Recently, I’ve been taking more time to sit down and read more books. So as I browsed through the great backlog of what I call a shelf, I picked up Kagerou Daze I: In a Daze. For those of you who don’t know why the Kagerou Project is, it’s a Vocaloid song series created by a man named Jin, who also goes by the name Shizen no Teki-P.
Kagerou Daze I: In a Daze, is the first of six and counting light novel series written by Jin. The novels are an easier take on the song series, This novel is split into two perspectives of the same situation, Shintaro Kisaragi’s and Momo Kisaragi, who as you can already guess, are brother and sister.
*WARNING: SPOLIERS AHEAD*
18 year old Shintaro Kisaragi, is a NEET. For unknown reasons, he hasn’t left his room in over two years. He lives with his family and this computer program that has a physical form inside of his PC. Her name is Ene, who drives Shinatro to his wits end. Ene’s appeared one day when Shintaro opened up an unknown email that contained Ene. At first she seems like a harmless person, but ultimately becomes a nuisance to Shintaro.
One day while working on making music, Shinataro and Ene have a little “disagreement,” which causes Shintaro to get heated up and accidently knock over and spill the soda he was drinking onto his keyboard. With all of the drink’s contents spilled on the keyboard, it stops working. Since he can’t order another due to the websites not shipping during the Obon Holiday, he is forced to venture out into the outside world for a new keyboard. Ene insists on coming alone, or else she’ll expose all of Shintaro’s “gentlemen” folders to the whole World Wide Web. She transports herself into his phone, and they leave.
For the first time in two years, Shintaro ventures outside. Once inside the mall to get his laptop, he gets caught in the middle of a terrorist situation in the electronics department. The first time out in two years, and this happens. What luck huh?
Shintaro becomes a hostage in this terrorist attack. The terrorists demand a one billion yen ransom (the equivalent of eight million dollars). If the request isn’t complete within thirty minutes, they’ll kill all the hostages. Shintaro soon comes up with a plan. During his thinking, a man sitting behind him seems to be enjoying himself during this situation. He can tell by the look on Shintaro’s face that he has a plan. He asks Shintaro how confident he is in his plan if the opportunity of a distraction presents itself, and he responds with “100%.” The man gets a kick out of this, and Shintaro starts yelling at the man asking him “How can you be enjoying yourself during this?!”, which irritates the man and his “army” them all hostage. He picks up Shintaro, threatening him. Shinatro mumbles to himself, which infuriates the man. Shintaro then scrams “I HOPE YOU ALL GET LOCKED UP IN A JAIL CELL FOR LIFE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!” As if on cue, a television falls, and Shintaro darts for the phone displays while the men are distracted. He then plugs his phone into one of the chargers, and Ene, who was in his phone the whole time, appears all over the computer screens, and ends the hostage situation by lifting all the shutters enclosing them. Shinatro is shot, and falls to the floor.
Momo Kisaragi is a 16 year old high school student and pop idol. When Momo was little, her family was in financial trouble. Momo decided to help out trying to get a job. She has this “ability” that always attracted people to her, more than usual. Because of this ability, she soon fell into the life of an idol.
On the way home from summer school, she notices a flyer on a table. Momo usually doesn’t venture around town because of her “ability,” but she sees this keychain on the flyer that was “Too cute not to have.” She puts on her hood and heads towards town to purchase it.
While in town trying her best not to be noticed, her hood blows off, and her eyes attracts the attention of everyone around her. She darts off, running at full speed away from the crowd. She reaches a dead end in an alley and encounters a hooded girl with long green hair. Momo thinks she is a fan, but instead tells her to come with her. She states that she can cure Momo’s “ability” of always being noticed by everyone. The hooded girl tells her that her name is Kido, and takes Momo to her hideout.
Inside Kido’s hideout, she is greeted by a man sitting on the couch. He explains to her that his name is Kano, and that he is part of a group called the Mekakushi-dan, and that Kido is the leader. While examining the curious Momo, Kano notices that she isn’t the girl that he asked Kido to get. She can’t leave now because she knows too much. They do, however, tell her that they have these “eye” abilities that they can help Momo out with her situation. Kido has the ability to “avert people’s attention” from whoever she focuses on, basically making Momo almost invisible, as long as she doesn’t bump into anyone. Hearing this, she is filled with joy and hope.
