Let me introduce myself first, you may call me Isya and I am writing this review because I believe this novel (and maybe the manga), deserves way more than what I have seen around it so far. Personally, I believe that this story is rich, unique, and all the more fulfilling as a novel with quite a deep message to leave behind. Having said that, I also believe that the story is beyond the level offered by Your name, A silent voice, and Weathering with you. Forgive me if I have offended anyone here with my selfish endeavors, I really just think this book deserves a “blow up” in popularity as the films previously mentioned, of course I chose those three films in contrast because the stories of each have several similarities. I also apologize if my flow, or even my review is terrible, this is the first time I have ever written a review so I hope everyone would bear with me. Thank you.
If you are still with me so far, I will be splitting my review into four parts:
With that said let us begin.
The story, based on its short synopsis “revolves around a shop where one can sell away the remaining years of their life, and the consequences of doing so. This generally leaves the deep and philosophical perspective to which this book offers leaving any reader such as myself with questions such as:
And many more.
With that in mind, the story follows the life of Kusunoki, an ordinary boy living a dull ordinary life. You will be experiencing the story from his perspective as this novel is written quite well in the first-person perspective and personally this has got to be the best way to express the story since the story requires the reader to understand, and maybe relate to Kusunoki, including his naivety, and hopelessness. Unfortunately, most of the parts I disliked regarding the book were because of Kusunoki’s hopelessness, and naivety since these were mostly featured at the earlier chapters of the story and I couldn’t help but feel terrible for him. Despite this, Kusunoki’s flaws feeds toward his development until the pinnacle of the story, and further brought toward the best possible ending this book has to offer. You may like it, you may dislike it, personally I loved it but that’s for any reader to decide I’m only here to provide my insight toward it. The book contains loads of drama, slice of life, and a bit of romance, I am not entirely sure how much more of the book’s content I should mention which would hook a potential reader without spoiling, but I guess it may be good to note that personally I was hooked after reading the first two chapters of the light novel.
With that said, I hope that with my rather short spoiler-free review of the light novel has enticed any potential reader. I also hope that as much as possible if you are really planning to read the book, avoid the spoiler section, and just head straight toward the conclusion.
To start the section with spoilers, I’ll begin by warning the readers of this review that I will not be spoiling the ending of the book, rather I would just be including more information and insights with spoiling information as my spoiler-free review. I am still quite confident that any potential readers would enjoy the fruits to which this novel has to offer and with that let us begin.
Terms to define since they were used often in the book and would be used here as well, or as I would say as “nomenclature.”
I assume the short synopsis of the spoiler-free section was read, so I will continue with the deep and philosophical message and perspective to which this book revolves around in. To be more precise, I will be discussing how the book manages to somewhat answer or discuss its version of it, at least by my interpretations.
The price of a human life in real life is of course believed to be one which is immeasurable. However, the book revolves around this philosophical idea, and with supernatural means, places a price toward the lives of beings in the story. The price is simply measured by supernatural means; your entire life from now until the day you die, is measured, then you will be offered a price for selling your life. The book offers three options to sell however: lifespan, health, and time. As the book slowly narrates, a person’s price would vary on how much contribution, fame, relevance, and meaning you have experienced in your life. The main protagonist of the story sold all but 3 months of his remaining life for 300,000 yen at the age of 20.
This is to be discussed because in real life, a meaningful life is as well indescribable, just as how “what is the meaning of life?” is also a question impossible to answer. The book in context, have similar beliefs as of in real life. Having a meaningful life was also something immeasurable, or undescribed so well, however toward the ending of the book the growth of the main character can give a rather philosophical idea to the reader of how “a meaningful life” is to be defined it as well leaves an immeasurable value. In spoiler context, the main protagonist near the end of the book, has again sold the remainder of his life, specifically 30 days, but this time the value of his 30 days was worth 30 years in equivalent. This left me with a rather scale-able idea of how the book measures or even improves the price of a year, and even a day of a human being and adds a price toward it.
This of course is quite a difficult question to answer as well. In real life various opinions may open up on how this should be done. Of course, this only applies mostly to those with terminal illnesses, since in real life its impossible to measure how much time you have left since anything can happen at any time. People with terminal illnesses however are usually given a time frame, or range by their respective medical caretakers and would have to figure out the answer of how to spend the remaining time. In the book time is priced similar toward lifespan and even health. If you have 30 years left in your life, you may sell years of that life for a value. This goes the same for time, 30 years of your time at the price of 30 years of labor. Health being sold as described in the book: “some people with terminal illnesses live longer, and some people with long lives die earlier.” All of which are presented with a respective price. So how should a person spend the remainder of his/her life?
