Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Light Novel), Vol. 6 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol 6 by Mikage Sawamura

Previous book marked a turn in the story: Naoya and the professor visited the festival of the dead where Naoya had been to as a child and which had led to him starting to hear lies. This book, subtitled Dark Reflections, starts a week after those events. Back at the university, Naoya tries to come to terms with their visit to the underworld, and wonders if it was worth it. He can still hear the lies, so nothing’s changed.

But Professor Takatsuki is so upset he falls ill. The entity inside him made him forget the entire journey, because he’d learned what happened when he was abducted, and he can’t accept it. Naoya tries to cheer him up and ends up promising he’ll be Takatsuki’s memory from now on.

In an effort to cheer up the professor, Naoya makes him take a case of a haunted house in an amusement park, where people have started to see an actual ghost. He thinks Takatsuki’s reluctance is caused by his upset, but turns out it’s because the professor has already figured out what’s going on and it’s not supernatural. But Naoya gets a fun day at an amusement park with Takatsuki, Kenji, and Ruiko.

In the second story, Takatsuki’s cousin Yuuko contacts him for the first time in twenty years. (Takatsuki isn’t allowed to contact his family except his uncle who raised him.) His fiancé insists she needs supernatural help for a growth on her shoulder and wants him to call Takatsuki. Turns out, she had attended as a child the tea parties Takatsuki’s mother held where she showed him around as a tengu, and had become obsessed with him. This story took an unexpected turn, but it wasn’t supernatural either.

But it did give Naoya a deeper understanding of Takatsuki’s family situation. He even gets to meet his mother briefly and learns she’s still in denial about Takatsuki and insists her son didn’t return, after Takatsuki didn’t let her show him around as a tengu anymore. The whole situation is upsetting for Takatsuki too, but at least he got to connect with his cousin again.

In the third story, a girl contacts them about a mirror that disappeared her mother. Her father insists she left with her lover, but when Takatsuki and Naoya investigate, the truth turns out to be something supernatural—for the first time. It triggers the entity inside Takatsuki to intervene even. Naoya has a chance to communicate with it, but it leaves him with more questions than answers. But he’s now sure the entity is causing Takatsuki’s memory losses.

This was an excellent volume in many ways. The narrative felt more mature, Naoya’s inner monologue was deeper and we get better insights into him and Takatsuki both; their friendship changes quite a lot (no romance), and there was an actual supernatural case. The theme of the book was mirror and it offered some good insights into Japanese folklore and human psyche. I’m a bit annoyed that the aftermath of Kenji seeing a real ghost was skipped, but perhaps we get a bonus story about that later. There was no cliffhanger ending or extra stories. There are three more books to come and I can’t wait to read them. Though I’ll probably gobble them down in one sitting like this one too.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Manga), Vol. 6 by Mikage Sawamura & Toji Aio: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Manga), Vol. 6 by Mikage Sawamura & Toji Aio

Manga editions catch up with the light novels out in English so far (five volumes) here. According to the author and the manga artist, there’s a pause in the adaptations after this one, but both express a hope that there will be more manga after this, as the story continues in light novels.

This is a turning point in the story. Professor Takatsuki and Naoya return to the festival of the dead where Naoya gained his ability to hear lies. They’re not welcome to the village though, especially after an old neighbour of his grandmother’s discovers that Naoya can hear lies.

The men go to investigate anyway, and stumble on a real supernatural event for the first time, landing in the realm of the dead. Problem is, Naoya isn’t meant to escape it for a second time. Luckily, they have unexpected help.

During their time in the spirit world, both Naoya and the professor remember things from their past. In his case, the professor remembers what happened when he was spirited away. Unfortunately, his mind refuses to retain the memory, and it wipes away the entire visit to the spirit world too. He remains philosophical though. He’ll just have to keep Naoya around to remember for him.

