Missing: Kamikakushi no Monogatari Vol 1
Jan. 7th, 2008 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreAt seisou Academy, there is only one thing the members of the Literature club loves more than reading and endlessly discussing their books, and that's observing and endlessly discussing kyoichi Utsume, a.k.a. "His Majesty, Lord of Darkness," one of their members. Kyoichi is elite, beautiful, arrogant, wears all black, is obsessed with "the other side," and likes to randomly break into long meta. In fact, our introduction to him is a long meta about how real love doesn't exist, and the only true love that exists is platonic.
He is, however, soon to eat his words, when he sees a beautiful young girl singing later that same day. Kyoichi is apparently immediately smitten, and the next day, he introduces her as his girlfriend, Ayame. But there's something strange about this girl. Why does no one see her until she's pointed out to them, even if she's standing right in front of them? Why does she have such an old fashioned name? For that matter, why does she not seem to have a name until Kyoichi says it? What's with her clothes? Most importantly, why is the brilliant, coldly analytical Kyoichi, who only the day before denounced love, so completely smitten with her?
They must know! This cannot be allowed to stand! Two club members-Ryoko Kusakabe, sweet and slightly ditzy, and who claims to see the supernatural and has a crush on Kyoichi, and Takemi Kondou, energetic and determined but not overly bright, and who has a crush on Ryoko-willstalk follow Kyoichi home to find out what's up. Along the way, though, something happens. They're still following Ayame, but somehow, Kyoichi has disappeared. And when they catch up with Ayame, strange things happen. Ayame says she can't give him back, she won't give him back, and Ryoko thinks ghosts are grabbing and pulling at her.
The next day, the other club members, beautiful, cold and analytical Aki Kidono, who's also obsessed with ghost stories, and Toshiya Muramaki, also cold and brilliant, but also distant and secretive are willing to pass it off as their getting delusional after getting lost...except Kyoichi and Ayame aren't at school. And then they start talking. And then Aki reveals that that Kyoichi's main obsession with the other side is Kamikakushi, soul stealers, and Toshiya that Kyoichi believes he was once taken to the other side as a child. And then they start investigating and discussing and things start to unravel and be revealed and even MORE secrets are being kept, and since they're people whose social activity of choice is to sit around, read, and endlessly talk about what they read, there's random metas about everything and exploration into stories and story types.
The book is almost as exposition heavy and analytical as Death Note in a way, but in a completely different way. Death Note is all about logic and outthinking each other. In Missing: KnM, it's all about stories and reading and types of stories and analyzing them and seeing trends. They even THINK about the world in terms of writing and reading. For example, when Ayame is talking about how she can't give him back, she won't give him back, it's too late now," Ryoko thinks "'Can't help anymore?' What? 'Can't go back?' Who? Who is she talking about? Use subjects, dammit!" And Takemi actually saus it(except the last bit.)
Essentially, it's a ghost story/mystery, where the "detectives" spend all their time reading and analyzing everything imaginable from their safe little library...because they're compulsive readers.
I think I'm in love.
ETA: I forgot to say...aside from the bot with the book expounding on how love doesn't exist, the first few pages are are rather shaky, but hang in there.
He is, however, soon to eat his words, when he sees a beautiful young girl singing later that same day. Kyoichi is apparently immediately smitten, and the next day, he introduces her as his girlfriend, Ayame. But there's something strange about this girl. Why does no one see her until she's pointed out to them, even if she's standing right in front of them? Why does she have such an old fashioned name? For that matter, why does she not seem to have a name until Kyoichi says it? What's with her clothes? Most importantly, why is the brilliant, coldly analytical Kyoichi, who only the day before denounced love, so completely smitten with her?
They must know! This cannot be allowed to stand! Two club members-Ryoko Kusakabe, sweet and slightly ditzy, and who claims to see the supernatural and has a crush on Kyoichi, and Takemi Kondou, energetic and determined but not overly bright, and who has a crush on Ryoko-will
The next day, the other club members, beautiful, cold and analytical Aki Kidono, who's also obsessed with ghost stories, and Toshiya Muramaki, also cold and brilliant, but also distant and secretive are willing to pass it off as their getting delusional after getting lost...except Kyoichi and Ayame aren't at school. And then they start talking. And then Aki reveals that that Kyoichi's main obsession with the other side is Kamikakushi, soul stealers, and Toshiya that Kyoichi believes he was once taken to the other side as a child. And then they start investigating and discussing and things start to unravel and be revealed and even MORE secrets are being kept, and since they're people whose social activity of choice is to sit around, read, and endlessly talk about what they read, there's random metas about everything and exploration into stories and story types.
The book is almost as exposition heavy and analytical as Death Note in a way, but in a completely different way. Death Note is all about logic and outthinking each other. In Missing: KnM, it's all about stories and reading and types of stories and analyzing them and seeing trends. They even THINK about the world in terms of writing and reading. For example, when Ayame is talking about how she can't give him back, she won't give him back, it's too late now," Ryoko thinks "'Can't help anymore?' What? 'Can't go back?' Who? Who is she talking about? Use subjects, dammit!" And Takemi actually saus it(except the last bit.)
Essentially, it's a ghost story/mystery, where the "detectives" spend all their time reading and analyzing everything imaginable from their safe little library...because they're compulsive readers.
I think I'm in love.
ETA: I forgot to say...aside from the bot with the book expounding on how love doesn't exist, the first few pages are are rather shaky, but hang in there.