Live novels

• appeared in Faust magazine

Live novels was a unique stunt pulled for the fourth volume of Kodansha's fighting literary magazine, Fuast. Five successful young authors on a four day, three night vacation in Okinawa, each writing a 30 page short story on the motif of moving to Tokyo, and also completing one "relay novel," taking turns to writing the next section.

There's even a chart at the back laying out how each of them spent their time. NisiOisin spends about 8 hours total, because he's an asshole that way.

Five Stories of Moving to Tokyo

• Otsu Ichi -- Kodomo wa Tooku ni Itta/子供は遠くに行った

Not my favorite thing Otsu Ichi has ever written; relentlessly dour, and written in exactly the kind of polite, cold language that is my least favorite form of Japanese. There is a certain beauty towards it, but I always respond to cynical nastiness more than drippy sentimentality.

• Kitayama Takekuni -- Kokoro no Saigo no Kyori/こころの最後の距離

The one author I'd never heard of; apparently he's known for traditional puzzler mysteries. This story, about a girl who always dies when she tries to get to Tokyo, is a little gimmicky -- it's told backwards, Memento style, with only the descending numbers for the chapter titles to clue you in. It's not until near the end of the story, chapter 3 or 4, that it obviously stops making narrative sense, and you realize just what an impressive piece of work it is -- to tell a story backwards but make it seem like you're reading it forwards? Boogles the mind. It's a show off piece, and definitely suggests I should give this guy's books a chance in the future.