This was a good recap of the events in the light novel vol 5, though very much compacted. It’s always interesting to see a visualisation of complicated events. This is a good place to end the manga, even if it doesn’t resolve anything. But I hope there will be more adaptations, even if Goodreads only lists the six volumes so far. At least there are more light novels to come (there are eight in Japanese.) Looking forward to reading them all.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture Vol. 5 (Light Novel) by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol. 5 by Mikage Sawamura

In this volume, we finally get to what we’ve been waiting for: Naoya returns to the village where he accidentally entered the festival of the dead and gained (or was cursed with) the ability to hear lies. It doesn’t go well.

It’s the summer break of Naoya’s second year at the Tokyo university. He has no plans, as he’s estranged from his family and doesn’t really have any friends that he’s aware of having. When Professor Takatsuki invites him to participate in the night of one hundred horrors arranged at the university premises, he agrees, even if he’s not particularly interested.

The event is held at night in candle light. Every participant tells a ghost story until a hundred of them has been told. At the end, something supernatural is supposed to happen—and it does. But to Naoya’s surprise, Professor Takatsuki isn’t showing his typical enthusiasm for the event, which has to mean it’s fake. The mystery part of the first story is about finding out who and why, which is easily solved and isn’t terribly exciting.

Then it’s time for Naoya, Takatsuki, and KenKen to travel to Nagano and the small village there where Naoya’s grandmother used to live. He is warned against going by his new acquaintance who has also attended the same festival and gained the ability to hear lies, and by Miss Sae, the mystery woman who may be a mermaid. But Naoya needs to find out the truth.

The villagers try to keep them away too, but no one tells them why. No one wants to talk about the festival either. But Professor Takatsuki is determined to learn everything. They join a similar festival at a village nearby, and on their way back at night, they finally find what they’re looking for. Everything seems mundane at first, until Naoya stumbles into the real festival of the dead, held in the realm of the dead, and accidentally pulls Takatsuki with him.

There they finally learn why everyone wants to keep them away. The mountain god collects the people who return to the festival and keeps them forever. And this time, the price for being let out is steeper than it was when Naoya was a child.

This was a good volume. The first part wasn’t terribly spooky, despite the topic, as the ghost stories weren’t recited to the reader, and it’s mostly about Naoya observing people. The second part was great. We meet Naoya’s cousin who tells stories about his childhood, and in the realm of the dead, Naoya goes over his life in flashes, and we learn that he was very unhappy and lonely as a child. It almost makes him give up, but he also remembers the good things and friends he’s made at the university, which gives him strength to fight free.

But he’s not the only one remembering his past. Takatsuki does too. He finally remembers parts of what happened to him when he was abducted. But in a cruel twist and an annoying cliffhanger, before he can tell what it was, the entity inside him makes him forget everything—including the adventure in the realm of the dead they just had. I hope he’ll get his memory back in the next volume. It would be too upsetting if he forgets the first real supernatural event he’s witnessed. I’ll definitely read on.

In the extra story, one of Takatsuki’s graduate students reflects on the professor and why she’s not in love with him even though all her girlfriends assume she must be. It’s a nice addition to the character profiles so far.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture Vol. 5 (manga) by Toji Aio, Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol 5 by Mikage Sawamura

Volume 5 manga was released before vol 5 light novel, which is postponed to January, so here the manga catches up with the original. The volume starts by wrapping up the case of cursed office workers that was left unfinished in the previous one. But the most important part of that case is that Naoya learns that he’s not the only one who’s experienced the festival of the death, with the same consequence for his fellow of hearing lies.

It’s a pivotal moment in Naoya’s life so far, giving him new kind of focus. He really wants to go with Akira to the village where it happened, despite the warning of his counterpart of not returning there. But the other person also gives him advice on how to live with the condition without losing his mind.

The most exciting part of the light novel was the surprise visit of Akira’s uncle who lives in England. Akira used to live there with him as a teenager, and he’s the only family member he’s close to. Manga doesn’t quite capture the meaning of his visit, and he’s relegated to a background character. And the extra story where he tells Naoya of Akira’s life in London is left out completely. Unless it’s added at some later point, the readers of manga only will miss out on a large part of what makes Akira tick.

