Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

NOTE: There are no spoilers in this review.

"There is no despair that can't be overcome by everyday life"

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (or, in short, “HakoMari”) is a story about what a huge mistake a person can make by turning away from his reality, and if we don't touch philosophy and moral, this is a story about an ordinary Japanese schoolboy, Kazuki Hoshino who was involved in the cycle of various strange and mystical phenomena that were caused by the boxes. And they begin to happen immediately after a new student, Aya Otonashi, is transferred to Kazuki's class.
After that, Aya Otonashi once said to the whole class that she is going to "break" Kazuki Hoshino.
If I will explain the plot further, there can be spoilers which I don't want to touch, but I will immediately go over to the opinion about the characteristics of this creation:

Story/Narrative:
It’s very difficult to talk about the story of HakoMari and not go into the jungle of spoilers, I can only say here that each volume here has its own story about some kind of mystical phenomenon caused by the boxes. What are the boxes? And where they come from? Will be a spoiler if I tell you. I can only say that volumes 3-4 and 5-6 are pairs of "connected" volumes, because the denouement in the first of them (in the third and fifth) doesn't end but continues in the next volume (in the fourth and sixth)...
I can also add that with each volume you are imbued with the concept more and more, reading becomes more and more interesting, more likely due to the fact that after the second volume, the plot in the following volumes becomes only stronger and stronger, as well as the amount of philosophy and moral that the author is very fond of emphasizing because they significantly influence the plot itself, which is not only mystical, but also keeps you in suspense right up to the end of the volume.
The last thing I can say about the plot is that I would advise you to read this work no more than at an average pace, because getting confused in the plot is quite simple here, to be honest - it will be more complicated than in Steins;Gate, but about the quality - the plot is simply indescribable (Dear Eiji Mikage, I can’t even imagine how you sleep at nights after the story you write).

Art/Illustrations:
There is little to explain, I can only say that the illustrations are not perfect - but they couldn't be better. In each volume they feel like they give you a strawberry cake (there is a reference :D) at the top of which there are whipped cream, and you eat them even before you touch the inside... And what about "is it possible to adapt HakoMari?", I think - partly. The first 2 volumes I think it’s possible to adapt, but volumes like the seventh one - almost impossible, and I will be honest, I would be afraid if HakoMari will get an adaptation, because I don't want to see such a creation turned into a trash by some studios... (Tokyo Ghoul adaptation, Studio Deen's Fate/stay night adaptation, and of course - the "unexisting" adaptation of Tsukihime...).
I also want to add that at the beginning of each volume you will see some "thing" in one of the illustrations, which will be somehow related to what is happening in this volume or to the influence of the plot. Either the author who showing you this "thing" at the beginning will just want to say - "remember this little thing."

Characters:
Another of the characteristics that make HakoMari simply an incredible story - is the characters... They have a "+" here not so much in the way that they all have very different personality traits, but rather in how they change and how much their personality is changed compared to their first acquaintance and the moment when their fate, or the fate of someone else, depends on their decision. You will also meet a lot of characters who at first look will not affect the plot, but then you will realize that you were mistaken, for example there I can definitely put Daiya Oomine... And if we talk about "change" - it just cannot be described in words, how Kazuki's personality changed after everything that he went through, and by the end of the story you will see that he is already not the same Kazuki whom you knew at the beginning, and how much his relationship with “Aya” affects the whole narrative and the outcome of the plot, this what makes HakoMari a type of story when the characters influence the plot more than the story itself...
So, about the characters, I’ll say one thing - in this story there are no characters that are shown without a reason, they all somehow affect the plot. There are those that are less, and there are some characters who can literally turn "inside out" all your perception with one "move".

Conclusion + My opinion:
Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria was a work that contained not only a story that was brilliant in every sense, but also a work that contained a lot of philosophy topics about real life and moral in general. For example - the ending of this story tells you that we never can turn away from reality no matter how cruel it may be...
If we talk about the ending, I will say that after 2 and a half months of reading (yes, It was very hard to read, so it took me a lot of time), the epilogue and the end of this story, specifically the last lines, caused me to “automatic” tears... I buried my face in a pillow like an ostrich and the whole story flew in my head, and I still can’t understand... Was it because of such a touching and perfect ending? Or because of the fact that there is the end, and I will never find something like this story? Or both the reasons?
Well, if we don’t touch my personal reaction to the end of this story, I will just say that as for me, the ending was perfect and most importantly - it was "right" ...
So, I will say that HakoMari is a work for lovers of Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural and Sci-Fi (if you liked stories like Stens;Gate, Madoka Magica, Death Note and Kara no Kyoukai - then HakoMari is definitely for you!)...
Finally, what about the rate? I think that HakoMari deserves a lot more than "10/10"...

This is my first review so please be kind ^_^

This is the weakest in the top light novels. I had that feeling from the get-go, as I immediately reunited with Endless Eight. People often hate it, but I recognised that arc was a icon of Haruhi Suzumiya Series, as it was a trigger to ignite the development of the characters, so having a chance to re-experience it worth a trial. Nothing to lose, you know.

The opening of this series, as I said, was an imitation of Endless Eight. As an introduction, it did raise my interest. Then the sequel just came out of nowhere, as its bond with the rest hardly existed, only in name. That time into the world of game was interesting, followed by the illusions of a teenager about his supremacy and ideal. Then the last volume was thrown out as the closure for the mess the author had made. I could say there were some quality moments, but the lack of coordination was overwhelming. There is no explaination for the phenomenoms, as the older sister just naturally possessed an ability, and afterwards others achieved supernatural powers like it was a matter of fact. 'This is a fictionary work' might be an excuse, but at least give me the answers for 5W and 1H for the origin and the consequence afterwards, logical or illogical is fine. However, there were none of it, weren't there? And a wedding was not enough, you know.

With the missing of what I call 'leading factors', the author could bend the rules for his convenience. So, Kazuki Hoshino appeared to have a will, but he was the easiest one to manipulate. The one played the villain most of the time was in fact an illusive boy and with the brain penetration jutsu of Naruto, he returned to the bright side? Maria Otonashi didn't even have a 'self', neither did this series, and that problem was conveniently solved with some paragraphs at the end, The characters' background were also comfortable for the author to make their reasons sound, but they were instantly left behind without any serious attempt to untie the knots. There were nothing genuine in this series, as the writter just molded his characters with his will only and there they were, in a world void of systematical order. Even the communication and storytelling wasn't made in an appropriate way. IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS... Well, at least reading SAO now doesn't hurt that much. Sorry, SAO, I'm still not gonna read you.

If you felt the emptiness in my review, you would also sense the emptiness of the related target, because I couldn't even find a model for this work.

--(Perhaps) FREE OF SPOILERS--
Ok. Due to the complexness of the series, i will try to write the review as simple as possible.
Story; 9/10
HakoMari has a really great detail in the story. And it all is logical for me. But the main story is actually simple; about how human being destructed by their own wishes. About how human try to discover their true desire. Then the writer replace the 'human' into all HakoMari character. Then the writer change the 'wishes' into something really elaborate and, of course, deep.
Each volume tells about how the wishes that is usually fill with happines turn up into a dark one. The thriller. Yes, one thing i completely love from the series is the thriller. Thriller in this series also included some psychological. The best thriller in HakoMari maybe is the one from volume 3-4.
The romance is also great. It is not the unexplained and the straight-and-inlogical romance. But the complicated. The romance of the series rely on the character.

