Hanzai Japan: Fantastical, Futuristic Stories of Crime From and About Japan

by Nick Mamatas (Editor), Masumi Washington (Editor), Genevieve Valentine

A murderer doing time in hell. A girl who just wants to win her high school band contest…no matter what it takes. Sumo wrestlers with a supernatural secret. A future Tokyo where vampires are menial laborers nursing long-held grudges against humanity. And even a very conscientious, if unstable, Universal Transverse Mercator projection. These crime and mystery stories from and about Japan explore myth, technology, the sharpness of a sleuth’s mind, and the darkness in the hearts of criminals. Read these stories and learn that hanzai means crime!

Ray Banks
Libby Cudmore
Brian Evenson
Kaori Fujino
Jyouji Hayashi
Naomi Hirahara
Yumeaki Hirayama
Violet LeVoit
Yusuke Miyauchi
S.J. Rozan
Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Setsuko Shinoda
Jeff Somers
Genevieve Valentine
Carrie Vaughn
Chet Williamson

Genres: Anthologies, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Japan, Japanese Literature, Crime

352 pages, Paperback

First published October 20, 2015

About the author

Nick Mamatas is the author of the Lovecraftian Beat road novel Move Under Ground, which was nominated for both the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards, the Civil War ghost story Northern Gothic, also a Stoker nominee, the suburban nighmare novel Under My Roof, and over thirty short stories and hundreds of articles (some of which were collected in 3000 Miles Per Hour in Every Direction at Once). His work has appeared in Razor, Village Voice, Spex, Clamor, In These Times, Polyphony, several Disinformation and Ben Bella Books anthologies, and the books Corpse Blossoms, Poe's Lighthouse, Before & After: Stories from New York, and Short and Sweet.

Nick's forthcoming works include the collection You Might Sleep... (November 2008) and Haunted Legends, an anthology with Ellen Datlow (Tor Books 2009).

A native New Yorker, Nick now lives in the California Bay Area.

Reviews

[Иван Величков · Rating 2 out of 5]

Нека да си поговорим какво точно не е наред в този сборник. Целта е ясна – да се съберат криминални истории с японски и свръхестествен елемент, още по-добре с двете. Нали се сещате, японците са шантави и мат тоооолкова много интересни неща, които са екзотични. Тук идва проблема, проблем на голяма част от фентъзито като цяло.
ПРОБЛЕМЪТ: Да вземем да направим с някоя митология това което Толкин е направил с нордическата и да станем богати и дебели. Сега ще ви издам една тайна. Толкин наистина е обичал това за което е писал, не е взел две шепи клишета и набухал в тях прочетени от уикипедия странни факти и екзотики. Не, човекът е правил десетилетия проучвания и, повтарям, е ОБИЧАЛ това, което прави. Тъй че няма как да вземем някаква половинчата информация за нечий индиански, български, хавайски, японски и прочие фолклор, да го наврем в лоша ноарна, магична, фантастична история и да очакваме, че хората ще полудеят по полуфабриката ви.
Може да съм малко остър, защото обичам така наречения нов криминален жанр в Япония. Наложен от Едогава Рампо и развиван десетилетия, това е мрачна симфония в издирване на перфектното престъпление. Това в тази книга не е онова.
Имаше няколко прилични разказа, няколко доста зле. Един чудесен, но не беше нито криминален, нито със свръхестествен елемент - The Long-Rumored Food Crisis от Шинода Сетсуко.
Като цяло – става, може би ако нямах очаквания…

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short story anthologies are tough to rate because they feature so many voices and go so many different ways narratively that you're bound not to fall in love with their but not hate them either. HANZAI JAPAN was very well put as everybody was familiar with the narrative arts of Japan and exploited the richness of the theme to the extent of all its crazy possibilities.

