Their recent list of contemporary Japanese fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels is making those Japanophiles at the New York publishing house Vertical Inc. Nihon otaku among Western publishing companies. The books are beautifully produced and many, including this one, have covers by that genius of book designers — Chip Kidd.
The six interesting tales in "Lala Pipo" — all with borrowed song titles for story titles — tell of a Tokyo far removed from cherry blossoms, Sony and the Imperial Palace. Arguably, the book could have been marketed as a novel. The stories are interrelated and many of the same characters appear in the different tales.
Freelance writer Hiroshi Sugiyama and erotic-novel transcriber Sayuri Tamaki top and tail the collection, their relationship becoming more complicated and confused, more obsessive and postmodern as the tales progress.