Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

HakoMari's story is one of the most 'cult' light novel story I have ever read, throwing mainstream out from the window right away.

It made me scream like a fangirl.

The story is about Kazuki Hoshino, a boy who very much treasures his normal 'everyday life'. An everyday life, which is no longer normal without he himself realizing it when he met a mysterious transfer student Aya Otonashi.



-- Story : 9/10.

HakoMari's genre is somewhat a combination of fantasy and mystery. The story, like I said, avoids today's light novel mainstream and cliche plot. It's not a stupid boy-meets-girl-then-continue-to-meeting-harem-member. It's a boy-meets-girl-then-reality-went-to-shit kind. When Kazuki Hoshino met Aya Otonashi, his whole world and the normalcy around him was turned upside down. It turns out he has been repeating the same particular day over and over again, trapped in a time loop. With only the transfer student a.k.a. heroine Aya Otonashi as the one who realize the loop, he needs to struggle out of the loop and get back his normal everyday. Little that he know, his normal life is no longer within reach.

The story itself focus mainly on an wish granting tool known as the 'box'. These 'boxes', given by a certain character that could be said as the main antagonist, reflex on the box's owner personality and granting the owner's wish, but its power only extend as far as how much the owner believes on the 'wish granting concept'. These 'boxes' is our protagonist Kazuki Hoshino archenemies, existences that only serves to destroy his precious normal lives. As the story goes, together with Aya Otonashi, Kazuki meet all kinds of 'box' owners with their own distinct mindset and, more often than not, twisted wishes.

The plot eschew the normal story nowadays and gives us a new but tainted kind of plot. The story is dark indeed; either morally or mentally. But despite the dark fantasy genre, the story would actually feel realistic, felt that the way it unfold could actually happened to our normal life.The writing style is also very unique; each novel uses different style of storytelling and it gives power and impression to each arc, for example is the repeating time loop at first arc and volume.



-- Character : 9/10.

The characters in HakoMari is realistic; you can find people like this around you. Yet each and every one of them is a distinct individual, with their own depth and story.

Our protagonist, Kazuki Hoshino, is a boy with a somewhat abnormal attachment to a concept of 'normal life'. It is the most precious thing for him. Whe it was taken from him, he'd go to his utmost in order to get it back. It is ironic that, despite his love for normalcy, it is the very thing that makes him actually abnormal.

The main heroine, Aya Otonashi, is at first ambiguously portrayed as the main antagonist, with her action completely opposing our protagonist. But it turns out that Aya Otonashi designated enemy is also the very one that serves to destroy the concept of normal life, making him as Kazuki Hoshino's enemy as well. Thus, both of Aya and Kazuki creates a mutual ceasefire relationship, which will develop further and become on that is closer than at the beginning.

Aya Otonashi is a very unique and distinct character; she is unlike any heroine I have ever met. The more the story progress, I as a reader was given more and more revelation about her. Her relationship with the 'boxes' giver is one of the most important point in the series, together with her own, indeed, wish and 'box'.

Besides our two protagonists, a lot of side characters exists as well. Except that there are no side characters in HakoMari.

None.

Like I said before, all the characters in HakoMari is a distinct individual, with their own story. Each and every one of them has their own stage within the story, one that equals our protagonists'. And that gives all characters a strong flavor. Throughout the story, you will find that each character was, in fact, a main character.

As the story goes, the readers will be pleased that each character is given a revelation and/or development. Indeed, in HakoMari characters are not given only development, but revelation as well, to the point that the development itself comes as our view about the character changes and as more and more about the character is revealed. In other words, the characters didn't change; it's us, the readers, who changes the way we perceive those characters. And it's one thing that I love from HakoMari. The credibility of the characters was done by their action within the story, not through the power of narration, making the action they take and thus, their characterization, very realistic.


-- Art : 7/10

As often the case with a novel, art isnt it's strong point and thus, I never gave it much attention. But, again, in HakoMari the art concept is different than most light novel. We are not given an 'event illustration', we are given an illustration that 'symbolize' the current arc and chapter. It is unique in its own way.

