Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

So this is a light novel that's been on my "To Read" list for quite some time, but since my backlog is so huge, I couldn't get to it until today. Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア) is a light novel someone on /jp/ recommended to me a long time ago. Since I just started reading today, I'm not too far into the series. I read about half of the first novel so far, and I have to say that it is quite a nice read. Can't say too much about it since I'm not that far in, but I just felt like talking about it a bit.

The name of the novel's name translates to something like Void box and The Zeroth Maria. I'm going to pick up a physical copy of it sometime next week, I think, so no images of the pages right now aside from those pre-scanned by Baka-tsuki. Basically, the first novel is about these two students that are going through endless repetitions of the same two days over and over. Aya Otonashi and Kazuki Hoshino are pretty much the only two that are aware of the repetitions. Well, Otonashi is, while Hoshino doesn't know until something sparks his memory of the previous worlds. The novel starts off showing a very brief scene of the first loop, just the scene where Otonashi introduces herself to the class, then skips to the 23rd, showing the same part, and skips several times so that the reader can see how much of a toll the repetitions are taking on her by the 1050th loop. From there, the story skips back and forth between loops, labeling them so you can better keep track of the timeline. Showing things a bit out of order does have a rather nice effect, and does eventually lead to some nice plot twists.

９９９９回目

Otonashi is trying to get to the bottom of everything. She wants to find the person responsible for creating this infinite loop, and she wants to put an end to it. I don't want to say too much, partly because I'd rather not spoil, and partially because I'm still only halfway done with the first volume, but it does suck you in. It also separates the different repetitions nicely, so it's easy to pick up and read one section, then put it down for a bit to continue later. May write an actual review for it when I finish, right now this post is more to just introduce it to anyone that may be looking for new reading material.

~ Kirari ミ★