きのうの春で、君を待つ

KINOU NO HARU DE, KIMI WO MATSU

NOVEL

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
April 17, 2020
CHAPTERS
7

DESCRIPTION

Two years ago, high schooler Kanae left his small island community of Sodeshima to pursue his academic dreams in Tokyo. When that life falls short of his expectations, he runs away from home to return to Sodeshima to find his childhood friend, Akari. But before they can rekindle their old feelings for each other, the clock strikes six and Kanae finds himself inexplicably thrust forward four days into the future. Worse, he learns that Akito, Akari’s older brother—and Kanae’s childhood hero—is dead.

Except death might not be the end for Akito. As Kanae tries to fill in the four-day gap of his memories, Akari explains: he’s about to relive those four days in reverse order in a phenomenon known as “Rollback.” Kanae himself explained it to her…in a past he hasn’t yet experienced. Armed with this new knowledge, Kanae is determined to leverage Rollback however he can to save Akito’s life—and Akari’s heart.

(Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

CAST

Akari Hoshina
Kanae Funami
Saki Hayase

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

doo78
90/100
I'm going to write something here yesterday.
Okay...so where do I begin? Ah, right, context comes first.

So, Waiting For Me Yesterday in Spring (WFMYIS) is one of the only books I've actually completed from start to finish. Growing up, I was never interested in books and in school I would only pretend to read books - simply staring at the words - whilst getting lost in my thoughts in the meantime. I did, however, read 9 volumes of the Oregairu light novel but other than that, I've never completed a book from start to finish. I tried reading some "classics", such as Sherlock Holmes and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, hoping that they would be the gateway into the medium but quickly realised that it wouldn't work out as I had hoped. The big deal-breaker is likely the language used. Being so old, those books are hard to understand and in turn are simply tiring to read. Every other sentence I would be struggling to understand what's being said and would be searching up a new word in the dictionary.

Eventually, I conceded and tried my hand at a light novel instead - namely, WFMYIS (yes, I am not bothered to type the whole title every time). And to my fortunate surprise, it was amazing. Honestly, I could not ask for a better companion to guide me into the world of books than this book. Compared to the aforementioned "classics", the language is actually comprehensible and although there are words I don't fully know the meaning of sprinkled in, they are words that I may have heard of before, are actually used in the present day and words that I will benefit learning. Also, they don't appear nearly as often. You don't know how thankful I am to read a book that isn't written in cipher-text. The other two books had me trudging through the pages whereas I was zooming through these. During the climax, I was glued to my seat and read over a hundred pages in one go, which I don't think I'd ever done before. So, needless to say, it was a fun time and consequently I am here to review it.

I suppose it would be appropriate to discuss the premise first. It certainly is not a novel concept - time travel has been covered many times throughout all kinds of media - however, it's always been a genre I've had unwavering interest in. Piecing together clues, connecting the dots of how timelines interact or even seeing the reacts of revealing the time travel to other members of the cast; it never gets old. Despite being a common concept, this book takes a rather interesting spin on it. Usually time travel media involve going (only once) forward in time, back in time or being constantly stuck in a time-loop. WFMYIS goes back in time day-by-day to slowly build up to an important date. This is particularly fascinating because, since the end of each day connects to the start of the previous one experienced, it has to be cleverly pieced together. Not only that, but seeing the outcome and affects of what has already happened before it is experienced sets the book up for some great foreshadowing and helps build tension for what is to come.

Delving into the story, we experience a slowly unraveling thread of events leading up to a clear climax. This turning point is made apparent near to the very beginning of the book so tension is accumulated throughout. Each day we gather more and more information on what happened in the past few days and learn more about each character who were, so far, a mystery. The story relies less on huge, high-energy events but more so on intimate moments between characters or subtle chilling moments alluding to something more serious or even sinister. This drip-feeding of information keeps you on edge.

