Loups-Garous (Novel) Book

Has what I think of as traditional anime pacing: slow first half and breakneck second half that overturns what you thought you knew, throws fantastical element in, and switches genres from cyberpunk philosophical musings to adventure/thriller. In this case, it worked, even though the first part seems to drag and get mired in the expository conversations between the characters about their near-futuristic cyberpunk society on the affect technology has on shaping humans--particularly teens (I get the impression that it's thinly disguised commentary on current Japanese sociological issues, but unfortunately I'm not familiar with Japanese society so some of the stuff went over my head), and seemingly random stuff happening that works as setup for the second half. The first half would be dull if I didn't find the topics interesting--influence of technology on society (surveillance and privacy, personal development especially on the development of teens, law enforcement, education and family units, the generational gap, civil infrastructure, what's real and what's not, etc), nature of humanity, pop culture take on epistemology and existential philosophy.

The second half picks up speed where the seemingly random elements come together, the expository conversations are replaced by the Whodunnit and What Are We Going to Do, gruesomely fun plot twists, more adventure/thriller stuff, and character development. I ended up liking all the characters, especially the teen girls: Hazuki for how the Digitalworld is more real for her than actual Real World concerns (she compares the cityview to a screensaver! she has difficulties with eating!), Mio the badass girl genius, Ayumi for her pragmatism, Mao for her kickassness. I liked the book's take on the classic cyberpunk trope on how the digital can be more real than Real Life, and how no matter how much technology we have we still can't get away from basically being animals.

As for the translation/writing style, I think the translator did what she could to make the expository conversations readable but they still ended up sounding stiff and unwieldy, and the action scenes read more like stage directions.