I'm afraid I've been neglecting doing analyses on these for a while, sorry! You know that I've had kind of a lot on my plate.
I really like where the story is going. It's definitely started a new part, with the Shiki being discovered; now it's not a mystery anymore, but still horror in a way I like a lot. Even though it's a lot more detailed in the anime, I like the way we're getting to know the Shiki more. In the anime, once they showed the Shiki at first, I felt really disgusted at what they do, and that's true in the novel as well. The way the author has them talk so casually about killing people off, and then their brutal hierarchical structure with the Kirishikis calling the shots, never giving the Shiki themselves any other way of living. If this continues (although I'm sure that the novel will later have more sympathetic Shiki parts, like Tohru and Nao), it really creates an emotional investment in the reader, and I feel like it's a technique that makes the readers hate the Shiki now. It makes the reader feel uncomfortable (the thought of a corpse coming back to life is so wrong it's hard not to feel uneasy) and indignant (our democracy would frown on their way of government), kind of like how the villagers would feel. By the time that the whole village will know about the Shiki's existence, the reader would want the shiki gone, just like the villagers. This is just speculation as to how the rest of the book would go, but I love any book that ties you to the events as a reader and provides an emotional connection. I always say I'm on the human side no matter what, but the book isn't supposed to be about one side being right and the other being wrong; in fact, for first-time readers (again, I wish I were experiencing this for the first time =v= Even if I just started reading this without knowing the anime first, I would have probably gone and watched it by now...) the impact would be even better if they were on the humans' side the whole time, and then it starts to get clear that humans are also monsters. That way you can't say, "Oh, the villagers are all paranoid hicks, doomed by canon", you'll be like "shit, but I also wanted the shiki gone and would have tried to get rid of them too". If I was a villager, I know I would have, especially if I was one of the villagers that haven't had encounters with the Shiki (Seishin gets the unique chance to get to know the Shiki, while nobody else really does)...and that's bad, since I'd be killing people while thinking they're beasts too. Such is the instinct for survival, in Shiki and humans both.
In fact, it's also easy if you're a shiki sympathizer to say "the shiki are people too, how can the villagers be so brutal?" Yet they'd have to remember that most of the villagers have never seen the Shiki as real people and instead all they have known are monsters that come in at night and kill their friends and family. It's hard to be sympathetic. Can...can we just give Ono a round of applause? I don't think I've ever read/watched/experienced anything that made me question everything so much! Maybe it's because I have people to discuss it with, though. Usually when I start going off about books I passionately enjoy, my friends and family just kinda groan, lol.
And even Tohru has to follow the shiki's strict way of life. I thought it was interesting that despite the fact that Tohru was Natsuno's good friend, he still tries to do everything by the book and treat Natsuno like any other victim. He's a lot more ruthless here, isn't he? He doesn't need Tatsumi or Megumi's help that much to bite Natsuno, and I was also expecting Natsuno to ask him to run away with him somewhere in there, but does that happen in the book? Or maybe the anime just did that to enhance the boy's love appeal.
I found it interesting that Yamairi is a place for 'sacrifice'. I'm not sure what that means...if I understood the anime right, it's just a place where they put shiki while they wait for them to rise up. But it seems like here, they kidnap shiki's family members to keep them obedient? Or weaken them so they can use them for the newly risen, like Masao? That's certainly a dark twist, as if Shiki wasn't dark already.
Also, Shizuka's like the obnoxious version of Sunako. Which means, Sunako was just like Shizuka when she was newly risen?
6-3 - "even Toshio hesitate" -> hesitated - "His father interacted zealously with other medical professionals" this depends on how you want to translate it, but I think you might change it to "his father HAD interacted zealously" because since the rest of the book is written in simple past tense, a reader might think that Ozaki's dad is still doing this, which would sound weird because he's dead. - "If you don't convey the situation to them thoroughly, then." Then what? This sentence was a little confusing, I couldn't see what Takae is getting at. - "Something they had to take measures even one step sooner to put any kind of stop to it that they could." This sentence is kind of confusing too :(
6-4 - "outhis" -> out his - "He's snuck" -> he'd snuck - "With their body leaned over, looking fixedly up at the window, it then stretched its arm out towards the window" if referring to the shape as an "it", maybe change "their" to "its" - "keepig" -> keeping - "How many times now hat Tohru knocked on the window" hat -> had - didnt' -> didn't
6-5 - Tatsum-san -> Tatsumi-san - "in the attack lead he forgot to give instructions to the victim." Why is the word "lead" there? - "Driven the sheer desire to leave" -> driven BY the sheer desire - It's you're fault -> your fault - "If he did that, he wasn't Natsuno anymore." The way this is written, it sounds like Tohru's saying that TOHRU won't be Natsuno anymore, which kinda throws me off.
