What do you think?
Rate this book
熊の場所
何が飛び出すか誰にもわからない最強の純文学！
圧倒的文圧で疾走する表題作『熊の場所』を含む全3編を収録。
僕がまー君の猫殺しに気がついたのは僕とまー君が2人とも11の時、つまり同じ保育所に通っていた僕たちが一緒に西暁小学校に上がり、同じ教室で勉強し始めて5年目の頃だった。――（本文より）
圧倒的文圧で疾走する表題作『熊の場所』を含む全3編を収録。
僕がまー君の猫殺しに気がついたのは僕とまー君が2人とも11の時、つまり同じ保育所に通っていた僕たちが一緒に西暁小学校に上がり、同じ教室で勉強し始めて5年目の頃だった。――（本文より）
205 pages, Tankobon Hardcover
First published January 1, 2002
6 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 25, 2021
[SPOILERS/NSFW]
“God may not be as perfect as we are, so he may have accidentally missed my prayers."
My thoughts after reading Maijo Otaro’s first short story collection: “Kuma no basho/Place of the bear”
Stories in the collection:
-Place Of The Bear.
-The Bat Man.
-PICCCCCOHHHNNN !
Some context:
This was Maijo’s first short story collection ever and it got nominated for the 15th Yukio Mashima award (which it did not win, however, Maijo did win the 16th award with Asura Girl).
Two of the stories were serialized and one was written for the release.
-Place Of The Bear: originally published in Kodansha's Gunzou magazine in Sept 2001.
-The Bat Man. originally published in Kodansha's Gunzou magazine in Feb 2002.
-PICCCCCOHHHNNN !: written for the volume release.
REVIEWS OF EACH STORY:
------Place of the bear:
“I first became aware of Ma-kun's cat-killing when we were both eleven years old.”
Story: One day the protagonist finds his classmate Ma-kun has been killing cats around the city and collecting their tails. What does this mean? What is the reason?! Will he confront his place of the bear?!
Enjoyment: Hey, this was quite great, it had a slow start, but as it went the story got tenser and more interesting, the narrator was amazing to read as the character development he goes through is quite great and his inner monologues are exactly what I expect from reading a messed up story from Maijo.
Verdict: Hey, it was great, nice start, slow middle (which was quite nice in my opinion), and an amazing unexpected messed up ending, I reaaaaally liked it, not the greatest, but definitely a great start to a short story collection. If Drill Hole In My Brain is the unmovable 10/10, Place of the Bear ends up being a 7.5/10.
--------The Bat Man:
“The ‘Batman’ who had been haunting Chofu since about last fall was not some righteous ally who wears a jet-black bodysuit like that of Batman and jumps out of a Batmobile to fight evil at night. He was an emotionally unstable and dangerous person with a thin chest plate, who paraded around the station in the daytime on a rickety bicycle with a scuffed metal bat stuck in the basket in front of the handlebars along with all sorts of garbage, with the saddle dropped to its lowest point, smelly and dirty, with wavy hair, and whenever he didn't like something, he would grab the bat in front of him and swing it around and blow it up.”
Story: Hey, wait a moment, Batman is in Chofu?! Yes, but not the dark knight, more like the trash knight. After the narrator and all his friends have been terrorized by Bat man, what’s left to do? Run?
Enjoyment: Don’t be tricked by this one, it has an amazing start, an amazing synopsis ↑ (that I came up with ofc hehe), and really, an amazing character. What the fuck happened? It turned from really cool to very underwhelming very quickly, when a story about a fucked up crazy guy with a bat turns into 40 pages of the narrator telling the life of his school classmates it really isn’t the best. I did enjoy it, but for the longest part, I was really really bored with it.
Verdict: Well, it was nice, I guess. Not Maijo’s best, but I also wouldn’t call it bad. The thing about this story is that it is a tedious read but the way it develops and how fucking crazy and fucked up the ending really makes you think. And that is why this story still has some salvation to me, the ending is quite indirect, open-ended if you want to call it that, and really, the most fun I had out of this entire short story collection was thinking about this story in retrospective, the ending really really makes you think, and the more you think about it the better it becomes. However, that’s after the fact, after you force yourself to read through it. Good story if what you want is something that makes you think, but a not-so-good story if you want something “fun to read.” The bat man is a 7/10.
--------PICCCCCOHHHNNN !:
“I'm the woman who did 800 blowjobs in 5 months!!!!”
Story: The narrator, not the smartest girl, does the best she can to succeed in life, and to live happily with her boyfriend who she really loves. How can a story about mixing up love and sexual pleasure can become a murder mystery, and the murderer is a copycat of Satan!!? What!!?
