Review for Kokun

Written by Uehashi Nahoko who also wrote The Deer King.

Another variation on the “young girl getting trapped deep inside the palace to perform religious rituals but it’s actually for political reasons” premise, a la Raven of the Inner Palace. This one is a bit refreshing though since that young girl, albeit being the titular role, isn’t a main character. We follow the PoV of another girl, a zero to hero journey, and quite a satisfying one too.

This novel is an interesting combination of an apocalypse (locust plague) and an isekai (or rather, kamikakushi to be precise). Years ago, the ancestors of this nation brought some magical wheat from an alternate realm back during a famine, which can easily be grown everywhere regardless of weather, temperature, and humidity. Soon this nation became the strongest and most wealthy of the land. At the beginning of the story, for some unknown reason this magical wheat began calling swarms of locusts from that alternate realm and ended up becoming a catastrophic plague. Man, how they investigated and sorted out countermeasures is really an adrenaline rush. Unlike The Deer King which is infamous for being obscenely slow-paced, this one is way more engaging and a thrilling reading experience.

Having said that, there is one thing I didn’t like about Uehashi Nahoko’s novels. There are way too many loose ends. I didn’t mean it’s a writing flaw, but for lack of a better word, her opening endings are way too open. I don’t usually have issues with open endings but how she wrote the endings made you completely detach from the immersion. Which is kind of anticlimactic.