J the E.
You can tell this novel isn't normal from the moment you start reading this first chapter (besides the opening section that points to Arika's left arm being chomped away by his little sister ^^; ). While a first chapter for most novels usually meant a general introduction of the characters and settings,
J the E. immediately begins with developments that will leave you clueless. Instead, what the text triggers is an urge to read on so that you may understand what is going on better. This "phenomenon" applies to pretty much the entire novel: the stories begin like a scattered puzzle, where things only start to make sense as you read along and "piece together" the puzzle.
Timeline wise, the first volume of DDD follows a commonly used novel writing technique by telling the story
backwards. That is to say, the developments in
J and E. occured after
HandS., which occured after
formal hunt (well, that's partly true, since
formal hunt is a "reminiscence chapter").
This interesting structure meant DDD is a novel where you experience the story events first, and only come to understand the meanings of them after you have finally finished reading.
Now then, as for the story of
J and E.. As we start off with Arika in the middle of a "job", the story was certainly hard to grab onto in the beginning since it's already in full motion from page 1. But through Arika's initial encounter with the silhuette (and later, the possessed man) in the Kizaki (his neighbour) residence, and his subsequent conversation with Kaie after he was "killed", we came to understand the background setting a little better, including some explanations for the Agonist Syndrome aka. demonic possession. Also clear was the fact that Karyou Kaie is a knockout loli beauty, and male.
Arika's various comments toward this fact are all quite amusing as well.
It was also here where many incomprehensible statements begin to appear (such as Arika wanting people to only speak to him about important things during the night, and to only chat to him about pointless topics during daytime), along with extended discussions about the human mind that might scare off the casual reader (but a breeze for anyone who lasted through Kara no Kyoukai though
).
When Tsuranui Mihaya, a female friend of Arika's since high school, met up with him at a local restaurant with gossips about a mysterious person/being lurking around town, snatching up and eating family pet dogs, I finally realized that everyone- even relatively normal, healthy people, in this novel is messed up one way or another.
(And this was confirmed by Touma Mato later
)
The story becomes more involved when a personal connection appeared between the dangerous lurker, Tsuranui, and Arika. In the climax, where Arika finally faces off with the possessed person, we got to see his (or rather, his borrowed left arm's) powers go to work.
Although everything was kept suggestive, that is to say, nothing was ever stated clearly, it was clear that Arika cares for Tsuranui. After having read this far, I think this was probably the first time where anyone in the novel actually showed compassion for anything.
And that's about it for "junk the eater."
HandS.(R)
The story backtracks to over a year ago, before Arika was released from the "hospital" used to house Agonist patients.
The main narrator for this chapter is "Hisaori Shinya", a fellow patient who befriended Arika when they met during their free activity times.
HandS.(R) and (L) is a set story. Looking back on it now, (R) can be said to be mystery chapter, while the upcoming (L) would be the answer and explanation chapter.
In a way,
HandS.(R) is a very straightforward chapter. However, as the story progressed on and we were told that both Shinya and Arika would soon be released from the hospital, things slowly became fogged up: incomprehensible statements, unclear meanings. You know there's something going on, but everyone seemed "normal" on the sufrace.
It was only until the very end of the chapter did we learn (indirectly) of the possibility of an impostor on the loose, and that the narrator (Arika or Shinya) maybe not be the person they appear to be.
HandS.(L)
As expected, another flashback brings us back to Hisaori Shinya's childhood, where we will eventually learn of the events that led to the death of his parents, and hospitalization of his sister and himself.
What we were treated to was a sickening story of a copycat. Someone who is incapable of living without wearing someone else's face. Shinya's older sister, Hisaori Makina's unfortunate childhood, the awakening of her powers, and her acts of imitation were all understandable.
Soon enough, though, the watch-and-learn became acts of surveillence. Makina's imitation of Shinya began to take over the original by becoming a better Shinya than even Shinya himself. Shinya worked hard to gain the popularity and accomplishments he enjoyed, but Makina's Shinya did even better simply by imitating. Despite the irony in that, those who once supported Shinya soon switched camp to the new Shinya.
Makina did not only imitate Shinya, she
became Shinya. Not only is his behaviour copied, but most importantly, his thought pattern and tendencies were copied completely as well. Makina not only
knew Shinya's thoughts, she thinks exactly the same as well.
Shinya didn't last long under this condition, he deteriorated more and more while Makina remained the perfect Shinya. Finally, the tragedy occured, and their parents are killed in a chain of freak happenings. However, even this was part of Makina's elaborate plan to drive Shinya over the edge. And so he did.
The story returned to the events happening in present day, where the readers are finally beginning to realize that the Ishizue Arika that we have been following around after his discharge from the hospital near the end of
HandS.(R) was actually Makina (the Shinya who befriended Arika).
Even the supposed first encounter between Arika and Kaie was actually not true (yet, for Makina's Arika to react to seeing Kaie for the first time (love at first sight until he realizes Kaie is a guy
) so accurately, we can tell Makina's Arika was practically a complete copy of the real person).
Shinya's eventual death + someone named Arika making a bad name for himself in the community + the real Arika's discharge from hospital were the final pieces to the puzzle. It was Shinya who tried to smoke Makina out by pretending to be Arika doing bad things around town. Unable to wear any more facades, Makina returned to her useless self.
As a final retaliation, Makina tried to copy Kaie. But guess how that worked out. ^^;
At the end of this long flashback, Kaie and Arika have another one of their philosophy(?) sessions. "To keep on thinking (observing) for a way to not think". Quite nice. ^^;
That's it for "hide and self", I guess.
formal hunt
Loli imouto in superhuman battle against shotgun/dual pistol aneki, nuff said?
The story goes all the way back to 2 years ago, where we will eventually learn of the reason for Arika and his sister's "admission" into the Origa memorial hospital.
The chapte carries one big twist, as usual. The trick is similar to what was used in
HandS. as well, but less significant.
Developments aside, it's obvious the focus of this chapter is on the fight between Arika's little killer monster sister and the shotgun-toting lady cop, Touma Mato. Probably because he had plenty of training with Tsukihime and Fate, Nasu Kinoko's battle scenes are still quite a thrill to read.
I laughed at the tidbit in the end about Kanata-chan's name.
Hmm, that's about it, I suppose. I can talk about the moe-ness of Kaie for another 2000 words or so, but I'll save it.
2007-01-26, 22:05
Scanlator
