Any one reading Hakomari? (ustruo no hako to zero no maria) Updates!

[yanderechan]

So the last time i was on this forum (which was like forever) i noticed that there seemed to be quite a few Hakomari followers. Now that the novel is finished i've decided to re-read the whole thing from scratch whist the translation is taking place for the final volume. I wondered what your thoughts are on this series and what do you expect to see in the final volume?

[Jade]

For me Hakomari is definitely one of the best story that i've ever read. Whether it's the plot, character development, the romance and the sheer plot twist all of them are top notch.
And for the final volume i honestly don't dare to expect a single thing, especially considering last volume ending, what i do know is that it's going to be epic.

[Chronopolis]

Going to enjoy the ride for the 7th book. After that I'm going to have fun examining the story structure to see how Eigi might have constructed the story. The concept of the story is quite interesting.

[yanderechan]

Lets just hope that its not a disappointment like most endings tend to be with these over hyped series. The translator has read it and he (or she) has said they are satisfied with the ending which is good encouragement to believe that it won't be an anti climax

[rainsismyfav]

I still need to get volume 5... But I really loved the first 4 volumes. Granted I only read a few LNs, Hakomari was definitely a great standalone experience, if compared to other media. I enjoyed the Kings game in Vol. 3&4. This series is definitely a recommendation from me; it just felt good to read it.

[Tenkuru]

Volume 7 translation is already done, we just have to wait for the editing to finish I guess. I'm pretty confident in Eiji to end the series well.

Some stuff to hype things up   

HakoMari's OP:

HakoMari's ED:
https://soundcloud.com/replicaletter/sx1svhx1i20c

Volume 7 cover in 1389x2000

[Funnerific]

About half a year ago I was stuck with no technology beyond my smartphone for a long time. At that time, I decided to give light novels a shot.

 

Hakomari was literally the only good thing that happened to me over the hardest four months of my life. If you look at my VNDB you'll see that I rate stuff pretty harshly, but if I could I'd put it among the 9/10 titles over there.

[Ayana]

To me, Hakomari is another one of those rare special stories that fulfills all of my 'dreams' that I envision of an ideal media in a certain medium. Or in other words, it's undeniably cool just to think about it, and to read it with retrospect on the former makes it even more cool. I'm planning to read the awaited Vol. 7 in English before reading it in Japanese because I've read all the prior volumes in that manner so far.

 

As for what I think Vol. 7 will contain? Hahaha...

 

Only the completely unexpected.

[Jibril]

Volume 7 translation is already done, we just have to wait for the editing to finish I guess. I'm pretty confident in Eiji to end the series well.

Some stuff to hype things up   

HakoMari's OP:

HakoMari's ED:

https://soundcloud.com/replicaletter/sx1svhx1i20c

Volume 7 cover in 1389x2000

What? wait what?! WHERE IS IT. I'M DYING FOR HALF A YEAR NOW WAITING FOR VOLUME 7 ;_;

[Jade]

The translation of the prologue and chapter 1 of volume 7 has been released guys! Go read it!

 

Just finish reading both of it, and i got to say two thing

Let the final battle begin and damn that cliff hanger!

Edited July 7, 2015 by Jade

[Tenkuru]

Just finished reading the prologue and chapter 1.

Wow.... just wow. Simply amazing. I've said this countless of times, but I'm going to say it again. Eiji Mikage is a genius.

 

I'm so hyped to read chapter 2 right now.

[LightBladeNova]

I've finished Volumes 1-4, and frankly little has really amazed me yet, definitely not godly material. Volume 2 in particular is pretty meh, I swear you could take it out entirely and the story would actually be better. 

 

Also, I've talked about this on MyAnimeList, but does no one care about the prose quality in HakoMari? In my opinion, the prose is occasionally pretty awkward and unnatural, especially in the dialogue (not necessarily the fault of the translator). 

 

Volume 1 spoiler

I'm sure you all remember the "I absolutely refuse to abandon you to solitude!" line in Volume 1. Is someone really going to tell me that that doesn't sound ostentatious and unnatural for a teenager to say, especially given the emotionally climactic situation the characters were in...? Just something like "I will not [or won't] leave you alone like this!" would've sufficed...

 And that's only one line, I found quite a few others that distracted me from the story. Also, several characters talk in similar ways, mainly when they're being "serious", so that's also off-putting. 

 

Moreover, in addition to the occasional awkwardness, the writing in HakoMari is relatively simple and lacks details and description, so often times I cannot truly feel the atmosphere, the tension, or the emotion; there's not a lot of "force" in the prose, basically.

 

Oh yes, and characters sometimes overexplain things in this very... artificial or affected manner (like, for example, Kazuki keeps using "therefore", which sounds weird). 

