Warcross

This is so hard to rate. About 80% of this book, I would give 3.5★... but the last few chapters are worth 5★ due to the twists, one which I saw coming and the other which I totally did not expect.

But anyway, I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would. It is still a good read and it was definitely because I expected too much, but the VR gaming world isn't too expansive and so it doesn't really feel like MMORPG-like. Feels like it's much heavier on the competition side and doesn't offer as much in-game exploration as opposed to the VR features it brings to real life. The writing, however, is really nice and easy to follow as always, and the action scenes were pretty engaging that I wish there were more chapters about Emika's involvement in the Warcross matches.

The romance never felt sincere. There's a whole chunk of telling instead of showing, so I never really get how Hideo falls for Emika to begin with. All that was said, was that they started talking everyday. What they talked about and how it became that way, we will never know since it was summed up like that in a single scene. I did not see the development so I couldn't help but be skeptical by the whole thing... Well, until the last few chapters kick in and it all kind of falls into place. The ending was brilliantly done, leaving a great deal of things for the next books to develop.

The Japanese phrases, though... they kinda bother me. They are not wrong, but the usage and the nuance isn't right either and it makes the writing feel much more amateur for these particular parts only. It's such a shame because if only these were done right, the book would feel much more polished especially to those who actually do understand the language.

First of all, it's unnatural for children to use formal speech when talking to their parents like Hideo does. It is not strange in prestigious / noble families, but the atmosphere in Hideo's family is casual enough for him to help out in the kitchen and even cook a meal for his parents, so it feels weird seeing him using formal speech to his mother. Most people only do this once in a while, oftentimes they have something really serious to talk about, but definitely not all the time and definitely not when they are just reunited after a long time of not seeing each other.

And then there's this one phrase Hideo said: “Yukkuri, (name)-kun!”. Name is omitted because spoilers. He's using the word yukkuri to say slow down in English, but it's not meant to be used like that. No one would just throw the word by itself to ask someone to slow down, it's always ゆっくりで行こうよ or ゆっくりでやろうよ so even if the word has the right meaning, it's not the correct usage and it feels really unnatural. I hope this can be improved if the next books are going to contain more Japanese phrases, it'll have a much more refined feel to it and not feel kind of weeaboo-ish.

tl;dr I LIKE THIS BOOK, but I gotta tsukkomi what I need to tsukkomi. I'm sorry.