Light Novel: WorldEnd

WorldEnd
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Everyone wants to be remembered...Untold years after the strange Beasts drove humanity to extinction, Willem emerges from his slumber as the sole survivor. A new civilization of various other races has risen on the floating islands, but there'sno place for a featureless human among them. After aimlessly wandering for a time, Willem grudgingly accepts a job with the military, only to discover that the "weapons" he watches over are in fact young faeries. As he slowly learns more about the children and how they're linked to his past, the war with the Beasts grows increasingly desperate. When the girls prepare to fight a hopeless battle, is there anything a lone human can do...? 

Some of you who follow me on Twitter may recall that I watched the anime for this, and it completely had me bawling like a small child at the end. But at least I was forewarned by the first minute or so of the first episode. The light novel however....gives no warning whatsoever so I'm doing it instead...prepare yourselves for some heartbreak. 

I've been waiting and hoping one of the publishers would pick this up and translate this because there's only one season of the anime and it ends with some threads hanging and the only way to find out how it all finishes is with the novels and Yen Press have done us such a solid by doing this! 

The colour pages are completely gorgeous, with intriguing character introductions. I really liked the art, and the characters are so cute! Then again...that's kind of the point! The opening is kind of sad, and a little bit ominous...it's a scene from the anime that was moved to further back in the show. We see a group going to fight against humanity's greatest threat...but it doesn't go to plan. Cue time skip to the present! 

Willem and Ctholly, our two main characters, open the book for us. The world of the book is definitely interesting, humans aka featureless, are looked down upon for basically destroying the world 500 years ago. They're shunned, they find it hard to get jobs and make a living and they're basically not really wanted in society. 

Willem is the only survivor from that, an Emnetwiht. He's not really living since 'waking up' and his friend Glick convinced him to take the job. With his new job, Willem finds himself working for the military and watching over weapons that turn out to be young faeries...aka leprechauns. A chance encounter see's Willem and Ctholly meeting, and he helps her find her way so she can fulfil her wish and have no regrets and she's, you guessed it, one of the young faeries he's soon to be looking after. 

Aside from Willem and Ctholly we have a brilliantly fun support cast. The other faeries, Nephren, Ithea etc, are fun and their interactions and banter with Ctholly are hilarious and realistic. The younger girls are amusing too, as is their fascination with Willem. We also have the troll who looks after them all and is kind of like a mother, Nygglatho. She's hilarious and fully threatens to eat them all, but underneath that she's very caring towards the girls and not at all happy with what life has dealt them. 

This volume is basically all Willem taking the job and him arriving at the island to discover just what it is he's looking after plus the heartbreaking truth about them. We get some world building and sprinkles of the past to add some intrigue. I mean, as soon as you find out what Ctholly's destiny is, that's probably the first clue this one's gonna hurt, the anime was just more in your face about it. 

This first volume has a steady pace as we get to grips with the world, it's history and how everything works. As well as finding out what Willem's deal is and what the situation is with Ctholly and the other girls. Willem has some intense flashbacks that allow us to see a decent amount of the past and where it all went wrong, and how the world in the present came to be, but he also knows more about the dug weapons than the girls and his knowledge could possibly help them, and save them. 

The volume has a feeling of tension and sadness scattered throughout. Willem's POV asking who am I? Nygglatho's shows her inner rage at the Officers about the girls fates, and then Ctholly's deadling hangs over us from the moment we learn about it. It's honestly a matter of time. Aside from all of that...there is some humour thanks to the other characters, and the younger girls, but also some potential sparks of romance between Willem and Ctholly. 

Volume One does a good job of setting everything up and getting us ready for the next book when the action will no doubt kick off. For now we meet the characters, learn about the world and how it and the magic works, and get all the necessary information that we need in place. The overall atmosphere is quite sad and bleak, with some sprinkles of humour and some heart warming moments. Then there's the ending....I just....is that who I think it is!? Whaaat!?