During their conversation, a girl with white hair appears out of a room. Her name is Marie. She shyly introduces herself to Momo, and runs off to the kitchen to make tea. When Marie returns from the kitchen, she trips and spills tea on Momo and her phone, while Momo was texting where she was to her manager. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that Momo had a shoot today and that her manager has been trying to get into contact with her all day. Because of her dead phone, the four of them go to the mall to replace Momo’s phone.
While at the mall shopping for Momo’s phone, Momo and her friends get caught in the same terrorist situation as Shintaro, but instead are not taken hostage due to Kido’s eye power. Kano scurries off to go find Shintaro. Remember that man that was talking to Shintaro before? That was Kano the whole time. Kano has the ability to make optical illusions with his eyes. The terrorists see Kano tied up, but in reality, he is texting Kido on everything that is going on. He informs Kido about Shintaro’s plan. Meanwhile, Momo comes up with a plan to help Shintaro out, even though Shintaro does not Momo is there. While in position, her, Kido and Marie get ready to execute the plan. When Momo hears Shintaro screaming, the plan commences. She’s the one who pushed over that TV that Shintaro saw crash. She runs in front of the crowd to avert attention away from Shintaro, and everyone is mesmerized on her. Meanwhile, Marie also helps out by using her eye power to momentarily freeze everyone. I forgot to mention she’s part Medusa, but doesn’t have the full power of Medusa. While everyone is frozen, Kano grabs the wounded Shintaro and the seven, including Shintaro and Ene, escape before anyone can notice them.
*END OF SPOILERS*
There is also a small side story in the book I forgot to mention. It’s broken into three parts, which tells about one of the characters in the songs, aside from the main story. The name of the side stories is Kagerou Daze I-III. If the small story confuses you, watch the song “Kagerou Days” by Jin featuring Hatsune Miku. It will clear up that story.
I give this novel an 8/10. Having read only two of the novels so far released by Yen Press, this is a great introduction that leads into an amazing second novel. This novel is character driven with an amazing plot and likeable characters. Jin is an amazing as an artist and as an author. Kagerou Daze as a series is a very confusing even more than the Monogatari series. If you like Vocaloids or just want to get into an exciting story, I recommend you pick up Kagerou Daze I: In a Daze. Until next time guys! Hope you enjoyed this review!
If you want to talk more about this topic with me, you can do so on Twitter at twitter.com/djddueces. If you want to see what I am watching, you can do so at MyAnimeList.net/djddueces. My Tumblr (which is basically all Hatsune Miku images) and Instagram are the same, at djddueces.
Kagerou Daze I: In a Daze, is the first of six and counting light novel series written by Jin. The novels are an easier take on the song series, This novel is split into two perspectives of the same situation, Shintaro Kisaragi’s and Momo Kisaragi, who as you can already guess, are brother and sister.
*WARNING: SPOLIERS AHEAD*
18 year old Shintaro Kisaragi, is a NEET. For unknown reasons, he hasn’t left his room in over two years. He lives with his family and this computer program that has a physical form inside of his PC. Her name is Ene, who drives Shinatro to his wits end. Ene’s appeared one day when Shintaro opened up an unknown email that contained Ene. At first she seems like a harmless person, but ultimately becomes a nuisance to Shintaro.
For the first time in two years, Shintaro ventures outside. Once inside the mall to get his laptop, he gets caught in the middle of a terrorist situation in the electronics department. The first time out in two years, and this happens. What luck huh?
Shintaro becomes a hostage in this terrorist attack. The terrorists demand a one billion yen ransom (the equivalent of eight million dollars). If the request isn’t complete within thirty minutes, they’ll kill all the hostages. Shintaro soon comes up with a plan. During his thinking, a man sitting behind him seems to be enjoying himself during this situation. He can tell by the look on Shintaro’s face that he has a plan. He asks Shintaro how confident he is in his plan if the opportunity of a distraction presents itself, and he responds with “100%.” The man gets a kick out of this, and Shintaro starts yelling at the man asking him “How can you be enjoying yourself during this?!”, which irritates the man and his “army” them all hostage. He picks up Shintaro, threatening him. Shinatro mumbles to himself, which infuriates the man. Shintaro then scrams “I HOPE YOU ALL GET LOCKED UP IN A JAIL CELL FOR LIFE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!!” As if on cue, a television falls, and Shintaro darts for the phone displays while the men are distracted. He then plugs his phone into one of the chargers, and Ene, who was in his phone the whole time, appears all over the computer screens, and ends the hostage situation by lifting all the shutters enclosing them. Shinatro is shot, and falls to the floor.
