The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, Vol. 1 (The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, #1)

by Eiji Mikage

[sa090]

It's always difficult reading something that's considered very popular, not because it makes me adamant to give it a lower score, but instead because it raises the bar to very unrealistic and most of the time hard to reach levels.

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This novel in particular has been the #1 highest rated novel on MyAnimeList for as long as I can remember, that recently changed but still an 8.92/10 average score is nothing to laugh at. I like a good mystery, and this light novel being so easy to read was an encouraging thing for me, however, I feel like the praise made it seem like I'll be blown away throughout the entirety of it. Which obviously didn't happen, in fact, I think my expectations going into it backfired massively. I did say that the writing was very easy to get through, however, the actual conversations in the novel were more of a jumbled mess than anything else. I know that it's a mystery novel, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the conversation between the characters need to be filled with examples that don't make sense and those with knowledge refusing to share it in details because it's "tiring". You can still make it awesome with everyone talking normally.

The plot itself was interesting, I liked the concepts applied although I wish that the biggest one was explained a little better than what actually was portrayed. I did find something that didn't make a lot of sense to me and could be a potential plot hole, but I'll leave it for the comments so I can fill it with spoilers as I please. That aside, I think the biggest issue here other than the way of writing lies with the characters. Unfortunately, none of them were actually that interesting for me to get invested in or rather, want to see what happens to them. Maybe if it was animated, I might get a little more interested but as it was, the tropes they filled were not actually ones I enjoy as a fan of this medium.

Once the mystery got solved and the last event was to be executed, it was easy to figure out how we're proceeding then. The series as I said relies on cryptic writing, it doesn't really serve a purpose in my opinion most of the time, but it's still heavily utilized and in it, everything of importance is actually underlined to be paid attention to for later. This made that last event easy to guess, is it a good move? Most likely not, a mystery series having underlines where I should pay attention kind of beats the point.

That aside, I found the motive to be kind of pathetic as well. Going through the entirety of this just for that one to one is nothing more than a hassle, I really really wished that there was something a lot deeper at play here than something that simple. I mean the way it was laid out before the loop started, made it seem like there is something big to erase but once I reached the end I'm sighing in disappointment that it wasn't.

I do believe that this might actually work better as a show because the underlines will be gone, and like the Monogatari series shows, roundabout conversations can actually work better in that format. It's not a bad novel, there are interesting stuff for sure, but I believe that there are some things in this that makes immense enjoyment way harder to achieve than to be expected.

Will I read the rest? Not in the near future I'm afraid, I'd rather focus on things I'm more likely to enjoy than not so :)

Final rating: 2/5