Dec 22, 2021
Hi. I probably have grammer errors. But I'm really tired and I don't feel like fixing it. Hopefully it's still legible.
Hastune Miku Future Delivery is a story where Asumi is found my Asimov, a delivery robot, and asks them to 'deliver her' to a person in her memories (Hatsune Miku).
Art 8/10: The art isn't anything groundbreaking, and the eyes on the faces were jarring for me at first. However, the artstyle grew on me as the characters were still expressive, consistent, and expressed the story I felt they were trying to tell well.
Characters 6/10: There are a few characters. Two main ones, one
...
villain (kind of?), and like 9 one-off/side characters.
Main: The two develop a relationship throughout the journey in a believably fashion. The two themselves also change throughout it individually. The robot comes to appreciate the living in the present supposed to the past, and Asumi becomes more active supposed to passive. Both of them have problems involving their past. (This is stated in the first scene) Asumi doesn't know hers, and Asimov is bound to theirs.
Throughout the story I can believe how they change through the events that happen. I felt a bit jarred by how far they were willing to go for each other, however, it actually makes sense if one considers how much they had gone through.
Their motivations were simple and made sense and fit with their characters.
This is where I'm going to talk about a con now. I feel like one of the things I look for in a character isn't just development (although that is a big part of it) is the connection to the characters. While I got invested into the robot right away with how they were shown to be very determined, I'll be honest and say the reason I kept going was because Miku. I was waiting to find Miku.
Throughout the story, I found it to feel more like I was going on a ride with them and cared for that and to see their goals accomplished. This is a start, but my main issue is that the characters didn’t have fun interactions. There were some, but most were just the characters spouting plot important ideas at each other. Other than the plot important ones, they were a lot of wholesome interactions. While these wholesome interactions are really nice, they’re not the fun I’m referring to. It’s very non humorous, and makes the characters feel a bit stilted.
This kinda falls under enjoyment, but its enjoyment from character interactions. It’s not that the characters don’t feel like they mesh, it’s that the characters just don’t have fun interactions. This is probably why the development of their relationship felt strange. It’s not that the basis wasn’t there, it’s that I didn’t feel like that mattered. While they pushed themselves farther for each other, they didn’t bounce off each other or just interact with each other in any more capacity than the plot required.
While I’m biased, fun character interactions tend to be some of my favorite parts of a story. So without it, the story starts to feel almost dull. Personally, I think it would have been better for the characters to play off each other of quip with each other more and more as the story progressed. It could’ve made it feel like they were growing more accustomed to each other and sell me on the relationship more.
Side: There’s a lot of side characters, as the story follows a mostly episodic plot of trying to find the Hatsune Miku Asumi remembers. They run into a lot of people that look like Hatsune Miku but aren’t the one she’s looking for. These characters are one-offs, and all have their own plot that gets resolved. I definitely have my favorites of the plot lines, but they all revolve around the character(s) they’re centered around. They usually tell a small moral or fit into a small lesson, but overall they’re sad stories with a wholesome ending. They work and there isn’t much to say here.
Villain(?): There is someone who appears later and takes the role closest to a villain in the story. However, this question mark is because while they do cause a major beat in the plot that leads to the particular ending of the story, their isn’t much for their character. I think their personality is supposed to be towards the bland side for plot related reasons, but it just serves to make the character feel dull and uninteresting.
They even get a backstory (kind of) and it manages to… change nothing about the character, just establish who they are. Which is good, since that was a mystery, I appreciate being answered, however, all I can say about them is that I don’t remember if they even have a name, they oppose our main character, and they wear a cloak.
The one-off characters are more compelling than this character. This is an issue when they appear during most of the second half and cause major events. I don’t need anything more complex for this character, I just wish they at least had better dialogue that fleshed out their character in that way. They don’t need to act any differently, the character could’ve just been even more dismissive of others. It feels like the author wants to show that they’re displeased when they talk about certain plot ideas, however, I don’t get that since it’s not explained ever. I think my main issue with this character is that they have potential to be very interesting, but end up feeling boring and stilted.
Overall, my issue comes back to the dialogue I was talking about. It tends to be merely plot important ideas, and nothing more than that. It majorly lacks fun character interactions.
Enjoymet 8/10: I know I said that it severely lacked fun character interactions, but the wholeness of a lot of the plotlines made me end up enjoying the story even in spite of that. The stories always ended in a heartwarming way.
The other thing I have to say is more plot related. I really appreciated how at the end the whole memory mystery of the Asumi was solved in a way that made sense. I was worried at first that it was going to be tied up in a manner that made no sense since, but my worries were unfounded, so I appreciated that a lot.
Story 9/10: Yeah, I’m probably being too generous with this. It wasn’t something too amazing, but I felt that it was pretty good. As this was a plot drive story, as I’ve mentioned, I appreciated how the different plot threads were tied and conclusions were given to stories. The beginning is a good introduction, and the end is (again) mostly wholesome, but more bittersweet this time.
Spoilers for this next part
I’m going to talk about the theming. I feel like with the main characters name being given to her by Asimov and them literally stating it means ‘to look to the future’, this is a primarily theme. I’m inclined to agree. The story ends with, after Asimov repeatedly taking hits to save Asumi, the old tech their built from can’t be found and after one more hit they essentially die. Asumi, who is in a blackhole tech area to travel to the past, asks if dreams travel, and this is after Asimov gave a speech about living in the present, Asumi travels to the past after learning that she’ll keep her dreams.
Listen, I like the moral of looking to the future. But I have trouble believing that this is the moral when the conclusion is our main character traveling to the past. This sounds like a critique, that’s because it is, but this story is definitely one of those ‘the journey’ supposed to ‘the conclusion’, so it doesn’t annoy me as much. (also Asumi in a delivery service uniform and repeating Asimov motto at the beginning is extremely wholesome.)
Now, I’m hear to say that I found a different moral pretty explicitly. The idea that everyone is worth something, no matter what or who they are. This is supported by Asumi being someone artificially created with fake memories. While her choosing to move on from these fake memories to the future fits with the other theme, she pushes through how she’s supposedly a ‘defect’ for having this funny thing called ‘emotions’. Asimov also follows this, as they are also a robot.
Along these lines, it also feeds into the idea that being ones own individual self, living in the moment, are important ideals.
Overall (8/10): Do these numbers add up?
No.
But hey that’s how I feel about it. I think it was fun. It has issues, but, in conclusion, it is a wholesome experience worth reading, in my opinion.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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