The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, Vol. 1

空ろの箱と零のマリア [Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria] #1

by Eiji Mikage, 415 (Illustrator), Luke Baker (Translator)

Kazuki Hoshino leads the easy-going life of a typical high school student--until the appearance of a new girl in his class turns his world upside down! Introducing herself with a promise to "break" Kazuki is abnormal enough to make an impression, sure, but why does she seem so familiar...?

Genres: Light Novel, Fantasy, Manga, Mystery, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Dropped out of college to become a writer; he still works a part time job to make ends meet.

Reviews

[Sean O'Hara · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know what's amazing? It's only been 18 years since the film Groundhog's Day popularized the infinite time-loop story [1]. Less than two decades, but the concept has become a staple of sci-fi television -- it's hard to think of any SF show that hasn't had a Groundhog's Day episode. And yet there are surprisingly few literary takes on the concept, and off the top of my head I'm not aware of any novels that use the concept.

(You! Yes, you. The guy who's about to say, "What about Ken Grimwood's Replay?" Don't. Being able to relive large portions of your life isn't the same as being forced to repeat a short time-span ad nauseum. A single day or a week doesn't allow much variety for your experiences, or time to see any effect from your actions.)

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (0's Maria and the Box of Oblivion) is the first lengthy prose work I've encountered that tackles this idea. And whereas most TV series that use the concept follow Groundhog's Day approach and treat it as comedy, Eiji Mikage chooses instead to focus on the horror of the situation [2]. It helps that the characters are all high school students, which greatly limits their freedom of movement. Just imagine being trapped not just in trigonometry forever, but having it be the same lesson. A show like Stargate can have Jack and Teal'c go through hundreds of repetitions and come out unfazed, but Mikage knows that anyone in this situation would be going crazy after the first thousand cycles.

Most Groundhog's Day stories go in one of two directions -- either everyone is ignorant of the looping at first, but then gradually begin to experience deja vu; or the protagonist is aware of it from the get-go and has to reconvince those around him in each iteration. However Mikage takes the story in a direction I've never seen before (though the "Endless Eight" story in Haruhi Suzumiya did something sorta similar): Kazuki Hoshino, the main POV character in this book, is actually one of the poor dumb bastards who doesn't know what's going on, and he's constantly perplexed by Maria, the only person aware of the loops (other than the person causing them).

But some of Kazuki's actions make Maria suspicious that he's the one causing the loop, which draws her attention across multiple repetitions. After a while, her constant attention starts to break down the barriers to his memories and he's able to retain some information across resets.

The book is really well structured. Because Kazuki's memories are imperfect -- even once he gains the ability to remember past iterations, the power is inconsistent -- Mikage can use anachronic order to withhold info from the reader without it feeling like a cheat. Every time the story starts to get comfortable, he slips in a revelation that changes everything. The first of these came as quite a shock as it seemed to give too much away -- only 20% into the book and he's already revealed who's responsible for the loops. But then the next revelation would come along and call into question what had gone before.

This pervasive uncertainty, combined with paranoia about who is causing the loop, gives the story a very creepy Phillip K. Dick feeling that suits the plot much better than Jack and Teal'c shooting golf balls through the Stargate.

[1] The concept itself dates at least to the 1973 short story 12:01 P.M. which was actually turned into a telefilm the same year as Groundhog's Day, however only anal-retentive geeks like me know of 12:01 P.M. while everyone's familiar with the Bill Murray movie.

[2] I understand that early drafts of Groundhog's Day actually did treat the subject seriously, even suggesting that Phil spent thousands, if not millions of years repeating that day.

EDIT: Rereading the series in preparation for the last volume.

[Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, translation: 'The Empty Box and The Zeroth Maria' is a light novel series revolves around a mysterious new student 'Maria' and a...box (sort of).

Like many other light novels, the story takes place in a high school, in the morning of the 3rd of March, a new student arrives to the school, and upon her arrival, she walks up to a male student (the narrator) and announced to him and the entire class that 'I'm here to destroy you.'

Turns out that unbeknownst to everyone, due to mysterious reason, the whole class has been trapped in the same 2rd of March infinitely and everyone in the classroom is doomed to relive the exact same day endlessly. The new girl is the only one who remembers this endless circle (called 'The Classroom of Rejection' by the MCs) and everything that had once happened/happens/is happening/will happen in this day. And somehow, after relive the exact same day for a few thousands of times, the girl is now convinced that the narrator is responsible for their inescapable entrapment.

To make things worse, soon the narrator is having flashbacks of countless repeated memories of this repeated 2rd of March and the new girl might not be the only one who remembers their repeated day?

The main concept of the story looks quite similar with an old 1990s Hollywood movie (can't recall the title), and I bet there are at least a few books from Japan which deal with similar idea. I can't say I love this first volume nor can I say the story blows me away. I don't particularly like those characters but I can at least understand them as people who try to deal with a very difficult and insane situation.

The mystery part of the story I do find refreshing, and so does the ending part. I like how the narrator and the new girl eventually find a way to break out from their repeated day. Also, the strangely light-heartened tone and the writing and the 'teen spirit' within the story eccerily reminds me of a Mejibray's song named Uka (Translation: Feather Flower). (link to the music video: https://youtu.be/k6yUmCoXbIw)



I can't resist pimping Mejibray's photos, now and then.

Review for the sequel: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Petros · Rating 1 out of 5]

First scene, and the story begins with a mysterious transfer student who happens to be a stunningly beautiful girl, instantly being a tsundere with a bland self-insert protagonist. Not a moment to lose when it comes to empowerment fantasy.

So this Kazuki guy is the usual empty husk of a character who behaves as if he is average in everything, and wastes his life going to school and doing done to death ecchi jokes found in every soft porn there is.

The transfer student throws an infodump at him, which is forced as hell, since she clearly speaks in an artificial way about it. She would normally not talk like that after so many time resets, and definitely not when she thinks the MC is lying.

