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You can start and finish this challenge whenever you like!
This challenge is for Koji Suzuki’s Ring Series. The book the movie adaptions are based on
Figured I’d make this for just the novels (I know there are manga out there). I’ll put Tide on the list as well, but currently there is no English translation
Figured I’d make this for just the novels (I know there are manga out there). I’ll put Tide on the list as well, but currently there is no English translation
Challenge Books
1
Ring
Kōji Suzuki
Book 1 - Published 1991
A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.
Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece's inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society's fears to a rural Japan--a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic--haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape's mystery before it's too late--for everyone--assumes an increasingly deadly urgency.
Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.
Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.
2
Spiral
Kōji Suzuki
Book 2 - Published 1995
Dr. Ando who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances. The corpse, that of cynical philosophy professor Ryuji Takayama, has something to tell him. And Ryuji isn't the only one who chooses to make a reappearance in this story. You don't know what the RING is yet. The terms of the curse of the videotape undergo a jaw-dropping reconfiguration in this novel, the horror master's stunning reinvention of his own bestselling tale. Spiral is written as a stand-alone work; for Rinbg fans, its' a sequel that redefines the word.
Dr. Ando who has yet to recover from his son's death at sea, conducts an autopsy on an old friend who has died under unusual circumstances. The corpse, that of cynical philosophy professor Ryuji Takayama, has something to tell him. And Ryuji isn't the only one who chooses to make a reappearance in this story. You don't know what the RING is yet. The terms of the curse of the videotape undergo a jaw-dropping reconfiguration in this novel, the horror master's stunning reinvention of his own bestselling tale. Spiral is written as a stand-alone work; for Rinbg fans, its' a sequel that redefines the word.
3
Loop
Kōji Suzuki
Book 3 - Published 1998
Learn the final truth about the Ring
Learn the final truth about the Ring
In this much-awaited conclusion of the Ring trilogy, everything you thought you knew about the story will have to be put aside. In Loop, the killer mimics both AIDS and cancer in a deadly new guise. Kaoru Futami, a youth mature beyond his years, must hope to find answers in the deserts of New Mexico and the Loop project, a virtual matrix created by scientists. The fate of more than just his loved ones depends on Kaoru's success.
Loop is written as a stand-alone work though it is best enjoyed by fans of Ring and Spiral. The author's own favorite of the trilogy, this astounding finale is an emotionally resonant tale that scales conceptual heights from an angle all its own. Fiction about fiction has rarely been so gripping.
4
Birthday
Kōji Suzuki
Book 4 - Publisher 1999
Thirty years before the tragic events of Ring, Sadako Yamamura was an aspiring stage actress on the verge of her theatrical debut. The beautiful and ravishing Sadako was the object of every male's desire involved with the company including n the director. There was one thespian she was interested in, but...
Fast forward past the events of Ring, Ryuji Takayama's distraught lover, Mai Takano is struggling in the wake of the professor's mysterious demise. Mai visits Ryuji's parents' house to find the missing pages of his soon-to-be published article. There she is drawn to a curious videotape and a fate more terrifying than Ryuji or Kazuyuki Asakawa's.
Reiko Sugiura questioned the purpose of bringing a child into a world where there was only death. She already lost one son, and the father of her unborn child, Kaoru Futami, had disappeared in search of a cure to the deadly disease that threatened all life. Despite Kaoru's to meet again in two months, he has not returned. Despondent but driven for answers Reiko is led to the Loop project, where she will discover the final truths of the Ring virus.
Thirty years before the tragic events of Ring, Sadako Yamamura was an aspiring stage actress on the verge of her theatrical debut. The beautiful and ravishing Sadako was the object of every male's desire involved with the company including n the director. There was one thespian she was interested in, but...
Fast forward past the events of Ring, Ryuji Takayama's distraught lover, Mai Takano is struggling in the wake of the professor's mysterious demise. Mai visits Ryuji's parents' house to find the missing pages of his soon-to-be published article. There she is drawn to a curious videotape and a fate more terrifying than Ryuji or Kazuyuki Asakawa's.
