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The difference between this book and other books is that this is not a book. A book has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. More importantly, a book has a plot that's centered on some sort of conflict. This light novel is just a series of words. There is no conflict, there is no climax (and so no rising and falling action), and therefore there is no resolution. There are events, and those events happen in some order, but that isn't enough.

Plot
Let's start with the plot. The book is 143 pages long, and the gist of the plot is two people who ... like each other get together, play Reversi, go on a date, and briefly visit the main character's home. Nothing else happens. That's not a plot. That's just 4 events, somehow stretched over 143 pages. In most books that would be a chapter. What's the central tension? What's the conflict?

Consider another short book, just for comparison: "A Wizard of Earthsea" at 183 pages. (major spoilers) In that book, we are introduced to a main character and a fantasy world. One of his first acts is to accidentally release a magical catastrophe on the world. The rest of the book centers around the protagonist trying to fix his mistake. Many other settings, characters, and events happen in that story (definitely more than 4), but the point is that there exists a central tension, it builds to a climax, and it's ultimately resolved. Even in a short book, it's more than possible to do.

Characters
Soukichi Kuroya is among the worst protagonists I have ever encountered in a work of fiction. He's just so exceptionally unlikable that I don't understand how anyone can root for him, tolerate him, or have a conversation with him. It's no surprise he has no friends. And there's no hidden depths to his character. Beneath his 6th grader cringe is just more cringe. Let's illustrate with examples:

(a) His girlfriend waves to him, and he hides behind his friend. How old would you guess he is? He's supposed to be 15-16. I would have guessed 7.

(b) He can't sit across from his girlfriend at a table and look her in the eye. That's not normal teenage awkwardness, that's a social disorder.

(c) He keeps talking about "his pride as a man", which makes me want to change my gender just to not be associated with him. No one talks like this. No one thinks like this.

Some characters do start out terrible, but work hard to be better. Soukichi though not only starts worse than basically any character in any manga or anime I've read, he also doesn't ever try to improve. He's comfortable to wallow in his swimming pool of self-pity, and not even his wish-fulfillment perfect smokeshow girlfriend can pull him out.

On the other hand, there is the mystery of Tokiya Shimokura. He's portrayed as a high school boy who regularly sleeps with and stays over at the homes of adult women. In the book, it's played for laughs, but in actuality that's really disturbing and likely a crime. It seems that his close friend Kuroya knows about him spending nights with a 27 year old woman and doesn't think this is a problem. And that's a problem!

Writing
The basic structure of any dialog between our MC and fMC goes like this:

girlfriend: "Do you do X because you like me?"

MC: "No definitely not. It's not because I like you at all baka"

MC's internal dialog: I am just a pathetic loner please don't tease me

girlfriend: [is upset]

MC: "Fine I admit it I like you"

girlfriend: [happy]

MC's internal dialog: My pride as a man is wounded

Since it got so formulaic, I started counting how many times this exact formula was reused in the book after I noticed it around chapter 3. I counted 9 times. I'm not sure if this book had an editor, but if it did, he was at least as incompetent as Atsugi (the editor mentioned in the book), because this is definitely something that he should have caught and told the author to fix.

Conclusion
Unlike the book, I want my review to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. To conclude, what is this book *about*? What is its theme? What is its message? I couldn't find one, except maybe it's that anyone can publish a book, and there will always be a few unfortunate souls who like it despite its quality.

Most manga are set in high school, whether those high schools are in our world or in some fantasy world. From ninja academies to magic schools to knight training, it makes sense to start the hero's journey early so we can watch the protagonist grow and improve. Watching characters grow from immature children to responsible adults is extremely gratifying. It's definitely a valid genre.

But is it possible to write something else? Just once in a while, please? You start with the premise of a workplace manga, so why must the two leads act like immature high schoolers anyway? There are a sum total of perhaps ... 5 workplace romances in manga in existence. Is it really necessary to make the female protagonist underage? What possible purpose does that serve other than a weird fetishization of high school girls? What would have been the harm of making her 18 or even 20?

The answer is simple: this author is not mature enough to write a romance between two adults. While the fMC really *is* 17, the MC is said to be 19 but *acts* closer to 13. The MC gets flustered over holding hands, receiving a hug, and walking next to his partner. This is not the emotional maturity of an adult man. At least the fMC has a narrative excuse for being clueless about love. What's the guy's excuse? He might be the least mature 19-year-old in all of Japan.

