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Novel Review No.2
Gen Urobuchi's "Fate/Zero"

"The Holy Grail War is a competition that decides the ownership of the Holy Grail through intense battle royale. While there have been many conflicts over supposed Holy Grails in the past, this term refers to those specifically based around Masters summoning Servants and meeting in battle until only one pair is left to claim the Holy Grail..."

This is how one would describe the entire premise of each of the storylines within the Fate franchise. In addition to its rich setting despite that there are anything else in the Fate's world that was missing, such as more of the so-called the ... 'Holy Church', and of the so-called the 'Magic Association', which are quite interesting themselves, despite the Fate series are rather focused on the coverage of respective Holy Grail Wars, each of its storyline played with creating backstories of the Servants as well as their interactions with the other characters, especially the back-and-forth interactions between a certain Servant and his/her Master(s).

For those who do not have a clue about some terminologies involving the Holy Grail War of the Fate franchise, Masters are titles given to certain individuals, usually a magus, who had been chosen to formally participate the Holy Grail War by obtaining Command Seals through the Holy Grail itself and forming a contract with a certain Servant.

On the other hand, Servants are Heroic Spirits (Heroes who achieved great deeds and were worshipped after death through spreading those deeds) summoned by the Holy Grail for the purpose of competing under Masters. Servants are classified into one of the seven standard classes namely Saber (Knight of the Sword), Lancer (Knight of the Lance), Archer (Knight of the Bow), Rider (Mounted Soldier), Caster (Magus), Assassin (Silent Killer) and Berserker (Mad Warrior). Each one of these heroes wield skills and armaments made from humanity's illusion called the Noble Phantasms.

That being said, each of the storyline can be quite difficult to fully understand if one did not know the information about the backstory of a certain Servant although just like what I had said, some stories can be altered in a way it will looked interesting for the Servant and Master interactions. This is mainly due to that history itself is quite vague to be considered real, even if there are significant evidences that contributed towards a certain field of interest, like Leonardo da Vinci (a female Caster Servant in a certain game called "Fate/Grand Order") and his well-known painting, the Mona Lisa, towards art, especially those that had happened before the early 19th century, where photography is not that apparent until that point. This is especially true for any mythological storyline involving certain characters like the Arthurian Legend, the Greek mythology, the Irish mythology, etc. As for me, a well-thought-out usage of said storylines being incorporate into another storyline to create extended purpose to the overall narration made immersion towards that storyline more effective to me as a reader, rather than putting such references quite literally without any creative change/through namedropping to serve a little purpose that can either benefit a little or harm a lot to the overall narration of such storyline.

Of course, it can be a hard task to make the reader to remember those historical/mythological references while reading that kind of storyline, but the task can be rewarding since it will felt that those historical/mythological figures are truly 'alive' on that storyline rather than being utilized for some limited purposes. Of course, regardless of criticism and of praise about many fictional stories with or without these mythological/historical allusions, the most important aim of these books/movies/TV series is to be read and appreciated by its target audiences (but mostly to sell a lot of these books and to be recognized. Never a bad thing though).

Back in the Holy Grail War storylines of the Fate franchise, the premise itself is an interesting take for a good battle royale concept. After all, every participant in each war is chosen to have his/her wish able to be granted by the magically omnipotent chalice depending on how it interests them. Each of the storylines varied in some concepts from one another such as the number of participants joining (or rather, the required number of Heroic Spirits to be utilized in order to perform its actual purpose) but the end concept still remained the same. Like what I had already said, this kind of set-up is really basic as it was a competition after all just to win a certain prize, similar to those concept seen in Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" trilogy and in George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series (or simply put, the well-known "Game of Thrones" TV series), both of which are plot-driven works regardless of the development of their characters. Because of this concept, such storylines will work effectively better as plot-driven works rather than as a character-driven ones. It does not mean that one particular storyline cannot be considered a character-driven one especially with the "Fate/stay night" visual novel being a clear character-driven story that focused more on the main protagonist's growth throughout it rather than the war itself, which means it leaves the Fifth Holy Grail War hanging without him fighting someone.

Regarding this concept played in the Holy Grail War, this entire battle royale is seriously flawed. As the Grail required the energy of all seven Servants to help activate the Great Grail and open a hole to Akasha, it would mean that all Servants includ`ing the winning Servant would have to be killed, and since the Grail can only be held by Servant, activating the Greater Grail, let alone retrieving the Holy Grail, cannot be achieved, as Masters are incapable of doing so without a Servant. This flaw made the Grail capable of only granting wishes to Masters and Servants.

Because of this, the storylines varied in perspectives to be focused on regardless of success, mainly because the aims of the authors for their own works completely differ from one another.

Perhaps, the one storyline that truly stood out among those works in terms of utilizing this concept in a most convincing way in my opinion would be "Fate/Zero", which is going to be the light novel to be focused by this review. That is, provided that Rhyogo Narita's "Fate/strange fake", which also has yet another interesting take for the Holy Grail War storyline with some of the rules being altered yet again (just like "Fate/Apocrypha") and yet the Grail War itself continued despite the changes, and is currently published as a light novel under the Dengeki Bunko label.

"Fate/Zero" is a series of light novels made by Gen Urobuchi (with the cooperation of Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi) which focused on the events of the Fourth Fuyuki Holy Grail War from the perspectives of different participants of the said war. As anyone who is aware of this series will tell that this event took place ten years prior to the Fifth Fuyuki Holy Grail War, which involved the events that took place in Fate/stay night.

As a side note about my thought about the author, Gen Urobuchi had been the only writer that had been involved in anime industry, I am still completely aware of its name until now through his works "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", this light novel series and "Psycho-Pass", along with the aformentioned Rhyogo Narita ("Baccano!" and "Durarara!"), Kinoko Nasu ("Kara no Kyoukai", "Tsukihime" and "Fate/stay night") Chiaki J. Konaka ("Digimon Tamers" and "Serial Experiments Lain"), Naoki Urasawa ("Monster" and the manga-only "20th Century Boys"), Osamu Tezuka ("Astro Boy" and "Kimba The White Lion"), Akira Toriyama ("Dragon Ball" series) and quite surprisingly, Reki Kawahara ("Sword Art Online" and "Accel World")... that is, without the aid of any search engine.