Art; 7/10
Not much to explain. Very good, but not enough to fullfiling my desire of this series.

Character; 10/10
The reason i love the series. The character is the one who stir the series. All the character in HakoMari count as a main, but i will only review the two main.
Kazuki Hoshino: Ever watch or read the Durarara! Series? Remember the Mikado, the main character which is completely a common character? Kazuki Hoshino has some similarity with Mikado. A common-looking but actually..!
The difference is that Kazuki love his everyday-live. And, in each volume, he go trough a great complex development, which caused by the character named;
Maria Otonashi; Complexness and deepness (and charm) overload. Best-developing heroines in all novels I read.

Enjoyment; 10/10
Finish first volume in one week, and the remain volume in 5 days. And i finish the first volume longly not because the volume is too boring. But because too confused.
Recomennded for; all humanity. But doubt all could love this.

Overall; Hakomari/10
The series, for me, has reached a new level of light-novel. The Hakomari. The series is supposed to be displayed in museums. It is just too scarce. And also our grandchildren on the future should read this series.

(There will be some small spoilers, but they won't interfere with the main plot.)

When I first picked up Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, also known as HakoMari, I was shocked. I realized this guy's writing style was similar to mine. I was happy about it, too. I thought, "Wow, this guy's ranked #4 in the manga list, and it's not even manga, it's a light novel that's up here!" "My writing's so similar to his, too!" I've always wanted to start writing books, and I've always been good at poetry, so, well, put yourself in my shoes. I'm excited.

So I continue reading. The first volume was amazing, no doubt about it. You get your hatred for the antagonist, you care for the protagonists; I'll skip the individual explaining, but basically, the characters are great. Actually, this entire Light novel has one of the most amazing characters I've seen. Everyone's explanations are so in depth and detailed that I feel like I've met these people in real life, as if they were my best friends.

But that's really all there is to this story.

Now maybe it's unfair. I dropped HakoMari on the end of the 4th volume (It'll probably say something like 4 out of 40, but it's honestly a pain in the ass to count the chapters in this.) and the reason I did so is because the story is just aggravating. So maybe I should've gone the whole way through to rate this story, but I honestly couldn't even force myself to read any more of it.

Dude, it's bad. I felt like my own self confidence had taken a hit. I still stand by my statement that my writing is similar, which is exactly why it's hard for me to say exactly how much I despised the writing in this.

Everything is so god damn scattered that it hurts thinking about it. Doesn't help that I have constant headaches anyways, but this story intensified it by at least 5 times. As if calamity isn't a clusterfuck itself, this story offers a clusterfuck OF calamity, and every single volume leaves you with more questions than answers, and you're forced to just accept it.

Maybe they're all answered in the last volume, but no, FUCK that. I couldn't care less. If it was just one or two questions, then I would be waiting on hands and knees for the answer, but no, the list of questions is as long as Santa's in those Tim Allen movies.

I love cliffhangers. I love leaving the reader with a question, a reason to keep on reading, but I couldn't stand this. And, as if the story being filled with plot holes wasn't enough, the writer has this very strange outlook on people. There are a few characters in this story who act on nothing but "Because I can." Of course, many characters in this story CLAIM that they do something "Because they can", but really do have an ulterior motive; however, for some, it's not the case.

(Spoiler here) One of the side-characters claim that someone they liked was manipulated into liking someone, and that someone brought her to a hotel, then left, locked the door, and called all his friends over to that room to gangrape her. To this day, I have no FUCKING idea why the author felt the need to tell us this aggravatingly depressing story, because it literally had no impact on the main story, maybe aside from further tainting this side-character's morals. These kids are in high school. Fucking high school. If this high school was real, and I had heard of the kids in it, I wouldn't let any of my children go in a 100 mile radius of it, and I'd probably try and start a riot to get literally half that entire school behind bars.

Now I dropped the book at the start of volume 5 for a reason. Spoiler alert, but the main concept of the fifth volume is manipulation. More importantly, someone who has the power to manipulate anyone who has done even the tiniest thing bad, all while claiming to be a vigilante of justice. Of course, he's anything but, and it's his judgement of "bad" and "good", not a logical, moral, or ethical one. If he thinks you're a bad person and he wants you to be under his control, well, fuck you!

Thing is, I don't want to read anymore of this. Every single volume involves the legendary and my personal most-despised trope: "Break the Cutie". Every character who you think is good, kind, cute, or what the hell ever, will undoubtedly end up being crushed into oblivion, to the point where YOU'RE wishing they don't live anymore for their own god damn sake. Even when they get a good ending, they're so beyond screwed up that you can't help but think it would be better if they hadn't existed at all. And, well, seeing as Volume 5 is about manipulation, which is almost always the leading factor in "breaking the cutie", I'm calling it quits.

So maybe I'm just weakhearted, and that's why I don't like this. Maybe I should read it the whole way through because there's some "happy ending". But after playing G-Senjou no Maou and watching/reading similar animes and mangas, and reading many other books with stories involving tragic experiences which we see one displayed in every volume of this book, I'm done. This entire story is beyond too melodramatic for me. I was expecting a thriller mystery with a hint of romance and no comedy, but I get these super in-depth characters being crushed every single volume, who somehow can still give me wisecracks and smart-ass remarks that are genuinely funny.

The romance aspect of this story is literally fucking retarded, because for some reason, during the flesh and meat of the story, the romance is almost literally non-existent, but when they go back to their school lives, suddenly a typical high-school rom-com-esque romance takes place.

TLDR summary of this entire review

Story - 2. An absolute clusterfuck that somehow manages to pull itself together at the end of every volume, but still leaves a bunch of plot holes.

Art - 6. It doesn't really exist in this, since it's a light novel, but it's still a 6 because even though the drawings are good, I can't base the characters off of them. Someone that long haired walking around without tripping over her own hair every 5 minutes barely seems realistic to me.

Character - 10. This is undoubtedly the most painful thing about this story, because every character is completely mentally destroyed every end of the volume, and somehow they act "perfectly normal" at the start of the next one. I can't even imagine it being like that, though it's written that way anyways. If a character's gonna act some way or another, give me a reason to believe it.

Enjoyment - 3. I tried so fucking hard to enjoy HakoMari. I really wanted to. Like I said, the writing is very similar to mine, so it feels like I'm insulting myself when I say "It's just bad." But really, it's just bad. If anything, I feel like I could learn what NOT to do by reading this story.

Overall - 5. Pick up HakoMari if you can withstand all your favourite characters being emotionally raped, as well as a story so loosely put together it may as well not exist. It's like reading a story about two tragic characters, then putting them through a bunch of random missions that just tighten their bond, then giving them an ending. Fucking hell if I know how this shitshow ends, but I'm glad I don't, because given the way it's gone so far, I highly doubt the ending's going to rest well with my heart.

Also, you can notice how I get more irritated towards the end of the review. That's because this stupid story genuinely aggravated me. I can't give it less than a 5, though, which is even more aggravating, because without the characters, this story is a solid 1, and even then, I'm depressed that these characters even exist, because I just feel sympathy and pity for them.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, but this story tries WAAAY TOO HARD to be philosophical. Holy shit, it's embarrassing at most points. I liked the Monogatari series; though it was philosophical, it was the intention, and it was professionally executed (IMO), and it made sense from start to finish. Nobody acted outside of their character unless it made sense for them to. However, in HakoMari, the metaphor made no fucking sense, and the philosophy was so aggravatingly stupid that it genuinely hurt my head to think about it.

