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alanjbach 's review for:
空ろの箱と零のマリア 1 [Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria 1]
by Eiji Mikage, 御影瑛路
I normally rate Japanase related media on MyAnimeList instead of here, but to draw attention of this series to all my GoodRead friends I thought I should rate this series here. Firstly to set something clear that I didn't realize before I started reading this: a light novel is not written in a manga style. While it starts with a few pages of illustrations, this does not continue throughout the story and from what I can glean is more of an advetising gimmick. Instead, a light novel is basically the Japanese equivalent of a novella.
HakoMari - as this series is called in short - is basically a story of a classroom that is forced to repeat the same few days forever, and with it there are rather dark implications as the main characters struggle to escape the fate. The multiple timelines means the series will often jump around from future to past recursions and back again, which while some may feel breaks up continuity to me added a lot of mystery and suspense to the series, as details of the strange world are gradually unraveled, and also gave a lot of chances for plot twists.
The series also has a psychological aspect to them, although the source of this seems to change from book to book. In the first, it mostly stems from the mental breakdown of repeating the same things over and over, which I really appreciated as it was sort of a deconstruction of the time traveling genre.
I also quite liked the character designs. Aya is cold and pragmatic with a few surprising weaknesses, and a quite hilarious sarcasm. Meanwhile, Hoshino is somewhat idealistic, a bit clueless (without going overboard and being an annoying idiot), and wants nothing to do with a role beyond that of his ordinary high school life. Together they form a good foil for each other.
HakoMari - as this series is called in short - is basically a story of a classroom that is forced to repeat the same few days forever, and with it there are rather dark implications as the main characters struggle to escape the fate. The multiple timelines means the series will often jump around from future to past recursions and back again, which while some may feel breaks up continuity to me added a lot of mystery and suspense to the series, as details of the strange world are gradually unraveled, and also gave a lot of chances for plot twists.
The series also has a psychological aspect to them, although the source of this seems to change from book to book. In the first, it mostly stems from the mental breakdown of repeating the same things over and over, which I really appreciated as it was sort of a deconstruction of the time traveling genre.
I also quite liked the character designs. Aya is cold and pragmatic with a few surprising weaknesses, and a quite hilarious sarcasm. Meanwhile, Hoshino is somewhat idealistic, a bit clueless (without going overboard and being an annoying idiot), and wants nothing to do with a role beyond that of his ordinary high school life. Together they form a good foil for each other.