I'm disappointed because I picked this up hoping for a workplace romance. Instead I got a gimmicky paint-by-numbers story with all the predictable events (so predictable that I am copy-pasting these from my last review of a bad romance manga):

- MC and fMC have to hide from people who might discover their relationship so they're trapped in an extremely confined space where their bodies press against each other
- fMC goes to the swimming pool and the string of her bathing suit comes off
- MC accidentally gropes fMC's chest when she falls down
- fMC mistakes MC's sister for his girlfriend (in this case the sister introduces herself as his girlfriend, because that's super normal...)
- amusement park date, hot springs date

It's kind of the author to think of the planet, since they are so devoted to recycling.

There are many book series about people meeting from different cultures, and for good reason. People who grow up in different environments behave differently and have differing ideas of what's normal. Even in light novels, this idea is explored when people move from the countryside to the city, or even between schools. So you would think this series, with a main character who theoretically spent half her life abroad in Russia, would touch on those aspects as well. Alya should have different cultural attitudes and behaviors than a typical Japanese girl. Otherwise what's the point of her being Russian?

That's why I picked up this LN. ... But I was WRONG. The only Russian thing about Alya is her name and her looks. Everything else is a complete copy-paste from any other LN heroine. She overreacts to compliments, gets easily embarrassed from physical contact, and can't communicate.

The thing is, Russian culture is very different from Japanese culture. People are much more physical, with physical contact between people a part of everyday interactions. People are also less reserved and more outwardly affectionate, so giving compliments is customary and even expected. You might think that a girl raised in that kind of environment might absorb some of those norms.

It's just lazy writing. The author couldn't be bothered to do even the basics of research and make Alya a believable character. Instead, he chose to stick to the well-worn formula of dense MC and tsundere fMC, filled with cliched writing. Do you have your light novel bingo card out? Let's get started:

* fMC asks MC to touch her thinking he won't do it, he does it, she hits him
* "he called me c-c-cute"
* fMC has a tragic backstory that prevents her from making a single friend until she meets the MC
* fMC is constantly being asked out by nearly every guy in the school but turns them all down
* MC is lazy and unmotivated, isn't a member of any clubs, and has an inferiority complex but is secretly a great guy
* fMC fashion show
* fMC has a misunderstanding mistaking MC's sister for his girlfriend
* fMC and MC were friends when they were kids but conveniently forgot each other's names
* fMC is so beautiful everyone stares at her wherever she goes (which never happens to high school girls in real life, sorry to tell you)
* troubling incestuous overtones between the MC and his sister

BINGO! I'm sure if you told ChatGPT to write a story with these light novel elements and a Russian fMC it would spit out something quite a bit better.

Just as an example of a manga that thoughtfully addresses the meeting of cultures, there is "A Sign of Affection", about a half-German boy who loves to travel. Throughout the manga, the slight differences between his and the main character's norms are explored. It's not the only book to do this by any means, but such a contrast to the lazy writing here.

This show is very hopeful, telling a story of the world's most boring man finding love.

Meet Amane, a man with no hobbies and interests, who walks listlessly through the world. Maybe it's hard to see the world with his black bangs blocking his eyes, and that's why he's so indifferent. Indifferent to school, indifferent to sports, and seemingly even indifferent to his best friend.

And yet, he does find love. The most popular, the most pretty, and the best at cooking girl in the school falls deeply in love with his frowny-face-emoji personality. His great talent is sitting on his couch and eating her cooking. Isn't ... he incredible?

The show puts the magnifying glass over the two leads, leaving the rest of the cast as merely cardboard cutouts. While they have their own lives (likely much more interesting than the protagonist's), they hardly ever talk about them, instead focusing on whether Amane and his insanely hot neighbour get together. With an interesting cast of side characters you might expect some humour (ALA Tomo-chan), but you would be gravely disappointed. Not a single joke is cracked throughout the series, making these high school students unique in the history of high school students.