It felt like something I'd read from a scene 12 year old kid who somehow found a college-level philosophy course online and decided to write a story as a thesis. Don't read HakoMari if you're expecting a good story. I might read the last few volumes, and I might change this review because of it, but don't expect anything higher than a 6 or, MAYBE, a 7. Like I said, without the characters, this story would get an overall score of 1. Even with the characters, the story itself is just full of unexpected melodrama and pseudo-philosophical bullshit that it's painful to read anyways.

If, miraculously, that one last volume of HakoMari manages to make this story from a 1 to a 10, I'll go and learn sign language or something. Maybe get my friends to dig me up to my head and stone me. Maybe I'll jump off a fucking skyscraper, because I am 100% sure that there is no fucking way in hell 1 volume can save the absolute shit-tier writing in volumes 2-4. (Honestly, volume 1 was good. Good enough that it could've made a good anime. It should've stopped there, though.)

I read 75% of the first volume before i dropped this novel . I must say that the concept was interesting and i liked the first part of the novel , but , as the story progressed it became a mess . First off , the characters are poorly described , the only one i managed to get an idea of his looks and personality was Daiya , all the others were pretty blank .
The main characters act irrationally , only after 20.000 replays (54 years) of the same day they get a deep conversation . They almost never leave the school and even who is responsible for the loop does nothing at all for 70 years . The story has some completly arbitrary twists and turns that the author randomly put here and there that almost never make sense .
I could rant more about how bad the story is and how little sense the action of the characters make or how poor the world building is but i won't bother .
I read this only because of how high the score was here ( 8.9 ) and i can't belive how bad this was . It's by far the lowest rating i ever used for a review and i think it's deserved .

I've just finished reading Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, and I'm still in shock, this is most likely the greatest thing that I've ever read. There's hardly anything mainstream about this light novel; it's full of settings and situations that I've never encountered before in any other manga or novel.

Story

The story is truly captivating, there were so many times when I just burst out laughing because of the author's twists and totally absurd ideas that I wouldn't have imagined happening. It's the uniqueness of the story that really made me fall for it. I absolutely was not expecting such a well planned and beautifully executed storyline. Once you get into it, you will think, 'wow, this author is a genius'; and it's no wonder HakoMari is such a highly rated novel. You will cry (if you have a soul), and your jaw will drop. As the synopsis for HakoMari suggests, the story has to do with time repeating itself. What if you were stuck in a loop, and the same day just kept repeating itself thousands of times, and you and one other person are the only ones to keep their memory after each reset? There would be an immense bond shared between those two people. What if you had to endure 400,000 repeating days alone and in absolute solitude, and had gone mad after the first couple of centuries? Oops, I've said too much. This novel isn't a plain love story as one might think, it's got plenty of blood and guts as well.

Art

I won't comment too much on the art, because there wasn't much of it. The art that we did receive was great, though. It gave me a basis for my mental images of Maria, Kazuki, Daiya, and the others. Maria is drawn as beautifully as she is described.

Characters

The characters were fleshed out so well that I'm sincerely going to miss them in my everyday life. Speaking of everyday life, this is our main character, Kazuki Hoshino's obsession. We're shown that this man will do anything to protect his everyday life. It's a bit silly, why would someone go so far to protect their everyday life? What even is this, "everyday life"? Well, it's probably not what you're thinking it is. We eventually find out that there's much more to it than that. We find out that it's definitely not an exaggeration to say that Kazuki will do anything to protect the person most dear to him. I still get chills when recalling what he endured to be with the one he loves.

The other main character, Maria, is so perfectly fleshed out that I don't need any drawings to picture her appearance, thought process, and personality. I probably fell in love with this character who only exists in written words. When she was in tears, I was in tears, when she was happy, I was smiling.

Every single character got a lot of attention, one could even grow attached to the side-characters. There were no useless
characters. No one was there simply to fill up space, and every character had a purpose and personality.

Enjoyment

Needless to say, I was extremely sad when I finished HakoMari. That's not to say that the ending wasn't satisfying, though. I just didn't want something so interesting to end. I'm not sure how the author was able to have such a "random" story, but have everything make such perfect sense at the same time. I've never read anything like it, and I won't forget about this light novel for some time.

I started to read when I was around 10 years old, when my grandma brought me an old book : "La gloire de mon pere" written by marcel pagnol. It's not an incredibly good book, but it checks out, especially for 10 years old dumb me.
I loved it and quickly read the second book and even thinking back about it now, the tears are getting up to my eyes, wether it be because of pure nostalgia or because the story was so wholesome and cheerful.
Now you may ask yourself : why is he saying that ? It's because I also cried while reading this magnificent piece of garbage.
It's an absolute massacre, and reminds me that lights novels were, are and always will be nothing more than absolute trash written by edgy japanese teens.
The Story is half decent ,while not being original, but that's at the start, my friend, because the writer shoots itself in the foot by basically serving the same thing time and time again but by changing one little detail. And guess what is worse than the story : the writing, I have just never seen such horrible writing, you don't understand what's going on, you switch characters just like that, not any of the things that happen really explained and if they are it's really bad. none of the characters are interesting, none of them really change in any way except when the author just feels like it and changes it from A to Z with a dumb reason like "IT's A BoX ThAt MadE HiM thAt WaY".
Anyway if you like yourself a little or at least like good writing do not read this.

As, of now, one of the top 5 light novel series on MAL, and as someone whose only read a few light novels, I thought it would be fair to take a dip into this series to get me more into the medium. With countless reviews praising it as genius, and some spouting it as a masterpiece, I thought I would also be rating this a 10 in the end along with the many others. However, as you can see by my score, HakoMaria is by all means not what its all cut out to be.

When I finished this series, because of the little light novel exposure I had, I thought it would be best not to treat it as just a light novel and compare to light novels, but as a book series. With this perspective in mind, let me tell why I don't think this is a super great book series.

I think one of the main problems with this story are two things: complexity and characters. To begin, if we strip away all the fluff from the conflicts, if we actually look at the stories without all the dressing, we get some pretty overused clichés and concepts. Now, I am not saying these clichés and concepts are a bad thing, I am just saying there is nothing original about it. The author tries to add these complex tidbits as a way to, in a sense, "distract" the reader from what is going on, but for a person like myself, I already new what was going to happen next. Not only that, he extrapolates those idea and draws them out as long as possible. It gets to the point were the worst arc takes up an entire two novels! I forced myself to get through. In other words, the author tries to add complexity to predictable story plots which in some cases, makes reading such a drag.

And then there is volume 7, something, in comparison to the rest, is actually pretty good. So does having a good ending mean all the rest is good as well? That is up to debate, but I will allow you to make the choice for yourself.

Another problem with this story is the characters, in particular, those stereotypes. You got your pretty stereotypical protagonist, that bossy girl, that pretty girl, that smart girl, that smart evil guy, the cool guy, that quite girl, and then might as well throw in a villain that really doesn't have a reason for doing anything except add to the plot. If this work was a masterpiece, I need more realistic characters please. Now, I am not saying I don't like the characters, I particularly enjoyed Oomine the most, but I just need better character development and something that can really relate me to them, not just some protagonist whose like "oh, I want to maintain my normal life" and that is it. And then, suddenly, he starts doing some mad #### to protect this philosophy. Even though the character's thoughts and psyche are explored, that does not entail realism or relatability.