As such, this series served as the prequel to "Fate/stay night". This means that the conclusion of the Fourth Holy Grail War is already determined through the appearances of some of them in the next Holy Grail War (with one exception, as that character made an exclusive appearance only in the "Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (TV)") and the assumption that none of the seven chosen Master-Servant pairs will actually succeed in this event. Because of this, the story was written by the author in a manner that it IS clearly established as a prequel for a good reason.

That reason in itself is that Urobuchi's aim towards "Fate/Zero" is not to provide a complete closure until the storyline of its sequel "Fate/stay night" happened, despite that these works were done by two authors that have distinct writing styles. Granted, Kinoko Nasu is the one who gave Gen Urobuchi the task of creating the prequel story and this prequel can actually standalone on its own with some of the remaining significant events being invoked in its sequel. After all, "Fate/stay night" gives the proper conclusion to the consequences of its prequel. This means "Fate/Zero" was given the act to provide the missing puzzle pieces for the entirety of this Fate storyline ("Fate/Zero" and "Fate/stay night"), particularly on the backstory of Shirou Emiya's adopted father (Kiritsugu Emiya) and his ideals as a hero being transferred to his son (given a slight focus of the Unlimited Blade Works route with regards to Shirou's ideals); on the backstory of the Fate version of Arthurian legend (one of the main focuses of the Fate route); and on the backstory of the familial conflicts between the Three Families of the Beginning, specifically on the Tohsaka family and the Makiri/Matou family with regards to Rin Tohsaka and Sakura Matou and on the relationship between Illyasviel von Einzbern of the Einzbern family and Shirou Emiya (two of the main focuses of the Heaven's Feel route).

That being said, for those who will be reading this light novel or who will be watching its TV adaptation in the future if you are still reading this review, it would be advisable to read/watch the entirety of "Fate/stay night" (the visual novel) first it before going to "Fate/Zero" to provide the maximum understanding of this Fate storyline (while the other information about the world of Nasuverse can be provided through its other works like "Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners" and "Tsukihime").

One certain question is raised here: What makes "Fate/Zero" stand out among the other works within the Fate franchise despite that it suffered on its status as a prequel (which already provided a foregone conclusion even before the story began) like, as always, George Lucas' "Star Wars" prequel trilogy (The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith) to its sequels, its original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi)?

The answer is that "Fate/Zero", which is clearly a plot-driven story, took more focus on the journey (interactions among the characters) rather than on the destination (characters attaining the goal), answering the mystery behind that destination given in "Fate/stay night", by providing the readers about the major events of the Fourth Holy Grail War.

Said events include presenting all of the fight sequences among almost all of the participating members of the battle royale, with all of them can be described as either mature and strategic (every battle that had happened on the first two volumes of the series but one from the second volume); or glorious, tragic, enthralling or beautiful (every battle on the last two volumes of the series and that one battle I excluded beforehand [since it is a completely instant annihilation to the point that the author doesn't even bother describing it] fits well on either one of the three or even all four of them) on each one of them.

However, strangely enough for a thriller (like Koushun Takami's "Battle Royale" novel), there is really only one battle that can really be described as intense and that would be the battle between two certain Masters on the fourth and final volume of the series. Also, strangely enough for a thriller and action story, the action is not as much as most other action stories out there, but when it does, it really does well given the descriptions I could tell from each one of them. Because of this, none of those battles are considered pointless given all of the circumstances played for each one of the characters on those battles, as well as their abilities each one uses. The reason for this is that each of the fights has a particular theme that played by the participants' acts such as chivalry, pride, mystery, showmanship, entertainment, etc. This is all dependent to the point of view of each of the characters in the story. Of course, that one fight I considered to be intense happened to have a particular theme of finding answers. After all, these two people had been wondering on knowing the reason about one another's participation in the Holy Grail War as Masters.

Perhaps, to compensate for the lack of sheer number of fights (though all of the fights are rather significant to each of their own), some of the other segments of the series were given to focus on forming temporary alliances, well-planned/decisive strategies, acts of betrayal and deception, clash of ideals and glorious/crippling/meaningful deaths among all almost of the participants of the war (or even those who do not as well). This is expected for a light novel (treated as a novella among Western audience) that also aimed towards older audience aside from the Fate franchise fans, despite that some people claimed light novels are supposed to be targeted towards young adult demographic (personally, light novels can be just as worthy to read as other books in my opinion. I even thought that some light novels like this book and Isuna Hazekura's "Spice and Wolf" are targeted towards older audience. Like someone in Goodreads said a year ago, "light novels are like normal novels but with less salt and trans-fat."). After all, each of the Masters (well, almost every one of them), who had received the Command Seals from the Holy Grail because of their wishes/reasons, visible or hidden in their hearts, had appeared to win the war for those reasons.
As an extra though, it is very notable that even that the 'Skills' that the Servants used also have an effect on them in the plot, like Saber's Riding, Assassin's Presence Concealment, Archer's Independent Action, Caster's Mental Pollution and Rider's Divinity. These terminologies cannot be much of a problem if one is well-versed to the mechanics of the Holy Grail War (including the statistics of the Servant which is very dependent to the Master each one served, specifically Luck). Otherwise, these terminologies are treated as what they literally meant by those who do not, which can be a bit troublesome if one condsidered the Riding skills that both Saber and Rider have.

It is easily not as simple as that though, given Gen Urobuchi's storytelling capabilities (being known for his dark style, nihilistic themes and tragic plot twists) and aims for this series. And because of those storytelling capabilities, he made "Fate/Zero" a (Greek) tragedy storyline... and an interestingly impressive one at that.

As one will look at "Fate/Zero"'s entire cast, the characters, especially all of the participants in the Holy Grail War including their assistants (Irisviel von Einzbern and Hisau Maiya for Kiritsugu Emiya (Master of Saber) and Saber's team and Sola-Ui Nuada-re Sophia-Ri for Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald (Master of Lancer) and Lancer's team), have given well-defined and complex personalities, ideals, specified backstories (though the Servants' backstories will be completely understandable if one is aware of their histories such as the information about their Noble Phantasms [and the reality behind most of the extent of the name of each of the Noble Phantasms such as Saber's The Everdistant Utopia, Avalon/Avalon: The Everdistant Utopia and The Sword of Promised Victory, Excalibur/Excalibur: The Sword of Promised Victory), and most importantly, well-thought-out worldviews and flaws that are dependent on their actions they made in the story more than anything else.
Of course, on Urobuchi's part however, like most of his own works, the characters served more as physical embodiments of their ideals more than actual people. That being said, the focus of the story is on their interactions and not the characters themselves.