I thought (.dis) by Genevieve Valentine kicked things off in style. It's a crime story that had the haunting and atmospheric inflections of Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata. I got a kick out of Ray Banks' sumo story too and Violet LeVoit's sneaky-good Electric Palace, which was a creative way of discussing the hierarchies of traditional Japanese society in a manner that reminded me of Satoshi Kon.

My two favorite stories though were JIGOKU by Naomi Hirahara and THE SAITAMA CHAIN SAW MASSACRE by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, which are so good I'm not even going to spoil but if you, like me, are an early-period Takashi Miike fan, you're not going to be disappointed. Very enjoyable collection over all. Not all the stories worked for me, but I had a blast with the ones that did.

[Sunni | vanreads · Rating 2 out of 5]

A terribly uneven set of short stories. I enjoyed some of the ones by Japanese authors, but the ones by non Japanese authors were so crass and veered into Asian fetish storylines and treating women like sex robots. Anyways I DNFed a lot of them. I’m not even sure why it included non Japanese authors writing about Japan. It felt so voyeuristic. Two stars because I liked a couple of the Japanese stories.

[Eric Mesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this as part of a bundle at Storybundle.com and I have to say that it was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Frankly, some of the stories are scary in that the crime depicted is horrific and yet it's told in such an engaging way. Also, this is a book in which reading the introduction is a good idea.

As per usual with an anthology, my per-story status updates:

"(dis) - A woman photographer who loves to take photos of abandoned places finds a dead body at one of them. The story goes back and forth in time while you learn about her obsession."

"Sky Spider: A musician finds himself on a ghost plane with an important decision to make. Very beautifully written, even if it takes a bit too understand what's happening."

"Rough night in little toke: a tattoo in little Tokyo allows the guy to get people's thoughts. Leads to a murder revelation."

"Outside the circle: American journalist wants a big break story, but it lands him in huge trouble in Japan."

"Monologue ... - a very strange urban fantasy start which turns very dark. My favorite so far."

"Best Interest: Yakuza and Godzilla - what more could you ask for?"

"Vampiric: Solving a mystery involving vampires in future Japan"

"Jigoku : A murderer looks back on the causes of his murders"

"The girl who loved shonen knife: Apocalyptic background to a girl in high school who just wants her band to win the audition. Second favorite story."

"Run! : A crazy guy explaining why he HAS to kill - with a great twist at the end"

"Hanami: Kitsune legends and modern business plus a bit of noir detective work. Very fun read."

"The Electric Palace: Reminds me a bit of Shoshana in Inglorious Bastards - theater owner, Yakuza, and world war 2"


"The long-rumored food crisis: terrifying tale of how evil people life become in a food shortage"

"Three cups of tea: Not sure I understand the ending, but the journey was neat"

"Out of balance: a man walks from his life to become a killer for hire. Great ending"

"The Saitama Chainsaw massacre: Although my knowledge of tropes meant I could predict the ending, it was still a heck of a ride to get there."

[Stu556 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very uneven collection of short stories, often with a good story or two followed by a terrible story or three.
I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum and only refer to plot and character elements vaguely, but I do talk about my impression of each story's ending (only in vague terms).
Going through the stories:

(.dis) by Genevieve Valentine: Okay. The prose was somewhat enjoyable but didn't leave much of an impression. I liked the open ending, but there also didn't seem to be much of a point to the story. There was some setup for some further character development somewhere in the middle, but the fact that not a lot of it was capitalized upon by the end was pretty depressing.

Sky Spider by Yusuke Miyauchi: Okay. Decent prose but I didn't find the setup to be that interesting or unique (seemed like typical 60s Twilight Zone episode). The ending was a bit more interesting, but I wasn't that invested in the other characters and there didn't seem to be much risk.

Rough Night in Little Toke by Libby Cudmore: Bad. Poorly written and riddled with unexplicably unbelievable scumbag characters. There's a filthy layer of exoticism that was caked onto the story that only gets worse as the story continued. The main supernatural element was also really ham-fisted.

