スターティング・オーヴァー

by Sugaru Miaki

二周目の人生は、十歳のクリスマスから始まった。全てをやり直す機会を与えられた僕だったけど、いくら考えても、やり直したいことなんて、何一つなかった。僕の望みは、「一周目の人生を、そっくりそのまま再現すること」だったんだ。　しかし、どんなに正確を期したつもりでも、物事は徐々にずれていく。幸せ過ぎた一周目の付けを払わされるかのように、僕は急速に落ちぶれていく。――そして十八歳の春、僕は「代役」と出会うんだ。変わり果てた二周目の僕の代わりに、一周目の僕を忠実に再現している「代役」と。　ウェブで話題の新人作家、ついにデビュー。

Genres: Fiction, Light Novel, Japan, Japanese Literature, Romance

242 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2013

About the author

Sugaru Miaki (三秋縋) is a Japanese writer. He was born in 1990 in Iwate Prefecture. He debuted in 2013 with Starting Over. He is also the author of Three Days of Happiness, Parasites in Love, and Your Story.

In March 2019, Your Story was nominated for the 40th Eiji Yoshikawa Literary Newcomer Award.

See 三秋縋

Reviews

[Annemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Sugaru Miaki is officially one of my favourite writers. His books are easy to read and interesting. A mix of fantasy and reality that is just perfect.

This book is written in first person, and we follow an utterly unlikable protagonist. Even though he's unlikable the story itself is interesting enough to keep wanting to read more. I kept wondering if our protagonist was a reliable narrator or not.

Sugaru Miaki seems to have a very deep understanding of mental illnesses. Not in the medical sense, but in how they make people feel, and behave. Especially considering things like depression, agoraphobia and similar increases (in the books I've read so far). This makes his characters feel very real and raw. His books are never happy, but dive into unhappiness with an honesty that is refreshing.

The only reason I ended up giving this 4,5 stars is the ending. Up until the last 30 pages or so I felt like this was a 5 star read, but the ending feels very rushed, which is such a pity, as the books itself is very well paced. It's a lot less slow than other Japanese books I've read, though still kinda slow when compared to many English books. The rushed ending wasn't as good as the rest of the book which is really a pity.

I'm looking forward to reading more of his books.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the 2ch version.

[InefableAtaraxia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sugaru Miaki, first novel. Like he say in the afterwords "Rather than dig through a sea of books where only one out of every hundred is a warped one that I like, it would be a lot faster to just write my own." and I certaninly like the effort he put in his book.

Anyways about the book. If you expected a happy story about how the MC re did things to repair or to improve his previous life. This is not the book for you. Certainly his previous life was godly. We will see how the MC turn everything upside down and downright worsen his previous life while even affecting those around him. We will see how he approach each of these things in a realistic way. I feel that his personality is such that is just a given that his life won't be anything like the first one. And if you sum to that a hazy memory. Well things can turn bad. What I didn't liked was the fact that there wasn't't an epilogue, but that shouldn't be a problem for everyone, just imagine what happens next right? Or just create another story of you own like Sugaru.

I give this story a 4.5 or 9 but given the impossibility to give any of those I choose a 5 to even out the low score for this book.

If you like to suffer with the protagonist, you want a good story or you are into MC re did his life but things had gotten bad and turned everything around him upside down, this is for you.

[Nada · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fiction books that somehow make you question your approach to life hold a special place in my heart.
I love being introduced to different point of views and brought to understanding the thought process that led to their construction.
In a way, this book was exactly that.

What I liked most was how reflective the protagonist’s thoughts were (though some were just disturbing, more than anything). The simple writing style made it so that his darkest thoughts and emotions were delivered with an honesty and straight forwardness that was refreshing.
While I’m discussing the writing style, I must say, the chronology throughout the book was confusing at times. As soon as I felt like I finally put all the pieces together, the protagonist brought up a part of his past he previously omitted, and I then had to mentally rearrange the whole storyline. While I had my doubts at first on whether that wouldn’t bother me in the long run, I surprisingly found myself enjoying this structure!

