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.

• Satou Yuuya -- Jikoku no Shima no Joou/地獄の島の女王

Satou is a fraud, a pretentious, horrible writer who has no business being in the company of the other four. He does shit that is edgy and weird, aiming for the sort of thing Maijo Otaro does so well, but he never makes it at all believable, you never accept the reality he presents you with. This story is just as vomit worth, all about a woman with no arms and legs on a desert island with three of her slaves. Fuck off.