Infinite Dendrogram: Volume 6 (Infinite Dendrogram (light novel))

by Sakon Kaidou

[sa090]

Yeah, didn’t enjoy the anime all that much. What is released of it anyway, so onward to the novels!

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I AM still watching the anime, despite the fact I’m a little behind so I hope that it will become a lot more entertaining than it is now. That being said, I do think that this novel is probably the most amusing of the 6 I’ve read so far. Characters are introduced, returning ones are explored in bigger details and Onee-san Starling is just being teased throughout of it that I will sacrifice both Ray and Shu, for her to make an appearance. Yes, that’s how far I’m gone right now and Sakon Kaidou doesn’t make it easier whatsoever.

The volume in itself is a filler, literally the only thing I can call it, since the plot isn’t really advancing despite the characters getting stronger. But, then again that’s what being in an MMO is all about. Yours truly is a semi active FFXIV player, yet I’m neglecting the main story quests just because I’m cleaning up beast tribe quests and leveling up my disciples of the land. Do I regret it? Nope. Will I continue doing just that when I’m done writing this? Hell, yes. Being able to experience every little thing in a whole new world is the beauty of MMOs, now imagine being able to full dive, I’m literally never going to come out of there.

Anyways, the main things to notice when a volume like this comes along are the characters and Infinite Dendrogram excels in one thing above all others for me, namely making Ray and Nemesis the least interesting of the introduced cast. To me personally, they can be easily considered boring when taking in the colourful additions like Shu, Franklin and the few superiors briefly introduced in this volume to name a few. Therefore, it grates my nerves when Ray has to fulfill the job description of the main character when I’d rather anyone else get to do it instead.

Really, it’s insane how each volume makes that feeling grow stronger and stronger.

I mean it doesn’t really help when Ray is falling deeper and deeper into the “how convenient was that?!” Pool. If he spent more time in the game, I’ll think that it’s a natural progression but the guy’s a noob who got lucky, multiple times and will only continue to get lucky every single time. It was interesting the first few times, but by now I’m done and I’m way over it. A game needs a challenge, not a very convenient set of skills that makes the MC a way stronger entity than need be.

Ever since I read volume 5, this has been more apparent than ever (I know it started in previous volumes) and volume 6 is only pushing down on the gas pedal, it’s not slowing down at all. At the moment, I’ll consider it a con to the series but who knows what will happen? I do think that game wise this is probably the best I’ve seen as of yet, so I hope it will continue to be so.

To be very honest, in the end, of the side characters weren’t as interesting as they were or the bits and pieces of comedy didn’t hit every single time, this would have been rated way less than this. But at least I was entertained and that’s never a loss :)

Final rating: 3/5