Sadly, the ending felt rushed. There was no proper build-up to what happens in the final scenes which was a pity considering how good the rest of book was.

[kopiokosong · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing premise with a decent ending. What really hooked me in was the first person narration that the author makes use of; Miaki's narrative style reads a lot like Dazai or Salinger's works. The MC's thoughts are deeply personal and reflective, bordering on disturbing even at certain points. To me, the characterisation of the MC along with the spotlight that Miaki gave to the MC through his narrative technique is "Starting Over's" greatest selling point.

[Ramdani Zaenudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like other fafoo's novel this is great to read. but this MC so gloomy person like other fafoo's novel.
-Just Love my Former Girlfrend from my firstlife.

[Will Yu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good book to think over.

[Shiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The review system here is wildly unsuitable for me. It's not a 4 nor a 5 star. Somewhere in the middle. So im just going to write what I think in my reviews (Not sure why im even saying that here, nobody cares)
8/10
I read 3 days of happiness before this so I had quite high expectations though I still really loved it. I am not really a fan of lots of chapters with few pages but I actually liked it here.
We follow a guy who was for some unfathomable reason brough back 10 years in the past to when he was 10 years old. Though you might this its a good thing. "yay I'll fix all of my mistakes" But what if you already had a life that you would never ever change for anything? This is what happened to our protagonist.
So he thought "Why not just repeat everything I did in my previous life?" Makes sense right? But in reality that's an awful idea

Soon without even trying his life is completely unrecognizable from his first life. And he himself said it quite well on a possibility why "If someone runs in a race and gets a third place, they got it because they were aiming for first. If they aimed for third, they would have gotten sixth or seventh"

He gets rejected by the girl he was supposed to be with, he has the opposite of his fruitful social life from his first life, he is behind in studies and he most of all there is someone in his place called "Tokiwa". He is with the girl he was in his first life, he looks the same, he has the same charm, its a doppelganger in real life.. but better or perhaps he is the doppelganger now.

He loathes tokiwa with all his heart and loves Tsugumi (his gf in his previous life)
He even made plans to kill tokiwa stalking him for days. "If I killed him that would solve it right?" believing Tsugumi would come running towards him if he did so.
HE didn't really care about the other stuff. HE just wanted Tsugumi.

Though he notices that sometimes when stalking him a girl is there also stalking him. Hiiragi. A loner girl from middle, high school and college. They exchanged few words with her but weirdly they always were kind of together in school in their own presence.

So he stalks him and even when a good opurtunity comes to kill him he does not do it. One day he gets close to pushing him off until Tokiwa turns around and without surprise says "come sit with me here"

Not only did he know that he was stalked but instead of being worried, it improved his happiness. He was himself through his perspective and it somehow makes his much happier to think about how he is seen from others perspectives. And he even asks him to continue stalking him and especiall to show up on chrismas day.
And so having lost all will to try and kill Tokiwa, our mc stalks him for a bit more and even shows up on chrismas day for him

Then as he is stalking him he spots Hiiragi again. AGAIN. They really are similar. He looks at her and realizes. "The girl I loved for these 10 years, Tsugumi. Is she really the one I was with in my previous life? What if.. it was Hiiragi all along?"
Yes of course.. He fell in love with the wrong girl.. He confessed to the wrong girl 10 years ago.. Why did he ever think it was Tsugumi? Doesn't Hiiragi look.. awfully similar? And.. She is also stalking her former self. That's right, she also has memories of "the first time"
But it doesn't matter now.. Its too late..

SO he just walks away.
Then a few days later, (I think) he accepts a part time job for one day.
Upon showing up, in the volunters there are 3 others who are also alone while everyone else has a pair. One was some middle aged man, another some randomg guy and the last was a girl.. I think we know who.
They had to make pairs so he paired up with hiiragi as left overs. (again)

After a while as they wait in a waiting room he hears a song on the radio. "starting over".
Oh.. right.. Tsugumi and Tokiwa are about to die.