Outside the Circle by Ray Banks: Really Bad. Somehow even worse than the previous story. There was little to no research done about the setting, and it really showed (how does a broke, alcoholic, drug-addicted ex-pat afford an apartment in Akihabara?). I found the main character extremely unenjoyable to read about, and his "knight in sour armor" archetype (the self-congratulatory-but-wait-I-really-know-I'm-a-dirtbag-no-really) wore thin faster than a tissue paper t-shirt during a hurricane. And the ending was even stupider, really something the writer pulled from his ass just so he could finish the story and add in the "oriental mysticism" cherry on his shit cake.

Monologue of a Universal Transverse Mercator Projection by Yumeaki Hirayama: Great. I found the prose enjoyable and the focus of the story pretty unique. The characters were still given decent motivation for their actions, and the main character provided an interesting perspective on the story than in most stories. There was an opportunity for the story to take the conflict of the second half even further, but the ending of the story wasn't bad in and of itself.

Best Interest by Brian Evenson: Good. The setup was pretty interesting and the main conflict was well laid out. I was a little confused over the motivations of the characters, sometimes they seem to change their minds about what was most important about something without making it clear that they changed their minds. Perhaps it was because the author didn't fully grasp the rigid honor system they were attempting to depict, but it could be that I misread something.

Vampiric Crime Investigative Unit by Jyouji Hayashi: Bad. The writing was not only clunky (which I can sometimes chalk up to a bad translator) it was actually bad. The author tended to focus too much on dumping exposition onto the reader, often unnecessary exposition, without any of it adding anyting to the story other than more words. There was one part where the author compulsively explains a mathematical concept every time it was brought up, which ended up being at least three times. The plot was also the most boring police procedural with a people-trail that's about two people long. Maybe if the author spent less time world building a boring world, then they could have spent more time writing an interesting story.

Jigoku by Naomi Hirahara: Okay. There are two parts to the story, a true crime part and a supernatural part. The true crime part was not bad, although there wasn't much motivation for the crimes committed (there doesn't always need to be one, but it was more of a surprise than it was shocking). The supernatural parts seem more like filler and don't really add much to the story (since nothing comes of them and they bear little to no weight on the story as a whole.

The Girl Who Loved Shonen Knife by Carrie Vaughn: Bad. This read like a really bad American attempt at writing like a low-tier Japanese mangaka. Because it was. The story was your typical contrivance of high school clubs, shadowy conspiracies involving high schoolers doing adult things, and pointless post-apocalypse. So basically Guilty Crown, written by a gaijin manga otaku. Like GC, the characters are terrible and the writing is cringe-inducing. The plot was slightly better in that it was merely bad. And stupid.

Run! by Kaori Fujino: Good. The protagonist's motivations were interesting, if a little underdeveloped (but then it is a short story), but it did stray a little close to the myth that all serial killers are mentally unstable. The ending is a bit contrived, but it might be particular to the wording rather than the author's intent (so the translator's fault rather than the author's).

Hanami by SJ Rozan: Great. A nice little piece of mythology infused neo-noir, sort of like X-Files, but with subtle racial elements carefully weaved into the story. The main climax of the story gets resolved a little too easily, and without consequence, but the author does tie up the lose ends pretty well.

The Electric Palace by Violet LeVoit: Great. Excellent prose and an interesting plot with somewhat believable characters. The author clearly did some research about Japanese silent films and benshi, but didn't lay on the exposition so heavily so as to flaunt that knowledge. The yakuza intrigue didn't wholly make sense and wasn't explored very much, but I suppose it worked as a decent framing device. You could read the story as the author (who is a westerner) bending over backwards to praise Japan and denounce America (for the bomb for example), and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. I get the feeling that the author is doing this to obscure the fact that they are a westerner, but that didn't detract from the story at all.