The structure definitely lends itself well to this style of storytelling; before each chapter, there is an interlude where we switch perspectives to the heroine, gaining insight into her incentives and backstory. Since she is an extremely relevant character to the story, gradually figuring out her intentions and picking up on certain details shown in the regular chapters but went unnoticed without this extra information certainly maintains a high level of engagement and is an effective way to get us to care about the characters more, without distracting from the plot too much.

Where this is especially useful is before the climax; there is an alarming end to the chapter before, suggesting that Akari's brother could be physically abusing her. The interlude is then used to detail these events, on top of all of the suffering she put herself through to better her life and be with the one she loves. Truthfully, this interlude was maybe the most harrowing and disturbing read I've had. Although it wasn't considerably graphic or extreme, it was the detailed and explicit dive into her thoughts and feelings that really conveyed the hopelessness of her situation that made it so heart-breaking - even more so with the investment into making her likable as a character and getting us to care about her by showing us her perspectives through the interludes up to that point. And what this particular interlude did was set the stage perfectly for an emotionally charged and impactful climax.

The climax involved a very intense set of events but what stood out to me the most was the thought-provoking nature of it. I will discuss the themes represented here later on but it made me think beyond the characters being good and bad and made the story a lot more grounded in reality.

However, ending it after the decision to save Akito would have been underwhelming. Thankfully, before we are given a catharsis, the true climax with tenfold the intensity comes crashing down on us. The girl who we've been made to care for so much tries to kill herself. Now, suicide is a graphic concept and in fiction needs to be execute well to not come off as melodramatic or as if it is used for shock-value. The author does an excellent job at heightening the emotional intensity enough for it to be immersive. Moreover, it is realistic. Usually, in these kind of scenes, the person trying to kill themselves is (no pun intended) kind of sitting on the fence and doesn't take much convincing to stop them. There's usually a scene of them bursting out crying, mentioning some petty reasoning and then eventually giving up. In this scene, Akari is completely determined and does not falter. She calmly explains her position to Kanae, refuting any of his arguments and justifying all of hers. She had genuinely thought it through with sound and coherent judgement - this was not a hysteric outburst. And that's what makes this scene so engaging. I was truly not sure whether or not she would die. To boot, Kanae stands on the ledge, offering to die with her and she isn't fazed. I was fairly convinced that the book would end with a double-suicide. Luckily, it didn't but the heights of tension that it reached made for a satisfying catharsis afterwards when everything is resolved and all lose ends were tied. In my opinion, this was a fantastically written build-up, climax and conclusion.

On the other hand, I do have some qualms with it. Firstly, it was not particularly shocking. Although there were elements that surprised me, of course, I was constantly theorizing what could have happened in my head. For example, I had theories that Kanae had actually killed Akito in the past once he found out that he was abusing Akari. I also theorised that maybe Akari had some elaborate plan to get Kanae to kill him and to be with him, since she loved him so much. Even though the truth was entertaining, these theories could have arguably been more exciting, albeit much harder to pull off. A plot twist like that could have been more hard-hitting. Secondly, sort of following up from the previous point, it was quite cliche at times. For example, having a childhood friend who falls in love with the main character because he was the only one who stood up for her is a very common trope in anime and manga. Also, the main character's reaction to the time-travel was also very stereotypical and expected. We all knew that the time-travel would take place so spending so much time showing how shocked he was and trying to convey that it really was happening was kind of stale. And although I was mostly entertained throughout, the first few chapters were pretty uneventful at times. Still, the story was very well thought out and written.

Moving on to the characters, we have our main two, Kanae and Akari, and then some other side characters such as the grandma, Eri, Akito and a few more. There were also some that were rather obsolete, such as the friendly police officer and Akito's girlfriend. The only characters that really got development, though, were the main two.

One massive strength of the book is that it is written from a first-person perspective. With the interludes, this extends to the heroine, Akari, as well. As aforementioned, I haven't read many books but from the little I have read, first-person perspectives are my favourite. There is a level of instant empathy and relatability when hearing the thoughts of the character, making us care more about what happens to them. Take for example the emotional interlude I discussed earlier, if that had been told from a third-person perspective, I don't think it would have been nearly as poignant. Hearing first-hand the despair and suffering from the girl herself drives home the horrible situation much more, in my opinion, in a way that wouldn't be as significant in third-person. The author is able to write very explicitly detailed monologues that take a deep dive into the characters thoughts, not only to flesh out the plot but to really humanize them, making them feel more like people and less like characters.