Enjoyment: Maijo, Maijo, Maijo my man what the fuck did you write????
Okay, as you can tell by what I chose to be the quote for this story, yes, this is going to be a mixed bag. I don’t know if Maijo doesn’t know how to write female narrators, as from what I’ve seen (Asura girl, and this story), they all are incredibly horny. It is complex to read the story without stopping, staring at the page and going: “eh, maijo, what the fuck did you write?”
AND YOU KNOW WHAT, IT SOMEHOW ENDED UP BEING MY FAVORITE STORY, WHY, HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MANAGE TO DO THIS TO ME MAIJO!!!!!?
Verdict: Yes, what the fuck? It is a disgusting over-sexualized story with a narrator who prides herself on her blowjob skills, and yet, it was weirdly wholesome and amazing????? (???) I must sound like a madman, but it really feels that way. Ignoring all of that, it is a great love/murder mystery story. It ain’t a honkaku, nor a mystery the reader is able to solve, but damn was it a great and fun murder mystery! (as a mystery nerd myself there's nothing better I could ask for!) I can’t explain how much fun it was, really, if I were to choose one of the stories in this collection PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! is the one I would like to get translated the most, and it shows many people thought somewhat like that, as it is one of the few manga adaptations Maijo has ever gotten (YES, THIS STORY BECAME A MANGA FOR SOME REASON). Okay, enough talking about it, it is a weird, very sexualized story, but at the same time it is a tense suspenseful wholesome love story with a murder mystery, I feel so ashamed to even say it, it is one of my favorite Maijo short stories, if you look past the sus things it’s so good. And even when taking them into account, Maijo fucks up so much with the reader with the narration that those things end up coming out as wholesome????! (I sound like a madman).
You know? There's definitely something inspirational to hear a girl did 800 blowjobs in 5 months.
Enough of justifying myself, PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! is an 8.5/10. Fuck you Maiijo.
-CONCLUSION OF THE COLLECTION.
Well, this short story collection was great, it had action, it had psychology, and in the case of two of them (I'm not looking at you PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! ) they had actual teachings and life advice for the reader.
I feel like yeah, it wasn’t good enough to win the 15th mashima award, but it is good enough to be an entertaining read.
Ah, also this is not related to the story but the hardcover (the version I read) is so cool, it is a hardcover but the covers are plushy like if an animal plushie (contrasting with the bear plushie illustrated on the cover), it’s the only time I’ve seen binding like this, and thought it would be an interesting thing to mention.
In conclusion, the place of the bear (short story collection) is a 7/10.
(Yeah, the individual scores of the stories don’t sum up to this, but hey, this is what I think the book should get overall.
“God may not be as perfect as we are, so he may have accidentally missed my prayers."
My thoughts after reading Maijo Otaro’s first short story collection: “Kuma no basho/Place of the bear”
Stories in the collection:
-Place Of The Bear.
-The Bat Man.
-PICCCCCOHHHNNN !
Some context:
This was Maijo’s first short story collection ever and it got nominated for the 15th Yukio Mashima award (which it did not win, however, Maijo did win the 16th award with Asura Girl).
Two of the stories were serialized and one was written for the release.
-Place Of The Bear: originally published in Kodansha's Gunzou magazine in Sept 2001.
-The Bat Man. originally published in Kodansha's Gunzou magazine in Feb 2002.
-PICCCCCOHHHNNN !: written for the volume release.
REVIEWS OF EACH STORY:
------Place of the bear:
“I first became aware of Ma-kun's cat-killing when we were both eleven years old.”
Story: One day the protagonist finds his classmate Ma-kun has been killing cats around the city and collecting their tails. What does this mean? What is the reason?! Will he confront his place of the bear?!
Enjoyment: Hey, this was quite great, it had a slow start, but as it went the story got tenser and more interesting, the narrator was amazing to read as the character development he goes through is quite great and his inner monologues are exactly what I expect from reading a messed up story from Maijo.
Verdict: Hey, it was great, nice start, slow middle (which was quite nice in my opinion), and an amazing unexpected messed up ending, I reaaaaally liked it, not the greatest, but definitely a great start to a short story collection. If Drill Hole In My Brain is the unmovable 10/10, Place of the Bear ends up being a 7.5/10.