Hey, I mentioned time resets, didn’t I? Now you know why it’s so highly rated. Schools, bland MC, fan service, and time resets. Even the freaking explanation is using videogame logic to explain what is going on.

So basically, every time someone dies, time resets back to the day she transferred. And since this is a light novel means that it always happens in very gory ways so we can maximize the edge. Now you know why it’s the highest rated, it’s Rezero all over again, fully equipped with sleeping on the laps of waifus and getting crazy by the constant repetitions.

Eventually, the MC finds out that the loops are caused by a schoolgirl that has the hots for him. She is frustrated by him not being able to confess his love, so she constantly kills people and loops time until he confesses his love to her. That makes sense; manipulating time and killing people because a boy you dig is dense as rock. What is this, Future Diary?

What is even more mentally challenged is that the bitch makes it hard for the MC to retain his memories in every loop, while the transfer student which has absolutely nothing to do with this situation remembers every single loop. She made things this way, it’s all her fault and yet has the nerve to accuse the MC.

Anyways, after killing each other a dozen times and talking as if they are smart, the story ends with the loops stopping and the power transferring from the yandere bitch to the transfer student because of rules that apply in this “so logical” supernatural story.

Who would have guessed? The first book ends with resetting everything, everybody forgetting the whole thing, and one waifu exchanging brains with another waifu. So thought-provoking, worthy of being the highest rated light novel of all times. If they ever adapt it, it will be praised as the best anime of all times, even better than SAO and Erased.

Jokes aside, it was terrible. Absolutely no world building, the setting is a featureless school, the characters barely have any personality, we see nothing about how they live, who are their parents, how are the teachers reacting to a bitch having so much smug in their classes, there is zero tension since they can redo the same events infinite times until they succeed (which they do for several thousands of times), and in general there is nothing to define the story besides a time reset gimmick.

[Shwe Yamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm into Japanese light novels these days. Sure manga and anime are great too. But this one, despite being a novel, where music and animation absent, I would say that it delivers far more entertainment. And it also avoids today's mainstream and cliche light novels plot (like protagonist-is-a-saint-and-won't-do-anything-terrible-to-others-but-also-want-to-protect-his-friends-somehow-it-all-work-out-in-the-end-by-some-miracle-cause-he-is-the-man) yes it's exaggerated but that's how I feel about these days anime and manga. But the characters in this novel are realistic and make decisions that me myself would make if I'm in same position as them. Needless to say I'm hooked and I'm at volume three now. Each volume left a deep impression in me with the way the story was told and the characterization.

[valerio · Rating 1 out of 5]

“I won't have a conversation with you. You will just listen to my words like an idiot." [p. 45]

Well, that pretty much sums up how reading this book feels like.

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria is a light novel series by Mikage Eiji told in seven books, which I don't know if I'll ever read till the end because just the first one, The Rejecting Classroom here reviewed, was such an experience Game of Thrones suddenly seems worth the Nobel prize for literature in comparison. And I'm talking about a book written so badly there are empty, generic passages like:

“The hall rang to Yunkish laughter, Yunkish songs, Yunkish prayers. Dancers danced; musicians played queer tunes with bells and squeaks and bladders; singers sang ancient love songs in the incomprehensible tongue of Old Ghis.” [from 'A Dance with Dragons']

Ugh, how it does not express any kind of mood or content.

One premise: I, as well as likely many western readers of the series, do not speak japanese, so this entire review (or analysis, or rant, you choose) is going to refer to Baka-Tsuki's English translation of the first novel; whether it is faithful or not to the original text, for the sake of the review I'll generally refer to whoever is behind it, be it Mikage Eiji or a translator, as “the author”. It's my way of being fair and unbiased, please bear with it.

Back on topic, I opened with an actual big claim: the author's writing is worse than G. R. R. Martin's. It's not unusual to find dry and unispired prose in light novels, but for it to be so terrible I actually gave up four times prior in the first pages is an amazing result. Let's take for example page 13 of the first volume; Daiya, our protagonist's best friend, informs him about the incoming transfer student, to which Hoshino, our protagonist, absent-mindedly replies that he already “heard something about it”. Now this was a really bad move on his part because immediately Daiya begins questioning him on how he knew about the transfer student, presenting a lenghty reasoning to prove the impossibility for Hoshino to know anything of it, just to completely shrug it off next page with a “Well, whatever”. And the topic will never be discussed again.

So why even bother in the first place? The answer is actually pretty simple; it was so we could be informed, in a very straight-forward manner, about the story being a time loop. Which, incidentally, was clearly so since the first line in the novel, “1st time”. It became more obvious at the fourth line “23th time” and almost insultingly forced upon us at the seventh line “1050th time” [p. 10]. So I get it, there's a time loop, I know you have to explain it to the readers but, since it's already an established plot point since the very first page, is it necessary to be so redundant about it? It seems nitpicking, I know, but it's important to understand how the author is poorly using repetitions to get across a very simple point, as if he's not confident enough about his plot so he has to retrace it again and again.

And that's overlooking the stiff small talks in which the characters engage in the first few pages. Still, if we need further evidences of the author awkward prose, here's some other passages from the following pages:

“It's not good to be making these guesses about the transfer student, it's prejudice. I mean she's already in a suspicious position even without that.” [p. 14]

Why would she be? Never explained. Also this statement sounds quite prejudicial itself.

“She sits down naturally at the empty seat beside mine, almost as if this seat has been prepared for her from the start.” [p. 15]

Isn't that how it usually works, the transfer student gets the empty sit? Maybe there were several empty seats she could choose from but it is never stated otherwise so how could we know? The way it is presented it's not something so weird it deserves this enigmatic phrasing.

