Editing Talk:Iriya no Sora UFO no Natsu (section)

==Reader Comments==
Mizuhito Akiyama's four-volume series "Iria no Sora, UFO no Natsu." A series that got animated and got to the news. The cover was quite ''otaku-tic'', and made one hesitate to take one from the shelf. However, don't hesitate; just buy it! This book's glamor is on its thoroughly well-set characters. Every character is written with great charisma, and it is fun reading about them. Of course Kana Iriya scores high in the ''moe'' scale, but hey, the side character Hiroyuki Suizenji is gold! (>_<) This guy leaves a great aftertaste, to the point that one would die for a sequel with Suizenji as the protagonist! Too bad that the main character, surrounded by so many charismatic characters, does not seem attractive enough... (;'p') Others are glamorous to the point of wasteful. The story is touching, and pulls me gradually in. '''Excitement index (9/10)''' 
:-- '''[http://indoa.blog59.fc2.com/blog-entry-4.html カムさん]'''




It started at Sonohara Government Junior High, which neighbors military facilities, and is awashed with rumors like "war" or "UFO". Naoyuki Asaba, a member of the news club, sneaked into the pool at midnight as a memory for the last day of summer. There he encountered a mysterious girl called Kana Iriya, and Naoyuki's "UFO's Summer" had started ever since...

A work that holds a view of the whole world, or specifically, "the lineage of EVA." There are surprisingly many people (including me) who got caught by what the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion" started at the middle of its storyline: the ambience of school love comedy, nurtured with the background of world crisis. There are enough of us to make Gainax keep churning out "School Eva" themed games and manga, but these are just a reuse of the Eva settings and a trap into the mere shell of love comedy. "Iriya no Sora," on the other hand, features an alien heroine's ephemera, a common life next neighbor to breakdown, a fragile boy-meets-girl that breaks upon the slightest touch. It interweaves the "crisis" and "heartache" we secretly embraced in "EVA," in such fiery tension that it can only be called fantastic. With this icy needle, those literature sissies who stubbornly holds on their admiration for a sweet Moratorium Utopia like "eternal summer break" or "never-ending culture festival" would definitely be stabbed without mercy! In fact I could not even bring myself into reading the second volume onwards. Hey, it is Mizuhito Akiyama, the author behind "Neko no Chikyugi (Cat's Terrestrial Globe, 猫の地球儀)"! I flip the pages with fearful heartbeats, thinking every minute what cruel incidents lie ahead! 

It is so good just to look at it from afar~ (Thinking stopped)

:-- '''[http://d.hatena.ne.jp/headofgarcia/20040927#p1 ガルシアの首さん]'''




When something like a novel, anime, manga -- a story -- gets good past a certain point, there is a strange opposite effect where the slightest inconsistency or flaw or unfulfillment starts to grate at you, eventually to haunt you. This is because the story now affects you at a level more normal stories do not. Its slightest shiver sends ripples. 

"Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu" did this for me, and despite being haunted, I can say that I'm grateful for it, because it hasn't happened in awhile. I have the forboding feeling that despite the promise of a continuation from the anime's events, that it will end as bittersweet as the anime. Yet, I find that I still have to know. 


I hold no illusions that this is the best story in the world, but those who always hold out for the best will never enjoy what's good. For me, it's enough if I can say that this is one story I'm not going to forget any time soon. 

It's too bad about things like these; they just don't advertise so well. Anybody can say that something is good, but in the absence of trust, it's all noise. All we're left with is a bunch of stats. Purple hair, frail constitution. Moe. As evidenced from my own turnaround, the best teaser is the anime, or (hint hint!) a few pages translated. However, from the synopses (spoilers ahead, obviously) I've read, the story moves (at least at the start) quite slowly. Apparently events don't really set themselves into motion until Chapter 2, and then things slow down after the beginning of the next volume. 

I personally am not against a slow moving story, if I am assured there IS a story, and if the interludes serve to build the world in which the story takes place. From what I have read, this is true of the novels. 

It really is too bad that people may not be able to appreciate the novel unless quite a bit more than a teaser has been translated. It's a chicken-egg dilemma, and the only thing I can say to people who don't know what this story is about -- is to watch the anime. And then vote afterwards.

:-- '''the_naming_game''' (quote from the forum)