Sep 8, 2022
If you are reading this, I assume you've seen the Anime and wish to know how this story continues. You are in luck, because a fan translation of the light novel has recently been completed. I will be reviewing that translation as well, since we probably won't ever get an official translation for these novels.
Story:
Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi is a story about dreams, miracles and what it actually means for them to come true. This theme continues and is expanded upon in the novels that take part after the end of the Anime.
Personally, I would recommend you read the entirety of the novels, even the
...
parts that the Anime covers. They sometimes go more into detail, giving you more time with characters that was abbreviated in the Anime, or showing different sides of them. The discussions of dreams and what it means to save the world often felt quite profound and the emotional scenes sometimes ended with me crying. If you really want to skip volumes though, which I don't recommend, read the World Tower section of volume 4, since that was left out of the anime, and then continue from volume 6 onwards.
The story continues to be fascinating and touching, but in my opinion, volume 6 is it's weakest part, showing many characters at a very low point in their lives while making it hard to understand why they are feeling that way unless you can really put yourself in their shoes. It picks back up after that, but I understand why the Anime ended where it did, even if I would have really liked to see the second half of the story animated.
Art:
The novels come with a few illustrations. These usually fit the mood and give you a look at the characters as well as important story moments. Most of the time I enjoyed the art, but there is one aspect I need to criticize. The depictions of the female character are overly sexual sometimes, giving suggestive almost panty shots when the mood of the situation is actually supposed to be very serious. There are even a small number of drawings with the characters naked in the bath, which made me pretty uncomfortable. I often read this on the train on my e-reader and I was worried one of those scenes would suddenly pop up. Thankfully they are rare.
Translation:
This will be a dealbreaker for some readers. The translation is a bit janky. The translator has since retired and we are highly unlikely to ever see an official translation, so I'll review it here as I read it. There are spelling mistakes, sometimes a sentence or even a small section is repeated twice, and the translator really struggles with pronouns at times. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes Julie, the rough mature hunter, will have she/her pronouns, or the delicate Ai will go by he/him for a while. This happens seemingly at random and I don't understand how it could have happened, bit it is what it is.
Maybe these problems will turn you off, especially because they are extra frequent in the first volume, but they didn't really diminish my enjoyment of the story. The emotions get across, and that's what counts. I was smiling during happy scenes, on the edge of my seat during fights and crying during heart wrenching scenes, even if there was a spelling mistake here and there. I hope you can look past these problems and still enjoy these novels.
Final thoughts:
I'm constantly impressed by just how creative Kimihito Irie can be. So many of the fantastical events in these novels are really well thought out and make me want to steal the ideas for a roleplaying campaign or something. It's never just cool anime battles though, scenes carry an emotional weight and philosophical aspects which make them very enjoyable and engaging to read. If you liked the Anime, I highly recommend giving these novels a shot.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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