Momo Kisaragi is a 16 year old high school student and pop idol. When Momo was little, her family was in financial trouble. Momo decided to help out trying to get a job. She has this “ability” that always attracted people to her, more than usual. Because of this ability, she soon fell into the life of an idol.
On the way home from summer school, she notices a flyer on a table. Momo usually doesn’t venture around town because of her “ability,” but she sees this keychain on the flyer that was “Too cute not to have.” She puts on her hood and heads towards town to purchase it.
While in town trying her best not to be noticed, her hood blows off, and her eyes attracts the attention of everyone around her. She darts off, running at full speed away from the crowd. She reaches a dead end in an alley and encounters a hooded girl with long green hair. Momo thinks she is a fan, but instead tells her to come with her. She states that she can cure Momo’s “ability” of always being noticed by everyone. The hooded girl tells her that her name is Kido, and takes Momo to her hideout.
Inside Kido’s hideout, she is greeted by a man sitting on the couch. He explains to her that his name is Kano, and that he is part of a group called the Mekakushi-dan, and that Kido is the leader. While examining the curious Momo, Kano notices that she isn’t the girl that he asked Kido to get. She can’t leave now because she knows too much. They do, however, tell her that they have these “eye” abilities that they can help Momo out with her situation. Kido has the ability to “avert people’s attention” from whoever she focuses on, basically making Momo almost invisible, as long as she doesn’t bump into anyone. Hearing this, she is filled with joy and hope.
During their conversation, a girl with white hair appears out of a room. Her name is Marie. She shyly introduces herself to Momo, and runs off to the kitchen to make tea. When Marie returns from the kitchen, she trips and spills tea on Momo and her phone, while Momo was texting where she was to her manager. Oh yeah, I forgot to add that Momo had a shoot today and that her manager has been trying to get into contact with her all day. Because of her dead phone, the four of them go to the mall to replace Momo’s phone.
While at the mall shopping for Momo’s phone, Momo and her friends get caught in the same terrorist situation as Shintaro, but instead are not taken hostage due to Kido’s eye power. Kano scurries off to go find Shintaro. Remember that man that was talking to Shintaro before? That was Kano the whole time. Kano has the ability to make optical illusions with his eyes. The terrorists see Kano tied up, but in reality, he is texting Kido on everything that is going on. He informs Kido about Shintaro’s plan. Meanwhile, Momo comes up with a plan to help Shintaro out, even though Shintaro does not Momo is there. While in position, her, Kido and Marie get ready to execute the plan. When Momo hears Shintaro screaming, the plan commences. She’s the one who pushed over that TV that Shintaro saw crash. She runs in front of the crowd to avert attention away from Shintaro, and everyone is mesmerized on her. Meanwhile, Marie also helps out by using her eye power to momentarily freeze everyone. I forgot to mention she’s part Medusa, but doesn’t have the full power of Medusa. While everyone is frozen, Kano grabs the wounded Shintaro and the seven, including Shintaro and Ene, escape before anyone can notice them.
*END OF SPOILERS*
There is also a small side story in the book I forgot to mention. It’s broken into three parts, which tells about one of the characters in the songs, aside from the main story. The name of the side stories is Kagerou Daze I-III. If the small story confuses you, watch the song “Kagerou Days” by Jin featuring Hatsune Miku. It will clear up that story.
I give this novel an 8/10. Having read only two of the novels so far released by Yen Press, this is a great introduction that leads into an amazing second novel. This novel is character driven with an amazing plot and likeable characters. Jin is an amazing as an artist and as an author. Kagerou Daze as a series is a very confusing even more than the Monogatari series. If you like Vocaloids or just want to get into an exciting story, I recommend you pick up Kagerou Daze I: In a Daze. Until next time guys! Hope you enjoyed this review!
If you want to talk more about this topic with me, you can do so on Twitter at twitter.com/djddueces. If you want to see what I am watching, you can do so at MyAnimeList.net/djddueces. My Tumblr (which is basically all Hatsune Miku images) and Instagram are the same, at djddueces.
