Dec 27, 2016
I completed the first 2 volumes (or, rather, volume 1 parts 1 & 2) of Fire Girl translated by NanoDesu in a binge of about 5 hours.
Although this is only 2/7 of the series, the first volume consists of one complete arc, and truly sets the strengths of the work at the forefront. Fire Girl is a work about how important character perspective is to adventure fiction - for there to be a truly genuine sense of adventure. It's a work about how everything is built on small trials leading up to greater climaxes, and how small movements within a person's heart can build
...
up into larger movements in a landscape.
Fire Girl is an adventure novel that doesn't start with an adventure, but starts in school, and it takes several chapters just to build up characterization and our anticipation for the world, and when the world finally drops in on us - it's what we both expect and don't expect. All this comes from Hoshizora Meteor's meticulously planned setting inspired by stories he heard about the Wandervogel movement and real life Adventure Club members (or so he says in the commentary at the end of the second volume).
This is a novel where the mere slipping and falling down a hole is turned into a moment of intense emotional crisis for a certain character.
Adventures are excruciating difficult to plan and undertake in real life. There are no shortcuts or fast travel buttons. Supply and planning is extremely important. Small mistakes can lead to large crises. But the price of being able to look over that new horizon has to be completely worth it, because so many try to do it again and again.
Despite the slow development of the adventure itself, the work is imbued with speed. Even if quite a chunk is lost in the rather awkward and serviceable translation, Meteor has a great pace of content, with jokes and characterization mixed with setting exposition, and some very poetic turns of phrases. His imagination shines through even when seen through a muddy lens. You have a magic system based upon the Periodic Table mixed with a logic-puzzle mnemonic system (like a Rubik's Cube), as well as focused explanations on fauna, floral, history, landscape, and tools. The limits of his logical setting doesn't stop him from being able to throw in an RPG inspired class system, and a lot of other quirks.
Kinoko Nasu's commentary at the end of volume 1 puts it quite succinctly when he talks about two things. First, he gives his own definition of the light novel:
"The word “light” here doesn’t mean “not heavy”, but rather that it is “easy for readers to like it”, or so I believe. I think that the author, Mr. Hoshizora Meteo, most likely wrote this work with that in mind as well."
Secondly, he gives a short description of the work:
"Welcome to Hoshizora Meteo’s heart-pounding world. This is a warm teen sci-fi story that combines the macro sci-fi world view and the micro-sized sense of values of a high school girl."
And that is probably enough
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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