Author: Patrik

 
One of the biggest hazards of getting into light novels is the addiction to buying more and more books. As evidence I present the above picture, which displays the contents of a box that just arrived from Amazon Japan today. You can click it for an enormous version, if you’re trying get a closer look on the titles. The reason I use Amazon is that they keep nearly everything in stock, have ridiculously quick delivery (3 days!), and the items arrive at your doorstep. Considering I live across the globe (Sweden, to be more specific), this is rather convenient. The downside is that I have to pay an added 50% in shipping charges, but there aren’t too many alternatives over here. A less problematic downside, but annoying nonetheless, is that their title browsing system is born of pure evil. I managed to buy mixed editions of Nishio Ishin’s Zaregoto series, because it maliciously kept shoving the right title in my face, but hiding that they were all different sizes! It’s similarly irritating when you try to buy 85 volumes of Hajime no Ippo manga, as a festival of clickage delight. Oh, woe is me.

I had planned to write up a review for Ben-to v01 today, but it turns out I’m quite high on painkillers after a wisdom tooth extraction (not as fun as they have you believe), so I can’t focus on writing coherent sentences and making myself look like the triple-digit IQ man I truly am.

In any case, the photo should provide you with an idea of what will be coming up over the next few, er, years of blog posts.

Full title: Kino no Tabi – The Beautiful World
Author: Shigusawa Keiichi
Illustrator: Kuroboshi Kouhaku
Label: Dengeki Bunko
Year of publication: 2000
Pages: 238

Nearly ten years old, with six million units sold over 12 volumes and an anime adaptation in 2003, the Kino no Tabi series is one of the few light novels that have been published in English. It’s the debut title by author Shigusawa Keiichi, and was first published chapter by chapter in a magazine called Dengeki hp. When these were collected and put into paperback form, an extra chapter was added, along with the illustrations by Kuroboshi Kouhaku. These two fellows also went on to work together on the light novel series Allison and Lilia & Treize, which had an anime adaptation just last year.

 
Random Curiosity hasn’t been intellectually sophisticated enough, so I’ve taken it upon myself to bring Japan’s utmost cultural excellence to the site in the form of light novels. Since you may not be familiar with the concept, allow me to explain it in simpler terms: text anime.