The Pros and Cons of Not Following a Serialized Work - I Wrote This Last Week #17 -

Hello everyone. I am Naseka.
I define myself as a philosopher and book reviewer.
I define myself as such.

I read some kind of book every week, every day, and
now I have made it a daily routine to read
one volume of Detective Conan.

It is like a quota for clearing my backlog of unread books,
and since last week, I have been reading
Keiko Nishi's "Hatsukoi no Sekai" (World of First Love)
because I want to write a review.

* I participate in the Amazon Associates program.

The reason I went out of my way to include the author's name
is simply because I am a fan of Nishi-sensei.

Since I was captivated by "Otoko no Issho," I have only been a fan for a little over 10 years.
By the way, my favorite work of hers so far is "Ane no Kekkon" (Sister's Marriage).

Well, until recently, for a while,
my basic policy was to "only read completed works,"
so even though I call myself a fan,
I haven't read all of her works yet.

Since I started note,
I've had a change of heart,
so now I intend to actively read
works that are not yet completed as well.

By the way, I believe in writing reviews
only after reading to the end (= after it is completed),
so this "Hatsukoi no Sekai" is also
a completed work.

The other day, while reading this work,
I felt something,
and that is what this topic will be about.

When you are reading a completed work,
you know "how many volumes are left until the end."
(As long as you can do subtraction)

As the title suggests, Hatsukoi no Sekai
is themed around (adult) love affairs, but
contrary to my expectations (more than I anticipated),
the female protagonist got into a good relationship
with a handsome man quite early on.

Based on the feeling of the
Nishi-sensei works I have read so far,
I feel like there should be a bit more
commotion before they get together.

I thought they would go through various twists and turns
and get together around the final volume or the one before it,
but contrary to my expectations, that happened
around the middle.

...When that happens, a meta-thought
unintentionally kicks in here.

"Since there are X total volumes, if they
get happy here,
another wave of trouble is inevitable..."

From the number of remaining volumes,
a reverse calculation happens automatically.

I think this is something that
never happens when you are following a serialized work
in real time.

Of course, if you predict the flow
until the end,
you can perform a reverse calculation
based on that prediction,
but the total number of volumes in that case
is just an estimate, isn't it?

Reading a work after it is completed
means you can definitely avoid the risk
that "it might not be completed,"
but as a trade-off, it also has the drawback
of being able to guess the future development
from the number of volumes.

If I had read this while it was being serialized,
I might have been able to
get excited a bit more purely.
Well, as far as Nishi-sensei's works go,
I probably would have speculated anyway.
(Because that's the fun part)

Conversely, following a series
has the benefit of making it harder to predict what comes next.
In exchange for the risk of it remaining unfinished,
the thrill and suspense are heightened.

Which is better depends on the person.
But this time, I think it was good
that I was able to realize
the joy of following a series,
something I hadn't noticed before.

By the way, I am still in the middle of reading "Hatsukoi no Sekai."
Whether my predictions will be correct
is something I still don't know
at the time of writing this article.

Even if my predictions happen to be correct,
it doesn't really matter.
It's okay if I can read ahead.
Because I love Nishi-sensei's style.

If you can encounter an author like that,
it is the greatest happiness
for a book lover.

By the way, I have also written
several book reviews of the author's works.

Please feel free to read them ↓

I'd like to write about "Otoko no Issho" somewhere too...

This week's Congratulatory Board

Talking about manga as self-improvement

[Book Review] What do the world's elite talk about in "small talk"?

Thank you for purchasing my paid articles

No Congratulatory Board, but here's an introduction

Is it better to buy first or read first?

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Learning to be a "Rule Changer" from Kingdom

X Link Collection for note Monetization - Part 14 -

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for reading.

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