Overall, do I hate this series? No. I enjoyed reading it, and I enjoyed the entire concept, and I thought it was cool. I don't want to hate upon the series, I do think its good, the ending was great, but in my opinion, this series by no means deserves masterpiece status.

Anyway, I'll leave the rest up to you. Take a dip.

I'VE ONLY GONE THROUGH THE FIRST VOLUME.

I'm sorry to be 'that guy' but I really don't understand why this is rated so high. This is the first light novel I've read and I did enjoy it but it isn't the best thing ever.

To all who are not sure of reading it, give it a shot. You might enjoy it. The character Aya Otonashi might just be the best thing in this first volume followed by Usui. I didn't really feel much for the main character. He just seemed bland and boring in his choice of dialogue. I also wasn't really sure which side he was on most of the time.
Maybe all of this criticism is biased cause I read through it pretty quickly.

I like how they're going for a different concept that isn't too cliche. The never-ending classroom and the fact that it already looped through an astounding number of times kept me interested.

I will continue to read in hopes of being pleasantly surprised by what's to come.

Ahhhh, how I love stories that go against the flow of the river like a beautiful school of salmon. In a type of media that seems to be swarming with Harem, RPG SAO wannabes and bad attempts at making something different, HakoMari certainly comes as a nice a gem. If you are tired of those types of stories, and want something different, or if you like some nice mystery with romance and some suspense, then this is light novel for you.

However, I believe there is just too much hype over this one. It is good, yes, it is great! But I think there are too many people just jumping on the 10/10 wagon, so I wish to bring another point of view as well. Over the course of this review, I will state why I gave this a 9/10.

Story: 9/10

Firstly, as I have said before, HakoMari is different. It is also hard to describe because it is a story that would be hard if not impossible to adapt to other type of media other than a light novel (so we probably won't be seeing any manga or anime adaptation, and if they try, it will suck. I guarantee it). That means that a lot of the descriptions going on in the story is up to your imagination on how you picture it.

Thus, my first and best example of it is also the main theme of the story, the concept of "boxes". Right from the start, the author introduces us to the existence of these "boxes" that can grant wishes depending on the character personality and state of mind. That being said, these "boxes" alter the lives of the people that come in contact with them, and quite frequently, the persons around them as well.

Which sets the tone for our protagonist, Kazuki Hoshino, purpose. Kazuki is obsessed with what the author defines as his "everyday life", that is, the normal life of a male japanese high school student, meeting girls so that he may create his own Har.... I mean, having fun with his friends... Kidding aside, the very concept of "boxes" goes against his idea of "everyday life" as something abnormal, and it is his objective to destroy these "boxes".

The author also does a damn fine job at grabbing your attention right from the get go throwing the mystery right at your face and with the enigmatic words of our lovely main heroine Aya Otonashi.

The story also tries to question several concepts of society and can be considered realistic to a point, although I have some reservation which I will talk about soon. Every novel also has a different setting for the main characters, with a different writing styles all perfectly adequate for each of the volumes making each one unique.

Combine all that with a very well written and revised story with no plot holes that I noticed, and you have a must read.

Character: 7/10

So far, you might be wandering, if it is so good, why is the score a 9 out of 10? Indeed, and the reason is the characters, which for me also happen to lower a bit the score of the other aspects as well (hence I gave 9/10 to the story). Now, let me make this clear, the characters and very good, way better than the vast majority of your run-of-the-mill characters, however it is far from perfect.

Let me present the good aspects.

First, the characters are all not stupid. Which is already more than we can usually ask. But the author also tries to make them deep with dark pasts and real motives as to why they want something or the other. It also presents conflict between the beliefs of each one, which is one of the main driving aspects of the story.

Furthermore, every character that appears for some time has a purpose in the story and contributes significantly to it. The protagonist and main heroine also have personalities that makes the reader root for them. And unlike several stories, all characters develop with their actions and grow as an individual.
The relationship between the two main characters, is also a delight too see and one of the selling points of HakoMari.

However...... during the course of my reading, I always had a feeling, an itch if you will. I couldn't exactly pinpoint what it was at the begging, but in the later volumes it became clear.

The characters feel fake. All of them. And thus the story also suffers from it as well.

And that is why I said the story is realistic to a point. The author just tried too hard to make them realistic with dark pasts and beautiful motivations to the point that they don't feel real. Now before any white knight comes screaming at me that his is just a fantasy, the biggest selling point of the light novel is that it wants the reader to feel connected to the "realism" in it and think of all the the terrible things that happened with the characters so that you may think of all the hidden "messages" it is trying to pass. It wants us to believe that could also happen in a real world setting.

So, when you can't really connect with any of the characters, it doesn't really matter. There were several moments in the story that it was obvious the author was trying to get me connected with the sad moments (and happy parts as well) of the characters. But since they felt "fake", I just didn't really care. I was in more because it was written very well and of the mystery.

Maybe if it were adults in a adult setting or if the author didn't try so hard the, "I wish to change the world", it would be more believable. But, when we remember that all the characters are high school kids... hey, high school students just aren't like that. The "genius" concept is also just not good and overused in HakoMari. The thing is, Geniuses, doesn't actually exist. Well they do, but they are just so very rare, and even so, it doesn't mean they are bound to do great stuff or even want to. In fact, usually, it is quite the contrary. And when HakoMari presents us a school setting apparently full of them, well it is just not believable.

Furthermore, the way the MC likes to flail himself is quite annoying. Try to picture this. People are trying to destroy you, sometimes they are even your friends. You give what they deserve, what do you think:

a) Think that you acted in self-defense and they should apologize
b) Think what a horrible person you are for what you did, even though they started it, and you feel sick with yourself. So you want to beg for forgiveness

Yes I am sure it is option b, because that is certainly what our MC thinks as he always chooses that option. And apparently all the other characters thinks so, because nobody feels bad for what they did and accept his apologies.... the hypocrites.

Also, the way the author seems to just brush off some of the actions that some characters takes bothered me a little. Even if they did something horrible. "Hey I killed someone and manipulated a lot of people against their will. But I suffered in my past and it was all for my distorted sense of justice, so it is ok right?" Well apparently there is no consequence because the character is a good person deep down.

Ok rant over. Even though I said all that, it is way better than it sounded. Those complaints just appeared occasionally, otherwise the score wouldn't be 9/10 overall (which is very good).

If you can just shake off that feeling and apreciate the rest of the story you will enjoy it a lot more, that is what I did.

Art: 7/10:

Pretty good, nothing out of the ordinary, and it is a light novel, so who cares.

Enjoyment 9/10:

So even with that rant, HakoMari is still very enjoying to read, the writing is amazing. It truly is, and the story is fantastic, if it wasn't for the super try hard characters it would be an easy 10. So I enjoyed it not because of it's serious aspect and messages, but because of it is a interesting fantasy story.

I like my readings to be somewhat "smart", and HakoMari certainly fits that bill. Good atmosphere and interesting concept with some mystery some romance, good dialogue and monologue. Specially in the first 4 volumes where the mystery was more in force, it was very enjoyable and I would give a 10/10 for the first part. No overly complicated plot, just a nice read.

Overall 9/10:

I would most definitely recommend HakoMari to anyone and everyone. And I am sure most people will read it in a blaze.

Warning! This novel will make most tragedies in other stories seems small when compared to this novel.

