The Longing of Shiina Ryo

[Cryum]

This is an awesome piece of work. Some of the references were before my time, but I really enjoyed all the obscure shout-outs. I may not have been able to fully decipher Shin-Tsu's and Kouma's personalities, but i was able to partially relate with them, and this was both a mind-screw and food for thought for me. I really can't wait to see what else you can put out!

[Ryuno]

This is an awesome piece of work. Some of the references were before my time, but I really enjoyed all the obscure shout-outs. I may not have been able to fully decipher Shin-Tsu's and Kouma's personalities, but i was able to partially relate with them, and this was both a mind-screw and food for thought for me. I really can't wait to see what else you can put out!

Thank you, sir. My editor spent quite some time trying to gather all the references in volume 1 and if I recall correctly he found around a hundred of them, so I'm afraid I went overboard on that. Sometimes relating is better than understanding and I am glad I could stimulate your mind a little. Hope you enjoy the third installment too!

[rock96]

You're good author, dammit. One hundred references, mein Gott... You were serious when you said you're NisiOisiN's rival.

I think, I'll try to come up with some ideas for your collaboration, but I cannot promise anything.

[Ryuno]

You're good author, dammit. One hundred references, mein Gott... You were serious when you said you're NisiOisiN's rival.

I think, I'll try to come up with some ideas for your collaboration, but I cannot promise anything.

Thank you! I'm still very far from his level, but I sure will try to catch up.

And I'm writing a blog post about that right now.

[b0mb3r]

After graduating college and a bit of a free time I finally got around reading both volumes of your work. I must say it is very NisiOisiN. I hope I don't mean to offend if it sounds like I am insinuating you to be a copycat, it's just I very much enjoy the style of his and yours. It seems like first-person narrative with an unreliable narrator that rambles on while being mentally unstable and meta of his own human condition in post-modern world seems to fit my taste. Hmm explains why I love good visual novels. I also see NisiOisiN and his fellow cover-artist "take" as my rivals too since I myself am training to be a narrative visual artist. While writing is not my forte hopefully my art will cover for poor grammar (need a beta/editor I guess). Anyway bravo on your work and I look forward in reading the third piece of your work. God now I'm in despair as when will Del Ray will ever finish translating the third Zaregoto book. Ciao.

P.S.

Just a quickie question. This book is intended for a niche market correct? I tend to read light novels as anime in novel format. The reason I ask is because how similar you are to NisiOisiN when referring to alot of pop culture references. Would it be correct to say your piece at the moment can only be read of its reflective time period? I mean as much I love the references and know where each comes from I tend to think it is not a timeless piece. Under the context with friends and family who aren't knowledgeable otaku stuff, I can imagine it hard for them to understand your refs. Then again one can argue that alot of old classics has made references I don't get. Like Catcher in the Rye (though hated that book).

[Ryuno]

After graduating college and a bit of a free time I finally got around reading both volumes of your work. I must say it is very NisiOisiN. I hope I don't mean to offend if it sounds like I am insinuating you to be a copycat, it's just I very much enjoy the style of his and yours. It seems like first-person narrative with an unreliable narrator that rambles on while being mentally unstable and meta of his own human condition in post-modern world seems to fit my taste. Hmm explains why I love good visual novels. I also see NisiOisiN and his fellow cover-artist "take" as my rivals too since I myself am training to be a narrative visual artist. While writing is not my forte hopefully my art will cover for poor grammar (need a beta/editor I guess). Anyway bravo on your work and I look forward in reading the third piece of your work. God now I'm in despair as when will Del Ray will ever finish translating the third Zaregoto book. Ciao.

P.S.

Just a quickie question. This book is intended for a niche market correct? I tend to read light novels as anime in novel format. The reason I ask is because how similar you are to NisiOisiN when referring to alot of pop culture references. Would it be correct to say your piece at the moment can only be read of its reflective time period? I mean as much I love the references and know where each comes from I tend to think it is not a timeless piece. Under the context with friends and family who aren't knowledgeable otaku stuff, I can imagine it hard for them to understand your refs. Then again one can argue that alot of old classics has made references I don't get. Like Catcher in the Rye (though hated that book).

