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Old 2013-05-12, 22:53   Link #11
darkalpha
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Join Date: May 2007
Location: United States
I know that there's not much interest in Owari no Chronicle at the moment, but couple of years ago I was pretty interested (and still am right now) in the novel. One day, I asked Sushi-Y (who used to post regularly in AS Forums) privately for some information in a different forum.

Although Sushi-Y isn't around anymore, but I realized that I still had the PM from her long time ago, and as far as I know, she hasn't divulged the info she gave me anywhere so I'll share it here for those who's still curious for bit extra info about the novel series.

Quote:
The novel's author, Kawakami Minoru, is well known for the complex and detailed story settings behind his novels, combined with an unique writing style, some people (especially casual readers) have criticized his works with comments such as "difficult to read" or "no idea what's going on". On the other hand, there are also many other people who appreciates the deep and complex contents that his stories have to offer.

Now, as for what the novel is about, I suppose I'll just translate the abstract for you:

Behind the history that we call The Second World War, there was another war that was never made public.

The war was carried out between 10 parallelly existing worlds, all of which are called Gs(Gears), with their survivals on the line. From the destruction and scramble for the ultimate explanation of all things in existence, "Concept", the war was called the "Concept War".

And now, 60 years after everything has been hidden away in our world 「Low-G」, which was victorious in the war, a problem has occured.

The activation of the 「Minus Concept」, which only this world possesses.

Due to this, Low-G, which has become the only Gear remaining, began to walk onto the path of annihilation once again.

In order to evade annihilation, the power of the Concepts from the other 10 Gs, once perished with only their enmity remaining, was required.

For this reason, 「UCAT」, the organization which knew about and fought in the Concept War, has formed a special forces called Team Leviathan for the purpose of negotiating with the survivors of the alternate worlds.

One young man has received the duty and authority left behind by his grandfather, and accepted the role of being a negotiator, in order for himself to "become serious".

The young man who calls himself the villain--- His name is Sayama Mikoto.

Leviathan Road, the negotiation to bring all enmities to a close and save the world---

Along with the words "I appoint the name of Sayama as the villain", it begins.

Now, all of that might sound a little wacko on the surface, but the novel itself develops in a very logical way: there are no nonsenses to be found in the writings.

As for the specifics on the story development, you'll have to excuse me on that, because it's far too complex and it would take hours to explain. ^^;

I'll describe a bit from the beginning of volume 1 though:

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The story begins during spring break at Takaakita Institute, a city-sized school that covers a wide range of education fields, including high school. We follow Mikoto around the school, where we are introduced to 2 of his friends (who are elites, just like him), as well as his dopey teacher. Mikoto's preparing to head to the IAI (Izumo Aviation Industries) in the evening to receive something left for him in the will of his deceased grandfather, who was an IAI chairman.

While he's on the way to IAI, the train that he's riding on had to stop in the mountains due to an accident ahead. Mikoto decided to get off the train rather than turning back. On the train, an old man called Itaru and his female servant, sf, who talked to Mikoto briefly before he left, appears to have something in the works for him.

While walking through the mountains, Mikoto suddenly heard a female scream, he dashed towards the source and noticed signs of combat: trees cut down by clean cuts, and odd looking pellets on the ground.

Furthermore, he noticed that the area he's in has been enclosed in some kind of barrier. While trying to figure out a way to escape, Mikoto encountered an enemy: a creature that looked like a werewolf. Mikoto managed to escape from the werewolf at first, but he soon heard the scream again, and knew that the werewolf is after someone else. So he headed back in.

Finally, Mikoto found the werewolf, facing off against a young girl dressed in a black-and-white outfit that looked like a sci-fi movie costume, and holding a staff-like object. But it looked like that the girl - whose name is Shinjou - is unable to attack or even defend herself. Mikoto learned from Shinjou that "valuable metals" hold the power to defeat the werewolf, so he used his silver-tipped pen to wound the werewolf, but getting himself injured in the process as well. Finally, the werewolf was defeated by a long range shot by one of Shinjou's allies, who has arrived to rescue her.

Mikoto woke up a few hours later inside an infirmary, and learned that he's located inside a secret facility operated by an organization called UCAT - the "dark side" of IAI.

Together with Shinjou, Mikoto met Ooshiro, a senior executive of UCAT, and a friend of Mikoto's grandfather. Ooshiro was the person who sent the letter to Mikoto about his grandfather's will. While showing Mikoto and Shinjou around, Ooshiro began to talk about the Concept War, the 10 other worlds, and the origins of UCAT. Of course, Mikoto's first thought was that the old man has finally gone nuts. But from that mysterious creature he fought with earlier, Mikoto realizes that there may be some truth to Ooshiro's words, so he listend on...

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That's the super-rushed summary of first 1/3 of the first installment of vol.1 (which has two books). Hopefully it gave you some idea of how the story began.
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