” track (which I absolutely adore – it’s fun and catchy), and more. It’s definitely music that could help bring you, the viewer, into their world.

The characters are great and overall well designed (even though the Three Musketeers’ designs strike me as a bit odd, but I’m typically thinking Disney when I think of the character’s names). While I’m not going to list all the character designs and what not here, I would like to point out a few interesting points. Snow White is a very conceded princess in this anime, always talking about how beautiful she is and how she’s the best at magic out of the Three Musketeers. As annoying as she is like this, it’s a nice, unexpected change – I’m sure a lot of us are attached to Disney interpretation of her. Briar Rose (better known as Sleeping Beauty) lives up to her typical title people worldwide know her as, as she tends to fall asleep a lot. Interestingly enough, if she’s woken up before she’s ready, she’s extremely moody (of course, most people are when that happens), while when she wakes up on her own, she’s a sweet heart. She also has great observation skills and picks up on a lot of things before the rest of the group. And the last person I’m going to mention is Gretel. She’s very, very attached to her brother, Hansel, for she feels that there’s no one else who cares for them except each other, so she would do literally anything for him. She seems to cling to him a lot. If you want to know about the other characters, just take a look at the anime itself. They range from kind hearted, quiet souls to tsundere types.

The animation was much better than I expected for a children’s show. A lot of children shows I watch seem to often go off model quite a bit, but I’ve noticed this problem only once or twice throughout this 39 episode long series. The animation flows smoothly and the battle scenes are fun to watch, especially since they move and the characters don’t fall off model.

Overall, I highly recommend this series. It had me at the edge of my seat (literally) at certain points, often made me freak out over decisions made or ones that weren’t made, and a few episodes actually moved me to tears. The music is fun, catchy, and goes very well, the animation is smooth, the characters are fantastic, and the storyline, while not over-the-top amazing, is still kept interesting with the stories and the characters intertwined with it. So if you like or don’t mind childish anime, I say try this series, especially if you’re a fan of magical girls and RPGs. It’s a fun adventure and worth watching to the end.

English Title:

Meet Kyon – a sarcastic guy who sits behind Haruhi in homeroom and the only boy Haruhi has ever opened up to. His fate is now tied to hers.

Meet the S.O.S. Brigade – an after-school club organized by Haruhi and Kyon with a mission to seek out the extraordinary. Oh, and their second mission? Keeping Haruhi happy…because even though she doesn’t know it, Haruhi has the power to destroy the universe.”

Review: I’m pretty sure every anime fan out there or anyone who hangs out with anime fans has heard of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It became quite popular among anime fans about two or three years ago. Not quite sure how it happened, but it did. It also spread around the “Hare Hare Yukai” ending dance as well, which got anime fans all over the world to get together and dance the ending theme…that wasn’t really originally intended for people to dance.

Personally, with my slight obsession with light novels and my strong dislike for the MoHS (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) anime (despite I bought all the limited edition sets), I was pretty psyched about the fact the original Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, the books that basically started its popularity, were being licensed and had to pick up a copy. And I must say, I was quite pleased.

I had picked up the paperback edition and I must applaud Yen Press/Little Brown. Their goal for changing the cover was to appeal to a far wider audience. And I honestly believe the cover hits that audience well. It reminds me of a handful of teenage book covers that I personally find extremely unappealing. Not only that, you most likely wouldn’t even know it had anything to do with anime/manga (manga as in terms of the illustration style) until you thoroughly flipped through it. So bravo, person who designed the cover! You did a fantastic job! (By the way, the hardcover edition of the novel retains the original artwork of the Japanese edition.)

The story itself is actually pretty unique. While I have seen other stories where one of the main characters happens to bring everyone who has what they want together specifically, everyone eventually finds out. However, in this case, Haruhi brings together her wish of aliens, time travelers and espers (or psychics)…but is basically completely clueless about it. She runs about with Kyon in tow (the narrator of the story), trying to find these supposed things of fiction…when they’re right under her nose. And she’s completely unaware of it. Obviously, it doesn’t help that she is what you could consider a “god” and could rewrite the universe as she pleases. In which she’s completely unaware about.