Also, while all of the actions the characters made were true to their personalities and ideologies and the fact that this series has an ensemble cast, the sacrifice of focus towards some of the other characters in favor of focusing more on some specific characters (especially in Kariya Matou (Master of Berserker) and Berserker's case in comparison to the other participants).

As a side note about the characters specifically some of the Servants like Rider/Iskandar and Saber/Arturia Pendragon, it is very notable that they give their thoughts that historic records are never meant to be one-hundred percent accurate, through their conversations with the ones closely associated to them. Also, in Saber's case alone, the implications of her character being a man instead of a woman to be a 'perfect ruler' (or a little girl, since in the Fate franchise, she does not age ever since she drew The Sword in the Stone/Caliburn) opened up the social issues concerning the female populace and the political issues concerning female leaders (which are some of the focal points in the Fate route of "Fate/stay night") as well as the questions about the true meaning of kingship through the so-called the "Holy Grail Dialogue" between three certain Servants (this entire conversation does really not have any closure until the Fate route of "Fate/stay night"). Upon reflecting their personalities (even those Servants that I haven't mentioned here) with what they have been depicted by certain people through historic/mythological records through history books and myths, I always felt that these characters seemed to be 'living' (i.e. the physical embodiments of certain historical/mythological figures) as they made conversations with others and told them their experiences in the past as if they are aware of it.

How did these characters make to be connected to the story being a Greek tragedy?

To simply put, "Fate/Zero" is one of the books (or even one of the animated series/TV shows) that I thought that have follow the structure of an ideal tragedy storyline or an ideal tragic plot that Aristotle proposed through his work Poetics.

In this case, "Fate/Zero" is filled with an all-grey morality where neither of the participants is considered to be totally good or completely evil , with the Masters either being in the Holy Grail War for their arguably selfish reasons (Waver Velvet (Master of Rider) wanted recognition from others, Tokiomi Tohsaka (Master of Archer/Gilgamesh) wished to get to the Root for his family, Kayneth also wanted recognition through his pride as a Magus of a well-known family, and Kirei Kotomine (Master of Assassin/Hassan-i-Sabbah) sought to know the answers about the reason why one without a central purpose in his life was given a chance to win the Holy Grail War, granted he does not have a wish to begin with), have genuinely good intentions but will do incredibly questionable actions in order to attain their goals (Kiritsugu has a wish to save the world through the complete elimination of conflicts and Kariya wanted to save a certain daughter of a woman whom he has an unrequited love with) or are plain evil (Ryuunosuke Uryuu (Master of Caster/Gilles de Rais), for being cheerful and openhearted, wanted to have fun by doing his current hobby (murder)).

All of the seven Masters summoned their Servants, regardless of the ways, in order to formally begin the Fourth Holy Grail War. More often than not, their Servants mirrored the personalities of their Masters either in a positive way (Ryuunosuke and Caster (their own personalities), Kariya and Berserker (their backstories regarding certain specific loved ones) and Kirei and Assassin (their capabilities and some of their personalities)) or in a negative way (Kiritsugu and Saber (someone who followed the codes of chivalry and honor [the latter] versus someone who doesn't have one [the former]), Kayneth and Lancer (chivalry against pride as well as an extent to Lancer's fate because of Sola-Ui), Waver and Rider (initially someone seeking recognition against someone wanting respect) and Tokiomi and Archer (someone who wanted to own something he sought as a Magus against someone who claimed that he owned everything in this world including the one Tokiomi seeks).

Also, most of them had their own ideals and wishes also played at stake on the fights in the Holy Grail War (since only one of the seven pairs should win this event no matter what, despite of whether they are aware of the Holy Grail's actual purpose). This is the reason each of the fights (and a certain dialogue) played a specified theme. For instance, Saber and Lancer's battles played the theme of chivalry on each of their exchange of blows and Kariya and Tokiomi's battle played the theme of familial conflicts because of the misunderstanding between one another.

Because of this, the Fourth Holy Grail War is not just a clash of swords but also a clash of ideals. And because of the existence of the clash of ideals all throughout the fights, conversations and dialogues, this war had create multiple tragic pay-offs among certain characters who may inevitably die in either a good way or a bad one and who may have ideals being either remained in-tact or got crumbled because of the realization of their actions. Among all of the characters though, the utilitarian Kiritsugu, being the main protagonist of the light novel and the adopted father of the future main protagonist Shirou Emiya in "Fate/stay night", is a special case since his actions was focusing more on his wish to attain a miracle to end all conflicts more than on his personality... and whatever happened throughout the story means a big deal to his life after all.

Most of all, the ending of this series (and the beginning of the sequel) fits perfectly to the story and the characters and the transition from this series to "Fate/stay night" does made complete sense considering its intention of not giving a complete closure for this Fate storyline. However, it does not mean that "Fate/Zero" is about attaining the sad ending like most of the non-Greek tragedy storylines do. After all, according to Aristotle, the aim of Greek tragedy is to arouse in them sensations of pity and fear, and to purge them of these emotions so that they leave the theater (story) purified, with a heightened understanding of the ways of gods and men. In this case, with all of the consequences that had happened in the Fourth Holy Grail War, the series had attained the aim of Greek tragedy through the actions of most of the surviving characters among the ensemble cast after the events, but most specifically, on the focus on the conversation at the end of the story between two characters which is already predicted through "Fate/stay night".

Of course, of all the positive things I give to this series, regarding its unique approach of a battle royale concept and the series being a formal Greek tragedy, even I am more focused on the storytelling method and overall writing over anything else when it comes to books, I can be bothered by Gen Urobuchi's writing style as some of the moments he described some of the things much longer than it needed to like weapons and armaments used by Kiritsugu as well as the motorcycle used by a certain Servant. Also, if I am not aware of Nasuverse concepts, I would have the difficulty to understand the terminologies used in the Holy Grail War specifically the Skills and the Noble Phantasms.