You might wonder if Amane's dry aloofness allows him to make insightful observations about the behavior of his classmates, similar to Hyouka or OreGairu. You will also be disappointed. Amane is as unobservant as he is boring, totally ignoring his classmates (and from his perspective it appears most of them don't even have names). We have 3 named side-characters from his class, the rest are background art without personalities. Which is pretty remarkable for 12 episodes (4 hours!).

So, if you want to see a man so boring you could use his internal monologue to help an insomniac fall asleep, then this show is for you. If your favorite genre of show is "dense protagonist doesn't realize the girl making overt advances is into him" (which is both very specific and yet a strangely crowded category), I would recommend at least 10 shows ahead of this one. Maybe something that will make you crack a smile.

It feels a little ridiculous to write a serious review of such an unserious book, but let's give this a shot. I've read the first 2 LNs, and no one should read more. In fact, no one should read even 1. The ideal for this series is 0.

Plot & Pacing
It is incredible how little the story progresses after 2 volumes. The first 2 novels cover only the first month or so of the couple's relationship. Are there interesting diversions, you ask? Do they solve mysteries together, or are they training to become the pirate king? Do they have to fight aliens from outer space and ... so the story is action-packed? No. How does the author waste over 500 pages? I'm honestly not sure, even after reading it. There seems to have been only 100 pages or so worth of content, somehow spread over 2 volumes. The experience has left me confused.

Characters
The first 2 novels cover the first month or so of a high school couple's dating journey. I want to emphasize "first month" and "high school" again because it's important to remember this in light of what the author writes.

First, every single adult, including random strangers and both sets of parents, immediately suggest that these two high school students should get married and have kids. Repeatedly. Again, they're high school students who have been dating between 1 and 3 weeks. It's exceptionally uncomfortable.

Second, the main characters oscillate between struggling with basic intimacy such as holding hands for the first time (totally normal for a high school couple after a week) and casually telling each other that they would make excellent parents (definitely not something you tell someone you just started dating, even if you're older, but especially if you're in high school).

As another review mentioned, every teen character is a walking cliche. The main boy, the main girl, the main girl's friends. The main two characters are surprisingly shallow after two books. What are their interests, other than each other? What are their goals and dreams for the future? Are they going to university after high school? These questions remain unanswered after 400+ pages and an almost myopic focus on the main two leads.

Author
It's hard to immerse yourself in a book when the book is written from the perspective of a high school boy, while the author is so clearly not. There are a variety of points in the book where you stop and think "a modern teen (or young adult) would never think this".

Nowhere is this more evident than the beginning of the aquarium date chapter. The main character is afraid his girlfriend will get hit on if he doesn't meet her at the aquarium. Our main character spends pages and pages wondering about the safety of his girlfriend walking from her house to their meeting spot. Are there large roving bands of Japanese men who will hit on unaccompanied high school girls unless they're accompanied by average protagonists (in front of major attractions no less)? No normal person worries about this. This is some kind of deranged middle aged overprotectiveness which makes our teen protagonist sound more like a middle aged pervert than a character we might want to relate to.

The author writes in the afterword that they recently turned 40, and that your forties “are the years of fuwaku”, which means “not to be bound by stereotypes.” If that's the case, I'm sorry to report the author is off to a poor start.

I've read 2 volumes of the light novel. Let me preface the review by saying it is literally impossible to spoil this book. It is so packed to bursting with cliches that it is a paint-by-numbers for low-effort romance light novels. You can write the novels yourself just from the summary and be 90% accurate (and likely make some improvements).

The male MC (Saito) is a dour high school boy with no friends, no interests other than reading and gaming, never studies, but is somehow top of the class. He's never illustrated, but you can already picture his messy black bangs in your mind.

The female MC ... (Akane) is a tsundere girl who studies hard to take the top rank in their grade, but constantly achieves only second place, because of the male MC. Of course, she is amazing at cooking and is gorgeous.That's a given for the genre, and the author may as well copy-paste her entirely from any number of other light novels. Why write original characters?

Add to the completely uninspiring novel the token sexual overtones between Saito and his cousin. Why are the incestuous sexual overtones necessary, you ask? They're not. But they're there to fulfill the light novel experience.

It is incredible how little happens in the space of 600 pages (2 300-page volumes). While other authors manage to convey complex characters, plot, and setting in novels as short as 300 pages, this author has the remarkable skill of doing none of that in twice the length. What are the words spent on, you wonder? Mostly on describing the meals that Akane cooks. Perhaps the author wanted to write a cookbook but got a little sidetracked?

