4 Supernatural Stories That You Wouldn’t Mind Experiencing Yourself
4. パーフェクトフレンド
Japanese Level ☆☆
Three elementary school girls are told by their teacher to try to get the new girl Sanaka to come to school. She missed her first day, refusing to go to class. Assuming it was a lost cause, and wondering why they had to help someone they didn’t even know, they headed to Sanaka’s house.
Sanaka told them she had no reason to go to school. At 9 years, not only had she graduated college, but she was working as a professional mathematician. It was just her mother who kept enrolling her in school, despite her having no obligation or need to go.
Upon Sanaka’s refusal, the three ask, “well what about friends? School isn’t just for studying.”
Sanaka has never had a friend. She didn’t even know what a friend was for or meant. After the three left feeling defeated, she decides to start going to their elementary school, with one objective in mind. Figure out how society really defines “friend,” and whether it is something she actually needs for her already satisfied life.
3. 秋の牢獄 (Autumn Prison)
Japanese Level: ☆☆
We all have thought at one point what it would be like to live the same day over and over again. The possibilities, the ramifications, the fear, Bill Murray… Ai has just stepped into that world. She has entered into repeats of a fine Autumn day. Every day resets at exactly 11:30PM, where she wakes up the same day.
It doesn’t take Ai much time to give up hope, as she sits in utter loneliness on a bench at her university. The bench she’s sat at for the past 25 repeats in a row.
Until something new happens. Ryuichi approaches her and tells her to come with him to a meeting place in the park. There he introduces himself and others to her. They are “Replayers,” and she is not alone. A group of 20+ Replayers gather every day at the park, to share in the experience. Some have been replaying for only a few days. Others have been there for hundreds.
Replayers start disappearing. It could just be that they decided to leave the group, but the appearance of a wandering white figure, referred to them as the “White Nobleman” starts to trouble them. All the Replayers have seen his appearance as he wanders around the city. His mysterious, ghost like figure is only visible to them.
What is his identity, and is he behind these possible disappearances? More importantly though, is there any way out of this repetitive cycle?
2. 神家没落 (The Fall Of The House Of The Gods)
Japanese Level ☆☆☆
On his way home from work, Jiro comes across an unfamiliar path leading to a nearby wooded area. Despite having lived in this area for years, his curiosity got the best of him, so he took the path which led to an old run down house, with a garden out front and back.
Wondering how this house got here, and who could possibly live inside, an old man in an Okina Mask (Traditional Japanese mask) popped his head out the window greeting his new visitor. After some minor pleasantries, the masked man shocks Jiro by saying:
“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
With Jiro in confusion, the old man explains that he has been waiting for his replacement for 50 years, and he has finally found him. He walks passed Jiro and leaves the area of the house. Jiro, dumbfounded, follows after him, but can’t leave the front garden. Some invisible force blocks him. Jiro was chosen as the guardian of the house, and he can’t leave until he finds someone else to take his place.
As Jiro figures out how to escape, the house begins transporting itself to various places in Japan. Jiro starts to make sense of the puzzle and realizes all he needs to do is have someone enter the lawn of his house, and he can then leave. He would be trapping the person like he was, but he would be free.
To attract more people he starts a cafe out of the house. Will he be able to find his way out? Does he have the determination to trap another innocent person like he was?
1. 幻は夜に成長する(Illusions Grow During The Night)
Japanese Level: ☆☆☆
Rio is locked up. Her freedom has been taken away. She is treated like a goddess. She is waiting. It’s almost time. She has flashbacks of when she was younger and her aunt help her escape from a village and the two of them lived in the mountains together. There Rio’s aunt passed down the art of Genjutsu (Illusion Magic), which is the ability to make anything appear as reality.
After spending many months together, the aunt gets into an issue with the locals, and those locals end up burning her mountain house down. Her aunt disappears, but Rio luckily escapes unscathed. However she has nowhere to turn to. She is brought to the police, where she is returned to her regular family, which she had completely forgotten up to that point. Her aunt was not really hear aunt, and had actually kidnapped Rio, casting an illusion over her.
But why?
With her aunt gone, and Rio back to normal life, she returns back to school. But her powers here growing. How will she use them and what series of events brings her to her current imprisonment?
*Stories #1, #2 #3 make up the novel “秋の牢獄“
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Yay supernatural and fantasy books are my favourite. Could you make a list about fantasy books next? Is there anything like Harry potter/game of thrones level of popularity in Japan?
Also, I’d really love a top 5: Adam’s favourite books of all time. In fact I’d love one of those for movies, books, anime, manga etc. Though I know people hate having to whittle down all the stuff they’ve consumed over the years into 5, it can be done! Besides, it’d only be taken as your opinion at the exact moment of writing the article, so we wouldn’t be able to hold it against you ;P.
For fantasy, 十二国記, it is an absolute masterpiece.
I guess I don’t read that much fantasy, which is why there is not much on it here. But if I find anything that sparks my interest, I may get around to reading more.
As for a favorites, anything that makes these lists, I have personally read and enjoyed (same goes for every genre of media). A lot of what I read doesn’t make it to the site, because I don’t enjoy writing about what I didn’t like myself.
Probably my favorites are the 夢を叶えるぞ and 悪夢 series I’ve written about here.
秋の牢獄 sounds interesting, I might give it a try.
Is this the first volume?
http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E7%A7%8B%E3%81%AE%E7%89%A2%E7%8D%84-%E8%A7%92%E5%B7%9D%E3%83%9B%E3%83%A9%E3%83%BC%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E6%81%92%E5%B7%9D-%E5%85%89%E5%A4%AA%E9%83%8E/dp/4043892039/
Yup, that’s it.
Cool beans. Cheers~
i’m sure i can’t even read it yet but wanted to try and went to make an JP account for amazon but was shocked it told me i couldn’t give them moneys because of copyright restrictions…….
take my money dammit
I don’t know if it will help for this particular book, but I have successfully used my existing Amazon account to purchase from Amazon.jp. My address and credit card is Danish however.
Hmm that is strange. It should work with any standard credit card. Unless some books have restrictions I’m not aware of.
my address and cc are dutch but didn’t get to fill that in for my jp account.
I actually use my US/UK Amazon account (I don’t remember which one I started with) on Amazon JP – it works with the same login and password. It should not be necessary to create a new Amazon account for Amazon JP.
i thought so to but it didn’t work :( i might try again later
might be handy to say i am trying to get the kindle version not the paper version.
Maybe you have to make a Japanese account with a separate email and put in a Japanese address. You can add your real address later if you want physical merchandise. That’s what I ended up doing. I use my U.S. credit card to buy kindle books all the time off Amazon JP (with a Japanese account) and it works just fine. There are guides online to help with setting it all up.
Sometimes I had to use a vpn/proxy because it would say I was trying to pay from outside Japan but usually I can just 1-click purchase books without any issues.
thanks i will try that :)