The protagonist of the story, as previously mentioned, sold all but 3 months of his life. Due to this, he was provided 300,000 yen, and had to live the 3 months with an observer named Miyagi to keep watch of his actions. In the 3 months he lived, he did various tasks which he hoped would somewhat make him happy, or at least improve his last 3 months of life. In a way you can imagine this as a “bucket list” of tasks to accomplish and throughout the first half of the novel, the protagonist simply kept receiving negative outcomes as he accomplished each task up. But eventually he adjusted his tasks toward his own self-development, which was aimed toward his observer, Miyagi, after sharing a sentimental moment with one another. This brings about the second half to which he spent the most of what he had left in the best way he possible could and that was various activities with Miyagi.
This one is probably the easiest question to answer among the previous questions. Happiness in real life is simply an emotion of joy, however, to answer of what brings happiness varies per individual. It is obvious to say that one thing that makes another happy, makes another sad and that is basically what happiness is all about.
In the story, if I were to describe the book emotionally, as I had read it was like a letter “u”. At the earlier chapters, I kept feeling sad, unwell, and miserable, toward Kusunoki and of course to myself. This is because for the first half of the novel, you will be experiencing in first person, every unfortunate event that occurs with the protagonist. To be more precise, it consists of several accounts of tragedy, and even realizing that the life of a person can possibly become so meaningless which can possibly bring upon depressive thoughts and possibly suicide (which are present within this novel). But of course, as I described before these were quite necessary to showcase the second half of the book which were a slowly improving state of the main character from the previous.
As I had previously stated, the unfortunate cost for the remainder of Kusunoki’s life was 300,000 yen. Toward the second half of the book, as he slowly began to act more selfless toward Miyagi, compared to being selfish in the first half, drew upon him a better him. If the entire supernatural phenomena of the book valued his life remainder to be 300,000 yen, to Miyagi, his life’s value cost would be 30 million, or even 3 billion. This further shows how Kusunoki’s character development, eventually lead to the best remaining months of his life leading to a romantic relationship with his observer, Miyagi, which to Kusunoki, was what brought him his happiness.
That brings an end toward the philosophical questions previously mentioned, and how I interpreted each one from the messages of the book.
To discuss the flow of the story, again I repeat the life of Kusunoki, an ordinary boy living a dull ordinary life. You will be experiencing the story from his perspective; this includes his thoughts and desires. I previously mentioned this being a first-person narrative story being the best way to present such, is duly because all of the experiences Kusunoki experienced in the first half of the novel were extremely necessary, despite being quite miserable. This in turn will lead the readers to sympathize, dislike, and even hate on Kusunoki, for various decisions which has or may have committed. The thing I disliked the most about Kusunoki was not how naïve he was, but more on the hopelessness. I hated how he simple sold a huge portion of his life without a second thought, or even how he attempted to abuse Miyagi for his own selfish desires. I despised Kusunoki for expecting that his lifespan would cost so much more without even attempting to do more out of himself and attempted to commit acts which I believed would turn him into a person worse than scum. But I guess that was the purpose the novel aimed for, to elaborate on Kusunoki’s life decisions, feelings, how hopeless he really is, and how eventually the reader may sympathize with him as a genuine person. Because of how his earlier chapters were, I personally loved his huge improvement, and how the turn of events went as he slowly improved for the better. The thing I probably loved the most is how Kusunoki, and Miyagi interact with one another, to which I simply describe as a romantic tragedy conversed between two unfortunate individuals.
And with that, my spoiler content review is complete.
The story immediately became one of my favorites and I see it as a story with the same potential as the aforementioned films: Your Name, A Silent Voice, and Weathering with you. I confess however, that I had only read an English translated copy of this book for I do not speak nor read Japanese, and I wish to purchase an English copy of it soon to further support the author in hopes that it would someday help improve sales and popularity. I solemnly hope that this light novel will soon become a film.
P.S.
The book was released together with a short story by the author titled “I Say A Little Prayer” which I highly recommend reading after this book.
Again, I apologize if ever my review was terrible, its my first time writing one but whether you are here at the end with me or not, I’d still leave my thanks and I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did.
edit: I fixed my html on this for better reading and viewing experience.
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