Most of the manga volume is taken by a mermaid story. Akira, Naoya, Kenji, and Akira’s uncle travel to the seaside where there’s been mermaid sightings. They encounter a little boy who insists she’s his mother, only to learn from the child’s father that she has drowned, and he hasn’t quite figured out how to tell that to his son.

It could’ve been left at that, a private tragedy, but the story takes a twist. Because it turns out, the boy could be telling the truth after all. The mother’s childhood friend is very mysterious, someone who has maybe lived a long time. And she knows just by reading Akira’s palm that he’s not alone in his body. But she disappears before he gets to the bottom of the matter.

The last story is from the volume 5 of the light novel, which I haven’t read yet. Akira’s students hold a night of one hundred candles, where they gather to tell scary stories in candle light. This too will have consequences, but the manga ends before we get to those.

This volume had a better pace than the previous one, which was too hectic. The art felt more restful too, and so different that I had to go back to older volumes to see if there has been a great change in style. The panels were maybe larger in this one, with fewer of them per page, which added to the calmer feel. It also allowed the artist, Toji Aio, to draw close-ups of the characters, giving the volume an over-all different feel. I hope this style continues in the subsequent volumes.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture Vol. 4 (manga) by Toji Aio & Mikage Sawamura: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol 4 manga by Toji Aio & Mikage Sawamura

There have been two volume fours of Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture published this month, first the light novel and now the manga, so I’m not accidentally reviewing the same book twice.

The manga volume 4 starts with the conclusion of the case that was left unfinished in the previous one, about Mana, the “Miracle Girl of Okutama,” the child who survived a tragic bus crash and is now treated like a goddess. Akira takes a personal interest, having been treated similarly in his childhood, the reason why he’s no longer in touch with his family. For the first time, he gets angry even.

Next story takes place during the university spring break. Akira, Naoya and Kenji travel to a wintry mountain area where they investigate a demon cave, only to discover it holds human remains. It turns out to be a rather tragic story of family secrets, but nothing supernatural.

In the aftermath, Naoya comes face to face with the mystery entity inside Akira for the first time, the reason Akira’s eyes change colour, which should be a great revelation for the reader. Unfortunately, the manga doesn’t do the scene justice. The change of eye-colour is difficult to show in black and white illustrations, but there could’ve been other ways to emphasise the importance of the scene. Here, it looks like Akira comes on to Naoya, even though it’s supposed to be a really frightening supernatural event that shakes Naoya badly. Those who haven’t read the light novel will be really confused and maybe led astray in thinking where the relationship between the two is going.

The last story catches up with the vol 4 of the light novel. It’s April and Naoya’s second year at the university has begun. To his chagrin, everyone mistakes him for a first-year student, but at least he still gets to work with Akira. Their next case is about a curse that four office workers have summoned on themselves. It’s cut short just as it’s about to become interesting. Those who have read the light novel will know it has important consequences to Naoya. Readers of manga will have to wait for the next volume.

This was a good but very hasty volume. The pace is very fast and corners are cut, with above-mentioned results. The friendship between Naoya and Akira doesn’t have similar depth here as it has in the light novels either. It also leaves out the extra story from vol 3 of the light novel, which would’ve been an important addition. It’s from Kenji’s point of view, depicting his and Akira’s childhood and the supernatural event that took place years before Akira’s abduction. I hope that’s added to the next manga volume, or it gets a special volume, as it’s very interesting. The artist seems to hint at that in their afterword at least. Illustrations by Toji Aio were good, like always, showcasing the Japanese culture especially well.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture (Light Novel) vol. 4 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture vol. 4 by Mikage Sawamura

This series has become a comfort reading of mine, and I read the latest volume in one sitting. In my defence, these light novels aren’t very long. Volume 4 has a subtitle Thus, the Gates to the Spirit Realm Open, which describes the contents fairly well.