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I really like where the story is going. It's definitely started a new part, with the Shiki being discovered; now it's not a mystery anymore, but still horror in a way I like a lot. Even though it's a lot more detailed in the anime, I like the way we're getting to know the Shiki more. In the anime, once they showed the Shiki at first, I felt really disgusted at what they do, and that's true in the novel as well. The way the author has them talk so casually about killing people off, and then their brutal hierarchical structure with the Kirishikis calling the shots, never giving the Shiki themselves any other way of living. If this continues (although I'm sure that the novel will later have more sympathetic Shiki parts, like Tohru and Nao), it really creates an emotional investment in the reader, and I feel like it's a technique that makes the readers hate the Shiki now. It makes the reader feel uncomfortable (the thought of a corpse coming back to life is so wrong it's hard not to feel uneasy) and indignant (our democracy would frown on their way of government), kind of like how the villagers would feel. By the time that the whole village will know about the Shiki's existence, the reader would want the shiki gone, just like the villagers. This is just speculation as to how the rest of the book would go, but I love any book that ties you to the events as a reader and provides an emotional connection. I always say I'm on the human side no matter what, but the book isn't supposed to be about one side being right and the other being wrong; in fact, for first-time readers (again, I wish I were experiencing this for the first time =v= Even if I just started reading this without knowing the anime first, I would have probably gone and watched it by now...) the impact would be even better if they were on the humans' side the whole time, and then it starts to get clear that humans are also monsters. That way you can't say, "Oh, the villagers are all paranoid hicks, doomed by canon", you'll be like "shit, but I also wanted the shiki gone and would have tried to get rid of them too". If I was a villager, I know I would have, especially if I was one of the villagers that haven't had encounters with the Shiki (Seishin gets the unique chance to get to know the Shiki, while nobody else really does)...and that's bad, since I'd be killing people while thinking they're beasts too. Such is the instinct for survival, in Shiki and humans both.
In fact, it's also easy if you're a shiki sympathizer to say "the shiki are people too, how can the villagers be so brutal?" Yet they'd have to remember that most of the villagers have never seen the Shiki as real people and instead all they have known are monsters that come in at night and kill their friends and family. It's hard to be sympathetic. Can...can we just give Ono a round of applause? I don't think I've ever read/watched/experienced anything that made me question everything so much! Maybe it's because I have people to discuss it with, though. Usually when I start going off about books I passionately enjoy, my friends and family just kinda groan, lol.
And even Tohru has to follow the shiki's strict way of life. I thought it was interesting that despite the fact that Tohru was Natsuno's good friend, he still tries to do everything by the book and treat Natsuno like any other victim. He's a lot more ruthless here, isn't he? He doesn't need Tatsumi or Megumi's help that much to bite Natsuno, and I was also expecting Natsuno to ask him to run away with him somewhere in there, but does that happen in the book? Or maybe the anime just did that to enhance the boy's love appeal.
I found it interesting that Yamairi is a place for 'sacrifice'. I'm not sure what that means...if I understood the anime right, it's just a place where they put shiki while they wait for them to rise up. But it seems like here, they kidnap shiki's family members to keep them obedient? Or weaken them so they can use them for the newly risen, like Masao? That's certainly a dark twist, as if Shiki wasn't dark already.
Also, Shizuka's like the obnoxious version of Sunako. Which means, Sunako was just like Shizuka when she was newly risen?
6-3
- "even Toshio hesitate" -> hesitated
- "His father interacted zealously with other medical professionals" this depends on how you want to translate it, but I think you might change it to "his father HAD interacted zealously" because since the rest of the book is written in simple past tense, a reader might think that Ozaki's dad is still doing this, which would sound weird because he's dead.
- "If you don't convey the situation to them thoroughly, then." Then what? This sentence was a little confusing, I couldn't see what Takae is getting at.
- "Something they had to take measures even one step sooner to put any kind of stop to it that they could." This sentence is kind of confusing too :(
6-4
- "outhis" -> out his
- "He's snuck" -> he'd snuck
- "With their body leaned over, looking fixedly up at the window, it then stretched its arm out towards the window" if referring to the shape as an "it", maybe change "their" to "its"
- "keepig" -> keeping
- "How many times now hat Tohru knocked on the window" hat -> had
- didnt' -> didn't
6-5
- Tatsum-san -> Tatsumi-san
- "in the attack lead he forgot to give instructions to the victim." Why is the word "lead" there?
- "Driven the sheer desire to leave" -> driven BY the sheer desire
- It's you're fault -> your fault
- "If he did that, he wasn't Natsuno anymore." The way this is written, it sounds like Tohru's saying that TOHRU won't be Natsuno anymore, which kinda throws me off.