The stakes grow higher in this latest episode of Muv Luv Unlimited: The Day After! The shadow of nuclear annihilation looms over mankind, as France places the city of Seattle in the crosshairs. Can humanity overcome this crisis and unite to face the BETA?
Also in series
Reviews View More
it's pretty good, interesting stuff happening all around, shame that it's inconclusive and we will never know what the original author had in mind. Hopefully kouki doesn't fumble it.
TDA is not written by Kouki Yoshimune, so it is normal to feel a difference within the composition of the work to the original franchise, this is certainly to be expected. Yoshimune has a unique storytelling power that Wei cannot convey to the same extent. Saying that he is inferior to Yoshimune seems like I'm dissing the author, but I believe he is a good writer, but in retrospect, Yoshimune has a unique characteristic of his own. composition of the plot where we can easily identify its writing and a strength with words that can capture us and touch us intimately. I believe that many moments of TDA would have been better if it were a composition by Yoshimune, especially the dramatic moments of the characters, Tatsunami and Yuzuka's past and so on.
Perhaps because Wei had to carry Yoshimune's legacy and work within someone else's literary world influenced his writing, after all he had to build the story within the Muv-Luv standards determined by Yoshimune. I'm not going to go into technical aspects, because I didn't come to read Muv-Luv determined to address these issues, but what is clear as day to me is the way that Wei builds the relationship between the characters and the world of Muv-Luv :TDA in relation to Muv-Luv and this certainly defines one of the differences in the writing between the two authors.
While Yoshimune writes the characters' innermost lives, their daily lives and from them we see the world being built, relationships being formed, etc. Wei writes his scenario with the world taking precedence over the characters, that is, the characters' relationships and the construction of the world itself, geopolitics, are constructed by the world itself and not by the characters. The world delimits the characters and their relationships and after that it is up to the character, whereas during Yoshimune's writing it was the characters who ended up delimiting the world - I know this may seem a little confusing, but see it as a question of the way that the world is presented within TDA.
Don't we see TDA's world being wider than Alternative's even though Alternative has much more time to explore its own scene? Then. Overall, this discrepancy between Wei and Yoshimune's writing is a positive force for TDA in a sense, since the world taking precedence over the characters, determining their relationships, demonstrates human inferiority in relation to the vast world to which she is subjected and again a distancing from the world and a form of nihilism, which is rectified within the work with humanity closer to extinction than ever. This feeling that the world escapes us, eludes us, is precisely what TDA wants to bring, because like Alternative, our mission is to recover this world from antagonistic forces.
And now notice that even though Yoshimune and Wei's writings are different they arrive at exactly the same central point. Yoshimune, when playing the characters to explore the world and see everything only through his single vision, as we delve deeper into the world we come across our own inferiority in relation to it. Wei, by placing the world on the characters, forcing the world to determine the characters' relationships, makes us face again our inferiority in relation to the world. The way Wei plays the world over the characters is the very geopolitics that TDA has an explicit and abundant focus on compared to any other work by Yoshimune. Takeru exploring the world and creating his relationships comes across political relationships that, in Unlimited, are almost non-existent because he is just in training. In TDA, political forces have been present at all times since the work began, they are so strong that they cannot be ignored and are as threatening as any BETA.
(Oh, just a side note, is that TDA has a habit of straying from the Protagonist's POV from time to time, which is obviously a characteristic of Wei's narrative. However, Yoshimune uses all of his narration and world-building only through Takeru's vision, with except for some moments like the final stretch of Alternative when we see the POV of all the heroines)
TDA itself reflects a lot of what was already being said by Yuuhi in Alternative:
"When different governments and organizations take varying positions on the same issue. It's because they have differing ideals and beliefs."
What becomes even more evident is the power struggle that takes place within Japan with Ikaruga and 'Yuuhi', where the Shogun herself does not say that Ikaruga has no reasons or motives for doing what he does, in fact she defends him from Tatsunami saying that he is It's wrong to try to see everything as black and white.
The Day After is a good addition to the Muv-Luv universe even if it doesn't follow the canonical line after Alternative, despite not having all of Yoshimune's mastery within the narrative nor having production ahead of its time that ML and MLA had, TDA is a great Sci-fi story just like the main franchise.
And I can't help but be particularly looking forward to Resonative since the wider world of Muv-Luv comes into the hands of Yoshimune, which for me is a great indication that the production will be as formidable as that of its predecessors and we will finally have a work of the franchise capable of rivaling MLA.
Perhaps because Wei had to carry Yoshimune's legacy and work within someone else's literary world influenced his writing, after all he had to build the story within the Muv-Luv standards determined by Yoshimune. I'm not going to go into technical aspects, because I didn't come to read Muv-Luv determined to address these issues, but what is clear as day to me is the way that Wei builds the relationship between the characters and the world of Muv-Luv :TDA in relation to Muv-Luv and this certainly defines one of the differences in the writing between the two authors.