The Long-Rumored Food Crisis by Setsuko Shinoda: Okay. My main issue with the story is that the whole thing seems extremely zero-sum and almost needlessly bleak. And this is coming from someone whose favorite book is Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But I didn't really care about the protagonist or his family, or the other characters in the story. The protagonist gets pushed around by everyone else (including the author) for little reason than that's just what happens in the story. I thought that there was going to be something more that happens, but it just sort of ends with little to no resolution or conclusion.

Three Cups of Tea by Jeff Somers: Okay. The story itself was kind of interesting, at least in the first two-thirds, where the protagonist was investigating the case. I didn't find the ending that satisfying since it felt like the author needed an ending rather than figured out how to write one. The characters weren't bad, but it barely qualified to be in a collection called Hanzai Japan since the only connection (that one of the characters was Japanese and the supernatural element) could probably have been swapped for a myriad of nationalities/ethnicities and related supernatural elements.

Out of Balance by Chet Williamson: Okay. The writing was balanced and didn't try too hard to prove itself, which is nice in a way. The author was confident that the story could stand on its own and that the prose would support it. Too bad the story wasn't very interesting. There were a lot of cliches in the plot's direction that were all too easy to spot, and the symbolism was not very subtle. The dream sequences didn't do much for me than confirm my existing suspicions about the protagonist and the twist at the ending can be spotted from a mile away.

The Saitama Chain Saw Massacre by Hiroshi Sakurazaka: Truly Awful. It's hard for me to find a redeeming quality in this story.His prose was painful and overwrought, especially in his frusturatingly detailed descriptions of things that I did not care about in the least. The characters were the typical Sakurazaka protagonists, that is to say, the typical middle of the road teen light novel protagonists: self-absorbed but utterly dull and capable of eye-rollingly self-serving combat abilities. The plot was a mishmash of a dozen science fiction manga/anime cliches and he succeeds in reducing an entire main character to a MacGuffin. And the amount of gore didn't come off as shocking, just juvenile. After reading All You Need Is Kill and giving up on Slum Online, I am pretty convinced that Sakurazaka is just not the writer for me. Because he's trash.

[Heather Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super fun collection of futuristic crime stories set in Japan. I enjoyed all of the stories, they were all very creative and unique. Quite a variety of genres all relating to crimes committed in some way. I enjoyed this short story collection that I purchased the other two anthologies in this series! An entertaining read and a favorite of the year!

[Rafael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. All the short stories are written in English, so there is no weird translations or strangely explained ideas. The storiesb were pretty interesting and the varied storytelling was enjoyable.

[Sweemeng Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a series of crime story happens in a very dark japan. While it is dark, the premise is pretty interesting :-/

[Thoraiya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahh, memories of being on a panel with Masumi Washington at Worldcon in Helsinki. I love 'Sky Spider' by Yusuke Miyauchi, and 'The Long-Rumoured Food Crisis' by Setsuko Shinoda.

[Carrie Laben · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of different things that can go wrong with an anthology. It can be too diffuse in theme, or too rigid. The stories can vary so wildly in quality that you're embarrassed for some of the writers, or they can cluster so that nothing peeks above the horizon of mediocrity as a landmark.

Hanzai Japan, like The Future is Japanese and Phantasm Japan before it, manages to dial in on anthology excellence with a strong selection of stories that are both diverse and focused, and consistently above-average. Combining Japanese work in translation with pieces from English-language authors who have the chops to treat Japan as a real setting and not just a cyberpunk wonderland has worked out beautifully for this series. This third entry focuses on crime stories with a fantastic element, the peanut butter and chocolate of crossed genres. The stories you will find here range all the way from fun romps to haunting meditations on human frailty and perversity.

