The Spring 2023 Light Novel Guide

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture

What's It About? 

Naoya Fukamachi is a university student whose ability to infallibly detect lies has left him friendless and isolated. But when he writes a paper about a strange festival he wandered into as a child, he catches the fancy of his folklore studies professor Akira Takatsuki, a handsome and eccentric man with a passion for all things mysterious. Soon, Naoya finds himself working as Akira's assistant, helping him to interpret an array of unexplainable phenomena, from haunted objects and cursed effigies to urban legends. As this odd couple continues their investigations, however, Naoya realizes that his professor has had a few bizarre childhood experiences of his own…

Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture has a story by Mikage Sawamura. English translation by Katelyn Smith. Yen On, $15 print, $8.99. Available May 23rd.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Is it a supernatural phenomenon? Or is it just humans being weird and awful? That's the central question explored in the first volume of Associate Professor Akira Takatsuki's Conjecture. While most of the answers turn out to be the less fun ones, the intriguing possibility of the second remains very real. That's because both protagonists, university first-year Naoya and his young professor, have had supernatural experiences in their childhoods. We know the truth about Naoya because his first-person narration of the event opens the novel; Takatsuki's experience is a little more vague, but still very likely to have been the real deal. But then, all three of the cases the men explore in this book seem like they could be “real,” and it's that healthy dose of doubt that keeps the plot moving. The novel has a way of uncertainty that makes it very readable, even if you're not a folklore buff—and that's very appealing.

Also appealing to some readers will be the question of whether this is BL or a bromance. Either seems possible at this point. The book (and hopefully the series) would be equally good either way. That's because the relationship between the two men is, in large part, built on the fact that they both need the validation of someone who understands them and their pasts. Naoya's journey to a festival of the dead at the age of ten changed him in many ways, and Takatsuki's willingness to accept his truth makes him a possible antidote to Naoya's "curse." We don't know much about Takatsuki yet, and what we do know comes second-hand from his friend, Kenji. There's plenty of room for this relationship to grow in several directions, which is as interesting as the actual investigations. The writing is denser than it ought to be, and Naoya's perception of Takatsuki as a bouncy golden retriever gets a few too many reminders. However, mystery, folklore, and anyone who enjoys relationships like in The case files of Jeweler Richard should find that those issues are slim enough barriers to having a good time with this book.