As for matters between this light novel and its anime adaptation done by ufotable, there are some differences that may change the interpretation of the events due to the lack of characterization done in the transition from the light novel to the animated series, such as Hisau Maiya's background and some of Sakura Matou's actions. Perhaps, the only one that made a major difference between the two would be that one event that focused on the one of the two daughters of Tokiomi Tohsaka, Rin Tohsaka and her acts of heroism (and realization) as their outcomes are hardly similar to one another.

I always thought there is a lot more that I wanted to say about this series such as expanding my thoughts about its unique approach of the battle royale concept (since the fights are notably not as intense as those on most other battle royale stories I had read/watched by far like the novel "Battle Royale" and the TV series "Future Diary") and my opinion about its status as a light novel that seemed to follow the formula of creating a Greek tragedy storyline. But I thought this might be enough to make an attempt to convince someone try reading the light novel (or watching its faithful anime adaptation) in order to understand the situation that not all light novels are just for young adults or that "Fate/Zero" is a worthy to read.

As of this point though about the matters of the Type-Moon company, I only hoped for the success of their future projects (anime adaptations of "Fate/Extra: Last Encore", "Fate/stay night: Heaven's Feel", "Fate/kaleid Prisma Illya 3rei", "Fate/Apocrypha" possibly, etc.). After all, I find their original source material to be at least good to read (except "Fate/Extra" since I personally haven't played it myself). But for now, I always find this series that got my full attention when it comes to the ideas of the Holy Grail War... and with that, here is my personal rating...

Four-and-three-fourths Holy Grails out of five (9.5/10)

(I wonder if ratings really matter at all honestly, although what I gave here is just what I thought about the series)

Novel Review No.1
Baka to Test to Shokanjuu/Fools and Tests and Summoned Beings

"The story centers around the protagonist named Akihisa Yoshii, the 'baka' of the title. His academy rigidly divides up the student body into classes based on the results of tests. The prodigies are in the A class with reclining seats complete with air conditioning, but Akihisa is in Class 2-F, the lowest rung of the school ladder which is furnished only with low, decrepit tables and worn-out straw tatami mats. A girl named Mizuki Himeji is actually one of the smartest girls in Akihisa's sophomore year, but she had a fever on test day ... and was pigeonholed into the Class 2-F. Besides Mizuki (whom Akihisa secretly adores), the Class 2-F also has Yuuji Sakamoto, the class president who has been Akihisa's friend and partner-in-crime since the freshman year.

The school happened to have developed experiments to summon fantasy creatures, and Akihisa decided to rally Class 2-F to take on the higher-tiered classes and to seize their perks. The Class 2-F used the summoned creatures in an all-out battle for school supremacy."

- Story Synopsis for "Baka to Test to Shokanjuu" Light Novel via kuzuryu's file.

As of this point, while my favorite genres in generally any medium are science fiction (in anime, there is Nitroplus'/Jukki Hanada's "Steins;Gate"), fantasy/supernatural (in anime, there is Yusuke Kishi's "Shinsekai yori/From The New World") and tragedy (in anime, there is Gen Urobuchi's "Fate/Zero"), I do enjoy reading/watching several romantic comedy series (especially those Japanese light novels, as well as their anime adaptations). Although I had become fully concerned on how much

In terms of those I had already read/watched, Some series stood out because of the focus on its compelling drama while retaining good comedic situations fitting to the personalities of its characters like ongoing Wataru Watari's "Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru./My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU" and Naoshi Arakawa's "Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso/Your Lie In April". Granted, these series fall under the genre of drama.

Some series stood out due to their focus on exploration of personalities of their characters through their backgrounds and interesting history outside of the usual acts of those characters like the light novel Nisio Isin's "Monogatari Series".

And then, there are some series that started on somewhat interesting premises only to be ended up becoming just as ordinary romantic comedy as it could be, where I can say their only aims to illicit laughter from the audience through entertaining stories and characters, just like any comedy storyline. Although it does not mean it is bad or something... Just in the middle of the road in the very long run...

...And as of this point, Kenji Inoue's "Baka to Test to Shokanjuu" is one of those series.

While "Baka to Test to Shokanjuu" is really an enjoyable series, the series did prove nothing about the premise other than achieving what the author aimed to happen which is never a bad thing though, but it does make the story excelling at something in it either way.

The series' initial premise is to show that intelligence is never a basis on defining a person's good aspects in terms of learning oneself. For that matter, from the outsider's perspective, in a school with multiple sections per year level, those students who are on the top sections will often be called the 'cream of the crop', being able to compete to certain contests focusing on subjects that aren't focused on either one among sports, music, art or livelihood programs, where students in the middle-to-low sections are the usual competitors for the most part (in this series, most of the sports-minded second year students of Fumizuki Academy joined Class 2-E). Of course, because of the Exam Summoning Battle system (or that one thing that made this series unique among the plethora of high-school setting light novels), students in the lower section classes (especially Class 2-F) can be able to combat those in the higher section classes (especially Class 2-A) for a chance to get the equipment of that class.

Except... it turned out that this is an excuse to create build-ups just for the sake of the series being a romantic comedy as time goes by (and the series will always subtly reminded us that this is a romantic comedy through its characters' actions and the story focused more on being character-driven instead of plot-driven with little development at all in terms of either of the characters or of their relationships with one another). It is quite disappointing since this is one of the first light novel series that I ever read in Baka-Tsuki website some time after watching its anime adaptations, along with "To Aru Majutsu no Index" (in the latter's case, I read all twenty-two volumes before the light novel had been published in English). Granted, I already have some Japanese novels and light novels in my bookshelves for novels that I had personally read since several years ago via delivery from certain relatives abroad like "The Woman in the Dunes", "The Doctor's Wife", "Battle Royale", "Spice and Wolf"(I finished this one quite recently) and "Fate/Zero" to name a few so they are the exceptions.

