Book: 1Q84

1Q84 is a trilogy (published in English as a single volume) by award-winning author, Murakami Haruki (村上 春樹). I had read a short story of his, Kino, in The New Yorker early last year, and had been taken enough with the work to look into other works by the same writer.

1Q84 caught my eye then, having been listed as second in Amazon’s best fiction books of the year for 2011. It wasn’t, however, until this month that I finally had the opportunity to sit down with this work, and I am still berating myself for having taken so long about it.

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Time of Eve / イヴの時間

イヴの時間 is an award-winning ONA (an anime series made for the Internet) written and directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura (吉浦 康裕).

The series is just six episodes, roughly 15 minutes each (except for the last at 27 minutes), for a total running time of about 104 minutes.

イヴの時間 tells a story and features themes that would have done Isaac Asimov proud. This is fine Sci-Fi storytelling.

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Your Lie in April / 四月は君の嘘

四月は君の嘘 (Your Lie in April) is an anime-adaption of the manga series written and illustrated by Arakawa Naoshi (新川 直司). It spans two cours, and weighs in at 22 episodes of 25 minutes each (total viewing time, just over 9 hours).

四月は君の嘘 centres on romance and drama with a hefty serving of classical music, wrapped up in some very nice animation, indeed. It is a very adult story about four teenagers and the people around them. By ‘adult’, I don’t mean that it contains sex, drugs, or violence, or indeed anything that might warrant censoring, but that the story conveys the thoughts and emotions of its characters frankly and without shame, in a fashion usually reserved for mature audiences.

Unlike many anime-adaptions of manga, this series forms a full and complete story with a definite conclusion.

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Yamada and the Seven Witches / 山田くんと7人の魔女

山田くんと7人の魔女 (Yamada and the Seven Witches) is a single-cour live-action television series that ran on Fuji Television in mid-2013. Adapted from a popular manga by Yoshikawa Miki (吉河 美希), serialised in Kodansha’s Weekly Shounen Magazine (週刊少年マガジン), the live series forms a complete story (in contrast to many manga-adaptions, which often do not form a complete story).

The episodes are a little shorter than standard live-action television fare, at just 36 minutes, comprising a total of roughly 4 and three-quarter for the whole 8-episode series.

山田くんと7人の魔女 features comedy, drama, romance, mystery, some great physical comic performances, and oodles of attractive people kissing.

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Another / アナザー

アナザー (Another) is an anime adaption of a light-novel written by Ayatsuji Yukito (綾辻 行人), award-winning Japanese Mystery/Horror author. The anime was produced by Progressive Animation Works (株式会社ピーエーワークス) as a single-cour of 12 episodes (25 minutes each, for a total run of five hours), and provides a fine example of Japanese horror.

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Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou / ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 – 1

Biblia Used Books, interior

ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 is a single-cour live-action television series that ran on Fuji Television in early 2013, totalling 12 episodes of 45 minutes, adapted from a series of light novels written by Mikami En (三上延).

Undeniably an entry in the overall ‘Great Detective’ genre, it sees a small number of characters solving very human mysteries, with a savant genius’ knowledge of books, magazines, publishing and literature.

The stories (and mysteries) are very personal, very human tales, with some deep emotive performances, and more than a touch of wit and humour.

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