Author: Christina Kane Published: September 29th, 2018
Volumes: 3 / Type: Light Novels / Language: Japanese & English
A geek who runs an occult/supernatural blog, a teenage psychic, a newspaper reporter and a mysterious girl with a secret are among a small group of people bound together through mysterious circumstances.
Story
This is the original novel series that eventually became a manga, an anime and a visual novel. J-Club, a site dealing with translations of light novels that started last year, picked this up.
The main incidents that tie in this story are the murder of a university professor, popular for his views on the occult and the mysterious deaths of over two hundred and fifty six people, whose bodies are found in a local lake. Along the way, we also get devils, the spiritual world, erotic doujins, a scary albino child and a young detective who looks like a kid. There’s also an underlying conspiracy as well of course and then it eventually turns into this plot twist that takes the story into a completely different direction. And once the novel kicks into its final third…oh boy… All hell breaks loose.
Characters
And we have quite a group:
Yuta is this novel’s main protagonist. He’s a second year student that makes a comfortable enough living off his blog that deals with the occult and other supernatural and paranormal subjects. His site, Kiri Kiri Basara, has a small following on the Internet. His best pal/sidekick is Ryota, a lovely girl with… oh hell, I’m just going to say it… big boobs. She’s a bit eccentric as she calls Yuta ‘Gamotan’ and carries a stun gun that is dubbed (by Yuta) the ‘Poya Gun’. However, later on, Ryota’s got some secrets of her own.
Next up is Miyu Aikawa, a first-year student who’s also a psychic with a small following. She’s got her own fanclub at school and joins Yuta and Ryota on their blog.
Sarai is a skeptic that sometimes finds himself on Yuta’s blog. He is the son of the professor whose murder is one of the incidents that sets everything in motion. The professor was well known throughout the supernatural and paranormal communities; Sarai however is more of a realist.
The rest of the cast also includes writer Toko, who works for an occult magazine; Ririka, an artist whose speciality is erotica… and whose works also bear an uncanny ability to predict the future. And then there’s Shun, who’s a BIG otaku and also a detective, despite actually being in his twenties.
The most intriguing character other than our main group might be Aria, a mysterious girl who runs a black magic shop and with a piece of a victim’s hair, is said to lay curses on people. She also has a ghost… or a ‘devil’ working by her side. In reality though, Aria’s real name is Ria; years ago, her older brother had died and she had a psychotic break where she had kept his mummified body with her for a year.
Themes
On one hand, you could say this fits into the man vs God/supernatural trope, along with a dash of murder mystery and a dash of the paranormal. On the other hand, you could also say that this is science fiction.
Writing
One good thing about this series of light novels (for the uninitiated, basically young adult fantasy novels in Japan) is that this reads quite easily. Each chapter is short and is basically the POV of one of the main characters.
Quality/Conclusion
Rank: 6
I got these on kindle from J-Club, though all three volumes are also available in print as well. The quality is pretty good, as far as I can tell. I’m not much of a light novel reader since most seem to be isekai (person suddenly gets taken/reborn into another world) based and that’s not exactly my favorite genre; however, all three volumes kept my interest throughout the story.
Source: Article Image: Occultic;Nine volume 1 cover
- Original Title: ??????????? (Okarutikku Nain)
- Author: Chiyomaru Shikura
- Illustrator: Pako
- Release Date: 2014
- License: J-Novel Club