First I want to say I quite enjoyed this series.
To put it plainly, I’m not really an avid fan of the “youth” concept in LNs. I have not read Toradora, Seishun Buta, Oregiaru etc. Yowa-chara is something I read by chance. The first volume took me around 3-4 days to finish while commuting. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so I immediately borrowed a VPN and bought volume 2 and 3 on Bookwalker (all eBook version of the series is region blocked). This time it took also around four days to finish both volumes.
The two biggest impression upon completion are “positive energy is essential to life” and avoid “missed opportunities”.
Chance encounters are some of the most interesting experiences, and for our protagonist, the heroine is one such person who is able to change his outlook in life. Using gamer terminologies to convince Tomozaki, Hinami claim that she is the ultimate “guidebook” that can help Tomozaki “beat the game of life.” And the story begins with such unlikely engagement! We can call this luck or bullshit, but randomness give rise to life to begin with! To me, my life also became non-monotonous because my effort to seize the difference chances that came in my way. In a way, this is exactly the same as Tomozaki’s realization that Hinami is the one who brought color to his life. The feeling of familiarity is certainly quite welcome.
Tomozaki is pretty garbage at the beginning, but to quote Mizusawa, he is an intelligent idiot. Of course, Tomozaki is a “weak” character, but surprisingly he doesn’t require much guidance. He is able to complete most of the tasks assigned by Hinami albeit with quite a bit of effort. To me, those tasks are pretty much normal human behaviors, so the fact Tomozaki can do them isn’t worth praises; however, his attitude since the beginning has been non-irritating, so reading his struggle has been quite rewarding in terms of entertainment. In turn, rather than calling Hinami Tomozaki’s guide, I feel like she’s more like his mother. Other online reviewers lamented that they wish they read this back in high school, and I’m inclined to share this opinion. There are a bunch of tips that I feel are obvious but practical.
Rather than blaming the world for its shortcomings, gaining self-awareness and putting in more effort would allow oneself to see the world in a new perspective. Compare to escapist enjoyment often provided in other LNs, this is something I enjoy greatly.
There are many other things I want to say, but given the book is not translated, most would fall on deaf ears. I do want to mention that I like the three heroines so far.
Hinami’s literal perfection.
Nanami’s positivity.
Kikuchi’s angelic presence.
But there can only be one for our protagonist, personally I’m rooting for Hinami. If Tomozaki can finally mature enough to write his own guidebook to life, he can certain “beat” Hinami at her home field and win her heart, which would be the perfect scenario at the end. BUT, I’m quite okay with whatever the outcome. People who know me would definitely agree that my life is not filled with happiness at the moment, but this book simply reminded me that I am leading a very fulfilling life.
This book’s sale is average, the chance of anime adaptation is also low, but I still hope it can continue on for another 5-6 volumes. As a debuting writer, I feel this story is quite polished already. The story play around the concept of “game”, “player”, and “character”. The presentation feels a bit too farfetched at points, but definitely doesn’t detract from the read. The absolute best part for me are the chapter titles, which are both thematic and synoptic.
I don’t read much, but this is definitely the most “light novel”-ish LN I’ve read in recent years.
PS: 人生は神ゲー！
PPS: おにただ！！
PPPS:
Thanks for reading if you got this far!