It’s April and Naoya Fukamachi has begun the second year of his studies at the university in Tokyo where he studies folklore with Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki. They’ve spent most of the spring break travelling together, but Naoya is still slightly anxious that Akira won’t need his help anymore in investigating supernatural incidents. He shouldn’t have worried.

There are only two—long—chapters. In the first one, a popular story to frighten children surfaces at a workplace. In it, one summons a hag or a curse or enters another dimension if they perform required things on April 4th at 4:44—number four being ominous, as it’s pronounced like death. Four people at the workplace have performed the summons and bad things have started to happen to them.

It doesn’t take Akira long to unravel the mystery, which once again turns out to have a mundane origin. But the case proves important to Naoya, because he meets another person like him who can hear lies due to similar events as his. Having someone with whom to talk about it makes a great impact on him. He also makes an effort to become more sociable, even if it’s only with one friend.

In the second chapter, Akira’s uncle comes to visit, and Naoya learns a lot about Akira and his past—although the reader doesn’t find out until during the extra chapter at the end. He’s the only family member who cares about Akira, and he’s relieved to learn that there are people looking after his nephew.

Together with Ken-Ken, the four travel to a seaside town where fishermen claim to have seen mermaids. It appears to be a hoax, until they meet a little boy who tells them that his mother has become a mermaid and returned to the sea. Dismissing it as a story first, they soon learn that things might be more complicated than they believed. And for the first time, they may have encountered a being who isn’t quite human.

In the extra story, we learn about Akira’s youth in England with his uncle. It’s a slightly sad story, revealing sides of Akira the reader hasn’t known before, but hopeful too, as Akira heals from his trauma with the help of his uncle and his found family. We still don’t learn more about the being inside Akira, or what happened to him when he was abducted, but it’s becoming certain that the mystery is supernatural in origin. I’m eager to read more.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture Vol. 3 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura

Volume 3 of Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture is called A Tale of Curses and Blessings. This light novel series of paranormal cozy mysteries is set in contemporary Japan. It follows Naoya Fukamachi, a first-year student at Seiwa University in Tokyo, and an associate professor of folklore, Akira Takatsuki, who specialises in urban legends and ghost stories. Naoya helps the professor to explore all sorts of paranormal incidents, all of which have had very mundane explanations so far, much to the excitable professor’s disappointment.

As the title tells, the third volume is about curses. Naoya’s classmate believes he’s been cursed because he didn’t forward a chain letter, so Naoya brings him to the professor who solves it in a very Takatsuki manner. Then the pair investigates a ghost story at a nearby library. The ghost leaves ciphers in books and whoever finds them is cursed if they fail to solve them. That turned out to have a lovely and sad explanation.

Third mystery takes Naoya, Takatsuki and his detective friend Kenji ‘KenKen’ Sasakura out of Tokyo to a remote mountain village. They’re supposed to be on a winter break, but Takatsuki has heard of a cave with a demon buried in it and wants to see it for himself. When they find bones that belong to a human, they suddenly have a mystery to solve. That too, turned out to be very sad.

The volume ends with a lovely bonus story from KenKen’s point of view, where he remembers how he and Akira first met when they were six and formed a friendship that’s lasted thirty years. It has a spooky ghost story too, that might shed light to why Akira is special—if only KenKen would reveal it to him.

In addition to mysteries, we learn more about Takatsuki. He hides a personal tragedy behind constant smiles and taking delight in all the small things, like hot chocolate with marshmallows. But the glimpses behind the scenes make the reader want to give him a tight hug and never let go. There is something dark in him too, which Naoya discovers to his horror, though it’s unclear yet if Takatsuki himself knows about it. Since Naoya and KenKen are determined to protect him at all costs, mostly from himself, neither of them will likely tell him.

