Gekkou (Light Novel)

[Okashira]

A short Side story volume was translated over at baka-tsuki. Returning characters galore (?)

Spoiler:

Is pouting Yoko is a new Yoko

[Marulash]

Just read it. Nice to see Konan. Hope there's more in the future.

[RiceCube]

Nice read, although I still can't make a stand on whether she did it or not.

Might anyone want to persuade me?

[Okashira]

So, it's that time of the month where I fruitlessly spin around the net trying to search for the short story raws for this title and get nothing in return. At least I found some images, even though fan art for this is really scarce.

Spoiler for big size images:

Nonomiya & Yoko as shown in "Strange love" novel (second vol). It looks like Victoria is one of the places featured in those stories.


Fan art


Fan art


This was in the back cover of volume 1? Anyway, it's used in many official sites and I kinda like it

Fortunately, thanks to that fruitless search I realized that now there is an actual appointed translator to the new side story, so we might seen some progress from time to time (the prolog is done). It actually is more interesting that it looks like at first glance.

This isn't spoiler since the description of the prologue includes this much. Basically (if I'm reading this right), it's about a teacher showing "some interest" in Nonomiya. Nonomiya has no clue on why he is getting called out but I'm 100% certain that it's Yoko's fault After knowing that background, the title makes it sound like this short story is going to be a jealousy race but I don't know that much about it. The fact that vague terms such as "certain interest" is used makes me think that the teacher might not have a clear goal (Nonomiya) like what Yoko seems think.

[kazzuya13]

It is good that this LN hasn't ended just yet.

[LeoXiao]

Finished the LN. Well-conceived and written, though I think the twist where she knew about but didn't stop her mother from killing her father seemed slightly like a cop-out on the author's part. Then again, I didn't pay that much close attention to the case details so I can't even say if Tsukimori was supposed to be innocent or not (even if innocent she was totally negligent). The drama with the other female class officer seemed a bit superfluous since nothing really came of that plotline, but overall it was a good read. 8/10

[Okashira]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

Then again, I didn't pay that much close attention to the case details so I can't even say if Tsukimori was supposed to be innocent or not (even if innocent she was totally negligent). The drama with the other female class officer seemed a bit superfluous since nothing really came of that plotline, but overall it was a good read. 8/10

I think that one of the charms of the novel is that since "the case" is judged & analyzed almost completely from a moral perspective, you can come to a lot of conclusions and none of them would be completely wrong (nor completely right). Basically one can just think whatever they want about Yukimori (just look at Nonomiya )

As you mentioned, since the novel mainly dealt with the "main issue", any could argue that the character interactions could be expanded and taken many step forward. Fortunately, the author has the habit of placing her original stories all in the same universe, so it's not like Yukimori & Nonomiya are going to be completely dropped (image from Hen Ai Psychedelic).

[Chaos2Frozen]

Strangest lovey-dovey couple since Koyomi and Hitagi....

[LeoXiao]

I guess nobody else saw the title and thought the LN would have this in it?

Originally Posted by Okashira

I think that one of the charms of the novel is that since "the case" is judged & analyzed almost completely from a moral perspective, you can come to a lot of conclusions and none of them would be completely wrong (nor completely right). Basically one can just think whatever they want about Yukimori (just look at Nonomiya )

A "moral perspective"? Seemed more like a "this girl is hot and likes me so I'm going to go along with the option that makes her not a murderess" perspective. Or did I miss something?

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

A "moral perspective"? Seemed more like a "this girl is hot and likes me so I'm going to go along with the option that makes her not a murderess" perspective. Or did I miss something?

There is ambiguity for a reason. Had Tsukimori been directly responsible for the death of her parents and actually murdered them herself, her fate would have been sealed from a narrative standpoint and Nonomiya would have no choice to make. Their relationship ends there whether he wishes it or not.

With her being less than even an accomplice but more than just an innocent bystander, she is neither completely "pure" nor "tainted". Tsukimori like any other real love interest is still just as appealing but at the same time does have some unwanted baggage that keeps her from being perfect, leaving you the choice of whether you want to deal with it to be with her in the end.

In my opinion, multi-faceted shades of grey are what make any romance complete.

[Okashira]

Originally Posted by LeoXiao

A "moral perspective"? Seemed more like a "this girl is hot and likes me so I'm going to go along with the option that makes her not a murderess" perspective. Or did I miss something?

What I meant is that empirical evidence wasn't used, the characters where only judged based on motive / behavior / alibi, judged only by "feelings", thus "moral". Personally I think she did it, and neither of the parents was an accident nor suicide.

Oh, and the first thing I thought about Gekkou was.

[LeoXiao]

Not denying the romance, which was well-done, just the "moral" parts. Though I guess there could be some of that if you do some extrapolation...

I have no concrete idea as to whether or not she did it because already I'm forgetting what details of the case I did understand and never quite understood the logic (or read carefully enough) to make an informed judgement to begin with. That being said, I think you're right and that it isn't the point of the story whether or not she did it.

It works better from a "romantic happy ending" perspective if she was simply a negligent bystander who didn't do what she was supposed to, since it means she's normal and thus won't be doing things like killing off the MC after the end of the story "just because she feels like it". I think that it also makes more sense from the POV of her character that she be a bystander, since if her end goal was to attract Nonomiya's attention, she did not have to orchestrate murder to do it; as she said in the conversation about killing, it would be senseless and she's not set up by the author to be a senseless person.