While Yoshimune writes the characters' innermost lives, their daily lives and from them we see the world being built, relationships being formed, etc. Wei writes his scenario with the world taking precedence over the characters, that is, the characters' relationships and the construction of the world itself, geopolitics, are constructed by the world itself and not by the characters. The world delimits the characters and their relationships and after that it is up to the character, whereas during Yoshimune's writing it was the characters who ended up delimiting the world - I know this may seem a little confusing, but see it as a question of the way that the world is presented within TDA.
Don't we see TDA's world being wider than Alternative's even though Alternative has much more time to explore its own scene? Then. Overall, this discrepancy between Wei and Yoshimune's writing is a positive force for TDA in a sense, since the world taking precedence over the characters, determining their relationships, demonstrates human inferiority in relation to the vast world to which she is subjected and again a distancing from the world and a form of nihilism, which is rectified within the work with humanity closer to extinction than ever. This feeling that the world escapes us, eludes us, is precisely what TDA wants to bring, because like Alternative, our mission is to recover this world from antagonistic forces.
And now notice that even though Yoshimune and Wei's writings are different they arrive at exactly the same central point. Yoshimune, when playing the characters to explore the world and see everything only through his single vision, as we delve deeper into the world we come across our own inferiority in relation to it. Wei, by placing the world on the characters, forcing the world to determine the characters' relationships, makes us face again our inferiority in relation to the world. The way Wei plays the world over the characters is the very geopolitics that TDA has an explicit and abundant focus on compared to any other work by Yoshimune. Takeru exploring the world and creating his relationships comes across political relationships that, in Unlimited, are almost non-existent because he is just in training. In TDA, political forces have been present at all times since the work began, they are so strong that they cannot be ignored and are as threatening as any BETA.
(Oh, just a side note, is that TDA has a habit of straying from the Protagonist's POV from time to time, which is obviously a characteristic of Wei's narrative. However, Yoshimune uses all of his narration and world-building only through Takeru's vision, with except for some moments like the final stretch of Alternative when we see the POV of all the heroines)
TDA itself reflects a lot of what was already being said by Yuuhi in Alternative:
"When different governments and organizations take varying positions on the same issue. It's because they have differing ideals and beliefs."
What becomes even more evident is the power struggle that takes place within Japan with Ikaruga and 'Yuuhi', where the Shogun herself does not say that Ikaruga has no reasons or motives for doing what he does, in fact she defends him from Tatsunami saying that he is It's wrong to try to see everything as black and white.
The Day After is a good addition to the Muv-Luv universe even if it doesn't follow the canonical line after Alternative, despite not having all of Yoshimune's mastery within the narrative nor having production ahead of its time that ML and MLA had, TDA is a great Sci-fi story just like the main franchise.
And I can't help but be particularly looking forward to Resonative since the wider world of Muv-Luv comes into the hands of Yoshimune, which for me is a great indication that the production will be as formidable as that of its predecessors and we will finally have a work of the franchise capable of rivaling MLA.
5 minutes of screentime and Bernadette is already goated Resonative cannot come soon enough
This is a review for Muv-Luv Unlimited TDA as a whole. There are no spoilers for any Muv-Luv content in this.
The Day After is a kind of what-if scenario of sorts based on Muv-Luv Unlimited (you know what the divergence might be if you've read the trilogy). Despite this, one should still read this after Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, due to the trilogy needing to be experienced as a complete product, this having a different writer, Resonative not being out, and outright Alternative spoilers or expectations spoilers here.
With that out of the way, I'll go over some trivia in regards to TDA. TDA was made by an ex-fanfic writer, Wei Luxin, who wrote Chicken Divers (which became canonised, you can read it in Photonflowers), among other works. Calling TDA and his other works simply "officialised fanfics" has a bit of a negative connotation, and does not show respect to how fantastic of a writer he is.
Despite featuring a lot of fanservice for fans of the franchise, with both lore and having characters from other entries appear, it does it in a way that does not feel forced, and instead feels natural. It is not just a cashgrab to follow up on Alternative's success as one might initially assume, same with all the other entries in the series. It only adds, it doesn't cheapen existing material. The original ML/MLA already had several âge characters appear, but here characters from various parts of the franchise take active roles rather than just being cameos or mere references.
The geopolitical landscape, the world around the characters, the technology, the contrasting cultures and lives, as well as topics that were not covered in the original like an international refugee crisis and child soldiers. Unlike the original where a lot of the worldbuilding is communicated to us through exposition by another character (and it worked for the setting of ML/MLA), we are more often than not going to different places, and also seeing various POVs of different characters.
