Setona Mizushiro

just finished it (started a few days ago but stayed up past midnight last night and then just finished during my break)

oh man, my eyes got watery when leo told alice that he had to propagate his seed NOW after she refused him when they started having sex. and then i did almost cry when alice started to walk through the city after she found out that Leo died and nobody had told her that he was going to die--gah! i'm doing it again as i'm writing now. i guess i'm just sentimental.

Mizushiro did a really great job of building it up and then paying it off. the reminiscences sequenced with the cityscapes and closeups were cinematic and evocative.

the pacing is just right and doesn't wallow too much in the mundane.… (more)

The members of the little Ursa Minor chat group are getting more keyed up - Rika (11) has done something she regrets, Mr. Money is forcing himself to be more open about the situation with his mother and what it's done to his state of mind, Polaris is going to be forced to take part in a swimming relay race and feels anxious just thinking about it, and Jangalian still doesn't know how to gracefully put a stop to his obsessed stalker and the rumors she keeps spreading. Things are coming to a head now that everyone's been pushed into a corner.

Mizushiro managed to wrap this up better than I expected. Even though I had some issues with the way things played out, everyone's motivations and actions seemed more solid and believable in this volume than they did in the first volume. That said, I still had issues with how things worked out.

Mizushiro's handling of Mr. Money and his family situation struck me as being overly simplistic. I disliked the way Rika and Mr. Money's relationship was presented as positively resolving their storylines. So, what, Rika's anxiety about track team and her ex-boyfriend were all resolved by her getting a new boyfriend? And we're supposed to believe that Mr. Money's abusive home life is no longer a problem, and he's magically no longer afraid of women? Uh, no.

The way Jangalian's issues were dealt with also seemed pretty simplistic, although there was at least a brief mention that things weren't quite over yet. Still, I was surprised that there wasn't more of a fuss made about even just the appearance of a relationship between Polaris and Jangalian. And Polaris, who has now tried to commit suicide twice in one year, could use a supportive adult in her life who isn't Jangalian.

All in all, this series got off to a shaky start but managed to find its footing by the end, even though I wasn't always comfortable with the way everything played out.

Extras:

The last quarter of the volume was devoted to a short called "The Last Supper." Oh man, this story was dark, weird, and horrifying.

It's science fiction in which humans struggle to survive a plague that keeps cropping up every few years. The sky is now lit by an artificial sun, and the weather, too, is artificially controlled. Cows have long since died out and have been replaced by cow-human hybrids. Which we still raise for food, and eat. Lambda 26 is one such cow. After his father is slaughtered and eaten, Lambda tries to escape but ends up being found by Mitsuhiko, the rancher's son. Mitsuhiko insists on having Lambda as his playmate and servant, thereby protecting him from being killed and eaten. Lambda initially wants to be free but eventually begins to care for Mitsuhiko. (Major spoilers from this point on.)

Unfortunately, Mitsuhiko catches the plague and guess what? Medicine made from cow organs turns out to be the best treatment. Mitsuhiko has refused to eat beef since Lambda became his friend, but now Lambda badly wants to help him. Mitsuhiko can't face the idea of Lambda dying for him and gives Lambda everything he needs in order to escape. However, Mitsuhiko's father manages to obtain some cow organs, which are turned into medicine for Mitsuhiko. He's convinced to eat it, only to discover that the cow used in his medicine was, in fact, Lambda.

That last story was definitely not my kind of thing, and I feel icky just thinking about it.

Rating Note:

If I could rate X-Day's conclusion separately from "The Last Supper," I'd give the former 3 stars and the latter 1. "The Last Supper" only takes up a small portion of the volume and shouldn't have as much weight, but I think I'm still just going to average the two ratings and give this volume as a whole 2 stars.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (more)

Content warnings for physical abuse, attempted suicide, and stalking/harassment.

Rika injured herself a while back and took some time off the track team as a result. She's now in her third and final year of high school and, although she's technically all healed up, she's left the track team and keeps resisting the pleas of her former coach and teammates to rejoin. What one of her former teammates doesn't realize is that her new boyfriend used to be Rika's boyfriend - he dumped Rika not too long ago.

Rika feels depressed and disconnected from her school life but is intrigued when someone in an anonymous school chat room suggests blowing up the school (why this isn't an immediate red flag for school officials, I don't know - I find it difficult to believe that a school chat room wouldn't have some form of monitoring in place). Following some clues, she eventually ends up meeting and getting to know several people from the chat in real life.

I recall Setona Mizushiro's After School Nightmare being an interesting series, albeit not really one I enjoyed (although, looking back, my reviews say otherwise, huh). It was a little too dark and unsettling for my tastes, and the character relationships made my skin crawl.

So far, X-Day seems to be a bit more straightforward. Rika, who goes by the name "11" in the chatroom, appears to be an accomplished student with no reason to hate school, but in reality she feels like her former track teammate is taking everything from her. She desperately wants to stop feeling anything about track team and her ex-boyfriend. The various visitors to the Ursa Minor chatroom, controlled by a girl who uses the name "Polaris," also have things in their lives that are stressing them out and depressing them and have decided that blowing up the school (at night, when no one is around to get hurt) will somehow help.

Part of my problem with this series is that the characters' motivations seem so weak. Okay, so they're all having problems for one reason or another. However, only one or two of them are having problems that are directly linked to being at school (and whether blowing up the building would actually fix their problems is a whole other issue...). The rest of them just seem to be going along with the idea for some reason. Is it the social aspect? They all finally found someone they could talk to and be their true selves with, and since one or two of them want to blow up the school, they all decided to go along with it? I don't know. I suppose I could sort of understand it if the whole chatroom group were composed of teens, but one of the members is a teacher. It boggles my mind that he got involved in this too, even considering his situation.

Well, one more volume to go. Will they actually manage to blow up the school, or will they get found out before they do anything too drastic? Will Rika's actions drive a wedge into the group? Will that one teacher manage to get a job someplace else or will his obsessed stalker push him over the edge? I guess I'll find out soon.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)… (more)