Apparently, they announced an anime project based around Nisioisins Zaregoto novel cycle. It’s apparent existence is about all they announced – it’s maybe a little wishful thinking to think this might be what Tatsuya Oishi is working on now that the end is presumably insight on the long road to Kizumonogatari, so let’s not think that for now.

Zaregoto is a bit of an odd one, really, particularly for English-speaking fans. That first English print of the novel was released back in 2008, and whilst Monogatari adaptations may seem like such a universal constant as to be a feasible replacement for carbon dating at this point, that’s actually before the first episode of Bakemonogatari even aired in Japan. It’s before most of Western fandom even particularly had a concept of what a Nisioisin work would even be like. That it took two years, and Bakemonogatari blowing up, for that second English book to be published is probably pretty telling about what happens when you release a novel like that when there’s little public comprehension about the author or property in question.

In fact, going back and seeing that I barely mentioned Nisio back when I wrote about that first book is pretty funny, given how often I tend to end up describing the writing in things as being “pretty Nisio” these days. He’s an author who’s name has practically become a descriptor for a particular style of prose and conversational dialogue.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the anime adaptation of Zaregoto ends up working, particularly if they’re doing a linear adaptation of the novels. I obviously have a limited sample size, but there’s things about those books that are cute specifically because they do weird things which can only really work in prose – the second book in particular climaxes in a narrative sleight-of-hand that is simultaneously brilliant and absolutely infuriating, making you immediately start to question everything in both the books you’ve read up to that point. The series protagonist, Ii-chan, often refers to himself as a blank slate, but he’s also referred to as “Nonsense Wielder”, and it’s often difficult to figure out how much of that is seeping over into his narration. He considers himself a blank slate to the degree that his narration often directly contradicts prior statements he has made about himself in favour of the opinion of whoever he is talking to. In a series full of the hyper-competent, his competency is basically BS.

But, hey, clever people have made other works presumed unfilmable work in the past, so I look forward to seeing how things turn out, as the approach taken to some of the events will be make it interesting to consume at the very least. I just can’t help but remember how hilariously obvious certain things in Gosick ended up being as soon as they left the page for the screen, though…

(I was pretty hilariously high on that second book when it came out. Hilariously high. Pretty sure the ending to that book also led others to be filled with murderous intent… It’s something that’s a little tricky not to have an opinion about…)