“The white legs that look out from Mogi-san's skirt are so thin, […] And I am, for some reason, sleeping with my head on her lap. Ah, yeah. I don't have a clue anymore of what´s going on, either. […] I can, by the way, remember how it came to this.“ [p. 16]

Either you don't have a clue of what's going on or you do, there's really no in-between. One cannot know and not know about something, Socrates would go insane at the mere thought. You probably meant to say that the protagonist is confused about the situations he's in, but that's way too roundabout and misspelled to express such a simple point.

“Daiyan is so intelligent it's not even funny, right? […] And he said he would simply write «Aya Otonashi». So he couldn't think of anything else to write. Of course it's the same for me. What I want to say is, well, we can't think of anything, so we can't write anything else, either." [p. 23]

“'Sent back' is the correct expression from my own perspective, but generally it's not. So I'm using the expression 'School Transfer' here, since it's closer to what actually happens––” [p. 25]

My mind just did several back flips in the attempt to understand what is even written here.

"Forgetting how to take it out is a common case. But you have just forgotten it; somewhere, you still know how. Like you know how to ride a bicycle: you can't teach it to others, but you know it as a feeling. You're just bewildered because you can't convert it into words." [p. 29]

Since no one is seen laughing after this sentence, I have to believe it was intended as a serious statement, which raises the question: are the author's thoughts so hazy and messy he can't even imagine how to explain the basic concept of riding a bycicle? Does he think it's a natural innate ability we inherit from our DNA, or is it so difficult in his or her native language to say “sit on the saddle, balance yourself with one leg, start spinning the pedal with the other leg and keep going so you don't fall”, which I believe is how most parents teach their children how to ride a bicycle.

Furthermore, who already read the novel surely noticed the extensive use of underlined text, which is a rather unusual stylistic choice. I checked the original text to see if it was just the english translation and apparently even in japanese it was used a similiar fashion to stress relevant plot points. Which is simply a way to say “Look, this part here is very, very important, be sure to remember just this and nothing else on this paragraph. Don't worry about remembering the actual text or story, we are doing it for you”. Being treated as a Chalmers' zombie is not exactly the most flattering way to relate to a book, especially when we have at hand supposedly a mystery novel and a great deal in mystery is for the reader to actually think about the plot, to even try and solve it before the heroes get to the solution. I actually searched to understand the reason behind the underlined text and, seemingly, it's to add emphasis on important parts. Very well, then let's check one of these important parts:

“My friend Haruaki Usui, [who is sitting next to me]” [p. 19]

The bit in brackets was originally underlined and no, there's no real reason why it should be. Nothing gained from emphasis and no tension whatsoever. Some may argue that there is in fact a reason for wherever Haruaki is sitting to be of utmost importance for us; some pages later Haruaki is run over by a truck and immediately after we are brought back to the classroom where “Haruaki, who is sitting beside me, worries about me.” [p.30]. So, it was intended to accentuate, yet again, that our plot revolves around a time loop, which we've seen has been far well established by this point and, moreover, this paragraph even started with the line “2602nd time”. So, again, why is Haruaki's sit so important it needs an underscore and how long will we need to be reminded about the time loop before the plot even begins?

I'll hold back further remarks about the writing itself (it'll never get much better anyway) so I can express my point up to now: we barely hit the 30-page mark, of which 8 pages were pictures, and the author has so far revealed him or herself to be redundant, contradictory, shallow, confused and, apparently, so uncomfortable with the vocabulary he can't explain how to ride a bicycle. And he's supposed to tell a compelling thriller/horror/sci-fi story in the remaining 120 or so pages. Forgive me for being quite skeptical.

In fact, what we know by page 30 of the story is that a transfer student named Otonashi Aya is repeating the same day over and over again until she obtains a box from the protagonist Hoshino Kazuki. If he does not comply, people dies. Sounds like a very bad fanfic of Groundhog Day, and there's not even Bill Murray to raise the quality of the cast but we'll live with that. The problem raises when the story tries to set the tone for the central conflict between the two main characters but the actual contents consist of faux wit duels: “Are you stupid? Here's a lenghty explanation as to why”, “Ah! I'm actually a rather smart fellow. Here's a lenghty retort as to why.”, copy and paste for some chapters. My God, this pacing. Also basically everyone express him or herself the same way so after a while you don't even bother with who's accusing who anymore. Now it's starting to sound as a bad Death Note fanfic.

The whole reasoning behind the time loop is quite romantic. It's literally the same as the Endless Eight plus murders but I sincerely appreciated the spin the story gave to the concept. Too bad it took almost a hundred pages of redundancy to get to it; and that the culprit motivations were explaind in a mere page; and that they even tried to hide it for almost twenty more pages; and the solution is brought upon us by circumstantial and meaningless evidences (yes, the pouch). And really, can the murderer blame someone for not remembering what happens in a time loop controlled by the same murderer? I mean it's obvious that the memories will mostly reset if you restart everything from the beginning. I seriously did not understand why they were accused of forgetting what happened in the previous loops [p. 100]. By the end there's also so much of the story based on the concept of “the box” it's just inexcusable no one ever bothered to explain what it was. It grant wishes, sure, but then the wish separate itself from the person, but the “attachment” stays [p. 113], there's the conflict with other box users [p. 66], the fact that one can be closed inside a box [p. 115] because boxes are alternate dimensions? [p. 65] and boxes can be people, or people can be boxes?, it's all too vague and alien to me. The more I read of a book the more I expect to understand, not the the exact opposite.

Let's now discuss our hero, Hoshino Kazuki, a high-school boy gifted with a remarkable intellect. For being such a thoughtful protagonist, Hoshino seems to repeatedly fail to ask the most obvious and important questions, such as “How could I fall in love during the time loop when there had been little to no interactions between me and the girl?”, “What exactly is the box?”, “Who is the asterisk guy?”, “Who is Otonashi Aya?”, “Why only a person related to the classroom can be the culprit?” and “If I did my summer homework would Haruhi stop this madness already?”. He also has some very confused ideas about time and geology: “Everyday life is called everyday life because it flows continuously. If you stopped the flow of a river, then mud would gather and paint it black. It's just like that. Sediment has gathered here as well.” [p. 50]. So, that's not the actual meaning of “everyday”, that's not what happens to a river when you dam it and while the comparison between the flow of time and the flow of a river is common since ancient philosophy, it really does not apply here that well. Had Hoshino been described as a complete berk I would have said he was one of the most believable hero I've encountered in light novels yet.