Before I read the Volume 7 , I thought the best story was Vampire Juuji Kai. It has a really awful tragedy that is thoroughly logical, and no other stories can compare to that. I have even read it 4 times, because it is that good. I thought no other stories can match to Vampire Juuji Kai. Volume 1-6 of hakomari can't match Vampire Juuji Kai too IMO, even though volume 1 has a really awesome story.

But then, volume 7 came out fully translated 1-2 weeks ago. I read it in one go, and then I was left speechless. Vampire Juuji Kai had a tragedy that made me cry badly, but this one did not make me cry at all, instead, it made me horrified. I can't even sleep well after reading it that night. It is just batsh*t insane. And, in my opinion it's even slightly better than Vampire Juuji Kai, which made me surprised.

It is the BEST story I have ever known. Read 'till volume 7, and you will understand what I am talking about. You will not be dissapointed.

"Masterpiece" is a buzzword commonly thrown about in relation on this website. There are many pieces of fiction people consider worthy of the title, and many more people overlook. To be honest, when I looked into reading this, I was not expecting much. At the very most, it seemed a redundant amalgamation of all of the generic clichés that come with "school life" fiction. In addition, having read Oyasumi Punpun and Onani Master Kurosawa prior to Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (which fans have likened as Hakomari), the bar was VERY high.

My God, was I shocked.

STORY: 9 -- Immediately from volume 1, you get a grasp of this odd sort of chaotic coherence, and the ordinary conventions and tropes are deconstructed and defenestrated. The utter nuance of the piece is incredible.

Volume 1 does take its time unraveling the plot; details aren't force fed, but allowed a slow digestion time as the story lets you catch up at the same pace as the characters. Volume 2 was rather weak, in my opinion, as the story had very little to grant--it seemed almost as if an episodic nature had been born. Volume 3 seemed to continue the trend, and I had even considered absconding from the series for a short reprieve...but then I read volume 4. Suddenly, the characters develop at an incredible rate, and their stories are enough to send chills down your spine--and it only picks up from there.

I won't dally too much on the details of the story, but I will say that it is intricate and complex; there is no definite plot for the first few volumes, as it forgoes that for developing the character interactions.

ART: 9 -- The art, of course, is Light Novel art. There's not really much to work off of, but the art is very befitting for the sort of story the author is trying to convey.

CHARACTERS: 10 -- This is, in my opinion, where Hakomari excels above all other. The characters in this story are so well-made that realistic does not begin to describe them. Every single character's complex psyche is explored in this story, and you begin to realize the sheer intimacy of the characters that acts duplicitously from the grand scale of the plot.

ENJOYMENT: 10 -- This is a series that you can't seem to put down. It latches on to you with incredible force, and you find yourself absorbed into the story to the point where it would not be surprising to find yourself making exclamations while reading. I certainly did.

Overall: 10 -- The themes dealt with in Hakomari are dark. The story is a very cynical take on society, but it deals with that take so fluidly that it almost feels comfortable with the flaws in its society. It is a perfect union of euphoria and melancholy.

Is it a masterpiece? That depends entirely on how Eiji Mikage ends the story. But I will say this: it is the single greatest piece of fiction I have ever read from Japan.

This is a masterpiece. It is truly unbelievable what the author has managed to do with so very little. Hell, the first volume takes place nearly entirely in the same location and you don't care. The story is THAT compelling. If you are looking for a good story, one that gives you something that makes you want to keep reading, read this.

It has plot twists like no other story I've ever read. Plot twists that you don't see coming, but make sense. They make such perfect sense you can't believe you didn't realize it yourself.

I would only start if you have time to spare because you will be hooked.

The author has it as a free .pdf file on their website, which confused me at first. It's also in a different format than any other story I've read. Don't let this deter you. The description doesn't give this story justice. You will love it.

I would like to start this review by saying that I'll be covering all 6 volumes of the light novel in this review. While the first volume might be used as the framework and even the basis of the entire novel, the volumes that followed Volume 1 are equally important and I'll try to focus on the series as whole instead of talking about the almost flawless first volume. [If you see me say Hakomari it is another title for Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria. It's just easier to type]

Story - 10/10
Assuming you have read the synopsis of this novel you'd have some kind of idea about the setting and atmosphere of the story. I feel that the synopsis really doesn't describe the novel as a whole and even though it focuses on outlining the first volume's plot, it fails to encompass the entire theme and idea behind the novel. Hakomari's first volume flawlessly expands on the synopsis provided to create one of the most intriguing and complex stories that you'll find. You will constantly attempt to solve the mystery yourself and while the story may provide clues to the reader you will often find yourself mistaken in many aspects of this story. The novel does this throughout its entirety and although Volume 2 falls slightly in this regard the rest of the novel is almost perfect. The story is constantly evolving, changing and twsting itself into a seamless expanse of "mind-fuckery" (as I like to call it).

Art - 8/10
I would have liked to leave Art out of the review as I felt it played no part in the novel whatsoever apart from putting a face to my beloved characters. I've given it an 8 simply because it didn't feature prominently in the novel and wasn't an integral part of it. Added to that is the art itself. I liked it but I felt something was off. No idea how to describe it.

Characters - 10/10
Hakomari might seamlessly twist and weave a story that leaves you wondering what's up and what's down but it is the characters presented in the story that manage to steal the spotlight. Throughout its entirety, Hakomari creates some of the most fleshed out and developed characters that you'll ever find. I'll take for example, Kazuki Hoshino, who begins a transformation in the latter half of the 6 volumes that leaves him as a completely different person. Eji Mikage manages to make this transformation seamless as Kazuki slowly but surely transforms into one of the most amazing characters. He's my favourite character for a reason as his transformation uses some of his most defining features and amplifies them due to his obsession with someone. I used Kazuki as an exaple but I can promise that every single character is just as fleshed out and many of them do go through transformations or personal makeovers due to their indivual challenges.

Enjoyment - 10/10
Hakomari is my favourite light novel for a reason. the very first volume takes place in literally one classroom and for most of the volume the setting never changes. Even though the setting doesn't change the story and characters are phenomenal and I was simply drawn in and wasn't let go until I finished all 6 volumes. All 6 volumes are unique, diverse and above all interesting and enjoyable. Hakomari is simply a masterpiece.

Overall - 10/10
I wish more people would recognise the masterpiece that is Hakomari. Today's manga and anime industry is flooded by copy-paste, bland and unoriginal content that uses the same formulas. Hakomari surpasses these constraints and manages to pull off a unique concept flawlessly. If you haven't done so already go pick up Hakomari now and get nice and comfortable because you're about to go on a ride that you'll likely never want to get off of.

"Do you have a wish?"

I don't think myself able to write an objective critic to HakoMari, not while the last volume is still so vivid in my mind. As such, this is not a review, but a love letter to this wonderful novel.

HakoMari is, in a nutshell, a wild ride. A crazy, reckless and downright cruel wild ride.
The story, while thought out really well, is really just a container. It's the playbox where all the characters are thrown into while being told "Now do what you want".
And the characters are really what makes this series so worthwhile and unforgettable.

Characters who love each other but end up hurting each other.
Characters who hate each other but end up realizing how much they resemble each other.
All of them, unmistakably broken.

HakoMari is not supposed to be a "feel-good" novel. It has the wonderful gift of being able to present characters who are hurt, broken and in despair without looking edgy or try-hard.
Because at its core HakoMari is a story about many different things.

