Owari no Chronicle

[saya_leviathan]

Owari no Chronicle (The Ending Chronicle)

Honestly, I really want to know what's the story behind this. It's a light novel written by Minoru Kawakami and it's illustrated by Satoyasu. Actually, there is NO English translation of this. But I've heard that there's a drama CD version of it. And so far, no manga and anime version of it yet.

From what I was able to understand from the Japanese wikipedia article through Google translate, it's somewhat about intersecting alternate universes where history and physical laws are different, and the ability of characters to manipulate reality based on where they are from.

So, can anyone, who have ever read the novels or knew about it, tell me and some other concern people who like know what the story (or the synopsis) is all about and something about the characters?

BTW, I found a MAD of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-EugKGmWW0

And I found some pics

Spoiler for pics:

[Kunagisa]

Hrm ... where to begin, there are certain things you must know before we even start the novel

This author is famous for his extremely long work. He created his own world at various stages:

FORTH
AHEAD
EDGE
GENESIS
OBSTACLE
CITY

FORTH is the world at its base stage in a nutshell; the current reality world. AHEAD is the period that this specific series talks about; the world's technology has began to develop. EDGE is the period that mankind could start going into space from the advance technology base on a new fuel found in the AHEAD period. GENESIS is the stage the world ends; technology developed from the FORTH period is no longer used as the world is dominated by technologies developed from the AHEAD period. OBSTACLE period is when the world rebuilds and destroys itself; in essence, the world is similar to all the other period because it is like a recurring cycle. CITY age is the when all the technologies developed from the OBSTACLE come together; man kind has came close to the brink of extinction several times.

As I've mentioned, this series in discussion takes place during the AHEAD period. On average, each chapter volume is over 400 pages; when first published, it broke the page record for light novels back then. The series is divided into 7 arcs, and two volumes for each arc. The last arc's volume had broken over 1,000 pages (he still holds the record I believe when writing the series for the GENESIS stage, which is on-going, at 1,153 pages).

For the plot,

Spoiler for minor spoiler:

60 years before World War II, mankind found ten alternate worlds that exist but with different other physical laws. The force that supports these alternate worlds is called Concept. At the same time, mankind also discovered that all these alternate worlds are about to collide and the ones without the most amount of Concept will be annihilated.

To survive, a world call Low-G, which has no Positive Concepts of its own, started the Concept War to try to secure the most amount of Concepts. It took all the other worlds', called Gs, positive concepts and destroyed them all. All that remains is Low-G.

Now 60 years later, which is the present, Low-G is facing destruction because of its Negative Concepts are rapidly expanding. To resolve this, Low-G needs Positive Concepts from all the other alternate worlds. UCAT, the team that destroyed the alternate worlds 60 years ago formed the Team Leviathan (全竜交渉部隊/チームレヴァイアサン) to begin negotiation with the survivors from all the other worlds.

Mikoto Sayama is the protagonist of the story. After his grandpa, who was a key figure in the Concept War and in the negotiation team, passed away, IAI, UCAT's mother branch in Japan, explained everything to Mikoto and had him take over the negotiation seat.

Carrying the phrase 佐山の姓は悪役を任ずる (which roughly translates to "The family name Sayama is villain itself" / if someone has a better translation, help me out here) and all the hatred, young Mikoto begins his negotiation (全竜交渉/レヴァイアサンロード, which I do not know if translate to Leviathan Road or Load) with the other worlds.

I don't think I can do the characters since there are way too many ... if someone want to take over that that'll be great ...

PS: Everyone feel free to correct me for any mistakes, I do not believe my translation to be 100% accurate.
PPS: Now, I want to read this in English ... someone should translate this =(

[saya_leviathan]

Here are some pics of the characters (courtesy of danbooru)

Sayama Mikoto

Spoiler for pic:

Shinjou Sadagiru

Spoiler for pic:

Kazami Chisato and Izumo Kaku

Spoiler for pic:

Plus, I found an image album.
http://www.voltagenation.com/ahead/

@stuopidget: thanks for the plot since you tried your best

[Von Himmel]

Wow..it's been a while since I've heard of this. I'm trying to find some info about this thing, but ends up disappointed because it's a novel and I can't read it at that moment (I can't read it until now either >_>; orz)

I began to search for this because I've seen someone in here before that used one of the character from this novel as his avatar....but I forgot his/her username I think he used sf for the avatar...now where did I save his avatar picture in my folder >_>;

Oh, here it is :

I think she was called sf (?) I found this picture rather beautiful eventhough it's only a simple avatar. Thus, making it one of my favourite avatar pictures in my collection ;_; (I save some avatar picture that I found intresting in my folder)

From what I was able to understand from the Japanese wikipedia article through Google translate, it's somewhat about intersecting alternate universes where history and physical laws are different, and the ability of characters to manipulate reality based on where they are from.

wait, wha-? I tried to search some info about it, but I just remembered that I never went into looking about this novel story lol. Had just found out that it's a novel, and searching for the characters....I never bothered to translate the japanese wiki to know about the story during that time The story looks very intresting.....but manipulating reality based on where they are from ? Guess the world where all the people from different universe gathered must be one messed up world, huh ?

