Wazamonogatari

by NisiOisiN

Cruel Fairy Tale: Princess Fair
A short fairy tale, telling the story of a princess who becomes inflicted with a brutal curse that ruined her entire kingdom.

Acerola Bon Appétit
Vampire Deathtopia Virtuoso Suicide-Master tells the story of how the Fair Princess, Acerola, became the vampire known as Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade.

Karen Ogre
Karen goes to live in the mountains to try and find herself. During her journey, she meets Shinobu.

Tsubasa Sleeping
Tsubasa Hanekawa tells Meme Oshino about an event that happened in Germany during her trip to search for his whereabouts. She finds Dramaturgy, and agrees to help him with a case of rogue, twin vampires that have been abducting travelers.

Genres: Japanese Literature

272 pages, Paperback

Published January 14, 2016

About the author

Nisio Isin (西尾維新 Nishio Ishin), frequently written as NisiOisiN to emphasize that his pen name is a palindrome, is a Japanese novelist and manga writer. He attended and left Ritsumeikan University without graduating. In 2002, he debuted with the novel Kubikiri Cycle, which earned him the 23rd Mephisto Award at twenty years of age.

He currently works with Kodansha on Pandora, the Kodansha Box magazine, and Faust, a literary magazine containing the works of other young authors who similarly take influence from light novels and otaku culture. He was also publishing a twelve volume series over twelve months for the Kodansha Box line; Ryusui Seiryoin was matching this output, and the Kodansha Box website stated that this is the first time in the world two authors have done twelve volume monthly novel series simultaneously from the same publisher.

In February, 2008, his novel Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases was released in English by Viz Media. Del Rey Manga has already released the first volume in his Zaregoto series. His Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari and Katanagatari novels have been adapted into anime series. Nekomonogatari (Kuro) has been adapted into an anime TV movie, and Kizumonogatari will be release in theaters this year. Monogatari Series: Second Season, adapted from 6 books in Monogatari Series will air in July 2013. Another of his works, Medaka Box (manga), has been adapted into a two-season anime series.

Reviews

[Jordan DeMoura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book consists of three unrelated stories which I will evaluate individually.

First was ‘Acerola Bon Apetit’ which was my personal favorite of the three. It’s an intriguing gothic fairy tale, that FINALLY gives us the full origin story for Shinobu; it’s surprising it took this long given how important she is to the story at large. I quite enjoy the way this story is told from Suicide-master’s POV and seeing how her feelings towards Acerola shift over time even without her noticing was really interesting to read.

9/10

Next was ‘Karen Ogre’ which was fine but pretty unremarkable ultimately. I don’t really care much for Karen as a character and this story didn’t do much to change my mind. Though some of the comedy in it was pretty amusing and I liked the scenes where Shinobu shows up in her various forms to help.

6/10

Finally, there was ‘Tsubasa Sleeping’. Tsubasa is one of my favorite characters in the series so I was very eager to hear about what she had gotten up to in her oft-alluded-to journeys abroad. It was also nice to see Oshino again after all this time. Now this story doesn’t pack an emotional punch the way Tsubasa Tiger did, not even close but ultimately these are all intended as ‘chapter zero’ stories so that’s not really a fair expectation. But seeing Hanekawa’s reflections on vampire food/entertainment/culture was quite interesting. It was also satisfying that the fact she had vampire blood in her was finally brought up. This was something I had considered during Kizumonogatari and was surprised it never came up but it seems it wasn’t forgotten about, that plot point was just sleeping. Hanekawa’s advice to Dramaturgy about perspective is also pretty notable. Always expecting the worst may succeed at protecting you from the worst but it won’t prepare you to experience the best. Perhaps there really is some merit to wishful thinking. And it’s Hanekawa’s outlook that determines whether the briar thorn killed her or gave her the strength to save herself that was sleeping within.

8/10.

[Amos Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

The anime version was a let down, but it simply couldn't have delivered the same effect in animated form no matter what