Floating Girl [School & Library Binding]

I really enjoy the Rei's spunk and drive to keep working in a very nonreceptive overall environment, although there were some friendly individuals who were nice to her. People just cannot get over her mixed race, old-maid syndrome and her short hair--it just brings social interactions to a screeching halt.

This fantasy world of anime and role playing is amazing and offbeat. If they really do have huge conventions of anime role-players, I would sooo love to be there, just to see the spectacle.

If you liked this book, you'll like the movie "Chungking Express", which is very quirky as well.

Storyline: Rei gets assigned to work on a manga article. She knows nothing about it, but on investigating, a whole new world unfolds, with thousands of people totally obsessed with role playing, having huge conventions, wearing character costumes. Then, one of her sources turns up dead in the river, and her other sources are running scared. There's mafia at the beach and other fun.

About the boyfriend, there were some things about him that turned me off, I thought he was self-centered and self-obsessed in how he treated her, especially the swimming at the beach scene, and I'm glad she's not going gagga over him. It's good that he cares about the environment, yet he doesn't really care that deeply for her. He means well though.

I really enjoyed that she has strong, funky friendships that are highly entertaining and that give her some social support. Her friend Richard and his shenanigans are hilarious.

I would love to see a movie "ChungKing Express #2"-version of this book.
Another good book on wacky conventions and crazy people at them: "Bimbos of the Death Sun".

In this, the fourth book in the Rei Shimura series, our heroine, half Japanese, half American, is up to her kimono in trouble, as usual. Deciding to supplement her antiques business by writing a monthly column in The Gaijin, a newspaper largely read by foreigners in Japan, she learns to her dismay that the publisher is about to change the format. Instead of Rei's usual scholarly works, he wants her (and the others on the staff) to write in the form of a "manga," the wildly popular Japanese comic books.

Rei, who doesn't even know what a manga is, is quickly drawn into the fascinating, almost cultish world of Japanese animation and comic books--where obsessive fans think nothing of walking the streets dressed as their favorite character(s), and where would-be comic book artists are encouraged to draw their own versions of their favorites with no fear of reprisal from the publishing companies.

Rei's submersion into this sub-world leads her, of course, straight to a murder. With her tenacious American side battling her demure Japanese side, Rei throws herself into the mystery in typical fashion--and winds up embroiled in the feared Japanese underworld.

Simply a delight from start to finish...this series is perfect for summertime reading!

However, there are a couple of things that aren't plausible. At one point, Rei goes jogging. Keep in mind that it's summer in Tokyo--in fact, she's jogging later in the day than usual and mentions how muggy it is. In a short time she has to be covered in sweat. She ends her run early, but does she go home to shower and change her clothes? No. She hops on a train and goes to a college to ask some questions.

Rei speaks fluent Japanese, but can't read it. Her boyfriend translates the kanji in the comic books for her. By the end of the book which spans--maybe two weeks--her boyfriend tells her that her kanji reading has improved greatly. Yeah, right.

If you enjoy Japan I think you will enjoy this book. I'm not sure the seamy side of life in Japan is quite so sinister, but it is fiction.