In terms of plot set-up, the Class 2-F led by its dynamic duo of Yuuji Sakamoto, the Class Representative, and Akihisa Yoshii, the Class Ambassador, aimed to prove themselves and to others including the readers that grades don't mean anything when it comes to reality and strategy through battles. Granted, like what the synopsis will tell us, the class had Mizuki Himeji, the second most intelligent second year student in Fumizuki Academy (I will assume I will leave things at that since the story really does not bother about intelligence or wisdom of its students or the intrigue behind the Exam Summoning Battle system (like answering a certain thought about which of either Mizuki or Toshimitsu Kubo is the second most intelligent second year student in that school, in which in all reality it does not matter) but rather about the story being a romantic comedy) who can definitely able to defeat just about every student one-on-one as well as Akihisa's summoned being can able to evade attacks more efficiently than everyone else's summoned being (but one just because the plot needed a final villain) thanks to his status as the Punishment Inspector, so luck is on their side somehow only to ended up with some hilarious situations and some heartwarming moments (if one can call really as such especially regarding Mizuki being one of the two main heroines of the series).

As a side note, the Class 2-F themselves often win some of the school events other than the Exam Summoning Battles so I do not bother about those. However, it is very notable that the volumes that focused on these events (namely the Cool Summer Festival in the second volume, the Test of Courage in the sixth volume, and the Sports Meeting in the seventh volume) have foreshadowing as for what will be going to happen in the future volumes of the series especially these volumes already give emphasis to Mizuki's problems concerning her studies in the academy since she fell in Class 2-F. With that, these volumes can be worth of re-read after finishing everything about the series.

However, there is a good reason why I said 'I assume I will leave things at that since the story really does not bother about the intelligence or the wisdom of its students or the intrigue behind the Exam Summoning Battle system but rather about the story being a romantic comedy'. After all, some time after being defeated by Class 2-A, Class 2-F especially both Akihisa and Yuuji still ended up studying in order to improve themselves on the upcoming Exam Summoning Battles especially the class itself aimed for a revenge to Class 2-A once the six-month restriction is up. Oddly enough, despite being called idiots, they worked better in strategies moreso than the other classes thanks to their experiences in ESB.

Furthermore, through their backstories especially the ones that focused on the relationship between two certain characters, specifically anything with either Akihisa or Yuuji (both of which are intelligent in their elementary days as it turned out, especially Yuuji who is a child prodigy and arguably the smartest one among second year students) in each relationship-focused backstory, the initial aim of Class 2-F that grades do not really matter is only a farce thanks to Akihisa and Yuuji's aim to delving themselves each to be in a romantic relationship with specific girls in their lives (namely Mizuki and Class 2-A's Class Representative Shouko Kirishima) which is the actual aim of the entire series thanks to the last two of the twelve main volumes of this series which focuses on the battle between the second year students and the third year students.

Of course, since this is a romantic comedy, the conclusion should be hilarious but with the realization in mind as for why it needed to happen, regardless of whether it is a logical approach or it is just for the sake of the story to happen. It is also notably hilarious since second year students win that battle, by the time they become third year students the following school year at the end of the very final volume of the series (12.5), they will be going to stay to the Old Building instead of the New Building that the entire second year student body aimed yet again... Good logic.

Perhaps, one of my main gripes about the series is really the characters. While they can performed good enough because they fit for a romantic comedy storyline in general, that is really not enough to make them interesting characters as a whole especially when I considered the characters of most other romantic comedy storylines around this series. Each of the characters has a pre-established personality so one can not be at a loss about their identifications, like Akihisa being an idiot with a good heart, Yuuji being the lazy but brilliant student, Mizuki being an all-around (read: truly random when the story needed to do so) ill girl, Minami Shimada being a straight-up tsundere but with slightly interesting backstory since it is natural that she will have a hard time doing so in that situation she encountered (but I considered it 'slightly interesting' than 'interesting' because it easily made her to be part of Akihisa's harem [there are eight of them by the end of the series]), Shouko being a straight-up yandere but also with justification as for why she did that thanks to her and Yuuji's backstory and many more. For that matter, the series only created situations that will only rely on their pre-established personalities rather than their worldviews, which can be pretty either hilarious or tricky at one point but it never really last that much because of its reliance on establishing gags and conversations revolving only on those personalities that the character had, such as Mizuki's cooking, Kouta 'Muttsulini' Tsuchiya's and Aiko Kudou's perverted antics and conversations about Hideyoshi's gender.

Ironically, the only character that I actually found to be interesting in this series is Class 2-A's Class Ambassador Yuuko Kinoshita (not to be confused with Yukino Yukinoshita of "My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU"), who, despite having the least screentime among the major characters (as well as not appearing at all on some volumes when she is badly needed there [Volume 7 and Volume 12.5 to name a few]), has a superiority complex personality thanks to her intelligence being part of Class 2-A as well as excelling on anything else except anything that her younger twin brother Hideyoshi Kinoshita (who is clearly the author's favorite character) did better than her, like acting or singing, which can potentially result to hilarious yet heartwarming conversations between her and the other major Class 2-F characters especially her and Akihisa (Akihisa, while not suspicious on her, is actually aware of her actions especially on some few parts of the later two volumes, where she is guaranteed to make more conversation with him than with the other major Class 2-F students even with her younger twin brother. Granted, she is the last person to actually join his harem (which consists of a shy girl (Mizuki), a tsundere (Minami), an obligatory token mini-moe (Minami's younger sister Hazuki Shimada), an obligatory older sister (Akira Yoshii), a slightly obligatory straight gay (Toshimitsu), a slightly obligatory trap (Hideyoshi), a girl who fell in love with his genderbent counterpart (Miki Tamano) and an obligatory true foil to the main guy (Yuuko)) as well as the only character in the series that has an actual character development outside of the backstory events.

To be frank, this is one of many stories I read where a side character is the most interesting character (like, Toradora! has Ami Kawashima). In this series' case, this is mainly because I always thought Yuuko comes off as an odd one out (read: closest one for a complex character in the series) among the plethora of characters with easily distinguishable personalities considering the lack of student government body in the series (which was only been implemented only at the very end of the series) and as someone who can be considered as someone who can make a good pairing with Akihisa without the reliance of relationship backstories thanks to their opposing personalities and viewpoints with one another... if only she really had more screentime than this series gave to her.

