This was a good book. There were many Ai Hinatsuru moments, including a date, a piggy-back ride, and a match with Yaichi, all proving how great Ai was. Perhaps most importantly for my purposes, Ai says outright that she would have loved Yaichi even without Shogi, which is what I believed would happen in '100 Waifus.' There Christopher doesn't play a single Shogi match with Ai but she still loves him just as much all the same. It is now official canon that her feelings really wouldn't change, so the stance I took in the book is vindicated.
Though this book was mostly about Ai, unfortunately it still included Ginko, the annoying roadblock to Ai's happiness. Due to some mysterious malady, she's taken a leave of absence from both shogi and Yaichi and holed up in some mountain villa. But of course, that doesn't mean she's dumped Yaichi. Nope, she just leaves him hanging without any indication of when or if she'll be back. I think the author is being ludicrously annoying by not spelling out the nature of her illness. Until Shirow does that, no one can judge the logic behind Ginko's decisions or predict how the future might play out.
Though it would be extremely convenient for Ginko to be killed off out of the blue like this, so that Yaichi can hook up with Ai after all, no author would do such a radical thing. To choose one ship, only to sink it and start a new one by force of arms? That kind of boldness in authorship doesn't exist anywhere. Not even Bakemonogatari is willing to do something that absurd. Which means whatever affliction Ginko has, she'll recover by the next volume and all this nonsense drama will go away like it never happened.
Ai moving out of Yaichi's house and severing ties with him is the only reasonable decision to make as the spurned woman. Since she can't seriously stay in the same apartment as someone making love to his girlfriend a door over or whatever. It's too humiliating to stay around someone who doesn't value you and be reminded of this on a daily basis as he interacts with his chosen one. Furthermore, it's hard to say Yaichi has actually helped her learn shogi at all recently. It's not like they ever play together or discuss any strategies together. He's always busy playing his matches while she's busy playing hers, going to school, doing the chores, etc. Since there's no benefit but there's this constant cost of being reminded you're not the one he loves what else can she do but leave?
Basically the fundamental premise of this series -- the Ryuuou takes on two grade-school apprentices, both named Ai, and develops them into the next generation of great shogi players -- was ruined the moment he confessed to Ginko. The moment he did that neither Ai could be around him anymore. On the one hand, anything he did with them would be cheating on Ginko, and on the other hand, anything he does with Ginko but not them will make them feel inferior, worthless, neglected and tossed aside. The sincerity of treating his apprentices equally and with their best interests in mind was lost. By getting a girlfriend it's clear, in actions if not words, that he'd actually rather they get out of his hair so he can spend more time playing with his girlfriend. He even proposed to Ginko and started discussing kids. Does this sound like an atmosphere two apprentices can coexist with? Him, Ginko, Ginko's two kids and these two outsiders all living under the same roof? It's absurd.
The author has forcefully reset the situation by getting Ginko out of the picture but words once said cannot be unsaid. Everyone still knows how Yaichi feels so it's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. I really have no idea what Shirow is thinking. His horrible decision a couple books ago has made the rest of the series irretrievable. There's no miraculous method to get this story back on track. He's stuck with Ginko and he's stuck with the fact that Yaichi can no longer have anything to do with either Ai. But Yaichi, Ai and Ai are the three main characters of this series. If the Ai's no longer interact with Yaichi what is the point?
Well, I'm certainly interested in what happens with volume 15. I can even imagine a gigantic time skip with everyone 5 years older than they were in volume 14. If Shirow can pull these chestnuts out of a roasting fire I can only tip my hat to his skill as a writer.
Overall, now that I've read books 6-14, I place Shirow Shiratori as 12th in my good books hall of fame, value-added light novel division. 12th out of 25 isn't bad but it isn't good either. There are things I love about the series, like Ai, and things I hate, like Ginko. I think the earlier books where Ai still had a chance to win Yaichi's heart were the best and the funniest, and it got progressively worse and more depressing as time went by.
It's kind of strange, but no matter how poorly the author wrote the rest of his series, his depiction of Ai was always perfect. Every scene with her was perfect and beautiful. She shined at every opportunity and always made the right decisions and said the right things. I've been overdosing on how attractive she is for the past week. I hope if nothing else, he never loses the spark that animates Ai for the rest of the series.
Should I revise '100 Waifus' to take into account the new stuff I know about Ai? I probably should, but I'm hesitant. After all, everything will change yet again in volume 15, and then again in volume 16. Should I rewrite every scene every time? That would be silly. Maybe once the whole series is over I could use the finalized knowledge to finalize a revision, but until then it's no use. Volume 15 comes out in Japan September 14th. So around February of 2022 for an English release. It's going to be a painful, long wait to see what happens next. And even then we'll just restart the timer and start a painful, long wait for volume 16. Time to change gears and focus on something else.
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