Zaregoto, Book 2: The Kubishime Romanticist

Like Zaregoto Book One and Death Note: Another Note, NisiOisiN delivers another gripping and entertaining murder mystery in Zaregoto Book Two. As in the first book in the series, the focus is less on the "why" of the murders and more on the "how". Where most murder mysteries all come down the motives of the killer, NisiOisiN's killers seem to have very vague motives. His books are a study in flawed characters trying to deal with the world around them, and murder becomes just another character flaw.The hero of the series, Ii-chan, is a great reluctant detective who only wants to be the passive observer, but gets drawn into the case against his will. He's not interested in seeing justice served. Instead, Ii-chan ends up solving the case simply because it's a puzzle he wants or needs to know the answer to.The characters are fascinating and the plot definitely keeps you guessing right to the end. I hope the rest of the Zaregoto series gets published in English a little quicker though (it took two years for this second book to be translated from Japanese and released in the US).

As a fan of Nisio Isin, I absolutely loved this novel, and look forward to seeing further volumes in the series translated. As always, the author is careful to shatter steriotypes of how a story is told and who the characters of that story should be. Even as someone who generally avoids Japanese light novels, I was very impressed by this. The novel is compelling, funny, full of surprises, and always fresh. Though it's a completely different kind of work, next to Haruki Murakami, Natsuhiko Kyogokudo, and Genichiro Takahashi, Nisio Isin is one of the best and most interesting talents we've seen from Japan so far. I can only hope the next volume appears some time soon.

Nisioisin is just so much fun to read! All of his novels, and this one is no different, contain some really intelligent and funny dialog. Most of the story actually takes place in the dialog. It is so surprising, with lots of manga/anime allusions, and the characters are so interesting. I really like all of the characters and the protagonist is an accomplished straight man for their weird personalities. Highly recommended if you're the intellectual sort.

This is an amazing book. If you like light novels and have read the first book in the series then this books is for you. Like an anime in a novel form. Good for reading at school and you can't get any manga.

one of my favorite books

The Kubishime Romanticist, in some ways, benefits from the fact that it was not Nisioisin's first novel. If you have already read The Kubikiri Cycle, you will almost immediately realize how different the nameless protagonist is from the previous story. It seems like the author felt less obliged to make him likable and relatable, or to even function at all as a reader-proxy. What was subtly, even hesitantly, hinted at in the last novel, is presented boldly and unapologetically right from the beginning - "Iichan" is more than a bit of a sociopath, and the only thing stopping him from carving a bloody swathe through Kyoto, like his counterpart the Slasher, is a difference of perspective. The most horrifying parts of the novel have nothing to do with bloody stabbings, or gruesome strangulations, or the utterly brutal bodily harm inflicted on a certain character toward the end of the novel - rather, it is Iichan's inhuman detachment that left me shaken. The Slasher's string of bloody murders are treated blithely, even comically, by the narrative, and some of the most light-hearted moments in the novel are those which feature the not-quite-frienship between him and Iichan, who regard each other as mirror-images of one another. In contrast, the extent of Iichan's role in the destruction of several lives, without lifting a finger, is far more ghastly.For an American reader, the character draws inevitable comparison to Dexter Morgan from Showtime tv adaptation of Jeff Lindsay's novels. I would venture to say that, in spite of the numerous differences between the two characters, the comparison is appropriate, and that someone who enjoyed Dexter would probably enjoy The Kubishime Romanticist as well. One caveat though - in spite of the tonal difference from the first novel, a new reader should definitely have read The Kubikiri Cycle first before beginning this book, even if only to appreciate the difference in Iichan's behavior when separated from the humanizing presence of his only real friend. It is a worthwhile mystery in its own right - things only get better with Zaregoto 2, and with any luck we'll eventually see how Iichan develops in Zaregoto 3, or even the yet-to-be-localized spin-off series following the Slasher.

An other great book of NisioisiN

One of the books in a very long time that I sat down a couple of hours straight cuz I couldn't put it down. I liked it even more than the first book, and once again.. I wasn't able to guess who the true criminal was.. Reccomend it to anyone who likes crime/mystery stories, or liked the first book.

This book is amazing. It continues from the great Zaregoto book 1 and expands. No longer so focused on the murder mystery theme, this book is far more of a character study into our protagonist with an elusive name, "Iikkun" , or "Ii-chan" , or "who?" , and many more names. Just when you thought you understood his seemingly empty existence and mind from book 1, each event in this book will change the way you see him, and the other interesting characters around him. I was fascinated by each new fact I learnt, from his tastes in food, his room layout, to his more personal beliefs and philosophies. Of the many new characters, two stand out as being exceedingly interesting; the adorable Aoii Mikoko, impossible not to adore, and the seemingly monstrous Zerozaki Hitoshiki. Wether he truly is the most inhuman character, is something for the reader may rethink by the end of the book. I'm sure this book has something for every reader to enjoy, to consider, to think about.The final twist in this book may make you flip tables, be warned.Buy this great book before it goes out of print, then lament that you may never read the following volumes in english.