On your way back from purchasing some “erotica”, you’re walking down the street, in the dark and someone calls out to you. That someone seems to have recently been relieved of both arms and both legs and is… well in tatters. She says she needs your blood – all of it.

Actual Answer: She’s delusional, and definitely needs that blood. Call and ambulance but be very careful as you run away, there’s probably a serial killer, or more like a pack of them somewhere nearby.

YA Answer: Run away. Quickly. Don’t mind that she starts crying, you’ve got to drop your porn somewhere. It’d be embarrassing if someone found you dead with something like that. Run back, say you’re sorry. Dying by vampire sounds like an interesting way to go, and heck – she probably doesn’t really mean to kill you, she’s just lonely – and together you’ll be the most powerful beings that ever existed. Except maybe for a weird old guy in a Hawaiian shirt.

Courtesy of: “Kizumonogatari” by NISIOISIN

Problem 12:

Someone hands you something called “Facebook”.

Actual Answer: Avoid it. It may ruin your social identity.
YA Answer: Avoid it. It will ruin your social identity.

Courtesy of: “Dantalian no Shoka” by Mikumo Gakuto

I thought I’d find more extravagant ones (and more cryptic ones too!), but I find that I encounter quite a few protagonists with heads on their shoulders, actually. Though the raw power of literature doesn’t often save lives,Tohko talks people out of disasterous physical and psychological consequences by showing them that they can learn from people who have experienced similar troubles as they have in the past. (“Bungaku Shoujo”) Though luckily we have laws to help keep some dangers in check, Kraft Lawrence has to make sure that the person he’s dealing with cannot benefit without him alive and unharmed. (“Spice and Wolf”) Mikiya shows that sometimes holding on to a sociological ideal can help save not only you, but others. (“Kara no Kyoukai”) “Dantalian no Shoka” even, shows us that almost everything comes with consequences.

Still, it really isn’t the brightest idea to get involved in those life-threatening situations everyone seems to get caught up in. Probability will eventually catch up with you.

^^;

Another thing I’ve noticed is that in Japan there’s a pretty solid male reader base, or at least books targeting young males (specifically with YA). “Fanservice” (in some cases over done, in some cases not, and in some cases overdone just to be ironic) in books isn’t really uncommon, and that’s not just illustration-wise.

Here in the US, I don’t know, it just seems YA is much more directed at a female audience (…all those sexy vampires… but maybe we can just blame Twilight?) and latest I hear from polls is that most kids nowadays think “reading is girly”.

While Japan isn’t free from “riding the wave” – they’re the most adaptation-crazy culture I’ve ever seen – and some clever references and well played tropes sometimes overflow into cliches, they seem to handle it better than we do.

I find myself only re-reading most of the books I have in English, but while I have urges to re-read some of the Japanese ones I’ve read, there’s just too much ahead to read that it’s hard to take the time to look back.

I don’t know, maybe it’s that serialization that gives readers such a drive. Another thing is when you run up a serial, there’s hardly a need for imitations, you’ve already got something in that genre lined up for you to read as soon as it comes out.

By the way, I’ll personally vouch for 3,4,5, and 11. I’ll have to give some of those others a look…

Thanks for these articles, they always give me a chance to think about this kind of stuff again and again and you get your research done.

I wonder if you could look a bit into the translation process? (Though that might be a little off topic, as I am an aspiring J→E translator…)