Keep Yourself Alive

Come into these arms again, and lay your body down. The rhythm of this trembling heart, is beating like a drum.

Still falls the night. Lust for blood. Killing under a scarlet moon.

For reasons less than honourable, I picked up 太陽のチャンネル or Channel of the Sun, a new title illustrated by Shinobu Kuroya and authored by Yukito Urushibara, yet another scenario writer who's ventured into the world of light novels. I haven't actually read Yukito's best known work いろとりどりのセカイ, so I'm going into this with just the knowledge that he has a habit of repeating himself and padding out sentences, and dividing whole sentences up into small, individual lines. Arguably the latter – aimed at creating a unique sense of rhythm – is not so much of an issue when presented in a book format, since the entire texts are laid out before the readers unlike visual novels that require mouse clicks and button presses. Though on the other hand some will likely find the broken sentences ineffective, clumsy and a pain to trudge through.

The story follows Hitoshiki Shima, a high school student who leads a double life as the strongest hitman. One night, he receives a bag to deliver for his job but is surprised to discover the body of a pretty girl inside. He is almost immediately approached by another mysterious girl who tries to take the bag by force after Hitoshiki refuses to hand it over. Quickly realizing that he's no match for the seemingly immortal girl, Hitoshiki takes the bag and retreats through sewer tunnels. He safely arrives at Kokuma Dormitory – Hitoshiki's home and the destination for his delivery – and shockingly finds the girl in the bag alive as she rises, bathed in sunlight, and asks to meet Rintarou Shima – the original owner of the dormitory, a demon hunter, the self-proclaimed world's No.1 busybody, Hitoshiki's saviour, and his late foster father.

"I am the daughter of the True Ancestor and what you humans would call a vampire."

"Rintarou promised me...he promised to help me...to meet again after 10 years..."

"Will you grant my wish, Rintarou's substitute?"

"I ask of you, mankind's strongest hitman. Please."

"Please kill me."

Bizarre deaths of vampiric nature begin occurring in the city. Could Anju be behind the murders or is it something far more sinister? Who is Anju exactly and what is the story behind her death wish? With these troubling thoughts, Hitoshiki sets out to solve the murder cases and find out more about the mysterious Anju.

The world is made of stories. This is the story of finding the sun. Finding the only sun in the dark cloudy skies.

Not off to a good start by all means, but even an unimaginative story and setting can be saved by engaging characters. Too bad it's unsurprisingly not the case here. The main cast of 太陽のチャンネル (Taiyou for convenience' sake) are the residents of Kokuma Dormitory, a rather special dorm of Omiya Academy occupied by 'bad guys' and an secret agency represented by Hitoshiki. There are five members in total, though only four have appeared so far. They are numbered and it goes something like this:

• Agent No.1 Yuki Murata (short-haired girl on the far right). Hitoshiki's childhood friend and an informer who generally manages the agents' schedules and negotiates job rewards.

• Agent No.2 Maika Kujou (girl with light purple hair). Hitoshiki's other childhood friend who is a year older than him. She is the much admired student council president whose mere presence can calm a class of noisy students. She's a spy who easily infiltrates organizations regardless of their complexity.

• Agent No.3 Koneko Nekoyashiki. Hitoshiki's cat-like senior who calls him Ii-kun (like a certain nameless protagonist from Nisio Isin's Zaregoto series). She is an expert fighter.

• Representative Hitoshiki Shima. Having inherited the dorm from his foster father, Hitoshiki looks after the place and is well-known as humanity's strongest hitman.

Helping out these kids and acting as their guardian as a way of returning the late Rintarou's kindness is the leader of Japan's top criminal organization, a woman going by the name of Black Cat.

Now there's a new girl in the dorm – the suicidal vampire princess Angelica Valentine or Anju (Ange) Ninomiya as she prefers to be called. Claiming to have made a promise with Rintarou 10 years ago, she travels all the way to the dorm only to learn that the hunter has passed away. Koneko, who thinks Anju is an innocent girl suffering from extreme chuunibyou, suggests that Hitoshiki take care of Anju's problems in Rintarou's place. After getting confirmation from Hitoshiki that he's indeed the strongest hitman humanity has to offer, Anju asks him to kill her. Things aren't so simple of course, for Hitoshiki is a walking contradiction: he is the strongest hitman who has perfected his body and skills (think in terms of Shin Gi Tai), yet he is also the weakest hitman – a killer who does not kill.

