Language read: Thai (official translation, licensed by Zenshu Publishing; original Japanese publisher: Shogakukan)
Will re-read when the official English translation by Seven Seas Entertainment drops September 2024.
After almost two months of having purchased a physical copy, I finally got around to reading the third installment of Mei Hachimoku’s sci-fi/supernatural Four Seasons anthology: ‘An Autumn in Amber, a Zero-Second Journey’. As with the anthology’s previous books, the male protagonist and the heroine encounter a supernatural phenomenon related to time: ‘Tunnel to Summer’ has time dilation, ‘Yesterday in Spring’ has time rollback, and this novel has time freeze.
The two main characters are quite enjoyable to follow along. Kayato, the socially-awkward boy with haphephobia (fear of being touched), and Akira, the foul-mouthed delinquent girl, make for a solid polar-opposite duo. Their interactions and how their relationship slowly develops over time is a joy to read, especially in the later chapters. However, compared to Hachimoku’s previous works, Kayato and Akira do somewhat suffer from a lack of character depth, especially in terms of their backstory department. There are sprinkles of backstory throughout the novel but it feels like there could easily have been more to further flesh them out (like how ‘Yesterday in Spring’ uses its Interlude parts).
While the plot progression is nice and logical, I cannot help but think that the pacing can sometimes be too slow, especially in some middle parts of the novel. Perhaps it is done intentionally to replicate the feeling of time freeze but it does not translate that well to the reading experience, at least for me. Furthermore, while the themes relating to time that the novel tackles, such as living in fear of the future, are well-presented, they do not leave as much of an impact as the themes in previous installments did.
In closing, ‘An Autumn in Amber, a Zero-Second Journey’ is probably my least favorite of the Four Seasons anthology so far. However, this does mean that it is a bad read in the slightest. While some aspects of the novel may not perfectly land, such as in terms of character depth, pacing and thematic impact, the whole is fortunately greater than the sum of its parts.
Final score: 7.0/10.