A story about regrets.
A story about envy.
As tory about boredom.
A story about misunderstandings.
A story about loneliness.
And a story about "love"

They all wander clumsily through the story, while searching for their real value, their real self, their real "wish".
And you are there with them, watching as they laugh, cry, and get hurt.
And, before even realizing it, you too have a "wish".
That at the end of their struggles, some kind of "good end" will await them...

“I won't have a conversation with you. You will just listen to my words like an idiot." [p. 45]

Well, that pretty much sums up how reading this book feels like.

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is a light novel series by Mikage Eiji told in seven books, which I don't know if I'll ever read till the end because just the first one, The Rejecting Classroom here reviewed, was such an experience Game of Thrones suddenly seems worth the Nobel prize for literature in comparison. And I'm talking about a book written so badly there are empty, generic passages like:

“The hall rang to Yunkish laughter, Yunkish songs, Yunkish prayers. Dancers danced; musicians played queer tunes with bells and squeaks and bladders; singers sang ancient love songs in the incomprehensible tongue of Old Ghis.” [from 'A Dance with Dragons']

Ugh, how it does not express any kind of mood or content.

One premise: I, as well as likely many western readers of the series, do not speak japanese, so this entire review (or analysis, or rant, you choose) is going to refer to Baka-Tsuki's English translation of the first novel; whether it is faithful or not to the original text, for the sake of the review I'll generally refer to whoever is behind it, be it Mikage Eiji or a translator, as “the author”. It's my way of being fair and unbiased, please bear with it.

Back on topic, I opened with an actual big claim: the author's writing is worse than G. R. R. Martin's. It's not unusual to find dry and unispired prose in light novels, but for it to be so terrible I actually gave up four times prior in the first pages is an amazing result. Let's take for example page 13 of the first volume; Daiya, our protagonist's best friend, informs him about the incoming transfer student, to which Hoshino, our protagonist, absent-mindedly replies that he already “heard something about it”. Now this was a really bad move on his part because immediately Daiya begins questioning him on how he knew about the transfer student, presenting a lenghty reasoning to prove the impossibility for Hoshino to know anything of it, just to completely shrug it off next page with a “Well, whatever”. And the topic will never be discussed again.

So why even bother in the first place? The answer is actually pretty simple; it was so we could be informed, in a very straight-forward manner, about the story being a time loop. Which, incidentally, was clearly so since the first line in the novel, “1st time”. It became more obvious at the fourth line “23th time” and almost insultingly forced upon us at the seventh line “1050th time” [p. 10]. So I get it, there's a time loop, I know you have to explain it to the readers but, since it's already an established plot point since the very first page, is it necessary to be so redundant about it? It seems nitpicking, I know, but it's important to understand how the author is poorly using repetitions to get across a very simple point, as if he's not confident enough about his plot so he has to retrace it again and again.

And that's overlooking the stiff small talks in which the characters engage in the first few pages. Still, if we need further evidences of the author awkward prose, here's some other passages from the following pages:

“It's not good to be making these guesses about the transfer student, it's prejudice. I mean she's already in a suspicious position even without that.” [p. 14]

Why would she be? Never explained. Also this statement sounds quite prejudicial itself.

“She sits down naturally at the empty seat beside mine, almost as if this seat has been prepared for her from the start.” [p. 15]

Isn't that how it usually works, the transfer student gets the empty sit? Maybe there were several empty seats she could choose from but it is never stated otherwise so how could we know? The way it is presented it's not something so weird it deserves this enigmatic phrasing.

“The white legs that look out from Mogi-san's skirt are so thin, […] And I am, for some reason, sleeping with my head on her lap. Ah, yeah. I don't have a clue anymore of what´s going on, either. […] I can, by the way, remember how it came to this.“ [p. 16]

Either you don't have a clue of what's going on or you do, there's really no in-between. One cannot know and not know about something, Socrates would go insane at the mere thought. You probably meant to say that the protagonist is confused about the situations he's in, but that's way too roundabout and misspelled to express such a simple point.

“Daiyan is so intelligent it's not even funny, right? […] And he said he would simply write «Aya Otonashi». So he couldn't think of anything else to write. Of course it's the same for me. What I want to say is, well, we can't think of anything, so we can't write anything else, either." [p. 23]

“'Sent back' is the correct expression from my own perspective, but generally it's not. So I'm using the expression 'School Transfer' here, since it's closer to what actually happens––” [p. 25]

My mind just did several back flips in the attempt to understand what is even written here.

"Forgetting how to take it out is a common case. But you have just forgotten it; somewhere, you still know how. Like you know how to ride a bicycle: you can't teach it to others, but you know it as a feeling. You're just bewildered because you can't convert it into words." [p. 29]

Since no one is seen laughing after this sentence, I have to believe it was intended as a serious statement, which raises the question: are the author's thoughts so hazy and messy he can't even imagine how to explain the basic concept of riding a bycicle? Does he think it's a natural innate ability we inherit from our DNA, or is it so difficult in his or her native language to say “sit on the saddle, balance yourself with one leg, start spinning the pedal with the other leg and keep going so you don't fall”, which I believe is how most parents teach their children how to ride a bicycle.

Furthermore, who already read the novel surely noticed the extensive use of underlined text, which is a rather unusual stylistic choice. I checked the original text to see if it was just the english translation and apparently even in japanese it was used a similiar fashion to stress relevant plot points. Which is simply a way to say “Look, this part here is very, very important, be sure to remember just this and nothing else on this paragraph. Don't worry about remembering the actual text or story, we are doing it for you”. Being treated as a Chalmers' zombie is not exactly the most flattering way to relate to a book, especially when we have at hand supposedly a mystery novel and a great deal in mystery is for the reader to actually think about the plot, to even try and solve it before the heroes get to the solution. I actually searched to understand the reason behind the underlined text and, seemingly, it's to add emphasis on important parts. Very well, then let's check one of these important parts:

“My friend Haruaki Usui, [who is sitting next to me]” [p. 19]

The bit in brackets was originally underlined and no, there's no real reason why it should be. Nothing gained from emphasis and no tension whatsoever. Some may argue that there is in fact a reason for wherever Haruaki is sitting to be of utmost importance for us; some pages later Haruaki is run over by a truck and immediately after we are brought back to the classroom where “Haruaki, who is sitting beside me, worries about me.” [p.30]. So, it was intended to accentuate, yet again, that our plot revolves around a time loop, which we've seen has been far well established by this point and, moreover, this paragraph even started with the line “2602nd time”. So, again, why is Haruaki's sit so important it needs an underscore and how long will we need to be reminded about the time loop before the plot even begins?

I'll hold back further remarks about the writing itself (it'll never get much better anyway) so I can express my point up to now: we barely hit the 30-page mark, of which 8 pages were pictures, and the author has so far revealed him or herself to be redundant, contradictory, shallow, confused and, apparently, so uncomfortable with the vocabulary he can't explain how to ride a bicycle. And he's supposed to tell a compelling thriller/horror/sci-fi story in the remaining 120 or so pages. Forgive me for being quite skeptical.

In fact, what we know by page 30 of the story is that a transfer student named Otonashi Aya is repeating the same day over and over again until she obtains a box from the protagonist Hoshino Kazuki. If he does not comply, people dies. Sounds like a very bad fanfic of Groundhog Day, and there's not even Bill Murray to raise the quality of the cast but we'll live with that. The problem raises when the story tries to set the tone for the central conflict between the two main characters but the actual contents consist of faux wit duels: “Are you stupid? Here's a lenghty explanation as to why”, “Ah! I'm actually a rather smart fellow. Here's a lenghty retort as to why.”, copy and paste for some chapters. My God, this pacing. Also basically everyone express him or herself the same way so after a while you don't even bother with who's accusing who anymore. Now it's starting to sound as a bad Death Note fanfic.