[Xion Valkyrie]

For some reason the background/story and the art don't seem to match very well. When I read the synopsis stuopidget posted I was pretty intrigued, but I was more expecting something with a more realistic looking art style, with I dunno, Space Marines or something.

[Kunagisa]

I decided to revisit this out of a whim and now I think I am pretty addicted to this even thoug I've only finished Book 1.

The series is a bit different in the direction than I anticipated but the characters are still charming, if I'm not cramming a whole year worth of orgo in six weeks I probably would've just read this day in and day out. Wish there's an English version somewhere (the one at jcafe's with ATLAS is pretty weird) as reading the Taiwan version make me unable to memorize the character's name well. Kawakami's just writes really awesome characters.

[Morisato]

Is this in anyway related to Horizon besides authors?

[Marcus H.]

It serves as a prequel to Horizon, and Horizon also has numerous concepts derived from Chronicle.
For example, why Earth ended up inhospitable in the future, and why automatons have gravity control powers.

[Zavie]

May anyone enlighten me about OBSTACLE and CITY phrase, please? I kinda get it until the GENESIS, the rest was just some guesswork, so I would like some clarification about how they arrive at OBSTACLE period and how they move from OBSTACLE to CITY?

[Cosmic Eagle]

Shinjou....her situation is similar to Horizon/P-01s yes?

Why does UCAT seem so unknown....most people know IAI but not UCAT...

[darkalpha]

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.

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:

==================
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...

==================
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.

[CrazyPerson]

Thanks for posting that summary. I've been drawn into Horizon's world by the anime and was not adverse to seeing the related series. Having no Japanese skills means a reliance on heroes like you and Sushi-y to translate.

If I remember correctly from somewhere, each of these 10 worlds holds a concept that eventually becomes commonplace in the Genesis era of Horizon. I guess the conclusions to be drawn is that either maybe all the worlds get combined into one or Low-G is Horizon's world far into the future and the 10 concepts are expressed there. It does suggest that the annihilation of the world gets postponed until the Genesis era.

Also interesting to see that the IAI survives far into the future as Izumo. Hell, they remain specialized in aerial technologies.

[Von Himmel]

Seems like js06 started working on this project:
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/in...i_no_Chronicle

[Suzuku]

Booooo I want him to work on Horizon. Hopefully he'll hop on that after this.

[Cosmic Eagle]

But OnC > Horizon

[Drkz]

Character design wise they don't look as intriguing as Horizon.

[alviam099]

I've looked at the illustrations. The nipples are actually seen, the artist didn't bother hiding it, with those white thingy or smoke or whatever.

Will some hot sex happen here?

[mike211]

js06 is translating this and Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou at the same time and it getting done really fast.

Thank js06 for the new chps 1-A c.5.

[FlavoryFantasy]

'poison' ---> 'amazing poison' ---> 'container for amazing poison' --> Ooshiro crying about last minute plan change. Sayama is truly a magnificent bastard, and that's just using some of 1st Gear's concepts/powers.
Though that poison was amazing indeed, melting the knight's shield... Sf was also pretty damn awesome so far. Definitely looking forward though to Shinjou's development considering how cool she came across in the prologue for me.

As expected, 1st Gear's concept, concept space, and conceptual text was interesting to read. The Divine States-World Interaction Theory was also some nice info too. Can't wait to read more of the other Gear's and their concepts.
To think this is only in the 1st half of vol 1. My body is not ready at all for the rest of the journey...and if what I've heard is true, the last books are going to be mind blowing.

[Xellos-_^]

Sf reminds me of Kazuno. Awesome maid is Awesome.

As they watched her, Sf opened the cooler and stuck her left hand inside. The formation of enemies prepared themselves as the sound of ice and water came from the cooler.
However, Sf was not looking at them. She was crouched down and looking toward Sayama.
“Sayama-sama, take this. It is a new product that is perfect for breaks between exercise.”
She handed him a plastic sports drink bottle. He took it and she bowed before sticking her left hand in the cooler.
“The rest of you can have this,” she said as she pulled out a black, glittering submachine gun.
She rotated around, firing all the while.

correction, it is Kazuno+Roberta

She raised the gun.
“Steel for his bones, chains for his flesh, oil for his blood, determination for his heart, and…”
She took a breath.
“Selflessness for his tears.”
As she spoke, Sf squeezed the trigger while aiming at the line of enemies.

And the Gar of Archer...The Ultimate Maid