--------The Bat Man:
“The ‘Batman’ who had been haunting Chofu since about last fall was not some righteous ally who wears a jet-black bodysuit like that of Batman and jumps out of a Batmobile to fight evil at night. He was an emotionally unstable and dangerous person with a thin chest plate, who paraded around the station in the daytime on a rickety bicycle with a scuffed metal bat stuck in the basket in front of the handlebars along with all sorts of garbage, with the saddle dropped to its lowest point, smelly and dirty, with wavy hair, and whenever he didn't like something, he would grab the bat in front of him and swing it around and blow it up.”
Story: Hey, wait a moment, Batman is in Chofu?! Yes, but not the dark knight, more like the trash knight. After the narrator and all his friends have been terrorized by Bat man, what’s left to do? Run?
Enjoyment: Don’t be tricked by this one, it has an amazing start, an amazing synopsis ↑ (that I came up with ofc hehe), and really, an amazing character. What the fuck happened? It turned from really cool to very underwhelming very quickly, when a story about a fucked up crazy guy with a bat turns into 40 pages of the narrator telling the life of his school classmates it really isn’t the best. I did enjoy it, but for the longest part, I was really really bored with it.
Verdict: Well, it was nice, I guess. Not Maijo’s best, but I also wouldn’t call it bad. The thing about this story is that it is a tedious read but the way it develops and how fucking crazy and fucked up the ending really makes you think. And that is why this story still has some salvation to me, the ending is quite indirect, open-ended if you want to call it that, and really, the most fun I had out of this entire short story collection was thinking about this story in retrospective, the ending really really makes you think, and the more you think about it the better it becomes. However, that’s after the fact, after you force yourself to read through it. Good story if what you want is something that makes you think, but a not-so-good story if you want something “fun to read.” The bat man is a 7/10.
--------PICCCCCOHHHNNN !:
“I'm the woman who did 800 blowjobs in 5 months!!!!”
Story: The narrator, not the smartest girl, does the best she can to succeed in life, and to live happily with her boyfriend who she really loves. How can a story about mixing up love and sexual pleasure can become a murder mystery, and the murderer is a copycat of Satan!!? What!!?
Enjoyment: Maijo, Maijo, Maijo my man what the fuck did you write????
Okay, as you can tell by what I chose to be the quote for this story, yes, this is going to be a mixed bag. I don’t know if Maijo doesn’t know how to write female narrators, as from what I’ve seen (Asura girl, and this story), they all are incredibly horny. It is complex to read the story without stopping, staring at the page and going: “eh, maijo, what the fuck did you write?”
AND YOU KNOW WHAT, IT SOMEHOW ENDED UP BEING MY FAVORITE STORY, WHY, HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MANAGE TO DO THIS TO ME MAIJO!!!!!?
Verdict: Yes, what the fuck? It is a disgusting over-sexualized story with a narrator who prides herself on her blowjob skills, and yet, it was weirdly wholesome and amazing????? (???) I must sound like a madman, but it really feels that way. Ignoring all of that, it is a great love/murder mystery story. It ain’t a honkaku, nor a mystery the reader is able to solve, but damn was it a great and fun murder mystery! (as a mystery nerd myself there's nothing better I could ask for!) I can’t explain how much fun it was, really, if I were to choose one of the stories in this collection PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! is the one I would like to get translated the most, and it shows many people thought somewhat like that, as it is one of the few manga adaptations Maijo has ever gotten (YES, THIS STORY BECAME A MANGA FOR SOME REASON). Okay, enough talking about it, it is a weird, very sexualized story, but at the same time it is a tense suspenseful wholesome love story with a murder mystery, I feel so ashamed to even say it, it is one of my favorite Maijo short stories, if you look past the sus things it’s so good. And even when taking them into account, Maijo fucks up so much with the reader with the narration that those things end up coming out as wholesome????! (I sound like a madman).
You know? There's definitely something inspirational to hear a girl did 800 blowjobs in 5 months.
Enough of justifying myself, PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! is an 8.5/10. Fuck you Maiijo.
-CONCLUSION OF THE COLLECTION.
Well, this short story collection was great, it had action, it had psychology, and in the case of two of them (I'm not looking at you PICCCCCOHHHNNN ! ) they had actual teachings and life advice for the reader.
I feel like yeah, it wasn’t good enough to win the 15th mashima award, but it is good enough to be an entertaining read.
Ah, also this is not related to the story but the hardcover (the version I read) is so cool, it is a hardcover but the covers are plushy like if an animal plushie (contrasting with the bear plushie illustrated on the cover), it’s the only time I’ve seen binding like this, and thought it would be an interesting thing to mention.
In conclusion, the place of the bear (short story collection) is a 7/10.
(Yeah, the individual scores of the stories don’t sum up to this, but hey, this is what I think the book should get overall.
Displaying 1 of 1 review