Then there's the main heroine, Otonashi L Lelouch Light whatever, a girl so smart the moment she's asked to kindly and simply explain the whole story to us- I mean, to Hoshino, her answer is “There will be hindrances if I explain the details to you. Thus I can't tell you.” [p. 65]. Straight out from the international guide on how to avoid any explanation so the readers have to keep hoping that the plot will eventually make sense. Many mistakes this approach for “mystery” when, by its own definition, mystery is “something that is difficult or impossible to understand or explain […] whose [...] nature is puzzling or unknown” [Oxford dictionaries], which really does not translate to “completely avoiding explanations or answers”.

Then what is that HakoMari confuses shallowly as mystery? From the very beginning, we are lead to believe that the protagonist is behind a time loop (which, again, is not that much of a mystery since it was established on page 10) because he accepted the box [p. 8], except he didn't actually accept the box [p. 53] in a turn of events which resembles more the act of throwing a stone and hiding the hand than an actual plot twist. The first moment the mystery is properly addressed and we are given an insight of the culprit [p. 80] it's so painfully obvious who the novel is referring to that I'm left to wonder, was any of this really a mystery to begin with? I guess so, because they even went as far as giving us a red herring to hide the true culprit after that point, and I could only feel sad about it because it meant we reached the point where the author ran out of ideas so he tried to delay as much as possible the solution. Which also reminds me of another flaw which usually occurs in mysteries: when you are mixing fantasy with mystery, either you are called Murakami Haruki or you really should stop, because it will always result in a battle of sci-fi jargon that has little to nothing to do with actual wits or plot twists. And it's also very anticlimactic. Ryukishi07 knows what I'm talking about.

This approach to the story also reflects how HakoMari's author loves to spout unpopular sentences to make his or her characters appear unconventional and witty, when said sentences are not even remotely put into any context: "[Love and hatred a]re the same. ...No, they are certainly different. Love's a worse feeling than hatred because people themselves aren't aware of its dirtiness. It's just repulsive."[p. 87] I can accept this kind of line when I find it in the lyrics of some emo noise metal hardcore band's songs, mostly because I don't listen to any of those genres so they can write whatever they wish; but when a character in a novel stands with such a strong argument, the least I expect is for some in depth study of the character to justify said statement. What do we get then after this? “That doesn't matter now.” [p. 87] which, since characters motivations are so dimly addressed, is a sentence the author must have applied to the whole idea of character development.

At this point some may retort “The first book is just an introduction to the setting and characters; the story actually gets good by the nth volume, there are also the answers you are seeking”, to whom I reply “I'm not sure I want to keep on eating at this restaurant when the appetiser were nettle-coated living locusts, even their pomegranate-chocolate pizza sound suspicious”. I had some exchanges with people who actually went on with the series, and the auspices look far from brighter to me:

“It gets hyped by its niche fans because it loves to shove HUMANS ARE EVIL all the time. We all know people love that. I also hate the author's inability to get to the point instead of going on overblown tangents filled with unnecessary thoughts on how a character feels. […] Well, it is distrust involving romantic abuse which makes it even better. One of the characters convinces a girl to get gang raped in order to prove to him that she loves her. That girls also likes to be burned with cigarettes. The [main character] likes to drink the tears off his girlfriend, which I think is kind of cool. So stuff like that.”

When I'm told I'm about to read mature, controversial content I would expect Pasolini, Kafka or Hardy, not any random issue of the Punisher comic books, because that's really far from the definition of “mature”.

And if the argument “You can't judge it just for the first book” still stands, then I must ask, why are there series which manage to narrate a good overall story while being made of good stand-alone books? The Zaregoto, Spice and Wolf and Haruhi series are major examples, some may say Narita Ryogho's works, and even outside the light novel medium there are the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Dune, Gormenghast, Earthsea, Narnia, even Harry Potter manages that! It's clever to base future books' events on what was already established previously, that's foreshadowing done good; not so much when key plot points of the first book are not seen nor discussed til much later because up to that point the single book will still count as flawed, as it doesn't explain the fundamental of its own foundations.

The Rejecting Classroom was indeed one of the worst books I've ever read: it was pretty predictable, often times self-contradictory and incredibly redundant; but at least things happened, thanks to the fact these books are so short you can read them in a single afternoon. I'm going to continue this series, none of what I discussed up to know is ever going to be changed by further knowledge of the universe of course, but some very small aspects such certain funny dialogues, passages and actual events and the overall theme of human desire might be worth giving the series the benefit of the doubt. And simply put, from times to times I'm in need of quick, childish, light-hearted reads like this.

Although, The Seven Night in the Mud certainly does not open in any brighter manner:

“In the first place; the «everyday life», which you don't get tired to mention all the time, is different from the «everyday life» as it is perceived by others. You include the loss of things in your perception of «everyday life», am I right? This is, in fact, different from the common definition of «everyday life». Other humans are unable to take it as it comes, […] Every human is distorted, and their «everyday life» gets twisted by their individual values. You could say that a 'box' forces this distortion upon others. You are sensitive to these intentional distortions of the «everyday life» by the 'boxes' of others — and you find them repulsive. Am I wrong?”

But at least this time the book itself replies the same way I would:

“I really have not the slightest idea what he's talking about. Let me be already.”

[Gwern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moved to gwern.net.

[aurei · Rating 4 out of 5]

love time-loop tropes

[Kristalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final rating: 3/5 stars

This is completely subjective view as I am not really obsessed with this series.