The icing on the cake is Akane's behaviour. While the author *tells you* that she is very smart for 17, her behaviour is more consistent with a slightly brain-addled ten-year old. In a novel filled with oblivious characters, Akane somehow manages to outclass them all.

Alderamin is like FMA Brotherhood, if every character in FMA was terrible

This review contains spoilers for both Alderamin and FMA.

While Alderamin seems more superficially similar to Genius Prince or Realist Hero, it is actually at its deepest level far more similar to FMA. In both shows, the brilliant protagonist (FMA - Ed, Alderamin - Ikta) lives in a country ruled by a corrupt military elite. He deeply dislikes the military power structure and wants nothing to do with them. However, in both shows, the hero must join the hated military anyway (in FMA to get access to the research archives, in Alderamin Ikta is forced ... to join). A core moral problem in both shows is for the hero to keep his sense of right and wrong, and not be corrupted by the military hierarchy. But that’s where the similarity stops, because while in FMA Ed fights to keep his morals tooth and nail while having a deep well of empathy, Ikta compromises at every turn, and leaves his highly immoral actions ultimately unexamined.

The moral counterpoint to the hero in both shows is another gifted person, who is part of the military hierarchy. In FMA, it’s Roy Mustang, who was deeply influenced by the War in Ishval and wants to change the corrupt military from within. He makes a few moral compromises to stay in the military, and frequently chastises Ed while straddling the line between the government’s evil enforcer and its conscience. In Alderamin, there’s Yatari. She has all the potential of Mustang, but ultimately just enforces the will of the state, even against her best friend Ikta, without any self reflection. Alderamin doesn’t really want you to think too deeply about this.

The similarities continue, as Alderamin enters its main arc: the Northern Campaign. The Northern Campaign is ultimately a genocidal and pointless expedition against the northern peoples, whose only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For this, they’re rewarded with their homes being burned and forcible relocation at best, and wholesale slaughter at worst. In FMA, the people are Ishvalan, and the attack is used to illustrate how corrupt and evil the military government is. Each important character rebels against the slaughter in some way, and is ultimately deeply scarred by these events. In FMA, they realize that cooperation with genocide is evil, no matter your intentions and no matter who tells you otherwise.

In Alderamin, the characters walk blindly through the carnage. Ikta is portrayed as a “good guy” for only burning down homes instead of murdering the Northern peoples. He then further defends the state against invasion. The morality of his genocidal actions are left ultimately unexamined. But the worst part is Captain Sazaruf and his morality. At every turn, he tells the characters “The responsibility is with the commanding officer. You’re just soldiers and you have to follow orders”. This philosophy is at the core of Alderamin, and it is indescribably evil. The show doesn’t understand that, and portrays it as good.

If Ikta were to be transported into FMA, he would be on the side of the military, and would be most similar to someone like Lt Gen Armstrong, but with less personality. He would not be a heroic character. Yatari would be some nameless side character, given her low levels of self reflection. In FMA, even such characters as Gen Basque Grand murder their commanding officer after repeated shows of incompetence. You wait for something like that to happen in Alderamin, but to no avail.

Alderamin wants to portray itself as smart and deep, but at its heart it has a troubling and unexamined philosophy of abdication of personal responsibility and conformity to evil. It dresses it up in nice animation, which I think makes it much much worse.

I'll keep my review short and sweet. Switch the genders of the two main characters and watch this show again. I'll wait. It would be a show about a disgusting abusive short man constantly being violent and demanding towards a sweet and misunderstood girl who likes to cook and clean.

Taiga has zero redeeming qualities as a human being. It is a complete mystery why Ryuji stays with her for any length of time, barring his exceptionally forgiving nature coupled with a good dose of Stockholm Syndrome.

The fact that this show has so many ratings above 5 horrifies me about what people think is tolerable ... in human relationships (romantic or otherwise). If someone treats you the way Taiga treats Ryuji, you need to run as fast as humanly possible in the opposite direction.

I don't know how this show proceeds after episode 11 (because I'm not a masochist) but I assume the two leads end up together. In that case, this show is missing a MAL tag: Horror.