The Floating Girl

Rating:
Summary: Floating Girl
Review: As with all of Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura books, we are immersed, not only in a mystery, but also in the mysterious culture of Japan. Here, in the fourth book, the particular focus is the world of Japanese animation, where rape is standard fodder for a comic book and even the Japanese are unsettled by extreme fans dressed up as characters. We also spend a surprising amount of time with foreign (non-Japanese) male strippers and even a few gangsters; all of which is to say that "The Floating Girl" seems just a wee bit extra exotic compared with the first three books. Even the sex, which Massey has always kept a few notches above the norm for "cozies" seems just a little spicier here. Following Rei Shimura's adventures has always been an exciting exploration of both traditional Japan, as well as its hip modern side, and this book continues in that mode. Fan's of Rei Shimura will welcome this addition, but I'm inclined to believe that the series is best appreciated starting from the beginning at "The Salaryman's Wife", an approach that allows for a gradual exposure to Japan and Rei.

Rating:
Summary: Massey scores again!
Review: Fans of Sujata Massey's Rei Shimura mysteries will surely be eager to read the latest entry in the series, so I'm happy to report that "The Floating Girl" doesn't disappoint. This time, Rei is taking a break from her usual antiques business to write an article about the world of manga (Japanese comics) for a Tokyo-based English language magazine. Along the way, she meets a lot of colorful characters...many of them in costume (these people take their comics VERY seriously!). This is a hip, fun series and Rei is a delightful heroine. Can't wait for the next one!

Rating:
Summary: Manga to Die for
Review: Floating Girls were courtesans, who lived in the Floating World, in the Japan of old, a fantasy world where reality didn't intrude. Today underground groups of young people, extreme fans of Manga, animation comics, live hidden lives, reading, writing and imitating their heroes.

Rei is supplementing her income by writing art and antique articles for a magazine geared toward foreigners and she's asked to do a story about a talented Manga fan artist. As she tries to track down the apparently missing young man, she realizes that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Then Manga artists start turning up dead. Rei is determined to find out the truth, no matter what the risk to herself or what the cost.

Once again Sujata Massey treats us to a wonderful mystery and takes us on a tour of modern Japan that even a Gaijin can understand.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining
Review: I enjoyed the book, but am hoping the earlier novels are better. I've been to Japan quite a few times and there were some passages that made me laugh out loud. For example there is a time or two where Rei is asking questions of some Japanese people, but getting answers to different questions. That's so typical.

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.

Rating:
Summary: Another great read !
Review: I have read all of Sujata Massey's books, and I highly recommend them all! As someone who loves Japan and its culture, I was attracted to the books because they are set in Japan. Once I read one, I was hooked! You don't need to be a Japanophile to appreciate her storytelling. Because I have also written two romantic suspense novels set in Japan, I was happy to see a market for this type of book. Do not hesitate to buy!!
Deborah Kemp...

Rating:
Summary: Mildly entertaining
Review: I haven't read any of the previous books, and when I opened this one, I liked a Japan I could recognise; but the style became really tiresome by the time I was halfway through the book. Who cares for a litany of brand names after a while? The story would have worked equally well without them.
And I was pretty put off by a Rei Shimura who made incredible leaps of 'intuition'. Japan's full of people. Why should any particular passerby be the people she's looking for?
It's a mystery. There are bound to be wrong conclusions and red herrings along the way. But with the way Rei makes her conclusions, I couldn't even respect her as a detective.
All in all, disappointing. Perhaps Massey's earlier, and later work's better.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't Put It Down
Review: I just love this series. It is so completely different, so calming and yet so very interesting at the same time, that at last I can use the word "unique" without spouting a cliche.

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!

Rating:
Summary: I want to go to this Japan! Costumes, Fantasy, Wackiness
Review: OK, I've never been to Japan, but I'd like to see this version of Japan, definitely.
This book is very stylish, hip, cyberpunk, yet also mixes in the beautiful traditional things about Japan, which can also be a double-edged sword in being frigidly traditional and coldly rejecting.

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".

Rating:
Summary: I want to go to this Japan! Costumes, Fantasy, Wackiness
Review: OK, I've never been to Japan, but I'd like to see this version of Japan, definitely.
This book is very stylish, hip, cyberpunk, yet also mixes in the beautiful traditional things about Japan, which can also be a double-edged sword in being frigidly traditional and coldly rejecting.

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".

Rating:
Summary: Decent albeit at times irritating.
Review: Rei Shimura, the Japanese-American amateur antiques dealer and sleuth returns to solve another crime in Tokyo. This time, she is drawn into the wacky world of doujinshi, the parody-imitation of Japanese manga.

Here she meets otaku, the fans that dress like their favorite characters and attend conventions - not unlike comic book fans Stateside! But there are sinister happenings afoot as one of the artists of a doujin-comic ends up dead.

The book, while entertaining, focuses on a strange, small, but very visible part of Japanese culture that makes it so unique to our western minds. At times, these comic-book otaku (or "individuals obsessed with something specific") are irritating enough to make the reader want them all dead.
American fans of things Japanese often call themselves otaku, but they should know that this is not considered a positive thing. Otaku are viewed as strange and marginal pretty much in Japan as well. Dressing up like Sailor Moon when 20 years old is weird in any culture!

While Massey's other books showcase interesting aspects of Japanese culture, this book takes something that is quite marginal and strange and presents it as almost normal. Readers should know that there is quite a difference between the Doujin-scene and the Manga-scene. Manga-creators are generally accepted in society and even held in esteem for their artistic talents as writers or artists. Doujin (or doujinshi) is considered to be underground, as the art is usually mere imitation of someone else's work, and the stories tend often to be "hentai" (meaning perverted) versions of popular series. Massey tries to show that the artist in question was truly talented, but this does not depart from the fact that his work was an imitation of someone else's creation. Just as otaku is not a positive, generally neither is doujinshi.

In any case, the book is somewhat darker than previous books in the series, and I did not find it as comfortable or enjoyable to read. Often the book and its description of doujin-culture just disturbed me.
I suppose covering all aspects of Japanese culture helps readers in the West be introduced to them. But there are so many more interesting topics to cover in Japan, including the mainstream manga phenomenon, something not really touched upon in the book. In a country where comics are targeted at everyone from babies to seniors and bookstores have entire sections devoted to them, delving into doujinshi was not entirely necessary, and may leave the wrong impression in people's minds about manga in Japan.