[Abyssal Monkey]

I've finished Volumes 1-4, and frankly little has really amazed me yet, definitely not godly material. Volume 2 in particular is pretty meh, I swear you could take it out entirely and the story would actually be better. 

 

Also, I've talked about this on MyAnimeList, but does no one care about the prose quality in HakoMari? In my opinion, the prose is occasionally pretty awkward and unnatural, especially in the dialogue (not necessarily the fault of the translator). 

 

Volume 1 spoiler

I'm sure you all remember the "I absolutely refuse to abandon you to solitude!" line in Volume 1. Is someone really going to tell me that that doesn't sound ostentatious and unnatural for a teenager to say, especially given the emotionally climactic situation the characters were in...? Just something like "I will not [or won't] leave you alone like this!" would've sufficed...

 And that's only one line, I found quite a few others that distracted me from the story. Also, several characters talk in similar ways, mainly when they're being "serious", so that's also off-putting. 

 

Moreover, in addition to the occasional awkwardness, the writing in HakoMari is relatively simple and lacks details and description, so often times I cannot truly feel the atmosphere, the tension, or the emotion; there's not a lot of "force" in the prose, basically.

 

Oh yes, and characters sometimes overexplain things in this very... artificial or affected manner (like, for example, Kazuki keeps using "therefore", which sounds weird). 

Allow me to attempt to explain why I personally think HakoMari is standout compared to the rest of the medium, which may in turn help shed light onto why others may be so fanatical about the series.

 

No one really cares too much about the actual prose of the series because the overall plotline and characters overshadow the inadequacies it may have.  I doubt anyone here is claiming the writing itself to be of "godlike" quality, however we all enjoy it immensely instead because of its complete departure from the gradual take over of the archetype into the stereotype of Japanese literature.  While this may be fine for them as explained by Clephas here, to westerners it becomes overly dull.  

 

In the recent years, in my opinion starting from 2005, Japanese literature has started to trend more and more towards the ecchi, harem, Gary Stu "I can solve anything because I'm the MC, so fall in love with me" type of writing.  You can see this when people complain about anime pretty much anywhere.  This holds just as true to the Japanese LN's that get translated into English.  While I'm not competent enough to say that this holds just as true to the entire LN market, I would like to think it does to a large extent based on the amount of anime adaptations of LNs that fall into this category.  What HakoMari does is completely subvert this trend and at least partially return thing to the way they were before all this started.  Things included in this are actual romance which we haven't seen in a many seasons, and a well connected plot that doesn't needlessly introduce more plot elements that we will never see again just to solve a problem.

 

In the character department, instead of having the overly competent male main character, instead we have a random guy who got pulled into nowhere via the summoning, he was just randomly picked and it could have literally been anyone;  he has no special characteristics, no influence, nothing.  Instead we see all these traits tossed onto the main female romance target.  She has everything: brains, combat ability, and special powers.  She is so far out of the guy's reach that unless something happened to the guy, he would never appear on her radar.  As support characters we get to see Oomiya and his childhood friend who act as foils for the typical trend of the recent writing:  Oomiya is highly intelligent and has a childhood friend who is pretty much set up to be with him.  Every single last one of these characters may seem to be perfect model copies of their archetypal tropes, but every last one of them also has a flaw, something else we rarely ever see as well, and it is these flaws that drive the story.

 

From the progression of the story we see as all these character develop and change into something more warped than we would normally expect.  Volume one introduces us to all the characters and sets up the foils.  Volume two then showcases and sets the standard for how you should expect the two main characters to interact with each other.  Volume three introduces a taint into the mix while volume four cements it.  Volume five shows the gradual breakdown of the daily life represented in volume two, while simultaneously foils how the secondary romance pair deal and solve their problems.  Volume six is the complete destruction of the main character's current lifestyle and resolution of the foil's romance.  This is where volume seven comes in, volume seven is where we get to see how the corrupted main character who has absolutely nothing attempts to resolve the problem of the girl who has absolutely everything.

 

In addition to the characters being different, we get to see an actual story pan out over several volumes and culminate into something.  Recent LNs and manga are based on an unfolding plot that gets strung along indefinitely until the author gets the notice from his publisher that sales are dropping and he needs to finish and wrap up his story.  HakoMari from the outset was never this type of story and was written with a complete plot from the beginning allowing all that actual fluff to be cut out.  What you are describing as "simple and lacks details and description" is because the setting of the story was never the point in the first place.  First and foremost, the entire story was meant to be a story that could happen anywhere and the actions of the characters are meant to set everything, not the words of the author.

 

As for that last comment about everything being artificial, I blame the translator and editors on that one. 

 

Anyway, that's why I personally see HakoMari as a standout in the current LN scene: we get to see actual character development and romance with unconventional character types in a well thought out story that doesn't try to bullshit it's way to a solution.

[LightBladeNova]

Thank you for your reply, Abyssal Monkey.

