Kagerou Daze

Shintarou Kisaragi's life as a shut-in would have been perfect if not for the cyber girl Ene, who lives in his computer. Upbeat and cheerful, she enjoys playing pranks, in complete contrast to his own apathy. It is due to Ene's daily antics that his keyboard breaks. The dread of not having the use of his computer is too much to bear, and he sets out to replace his keyboard.

And so, in the dead heat of summer, Shintarou leaves his room for the first time in two years. However, this simple shopping trip takes a turn for the worse when the department store is threatened by a group of terrorists, and he is taken hostage along with the other shoppers. Tied up in this crisis, he meets the "Mekakushi-dan," an enigmatic group of teenagers with red eyes and strange powers. Seemingly brought together by chance, Shintarou must save the department store with their help. But the fates of these teenagers are more intertwined than they seem, and they are left to wonder whether their meeting was more than mere coincidence.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Kagerou Daze was published in English by Yen Press under the Yen On imprint from May 26, 2015 to December 18, 2018.

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Alternative version:	Kagerou Daze
Character:	Gunjou Rain
Other:	Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Upper, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Downer, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Summer, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Winter, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Spring, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Bitter, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Sweet, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Spicy, Kagerou Daze Koushiki Anthology Comic: Fantasy
Adaptation:	Kagerou Daze: In a Day's, Mekakucity Actors

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Characters

Enomoto, Takane

Main

Kano, Shuuya

Main

Kisaragi, Shintarou

Main

Kokonose, Haruka

Main

Kido, Tsubomi

Main

Kozakura, Mari

Main

Seto, Kousuke

Main

Kisaragi, Momo

Main

Amamiya, Hibiya

Main

Tateyama, Ayano

Supporting

Reviews

Apr 20, 2015

rowhan

Recommended

Preliminary (81/81 eps)

[UPDATED] At the time of this review, I've read the all 8 volumes of Kagerou Daze.

STORY: 9/10
The story of Kagerou Daze is a strange and weird one. It is told in a nonlinear way, switching from the past to present frequently. The main story takes place on August 14th and 15th, though goes past this as the story progresses, and is about strange eye powers that reside in the main characters, the Kagerou Daze, and different timelines.

Kagerou Daze is a route of Jin (Shizen no Teki-P)'s Kagerou Project, and is technically a sequel to the songs and manga according to him. Despite this, ...

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Aug 22, 2022

abystoma2

Mixed Feelings

Like with the manga, I should start with a warning that this isn't a stand-alone work. Kagerou Project is a multi-mediafranchise and the other media are essential. Even if you don't want to wade through the clusterfuck that are the songs and music videos, at least read the manga before picking up this novel.

Now, let's get to the actual reviewing. So, what should you expect from this novel? Well, simply said it's another route of the loop. You shouldn't expect an actual conclusion to the overall franchise story. This is closer to being a sort of "side story", perhaps an "info dump" or "filler" would ... also be fitting description.

One of the two problems with this novel are the characters. You see, the novel really assumes you're already familiar with them - and more importantly, you already like them. This means that the novel isn't exactly trying to make them into likeable, interesting characters, something to root for or at least something to remember. No, they feel just like cogs in the machine of the story. More of a plot device than actual people. The manga does this a bit better, but if you decide for this novel to be your introduction to the franchise, you're not going to have a good time. To give you an example, it takes 6 volumes for a character trait that feels unique to appear. Admittedly, it's the fact that one of the characters has a foot fetish, and it isn't later expanded upon, it's just a throwaway line, but at this point, even that feels like one of the more memorable moments of the novel. Just to give you an idea about the level of writing we're at.

The second problem is one that unfortunately a lot of light novels have - a writing style. Or more specifically, the lack of it. You see, at some point after reading more and more books, you start to crave unique writing styles. Like with drawn art, something that show the authors personality and maybe even their soul. Style is what could make even more mundane events an entertaining read. But don't expect that here. The writing of this novel has no style, it's literally just a description of what is happening with simple language. This gives the text a very bland feeling that just isn't interesting at all.

The concept of the story itself is interesting, but it's not exactly the first work that raises the idea of being trapped in a time loop, and lot of them are done better than this, including other versions/parts of Kagerou Project. Honestly, if you're already familiar with the basic story of KagePro, you might as well read just 7th and 8th volume and not miss out on much. And 2nd volume, if you'd like more Ene backstory. Should you want to go the extra mile, you could even read the summaries of rest of the volumes on Kagerou Project Wiki. Really, reading the summaries felt less boring then reading the actual volumes.

While I'm giving it a 5/10, even though I personally didn't enjoy this much, I'm sure that most of readers who already are fans of KagePro will like this to at least some extent.

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Kagerou Daze - Volume VI -Over the Dimension- Stars-Soul - Oct 1, 2019	5 replies	by meyve »» Nov 16, 2022 6:45 AM
Poll: Kagerou Daze Volume 5 Discussion rowhan - Jun 24, 2015	3 replies	by meyve »» Nov 15, 2022 8:08 AM
Poll: Kagerou Daze Volume 4 Discussion rowhan - Jun 24, 2015	6 replies	by meyve »» Nov 14, 2022 11:27 AM
Where to start and what is the difference between music video - novel - manga - anime? meyve - Nov 6, 2022	6 replies	by meyve »» Nov 6, 2022 1:00 PM
Kagerou Daze - Volume VIII -Summertime reload- Stars-Soul - Oct 20, 2019	4 replies	by Disapeared_Ghost »» Dec 7, 2021 2:03 PM

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