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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
Better writing than I expected and surprisingly witty, world building could have a little more effort but good read for what it is nonetheless.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was not a good book. The premise appeals to genre fans: A Japanese layabout is swept away to a fantasy world, encounters beautiful but deadly women, and has to survive by his wits and magical ability to start over again from the same moment every time he dies. Unfortunately, the story also featured stilted English, awkward phrasing, tautological terminology, and an uncomfortable lack of polish. I give it two stars instead of one because there were great concepts hidden behind the tortured text. However, I couldn't initially tell who was at fault: Tappei Nagatsuki, the original author, or ZephyrRz, the translator. I decided to look up ZephyrRz, found their blog (https://kafkafuura.wordpress.com), and discovered they are a college student studying abroad. Excellent Japanese knowledge (translates anime songs for fun), but inexperienced writing skills. The blog is filled with sentence fragments, terse phraseology, and literal translations. This is ZephryRz' writing style.
It seems this story was a novice effort for Nagatsuki as well, originally written as a serialized web novel on a novice author website. The story was quite fannish, with the main character Natsuki Subaru's name being one consonant away from the author's. Subaru would often choose unrealistic moments to pose like an anime character, which was supposed to be comical, but came off as off-putting melodrama. The battles would be constantly interrupted with lengthy, overly clever dialogue which might appeal to comic book/manga fans, but didn't appeal to me. Yet the concept of a guy who could fix his mistakes because his day reset every time he died was interesting, like All You Need Is Kill in a fantasy setting. There was also depth and backstory to the characters and world that was only hinted at in the story, but did intrigue me. Now that I know that the story originated as a web novel, the fact that it started off comical and gained depth and drama as it rolled along makes more sense now.
I loved the anime, and hoped to find more depth in the novel, but if you had to choose between the two, I would recommend experiencing this story through the anime. It's far more polished. I am not sure if I will pick up the second volume. As stated above, the translation became smoother towards the end of the novel, and perhaps that was due to Nagatsuki's growing experience. If ZephyrRz is the translator for the next few volumes, perhaps experience will make a difference in the readability as well.
It seems this story was a novice effort for Nagatsuki as well, originally written as a serialized web novel on a novice author website. The story was quite fannish, with the main character Natsuki Subaru's name being one consonant away from the author's. Subaru would often choose unrealistic moments to pose like an anime character, which was supposed to be comical, but came off as off-putting melodrama. The battles would be constantly interrupted with lengthy, overly clever dialogue which might appeal to comic book/manga fans, but didn't appeal to me. Yet the concept of a guy who could fix his mistakes because his day reset every time he died was interesting, like All You Need Is Kill in a fantasy setting. There was also depth and backstory to the characters and world that was only hinted at in the story, but did intrigue me. Now that I know that the story originated as a web novel, the fact that it started off comical and gained depth and drama as it rolled along makes more sense now.
I loved the anime, and hoped to find more depth in the novel, but if you had to choose between the two, I would recommend experiencing this story through the anime. It's far more polished. I am not sure if I will pick up the second volume. As stated above, the translation became smoother towards the end of the novel, and perhaps that was due to Nagatsuki's growing experience. If ZephyrRz is the translator for the next few volumes, perhaps experience will make a difference in the readability as well.
Hacía mucho tiempo que quería empezar con las novelas de Re:Zero y el "primer arco" sigue tan lento y aburrido como recordaba.
En general, no ha estado mal, la historia que crea puede ser muy interesante pero no ha habido nada destacable que mencionar quitando los hermosos diseños de personajes en general.
Toca empezar el volumen 02 y conocer a Ram y Rem <3
En general, no ha estado mal, la historia que crea puede ser muy interesante pero no ha habido nada destacable que mencionar quitando los hermosos diseños de personajes en general.
Toca empezar el volumen 02 y conocer a Ram y Rem <3
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A pretty slow start to the story with a bland hero and bland setting. I didn't really expect amazing writing considering this is a light novel, but the writing really makes it difficult for me to imagine the world and characters. There's barely any description of the characters or the world. The author himself mentions in the afterword that he didn't have a clear image of the characters until the illustrator brought them to life. I'd say that's poor writing.
The translation is also odd and very Americanized. I know some translators of light novels choose to localize the text more for the audience but it's a little off-putting. There were also a couple of typos/mistakes that were missed in editing.
I (unfortunately?) have the second volume so I'll still try to read that. I don't have much expectations for it so it could surprise me.
The translation is also odd and very Americanized. I know some translators of light novels choose to localize the text more for the audience but it's a little off-putting. There were also a couple of typos/mistakes that were missed in editing.
I (unfortunately?) have the second volume so I'll still try to read that. I don't have much expectations for it so it could surprise me.
I really liked how, at the beginning of the book, there were illustrations of the characters, with little bios about them. More books should do that (although with less fanservicy designs for the female characters, please)
DNF
In my point of view the writing style is horrible.
I can't stand it.
Too many books to read and be happy with. I will stick with the anime.
In my point of view the writing style is horrible.
I can't stand it.
Too many books to read and be happy with. I will stick with the anime.
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This is the first light novel I've ever read and I decided to pick it up after watching the first season of the anime, wondering what I was missing out on that the anime might not have included. Did I miss out on things in the first volume? Not really, but I still enjoyed viewing the events in a different media.
As a pro, Re: Zero has a great concept and I'm mostly intrigued by the effects that constantly dying and reliving scenarios will have on Subaru's psyche, but as a con the writing was a bit bland and awkward at times which took some getting used to.
I'm definitely going to continue the series and hopefully I'll be able to increase the rating I give it since it has so much potential to be great!
As a pro, Re: Zero has a great concept and I'm mostly intrigued by the effects that constantly dying and reliving scenarios will have on Subaru's psyche, but as a con the writing was a bit bland and awkward at times which took some getting used to.
I'm definitely going to continue the series and hopefully I'll be able to increase the rating I give it since it has so much potential to be great!