He remebers, then he prepairs a speech for Hiiragi waiting in the same room about how they can be happy when their former selves die. But ultimately he decides to save them. He grabs her hand and they go together to save themselves. When directing trafic they realize that "why can't we be happy in this life? Why do we have to follow our shadow?" And they realize the partner they want isn't Tokiwa or Tsugumi. But the person standing in front of them. Their second self.

And upon this realazation, they are both happy. More happy than this day in their previous life. And they both belive they can pull it through together.


PHEW! That was long. I don't normally write such long review and I didnt even mean it to be this long but here I am. ANyway I thought it was really nice. It was so fun I just kept reading and I had no idea what might happen next. Honestly I just hoped something good might happen because his new life was so sad honestly.
Definitely reccomend! IF your reading this you probably read the book, if not.. I just spoiled most of it. SO SORRY! But still its amazing. So reccomend it to your friends or something. Have a great day! Actually if you have any books you liked similar to this one. Please tell me! (Though i doubt anyone wil read this)

[Tanner · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The story I’m going to tell may run contrary to your expectations.” It most certainly did. Starting over isn’t the same as Sugaru Miaki’s typical writing, in the sense of how “real” or relatable it is. To me at least. We’ve all been depressed or hungover about our past at one point I’m sure. Whether it’s an embarrassing moment or just something you could’ve done better, we’ve all thought of going back in time and do something about it I’m sure. However, Sugaru takes this to the idea extreme in this story, pointing out just how one little detail can alter the life ahead of you. This is very evident shortly after you get into the story, with the main character getting more desperate as his time and age goes by. One thing I’d like to point out is how we never got his name. It’s a detail that I love so much about this book. The longing that he has for “Tokiwa” or his original life that led him to contemplate murder, bar him from sharing his own, hinting that he will never get his old life back. As stated in the title, the ending concludes with him “starting over,” this time with Hiiragi who, unlike him, was clearly named since she was never shown to have taken things to the very extreme. She might’ve followed around Tokiwa and Tsugumi, but she was never shown to jade plans involving their murder. Might have been a stretch on that very last detail, but that’s how I see things after reading it. Personally, I find the main character relatable (in some ways), trying to give myself distractions over the reality that is my life. In the same way he’s slowly accepted his second life, I’ve learned that it’s easier to just embrace change by distracting myself until I’m able to move on.
The ending felt a little weird/wrong with the final scene on the sister instead of hiiragi, but I still think it was a great ending. It started and ended with him telling his little sister about his 10 year jump back in time.

[Naira Marinho · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading without any expectations. I didn't know the autor and I just wanted a Japanese novel to read... It was a great experience. The book brings some really interesting reflections about happiness, life choices, relationships, and so on. To me, the only flaw is the lost and confused memories of the main character... I didn't like this resolution. Seemed somewhat forced to me. The final part was a little bit rushed too. But itself, the book is great and I would recommend it! 😃

[Aayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.4
I still enjoyed the book and related with some of the ideas. Some of the lines in the book kinda articulated thoughts I couldn't articulate myself so it was really enjoyable to read at times. The plot progression felt so choppy and the book just read weirdly at times. Felt like the pacing of the ending was way too fast and out of nowhere tbh

something when your life is at plus49 you will work to increase it to plus 50 but when it's at minus 51 you don't see much point to increase it to 50

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always wanted to read a story about time travelling to the past it's one of my favorite plots to watch in shows and movies , this book had it perfectly written the MC was easy to follow his story and wasn't too exagerated found myself relating to him more than I thought I would , his view on the world of his second life was so beautiful to read. Loved it 4.5☆

[irenii · Rating 4 out of 5]

my favorite miaki book i’ve read so far.

“starting over” delves into perspectives on happiness. it got me reflecting on my goals and the effort i put into them.

