Bus Gamer 1- Kazuya Minekura
Oct. 9th, 2006 05:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
louiseluxOne highlight of the weekend was ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scribblemoose lending me Bus Gamer. Oh my god, I fell on it with such glee, not even realising it was out yet. I had no real idea what this was about before I read it-- except some sort of game was involved, clearly. But not with buses. It only makes sense when you realise, part way in, that bus is short for business.
Nobuto is the oldest - tall and dark with a scraggy chin beard. There are hints at a criminal background, he lives in a junk heap of an apartment and doesn't say much. I feel like I should know what his special skill is, but I just came away with the general impression that he is shrewd and tough and calculating. And he teaches shogi on his days off.
There is Kazuo, who is the youngest. He is puppyish and bespectacled and far more open and expressive than the other two. Nobuto calls Kazuo's game strategy skills 'fucking terrifying'.
The final member, Toki, is very very mysterious indeed and this includes his dress sense. He is skilled in martial arts, is studying web design and nearly always has a face like a wet weekend, or he's just sucked a lemon. He is committed to making huge amounts of money, but the reason remains unclear.
Essentially, they are picked, seemingly at random, to play the 'biz game', ie, a game funded by big corporations were two teams compete against each other to capture vital information. Each team holds a computer disc and the goal is to capture the other team's disc and to protect their own. As for why, this is something that the teams themselves don't know. When losing teams start to be killed, it quite quickly becomes clear that the biz game is not just some rich businessman's whim, but something more sinister.
So there is this odd set up. There is more, but I can't remember it on one read through. I do remember that quite a lot of the book deals with the three young men, who call themselves Team AAA, beginning to trust each other. As a team, they are very successful, but they are not friends.
There's also a woman police officer, whose name I also can't remember, whose interest in these unexplained deaths of young men is batted to one side by her chief. He tells her she should be thinking more about dating!
So... she stomps off in a rage to a games arcade, where she takes over a console and proceeds to wipes out any opposition, 19 players in a row. The game she's playing is Saiyuki, and she's playing Gojyo against Chin Yisou, which is sort of awesomely adorable. Challenger #20 turns out to be Kazuo, and he beats her. 'My poor Gojyo', she thinks, and then they simultaneously lean around the game consoles to look at each other. And look at each other. It's brain meltingly adorable, being a curiously mundane yet very dramatic moment. A little later, when Kazuo is giving her strategy advice about how to play Gojyo better, she mutters, 'Damn, and I thought I had him mastered'.
So that's the plot.
I admit I spent most of Bus Gamer going 'Look look! The Hakkai-alike is wearing a slinky fur collared coat, and now he is wearing a cowboy hat! And now he has a new cowboy hat!' and then, after some more gloating over the pretty, I played the inevitable game of 'So, is that one Gojyo/Sanzo/Goku?' It's hard not to, especially as Toki looks exactly like Hakkai. Possibly she will develop the character designs to move away from that - his design did look different in Salty Dog 4. But, you know, it's a fun game!
I've no idea when more will be available, but I like the characters a lot. The main plot-- the actual game-- leaves me a bit cold - it's the characters' back stories I want to know more about.
scribblemoose lending me Bus Gamer. Oh my god, I fell on it with such glee, not even realising it was out yet. I had no real idea what this was about before I read it-- except some sort of game was involved, clearly. But not with buses. It only makes sense when you realise, part way in, that bus is short for business. Nobuto is the oldest - tall and dark with a scraggy chin beard. There are hints at a criminal background, he lives in a junk heap of an apartment and doesn't say much. I feel like I should know what his special skill is, but I just came away with the general impression that he is shrewd and tough and calculating. And he teaches shogi on his days off.
There is Kazuo, who is the youngest. He is puppyish and bespectacled and far more open and expressive than the other two. Nobuto calls Kazuo's game strategy skills 'fucking terrifying'.
