Empty Box and The Zeroth Maria Volume 5

Source: http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Utsuro_no_Hako_to_Zero_no_Maria

Summary

Daiya has made his move. He plans a revolution upon the world that will shake the very core of our ethics and beliefs. However it will take time…

Meanwhile Kazuki continues to hide his new goal in life form Mariya, Keeping her distant and out of the loop as he plans to prevent Daiya from reaching his goals and bring an end to the wish of his friend.

As their inevitable clash begins, Daiya will find himself in estranged situations and Kazuki will need to find the true strength of his resolve.

Will he be able to keep Mariya from finding out his goal to ‘destroy’ Aya Otonashi? What secrets from the Rejecting classroom will come to light? What skeletons haunt Daiya and drive him to such extents as he settles upon a road of ruin?

Interpretation

After the last two volumes, things between Daiya and Kazuki were really ready to come to head. This volume gives us just that. Kazuki has changed because of the Game of Idleness, he no longer accepts ‘any’ everyday life as ‘his’ everyday life. He has decided that without Mariya , it does not exist.

This resolve while painful to watch from the sidelines does instil in me a level of respect for his resolve. Because it would be painful to hurt someone you don’t mean ill-will towards. Could you turn off the guiding light that someone uses to make their way safely back? Could you turn everyone into your enemies for one person? Could you continue after even that one last bastion turns against you? Because you ultimately have turned against them, even if you believe that it needed to be done.

Such dilemma’s always tickle my being.

The grey areas of “every possible choice ends in pain”. The question becomes how much pain can you stand? How much will you inflict? How many will suffer? Will there be any happiness at the end of such roads? Can that single flame of hope really justify any means?

I’m a sucker for happy endings. In a lot of Anime and Light Novels part of me always wants the “harem end” because none of the likable characters end up suffering rejections. This is not a Harem style series. (I think) but the girl friends of Kazuki… They care for him in different ways for different reasons. But he can only see one. Rather, he willingly turns his eyes away from the others so as to focus on his true goal. He knows it will cause pain, Yet he rightfully knows that some things really don’t have a “Better” time to be revealed

This novel makes it halfway (From my perspective having not read the next one yet) through this dilemma and I will focus upon the next recollections and manoeuvers to reach whatever ending is in store.

I have 2 possible suspects for the Box owner. But frankly… I have given up on trying to guess what’s going to happen next. I believe that Kazuki will ultimately succeed. Because ‘good’ usually wins. But really… Is Kazuki ‘good’?

8/10 Some pacing was slower, although it needed to prepare the scene. There was a wonderful “Oh *$#&” moment which just had me /facepalming with dread as I could tell the outcome from it at once. But yes… GIVE ME MOAR! I shall likely rate the rest of the series the same in this case <_<

Rating 8/10

~Kanshisha13