Tokyo Love by Diana Jean

Tokyo Love by Diana Jean

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the 60th book I’ve read (well 60th on my reread shelf, I’ve not always ‘properly’ recorded rereads, and some of those 60 rereads are of the same book), and 2nd time I’ve read this book here. Still only the first book I’ve read by this author, though.

This is a near future story set roughly 30 years in the future in the 2040s, in (mostly) Tokyo Japan. Starring an American woman from the Midwest named Kathleen Schmitt who works as the director of a the software part of a special project developing Personal Love Companions (a combination of a robot and a love doll designed to mimic real people – in feel and personality). Kathleen is seen through the eyes of herself and Yuriko Vellucci (more on Yuriko later). I mention so I can then mention that Kathleen is described as having especially kinky hair (the kind where someone’s hand will get trapped inside of it if they try to run their hand through the hair), especially chubby and having oversized breasts. There are comments made about how Kathleen, as an American, is ‘larger’ than the normal person seen in Japan (this is where my earlier comment about the POV being Kathleen’s and Yuriko’s leads me to note that a self-assessment (Kathleen’s) is suspect, and Yuriko, even though half-American and having spent years in the USA, hasn’t been there in years and is out of practice ‘judging’ Americans).

Right. So. Kathleen works as the director, as noted, and has been in Japan for about three months now. Knows roughly three words of Japanese, and has come to realize that just because many Japanese know English, that doesn’t mean she and they could communicate fluently. Which is important because the story opens with her trapped in the Japanese metro/transit/train system and is freaking out. In the middle of berating and yelling at a help kiosk Kathleen is saved by the other main character – Yuriko (I stop for a moment to include the part where the help kiosk is designed to be available to be used in many languages, including English, but was having trouble understanding Kathleen).

Yuriko, as previously noted, is half-American (and not previously mentioned, half-Japanese). Works on the same project Kathleen is working on, but in a different division (Kathleen is software, Yuriko is hardware).

Yuriko & Kathleen become friendly and bump into each other every once in a while. Their ‘bumping into each other’ picks up when Kathleen ends up being the pre-beta tester of a Personal Love Companion (against her wishes), and Yuriko gets pulled into the situation for several reasons.

This is where I mention that: 1) Kathleen has no desire to have the PLC, but can’t say no; 2) the PLC is made based on a brain scan – the ‘perfect’ companion is created based on the scan; 3) Kathleen is 200% heterosexual (not 100% because she is very very adamant that she is heterosexual and nothing but); 4) Kathleen’s PLC is: a) female; b) looks exactly like Yuriko.

Yuriko, Kathleen, and Ai (the name the PLC gives herself) then proceed to interact, explore feelings and ideas, be fluffy mixed with angsty, and do a little exploring of Japan – mostly of some shrines.

I loved the book the first time I read it, and down rated the first read through somewhat because of how long it took Kathleen to get from ‘I’m 100% straight’ to ‘okay, I’m bisexual’) – oddly enough, that wasn’t an issue this time (well, it was an issue, just it wasn’t a ‘must down rate book’ level issue). The thing that keeps me from rating this book higher than I did this time is based partly on how this book needing several more passes through the editing process due to extra words, misspelled words (more in a there/their kind of way) and a few other issues like that.

Rating: 5

May 1 2018



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