Hoshi Shinichi - Short Shorts

November 13, 2008 on 11:36 pm | In Books, Language | | Email This Post


Shinichi Hoshi (星新一) was a Japanese author from Tokyo who lived from 1926 to 1997. He is famous for writing extremely short (4 or 5 pages) science fiction short stories for adults. Many of them have a dark twist to them at the end.

I was introduced three of his stories in the Japanese class that I am auditing now. My two favorite were おーいでてこーい (oi! detekoi! - Hey! Come out of there!), and ボッコちゃん (Bokko-chan) written in 1958.

You can see a video recreation of the おーいでてこーい story on YouTube.

The animated short for ボッコちゃん starts at 6:40 in this video.

There was another story called 約束 (yakusoko - Promise), of which I’m not a huge fan is the first story on that same video clip.

They’re all in Japanese with no subtitles… But the endings are always interesting so I don’t want to spoil anything by giving away the plot.

I wish I could find the full text of his stories online, but I’m not having any luck… If you’re interested, and in Japan, head to a Book-Off or something and grab a copy of his story collections! They’re short, quick, and interesting, so great for learning Japanese!

Other Hoshi Shinichi stuff around the web:
Shinichi Hoshi Official Site
Some foreigners re-enacting Bokko-chan

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3 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    Interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.

    Comment by Sea Jackal — November 14, 2008 #

  2. Gravatar

    How cool. The first one, おーいでてこーい, is in the English textbook I use for Junior High students in Tokyo. But there is no mention of the author or anything.

    Comment by Brian — November 14, 2008 #

  3. Gravatar

    Brian: Wow, I wonder if the students know the author? Some how I doubt it… Why wouldn’t the list that? Strange! Maybe they don’t want the kids to stumble upon his darker works?

    Comment by Harvey — November 14, 2008 #

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