I don't understand the hype for this series at all. It's childish sometimes, sometimes very morbid and also interesting even when everything happens 27000 times.

Basically, it's interesting and i just can't stop reading the series so it's honestly... just addictive?

I'm stuck in the loop of finishing this series at all costs, but something big there is missing - except the fact that i rolled my eyes a lot of times all in all.

But just... there is something... alluring in all of this and something... interesting so to say that makes you wanna read other books as well.

I'm guessing I just want to see where this all is going.

[Lanmreading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phần đầu đọc vừa dị vừa loạn như cào cào mà vẫn không bị chán á. Về sau plot twist các kiểu vừa nhiều vừa cua gắt làm mình kiểu 😃😃😃. Tác giả đánh lừa nhau vãi. Tag thriller nhưng cũng chả sợ gì, câu chuyện kể về vòng lặp thời gian xong tác giả còn kể trình tự mỗi lần lặp khác nhau không theo thứ tự nữa nên đọc hơi xoắn não tí =)). Được cái plot twist ok, tác giả cài cắm nhiều chi tiết hay ho thật sự. Nói chung là hợp gu mình và cuốn mình đọc theo 1 mạch nên mình rate 5 sao chứ với người khác thì chắc không đủ hay đến vậy, nhưng vẫn rất đáng thử đọc nhé. Bộ này đem lại cái cảm giác y như lúc đọc "lời nói đùa" á, kiểu 2 bộ đều "điên", dị và lắm plot twist vcl.
Bộ này có một fact rất thú vị là tuy nổi ở nước ngoài, xuất bản ở khá nhiều nước nhưng trong nước lại flop vãi chưởng =)). Chắc không hợp gu dân Nhật nên vậy 🤣🤣🤣

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great little mystery/thriller with interesting use of time loops.

Review: https://derailmentsofthought.com/2018...

[Kieran Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first purchased this book I honestly had no idea what kind of story it wanted to tell and went into the novel more or less blind. All I knew was that it was a psychological thriller of some kind and I was intrigued as I had never read a light novel in that vain before. The first sentence that stood out to me when I opened the book was:
"There we are, within the soft pure-white sweetness of despair"
And I was immediately intrigued by it.

The story takes place in a high school following first year class 1-6. The main character we follow is Kazuki Hoshino, your run of the mill first year student who just wants to live an ordinary day to day life. You come to understand fairly fast that the ordinary life he wants is never to be.

The book makes it clear early on that a time loop mechanic, or as they refer to it a "transfer" mechanic, is in play. You may be thinking "ah a time loop mechanic, fairly straight forward then" and I was guilty of this too, at first. But that is not the case here. I won't go into any details, to avoid spoilers, but there is more to this story than just trying to stop the time loop.

How many times would you be able to relive the same day over and over with out breaking down? This is a question I found myself wondering while going through the story and the answer I finally settled on was that I don't know. But I do know I wouldn't last over 70 years without my brain breaking into a million pieces which is probably why this quote stuck in my mind:

"I have no hope of finding the version of myself that was ground to dust by the agony of this place and scattered to the wind"

I apologise if this "review" has just left you confused but that's how I felt going through the story. One minute I would think I had it figured out and the next I was back to scratching my head. regardless of this. or perhaps because of it, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I am looking forward to seeing how the author takes the story from here.

[Sensei · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Ha-ha-ha. Too bad you weren’t the one who got splattered by that truck twenty thousand times, Daiya.”

[ayanami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a compulsively readable Groundhog Day-style story where the protagonist Kazuki Hoshino is caught in an endless repetition of the day a beautiful and mysterious girl transfers into his class. Sounds pretty cliche but this story is surprisingly addictive with many shocking twists. Every time I thought I figured something out, the author would surprise me with a new twist, turning the Groundhog Day trope into something unexpected.

The story is definitely intriguing enough to keep your attention-- in fact, I read this in the span of a couple hours-- but upon closing the book, I felt that there weren't enough explanations for the magical/supernatural elements nor was there any real character development. The protagonist Kazuki was basically a cipher for the reader and we got no real sense of who he is. In addition, the other characters were really thinly developed, mostly relying on familiar anime/manga archetypes. I understand light novels are generally pretty thin on this kind of stuff but I was hoping for a little more than I got.

[Mohamed El Mourabite · Rating 5 out of 5]

هذه أول رواية خفيفة أقرأها و هي تستحق بحق أن تكون أفضل رواية خفيفة قد كتبت,
ترجمة العنوان للعربيى هي : العلبة الفارغة و ماريا رقم صفر.
تتحدث الرواية عن كائن غريب بلا ملامح يعطي للناس علبا قادرة على تحقيق أي أمنية مهما كانت مجنونة , و هدف هذا الكائن الوحيد هي مراقبتهم.
الرائع في هذه الرواية هي طريقة سرد القصة بحيث تكون الشخصيات مسجونة صمن حلقة زمنية , حيث يتكرر كل شيء مرارا و تكرار , و في نهاية كل حلقة يصير كل شيء عدما و ينسون ما حدث.
يناقش الكاتب كذلك عدة أفكار مثل في عالم حيث كل شيء يتكرر كيف يمكننا تعريف الخير و الشر , مثلا هل أستطيع أن أقتل شخصا إن كان كل شيء سيعود لنقطة الصفر , و كذلك كيف يمكن للروتين أن يؤثر على نسيتنا.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oosh! That title is quite a mouthful, the hubby and I just took to calling it "Maria Box." Meh, close enough.
So this is a light novel. Most light novels are localized because their anime and/or manga counterparts made somewhat of a splash with us English speaking plebes, but "Maria Box" has no anime counterpart, so it seems it was brought over simply because someone thought the story was cool.