 

I don't really feel like getting into a prolonged debate about HakoMari, but of course I respect your opinion. You didn't really have to provide those general summaries of the plot and characters though, as they're not exactly contributing to an argument for why this LN is supposed to be godly.

 

I can see your point about HakoMari breaking out of a negative, cliche trend that has been plaguing Japanese LNs lately (I can't really say myself though, since HakoMari is the only LN I've been reading), but that specific point seems to pervade most of your discussion. It's not a really strong argument for you to be comparing the unconventional HakoMari with generic and noncohesive harem, ecchi, Gary Stu trash in the first place, because lots of stories are better than that. In other words, just "breaking out of convention" is not significant enough for a story to be considered amazing. Now, I'm sure you have more compelling arguments as to why HakoMari is so great, but I'm just saying that you didn't talk about them much in your comment. You say that "every last one [of the characters] has a flaw", but well duh, any good story should have characters that are flawed. You say that "we get to see an actual story pan out over several volumes and culminate into something", but well, that's supposed to be expected of any series, not limited to just LNs and manga. You say that "fluff is cut out" but that too doesn't mean much.

I've already pointed out some of my direct reasons for why I'm not really seeing HakoMari as some masterpiece yet; it's good overall so far, don't get me wrong, but masterpiece of masterpieces is pushing it. I don't agree that prose is something that shouldn't be cared about. Why? Because the way a writer manipulates words obviously affects how the story is told. You mentioned how the prose being simple and lacking in detail/description is because the setting of the story is not the point (which I agree with), but you should realize that detail and description are not limited to just setting or worldbuilding. Quality prose helps to conjure some profound image or message, vividly show action instead of merely telling it, create emotional resonance and suspenseful atmosphere through careful word choice, add substance through figurative language, metaphors, similes, etc., maybe allude to some symbolism or motifs, and make the text and dialogue flow naturally and purposefully. This isn't a medium like anime and movies, where prose doesn't have as much significance because the visuals, character voices, and music also tell the story; HakoMari is a light novel, a book, and the text is the only thing that matters, and so I will judge the prose's ability to resonate with me. And for me, HakoMari has only average (occasionally below average, when it's awkward) prose. 

 

So you admit that some of the dialogue sounds artificial? Well, this artificial-sounding dialogue directly affects my ability to emotionally connect with the characters and events. Again, the

"I absolutely refuse to abandon you to solitude!"

line really broke my immersion (as well as many others); it just sounds so dumb... seriously, try saying that to someone of the opposite sex, out loud. It's very unnatural. And again, several of the characters sound alike when they're being serious, so that's also a minus.

 

You didn't address my point about Volume 2. I've seen on MyAnimeList that many people also didn't really find Volume 2 good; for me, it was just straight up bad. Very lackluster antagonists,

(the main one, Asami Riko, was too easy to figure out) and they never appear again later in the story

, and plus the atmosphere wasn't as good, partly because the prose was at an all-time low in this volume.

 

Sorry if I'm being too harsh or something, I'm just sharing my honest thoughts.

[Jade]

IT'S HERE!!!

Vol 7 is Fully Translated! HAPPY READING!

[Tenkuru]

Oh boy, it's going to be a long night 

[Jade]

Finish. I finally finished reading it, now for my impression

 

To be honest, i feel the sudden exposition of Maria's background could be done better but as i read it more and finally finish that chapter i have no complain and could only said 'Holy shit Aya is the true villain' but that turn out to be a bust 

I find it interesting how Aya and Kazuki is the polar opposite of each other though. One is a 'Saint' who would sacrifice few to save many but ultimately didn't want to sacrifice herself, while the other are willing to damn not only the world but also himself to save just one person

 

Got to say though, Kazuki is THE biggest determinator of all LN/WN protag that I've ever read. Kamijou-san might gone through trillions world to save a girl but IMO he didn''t suffer as much as Kazuki's. Even if it's only 400k times, you could clearly tell that Kazuki really suffer through them.

 

How it's end is a bit cliche and kind of rush though but to be honest, i don't want it any other way

[Tenkuru]

Well, that was something.... I don't even know what to say now that I've finished it, other than the fact that I loved it so much. It's been quite a while since I last felt a void after finishing something. HakoMari will always have a special place in my heart   
 

Last word, my biggest disappointment in this series is

The lack of Wedding Illustration  

 

Ditto. Tetsuo-san please 

[Funnerific]

Just finished the long-awaited last volume. 10/10. For a light novel.

With my poor imagination I really need all that VA work, BGM and art (a lot more of it than in this work).

 

But the story was superb and there was nothing wrong with it, it really feels like the author writes according to his beliefs and not catering to the audience too much, which is different from the vast majority of Japanese works. That has to be why it's so highly regarded in the west and isn't so popular in Japan.