It does not offend me at all, quite the other way around; I draw a lot of inspiration from NisiOisiN and genuinely hope to rise to a level where I can rival him in every aspect (college drop-out turned good writer, anime by SHAFT, Ascended Fanboy-esque friends with Hirohiko Araki, the power to write a sequel in three days). It pleases me to see you want to get there too, because healthy competition makes us all stronger. Don't worry about writing, it's definitely not my specialty either; you just need to fake it well. And I'm okay with Del Ray not working on it for a while longer as long as that fine gentleman working on the project comes back: I need my fix and I really don't care where it comes from, and this is coming from someone who did buy the first two volumes.

Here is the project link if you didn't see it yet: http://zaregoto.pbworks.com/w/page/3369 ... ont%20Page

Regarding the question, it is and it is not, for such are the wonders of Multiple Demographic Appeal; while there is a lot of niche material on it, a good deal of the references can be seen as bonuses (or me winking at the audience) rather than a necessary evil in order to enjoy the story and I have readers who managed to enjoy it even while not being as familiarized with anime as one of us would expect (God knows how, I mean, really). I think it's the same case as Dante's Divine Comedy: what many perceive today as deep and intriguing poetry were tongue-in-cheek jokes and the author calling out society on stuff back in the day. Another example would be biblical book of Revelation, of which many parts had a different meaning to the Christian community then in comparison to modern interpretation, to the point where they could actually rationalize the number "666" into the name/title "Nero Caesar". Magnitude and popularity of said works in comparison to mine aside, my point remains: no work of literature shall remain untouched by time, but whether it's going to turn out to be good or bad change, only Time will tell. To paraphrase Heraclitus, nothing is unchanging but change itself.

[b0mb3r]

Oh thank you for your quick reply. It is kind of awesome to interact with the author whose works I enjoy. I would like to take a few opportunities to ask you a few questions when you have time:

1. How big is your current fanbase and are there any circulating fan-arts I can enjoy seeing depicting your characters?

2. Is there a demo available to hear the voice cast of your first novel?

3. In your personal opinion how would you differentiate the percentages of time you put into your work? Ex: writing, editing, marketing, etc.

4. Your characters are very deceptive and perceptive towards each other as they use philosophical jargons. Are you personally like that yourself or the reward came from your research? Also have you run into anyone like that in real life? While I find this to be very amusing in the story I also find myself stress thinking myself in their position. Meaning I just hate mind games and I like to be straight with people.

5. Do you lurk this forum alot. Just curious of your fast reply.

[Ryuno]

1. How big is your current fanbase and are there any circulating fan-arts I can enjoy seeing depicting your characters?

Bigger than I expected for the publishing medium but not centralized; there are people who will talk to me here, on my blog, on Facebook, or twitter, imageboards and even other sites but they don't seem to meet and make a fanclub somewhere. And yes, there is some really good Kouma fan art by GJsoft:



He did a Ryo one too, but no matter how many times I save it it always seems to magically vanish from the folders I put it on so I'll have to get back to you on that.

2. Is there a demo available to hear the voice cast of your first novel?

Nope, not that I'm aware of. That project is someone else's baby and while I fully support it and am on standby mode to help with it may there need be, I am not actively affiliated with it and have little or no details of its current stage.

3. In your personal opinion how would you differentiate the percentages of time you put into your work? Ex: writing, editing, marketing, etc.

Nearly a hundred percent planning, doing all the rest whenever; because of that, I have even the movie ready in my head and only two volumes actually written. I would certainly not advise anyone to follow this method: if I were half of the writer I wish I could be, I would write in the mornings, edit by afternoons and plan what I would write the next day by night, leaving the marketing part for the editing slot right after every completed work. Not to say it would take all morning or afternoon, but having goals and specific timeframes to work leads to a lot of short-term stress and long-term productivity.

4. Your characters are very deceptive and perceptive towards each other as they use philosophical jargons. Are you personally like that yourself or the reward came from your research? Also have you run into anyone like that in real life? While I find this to be very amusing in the story I also find myself stress thinking myself in their position. Meaning I just hate mind games and I like to be straight with people.

