This book feels a little forced. Sagiri, who has been very jealous up until now, suddenly feels like it would be okay to share Masamune with Elf? I mean, it's strange, because in '100 Waifus' this is exactly what happens, Christopher marries both Sagiri and Emily and they all live together happily ever after. This is my ideal ending. But it doesn't mesh with everything Sagiri has said and done up until now. It's too sudden. It doesn't make any sense.
Perhaps if the book were from Sagiri's viewpoint and it went methodically through her line of reasoning, I could accept it. But instead we get no perspective into what Sagiri is thinking, it's all from Masamune's viewpoint who just thinks the idea is crazy and stupid.
And then we have the typical light novel author go-to solution -- leave everything vague and indeterminate so readers can interpret things however they like. It's not like Elf and Sagiri are officially pursuing a polygamous relationship with Masamune. It's just an idea that's left to float out there. Neither has Elf's hopes been totally crushed with a firm denial. If you want to ship Elf you can, if you don't you don't have to. That kind of hazy ending, just like we saw in Death March.
To make matters worse, this isn't even an ending. Or it isn't officially. Supposedly there's supposed to be more, the light novel series is 'ongoing.' It's just that there isn't anything more after this point. A hazy ending is bad enough, but what we have here is a hazy midpoint. Is that even a thing? What on Earth?
To Love ru also did this -- if you want to imagine Rito monogamously dating Haruna there's evidence for that, if you want to imagine Haruna compromising and letting Rito marry the whole galaxy there's evidence for that too. The reader is invited to daydream whatever they want, and the author is let off the hook. They never have to make any hard decisions or any decisions at all.
This is a very cowardly writing style. It's funny because I would love for Masamune to get with both of them. That's exactly what I want. But not in this flimsy, self-serving, cowardly manner. The author has to work harder if he wants this result to feel real.
And how on Earth can you end the series before the Sekaimo anime comes out? It's all so absurd. Sagiri is already able to go outside and talk to strangers, when the dream was for her to watch an anime just in the living room. The dream has been totally outpaced by events! Is the dream now pointless? To the point that there's no point even reaching it?
I don't know why Sagiri became a hikikomori in the first place. Like, I kind of get it. First her real father divorced(?), and then even her mother and stepfather died, and her life kept getting drastically shaken around over and over. It eroded her strength past the breaking point and she just started hiding in her room. But you'd think something like that wouldn't cause trauma or asphyxiation from walking outside. After all, it wasn't 'outside' or 'other people' that were to blame, but only a series of unfortunate accidents. Time heals all things, so eventually you'd think she'd just get over it naturally. Instead the solution was to meet more people who are all nice to her and gradually get acclimated to society again. Like, okay, I guess it worked so I can't complain, but I really don't know why she was suddenly anti-people in the first place, since people never did anything to her, or why it took so long to get over it when she'd been having fun with friends for a long time now. . . Bleh. I don't understand all these whipsaws in Sagiri's character.
Sagiri went outside and accepted Elf as a life partner. The end result is good. But without any insight into Sagiri's mind it all feels unearned and unnatural. This whole book should have been from Sagiri's point of view. The author totally screwed up the delivery of this good news.
I'll never stop liking Sagiri or Elf no matter what Tsukasa writes up for them next (or Kirino for that matter since she's also somehow in this series). If he even does write up anything for them next. But these books could have all been better. None of them have the intensity of humor or feeling that the earlier volumes had. The way Sagiri and Masamune actually met over the internet as kids was amazing. Elf and Megumi's invasion of their comfortable private life, giving them new possibilities was marvelous. What happened to that spark?
Oh and the translation isn't that good. I'm often wondering who is even saying what, and what's said feels muddled -- like it's all slightly off. Trying to re-translate what the author really meant based on the flimsy translation can be frustrating. But of course it's better than nothing so it will do. The main thrust of the conversation is intelligible at all times.
The Bleach manga is getting an extra one-shot. I hope it clears up some unanswered questions the sudden ending to the series produced.
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