Now that I think about it, this kind of set-up reminded me of "Sword Art Online" light novel in which the first eight volumes of the series (which contained almost everything the two seasons of its anime adaptation covered) are merely set-ups for the sake of the overarching storyline of Alicization Arc that covered all of the other volumes that followed as of this point. In this series' case, it was done in a way one will not expect that the first three-fourths of the mainstream volumes (Volumes 1 to 9) were all foreshadowing for the events of the last one-fourth of those volumes (Volumes 10 to 12), which is considered worth re-read like I said before because each of the situations within those nine volumes will become fully realized by the latter three ones.

And speaking of Yuuko, it is pretty hilarious that the "Sword Art Online" anime also picked her as one of its characters (or rather, her persona was used in the anime, right to her personal facial features and the battle equipment SAO's Griselda/Yuuko wield in "Sword Art Online" game resembled that closely of this series' Yuuko and her summoned being). Yuuko's dead in the anime (or in the first story of the eighth volume of the light novel series) though thanks to Grimlock's jealousy.

Go figure anyway through this website: https://www.tumblr.com/search/i%20swear%20this%20is%20the%20first%20thing%20that%20came%20into%20my%20mind%20when%20i%20found%20out%20griselda's%20real%20name

Of course, my other main gripe about the series is how painfully situational and contrived most of the situations happened on the latter two volumes really are. Regardless of whether those situations are hilarious or not and whether I like the idiosyncratic writing style Kenji Inoue or not (I do like it for as long as it aimed for hilarity over everything), for that matter, I always really thought why Kenji Inoue needed a lot of build-up for the sake of executing the actual story where the characters had to make conversations based on their pre-established personalities once again, regardless of the backstories provided by the series. I, as a reader, do not have an idea about the reason behind Mizuki's parents' motives behind the decision to make the girl study abroad other than to make her having a good future behind her and they did that twice in the series. We do not even meet Akihisa's parents at all making the story, especially the plot, more questionable. I do not even know the idea behind the Exam Summoning Battle system other than being utilized for enjoyable battles (only enjoyable in the long run). The lack of worldview among the characters especially the antagonists made the entirety of the last two volumes only utilized for the romantic relationships to happen and take the romantic comedy by its definition at the end.

Perhaps, having Yuuko in the series is really a big troublesome for the author considering how interesting she really is as a character in a series that relied only on character's pre-established personalities rather than that and worldviews, to the point that removing her (or replacing her with Aiko by Volume 3) can just make the story still hilarious but it looked okay in the long run (or to the point that adding her can just make Minami and Mizuki pushed towards the background with their relationship with Akihisa since Yuuko was the only other same-age female character to actually straight up liking him among his harem [Miki loved his genderbent counterpart but hated his true self]).

Sure, it does make the story not to be taken care seriously unlike most other works around, for as long as I, as the reader, am aimed for enjoyable plotlines rather than engaging plotlines, just like the author wanted to tell us. Otherwise, I can only go to other romantic comedy storylines mostly because characters engaged more with meaningful conversations, regardless of success of its endings ("Toradora!" and "Clannad" (and both "Clannad: After Story" and "Clannad: Tomoyo After") in my book) or not ("Haganai" and "Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo" in my book).

Back to the plot. If the only aim of the author was to make specific characters ended up together and of course, create a situation that resulted to the definition of the term romantic comedy through idiocy (after all, it is in the title of the series), the book can just become offensive and forgettable by everyone else.

That being said, the book definitely succeed at being an enjoyable romantic comedy but to be honest, utilizing only the character's personalities in most situations is really not enough to make the entire series truly memorable. I will probably still remember some of the characters in the series like Akihisa and Yuuko partly because their personalities can just make "Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works"' Shirou Emiya and Rin Tohsaka relationship to happen if it happened. But truthfully, it is not enough.

Three orange boxes out of five (6/10)

Animated Series Review No.15
Digimon Adventure tri 1: Saikai and Digimon Adventure tri 2: Ketsui

I do remember watching a certain novel adaptation called Kara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners, whose source material was written by Kinoko Nasu (Its series of novels is also in my "Planned to Read" list in Manga List at the time of this review) several years ago and overall it is a challenging series to watch as everything requires full attention in order to understand the real story of the series. After all, the series was played out in a non-chronological order and should be watched on that order, which resulted ... to the show being too complex or too confusing, which is understandable as the show is not for everyone, just like everything else in the world of anime. Overall, it is a well-worth series to watch as it played its story quite good enough specifically on the relationship between Mikiya Kokuto and Shiki Ryogi (or more accurately, Mikiya's influence towards Shiki's development). That relationship is one of the core points of the entire storyline of Kara no Kyoukai. This series of movies can be evaluated either as per individual movie or as a whole, resulting in different opinions from just about anyone when one will evaluate this series.

This is quite the same thing as giving different opinions about each season of a certain animated series (even if some of them acted as an immediate continuation of the previous show of the same title rather than as a second season of that certain series, like how Ufotable worked for the anime adaptations of Gen Urobuchi's Fate/Zero in 2011-2012 and Kinoko Nasu's Fate/stay night in 2014-2015), which is especially true here on this site unless a certain reviewer would say that the series is evaluated/reviewed according to the entirety of the storyline of that series.

As for me, I had different opinions on certain shows for that certain series even if they had the same titles and rated them differently (like the three Shakugan no Shana animated series), but my overall evaluation about that certain series should be taken as a whole for as long as the main character/s of that one season are the same as the main character/s of another season of that series (in Shakugan no Shana's case, it has Yuji Sakai and Shana as its main characters [and like Kara no Kyoukai's Shiki and Mikiya, it revolves pretty much on their relationship at its core]). Although there are some few exceptions to this rule... like Baka to Test to Shokanjuu, where it is quite difficult to do an anime adaptation for its potential third season (while KonoSuba anime immediately announces its second season right after the tenth episode ended... with EXPLOSIONS!) due to the entire series being independent on its timeline in related to that of its source material. But that's for another story though.

For now, I will be dealing with another series in the Digimon franchise called Digimon Adventure tri, which is a series of movies that is considered a sequel to Digimon Adventure and to Digimon Adventure 02. I am aware that this is not yet finished, so everything that I will be dealing here will be focused on the first two of the six movies. For that matter though, I will be re-evaluating the series again after the fourth movie came out, and followed by another re-evaluation after the last movie came out (which is a long time considering the third movie will be released in September this year).