And it is. A class of students are doomed to repeat the same day, over and over ad nauseam forever. Mercifully most the students don't realize they are repeating the same day, even our hero Kazuki Hoshino doesn't notice initially and blissfully repeats the day thousands of times.
One person can remember though, Aya "Maria" Otonashi, a transfer student, who is fighting to get the damned day to stop repeating.
Slowly Hoshino starts to realize something's not right with his world, and teams up with Otonashi to figure out the mystery of the repeating day, though they do not know if they are friend or foe, or if anyone else is also retaining memories.

As with most light novels the writing isn't great. It's serviceable and reads easy, but the dialogue can be bloated, who's talking isn't always clear, and exposition is doled out in large, dry swallows, like a big mouthful of dry shredded wheat. But I had fun with this one, and am planning to read book 2 soon.

[Ageng Indra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Konsep pengulangan hari tanpa batas yang dipopulerkan film Groundhog Day agaknya sudah banyak dicomot serial tv atau manga dengan pendekatan comedy atau sf. Kadang sering jadi plot twist di film horor. Meski belakangan juga ada film horor yang menjadikannya plot utama, The Empty Box of Maria adalah yang paling pertama saya temui mengawinkan konsep pengulangan ala Groundhog Day dengan mistery supranatural. Membacanya lagi setelah enam tahun (terlapas dari kualitas para terjemahan para relawan), ada banyak sekali bagian menggelikan yang dulu tidak menganggu tapi kini sulit diabaikan, macam percakapan sepanjang 3 halaman ketika leher yang berbicara sedang terus mengucurkan darah karena baru disabet pisau. Biar begitu, ini tetaplah bacaan yang teramat menyenangkan.

PS: Betapapun Eiji Mikage memuji ilustrasinya, ketakutannya di catatan pengarang buat saya benar: buku ini tidak butuh ilustrasi karakter karena, serius, bikin imajinasi terikat sama gambarnya.

[Buo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite excited for this, it sounded interesting and had incredible ratings.

I appreciate the author's attempt at creating this mysterious atmosphere, which I guess worked. but the main character's inner monologues were so tedious.
phrases that keep repeating throughout the whole novel
"you really don't get it, do you?!"
"you're as slow as ever, Hoshino."
and Hoshino muttering to himself "I experienced this before, but it's so vague"
"I get it. But I don't really understand."

All in all, it was a fun read albeit disappointing. I just don't think I will continue on with the series.

[Radwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't think I'd be able to fully explain the plot of this novel even if I wanted to, but it certainly took me by surprise!

First of all, this features a time loop/groundhog day plotline, and I had a vague idea of that before I started but I was super excited when I found out that was the case, because this has to be one of my top five favorite literary plots.

we see our main protagonist living his ordinary high school life until a new exchange student with a weird attitude addresses him in a way that suggests that she knows him and he starts to question his reality and everything around him. the mystery kept going and the reveals were surprising and I'm satisfied with the ending that opens up all these other possiblities.

[Ivanhoe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh dear good, el nivel de cringe era demasiado, por que diablos acepte leer esta porqueria? :/
Me dijeron que era horror/misterio psicologico, exactamente donde esta el misterio? donde esta el horror?
Lo peor es que el concepto era interesante, pero la ejecucion fue horrible, personajes extremadamente superficiales, abuso inhumano de cliches, el plot era un desastre carente de profundidad, y un final de volumen que lo unico que me trajo fue la alegria que termine esta tortura.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Christian Dark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh brother…

[soph ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️ truly mind-blowing. me costó un poco engancharme y seguirle el ritmo y, aunque también lo encontré un poco overdramatic en ciertas partes, it’s a story worth to tell and to read.

[Icarus (Sonny) · Rating 2 out of 5]

People will really say that this YA novel stands at the pinnacle of Japanese literature. If that’s the case, then The Hunger Games is the greatest American novel of all time.

[Johan Kwok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Influenciado por um comentário no Reddit que de um post intitulado "What is the WORST book title you've ever read?", LN tendo fama de ter títulos ridiculamente longos e aleatórios.

Não, o light novel desse review não estava no comentário.

Porém, ler a thread me fez lembrar da existência dessa mídia, e como eu estava querendo ler algo fácil, dei uma pesquisada rápida "Best light novels" e esse daqui estava entre os melhores.

É interessante notar o quão inconsciente esse processo todo foi, subitamente estava lendo algo que acabei de conhecer, dando prioridade à minha lista de leitura. Esquisito e impulsivo, não?

Enfim, sobre a história.

Não achei que foi uma experiência ruim, longe disso. A situação em que o protagonista é instigante, os capítulos são estruturados de uma forma que combina com o enredo, difícil de largar. Mas tinha algo de errado, e eu não conseguia identificar exatamente o que estava me incomodando até o próprio autor descrever sua obra, no posfácio: "I wrote this book with a stronger focus on entertainment value than before". Suspirei levemente, "Ahh, é verdade, é por isso."

O problema é que os eventos eram mais importantes que os personagens e o modo de escrita, havia uma preocupação em deixar as coisas dramáticas, cheio de pausas, surpresas e reviravoltas. Claro que é justamente por isso que é mais fácil sentir adrenalina e ficar ansioso para ver o que vai acontecer depois, montando as peças do quebra cabeça e teorizar, mantendo a mente ativa. Mas suponho que almejar por "valor de entretenimento" significa fazer algo que excita bastante no momento, porém falta aprofundamento por ser rápido e apelar pelas emoções descaradamente. Similar a sei lá, música de balada ou fast-food.

De qualquer jeito, faz um bom trabalho.

Uma coisa que pessoalmente preciso lutar contra é essa inquietação que deriva de não saber completamente como determinado fenômeno sobrenatural funciona, me incomoda quando o personagem assume motivo X para o fenômeno Y acontecer quando eu não entendi exatamente o embasamento dele. Sinto regras arbitrárias, explicações confusas, resoluções forçadas. Mas isso deve ser lentidão minha, tenho que fechar os olhos e seguir em frente, senão fico um tempão refletindo em minúcias e não avanço.