The artwork quality itself was not spectacular, but the concept itself was good enough to make up for it.



-- Enjoyment : 10/10

This, in my opinion, is the most important point at reading a novel. Since most people dislike reading novel as seeing only writings and letter can be boring. This is the biggest hurdle for a novel. A novel must be able to give enjoyment to the readers and pull them into the story itself, so not only the reader read the story, but get pulled inside them and LIVE them. The simplest of stories can be a great story if told with great enjoyment.

This series's 'cult' concept is the one aspect that made me attached to and enjoying the series, with the typical harem and cliche plot LNs around. A refreshing idea, combined with dark premises hooked me up immediately.

HakoMari has given me enjoyment to the fullest when reading it. The pacing was perfect; Eiji Mikage write each story segment with perfect proportion and placing that each reading pulls us more and more, until the big bomb of surprise is revealed. The way he writes managed to combine mundane everyday life and comedy segment with fantasy and mystery blending, giving dark premises in the process. The way he blends hem together was so well-done that each segment, like I said, felt realistic and could actually happened around us, despite them being dark fantasy genre.



All in all, HakoMari is a great read; a different story that leave a deep impression within me, with the way the story was told and the characterization. Thus, if you are tired with the same cliche story in most LNs nowadays, I recommend HakoMari to you all. You won't regret it.



P.S. : I actually sincerely hope that there wont be an anime adaptation of this, as I believe there are no studios that could captivate the story as perfect as I imagine it. I hope I will be proven wrong.

Simply the best thing ever written hands down. Only one complain. It is hard to read and understand at first but you will get use to it half way through. A masterpiece written by a genius. Download it right now and just go READ IT. I have nothing else to say.

Story: 10/10
You will find the best plot twists ever. Its impossible to guess right. You are never correct. In just one sentence everything will twist.

Art: 9/10
Well its a light novel so it only has a few pictures.

Characters: 9/10
The characters are amazing and so smart. I love Otonashi. I don't know how she is still sane. I love the character development. The main characters becomes so bad ass toward the end.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I really enjoyed it. Try to read it. It may be hard at first but trust me you won't regret it. You will really enjoy it.

Overall: 10/10

After an excruciatingly long time of waiting, at long last the seventh volume of Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (more commonly referred to as HakoMari) has now been released, and with that it's finally time to close the lid on one of the greatest works of literature to have ever originated from Japan, and the overall best light novel I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

HakoMari's story is... *unique* to say the least. It can be classified as fantasy, mystery and psychological above all else, but it really touches upon just about every genre imaginable during the course of its progression. It starts out seemingly ordinary with a typical high-school boy named Hoshino Kazuki who is extremely fond of the idea of having a so-called "normal, everyday life". But when a mysterious girl called Otonashi Aya one day joins his class, announces that it's her 13,118th school transfer and that she's here to "break him", Kazuki's life immediately becomes as far from normal as humanly possible.

The plot progression of HakoMari is very difficult to explain to anyone who hasn't read it, because it's unbelievably complex and also very niche. It primarily revolves around a wish-granting device called a "box". The "boxes" are given to various people and function in different ways depending on the characters' personalities, what they wish for and also how much they truly believe in the concept of granting wishes to begin with. But either way a box can be considered a space like a fictional world which people can be trapped inside, and it operates under its own rules. In this way, effectively anything is possibly in HakoMari because all laws of normality are completely thrown out the window.

I think HakoMari can be classified as "Chaos Theory". It's completely erratic, yet very systematic. It's completely irrational, yet makes absolutely perfect sense. It's abstract, yet completely logical. It messes with your head like nothing else from essentially the first sentence of the first volume and it never ever stops, but neither does it stop fascinating you with what it's capable of. The plot twists are so incredibly difficult to predict, but they always make you feel like the answer was so obvious all along once the truth is revealed. It's just that well-written, and as a result it never fails to make you smile and impress you.