All the characters have some sort of individual appeal to them that makes them all equally as interesting. Haruhi Suzumiya and her crazy, dictator ways. Yuki Nagato and her mysterious quietness. Mikuru Asahina and her big boobs and extreme moe appeal. Koizumi and his pretty boy looks and charming (?) smile (who would fit well inside of a yaoi-themed story). And Kyon being the relatively normal guy who gets sucked into Haruhi’s crazy schemes and our narrator. Who frankly reminds me much more of a healthy, normal guy in the original novel than the anime.

The writing style is pretty good and generally easy and fast to read, other than a few lesser known words used here and there by Kyon to describe Haruhi’s insane schemes. It’s certainly not unique in terms of a light novel, but it’s well written and flows far better than some of the other light novels I’ve read. I highly enjoyed some of Kyon’s thoughts, especially when he shared something far more in common with the average guy that made it easier to relate to.

Honestly, this book held almost no surprises for me. Not because it was predictable, but because the anime adaption is almost spot on and I had watched the entire anime series before reading it. The six episodes of the main storyline are contained within this book. And personally, I think even though they were the same thing, the novel was far more interesting and kept my attention longer. The only surprises I had were parts of Kyon’s internal monologues, when he would mention a somewhat perverse thought, which were excluding in the anime.

If you have not watched the anime yet, I highly recommend picking up this book first before watching it. If you have and whether or not you liked it, I suggest you pick up this book. Just because you didn’t like the anime doesn’t mean that you’re not going to like the novel (which happened to be the case with it- I didn’t like the anime, but liked the novel). If you’re looking for an interesting read and have no interest in anime and manga, pick this up. If you hate reading…don’t pick it up then.

And for all Haruhi Suzumiya fans, this novel is a MUST. So buy it. Through Amazon.com. At the bookstore. Wherever it may be sold. It’s certainly worth it.

Overall Rating: 8/10
- Interesting storyline
- Appealing characters
- Good writing
- A cover that reaches out to its target audience well
- FAR better than the anime adaption (and do keep in mind that this is not one of those “original VS. adaption” kind of things – I like what I like.)

English Title:

Review: Back when I was an otaku (which ended about a year ago), I had read the summary of this book and was quickly intrigued by the idea of a hardwork waitress at a maid café. I always had wanted to visit a maid café and had a bit of an obsession with them, so when I saw this book, I wanted to read it. The exceprt on Amazon.com helped me a great deal when deciding to get this book, as I could easily connect with Aaliyah’s enthusiam. And right before I go deeper into this review, I must say my summary of the story sucks. And this contains a bit dab of spoilers.

The story’s quite a bit otaku oriented – you got your maid café, the over-enthusatic main character who does her best (Aaliyah), the weird girl who speaks as if she’s an alien, the androgynous tomboy, and the somewhat strict business owner. You basically read Aaliyah’s diary of her daily events at the café, about her silly dreams of what she wants to do, her interactions with people (both customers and the other maids), and more.

At first the story is quite a bit interesting. Her enthusiasm shines through the chapters as she talks about her day and what she wants to do. How she wants to be the best maid ever. Of course, after a while, it gets boring. Maid this, maid that, wanting to work hard, blah, blah, blah. The book really hits it’s most boring point to me when Aaliyah interviewed an ex-maid from one of the most popular maid cafés in Akihabara. However, once you get past that interview, the story becomes a bit more interesting. Aaliyah finally ends up getting approval for a special themed maid café…only to have a completely unexpected turn of events. Granted, it takes up the last two chapters. But it’s still a very surprising turn of events.

While this isn’t the best book I’ve read, it wasn’t that bad either. The last two chapters were certainly a pleasant surprise. Aaliyah’s hard working spirit is a bit inspriational as well and might just want to make you work a bit harder at what you do.

I must recommend this book to otaku. If you are an otaku, read it. It’s a fun, quite an adventure and you’ll be able to connect to a lot of it. The concepts of moe and tsudere, figures…stuff like that. However, if you’re not an otaku, I recommend skipping this. Unless the idea of a maid café entrigues you.

Overall Rating: 6/10
- Somewhat unique writing style. It’s some cross between a diary and a typical novel.
- Pleasant turn of events in the last two chapters
- Lots of otaku concepts are talked about. This could be bad for some people, but great for others.
- Very few chapters are entertaining and worth the read.
- Cute artwork!