The characters themselves aren't particularly quirky or unique. Kanae is sort of a run-of-the-mill teenager who has been put into a sticky situation. Akari is a little more unique in regards to the strength of her feelings for Kanae and the hardwork and tenacity she puts in. Due to this, I would definitely argue that this book is more heavy with the story than its characters. A lot of the monologuing relates to the story or is simply to describe the events happening in the moment. Although, as I mentioned, there is a substantial amount that is used to humanize them, I would say that there is more emphasis on what is happening to them than their morality or who they are as a person.

Something that does stand out, though is the dialogue and interactions. It somehow is able to remain realistic whilst still entertaining and engaging. There is clear chemistry between the cast and because of this, the romance between Akari and Kanae doesn't feel superficial or contrived. Even in the suicide scene, there is still cleverly written comedy and teasing.

As a whole, the characters are good and entertaining but don't stand out too much. This isn't that detrimental considering there is a larger focus on the plot, which isn't a problem at all when you look at how that turned out for the story.

Now, let's talk about the themes. The book, as I mentioned, has it's priority set on the plot and does not branch too heavily into other aspects such as the characters and themes. However, it does present some interesting ideas. Circling back to the "thought-provoking nature" I mentioned (in reference to them deciding whether or not to let Akito die), the book questions your morality quite directly. We are made to think about whether we agree with the decision to let Akito die or not. We have plenty of reason to want him to die: he hits his sister, frightens her with his friends, steals her hard-earned money and is generally just a horrible person. But even still, does he deserve to die? And is that our (or the main character's) decision to make? The book asks you if you believe in second chances or if you think there's no turning it around for Akito, if what he's done is too much to be forgiven. Initially, the main characters decide on letting him die. It's the easy way out, after all. No more abuse, no more fear and one less awful person on the earth. And the book portrays this as not a negative decision. In fact, it really is hard to argue against it. However, personally, I believe in second chances. Picturing a future where Akito would turn it all around, right his wrongs and fix his life, I wouldn't be able to deny that man that opportunity because I have little faith it would happen. Not only that, but I would not be able to live my life knowing that I'm the reason he isn't walking around on the planet anymore. The book acknowledges the pain and grief that would bring and demonstrates a great display of hope with Kanae saving his life. I don't think that a well illustrated theme needs to be one that I agree with but I can't deny that it was very satisfying to see Kanae go back on his decision and go to save his life.

Other than that theme, there are some lightly explored themes such as bullying and, of course, the romantic element, but what I discussed is what I believed was explored the best.

The final thing I want to talk about, and this is something I'm not used to talking about since this is my first book review, is the descriptive writing. Now, to preface, I wasn't amazing at English in school. I got half-decent grades in it and my own creative writing was pretty average. Still, with the little insight that I have, I really enjoyed the writing in this book. The descriptions were so vivid and exciting to read. It never rambled on too long, over-detailing any description but still managed to paint a clear picture in my mind of whatever was happening. At the moment, I'm trying to get into writing myself and I must admit, I took a few notes here and there. Of course, the book is Japanese so a lot of credit for the descriptive writing goes to the translators, especially for the vocabulary used, but the foundation by the original author is very strong. Truthfully, some of the most enjoyable parts of the book were descriptions of simple things like a cherry blossom falling into Akari's hand or watching over the town from the rooftop of the school. With other, older books that I don't understand the language of, it's hard for me to appreciate this facet of the writing but with a book like this, it really is a joy to read through and experience.

In conclusion, I am very pleased with this book as a whole, especially as an introduction in the medium of books. I think reading single-volume light-novels like this is a good gateway into books so that might be my modus operandi for the foreseeable future. Despite some problems or criticisms here and there, it is a very complete experience with many emotional ups and downs and I'm glad I picked it up.
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