Stand-out stories included "Run!" by Kaori Fujino, the first fresh take on 'inside the mind of a serial killer' that I have seen in many a long day; Carrie Vaughn's "The Girl Who Loved Shonen Knife", an entertaining nod to teenage fandom that is both knowing and energetic; the dream-like "Sky Spider" by Yusuke Miyauchi; and not one but two stories in which maps play an important role - "[dis.]" by the always-excellent Genevieve Valentine and "Monologue of a Universal Transverse Mercator Projection" by Yumeaki Hirayama, a striking story that reads as though Hans Christian Anderson and Edgar Allan Poe had a baby who was brought forward in time and reared on the work of James Cain.

If you have any love at all for crime, the fantastic, or Japan, you should definitely check this out.

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short fiction, some translated into English for the first time. Each story contains some element of crime, noir, science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy or a heady mix of all of the above. As always with anthologies, some stories are better than others. 'Rough Night in Little Toke' by Libby Cudmore, a story about a demonic tattoo, 'The Girl Who Loved Shonen Knife' by Carrie Vaughn - which does exactly what it says on the tin with added apocalypse - and 'The Saitama Chain Saw Massacre' by Hiroshi Sakurazaka (translated by Nathan A. Collins) were particular stand outs. Haikasoru continue a streak of bringing excellent genre fiction from Japan to the world after their translation of Taiyo Fuji's 'Gene Mapper' earlier this year. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on what they bring out in the future.

[Kassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best of this Haikasoru series yet, in both premise and overall quality. (Yes, better even than "Phantasm Japan," in which one of my stories appeared.)

I enjoyed nearly every piece. (Not going to call out the one I didn't appreciate.) Particular standouts by Libby Cudmore, Yumeaki Hirayama, Brian Evenson, and Setsuko Shinoda.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a buffet of stories. Not getting into the one you are reading? Try the next one, it is definitely going to be different. I found quite a few stories that I enjoyed. It is well worth reading.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely a fun book. It's very Murakami-esque in its mystical realism and occasional downright silliness. Do you want to hear a crime novel that involves a plot to use Godzilla to rob a bank? How about murder stories from the perspective of a GPS? If so, then this is the book for you.

[Arasibo Campeche · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology makes it hard to choose which stories are the best. Every story is a crime related adventure that's satisfying but still leaves you eager for the next one.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction H1499 2015

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another short story collection of science fiction and fantasy tales either written by Japanese authors or inspired by Japan and Japanese culture. Unlike the previous two collections, The Future is Japanese: Science Fiction Futures and Brand New Fantasies from and about Japan. and Phantasm Japan: Fantasies Light and Dark, From and About Japan, this one has a special subtheme, in that all of the stories are connected to crime in some way.

Unfortunately, it's the weakest of the three. Even leaving behind my usual complaints (too much fantasy, not enough science fiction, and that I would have liked the focus to be primarily be on stories written in Japanese and translated for a new audience), the stories just didn't seem to land for me. Some of them had intriguing premises but didn't know what to do with them (like, for example, the story of a gang who decides to stage a heist during a rampage of the creature known to American audiences as Godzilla). Others made very little impression on me at all, and too many just seemed to rely on "here's a serial killer that has a special supernatural quirk." To it's credit, I also think there were less BAD stories, stories that were a complete slog to get through, than the other, but... none of them really stands out in a positive way. I guess if I had to pick, "Vampiric Crime Investigative Unit: Metropolitan Police Department" by Jyouji Hayashi and "The Long-Rumored Food Crisis" by Setsuko Shinoda stand out most positively in my memory, though it should be noted that I only remembered the first at all when I was looking up the exact title of the second, and though, "Oh yeah, I vaguely remember being into that one," and then not really remembering how it ended. That's about par for this book, they slipped over my consciousness without getting very far into my memory at all.

Two stars, okay.

[Get Booked Fans]

Episode 18:
4. Hi! I enjoy listening to your podcast each week and have added several books to my never-ending-to-read list. My fiance and I are going on our honeymoon in April to Japan and I’d love some good fiction recommendations or memoirs to get me in the mood for Japan. Do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!
Brittany
Recommended by: Amanda (via BR Contributors)