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I've noticed that a lot of people disliked this book because it has nothing to do with the animated movie, neither thematically nor stylistically, but I liked it precisely for that reason. Although I recognize that the English release (and probably all non-japanese releases) was pretty much sold off to the fans of the movie, you should keep in mind that this book was NOT released originally after the movie, they were actually released near to the same time, so any complaints about misleading sealing practices are out of the realms of the work itself, being more about marketing than anything else.

That said, I loved ... the novel. Kemonotachi no Yoru (or Night of the Beasts) is a tale about youth, rebelliousness and the mankind. It also has throughout the narrative a pretty Oshii-like kind of postmodern critique of the role of your usual main character and of our pretense capability to change the world around us. He has always liked to question this, especially regarding art as a political mean to revolution. Such a critique is implied by certain lines in the actual narrative, but mainly by its subversive structure.

The only downside I can point out here is Oshii’s love for monologues. People usually criticize this in his films, in which I mostly disagree, but here he takes it to another level. The time he spends and the way he spends it ranting on the history of modern thought and on the universe in which the story is set and its philosophical implications, although pretty interesting as a whole and for me especially, as an Oshii fan, ends up being too much and, in certain points, even breaking the very perception of this work as a literary one.

But even so, I still do like this novel a lot. It’s very enjoyable and satisfactory to read as long as you don’t go for it hoping it will be by any means like the movie, because it isn’t. Besides that, this is definitely a piece that deserves to be praised and well-known by more people, even though I know it isn’t for everyone.