Curioso para ler os próximos volumes.

---

Re-read this on a whim as I was cleaning up my Kindle library. Not sure if it still deserves 3 stars, as the book is more confusing than I remembered. But that's okay, I'll leave it as it is.

[H · Rating 1 out of 5]

Retried and read volume 1 then wiki'd a bit more of the plot after I finished. Wow, this is so overrated - I can't believe how highly rated and acclaimed it is in the LN fandom.

There's so many things I dislike even though the premise of a repeating classroom is an interesting idea. I dislike the "truck accident will happen no matter what because it's inevitable" - why didn't Maria just stay in the hotel room with all the people then? How could the box force them out if they have a will like that?

There's also the creepiness of the murders being disturbing/extreme for my taste, the "mystery" being really weak since it was the supernatural "O" impersonating the MC's best friend (which the viewer doesn't have the ability to deduce that there's someone in that role), plus the loose rules of "when and how" Kazuki keeps his memories sometimes and sometimes not.

Also if Mogi has a wish, instead of wishing to redo the day, why not wish for immortality or to survive the car crash completely in tact?

There's just so many things about the plot that I found questionable. Also the "weight" of the 27,000+ repetitions loses meaning if we don't know what Maria did in most of them, and I actually think it would've been more fun from her perspective to know what she was doing, mastering all her skills.

I did however like Kazu's line of "not leaving Mogi alone after he died and was rejected" and liked Maria's dogma of "always help others, absolutely never kill anyone", but I also still dislike Kazuki overall - he feels like a shell without much proactive behavior - everything was just following Maria and taking what happened around him mainly.

Even deducing the thing with Haruaki's personality didn't impress me much, plus the threat of using Maria's box just seemed a bit weak. If they could do that from the beginning, why not use the box to find the culprit and solve the problem?

Anyway, there's probably more, but overall I find Maria decent and an okay character but didn't like all the above aspects and also just didn't find the plot that interesting to read through and was a bit slow, and some repetitions and character PoVs weren't interesting, so its overall a disappointment.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am surprised that I ended up enjoying this story. The beginning seems like any typical teen Japanese story. A moody new transfer student. An unassuming, bland male main character with a close group of friends that have sterotypical personality traits.

Yet the plot becomes increasingly complex. Maria, the transfer student, has lived thousands of repetitions of her first day at a new school. For reasons that are explained later in the narrative, she believes that this repetition is due to one of her classmates; one who wished something that is making her repeat the day over and over.

Hoshino, a classmate, eventually springs to consciousness during one of these repetitions, and displays he has some memory. Maria believes that he is causing everything, and vows to break his cycle. Hoshino, of course, has absolutely no idea as to what she is referring to.

The narrative switches between later and earlier repetitions, as well as telling character backstories. The information is slowly given out over time, and it is really important to pay attention.

Some of the characters kill other characters to see what will happen, more as a way to stop the endless repetitions rather than trying to get away with things. There is a dark overtone to the whole story.

I liked how intricate the author created the story. It really kept me guessing as a reader as to what was happening. I am not sure how well I could explain the how plot. There are still many remaining questions that I have, but I assume they are going to explained in later volumes.

[Magda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Styl, jak to w light novel, raczej prosty bez skomplikowanych dialogów i opisów chociaż tutaj jest aż tak prosty że mi to momentami bardzo przeszkadzało. W dialogach nie pojawia się nic poza niezbędnymi kwestiami które muszą zostać wypowiedziane i są istotne do rozwiązania zagadki. Mimo to, jak już przyzwyczaiłam się do tego ubogiego stylu, naprawdę potrafiłam cieszyć się historią. Autor miał dużo pomysłów na prowadzenie fabuły i wiele z nich wyszło dobrze (choć nie wszystkie) a rozwiązanie zagadki nie było oczywiste przez fałszywe tropy. W pierwszym tomie autor zastosował nieliniowe prowadzenie fabuły gdzie kolejne powtórzenia dnia nie są przedstawione po kolei przez co odkrycie tajemnicy stopniowo dawkowane jest przez autora. Dużym plusem jest zamknięcie pierwszoplanowego wątku w jednym tomie. Przyczyna wplątania głównego bohatera w główny, większy wątek jest dla mnie póki co mocno naciągana chociaż typowa dla Japończyków kochających zasady i porządek.
Polskie tłumaczenie na pewno nie pomogło tej książce gdzie niektóre wyrażenia w moim odczuciu nie pasują do kontekstu, nie wspominając po prostu o błędach.
Dołączone ilustracje mi się nie podobają i niestety bardziej psują mi odbiór postaci niż pomagają ale jest to tylko dodatek który nie wpływa na ocenę całości.
Jestem na tyle zaciekawiona że mam zamiar przeczytać kolejne tomy, dodatkowo czuję że historia ma potencjał wiele zyskać po poznaniu całości. Mimo wszystko polecam raczej osobom które skupiają się tylko na rozwiązaniu zagadki a nie konsumują książkę jako całość bo mogą się zawieźć na wielu płaszczyznach.

[Hed · Rating 4 out of 5]

As many know, naivety and stupidity walk very close to each other and therefore are easily confused by certain similarities. The main problem of the human being is to contaminate the other with sin while thinking he is doing good. Ignorance is not exactly a bliss, but an easier way to cling to illusions, like the anesthetic to get rid of pain, but that doesn't fool your body that truly feels everything.
That said, we arrived at Zero Maria...... It is not known for sure if" the world changes the human being or if the man changes the world", but this sentence seems to resonate very well here, doesn't it?


Something that really annoys me a little in this kind of "mystery work" is how the mystery is allocated and how long it can spread... I always try to keep myself fair and pay attention to the literature and the script, but it really gets hard to if you see a resolution when the path is so cloudy. It's fun to experience a completely new, adrenaline-fueled adventure, but it can also be terrifying to have to walk down a road where the only danger lurking is your own psyche. Anyway, what I mean is that you can't really judge the author's work while the reader himself can barely breathe in the toxic fog of ignorance, but at least some of the other senses can give you something to lean on, right?