& hehe minus the magical realism elements, the protagonist low-key seems so delusional. i quite enjoyed that.

[ckm · Rating 4 out of 5]

重生是我喜愛的題材Top 3，喜歡看一個人重來一次，會如何改變自己人生的爽文。
但是這篇一開場就說，主角太喜歡第一人生，所以會以不改變的形式過下去。
這樣與眾不同的想法，立即引起我的好奇心。
.
但是事情未如主角期待中順利進行，一個齒輪的錯位以致很多事情都出現了錯誤。
第一個錯誤是：跟第一人生的女朋友告白時，被拒絕了。
雖然不是推理小說，但我卻會在過程中在猜測到底主角說的話是真實，還是他只是妄想症：因為是人生失敗組所以妄想自己是上一生是勝利組冠軍。
我享受閱讀過程，對結局倒是有點空虛。不是因為看完而失落，單純只是結局不算是我最期待的畫面。
有機會再看同一作者的作者。

[Pal. · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️
La manera en la que iba a abandonar este libro porque era deprimente hasta que he entendido TODA LA TRAMA y pfff me ha afectado un montón porque era algo que necesitaba leer justo en este momento ❤️‍🩹

[shaunthesaint · Rating 3 out of 5]

i first read this as a teenager and really identified with the main character. i have to admit, looking back on it now makes me cringe a little. that said, the ending remains genuinely heartwarming. even at 20, it feels like I only just finished it yesterday...

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting Over (English Title)
This book is such a banger bro 😤
Short, snappy chapters about a guy who goes back 10 years into his 10 year old side and tries to relive his normal happy first life again, but ultimately fails and understands how life should be lived.

[Frank Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5/5

[Peyton Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books forces you to look at everyday life and count the blessings you have recieved and how you have used them. Whether it be few or many, there is always one that stands out among the rest

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

Romance, but with an ever so faint hint of fantasy. Sugaru Miaki's novels all follow this same formula, and I can't get enough.

The concept alone is interesting enough to keep you engaged but the main treat is the straightforward and messy thoughts the MC constantly has. Miaki has an incredible sense for translating emotional pain into 'coherent' reasoning.

It's a shame that the ending was as rushed and forced as it was, the setting up right before it was stellar. Up until the final few pages, the pacing felt *just* right. If you enjoy reading these kinds of books, it's worth your time.

[Ryudi1998 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A screenshot I took while reading it.
* 41 *
The sun had mostly set, so it became easier to tail Hiragi. Normally it would be harder with less people, but the town was still just the right level of crowded; a good day for stalking.
Hiiragi swiftly moved through the dim town. She was a fast walker.
People accustomed to being alone forget how to walk with others, and they're always displeased with where they are, want to be anywhere but, so they walk really fast - that's my theory, anyway. And the opposite's true too; happy people who are pleased with the moment and where they are walk slow. Tokiwa and Tsugumi walked verrry slow.
They walked so dreadfully slowly, lightly pushing each other, cuddling with each other, looking at each other, that tailing them was a huge pain.
They were already so happy being together that they were in no hurry to get anywhere.
How fast you walk when there's nothing particularly urgent to attend to is a great indicator of happiness. I mean it.
So I thought about all that as I followed Hiiragi. In addition to walking fast, she had a terrible sense of direction.
She'd be walking straight ahead, then suddenly duck into an alley, then come back out ten seconds later like nothing happened.
She'd come to a stop, suddenly cross the street, then cross back to the side she was on before.
What was she even trying to do? I knew she wasn't good with directions, but I'd never seen it so bad before.
Maybe she was drunk? Maybe she went crazy?
But the real reason was actually quite clear. If you followed Hiiragi's gaze, it was obvious what her target was.
However, it took me about thirty minutes to catch on. I'll admit it,
I'm an idiot.

[GoldFish05 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recommend this book to read
I 'guess everyone will have their own opinion
Mine is Great
Just read it

[lmaokellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i dont even know what to feel anymore