This "light novel" was published in Japan in March 1998 by Shogakukan under their female-targeted label "Palette Books." Light novels are a style of Japanese novel aimed primarily at middle and high school students, with a shorter length equivalent to what we'd call a novella. They are often serialized in magazines before being published as a complete novel. This is the first of two such novels, and while it features illustrations by Chiho Saito, and includes familiar scenes from the manga and series, it's considered a separate continuity.
Giovanna's Note: Decent scans of the novel covers have been elusive, so this cover is an rough emulation of the Japanese cover with translations added. The cast page is a two page spread. I split it so that the text and images could be full size. Dallbun's translation shows internal dialogue in parentheses, which you'll see here in italics instead. I made the change for aesthetic reasons apparent when the content is presented book format. Aside from the rare typo or grammar correction, this text is presented as Dallbun translated it. Because he's awesome.
Prologue
Chapter 1: Shinohara Wakaba
Chapter 2: Saionji Kyouichi
Chapter 3: Friends
Chapter 4: Prince
Chapter 5: Painful Love
Chapter 6: The Dueling Arena Forest
Epilogue
Afterword
"Verdant Hopes" - Like the first novel, it's a very poetic title, and similarly uses an archaic form of a color kanji: in this case, 翠 for "midori," or green, rather than the standard 緑. "Midori" can also mean greenery or vegetation, as in the holiday Greenery Day. I went with "Verdant" over "Viridian" because plants or flowers are a motif in the book (and in Utena in general), and also because using "green" as an adjective is pretty meaningless. As for "omoi," it can mean a lot of things, including thoughts, feelings, expectations, or wishes. "Hopes" is just one possible translation.
Chapter 3
"an evening of playing marbles with Chu-Chu" - The game is ohajiki, technically.
Chapter 5
Yamamura Keiko - Not Keiko of Aiko, Keiko, and Yuuko – that would be Sonada Keiko. It's not an uncommon given name.
| Cover & Translation Notes Prologue Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4 * Chapter 5 * Chapter 6 Epilogue Afterword |
> |