The final member, Toki, is very very mysterious indeed and this includes his dress sense. He is skilled in martial arts, is studying web design and nearly always has a face like a wet weekend, or he's just sucked a lemon. He is committed to making huge amounts of money, but the reason remains unclear.
Essentially, they are picked, seemingly at random, to play the 'biz game', ie, a game funded by big corporations were two teams compete against each other to capture vital information. Each team holds a computer disc and the goal is to capture the other team's disc and to protect their own. As for why, this is something that the teams themselves don't know. When losing teams start to be killed, it quite quickly becomes clear that the biz game is not just some rich businessman's whim, but something more sinister.
So there is this odd set up. There is more, but I can't remember it on one read through. I do remember that quite a lot of the book deals with the three young men, who call themselves Team AAA, beginning to trust each other. As a team, they are very successful, but they are not friends.
There's also a woman police officer, whose name I also can't remember, whose interest in these unexplained deaths of young men is batted to one side by her chief. He tells her she should be thinking more about dating!
So... she stomps off in a rage to a games arcade, where she takes over a console and proceeds to wipes out any opposition, 19 players in a row. The game she's playing is Saiyuki, and she's playing Gojyo against Chin Yisou, which is sort of awesomely adorable. Challenger #20 turns out to be Kazuo, and he beats her. 'My poor Gojyo', she thinks, and then they simultaneously lean around the game consoles to look at each other. And look at each other. It's brain meltingly adorable, being a curiously mundane yet very dramatic moment. A little later, when Kazuo is giving her strategy advice about how to play Gojyo better, she mutters, 'Damn, and I thought I had him mastered'.
So that's the plot.
I admit I spent most of Bus Gamer going 'Look look! The Hakkai-alike is wearing a slinky fur collared coat, and now he is wearing a cowboy hat! And now he has a new cowboy hat!' and then, after some more gloating over the pretty, I played the inevitable game of 'So, is that one Gojyo/Sanzo/Goku?' It's hard not to, especially as Toki looks exactly like Hakkai. Possibly she will develop the character designs to move away from that - his design did look different in Salty Dog 4. But, you know, it's a fun game!
I've no idea when more will be available, but I like the characters a lot. The main plot-- the actual game-- leaves me a bit cold - it's the characters' back stories I want to know more about.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 04:25 pm (UTC)I completely agree - I love the characters (and, of course, playing the match-up game, like every other Saiyuki fan ;) but the whole thing about the biz game is a bit... well, let's just say I find it a bit tenuous. Almost like she was distracted by something else at the time... ^_~
No thanks to Tokypop for including the phrase "meat flute" though. *shudder* I could've done without that! XD
(no subject)
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Date: 2006-10-09 05:06 pm (UTC)The Saiyuki game actually made me squeal, and I spent most of my first read through doing the "Oh! Look! Look!" thing to my roomie. "Ooh! Gojyo flattened Rikudo! Ohoh! But then Chin Yisou beat him!"
And I second
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2006-10-09 05:44 pm (UTC)and yeah, I had those moments too - the pointing and "oh look at this! and this! and this!!" when I picked up my copy a couple weeks ago.
*really wishes she'd snagged the japanese edition at Mitsuwa now*
bus Gamer leaves me tingly and excited for the possibilities within this setting/character history she's creating. I'm sooo glad that she's going to be writing more of these boys. ^_^ ♥
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Date: 2006-10-09 06:01 pm (UTC)Nobuto reminds me of Wolfwood -yes, wrong manga, I know. But I wouldn't be surprized if he was working for the enemy.
And, yes, Kazuo is an adorable Tenpou.
But it seems to me that Toki is more Sanzo than anyone else, even though he looks like Hakkai.
Although it's not really fair to play the Saiyuki-game to them, since they came first.
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Date: 2006-10-09 06:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-10-09 06:52 pm (UTC)I think you just pushed me over the edge.
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Date: 2006-10-09 11:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-10-09 11:28 pm (UTC)But I think Kazuo is the cutest thing evar. XD
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Date: 2006-10-10 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
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