Book Review of a Non-Existent Novel: Creative Writing

"The Underthrow Girl and the Determination of Panna Cotta" (Tonbi Tosaka)

*This article contains spoilers.

　This was my first experience with Tosaka since reading "Penne Island and the Lie that Tasted Like Mitochondria" in the summer of my second year of high school.
　I think this book, "The Underthrow," was easier to read than "Penne," but I don't know if that's because I've grown or if this work is simply more accessible.
　I am a completely humanities-oriented person. When mathematical terms are thrown at me, I get lost in a maze. Yet, strangely, in Tosaka's works, talk of mathematics looks incredibly colorful.

　High school math class felt like having symbols with no taste, temperature, or even color just thrown at me. A rampaging hammer thrower hurling iron lumps of imaginary numbers in every direction. How could anyone catch that?

　Now, I will be writing with spoilers from here on out, so please close your browser as you see fit.

* * *

　The protagonist, Nori Semihara, turns into a porcupine around the latter half of the second chapter, but the flow, the process, and the circumstances leading up to that are very smooth. Before you know it, she's a porcupine. Many readers must think, "Wait, has Nori turned into a porcupine?" Perhaps the real thrill of this book is that you cannot pinpoint the exact moment of this so-called transformation. When I read other people's reviews, there are various interpretations, which is stimulating. Let me introduce a few.

・The theory that she changed in an instant when she received a fur coat during the scavenger hunt at the sports festival.

・The theory that she changed when she and her senior by two years in the same club, Akanii-san, shared a kiss half-jokingly.

・The karaoke scene. Akanii-san makes her junior, Yukiya (who is in the same year as Nori), sing the rap part because she is embarrassed. The theory that she gradually changed as Yukiya laid down the rhymes.

・The theory that she was a porcupine from the very beginning, and this was a story of the consciousness of a porcupine who was fully convinced she was Nori Semihara.

　As for top runners in transformation literature, besides Tonbi Tosaka, there are Genta Igata and Choka Iwawashi, aren't there?

　Also, looking abroad, the main authors would be Jimmy Luktee (Austria), Seiji Igarashi (UK), Rotbuch Schweinessen (Germany), and Gwenty Ketchup (Thailand).

　I think I'll try to delve a little deeper into this field!!