And speaking of the characters, this probably has the most balanced cast in the entire series. I cannot think of a single character in the main cast that is not well-written.
It adds to your understanding of the original and the world of Muv-Luv as a whole in a way (drastically shifting quite a few things about that world in this one that changes the dynamic completely) that isn't just this author's headcanon, but is very consistent with everything we know. We've even got those classic Muv-Luv chibis, an awesome OP song and JAM PROJECT songs! The artstyle, too, while not quite on the level of the original, looks good, which is helped by this being as vibrant and dynamic visually, if not more, than Alternative. Additionally, I am very glad that Muv-Luv has moved away from erotic content after the 2000s. We don't even have stuff like the cadet suits from Unlimited here. ML has always worked better as an all-ages series to me, IMO.
Kouki, the author of the original Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, is coming back to write Muv-Luv Resonative, the sequel to TDA, but since there will be a large timeskip after TDA to it, you can read this now and have no trouble waiting (assuming Resonative ever comes out, and if it doesn't, the franchise is at a good enough stopping point for everyone). Also, read the Last Divers short story prequel and Last Divers itself before 03. They're not very long and will increase your enjoyment. You will also recognise some references from Photonflowers, Photonmelodies and Total Eclipse if you read those first, but it's fine either way. The Muv-Luv "order" isn't very strict, you can pretty much read anything you want in pretty much any order after you read ML and MLA.
Overall, I'd say that outside of the emotional aspect, TDA is straight up better than Alternative in most aspects, hence why you'll sometimes meet people that prefer TDA to Alt. For me, Alternative impacted me greatly, and I liked the worldbuilding as it was there, so it is still my #1, but this comes close.
The Day After is a kind of what-if scenario of sorts based on Muv-Luv Unlimited (you know what the divergence might be if you've read the trilogy). Despite this, one should still read this after Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, due to the trilogy needing to be experienced as a complete product, this having a different writer, Resonative not being out, and outright Alternative spoilers or expectations spoilers here.
With that out of the way, I'll go over some trivia in regards to TDA. TDA was made by an ex-fanfic writer, Wei Luxin, who wrote Chicken Divers (which became canonised, you can read it in Photonflowers), among other works. Calling TDA and his other works simply "officialised fanfics" has a bit of a negative connotation, and does not show respect to how fantastic of a writer he is.
Despite featuring a lot of fanservice for fans of the franchise, with both lore and having characters from other entries appear, it does it in a way that does not feel forced, and instead feels natural. It is not just a cashgrab to follow up on Alternative's success as one might initially assume, same with all the other entries in the series. It only adds, it doesn't cheapen existing material. The original ML/MLA already had several âge characters appear, but here characters from various parts of the franchise take active roles rather than just being cameos or mere references.
The geopolitical landscape, the world around the characters, the technology, the contrasting cultures and lives, as well as topics that were not covered in the original like an international refugee crisis and child soldiers. Unlike the original where a lot of the worldbuilding is communicated to us through exposition by another character (and it worked for the setting of ML/MLA), we are more often than not going to different places, and also seeing various POVs of different characters.
And speaking of the characters, this probably has the most balanced cast in the entire series. I cannot think of a single character in the main cast that is not well-written.
It adds to your understanding of the original and the world of Muv-Luv as a whole in a way (drastically shifting quite a few things about that world in this one that changes the dynamic completely) that isn't just this author's headcanon, but is very consistent with everything we know. We've even got those classic Muv-Luv chibis, an awesome OP song and JAM PROJECT songs! The artstyle, too, while not quite on the level of the original, looks good, which is helped by this being as vibrant and dynamic visually, if not more, than Alternative. Additionally, I am very glad that Muv-Luv has moved away from erotic content after the 2000s. We don't even have stuff like the cadet suits from Unlimited here. ML has always worked better as an all-ages series to me, IMO.
Kouki, the author of the original Muv-Luv and Muv-Luv Alternative, is coming back to write Muv-Luv Resonative, the sequel to TDA, but since there will be a large timeskip after TDA to it, you can read this now and have no trouble waiting (assuming Resonative ever comes out, and if it doesn't, the franchise is at a good enough stopping point for everyone). Also, read the Last Divers short story prequel and Last Divers itself before 03. They're not very long and will increase your enjoyment. You will also recognise some references from Photonflowers, Photonmelodies and Total Eclipse if you read those first, but it's fine either way. The Muv-Luv "order" isn't very strict, you can pretty much read anything you want in pretty much any order after you read ML and MLA.
Overall, I'd say that outside of the emotional aspect, TDA is straight up better than Alternative in most aspects, hence why you'll sometimes meet people that prefer TDA to Alt. For me, Alternative impacted me greatly, and I liked the worldbuilding as it was there, so it is still my #1, but this comes close.
Ellen Aice My Beloved
kino teamup