Almost every single volume is very different from the rest since every box operates under its own set of rules, but they still always maintain the same dark, cryptic yet incredibly captivating atmosphere. This is all possible because the writing and narration is simply superb. The author makes the readers dance to his tune like puppets with his almost cult-like writing style, and when all is said and done it's probably the main reason why HakoMari is so interesting to read. It's like trying to lay a three-dimensional puzzle in the dark, except the author is helping you by guiding your hands for you. In that way it feels like you're being presented an overall storyline that reasonably shouldn't be possible to write, except somehow it actually works out. But it's something that cannot really be explained in words alone, you have to read it for yourself.

Another interesting aspect is that HakoMari has multiple protagonists. It constantly changes perspective. Each and every character is thus provided incredible depth, much more so than you would ever expect from a novel only seven volumes long in total. Furthermore, given the abnormal nature of the story itself, the different perspectives give you vastly different impressions of the flow of events.

Overall, what you have is a light novel which is unlike anything else on the market, has some of the best writing I've ever seen and never ceases to amaze you with its unbelievable twists and turns. It makes you care about the characters something tremendously due to how captivating it is from the very beginning, and presents you with a storyline which is as about as close to flawless as you can possibly get. I don't think I've ever talked to anyone who's read HakoMari and didn't like it, which is something I don't think I've experienced with any other series, regardless of medium.

As it is though, HakoMari is only hyped in the west, but it's basically unknown in Japan. Thus the chances of HakoMari ever getting an anime adaptation are probably rather slim, even now after the novels have finished publishing. However, I do not believe it is humanly possible to make an adaptation of HakoMari that would do the novels justice anyway, so maybe that's for the best. Either way, I'm more than happy with what we got, because it is my all-time favorite light novel and quite simply one of the overall best reads I've ever had in my life. Highly recommended to essentially everyone.

--This review is intended for those who plan to read the novel therefore, it is free of spoilers--

"Kazuki Hoshino. I’m here to break you. This is my 13,118th 'School Transfer'. Even I can't help but get annoyed after so many. So for a change, I'll proclaim war." Those are the words that Aya Otonashi proclaims to our dumbfounded protagonist in the start of the series, and surely, this line not only perplexes the characters in the story, but us as well.

The simple setting of a 13,118th school transfer is enough to pique your interest as this is something that is obviously uncommon. Fortunately, the first sections of the novel hints of an intricate plot in contrast to the introduction that usually leaves a first impression of a clichéd rom-com act(It turns out to be anything but). The plot would gradually unravel the underlying dark theme that is behind something that is seemingly bright.

Hakomari’s narrative starts by introducing our protagonist Kazuki Hoshino, a rather typical student with an anomalous attachment to his ‘everyday life’. Our protagonist is in the belief that there is no difficulty that cannot be solved by the continuity of everyday life. A belief he later finds to be challenged by no other than the transfer student of phenomenal beauty, Aya Otonashi, who with every school transfer throws the class of 1-6 into confusion and chaos through her stunning looks and resolute personality, and her introductions and statements that unerringly leave the class flabbergasted.

The manner in which the first volume is narrated is somewhat unique. It tells the context of the plot by gradually unravelling the events in the story through an experimental anachronistic manner. (This experimental manner of telling the story would be one of the best aspects to be found not only in this volume, but the others as well, but is most eminent in this volume) It is this manner of narration that I would describe as the glue of the entire novel. The author would always follow a constant perfect pace in character and plot exposition, unveiling his well-thought and complex plot that infallibly leaves the reader impressed.