If this is all sounding pretty typical and generic, that's because it really is. So much so it gets to a point where one has to wonder if Yukito is even trying to come up with something that's entirely his own. Traces of other popular titles, namely Tsukihime and Kure-nai, can be clearly found in the setting and premise of Taiyou. Yukito makes little attempt to put his own spin on existing concepts and borrowed philosophies. While from a writer's point of view, it may be necessary to explain key concepts like demons and how their powers work, I think Yukito often spends more ink than needed on the expositions. It's a bad tendency because none of these ideas is new or original enough to justify the time spent on them. The world building is scarce, weak and egregiously deliberate.

The characters aren't too great either. Hitoshiki may be a decent young man but he is not a particularly interesting or good main character. While he shows some resolve at times, he's mostly passive and can be quite oblivious. Born Hitoshiki Kuga, he lost his parents in a brutal massacre. He was saved by Rintarou and decided to train under the demon hunter. Several years before the story starts, an overconfident Hitoshiki went to confront a demon alone and was easily overwhelmed. Rintarou came to the rescue again but lost his life in the process. Since then Hitoshiki has dedicated himself to becoming the strongest and lived for the day he could avenge his parents and Rintarou. Him being the strongest hitman though is really less of a story focus and more of a prerequisite for him to step into the world of demons, and in doing so he goes from the strongest (among humans) to the weakest (among demons).

Surrounding and supporting Hitoshiki are cookie-cutter girls who don't contribute a whole lot to the plot, though I suppose they aren't to blame since much of the volume concentrates on Hitoshiki and Anju. Yuki gets some points for not being a violent childhood friend who physically overreacts every time there's some sort of misunderstanding, but unfortunately neither she nor Koneko gets enough exposure for me to make any real meaningful comment. On the other hand, Maika is more active and fares a bit better than the other two. Her attempt to impress Hitoshiki by showing him her bloomers and sisterly charms because she feels threatened by the petite Anju is downright awful though. It's not even cringe comedy, it's more akin to some sort of transcendental meta-humour.

Anju is by far the most interesting character but I'm uncertain whether that's saying a lot or not. The benefit of having the most screen time and interactions with Hitoshiki is clear, and it helps that she has got a bit of personality in her. She is quite similar to Laura Bodewig from IS – from their origins to having a close associate who gives them less than accurate information about the Japanese culture – but more sophisticated and with less social awkwardness. She's quite cute in how upfront she is about everything, and being physically 14 years old but mentally older (well, sort of) does add some much needed extra spice to her character. I guess I can't complain, it's a bit like Utaha and Megumi wrapped in one delicate package.

"'The world is a fine place. That's why it's worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."

Says Rintarou as Yukito paraphrases the quote from Se7en. The title Channel of the Sun refers to Rintarou's idea that in everyone's life there is a sun – the one moment we all live for – and if a person's life were like a TV show, then there must be a channel that broadcasts the person's sun. Hence this is the story of finding the sun. For Rintarou, his sun was the moment he died protecting Hitoshiki because it gave his life meaning. Hitoshiki believes that his sun is the moment when he gets his revenge, though that will probably change in later volumes thanks to his new promise to Anju.

The main problem of Taiyou is that it does a very poor job at engaging the readers due to a combination of a complete lack of originality, impact and Yukito's unique but bothersome habit of sectioning whole sentences like replacing commas with full stops. While it is still just the first volume and may very well develop into something else later on, the characters, setting and story progression at this point will hardly suck anyone in. It feels like a glorified and overly long prologue that could have been better incorporated into the story instead of standing as a barrier between the readers and their enjoyment of the book.

Overall, I guess this isn't the worst thing to come out recently and probably won't be ruining anyone's Christmas anytime soon, but I'd be hard-pressed to find any legitimately good reason to recommend it to any self-respecting individual.

So check your blood.