KIMI TO BOKU NO KOWARETA SEKAI
STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
November 5, 2003
CHAPTERS
4
DESCRIPTION
The first installment of the Sekai Series.
Two siblings in the process of crossing a forbidden line, Hitsuuchi Samatoki and Hitsuuchi Yorotsuki. Two friends, Mukaezuki Hakohiko and Kotohara Ririsu. A locked-room murder at the school cracks their worlds…
(Source: Kodansha, translated)
CAST
Kuroneko Byouinzaka
Samatoki Hitsuuchi
Yorutsuki Hitsuuchi
Ririsu Kotohara
Hakohiko Mukaezuki
Rokunin Kazusawa
CHAPTERS
RELATED TO KIMI TO BOKU NO KOWARETA SEKAI
REVIEWS
Tesstarossa
This novel contains violent scenes and grotesque expressionsContinue on AniListOh Sekai... Sekai, Sekai, Sekai. This is a fairly niche light novel series. (Like everything I've reviewed so far) whilst Nisioisin is a popular author for sure, this mystery series is usually overshadowed by most of everything else he's written like Monogatari, Zaregoto, Medaka Box, Katanagatari, and even Boukyaku Tantei. It actually reminds me a TON of Zaregoto v1 in particular. From the long, witty banter between two characters, to the nonsensical plot twists that really test your suspension your disbelief, there's even similar character archetypes. (To me personally.)
However, the key difference between this book and Zaregoto is that it is much more grounded in reality. The school setting allows for a decidedly different feel from Zaregoto that lets Sekai stand on its own. The book is also extremely self referential, but not in a fourth wall breaking sense, as much as it is commentary about mystery novels and media consumption in general, some people don't like this kinda thing but I absolutely love it. Besides that, this book is about fucked up, toxic relationships, and a love triangle between Samatoki, his sister, and his school mate. Samatoki gets accused of being a siscon constantly because of his attachment to his sister, Samatoki's school mate Kotohara goes to extreme measures for her crush on Samatoki, and his friend Hakohiko goes to extreme measures to help both of them. Which eventually leads into an insane climax.
This book actually starts out quite slow, with most of the over 120 page first chapter spent on conversations between the characters, a confession of love, and just establishing the setting, fairly normal stuff, this isn't to say the book "gets good" after that, because I was very engaged from the beginning, but it is a slow burn... until someone gets murdered that is.
Kuroneko and Samatoki are the ones teaming up to solve the mystery, and there's also an entire subplot about Samatoki and his... close, relationship with his sister. Kuroneko is one of the coolest characters Nisio has ever made, and according to Nisio himself she seems to be his favorite character of his. Kuroneko is an outcast, who is the victim of a ton of rumors (due to a bombshell related to her that I will not spoil). But she's actually extremely talkative to the point of having extremely long rambles that aren't even divided into paragraphs. She's also obsessed with solving mysteries to the point where she'd rather die than leave something unsolved. Samatoki does a fine enough job as the protagonist, and has great dialogue, but I don't find him too interesting overall. I do really like Yorutsuki though, she is this shy, highly intelligent bookworm girl who speaks in first person, and honestly reminds me a lot of Kunagisa. While I'm talking about Yorutsuki, I might as well mention that I don't really mind all the references to incest in this book that much, it makes sense for the theming here, I did get a bit uncomfortable at a certain scene late in the novel that feels reminiscent of the kinda thing in Nisemonogatari. So if that bothers you, keep that in mind I suppose. Besides that, Kotohara is okay, and I like Hakohiko, the Kendo club leader quite a bit.
To be honest, a big reason I procrastinated on this review so long is because it was the one I was the least interested in reviewing, despite being the one I needed to review first so I could review the others. Codifying my feelings into a review of this (and the entire series for that matter) that also doesn't spoil too much about it is quite the challenge. I initially wrote a review of all 4 books in one, but I was absolutely not satisfied with how it turned out, the lesson I learned is don't do that because that's biting off way more than you can chew, just split them up. It's not to say I'm not passionate about the book enough to be motivated to review it, it's moreso there's already a review out there that does a much better job than I ever could. Needless to say this entire end section purely exists to shill that review by Jared E. Jellson (JellyJar) of the orient express. It is incredibly long, and very in depth, but what I've read of it so far has been extremely great. However that review is made as a deep dive for people who have already read Sekai 1, whereas this one is a more casual look at it aiming to get people interested in reading, so I hope I was able to do that!
The review in question:
https://blog.psychopopular.com/literature/our-sekai-breakdown
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SCORE
- (3.7/5)
MORE INFO
Ended inNovember 5, 2003
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