Plot-wise, the story is narrated in a way that resembles a detective novel and is somewhat reminiscent of Death Note. This is no other than due to the fact that the novel is partly mystery. It sets the pace of the novel by pre-emptively unveiling a mystery that drags the reader to its pace and leaves the reader glued to figuring out the happenings. What’s amazing is, Hakomari is not a detective novel yet it surprisingly does it better than most detective novels and would even rival the acclaimed Death Note in terms of complexity. It has become somewhat of a detective novel because the reader would constantly engage his mind in thinking, constantly trying to figure out the reasons of the events, constantly analyzing the statements and dialogues of each character while evaluating if they hold water, only to find their conjectures more or less wrong as the author unravels his grand scheme. This only serves as a testament that the plot is well-thought and effective because the deception is reflected not only on the characters, but also on the readers – you cannot help but get fooled into thinking what the characters were thinking.
One might even call this novel a quasi-detective novel if not for its disparate focus.

With regards to the supernatural aspect of the novel, the narrative first reveals of the existence of supernatural wish-granting machines called ‘boxes’. These boxes are what sets our novel into perpetual motion. It introduces boxes as something that grants our wishes to the extent and limited by how much we believe in the wish, in other words, a 'box' grants wishes exactly as the person pictures it, that means whatever doubts you have in mind would also be brought to fruition. The idea of a box granting a wish distorted by one’s own beliefs is already enough to catch one’s interest, what’s more interesting though is the possibilities that come along with it that become more or less the core of each volume. In other words what gives this series its spice is not the idea of a flawed wishing machine, but the realization that such a premise has the potential to achieve unique and entertaining plot lines. These said boxes are the complete antithesis of our protagonist’s ideal ‘everyday life’ for which he would constantly seek help in order to neutralize and return to a semblance of his everyday life, even to the point of cooperating with his antagonistic rival – Aya Otonashi.

A bonus that comes off from the nature of the boxes is it becomes well-defined. (Death Note for example has its rules written down for the viewers.) This limits the author to reason out the happenings in the plot unlike most series which involve the supernatural that leave explanations to plot convenience. To add to that, despite having a well-defined set of premises, the author still managed to make a very entertaining, unique and outstandingly dramatic story out of it, which I think is very difficult to do. It does the explaining far better and more intricately than say… genie stories where the source of the story’s plot progression is the malign intentions of the genie in granting wishes, where the author can easily manipulate the actions of the genie to fit his mould of the story rather than constructing a logical plot built on well-defined premises. And when I mention ‘genie stories’, I refer not only to genie stories per se, but it extends to all stories that involve the supernatural but altogether fails to construct a coherent plot.

Despite all the praise Hakomari has, all of it would be impossible if not for the well-rounded and well-conceived characters. From the self-sacrificial perfectionist Aya Otonashi, the unbreakable Kazuki Hoshino to various other characters such as the cryptic and intelligent Daiya Oomine. The cast consists of a set of various characters who come along contrastive personalities at times, but in no manner is any character introduced or portrayed as an airhead. The characters all posses a degree of intellectual independence where the absence of which often leads a story to banality since we rarely find high entertainment value in a story where a protagonist’s inherent ineptitude constantly becomes pivotal to a story. In other words we won't be seeing our clichéd and stereotyped males who are inept at everything they do and our unreasonable females whose insights defy all logic and is commonly attributed 'female intuition'. Actually, we get some of this to a certain degree, but they primarily serve as comic relief.
It is also interesting to note our protagonist's character development as he changes his perception of 'everyday life', some may find it as progressive and some may find it loathsome.

The characters and their respective actions are certainly well-thought that we could sympathize with despite them being fictional. They portray reality very accurately that we can’t help but think that the actions they take bear semblance to what we would. This accurate portrayal of reality would inevitably make others feel that the story bears more semblance of reality and mystery rather than supernatural despite it being the main element of the novel, an aspect that makes the reader attached to it like he is with reality, despite the fact that the story is fantasy/supernatural. To evoke attachment to supernatural fantasies is something rarely achieved in the history of (supernatural) literature as they usually feel ‘distant’.