The whole reasoning behind the time loop is quite romantic. It's literally the same as the Endless Eight plus murders but I sincerely appreciated the spin the story gave to the concept. Too bad it took almost a hundred pages of redundancy to get to it; and that the culprit motivations were explaind in a mere page; and that they even tried to hide it for almost twenty more pages; and the solution is brought upon us by circumstantial and meaningless evidences (yes, the pouch). And really, can the murderer blame someone for not remembering what happens in a time loop controlled by the same murderer? I mean it's obvious that the memories will mostly reset if you restart everything from the beginning. I seriously did not understand why they were accused of forgetting what happened in the previous loops [p. 100]. By the end there's also so much of the story based on the concept of “the box” it's just inexcusable no one ever bothered to explain what it was. It grant wishes, sure, but then the wish separate itself from the person, but the “attachment” stays [p. 113], there's the conflict with other box users [p. 66], the fact that one can be closed inside a box [p. 115] because boxes are alternate dimensions? [p. 65] and boxes can be people, or people can be boxes?, it's all too vague and alien to me. The more I read of a book the more I expect to understand, not the the exact opposite.

Let's now discuss our hero, Hoshino Kazuki, a high-school boy gifted with a remarkable intellect. For being such a thoughtful protagonist, Hoshino seems to repeatedly fail to ask the most obvious and important questions, such as “How could I fall in love during the time loop when there had been little to no interactions between me and the girl?”, “What exactly is the box?”, “Who is the asterisk guy?”, “Who is Otonashi Aya?”, “Why only a person related to the classroom can be the culprit?” and “If I did my summer homework would Haruhi stop this madness already?”. He also has some very confused ideas about time and geology: “Everyday life is called everyday life because it flows continuously. If you stopped the flow of a river, then mud would gather and paint it black. It's just like that. Sediment has gathered here as well.” [p. 50]. So, that's not the actual meaning of “everyday”, that's not what happens to a river when you dam it and while the comparison between the flow of time and the flow of a river is common since ancient philosophy, it really does not apply here that well. Had Hoshino been described as a complete berk I would have said he was one of the most believable hero I've encountered in light novels yet.

Then there's the main heroine, Otonashi L Lelouch Light whatever, a girl so smart the moment she's asked to kindly and simply explain the whole story to us- I mean, to Hoshino, her answer is “There will be hindrances if I explain the details to you. Thus I can't tell you.” [p. 65]. Straight out from the international guide on how to avoid any explanation so the readers have to keep hoping that the plot will eventually make sense. Many mistakes this approach for “mystery” when, by its own definition, mystery is “something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain […] whose [...] nature is puzzling or unknown” [Oxford dictionaries], which really does not translate to “completely avoiding explanations or answers”.

Then what is that HakoMari confuses shallowly as mystery? From the very beginning, we are lead to believe that the protagonist is behind a time loop (which, again, is not that much of a mystery since it was established on page 10) because he accepted the box [p. 8], except he didn't actually accept the box [p. 53] in a turn of events which resembles more the act of throwing a stone and hiding the hand than an actual plot twist. The first moment the mystery is properly addressed and we are given an insight of the culprit [p. 80] it's so painfully obvious who the novel is referring to that I'm left to wonder, was any of this really a mystery to begin with? I guess so, because they even went as far as giving us a red herring to hide the true culprit after that point, and I could only feel sad about it because it meant we reached the point where the author ran out of ideas so he tried to delay as much as possible the solution. Which also reminds me of another flaw which usually occurs in mysteries: when you are mixing fantasy with mystery, either you are called Murakami Haruki or you really should stop, because it will always result in a battle of sci-fi jargon that has little to nothing to do with actual wits or plot twists. And it's also very anticlimactic. Ryukishi07 knows what I'm talking about.

This approach to the story also reflects how HakoMari's author loves to spout unpopular sentences to make his or her characters appear unconventional and witty, when said sentences are not even remotely put into any context: "[Love and hatred a]re the same. ...No, they are certainly different. Love's a worse feeling than hatred because people themselves aren't aware of its dirtiness. It's just repulsive."[p. 87] I can accept this kind of line when I find it in the lyrics of some emo noise metal hardcore band's songs, mostly because I don't listen to any of those genres so they can write whatever they wish; but when a character in a novel stands with such a strong argument, the least I expect is for some in depth study of the character to justify said statement. What do we get then after this? “That doesn't matter now.” [p. 87] which, since characters motivations are so dimly addressed, is a sentence the author must have applied to the whole idea of character development.

At this point some may retort “The first book is just an introduction to the setting and characters; the story actually gets good by the nth volume, there are also the answers you are seeking”, to whom I reply “I'm not sure I want to keep on eating at this restaurant when the appetiser were nettle-coated living locusts, even their pomegranate-chocolate pizza sound suspicious”. I had some exchanges with people who actually went on with the series, and the auspices look far from brighter to me:

“It gets hyped by its niche fans because it loves to shove HUMANS ARE EVIL all the time. We all know people love that. I also hate the author's inability to get to the point instead of going on overblown tangents filled with unnecessary thoughts on how a character feels. […] Well, it is distrust involving romantic abuse which makes it even better. One of the characters convinces a girl to get gang raped in order to prove to him that she loves her. That girls also likes to be burned with cigarettes. The [main character] likes to drink the tears off his girlfriend, which I think is kind of cool. So stuff like that.”

When I'm told I'm about to read mature, controversial content I would expect Pasolini, Kafka or Hardy, not any random issue of the Punisher comic books, because that's really far from the definition of “mature”.

And if the argument “You can't judge it just for the first book” still stands, then I must ask, why are there series which manage to narrate a good overall story while being made of good stand-alone books? The Zaregoto, Spice and Wolf and Haruhi series are major examples, some may say Narita Ryogho's works, and even outside the light novel medium there are the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Dune, Gormenghast, Earthsea, Narnia, even Harry Potter manages that! It's clever to base future books' events on what was already established previously, that's foreshadowing done good; not so much when key plot points of the first book are not seen nor discussed til much later because up to that point the single book will still count as flawed, as it doesn't explain the fundamental of its own foundations.

The Rejecting Classroom was indeed one of the worst books I've ever read: it was pretty predictable, often times self-contradictory and incredibly redundant; but at least things happened, thanks to the fact these books are so short you can read them in a single afternoon. I'm going to continue this series, none of what I discussed up to know is ever going to be changed by further knowledge of the universe of course, but some very small aspects such certain funny dialogues, passages and actual events and the overall theme of human desire might be worth giving the series the benefit of the doubt. And simply put, from times to times I'm in need of quick, childish, light-hearted reads like this.

Although, The Seven Night in the Mud certainly does not open in any brighter manner:

“In the first place; the «everyday life», which you don't get tired to mention all the time, is different from the «everyday life» as it is perceived by others. You include the loss of things in your perception of «everyday life», am I right? This is, in fact, different from the common definition of «everyday life». Other humans are unable to take it as it comes, […] Every human is distorted, and their «everyday life» gets twisted by their individual values. You could say that a 'box' forces this distortion upon others. You are sensitive to these intentional distortions of the «everyday life» by the 'boxes' of others — and you find them repulsive. Am I wrong?”

