Yeah, as everyone seemed to tell me yesterday (and by everyone I mean two people) I should have restrained myself while rating Volume 5 because now I can't rate Volume 6 any higher since I already gave Volume 5 a 10/10 :(
Starting off with Daiya, I think that one of the most important aspects of a character when it comes to their development has to be their personal relationships. While Light had none of that, Daiya had Haruaki as a best friend and Kokone as a love interest. In particular, Daiya's relationship with Kokone is what makes his character so good. Kokone is what defines everything that Daiya did in these past four volumes. He literally wanted to change the world for her sake. His idealism about getting rid of people who "stopped thinking" was born from his regret of not being able to save her, while not wanting it to happen to anyone else. However Daiya had to blind himself to that, instead surrendering to his inner hatred, otherwise he would not be able to accomplish his goal. Proof of that is how he concluded that Kokone was the owner even though, in his mind, it should be impossible for Kokone's wish to be so distorted that it would torture him the way it did. I never expected Karino to be the owner personally, but it makes a lot of sense since her grudge for Daiya is what ended creating a box that had the sole purpose of torturing Daiya. I noticed something else too: since it doesn't belong to Kazu, the Wish-Crushing Cinema seems to not have an appropriate name, but as I kept thinking about it, I realize where the name might come from (though this might be overthinking it): it was Karino wanting to crush Daiya's REAL wish - to be with Kokone - by painfully reminding him of the events of his past. And to think that at the root of all of this is Kamiuchi, I'm so glad Daiya offed him himself. Now I could write about Daiya for days, about how everything he did was for the sake of his beloved, about the mess that his mind became after losing her, about the meaning of him wanting to "mutilate" his body by opening holes in it and wear literal burdens that remind him of his change (since he did mentioned he hates piercings), and about how perceptive he is, but I'll refrain to for now since that would belong in a character analysis, which I might one day do because as it stands, Daiya is my new #1 character, and I doubt there's anything in the last volume that can change that. He's practically my ideal character, the one I've been waiting so many years for.
Next we have Kazu. Now the main selling point of this volume was Daiya's indirect (for the most part) confrontation with Kazu. It kept changing the perspective between each other so we can see them trying to predict what their rival is gonna do next, always trying to outwit them. This battle of wits was very thrilling to watch, Kazu's resolve in this volume even surpasses what he did in the previous one. Breaking Iroha is one thing since he knew her for such a short period of time, but having the guts of using his friends' feelings to defeat Daiya, especially telling Kokone to stab herself in order to trap either Maria or Daiya. I think that what this means is that Kazu is literally throwing away the everyday life he worked so hard to protect before, and he has been doing so ever since he realized that his abnormal attachment to that everyday life was only a facade to make him forget about his first love, and what he did to her. His true wish is to be with Maria, to save her, to be her knight, and he's willing to discard everything else and make the world his enemy if he can accomplish this, he's even willing to make Maria herself his enemy. The change in Kazu is definitely the main aspect of his character that I find to be incredibly well written because the author showed that change slowly but surely in every volume, and what I really like is how that change was only made possible thanks to Kazu experiencing the trials that the different boxes put him through. He's also gonna get a position in my high tops as well almost for sure.
Finally we have Maria. Now, I thought, at the start, that Maria would be just another perfect girl that we are supposed to pity because she spent a lifetime-worth of time inside the Rejecting Classroom and remembers everything, but oh boy was I wrong. There's so much going on with Maria's mind that it's no use that she wants to become Aya. From what I gather so far, the real Aya had a single wish: to make others happy, which means Maria is trying to become Aya, most likely due to her feeling that she has the duty of doing so, since Aya died in a car accident. That wish though was corrupted because she also wished for someone to save her, someone to be her knight, and when she contacted Kazu's first love, she understood that she saw him as a savior due to how much he had helped her, so the position of knight was inserted into Kazu, who gained the Empty Box power that is meant to get rid of Flawed Bliss. I find it very tragic though that Maria is pursuing a goal that she can't fulfill simply because "what's flawed in the first place can never become flawless". Her goal was to perfect Flawed Bliss but that's not going to happen, and the first one to realize that was actually Daiya. I'm expecting to see a lot more of Maria in Volume 7 too, and I sincerely hope she also makes it into my high favorites after I am done with HakoMari.