The author (Eiji Mikage) is able to truly manifest his skills in writing in this novel. He manages to display versatility in sub-genres throughout the volumes by shifting from mystery to commonplace mundane themes and even to engaging in light existential and ontological allusions which he usually integrates to his plot. He blends several elements such as psychological, tragedy and even slice-of-life (as some may perceive it) uniquely in each arc resulting in the readers having mixed feelings. He would also insert his timely scenes of comic relief. Exercising the skill of stacking multi-layered plots through each volume, he would further surprise his readers by unveiling a bigger picture that could have only have been written coherently if the author already has the story conceptualized and laid out in his mind, and only has to fill in the details.

With all of that said, Hakomari is one of the best of stories that has surfaced into the literature repertoire. It is a must read recommended for almost anyone as it explores different genres that reach and appeal to people of different tastes. It always leaves the reader impressed through its outstanding narrative and convoluted plot that would always leave the reader with a satisfying explanation, and always urges you to want to read more through other volumes. And despite this being a novel, where music and animation are absent, I would say that it delivers far more entertainment value than most series (including animations) because it exercises your imagination through its rich narrative that would at times border between metaphorical and literal statements, and unveils a plot that barely falls short of perfect.

That being said though, I wouldn't recommend this to the typical elitist who finds that anything involving teenagers and a school setting is abhorrent and would rather stick to his deliberately ambiguous impossible-to-decipher ultra-philosophical anime. Nor would I recommend it to people who find critical thinking to be a chore.

Plainly put, this is garbage.

This is the type of story writing and story telling that is killing the writing industry.
It's a story disguised as a complex one, but at the core, it is simple beyond belief.

The twists and turns of the plot are simply there to briefly trick you even though you've already known the outcome of a certain event.

All its "complexity" just seems like the author getting new ideas and then cramming that idea into the story, realizing it doesn't end in a favorable outcome, and then finding ridiculous ways to explain why the favorable outcome was achieved.

This is just over-hyped beyond belief.

--An update--
I never imagined my review would get top.
I've had countless angry fans raid my inbox and comments. Most want to just berate me, but some do want more information. For those few people, I will add some more:

The interaction and dialogue between characters seems off. To me, they do not communicate like a normal person. I know they are meant to be odd people, but the writing made it difficult to understand or even become interested in what they had to say. The best way I could describe it is if aliens came to Earth and only studied humans via anime. And then they tried to write a story based around two awkward anime characters, that's what this felt like.

Some people have pointed out that it is due to bad translation. My first language is Japanese, I read all Japanese literature untranslated.

As stated before, the "complexity" is just a mess. The many "rules" of the world are not defined, but this seems to be very intentional, but not to provide "mystery" or "twists". It seems as though the author made it so they can add or modify rules for their needs. The "twists" only seek to surprise us without adding any value to the plot. Situations in the novel change, drastically at times, for no apparent reason but only to meet the author's objective. This is a classic blunder by bad writers. They have a beginning and an end, but they don't know how to write the middle to tie the two. "the man fell off the cliff...but didn't die because a dragon saved him! and the dragon never comes back into the story"

Hope this helps

You could say that Hakomari is a mix between 'chessgame' type fiction like No Game No Life, Kaiji and Akagi, Yasutaka Tsuisui and Dostoyevsky-lite (or Kokoro Connect). The light novel works on two levels, the first being the highly satisfactory intellectual level of how the games and betrayals pile up on top of one another, and the second being the extremely brutally pessimistic worldview of Eiji Mikage. Most characters contain deep psychological traumas derived from the worst part of humanity. The main failure of most other chessgame fiction is the lack of characterization and an overt focus on the games themselves. What made Kaiji great was that it had biting social critique and it actually bothered to characterize exactly how powerless a person is at the bottom of the Japanese societal class structure and how dog-eat-dog the world was.

The thing about Hakomari is that while the psychological traumas are very brutally expounded upon, they seem to derive from incessantly small miserable human exploits. This is where the Tsuisui connection comes in. Much of the plot of Hakomari involves petty human unrequited loves, domestic violence, jealousy, anger and arrogance blowing up into apocalyptic levels due to the interference of supernatural forces. Bullying and the chain effect of evil is an especially prevalent theme across, but especially at the later arcs when more ground-shaking revelations are thrown out at everyone. In fact he even uses the latest arc to commentate on this by showing every human, even the most normal, being full of pent-up dirty emotions and despicable shames. Mikage's world is a world of whores, misanthropists and broken souls.