I will start with the obvious... This series is created to be a sequel for the first two Digimon Adventure series in terms of its characters and timeline, set three years after the events of Digimon Adventure 02. This means the knowledge from the two Digimon Adventure series is required in order to understand its characters but not necessarily its story though. This series however made a strange plot twist (Digimon Adventure series really loved plot twists) that is not going to reveal for now right in the beginning of the first movie which create possibilities about the abnormal events that happened in this series.

Also, there is also the fact that there are some characters exclusive to this series added to the story like a new Chosen Child named Meiko Mochizuke and her Digimon, Meicoomon (Digimon Tamers' Culumon's negative counterpart), Maki Himekawa, Daigo Nakajima, Alphamon Ouryuken, Huckmon (soon-to-be Jesmon?), as well as an organization that seemingly functioned like Digimon Tamers' HYPNOS or Digimon Savers' DATS, where the Maki and Daigo belonged, investigating the actions of the Digital World in relation to the real world. The organization even created weapons that would possibly weaken Digimon, although not as dangerous as the Juggernaut Program of Digimon Tamers. This made the show had grown mature enough in comparison to its prequels (but in my opinion, not as much as Digimon Tamers does). Whether these characters compliment a lot to the storyline, the focus will still be on the eight Chosen Children.

Another thing to be noticed here is that this series puts quite a lot of references from the previous Digimon storylines, such as the already mentioned organization being similar to HYPNOS and DATS, the focused pairing per each of possibly first four movies (Taichi Yagami and Yamato Ishida, and Mimi Tachikawa and Jo Kido in related to their interactions in the Dark Masters arc in Digimon Adventure as well as Takeru Takaishi and Koshiro Izumi, and Hikari Yagami and Sora Takenouchi as reference to Takeru and Iori Hida's partnership and Hikari and Miyako Inoue's partnership in Digimon Adventure 02), the Royal Knights traidition (currently have Omegamon, Alphamon and possibly, Jesmon), the Leomon tradition, etc.

Lastly, this series now had the eight Chosen Children will now undergo in dealing with their certain angst towards a certain situation they are currently facing while also facing the fact that they are young adults already (and teenagers, in the case of the two youngest original CC), which can be related somehow to the growth of its target audience (especially the fans of Digimon Adventure series). Add the fact that the real world faced a lot of crisis in dealing with the monsters called Digimon, as they had been considered a threat into the society, which made Taichi had been delved himself into thinking about this situation deeply almost allthroughout these first two movies. In short, as far as the first two movies go, Digimon Adventure tri delved itself into more of being a character-driven storyline like Digimon Tamers than of being a plot-driven storyline where its predecessors belonged, as the series generally made the characters to be responsible with what they are dealing with right now (or, possibly, so it seemed to be). After all, our main characters happened to be the Chosen Ones of the Digital World. This is especially true since the fights are less often to happen than its prequels do. I admit most of their angst is pretty quite relatable to teenagers and young adults, really.

There should be no problems about this series, right? Well... If I don't count its possible plotholes, the entire series can get problematic even if the series is just two movies in.

As such, Digimon Adventure tri is still following the episodic approach of character development that its prequels always do, and that will be going to work on for the first four of its six movies. Because this series is set into movie format, the overall storytelling is quite too slow not because of the plot being too slow (there is the plot but it is still vague for us to know what it is. Is this series trying hard to be Digimon Tamers really?), but because the series is still going to utilize this approach in addition to the fact that some other events such as the two of the four episodes of the second movie are unnecessary to be that long just because it tried to expand the characters of Meiko Mochizuke and Meicoomon, which is, for now, quite lacking especially considering the fact that the series is focusing more on the Chosen Children's dilemma on their lives and them taking responsibilities being young adults and Chosen Children. With that in mind, the last event of the second movie is quite lacking on tension to tell that revelation to its audience, even if there is Huckmon spying on Meicoomon all throughout the first two movies to show to the audience that the latter is what it is being revealed in that last event.

This approach will possibly harm the overall storytelling if this could go on like this for the first four movies, leaving the last two movies for the Chosen Children acting together as they faced a certain dilemma centered to the relationship between the inhabitants of both the real world and the Digital World (after all, this series will try to assume that everyone in the real world is on good terms with the ones in the Digital World as shown in the 02 Epilogue [well-known one by its shipping fans]), with Taichi's development being centered on his decision to possibly become an ambassador in the future (after all, he lacked that Courage to tell about that problem to other Chosen Children as of this point). Unless, the last two movies will be two hours long each, that is. The real issue about this approach is whether it can create a concrete storyline for something pretty straightforward, something I had been feared that this series will not going to take care especially when this series is subjected for a rewatch as if each movie can possibly stand on their own without the others, but once the six movies were put together, the potential character development of certain Chosen Children will be deemed insignificant in the long run.

Speaking of the Chosen Children, I had certain issues with the development of those CC that had gotten focused on this series as far as the two movies are concerned (and I will be bypassed the lack of development of their Digimon partners, even if Gomamon felt developed a bit but that is really more of its concern towards Jo's personal dilemma since Gomamon is Jo's Digimon partner than a real Digimon. This problem is one glaring flaw of Digimon Adventure storyline regardless of which season one will picked and this series is not safe for that glaring flaw). Jo's and Mimi's development to become responsible Chosen Children seemed to be compelling since it fits with their pre-determined characterisation here in tri as well as the fact that it is connected with their Crests (of Faithfulness and of Sincerity) but that development will be going to become underwhelming once the other four movies are released in the future since their development happened all of a sudden, just because of plot progression in relation to the intrigue of the evolution of their Digimon into their Ultimate forms (Vikemon for Gomamon and Rosemon for Palmon). It is quite underwhelming too since it will make the two (and possibly, the other four remaining Chosen not picked) to be actually developed into responsible Chosen Children once the actual plot kicked in.