This volume, along with the previous one, also gave a lot of relevancy to the side characters (more specifically Haruaki and Kokone) and the confrontation between Daiya and Kazu ended up involving pretty much everyone except for the Volume 2 characters, so everyone got a chance to be in it. As a whole, the Shadow of Sin and Punishment arc was by far the best that HakoMari had to offer so far, and it’s a clear 10/10 in my book, simply due to how much character exposition and development was going on. Both Daiya’s relationship with Kokone and Kazu’s relationship with Maria are what sells this arc to me, since just like what happens in real life, characters grow by interacting with each other, and their relationships are what defines them, and Daiya and Kazu are very similar in that aspect, since they both live for the sake of one person, even if it took them quite a bit of time to realize that. Instead Daiya tried to convince himself that he was similar to Maria because he wanted to make the world a better place, but Daiya’s real wish is selfish, like a normal human’s should be, he just wants to be with his loved one. And Kazu tried to protect an everyday life that he wasn’t that attached to just to keep his sanity and try to forget about his first love. The characters in HakoMari are superb, and this is without a doubt a character study work, which are usually my favorite kinds of works. Not only that, but it’s extremely thrilling for the most part, which helps getting the readers hooked and constantly wanting to read more. The author clearly has a lot of talent for writing fiction, even though I don’t usually say this after reading just one work from an author, but it’s clear that he knows what he’s doing when he can get every single character right, even the ones that you’d expect to have no relevancy in the story. HakoMari is without a doubt one of my new top works, Volume 7 will decide just how high it will be, but the possibility of being #1 is NOT discarded at all, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened honestly. Who would guess that me, who despises reading, would be so excited about a novel? That’s the power of HakoMari.
Shit finally went down with the confrontation of two boxes. Daiya's Shadow of Sin and Punishment is exactly what I expected someone with his personality to achieve. After learning about how to make a wish that lets him master the box with the way he experienced Kamiuchi's Game of Idleness, he asked for a way to control others. His ultimate ideal, to get rid of all the people who don't ponder on their actions, took shape with that box. The way it shows how the person's sin is swallowed by Daiya is crazy because it means he's bearing everyone's sins, which is similar to Maria's situation (which was indeed mentioned) since she also lives for the sake of something other than herself: both live for their ideals. Then we have the Wish-Crushing Cinema which I am still wondering who the owner is since it's not Kazu, I assume it will either be Kokone or Haruaki, I'd lean towards Kokone though because she probably doesn't want to see Daiya destroy himself with his wish, so she would create a "world" with the single purpose of destroying his box. I love how we get to see the human side of Daiya through many occasions, whether it's his reaction to whenever Kokone is mentioned or to his past. He's definitely shaping up to be one of my all-time favorite characters due to his amazing characterization and the way the novel allows us to read what's on his mind in every step of the way. I like the idea of the Wish Crushing Cinema since it was created with the single goal of breaking Daiya's wish, and it's done through showing him scenes of the past, which is what Daiya is trying to constantly forget at this point, in order to fulfill his ideal.
Kazu's resolve in this volume was mindblowing as well because I never expected his resolve to even go as far as to break Iroha in the way he did, because after all, from the start we have been hinted at that he exists for the purpose of crushing wishes, and now we learned that Maria herself assigned him that role after seeing how he was considered a savior by his first love. Like we saw at the start, he and O are enemies that simply cannot exist together, even though they live for the same exact person. Kazu's character is, so far, the best written of the bunch, simply because we've seen so much background, so much exposition, so much change and development, he's most definitely the closest to my favorite list as it stands, as I love characters that can have that kind of resolve for a single goal. Especially when that goal involves someone else. As the author said in the previous volume, he had written the character' classes in the last iteration of Game of Idleness to be appropriate to the characters they were representing, and Kazu was indeed the knight back then as well. Seriously though, you can't imagine how much I liked that whole scene that spawned several pages with him talking to O and breaking Iroha.
