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Ao Oni #1
Ao Oni: Volume 1
Shun is the new kid in school, but he’s already managed to attract the attention of the school bully, who’s now making his life a living hell. It doesn’t seem like things could get any worse, until the night he finds himself and a group of his classmates inside a creepy, abandoned mansion known as the Jailhouse. They quickly start to hear strange sounds and see weird things, but everything escalates when they realize they can’t get out. Once they’re trapped inside, a blue, unnaturally large figure chases after them. Is it a new species? Or is it the ghost of their old classmate who died in an accident? Nobody knows, but one thing is for certain... If it catches them, they’re dead! The scariest game of tag in history begins!
- GenresLight NovelHorrorManga
194 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 6, 2018
8 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 11, 2018
So this is a novelization of an indie game that's basically Persona 3 if the characters never got superpowers, never learned the Power of Friendship, and were really just a bunch of a-holes who exist to die in gruesome ways.
Which, all things considered, is a lot more fun than Persona 3. (At the very least, nobody tames a demon by breakdancing.)
The downside is that a couple of the twists are really obvious, especially if you're a fan of horror movies, though well played atmospherics negate most of that.
Which, all things considered, is a lot more fun than Persona 3. (At the very least, nobody tames a demon by breakdancing.)
The downside is that a couple of the twists are really obvious, especially if you're a fan of horror movies, though well played atmospherics negate most of that.
September 13, 2019
Content warning for the book: suicidal ideation, gory descriptions of severed body parts, on-page bullying.
Shun, Hiroshi, Takuro, Mika, Anna, and Takeshi are all students at the same middle school. Takuro is one of the most popular kids at school. He's also a bully who may have been involved in a past student death and who is currently tormenting Shun. The few bright spots in Shun's life are the computer game he's creating in his spare time, his friend Hiroshi, who's smart and doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks of him, and Anna, the class president and one of the few people who's friendly towards him and encourages him. Mika and Takeshi are Takuro's friends (or, more accurately, his lackeys), although they're not usually involved in the worst of the bullying. Takeshi is a coward, and Mika secretly wishes her emotionally distant parents would spend more time with her.
One evening, Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika cart some boxes over to an old mansion that Takuro's father supposedly bought. The mansion, now nicknamed the Jailhouse, was supposedly last inhabited 20 years ago by a young couple and their daughter, who used a wheelchair. Shun, Hiroshi, and Anna all end up going inside with Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika, and the six kids suddenly find themselves trapped in what appears to be a haunted house. If they can't figure out how to escape, they may all end up as food for the giant blue monster that roams the halls.
I haven't played any of the Ao Oni game versions, although I did watch parts of a few "let's play" videos. I didn't really expect all that much from this, but it actually wasn't bad. I'm curious as to the intended audience, though - it read like a Middle Grade book, and yet included gory scenes that would have been a better fit for older readers.
As seems to be the case with pretty much every J-Novel Club title I've tried so far, the writing was occasionally awkward and clunky. One example:
This sentence is structured in a way that makes it seem like Shun found the bags under Anna's eyes to be charming, when in fact it was probably her eyes that he found charming.
The overall story might have been scarier had the writing been better, but there were still parts that I thought worked extremely well and were genuinely creepy. My top two favorite moments were the "this is why you can't hide in a closet forever" scene, which featured a really effective use of illustrations, and one of the last deaths, when the few survivors tried to figure out whether the person was still alive (even though they almost certainly were not, and it was foolish to check).
Takuro was 100% horrible - of all the characters, he was the one I was most hoping would end up dying. Takeshi didn't really make much of an impression on me, Hiroshi struck me as being fairly creepy (although it turned out that there was more going on than I realized), and Anna was annoyingly underutilized. I cared most about Shun, who'd been ground down by Takuro to a depressing degree, and Mika. Yes, Mika had opted to side with a sadistic bully, but she'd done so because she'd convinced herself that he could provide her with the love her family didn't give her. I felt bad for her, even though her willingness to forgive Takuro just about anything made me grit my teeth a few times.
The ending was...weird. Most of the book was slight creepiness, gore, and occasional appearances from a ridiculous "blueberry-colored" monster. Then it all took a sudden "very special message" turn at the end, morphing into a suicide prevention story. This would have been fine, although heavy-handed, but the steps the story took to get there felt like a cop-out. I had been wondering how the series was going to continue, despite everything that had happened, and I wasn't pleased with the answer.
Still, I liked this well enough to want to continue on. I also tried to hunt down some "let's play" videos of Ao Oni version 3.0, the one this book was based on. Unfortunately, I have yet to find one done by someone whose voice/sense of humor I'm able to stand.
Extras:
- Prior to the start of the book, there are a few manga pages depicting a later scene.
- Several black-and-white illustrations.
- An afterword written by the author.
- A brief note written by the illustrator.
- Two pages of the illustrator's initial character designs.
