Senkou Scramble - My Review
SENKŌ SCRAMBLE REVIEW
(May contain some minor spoilers
...and it's very long orz)
Yesterday night I finally finished reading Shige’s novel, I’m more than a month late because I wanted to read it quietly after the graduation, so here I am.
I must admit that before reading it I had some little prejudices and worries, even though we’re talking about Shige, whom I admire and trust the most. The second work is always difficult, especially when you have a first novel as “Pink&Gray” that was such a great success and an exquisite work of literature. I was afraid that continuing the “Shibuya Saga” and going on with the topic of entertainment world it could be a failure, it could lose its meaning and freshness. Following the novel promotion I was afraid I was right, moreover I read some impressions from Japanese fans and other people who finished reading it before me and everybody agreed on liking “Pink&Gray” more. Being honest on the very first chapters of “Senkō Scramble” my impressions were still a little doubtful. I think it’s unfair to constantly compare a novel to a precedent work, and I get very annoyed when people do, but it’s also very difficult to not do that. It’s natural that, compared to “Pink&Gray”, “Senkō Scramble” is less emotional and powerful, because it was Shige’s purpose since the beginning. In many interviews he mentioned that his first novel was “pure literature”, almost a Shishōsetsu, a I-novel, because Shige unconsciously poured so much of himself into it. This time instead he aimed to write a real entertainment novel, that only wants to narrate a good story that readers can enjoy, moreover he strongly wanted to avoid anybody to think again that he’s talking about himself. I can only agree on his desire, because I understand it can be annoying to feel judged for what you wrote. On this point of view “Senkō Scramble” completely satisfied me.
Shige thoroughly fulfilled his objectives, because the novel is absolutely entertaining and it would be very strained to search Kato Shigeaki inside its characters. I’m relieved about this. The main characters Akiko and Takumi are sides of Shige, that’s obvious, but in my opinion they depict him only in their jobs: an idol and a photographer. It’s easy to find him inside Akiko, from the exterior and from the world’s point of view she’s sparkly, pretty, confident and professional, inside of her though there are a lot of demons and uncertainty. I thought that Shige’s aim here was only to convey the “humanity” of idols besides their god-like image. Takumi instead is a troubled man with an awful past, he shields himself pretending to be tough and careless while inside he’s the one suffering the most. Once again I realized that Shige is really great in describing the psychology of characters, from two people who seem to be pretty normal he succeeded in pulling out a really wide range of human feelings. One thing that impressed me was the “overturning” of the common imaginary: Takumi seems to be the most normal person in the world but he hides in his past and inside of himself a story and a pain that seem almost “unreal”, it’s not something that everybody can understand and share. On the other side there’s Akiko, who should be amazing and special, that in reality is just like many, many girls everywhere in the world, she lacks self-confidence, she’s afraid of people’s judgment and she consoles (and punishes) herself with a man that won’t bring her anything good.
If there’s a common thread between this novel and the previous one, besides the setting, it must be the suffering of the characters and their different ways to deal with it. In “Pink&Gray” we got silence, frustration and eventually a voluntary tragic ending to it; here we have sense of guilt and self-punishment, psychological and physical, but still there’s a hope that never goes out. Takumi feels like “living while being dead” but he keeps on hoping one day to be “forgiven” by his dead wife and that he will be able to have a normal life again; Akiko does her best in work, hoping that improving herself and her image in the eyes of fans one day all her issues will disappear and she’ll be finally happy. They don’t surrender and after the worst they have their “happy ending”. Towards the end of the book I was torn, I wanted them to have a happy ending but not a cheesy one, and knowing Shige I was afraid I wouldn’t get one (lol). Once again I think he chose the best way, this time we have a positive ending because both the characters seem happy and “lively” in the end, but, luckily and sadly, we don’t get a showy fulfillment of love. It’s more like, we know there’s something deep between the two characters but it’s impossible to clearly say what it is and if it will turn into a love story. Somehow even like this it’s all very touching and romantic, I’m amazed by the subtlety of everything.
I’m more and more convinced that Shige is a genius, also in writing dialogues and choosing metaphors and words. I don’t want to be boring, but for example, his usage of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to link Akiko and Takumi’s stories was surprising. Akiko feels like Orpheus because she constantly lose herself turning back to check if Eurydice, her fans, were still there for her (which by the way touched me a lot because there I couldn’t help but think of NEWS and Shige who last year weren’t sure if fans still followed them or not). Takumi feels like Orpheus because he can’t go on living being always turned back to Yuua, his Eurydice who he can’t get back from the world of dead. It was a great literary reference, I don’t know how much Japanese people know Greek myths so maybe it was a little confusing for them, but it completely hit a soft spot for me. Moreover in the last chapter Akiko sings a song “Sayonara Orpheus”, I wish Shige one day decides to release this one, along with “Phalaenopsis” from “Pink&Gray”, even if not sung by him, I’m sure they sound great.
If I have to find some flaws in this novel I must go back to the first half of it. At first I thought that it was all a little slow, in particular there were many repetitions, especially the descriptions of the actions were really detailed, this was very easy to read and useful to imagine the scenes, but on the same time I wasn’t sure about the usefulness of them. Anyway that’s a stylistic choice and I can’t really say much more, moreover seen the quick development of the story in the following chapters and the action scenes in them probably it was a right counterweight.
Another thing that made me perplexed was the past of the main characters, in particular Akiko’s one, I thought that maybe it was a little exaggerated. I mean, Akiko has so many issues and complexes on her own, giving a little background to them was more than right, but maybe the story of the poor girl without a father and with an absent mother in the countryside of Tottori was too much, almost clichéd. Takumi’s past is extraordinary and romanticized too but I think it worked fine.
Other little things are in reality a common feature of entertaining literature, the too convenient way in which everything links perfectly, like, some events worked great for the development of the plot but seemed very unlike to happen. Then, the minor characterization of some characters, I appreciated that this time there were many but some of them, like the manager of Akiko’s lover, who were very important in the story weren’t really explained in their actions by a psychological description that instead would have been enlightening.
Anyway, all these little weaknesses are just a proof of a work in progress of Shige as novelist, I look forward to read the third work of the saga to see how much it will change again. I can only be amazed and full of respect towards him because “Pink&Gray” and “Senkō Scramble” are similar but on the same time they belong to a different genre, and they’re both well written, enjoyable, touching and strong. That’s not an easy achievement, considering that Shige’s main job is another and he just started writing seriously. In the end, don’t ask me which novel I liked the most because I can’t really answer, yesterday night after closing it was definitely “Senkō Scramble” but remembering all the feelings and the shock I received from “Pink&Gray” I realized it’s impossible for me to choose one only. I loved “Senkō Scramble”, on a scale of 5 stars I’d give it full marks, because besides the things that may have perplexed me and all the reminding to Shige and its live/job it’s a very good novel. It’s easy and enjoyable to read, the plot is catchy and its developments really draw you in, I managed in reading it in few weeks just because I tried to not run and read it all at once, I have the habit to make good novels last some time instead of swallowing them in few days. There were parts that really depressed and touched me and I had to close the book to calm down and think about it, other parts were impossible to leave and I had to keep reading to know what will happen next. It made me reflect a lot about human feelings and such, that’s a big merit for a young guy as Shige. I assure you I’m being objective there, it’s a good book, one that I will surely remember and that I’d like to read again in the future.
There are a pair of quotes I liked and posted on Twitter during the reading, I want to share them with you too here:
"Desire is a chipped glass. You keep pouring to fill it up but the cracks will leak forever. You'll never fulfill it."
"We've never been enemies. But idols don't work only with friendship. It's useful to give each other inputs to improve."
(This one reminded me of NEWS and Yamapi's relationship :P)
"The ones able to live in this world are only great geniuses and thick-headed people."
"Nobody would be able to simply leave, if they got to see the scenary from a stage"
If I’m not wrong there’s already a plot summary of the novel posted on news_jpop so I think this time it’s not necessary for me to write another one. If you want I can write one anyway, it won’t take much time since the plot is still very fresh in my head ^^
I think I have so many more things I wanted to say but this review is already longer than I expected. I hope it wasn’t too boring, consider that my MA thesis was about Japanese entertainment literature so I restrained myself to not be too annoying and detailed XD Anyway, if you have any curiosity or questions about the novel please ask it in the comments, I will be very happy to answer and talk about it with you ♥