But at least this time the book itself replies the same way I would:

“I really have not the slightest idea what he's talking about. Let me be already.”

Story
Simply put, the more you progress through the story arcs, the more convoluted it becomes. It gets really bad during the survival game part that is covered in 2 volumes. It is equivalent to an 8 year old continually making rules to a game that is changed to his or her convenience. That really summarizes all the story sections in general.

Characters
The way the characters think and talk seem like they are trying to sound really clever when it really is a bunch of bs that would make a politician blush. The amount of dialogue needed to convey their feelings and attitude is often only a third of what is there. It's like the author just had free-writing exercises and forgot to edit it.

Overall
I will probably be cyber-lynched for sharing my opinion on this critically acclaimed piece of literature, but personally this series just screams mediocre to me, hence the score. I'm really just reading it because I literally have nothing else to read during my breaks. Though the characters and their story of struggle had potential, in the end it's just a big ball of convolution for you to un-ravel with sticky fingers.

What a beautiful piece of writing~
Have you ever wondered if there's a divine deity watching us?
Have you ever wanted to escape your repetitive everyday life?
Have you thought for a moment that you could change fate/destiny?

Basic Story Outline: A story revolving around Kazuki Hoshino, a student who lives quite the delightful and repetitive everyday life. However on the 2nd of March, near the end of the class year, a beautiful and mysterious girl named Aya Otonashi is transferred for the 13,118th time in his class and when she introduces herself, she directly targets Hoshino, saying that she’ll break Hoshino. Confusing and pretty bizarre huh?

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is certainly a complex, mysterious, dark, twisted, and surprisingly rather funny story about people's most basic values vs reality of the world. At first look, the story just seems like a mystery with some random murders/deaths here and there and some suspense. But oh my, is it so much more. The viewers are led to follow the characters in masterfully done multiple iterations of the same day and the struggles they have in each one. The grand suspense that's built up through small, detailed developments are brilliant. The feelings of every character: Loss of a "human" way to think even if our senses kick back just to take us back to reality. The mysterious aspect of this show is similar to that of Death Note (and if you haven't read/watched Death Note, then I don't know what you're doing with your life). The symbolic, and most important things in the manga though are the boxes. The wishes are supposedly "wish-granting genies" and depending on how strong your passion for that dream is, it'll come true. Now, this is obviously not just some easy, Aladdin 3-wish childish stuff. The boxes are a symbol of temptation and they are an escape of Kazuki Hoshino's repetitive everyday life.

Absolutely a marvelous story, but it'd be nothing without the magical characters. All the characters are absolutely genius, and no one will leave you annoyed; they'll leave you rather dumbfounded after each thought (especially Aya). The change in the characters throughout the novel is wondrous, especially Kazuki's perception of "life" itself. The art was average, could have used some better art, but nonetheless it was readable, and enjoyable. Honestly, the art needed a more dark premise approach to it... Oh and did I ask you yet...? Do you believe in God?

A fine masterpiece indeed. One of the more genius writings of literature. Definitely a novel that people should check out, if they can process some complex/confusing/deep stuff. Closest similarity to this novel would be Death Note. Check out both, they're both masterpieces.

Wow. Just Wow.

I usually don't write reviews. But for this novel, I even made this account just for the purpose of making this review. Why ? The reason is simple, it's because this is the best story I have ever read / known in my life.

Let's start with art. Art is not needed in this novel, because the novel is relying on obscuring the facts, especially in volume 1 and 7 , so I rate the art 7/10.

The story , character, and enjoyment from volume 1-6 are really great, The story is really good with plot twist you would not see coming but makes perfect sense, Characters is really engaging , I really enjoyed my time with it and overall for volume 1-6 I would personally rate it 9/10. Volume 1-6 IMO is one of the best stories out there.

BUT, then volume 7 came out. Volume 7 is the thing that made this novel the best story I have ever known in my life. It's so good that volume 1-6 felt like a long prologue to this volume. The author really knows how to push a story and its character to the limit. I have never seen any story being pushed that crazy before. Most other stories will just stop and "twist" itself to a happy ending after vol 7 chapter 1. This one makes the tragedy even worse. I bet you will remember this story for a long long time, because how impactful and traumatizing this is. For me, Volume 7 deserve way more than 10/10.

So yeah, if you haven't read this novel, READ IT NOW! Volume 1-6 is still a great story, but please, read until volume 7 for the part that makes this novel a true masterpiece.

"Do you have a wish? This is a box that grants any wish."
"Kazuki Hoshino, I'm here to break you."
"We are surrounded by soft, sweet, and pure white despair."

The Empty Box and The Zeroth Maria is a dark story about a flawed wish-granting device that causes trouble for our protagonist Hoshino and Otonashi.

Settings:
The story took place around Ikebukuro, in which a district of Japan. The settings are mostly involving just one tileset at each volume, mostly around the school. But the story are somewhat unique that you will not be bored despite being so.

Plot:
The story begins when a transfer student called Aya Otonashi, that have just transferred to a a school and intends to 'break' Kazuki Hoshino, a normal boy in which likes umaibo snacks and heavily attached to his daily life, right after her introduction. She claimed that it's her 13,118th transfer. She then told Kazuki about the existence of box in which could grant any wish, and that they're trapped inside a box and must find and stop the culprit, because some tragic incident happened involving the box, in which every box design was the symbolizations of the 'owners' characteristics, as it's their wish. Because of this, Kazuki's 'daily life' ruined. As the story goes, stress, depression, identity crisis, moral dilemmas, how a seemingly perfect system flawed heavily, and even death occurs. HakoMari managed to give a heavy thrilling, sinister, and surreal athmosphere as you read it. There's also so many other unexpected plot twists too, but I avoid of telling them so that you can enjoy HakoMari at it's fullest.

Art:
Nothing Much to say here, same as other Light Novels, there are only few illustrations about it, it somewhat surreal, and it's good IMO.

Characters:
This is one of the most interesting part of HakoMari IMO. There are many characters here and most of them are well developed, in which a character that takes a main role on a volume may recurring at some next few volume, either be a protagonist or an antagonist. I can also say that all of the characters are well developed, as how their backstories such as tragic pasts, how they deal with the 'box', their involvement on mind games, ulterior motives, how their personality changes as more box involved around their life, and their aftermath. I think almost every characters tend to have spoilery stories so I also avoid to told it more. Such tragedy happened in almost every characters and you may even shocked or shed some tears.

Enjoyment:
Couldn't expect more from this story, it's a brilliance IMO. I glued at this story, even when I was a bit sleepy, HakoMari managed to make me stay awake when I read it. Even the tiniest bit of comedy managed to make me laugh as I read this story. Also, I enjoy this story because of it's not focused just on one characters (I don't really like stories that only develops 1 character) To be honest, I can say that this is the current Magnum Opus story I've read so far. Completely mindblown.

I highly recommend for you guys who are fans of time traveling stories like Madoka Magica or Steins;Gate, and Survival or Mind Games like Death Note or Danganronpa to read this LN. And if these LNs was sold in your local bookstores, I recommend you to just buy it, because it's a bit sad that such a Masterpiece not sells pretty well in Japan, as this story is 'different' than most LNs.

Okay I think that's all for my reviews, thanks a lot for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review!