Other than that, the themes are astonishing as well. It's like Death Note where it was constantly talked about how killing criminals is evil in itself and whatnot, but it's much better developed in here due to the novel medium allowing for that, and that was one of the things I loved in DN to start with, so imagine how much I loved the exchange between Kazu and Iroha about that subject. We also get to learn so much about characters that have been on the side until now like Kokone and Haruaki, and I'm really afraid to find out what "broke" Kokone that much for everyone to conclude that she's broken beyond any kind of salvation, even Maria. Apparently it left some kind of scar on her back and enough emotional trauma that she was forced to change into an extroverted girl when she was supposedly the opposite of that. It's probably related to that Karino girl since she was cursing her, though it might have been because Daiya chose Kokone instead? Either way just speculating about all of this is really interesting and that only sells the work to me even more. Additionally, like all of the previous volumes except for 2, it was extremely thrilling all the way, and I never felt bored (once again read it in one go, like all the others). I'm still convinced that the main selling point of the work to me is the relationship between Maria and Kazu, which is most definitely my favorite relationship between two characters I've EVER seen, because of how much detail, subtlety and depth it has, not to mention you get to see how each of them perceived that relationship which makes it even better.
There are more things I would want to talk about but I don't want to waste anyone's time for now so I'll restrain myself for now at least. Overall, I give this volume a 10/10 on its own simply due to how it was one of the best things I've ever seen, really. Exciting, a deep conflict, superb characters (even the friggin side ones that weren't supposed to matter FFS) and my new favorite character relationship, and also the prospect of three characters making it into my very high tops (Kazu, Daiya and Maria). I seriously can't wait for Volume 6 at this point.
Essentially three characters from HakoMari so far can make it into my tops, which as you can probably guess are Maria, Kazu and Daiya. I like all of them quite a lot.
Because the work is just THAT good. I despise reading, heck I lose interest in stuff really easily, but not with HakoMari. I've been spending the last 4 nights reading HakoMari, one volume per night. It always has something that keeps me coming back. Additionally, the author's notes are really good because it lets us have a look at what the author was thinking when writing it. It's something very new and interesting to me. I always read his notes after every chapter.
Now the relationship between Kazu and Maria is definitely reaching a whole new level. Game of Idleness made Kazu realize that he values Maria over his everyday life, and the last scene with him ignoring Mogi to go see her more than definitely confirms that. The way it happened was really well thought out and I'm glad Kazu learns and grows with each box he experiences. The more I see of Maria the more I like her as a character, and I'm really curious about some things regarding her goal and the conditions behind the birth of Flawed Bliss. Their relationship is definitely the main selling point of the work for sure, now I am aware of that. Finally I got to see the real Daiya, and my god, all I have to say is that he's most definitely my type of character. I registered this quote of his because to me it's what truly awoke my interest for his character:
"It’s about those people that have stopped thinking for
themselves. They act like they would be thinking, but they
really just accept others’ opinions and get manipulated.
They have no self, so to speak. There’s no worth in their
lives. I can’t stand that depraved scum that has barely
enough brains to follow others’ opinions, has no target and
clings to the feed that’s before their eyes like a bunch of
hogs. It makes me sick just to breathe the same air as
them.”
Not only do I agree with it, but it reminds me of Light Yagami a bit, however unlike Light, who I once loved due to him somewhat sharing my ideology, Daiya DOES seem to have a lot of human elements, which is what Light lacked and made me start disliking his character. From what I understand, while Daiya most certainly holds a lot of hatred for reasons that I assume will be revealed later, he does care for some people (at least for Kokone and for Kazu). To me he seems like the kind of character that's PERFECT for someone like me, and I now fully understand why people kept saying I would love him. Either way, this arc was my favorite thus far, because it was both thrilling and smartly written, I like how the author gave no excuses for Kazu and Daiya not to use O's "love" for Kazu as a way to defeat Game of Idleness, instead making full use of that mechanic, which was very well foreshadowed and even showed before. Even a despicable character like Kamiuchi received some context, a background behind his thought process. I still hated him, but I can't say his character was bad by any means. Iroha and Yuuri's relationship was also another good point of this arc, specifically in Vol 4 because of the scene when they made up despite knowing everything about each other. The really good thing about the characters in HakoMari is that they're never to be taken at face value, instead there's always much more to them than what seems, which makes it a lot more interesting. I'm genuinely very very curious about the next volumes since they are usually praised to be the best HakoMari has to offer. Overall I'd give this volume an 8/10 by itself but as a whole, the Game of Idleness Arc would probably be a 9/10 in my book. I liked it THAT much. Not once did I make a pause, I just kept reading because I was never bored at all, and I'm the guy that hates reading!
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