Oblivion Island, Zoo
I group these together because of Otsuichi, of course.
I wrote this review, but in retrospect I should have played it out more: Oblivion Island is a triumph of some sort…except it barely made it into the top 10 rankings in Japan during its run.
I say this, because some people believe the manga visual aesthetics is a major gap that distinguishes Japanese mainstream from accepting a lot of our western 3D animation. Not that it matters, since Pixar’s works still sell, but it’s a curiosity. Certainly it might be what stops their domestic pitch towards that kind of production, at least from a financial feasibility perspective. Of course, with Hotarake, we know they still try.
Reading Zoo, it gave me a sense of what Otsuichi’s style is more so than what kind of stories he likes to write. I think I keep on reading it as if every other plot revelation is laced with irony, which makes some of his short stories more enjoyable than others. As plain mystery, thriller, or simply expositional storytelling, there’s not a whole lot to them. I think that’s why Oblivion Island felt somewhat flat, because that irony just doesn’t translate well into the audio-visual medium, let alone a children’s film.
Still, I enjoy reading Zoo. A couple of the short stories are outright engaging, although most of them score only average or below. That said I’m not done yet, so hopefully the last few stories will raise the average. At the same time, since it’s a collection of short stories with a scattershot approach, only a few will hit home. The others aren’t meant for me anyways. It’s not a complete miss.
Otsuichi’s Faust works in the two volumes that have came out are still probably the most worth reading among his translated works in English. Maybe he should go write a Haruhi fanfic.