As a light-novel the plot is extremely satisfying and tragic and, although entertaining and emotional, doesn't quite go the far stretch at portraying the human soul as stuff like NGE and Tsuisui's books actually do. It's just a very tightly written story with enough twists and turns and dramatic outcries to get your heart pumping. Its also written (or rather translated) into a very readable and economic style which sets up the rules of the games in a precise manner and then shows the outcome. It also mixes up a lot of styles and narrative methods to vary up the types of games. On a technical level Mikage writes a lot like the highly psychological works of Looseboy like G Senjou no Maou and Sharin no Kuni.

THIS is the light novel that just keeps you at edge of the seat.....the story revolves around wish creating box .simple but main point of the story is about what u gain and what you lose after being granted those you strive for.These box also opens up negative side of your wish ie curses to be granted aswell. this is a story about a guy who loves his daily life and doesnot want any change to it and a girl who sacrifices herself to give other wishes .this is a story about clash between rationality and irrationality.IN THE END THIS IS STORY ABOUT PPL WHO CANT THINK ABOUT THEMSELVES FIRST ..and a guy who is willing to even let his
love die to get his normal day to day life back

If you have a box that grants any wish, would you use it?
Can you actually believe that something like really could exist?
Actually not, isn't it?

SPOILER FREE!

I assume that I was really anxious to see the end of this novel to know it and write a review. As far as I can concern, The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria (Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria a.k.a HakoMari) is one of the Japanese Novels that touched me most. There is the Japanese masterpiece for 21th century.

Often people who follow something want a STORY to enjoy, or for enjoyable presentation, at least. Instead of deliver it, HakoMari works with epiphanies, metaphors, examples and human questions inside several somewhat big monologues. Actually they are not exactly "funny", but amazingly INTERESTING and good to make you reflect, think about yourself and people around you. The monologues are so fantastic that it can be "simple" but complex. Immature but mature. Irrational but rational. They can fit in most kinds of tastes, however it goes deeper and deeper and author isn't afraid to show the weirdest side of world. Obviously there is a story. However, this is not the most important thing. The "messages beneath the surface" are the most important thing here. Think and look forward to see it! Moreover, suspense on this is great and VERY hard to predict. It will always trick with your mind! Twists are not forced and they are very coherent, and had with little flaws (especially in last volume, as I expected).

Characters are good too! They are humans. They are natural and believable! Every single character have their own personalities and thoughts, except for singular cases here and there that are minor characters. Also the side cast has their space to think, act, appear as main characters sometimes. You can love or hate someone from beginning, but your perspective could change bit a bit as you read. As someone said, "when you know someone, this person couldn't be your enemy anymore". HakoMari works with this line regarding characters and readers. Furthermore, their reactions, thoughts twists and trouble treats are the center of attention for those novels. It could help to understand better how human heads work.

Illustrations are good, sometimes help to clarify some things, especially the characters physical features, but they are not so amazing and there are few pictures as many other light novels... I think it's a good point, though, since it depends heavily on words and readers imagination, so images aren't that needed at all. Because of these elements, my grade is seven for it.

Well, I love it and recommend to all people who want to know more about human beings and enjoy to learn about at same time. It's interesting without any boring parts... Oh, except for second volume. If you would like to give up because of it, forget this stupid idea. Second volume is the major flaw on the series in my opinion, but once you overcome it, you can access the whole potential of this novel. YOU MUST READ IT! XD

Oh, yes. Settings are somehow different too. Situations and plot are somewhat innovative. "Nothing is priceless" is remembered in whole novel, so you have to expect that it can be interesting with almost flawless formula. Finally I can say that this work of fiction is the prove of that depression can be productive.