Jason Fourthroom - Love to Ashes, and Ashes to Ashes.
Review by Kakuzō Akutagawa.
“I May Be A Bizarre Girl For You To Be Here With.”
Penned during the days of olden, 1996, and forgotten in a notebook left to rot away by the sands of time, 26 years later, 2022, we are miraculously presented with the first poem collection by the multitalented literary menace known as Maijo Otaro.
Enter Jason Fourthroom. A collection of poems written before Maijo’s professional debut as an author. Created five years before taking the mystery world by storm with the first entry of the family saga swirling with the myth of blood and violence, Smoke, Soil Or Sacrifices, which won him the prestigious Mephisto Prize and kick-started the heart of his career, we are now given a small look at that which came before.
Jason Fourthroom is a love story told through poetry, which in the same way as human life, is presented through poems of love, of grief, daily life, darkness, violence, happiness, but above everything, youth.
“I predict that this will be a typical love story.
Me, her, and the guy she's interested in, Natsukawa-kun.
Then Usagi showed up, and I found myself drawn to her.
I lost sight of her while playing with Usagi,
Nonetheless, I remained silent,
I remained calm,
I remained perplexed at all times.
Yet another guy showed up.
I'm no more than a wannabe writer.
Just as I was getting started another writer told me:
‘Please, take it back.’
This will be an extremely dull story.
Sure thing. But that’s how all tales of love and youth start out as.”
Let me start by stating, It’s an understatement to say I’m not well versed in anything related to poetry as a whole. So any excerpts translated from this book in this review by yours truly will be translated literally, missing the very essence of what makes a poem a poem, I just don’t know how those things work...I-I mean, let’s say I’m just translating everything as ‘Free verse’ yeaaaah, that sounds better than saying ‘I have no idea what I’m doing.' Whatever, going back to the main topic:
As a person, I’m a product of the 2000’s that has been nourished exclusively through mystery novels -these works a certain surgeon working at San Diego would say are no more than ‘quizzes and answers tailored into a narrative style’- and the occasional non-mystery work of fiction. I have never approached poetry, for me, it had been no more than “this funny thing pretentious people write to feel smart.” And yet, the moment I heard none other than Maijo Otaro was getting his first poem collection published I couldn’t help but feel the revolutions per minute of my head increase.
Maijo has cemented himself as my favorite author through the length of the last few years, he has drilled a hole all the way through my brain with his interconnected avant-grade and unorthodox dazzling cacophonies that some may dare call acts of terrorism, but others may just call ‘novels.’
“After all, you don’t believe in me.
If I were to stand at the edge of the abyss of despair,
You wouldn’t care.”
And Jason Fourthoom has been no exception, the thought of a ‘predebut’ work by Maijo getting published scared me, I had this preconceived notion of “Well, if it hadn’t been published it must’ve been because it wasn’t good enough, right?” How stupid of me to think that, it was the opposite. Jason Fourthroom is a work of fiction overflowing with raw emotion, overflowing with youth, it’s a small 172 page long book that can be read as a cry for help about to explode with truths presented through lies.
What do I mean? Well, for me and many others, fiction is the product of lies. Another author once said that awfully true things, important things, and deep truths, cannot be told as they are. It is then when lies are to be used, or else, believability can’t be born. A story is telling a truth you want to tell through false words. And Jason Fourthroom is a perfect exemplification of that, one can tell the mind space Maijo Otaro was in when writing this and exactly what he’s trying to convey through his poems.
A writer doesn’t choose the story. It’s the writer who is chosen by the story. Well, perhaps the word ‘chose’ isn’t quite correct. It is not so much a ‘choice’ as it is an ‘encounter by chance.’ And Maijo just so happened to encounter this story, and it is through the purest of loves and darkest of grief of a young Maijo Otaro that this poem collection was born.
“Blame something.
Comfort yourself...
In the end
You will only end up hating yourself.
That won't save you.
Everyone.
Wants to be loved.
Everyone.
Wants to be saved.
If so...
why don't I give it to them?”
Getting back on track, I was pleasantly surprised by this book, it’s amazing to see so many ideas, characters, and morals from later books by Maijo can be traced back all the way to Jason Fourthroom. I knew I was going to like this book since the first mention of the names ‘Natsukawa,’ and ‘Usagi.’ It’s amazing to see where characters present in other of his works originated from.
I’d like to say the story of Jason Fourthoom is quite convoluted, but there’s no helping that, we’re only reading it through poems, and us readers are tasked with filling up the blanks and giving the series of events a coherent chronological order. It is definitely a book that benefits from being read twice, one time for the simple enjoyment of the poetry and a second time to use some brain cells and try to sort it out and give it some coherence.