Naoya, the point of view character, is more involved this time round instead of a mere observer that remains a bit distant. He realises that his time at the university has changed him, and that he might have made friends even. He’s not willing to admit it though, as all friends he makes usually leave him when they learn that he can hear their lies. He tells a few fibs himself, much to his distress. But best of all, he realises he’s become friends with Takatsuki beyond a mere student-professor relationship. Those looking for a romance will be disappointed though—unless the last line in KenKen’s story hints at that.

As always, I read this too fast and now have to wait for the next volume. Luckily there are several volumes to be translated still. I’m looking forward to reading them all.

p.s. If you’re buying this series on Amazon, there’s a glitch which directs to the manga of the series when purchasing the ebook. The volume number is the same, but contents obviously aren’t. Paperback links direct to the correct book. Other retailers don’t have the same problem, so maybe favour them. The problem isn’t unique to this series on Amazon; many light novels with manga adaptations have the glitch.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture, Vol. 2 by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki’s Conjecture vol. 2  Mikage Sawamura

The second book was as delightful as the first. It continues a month or so after the first, and again Naoya Fukamachi, a student at a Tokyo university, helps Professor Takatsuki, his folklore teacher, solve three cases that seem supernatural. All are interesting, but they all fail in what the professor finds most important: no real ghosts are involved. The last one is most heartbreaking and it brushes the professor’s past.

Naoya is still a very reserved charcter and difficult to get a hang of, even though the narrative is from his point of view. It’s difficult for him to let people close, even when he needs help. But when a bad flu makes him lose his ability to hear lies, he realises he doesn’t know how to be ordinary either. Professor Takatsuki is as delightful as ever, but the tragedy behind his cheerful exterior is starting to unravel. I’ll have to read more to learn everything.

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture by Mikage Sawamura

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture is a Japanese light novel set in a university in present day Tokyo. Naoya Fukamachi is a first-year student trying to figure out college life and what he wants to study. What he doesn’t want are activity clubs and friends. If at all possible, he would stay away from people completely.

Naoya has a unique ability to hear lies. It’s a distortion of sound that is painful for him, so much so that if many people lie around him, he might faint. To survive, he hasn’t a single friend, and even casual acquaintances are upsetting, because he doesn’t want to know when they lie. Large lecture halls are a nightmare.

But they can’t be avoided. On a whim—or so he tells himself—he attends a course on folklore that specializes in urban legends, ghost stories, and strange phenomena. It’s held by professor Akira Takatsuki whose enthusiasm for his topic keeps the students glued to their seats—or it’s because he’s very handsome.

For extra credit, Naoya submits a story of a strange event that happened to him, and even though he doesn’t tell everything, Professor Takatsuki knows it’s real. He’s an eccentric person who gets excited fast, and so he decides to make Naoya his assistant, mostly because Naoya has common sense the professor lacks and can read maps. And then he learns about Naoya’s ability and it turns out that the professor has a similar story in his past.

The book consists of three cases the pair investigate. There’s a haunted house, a curse, and a girl who has been spirited away. They’re fun stories, though not particularly difficult to solve, with some exciting action too. And they are good windows to Japanese society and folklore. A lot of folklore. The author is either a folklorist himself, or a true enthusiast. Occasionally the book reads like lecture notes, but everything is always interesting—at least for a historian like me.

But the main mystery remains unsolved for now. What happened to Naoya and the professor when they were children. Were they genuine supernatural events or something more mundane. What they know is that both have been permanently altered because of it.

This was a good start for a series. The cases were complete and the book ends at a natural point and not with a cliffhanger. Naoya and Takatsuki were great characters and complete opposites of each other; the teacher student dynamic was occasionally upside down, which probably doesn’t translate well to western readers. For a light novel, the story had a more mature feel than I usually associate with them, and it reads more like a paranormal cozy mystery than a young adult novel. I’d very much like to read more and I hope the rest of the seven volumes are translated too.

I received a free copy from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.