One Love Chigusa by Sōji Shimada

One Love Chigusa Reviews

• 
  Books on Asia

  We received a review copy of this but I have to say it was very difficult to finish. Red Circle Minis are usually of better quality, so perhaps this is an anomaly. The story itself was fine, and I don't think the fault of the book lies with the author, Sōji Shimada (although I've never read him in Japanese). The problem is the translation. While it must be very exciting to have such a well-known person as David Warren come up to the plate to translate, an experienced translator he is not. I am sure he is an excellent speaker and maybe even writer of Japanese. But this English version breaks all the rules of good writing, which made for dull prose. Repetitive SVO sentences, telling rather than showing, and repetition of common words rather than using more exacting, enriching vocabulary are just a few of the atrocities committed here.
  
  I found it hard to finish. 申し訳ありません。
• 
  Lauren

  I firstly need to say that this book was not only well-written, utterly compelling and beautiful translated but it is one of the best artificial intelligence stories I have ever read. From the on set this story was absolutely compelling and creepy. The mystery within kept me completely in thrilled and constantly left me wanting more.
  
  When I first heard the premise of this book I was immediately hooked. There were so many things that I loved about this book. One of them being the evolution of humankind in connection with artificial intelligence. I have always been fascinated by stories that involve AI and One Love Chigusa certainly did not disappoint.
  
  Throughout the whole of this book Soji Shimada somehow makes you as the reader have such a connection with not only the main character Xie Hoyu but also the character of Chigusa herself. You as the reader find yourself completely rooting for a love story that not only explores the human heart, humankind’s evolution but also the world of artificial intelligence itself and believe me when I say what a ride that is.
  
  For such a small book the character development within was so powerful in itself. In a way this story tests the limits and distance one is really willing to travel for the ones that they love. Even if that means breaking the rules of technology, society and humankind along the way. However, I do want to make one finally point and that is this book will break your heart but believe me its so worth it!
• 
  Snoakes

  When Xie Hoyu suffers a horrific motorcycle accident, surgeons rebuild him using the very latest cybernetics and biotechnology. The year is 2091 and these sciences are far advanced from our reality, so Xie ends up as much machine as he is man.
  As well as fundamentally changing his biology, Xie's perception of the world changes too - to the extent that he can no longer find a reason to live. Until that is, while brooding over a coffee in a dark corner of his favourite café, he spots the most beautiful women he has ever seen and he becomes infatuated if not obsessed with her.
  So this short novel starts as an intriguing Sci-Fi, which totally caught my interest. It then turns into a game of cat and mouse as Xie follows the mysterious woman around the city. For such a concise story it covers a lot of ground, from Buddhist parables and Scottish folk songs to AI, evolution and, inevitably, love.
  Finally in the final few pages everything is tied up in a way that is both clever and heart-rending.
• 
  Geoffrey Whitehall

  This has so much more packed in than just a simple tale of a 'schizo-cyborg' looking for love and redeption. It's multi-layered fiction at its best with fascinating vignettes, tales and observations woven into what is probably best described as a meditation on love wrapped into a whodunnit style narrative that quickly grabs the reader's interest from the first few pages. Not surprised at all that the South China Morning Post called it "a mini-masterpeice" in their book review. It should have broad appeal and will surprise, and make you stop and think, as you reach its conclusion after several twists some you can predict and others not.
• 
  Alex Pearl

  In this heartbreaking novella by the master storyteller Soli Shimada, we are given a glimpse of a future world that relies heavily on advanced technology.
  Following a horrendous motorcycle accident, our central character Xie Hoyu is quite literally pieced back together thanks to state-of-the-art biomechanical prosthetics. While his surgery saves his life, existence for Xie has lost all meaning, and his saviour from a cold and heartless world comes in the form of a young girl with whom Xie falls hopelessly in love. But not all is as it seems.
  Alex Pearl is author of 'Sleeping with the Blackbirds' and 'The Chair Man.'
• 
  Danny

  A powerful story about love and machines.
  
  The story covers relevant topics and I found I was always guessing where it was leading. It provides a fantastic idea of what the future might look like and hints at questions around AI and consciousness. Well worth a read.
• 
  Iain

  Another book in a great series, this one bringing a powerful metaphor to life in a disturbing way. Red Circle books are always worth checking out.
• 
  Kathryn Hemmann

  One Love Chigusa is unapologetically misogynistic. The protagonist’s misogyny isn’t a side effect of his hardboiled personality; rather, it’s his defining trait and a guiding theme of the story. This sexism isn’t handled critically but is taken entirely for granted, and main plot of the novella involves the protagonist stalking a young woman.
  
  I am no stranger to difficult male characters engaging in problematic romance, but One Love Chigusa has little more to offer than a tedious reiteration of sexist sci-fi tropes. There is no worldbuilding, no answers to the questions raised by the story, and no characterization beyond “antisocial stalker” and “physically attractive woman with the mind of a child.” There’s no social commentary that rises above the author’s vaguely xenophobic choice to set the story in a Beijing constructed of crude stereotypes, and any potential critique of the dehumanizing nature of late-stage capitalism is subverted by the narrative’s overt misogyny, which blames the more dystopian aspects of its vaguely futuristic society on the petty greed and selfishness of adult women.
  
  Unsurprisingly, there is not a happy ending for the female character who becomes the victim of the protagonist's sexual advances, and the twist at the end (which most readers familiar with sci-fi tropes will probably intuit very early on) takes the concept of "objectification" to its most rote and literal conclusion.
  
  The fact that this pablum is dedicated to Osamu Tezuka seems almost insulting. If you're interested in reading a true tribute to the deep humanism of Tezuka's brilliant speculative imagination, I would strongly recommend giving One Love Chigusa a pass and picking up Naoki Urasawa's Pluto instead.
• 
  Ririn

  The novella is really short, not really sure that I like it LIKE it. It's probably a good story if you can imagine it like an episode of Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone hahaha.. altho the plot twist is rather predictable (except for the mysterious being, I'm not sure that's necessary)
  
  Xie is.. an unlikeable narrator. The way he sees Chigusa is.. unsettling. His stalker-ish behavior is problematic I can't relate to his ~pain~ at all *shrugs*
• 
  bookblurbage

  ⚠️Triggers: gore, violence, suicidal thoughts, stalking, racist themes
  
  Xie is feeling alienated after being in a motorcycle accident and is given prosthetic arms and legs (and possibly cyborg like tendencies due to strange things happening in his mind).
  
  Maybe a slight reflection of the future we will have when technology and humankind are blurred into one? Some may agree this is already happening with machines taking over jobs in warehouses, car manufacturers and the like and self services machines being more prominent in supermarkets. Especially with the current pandemic climate we are in I feel they are more encouraged.
  
  This started off well and dropped some major hints as to the final conclusion of the book. Definitely kept me guessing for a while. A sad ending to a very futuristic type of book. Will be definitely be reading some more Red Circle Mini stories in the future. A ⭐️⭐️⭐️ star read after I felt a little unsatisfied with the ending.
• 
  Elif

  A futuristic love story that will make you question a lot!
  
  English:
  https://elifthereader.com/books/one-l...
  Türkçe:
  https://kitaplikkedisi.com/kitaplar/o...
• 
  Agnes Laurent

  I guess I bought it because I thought the story would be a mystery one... but it wasn't. It's a romance story and it's a unique one. I can say that this book wasn't for my taste :')
• 
  Christopher Hood

  For my review see my blog post here:
  https://hoodcp.wordpress.com/2020/08/...