- æ—…ã«å‡ºã‚ˆã†ã€æ»…ã³ã‚†ã世界ã®æžœã¦ã¾ã§ -- Tabi ni Deyou, Horobiyuku Sekai no Hate Made -- “Our Journey to the End of the Ceasing Worldâ€
- Author: Tadahito Yorozuya -- Artist: Houmitsu
- The novel: Amazon.jp -- Books Kinokuniya -- YesAsia
- The fan translation (by EusthEnoptEron): Baka-Tsuki
- MAL Entry -- Forum
(Note: This site's central focus is on light novels officially translated and published in English, but at times I will post reviews for stories that have only been translated by fans. Please support the Japanese books that don't get English releases.)
Our Journey tells the story of a boy and a girl (both are nameless) who travel around Japan aimlessly on a motor bike. For reasons left unexplained, most of the people in the world have disappeared, and those who remain are in the slow process of fading away. When people disappear, all traces of their existence are erased, including everyone’s memories of said people. It’s a fantastic premise for a novel, and it sounded like it would be a quieter and more pensive take on the post-apocalypse subgenre. I was really excited to give this one a read.
Unfortunately, I ended up not really liking anything about it. There were two particularly big issues I had while reading it: 1) None of the characters are interesting or likable, and 2) Not much of anything ever happens.
I’ll start with the characters. The boy has no personality, so there isn’t much to say about him. The girl meanwhile is violent, rude, and selfish from start to finish. There is a vague semblance of a romance subplot for the two, but nothing of significance comes of it. I was never given a reason to root for them, and really, the story never gives them much of an actual goal to achieve in the first place.
As for the plot, there isn’t a lot to say there either. The boy and girl travel around and meet some people, who are all really friendly and helpful. I am fine with “slice of life” when it is done well, but it’s a little bizarre when stories about an everyday high school club seem to have more conflict than the post-apocalypse story.
I perhaps would have been all right with the bland characters if the plot played out in an engaging or thought-provoking way, but it didn’t. And I perhaps would have been okay with the sluggish plot if there was some kind of interesting character development or clever dialogue, but there’s wasn’t.
But maybe you’d appreciate some aspects of the story more than I did? As always, be sure to form your own opinion on light novels!
Cho's Rating: Maybe Recommended
“The boy has no personality, so there isn't much to say about him.”
If I remember right (it’s been a long time), the boy does have a personality. It’s that he’s… borderline sociopathic. The way he describes his reaction to events, like seeing his neighbors caught up in certain dilemmas… it’s like his empathy isn’t even turned and he’s just staring in through the looking glass out of mere curiosity.
The fact that he (and the author) treated this as ‘completely normal’ really creeped me out.
I never got that impression of the boy from my reading of the story (though such a take on his character probably could have made the story more interesting). He just felt like a “Yuji Everylead” to me since he seemed to react to various hijinks in predictable ways. He never came off as particularly “cold” to me, at least.
Was discussing today when I realized I confused this LN with Gekkou… d’oh!
(they were translated around the same time by Eusth)