Starting with writing, Zero Maria expands her beauty based on poetry and various types of figures of speech while playing with her mysterious narrative. One interesting factor that goes along nicely with this air of ignorance is something I've affectionately dubbed "approach writing." It's the quick joining of several theories around a paragraph (or a short sequence of them) to achieve the closest and most definitive result. Such writing ends up further embellishing the mystery in conjunction with the intentionally flawed attempts at metaphors, since it is with the speculation of comparisons that help to arrive at a result.


Obviously, speaking of writing, we could not forget the narrative... At zero Maria there are many cuts that show the pieces of the puzzle until they are formed. Initially they seem to be narratives distributed randomly and without the care of the script, but later they reveal a connection of several electrical wires that form a shocking revelation for the reader when touching the energized wires.

Speaking of revelations, we come to the plot twists... Most of them are predictable, but it's much better to understand the formula than just the plot twist answer and I can say that in Maria it's really well done. In reality, even the expected plot twists are still loaded with a continuous stream of creative information that inflates the reader's mind (not just sentimental air). It's similar to how a child's naive thought that water was only made for drinking and bathing, ignoring its other functions no matter how obvious...


HakoMaria's flow of information is confusing, but still quite interesting. There is a good play on words here in which the real mystery of the text circulates... It is precisely a narrative and mysterious manipulation that plants small seeds of mystery to germinate with the passing of the rainy weather "which seems to repeat itself" and the contact reading bright. It seems to create a poetic dichotomy between melancholy and joy and perhaps this is really what it meant to live "surrounded by pure white despair."

There are several tips that spread through the different fields of personality to manipulate you, or those of writing with metaphors and hidden words to deceive you, among many other ways. It's a very rich and pleasurable mystery if I may say so, since as much as most of the answers were expected, those that escaped the majority camp really managed to positively surprise.

But...... The flow of information is not perfect and leaves some things very subjective and with a certain lack of explanation or meaning, but there is no reason to fuss over small things. It's as if the flow of information was the pouring of water into a glass, but for certain carelessness, some drops came out of the overflowing glass, but as said, it's not something to fuss about, it's just waiting until the drops dry naturally .
What I mean is that there are no holes in the script or anything so absurd. Some seem to behave like things to be explained in the future and others seem like things that can be forced into a certain sense, even if not so believable.


I think the least appreciable point of this volume are the characters... Considering only empathy, due to the value of writing driven to despair and the decent narrative cut, we managed to have a good rush, but it's always good to remember that there is another term that stand out to give life to a character... Charisma

The problem here is how shallow conversations can be when desperation is not involved. Charisma is born from optimistic creativity, but at the same time it is the intelligence to understand the will of the people and the control of how they will behave in conversations that results in a true solid personality.

To me, from the moment you exemplify a stereotype to be able to work with it on a character, it seems much more like you want to portray a theme than to actually bring a character to life, which at least for volume 1 of Zero Maria, seemed to behave this way. As stated earlier, empathy and other natural human aspects can appease how boring conversations that clearly should be fun should be, but don't go unnoticed by the lack of charisma. Oops...! It is obvious that this is only volume 1, but it seems to be something that portrays well what happened here.



To conclude, I really think this volume represents well what the fear of "forgetfulness" is, which obviously leads to perdition and "the lazy tomorrow".... In this way, we become hollow objects, full of emotion on the outside, but empty on the inside. It's an ironic feeling that borders on madness, but I think Zero Maria managed to understand the limit of this edge and that's why he can lean so far and even juggle the narrative. In fact, seeing how the author manages this fine line that separates madness from emptiness makes me think of a unicycle clown who has complete confidence in his abilities, and therefore can make the most dangerous performances and still get away with it. The clown seems to understand other types of fine lines such as stupidity and courage, and by understanding this, he can avoid collapsing his beautiful build.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long while back I had heard of this title. I was intrigued so I purchased the ebook. For some reason I just could not get into it. I tried multiple times. I’d pick it up, read a bit and then put it down... just not wanting to read anymore. I actually grew to dislike the title for some reason.

For whatever reason (I cannot understand why), I decided to pick up a paperback copy on sale. It sat on my shelf for months. I asked myself over and over why I bought it since I disliked what I read on my Kindle.

I finally picked it up and decided I was going to at least read it before trading it in.... I won’t be trading it in. I discovered that I just could not get into it as an ebook. I don’t know why. This is the only title that has ever done that to me. I just cannot tolerate it in digital form but loved it on paper.

This title is great. I love how it treated the time loops. Displaying them to us out of order and then tying it all together to make sense. Showing us the differences as opposed to repeatedly forcing us to go through the same events over and over. I found myself flipping back to previous portions to reread a section to confirm my thoughts and to realize how the author misdirected the reader.

A very well done piece. I look forward to reading more.

[Moneeza Rafiq · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel something entering my empty body.
It’s something filthy that was born in this box.
Something unbelievably grotesque that smells as nasty as a
bunch of dead bugs stuck together with feces. I reject it. I
continuously reject it. But I know very well: I can reject it
as much as I want, yet this thing will gradually enter my
body through its gaps. It sniffs out my weak spots like a
hyena and starts to dye me pitch black by eating into my
weaknesses.

This was a superb read and I could not stop reading until I finished it. The characters, the narration, the plot and the story, everything was beautifully executed. The author made use of narrative tricks and misdirected the reader so subtly that when the veil was lifted I was shocked and cursed myself for not realizing before who the holder of the box was. I'm going to refrain from giving away spoilers. The thing that I loved the most was the psychological aspect of the novel: the peer pressure, the need to be acknowledged by someone, to struggle and fail and keep struggling to achieve a simple wish, failure to develop a genuine human connection. I loved every bit of it.