claben's review

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5.0

There are a lot of different things that can go wrong with an anthology. It can be too diffuse in theme, or too rigid. The stories can vary so wildly in quality that you're embarrassed for some of the writers, or they can cluster so that nothing peeks above the horizon of mediocrity as a landmark.

Hanzai Japan, like The Future is Japanese and Phantasm Japan before it, manages to dial in on anthology excellence with a strong selection of stories that are both diverse and focused, and consistently above-average. Combining Japanese work in translation with pieces from English-language authors who have the chops to treat Japan as a real setting and not just a cyberpunk wonderland has worked out beautifully for this series. This third entry focuses on crime stories with a fantastic element, the peanut butter and chocolate of crossed genres. The stories you will find here range all the way from fun romps to haunting meditations on human frailty and perversity.

Stand-out stories included "Run!" by Kaori Fujino, the first fresh take on 'inside the mind of a serial killer' that I have seen in many a long day; Carrie Vaughn's "The Girl Who Loved Shonen Knife", an entertaining nod to teenage fandom that is both knowing and energetic; the dream-like "Sky Spider" by Yusuke Miyauchi; and not one but two stories in which maps play an important role - "[dis.]" by the always-excellent Genevieve Valentine and "Monologue of a Universal Transverse Mercator Projection" by Yumeaki Hirayama, a striking story that reads as though Hans Christian Anderson and Edgar Allan Poe had a baby who was brought forward in time and reared on the work of James Cain.

If you have any love at all for crime, the fantastic, or Japan, you should definitely check this out.
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