That’s not a problem, as the poems are quite short (despite varying in length quite drastically at times) and they’re just so good that personally speaking, I will be rereading this book for the rest of my life. Just enjoying little by little each of the big and wonderful things in this poem collection is enough. A story isn’t just something you read once then say farewell to. Especially if it happens to be a great story, it’s good to keep it company, take our time, even if it takes us the rest of our life. By doing so, we can discover new and different elements each time.
Jason Fourthroom arrived at the perfect moment of my life, I’m a young lad to say the least, and my romantic experiences had been zero to none, but just during this period of time I just so happened to truly fall in love for the first time in my life. What a corny thing to talk about, but I feel like this was very important in my enjoyment of Jason Fourthroom, a poem collection exactly about that; love.
I was deeply wounded by this thing we talk about when talking about love, and at points I felt like Jason Fourthroom became painful to read, I was just reading my very own thoughts printed on a piece of paper in front of me, it’s an insane feeling. Like a sudden cold snap that made me take multiple looks at the poems in this collection.
Is Maijo Otaro just me from the future, and he came back to the past to write exactly what I want to write?
I hate to talk about myself instead of the book. I'm supposed to be writing a review, but please bear with me, I need to write these kinds of things down.
Through the time I took to read this book the way I view life (love) changed drastically, and Jason Fourthroom just so happened to accompany me through the entirety of this process. A first love is something incredible, and then it just hurts a lot. I felt like crawling into the darkness many times during this period, and I experienced the scariest of things one can have while reading a piece of fiction, being unable to distinguish between oneself and the protagonist of said work.
This is a common thing that has happened to me when reading other Maijo works, when I say ‘I’m Saburou Natsukawa’ from The Childish Darkness, it’s not jokingly, I literally feel that’s a perfect representation of my person. But Jason Fourthoom was another level of this, my thoughts perfectly merged with those of our narrator, my experiences perfectly aligned with those of the narrator, my life during this period of time was exactly that of the narrator...but then I finished reading the book.
It was impactful to say the least, hell, I found myself studying poetry and writing my own poems about love after finishing reading Jason Fourthroom. It had a strong message, and to say that I teared up with that last poem in Jason Fourthroom is another understatement, I bawled my eyes out.
And thus, my/Jason Fourtroom’s love story was over. This book helped me put my feelings during a dark time of my life into words, and helped me sort them out, realize many things, and notice how life can continue after falling deep down the abyss of despair.
“Are you sure you want me?
I'm going to be around for a long time,
I'm sure, maybe forever.
I'm going to get you in trouble.
I said, laughing,
What are you talking about?
I like it when you get me in trouble,
That's the way it's always been,
And that's the way it's always going to be.
Will you make me happy?
Will you make me truly happy?
Of course.
I'm sure, maybe, before you know it.
Before you realize it.
You'll be truly happy.
Will you be by my side then?
I want to see your face smiling when you're happy.
Don't worry.
I'll be there for you.
You know, I,
I think I can trust you.
I'm glad you do.”
Now, onto the binding of the book! The cover is so good it's insane. The book is great quality, it was published by Nanarokusha, which previously published other Maijo works such as Midnight 100-tarou entrance and Midnight 100-tarou exit. The paper quality is nice, the finish of the book is great, and overall it's just good quality, also the first printing comes with a few little cool extras.
First, it comes with a booklet that includes the first few pages of Maijo’s 1993 story (yeah, even older than Fourthroom) ‘THE COLOR OF THE FATAL EYES’ holy shit does that title go hard, and the first page is also quite interesting, I swear, this better be a teaser for a future full release of this by Nanarokusha.
Then, it comes with a postcard replica of the original manuscript of ‘Smoke, Soil Or Sacrifices’ signed by the author. I love it so much.
From start to finish it’s pure greatness, I don’t know how to describe it, it’s my first time reading poetry after all, I mean, you know when reading a novel you’ll sometimes come across a sentence so impactful that it makes you want to stop for a moment to process it? Well, now imagine a book filled with those.
In any case, this is finally the end of this cathartic text that I'd like to believe is a review. I'm sorry if it was too emotional or corny, but special texts deserve special treatment, and if that text impacted me on an emotional level, I can't see why not be a bit emotional. It may sound like the only reason I liked this book is because I related quite hard to it, but I swear, it's just a great read.
Maijo Otaro’s first poem collection Jason Fourthroom is a 10/10 to me. I mean, it's a story about love, tragedy, and youth. I'm a young guy, who just experienced those.
And you know? I think we all need stories like this.
“Natsukawa-kun, it’s finally Fourhtrooming time.” (not an actual quote lol)
Yeah, I agree...
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