Both. I am like that since I was a kid and because of that, in order to understand myself, I figured i would be a good idea to study abnormal psychology so it does come from early research. Yes, I have met individual(s) like that. And the whole point of that effect is exactly that: you can be as paranoid and overtly safe as you want, but that will take its toll on your relationships. There's only so much you can read into the future, and to do that to someone you expect to be long-term friends with is anything but desirable, as healthy relationships should be based on mutual trust and understanding. Alternatively, the manga industry produced countless works exclusively based on misunderstandings, to the point where manga in which hijinks ensue due to everyone having their own perception and agenda could classify as a subgenre of their own; with that in mind, what I'm doing here is just cranking it up to eleven.

5. Do you lurk this forum alot. Just curious of your fast reply.

Every time someone replies to this thread I get an e-mail. I don't lurk so much anywhere these days in comparison to how obsessively I used to. I might be getting old.

[Ryuno]

http://www.facebook.com/TheLongingOfShiinaRyo

And it only took us two years.

[Cryum]

I'm completely mind-boggled(in a good way). Didn't expect that horn guy to get a mini-series. Makes you feel sorry for him, considering how he has to end up at the end. The other stories are definitely just teasers and foreshadowing that will torture me for weeks since I can't figure everything out.

[Ryuno]

I'm completely mind-boggled(in a good way). Didn't expect that horn guy to get a mini-series. Makes you feel sorry for him, considering how he has to end up at the end.

His spin-off was actually written as a Valentine's Day special, but then I got laz-

...life got in the way, with its many responsibilities and all, etcetera etcetera. But yeah, what surprised me is that I managed to get to volume 3 with only two on-screen kills/deaths so far, at least on an apparent level (could be less, could be more, could be actually just that, who really knows?). It's like I'm going easy on you guys or something... gotta fix that with volume 3.

Jokes aside, I really don't mind killing off a character I like once he or she served the designed purpose chronologically speaking, so posthumous/retroactive stories are fair play. Death really is something that can happen at any point, especially in a world with such violence and bizarre powers, and I think it makes us value the living more while they still can, you know, breathe and all. We better enjoy them while we can, same with friends and family. Who knows if they're going to survive the next chapter?

The other stories are definitely just teasers and foreshadowing that will torture me for weeks since I can't figure everything out.

Yes, that is exactly the point. To an extent I share Ryo's disdain for fan-fiction because it's usually messy and pointless, but what if it wasn't? What if it not only respected the canon, but also added to it? Well, then it's not fan-fiction, but rather a story in the universe by another writer. Kind of like what Neil Gaiman said about all Batman comics from a certain point on being fanfics in a way. Except backwards. Or played straight but pretending to be different. Or none of these. Or all of the above simultaneously, it's all good and it's also all bad. The fact remains it is.

I hope you enjoy this volume because it's going to be one hell of a ride to write it down judging by the outline.

[CardcaptorRLH85]

I was wondering, is there a full text downloadable version of Volume 2 anywhere? I'd like to be able to read it offline without having to edit a downloaded html file.

[Guest]

I was wondering, is there a full text downloadable version of Volume 2 anywhere? I'd like to be able to read it offline without having to edit a downloaded html file.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11682568/TheLon ... 2d.m.c.pdf

Just compiled it for you, let me know if you need any other format!

[Ryuno]

I was wondering, is there a full text downloadable version of Volume 2 anywhere? I'd like to be able to read it offline without having to edit a downloaded html file.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11682568/TheLon ... 2d.m.c.pdf

Just compiled it for you, let me know if you need any other format!

[CardcaptorRLH85]

I was wondering, is there a full text downloadable version of Volume 2 anywhere? I'd like to be able to read it offline without having to edit a downloaded html file.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11682568/TheLon ... 2d.m.c.pdf

Just compiled it for you, let me know if you need any other format!

Thanks! If it's not too much trouble I would like to see epub format but I think I can make my reader parse a pdf.

I'm loving these stories though. Keep up the good work ^_^

EDIT: Sorry for the double post. I didn't notice the message about this comment being held for moderator approval since I only have 2 posts so far. Oops ^_^;;