Stella of the End is a post-apocalyptic kinetic novel made by Romeo Tanaka in collaboration with the visual novel studio Key, which follows transporter Jude Gray, who accepts a request to deliver a gynoid named Filia to the top of a space elevator while avoiding dangers from human bandits and machines who have created a "singularity".
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sequel please
Second best Key I've seen, though the bar isn't particularly high. The aesthetic is my thing and despite a female robot lead that is incredibly easy to dislike for the first half of the story and the promise of themes that didn't seem to have any way of tying up in a satisfying way, I was pleasantly surprised to be happy with it overall. I'm still not a VN person though.
"Even if humanity dies, the machines we have created will inherit our love and create the future"
I've been thinking about why I liked this so much. It's in no way a new concept; I've seen it done before. The story beats are fairly predictable, as is the ending. So what is it that makes THIS stand out? The world building? The setting? The pacing? The dynamic between Jude and Philia? The translation, even?
Yes. It's all of that, working in perfect tandem to create a masterfully told story. It's simple, yes, but beautiful.
I'm not a Tanaka Romeo fan in particular (I've only read Rewrite of his, other than this) but I'm sold on him being an extremely competent writer, without a doubt.
Really I'm almost shocked at how captivated I ended up being by the very believable world he built up. And in the short amount of time, how attached I was to Jude and Philia by the end. Philia in particular was the star of the show, her development by the end is just...ugh. I love it. So proud of her, as I know Jude would be.
She radiates "MUST PROTECT" energy to the highest degree I swear.
On a less serious note, I loved when Jude went full assault mode and dropped a bunch of savages using Promethean vision from Halo, fun times
Yes. It's all of that, working in perfect tandem to create a masterfully told story. It's simple, yes, but beautiful.
I'm not a Tanaka Romeo fan in particular (I've only read Rewrite of his, other than this) but I'm sold on him being an extremely competent writer, without a doubt.
Really I'm almost shocked at how captivated I ended up being by the very believable world he built up. And in the short amount of time, how attached I was to Jude and Philia by the end. Philia in particular was the star of the show, her development by the end is just...ugh. I love it. So proud of her, as I know Jude would be.
She radiates "MUST PROTECT" energy to the highest degree I swear.
On a less serious note, I loved when Jude went full assault mode and dropped a bunch of savages using Promethean vision from Halo, fun times
Planetarian + Nier Automata + The Last of Us
Tanaka Romeo's humane angle and smooth writing are as moving as ever, but the story is too familiar. It combines Planetarian's setting of survivalist man meeting robot girl in a futurist post apocalypse world and The Last of Us's road trip to salvation of human race into an enjoyable yet predictable elegy of civilization.