Note: Just like when I used to put these on youtube, I’ll try to be as vague to not spoil the story and to keep it short so the viewer’s attention span doesn’t die out. However, I can now add a concept piece to kind of give the gist of the story.
My ranking without explanation:
| Route | Rank |
|---|---|
| Common | B- ~ B+ |
| Benio | D+ ~ C |
| Mayuki | B ~ A- |
| Ayaya | D |
| Soejima | D ~ C |
| Kagome | A |
| Other media | Rank |
|---|---|
| Music | A+ |
| Art Quality | A |
| VA | A |
HScenes-On or off:
You can disable them, there’s not much to gain aside from Kagome and a little on Benio(it’s a little more on insight on her character but nothing too big for you to not to skip). Mayuki’s scenes also has a few important parts, but she’s a loli so I gave you fair warning on that.
Music:
It’s bloody amazing, probably the best part of the novel. My favorite is “But we’re still connected”, but others such as I am Rondo, Other people are others and Reversal are pretty good too.
Concept:
In short, the typical action genre such as sentai rangers and kamen rider. Instead of a giant mech or mega ass powers, they gain an “avatar”(not exactly like .hack GU). An avatar is controlled by five people, the five people are called a Coμ. You can have friends that join the Coμ, but the Coμ is specifically for those that control the avatar, so it’s safe to say the MC cast is “the black dragon Coμ+others/friends”.
Avatar mechanics:
The avatar requires the power of the 5 to function correctly, the avatar only needs one to be activated, but it functions poorly. The math contributed is kind of done poorly in the novel; Instead of an equal 20% each, it seems like it was made up most of the time. Such has having 2 people is under 20~30%. Each person that controls the avatar has a specific superior stat. Meaning, one is better at mobility, another analyzing, fighting, blocking, etc. They’re based on the users’ personalities.
Concept Continued:
Unlike most shonen, the main cast doesn’t fight for what’s right, they don’t fight for friendship or anything around that. They fight to survive, which I find a much better premise as more people can understand that and also have the chance to add the more stereotypical friendship scenes later on if they felt like it.
While the avatar gives the users’ more power than someone ever needs, the price is their lives. If the avatar dies, all five die. This is rather an interesting approach and mainly the reason why I started reading this novel. It goes against the normal conventions of fighting for what’s right, instead putting a huge mental strain on every user of the Coμ and are coerced into fighting if the majority plans to. Another note is that you don’t have any choice on who’s in your team, for the most part you wouldn’t know any of them. Thus you can likely have a psychotic member that you constantly need to manage. You have the choice of killing the members that might cause problems, but then your avatar is not only weaker, but harder to control.
That’s the concept for the most part, there’s more to it but just read it if you already find it interesting.
Akihito(protagonist):
You don’t have a route just for the protagonist, I’m only including him because he’s important in every route, technically every route alters him the most.
Has a guilty conscience and for the most part he has depression. How the story is written, it displays his constant struggle with his own weakness. However, that’s the largest problem in the novel, and it’ll be explained in Benio’s route.
Common Route:
The common route is done well. Honestly, I find it much better than most common routes on most novels(this excludes linear novels that only have the first choice way into the novel). It’s interesting enough to keep it going and it doesn’t overstay its’ welcome. It explains most of the characters to a degree to make the reader interested on which route to pick(though having the first route being forced to Benio discredits that point entirely until the second playthrough). Though it does have downsides such as barely mentioning Soejima at all(but I’ll talk about that in her own section).
Benio:
Benio is the first route, you’re forced into it(most options are available afterwards). Hot headed character that fights for justice, also the pure one. Tries to make the friends be friendly.
Relationship type: Give and take traits. Akihito has an issue when around Benio, as she shines brightly in the nocturnal city.
Her route develops Akihito’s story as she’s kind of his opposite in a few ways, thus the MC has a larger monologue than normal with other routes. The problem with this is that his main concept is impurity, death and depression, that in itself isn’t all that bad; It’s rather interesting if done right. However, the amount of times he repeats a few lines is so high that he completely beats the crap out of Yuichi’s line repetition(Grisaia’s MC). It makes a potentially interesting story into quite an annoyance. Fortunately, they don’t repeat as often in the other routes, the writers probably assumed the consumer got the point across by then.
In short, Benio is a decent character with not only her subtle changes to some matters while also being stubborn enough to not let outside influences deteriorate the brilliance of some her traits. The problem is Akihito, and the reason why her route rank is low, coupled with the fact that she doesn’t have much screen time on her own route, but rather the route is more finishing a grasp of what the story is about.
Note: the next three routes can be done in any order.
Mayuki:
I did Mayuki’s route second. Honestly she’s my favorite character in the novel and that’s why I gave such a range on the rank. There’s also references that only makes sense if you know a little bit about normal nerdy stuff.
She’s pretty cheeky, which brings a great contrast of how the normal loli is portrayed.
Relationship: Give traits(Akihito kind of gains a lot of her hobbies and some of her personality traits).
This route, unlike some routes, takes Akihito out of depression, it’s also one of the routes where it’s talked the least.
I also find her ending the better of the five, but containing lower quality fights. It’s more based on matters outside of Avatar fights. I can’t say much without spoiling it unlike Benio’s(they bloody spoil part of Mayuki’s route in Benio’s route, which is fine since it was obvious to the point I thought it was making a reference to some media), so I’ll leave it at that.
Ayaya:
Perky underclassmen. Shafted to the side, mainly given a route due to be connected to a more important character. Honestly, she had such a high potential with her ideology in the common route. It’s more of a comedy route than anything else. It’s short, but that’s actually a good thing taking where the route was leading into consideration. At least she got a route, unlike Kururi.
Her ending is ok, also comical, but it leaves with Akihito with a brighter outlook, but I don’t believe as high as Mayuki’s route.
Soejima:
Quite and a bit of an airhead. Represents the same qualities and emotions of Akihito, thus the most trouble out of the cast in terms of Akihito’s outlook on life. For the most part, the route is useless as they kind of go over it in Kagome’s route. At times, it’s even in better detail on Kagome’s route. However, it does introduce a few cool fights and also develops some of the side characters and their goals in the novel.
The reason why I gave her a low score is because she’s not really needed, she’s just introduced out of nowhere and then kind of done again in the later route. I do like the normal ending though, as my favorite character and Akihito are kind of like buddies.
Kagome:
This is the route that saves the game. It’s not even about much of Kagome’s relationship with the main character, but how everything from the other routes converge into this one route aside from emotions. People that like Haru will also be pleased i this route. Note: I originally thought this novel would be something around Cross Channel due to some of the character archetypes. However, Kagome’s route felt a lot like Heaven’s Feel from Fate/Stay Night in terms of how cool some of the fights are.
Ending notes:
Honestly, the largest issue for me was that I was overhyped for it. If I considered it like a generic novel, maybe the ratings would be higher. However, ratings kind of limit how far I can go with such a simple ranking system(I put fsn as B+ if I consider all 3 routes into one, so while I might consider some novels B worthy, it can’t be otherwise I have to raise the ranks of other novels. In short, I’ll give it a more generic rating; Try it out if you like scifi/fantasy related novels and are used to reading long novels(this isn’t a beginner novel).
Also, my favorite character is Izawa, followed by Mayuki and Gasai.
Mainly a Visual Novel Blog now 