Taichi's development is quite a different case compared the others as his dilemma extends even in the second movie (and will be extending in the future movies, that's for sure). For the most part, it is more of the reason Taichi will become an ambassador for the relationship between the inhabitants of both the Digital World and the real world in the future so that seemed natural to the development that he had went now. That kind of development Taichi had is quite sudden that it is more of plot convenience in order for him to be developed into someone that will become an ambassador in the future like in 02 Epilogue and the fact that he is the leader of the original Chosen Chosen, but that in itself is not really bad (it is quite good to see Taichi realized something can be considered neither right or wrong). Personally, I had a thought that this had something to do with his seiyuu (Natsuki Hanae) also voiced the main protagonist of Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, Kousei Arima...

That one aside, the real problem on this kind of development given to Taichi is that it happened all of a sudden throughout the first movie. I understand that Taichi needed to be responsible to his surroundings (so do the other Chosen Children) as he grew old which is touching for its audience (new and old) but the fact that he only did that once he sees the city being wreak havoc by their own Digimon partners and the enemy Digimon. There is also the fact that it lacked a good background about his character on why he became like that, which is especially true considering the number of times that same flashback reflected into his mind all throughout the last event of the first movie. Lastly, in my personal opinion, considering the lack of actual background about this issue towards Taichi's character, the kind of development given to Taichi is not really something being reflected towards Taichi but that is something the Lawful Good Takeru had faced due to his experiences in the past adventures as well as due to him someone who created his own blog about the issues relating to the Digital World in Saikai, along with Koshiro. In my thoughts, I always wanted him to become someone like Digimon Tamers' Lawful Neutral Mitsuo Yamaki because of his worldview, and not because they are similar with one another in appearance.

That being said, for some reason, Takeru has seemed to relegated to be someone who has a possible romantic interest towards Hikari (and possibly vice-versa, depending on which Digimon fan to be asked). This is also true with Koshiro having blatant crush on Mimi with his interest on fashion as an evidence on his actions he had as well as showing his honest opinion to Mimi about that certain situation in the second movie. These kinds of interaction can be treated as fanservice for the shipping fans, although with Koshiro and Takeru being the focused Chosen Children for the third movie, these kinds of interactions they had can become a potential dilemma to them especially in the case of Takeru towards Hikari, considering Takeru's family background. But that should be something I will be possibly talking about when the third movie came out and the series focused on that.

Then there are the other characters like Daigo Nakajima who is clearly on the good side and despite him being a member of that organization, he is still a teacher of the school Taichi attended; Maki Himekawa, who is quite intriguing considering her actions in the last event of the second movie, unless she tried to be Mitsuo Yamaki of all things...

And then there is Meiko Mochizuke... as far as I can tell, the only thing I could think of a description about her character is that she is the Chosen Child taking care of Meicoomon as her Digimon partner. She is pretty much like Kara no Kyoukai's Mikiya Kokuto in terms of how normal they are in comparison with the other members of the cast of the respective movies. The difference is that Mikiya's very normal personality is what makes him very special in Kara no Kyoukai movies, while Meiko's normal personality never lets herself shine regardless of which part of the two movies have to be focused. Really, it is more of Meicoomon than of Meiko in this series, unless Meiko herself is a special being.

Finally, the plot... What's the plot? I guess more mysteries can be revealed later so I will not talking about that matter at this point but for now, I always felt that the series is trying to be unique and special on its potential plot, considering how the introduction of the first movie played out. The problem is that the character development of Jo and Mimi (and possibly, the other CC in the future) really had nothing to do with facing with that actual plot and that is more of being a responsible Chosen Children that they used to be, because they need to do and because Digimon Adventure tri really tried to be a character-driven storyline. And as such, the kind of character development Jo and Mimi had in Ketsui is more of a triggered power-up to evolve their Digimon into Ultimate forms, just like with everything in the previous Digimon Adventure storyline (where a certain character development (or character interactions in the case of 02, due to the main characters lacking actual character development bar 02!Ken Ichijoji and 02!Iori Hida) will trigger an evolution to their Digimon partners). Kind of not bad really, but also not that good though considering the lack of interactions between the Chosen Children and their Digimon partners except Jo and Gomamon during the second movie (but even then, their interactions is not really that impactful to make Gomamon to evolve into Vikemon because of that).

As of this point, I will not be going to talk about the production values of the first two movies that much as they aren't really that impressive overall, but not really that distracting (visuals)/forgettable (sounds). The short-lived action sequences on these movies however are quite underwhelming because the motion felt rushed in order for the battle to end at a certain point so the story had to continue somehow, mainly because its targeted audience are "mature" enough not to care about dragged-out battles, and anything should have focused on what the fights had done it seems. To be frank though, the animation of DEEN's Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuru wo!'s is a lot better than that of this series, not only because KonoSuba's animation really fits the tone of its storyline but also there is the fact that Toei's Digimon Adventure tri is a series of movies in comparison to KonoSuba being a TV series.(I am not going to put Ufotable's Kara no Kyoukai's animation (2007-2013) over this series' animation (2015-?) for comparison. That is not going to be anything better).

For now, I will still be watching the other four movies in the future to see some development for this series' actual plot especially considering that vague idea it tried to work out in the beginning of the series (which made me felt I am watching Madoka Magica than a Digimon series. I hope this is not something that had to happen here) as well as the fact the series is really eager to put some awareness to everyone around the main cast as one of its intent focuses. But I will still be having low expectations on watching the next four movies, especially the last two since the next two are focusing on the characterisation of the other four Chosen Children. I am also hoping that the Digimon themselves were given some real character development independent on their attachment with their partners (whether they had human partners or not). After all, Alphamon and Huckmon appeared because of Meicoomon but we do not know who they really are, because these first two movies focused a lot on the Chosen Children for mostly anyone watching not to take care on Alphamon's and Huckmon's motives other than set themselves as foreshadowed characters in the future. Lastly, I understand that this series was meant to be watched by its targeted audience (the Digimon fans, especially Digimon Adventure fans), however, considering my thoughts about how messy the storytelling it may potentially looked like once the series ended, I only hoped that the series should do a lot better in terms of overall writing such as more plot development and more focus on the worldviews of some of the characters.

This ends my review about the first two Digimon Adventure tri movies. As for my personal rating:

Three-and-one-fourth images of Leomon fell in love with Meicoomon acting like Puss in the Boots out of five. (6.5/10)