Reiko Sugiura questioned the purpose of bringing a child into a world where there was only death. She already lost one son, and the father of her unborn child, Kaoru Futami, had disappeared in search of a cure to the deadly disease that threatened all life. Despite Kaoru's to meet again in two months, he has not returned. Despondent but driven for answers Reiko is led to the Loop project, where she will discover the final truths of the Ring virus.
5
S: Es
Kōji Suzuki
Book 5 - Published 2012
Takanori Ando, son of Spiral protagonist Mitsuo, works at a small CGI production company and hopes to become a filmmaker one day despite coming from a family of doctors. When he's tasked by his boss to examine a putatively live-streamed video of a suicide that's been floating around the internet, the aspiring director takes on more than he bargained for. His lover Akane, an orphan who grew up at a foster-care facility and is now a rookie high-school teacher, ends up watching the clip. She is pregnant, and she is...triggered.
Sinking hooks into our unconscious from its very first pages with its creepy imagery, and rewarding curious fans of the series with clever self-references, here is a fitting sequel to a tale renowned for its ongoing mutations.
Takanori Ando, son of Spiral protagonist Mitsuo, works at a small CGI production company and hopes to become a filmmaker one day despite coming from a family of doctors. When he's tasked by his boss to examine a putatively live-streamed video of a suicide that's been floating around the internet, the aspiring director takes on more than he bargained for. His lover Akane, an orphan who grew up at a foster-care facility and is now a rookie high-school teacher, ends up watching the clip. She is pregnant, and she is...triggered.
Sinking hooks into our unconscious from its very first pages with its creepy imagery, and rewarding curious fans of the series with clever self-references, here is a fitting sequel to a tale renowned for its ongoing mutations.
6
(bonus)
Tide
Kōji Suzuki
Book 6 - Publication 2013
Listed as bonus as there is no English translation
Cram-school math instructor Seiji Kashiwada is a creation of the supercomputer LOOP, and the biological information implanted in him reflects the lives of Ryuji Takayama, who appeared in both Ring and Loop, and Kaoru Futami, who appeared in the latter volume; but due to a system error, portions of his memory have become lost.
One day, student Rie Yoshina comes to him for advice regarding her friend Haruna Tajima, who inexplicably fell into a coma after seeing a female dogu figurine of the Jomon Period (ca. 12,000–300 BCE) depicting the release of a snake. It is a baffling story, but as he listens to Rie's account, Seiji senses intuitively that it is a message directed at him. As if guided by some unknown force, he begins going back over the events that took place in Ring.
The reader learns about the conflicts between Shizuko Yamamura and her daughter Sadako, who were central to the events; about the early years of the ancient ascetic who gave Shizuko her special powers; and about the surprising secret of Ryuji Takayama's birth. In the process, Seiji becomes one with Ryuji, and begins filling in the missing pieces of his memory. At the same time, he comes to feel a connection with the unbroken tides of human passion and memory that have ebbed and flowed since time immemorial, and in turn, to understand why he has been given life in this world.
Listed as bonus as there is no English translation
Cram-school math instructor Seiji Kashiwada is a creation of the supercomputer LOOP, and the biological information implanted in him reflects the lives of Ryuji Takayama, who appeared in both Ring and Loop, and Kaoru Futami, who appeared in the latter volume; but due to a system error, portions of his memory have become lost.
One day, student Rie Yoshina comes to him for advice regarding her friend Haruna Tajima, who inexplicably fell into a coma after seeing a female dogu figurine of the Jomon Period (ca. 12,000–300 BCE) depicting the release of a snake. It is a baffling story, but as he listens to Rie's account, Seiji senses intuitively that it is a message directed at him. As if guided by some unknown force, he begins going back over the events that took place in Ring.
The reader learns about the conflicts between Shizuko Yamamura and her daughter Sadako, who were central to the events; about the early years of the ancient ascetic who gave Shizuko her special powers; and about the surprising secret of Ryuji Takayama's birth. In the process, Seiji becomes one with Ryuji, and begins filling in the missing pieces of his memory. At the same time, he comes to feel a connection with the unbroken tides of human passion and memory that have ebbed and flowed since time immemorial, and in turn, to understand why he has been given life in this world.
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