- A couple color illustrations.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
Shun, Hiroshi, Takuro, Mika, Anna, and Takeshi are all students at the same middle school. Takuro is one of the most popular kids at school. He's also a bully who may have been involved in a past student death and who is currently tormenting Shun. The few bright spots in Shun's life are the computer game he's creating in his spare time, his friend Hiroshi, who's smart and doesn't seem to care what anyone thinks of him, and Anna, the class president and one of the few people who's friendly towards him and encourages him. Mika and Takeshi are Takuro's friends (or, more accurately, his lackeys), although they're not usually involved in the worst of the bullying. Takeshi is a coward, and Mika secretly wishes her emotionally distant parents would spend more time with her.
One evening, Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika cart some boxes over to an old mansion that Takuro's father supposedly bought. The mansion, now nicknamed the Jailhouse, was supposedly last inhabited 20 years ago by a young couple and their daughter, who used a wheelchair. Shun, Hiroshi, and Anna all end up going inside with Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika, and the six kids suddenly find themselves trapped in what appears to be a haunted house. If they can't figure out how to escape, they may all end up as food for the giant blue monster that roams the halls.
I haven't played any of the Ao Oni game versions, although I did watch parts of a few "let's play" videos. I didn't really expect all that much from this, but it actually wasn't bad. I'm curious as to the intended audience, though - it read like a Middle Grade book, and yet included gory scenes that would have been a better fit for older readers.
As seems to be the case with pretty much every J-Novel Club title I've tried so far, the writing was occasionally awkward and clunky. One example:
"Shun noticed that the bags under her eyes - something he ordinarily found charming about her - were darker than normal." (34)
This sentence is structured in a way that makes it seem like Shun found the bags under Anna's eyes to be charming, when in fact it was probably her eyes that he found charming.
The overall story might have been scarier had the writing been better, but there were still parts that I thought worked extremely well and were genuinely creepy. My top two favorite moments were the "this is why you can't hide in a closet forever" scene, which featured a really effective use of illustrations, and one of the last deaths, when the few survivors tried to figure out whether the person was still alive (even though they almost certainly were not, and it was foolish to check).
Takuro was 100% horrible - of all the characters, he was the one I was most hoping would end up dying. Takeshi didn't really make much of an impression on me, Hiroshi struck me as being fairly creepy (although it turned out that there was more going on than I realized), and Anna was annoyingly underutilized. I cared most about Shun, who'd been ground down by Takuro to a depressing degree, and Mika. Yes, Mika had opted to side with a sadistic bully, but she'd done so because she'd convinced herself that he could provide her with the love her family didn't give her. I felt bad for her, even though her willingness to forgive Takuro just about anything made me grit my teeth a few times.
The ending was...weird. Most of the book was slight creepiness, gore, and occasional appearances from a ridiculous "blueberry-colored" monster. Then it all took a sudden "very special message" turn at the end, morphing into a suicide prevention story. This would have been fine, although heavy-handed, but the steps the story took to get there felt like a cop-out. I had been wondering how the series was going to continue, despite everything that had happened, and I wasn't pleased with the answer.
Still, I liked this well enough to want to continue on. I also tried to hunt down some "let's play" videos of Ao Oni version 3.0, the one this book was based on. Unfortunately, I have yet to find one done by someone whose voice/sense of humor I'm able to stand.
Extras:
- Prior to the start of the book, there are a few manga pages depicting a later scene.
- Several black-and-white illustrations.
- An afterword written by the author.
- A brief note written by the illustrator.
- Two pages of the illustrator's initial character designs.
- A couple color illustrations.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
September 28, 2023
RTC - I was surprised by how scared this made me??
February 5, 2024
Since this was the first volume of five of the light novel adaptation of the Ao Oni game, I expected the story to be continuous, but about halfway through, I came to the realization that this was similar to the 3.0 version of the game, with some minor differences. The afterword confirmed my suspicions. Each volume is a standalone narrative, each with the same characters, like a new game+. I don't think the narrative and aesthetics of the game deserve that many occurrences. Not counting this collection of light novels, there are two short manga series, an anime film, a collection of anime shorts and two live action movies. That is way too much extra content for a simple Freeware RPG Maker game. And that's not to insult noprops nor the game. Its a fun experience, I replay the game from time to time. Just played it again the other day in preparation for reading this series. It still holds up. It's just...this novel felt like poorly conceived fanfiction? The writing was alright and all, the art was inconsistent in quality. Just not a lot here for me to want to continue the series, would rather just read the manga, but since I can't find the manga right now this is my only alternative to written adaptations. I've got a feeling the rest of the content within the franchise will give me similar vibes.
April 16, 2019
i loved the game, so when i found out there was a novel i was ecstatic. i felt i had to read it, i loved it.
November 6, 2020
A solid story about Ao Oni. It has 2 OC characters and kind of a meh ending, but it's an Ao Oni story if you're looking for one.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews