The Ending Chronicle

The Ending Chronicle
Cover of the first light novel volume, featuring Sadagiri Shinjou
終わりのクロニクル (Owari no Chronicle)
Genre	Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science fiction, Romance
Light novel
Written by	Minoru Kawakami
Illustrated by	Satoyasu
Published by	ASCII Media Works
Demographic	Male
Imprint	Dengeki Bunko
Magazine	Dengeki Bunko Magazine
Original run	June 10, 2003 – December 10, 2005
Volumes	14

The Ending Chronicle (終わりのクロニクル, Owari no Chronicle, literally Chronicle of the End) is a light novel series written by Minoru Kawakami (川上 稔) and illustrated by Satoyasu (さとやす). It had 14 volumes published from 2003 to 2005 by Dengeki Bunko. It takes place in the past of Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere, another of Kawakami's light novel series. The series takes place in the second era of a six-stage universe, with Kawakami's other works (including Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere) encompassing the other five.

Plot

1945 - The end of the World War II. It was a year that would be forever engraved in human history, but it was also the year when another war that does not have a special place in the pages of history ended. Those who knew of it named it the Concept War (概念戦争, Gainen Sensou).

Sixty years later, 2005. After the death of his grandfather, the high school student Mikoto Sayama, vice-president of the Taka-Akita Academy's Student Council, is suddenly summoned by the giant corporation IAI. There, he is informed of the existence of the UCAT institution and his grandfather's deep involvement with it and the Concept War. His grandfather and UCAT fought against ten alternate worlds called Gears (G/ギア, Gia) that existed separate to this one. These worlds were not parallel, they existed in multiple phases atop each other like a planetary orbit. They could approach each other and interact and affect each other on a set cycle, so when this fact was discovered, they began an all out war among themselves to destroy each other. With the world at stake, his grandfather took part on this war in order to destroy other worlds. Therefore sixty years ago, Sayama's grandfather and his comrades destroyed all the Gears from the 1st to the 10th and at the end only this world, the world known as Low-Gear, survived.

Carrying on his back the phrase "the surname Sayama indicates a villain" and all the hatred, Mikoto Sayama begins the last negotiation with the other Gears survivors, the Leviathan Road (全竜交渉 (レヴァイアサンロード), Revuaiasan Rōdo), in order to save Low-Gear from a new crisis. What is the crisis that approaches Low-Gear, this world in which the survivors of the other worlds live? And what is the meaning of the Leviathan Road which was left to Sayama Mikoto in order to avoid that crisis? Can this world truly reach a conclusion that will not bring its own end despite having ended so many other worlds? When Sayama Mikoto faces the emotions of those who were once defeated, what answer will he give?

Characters

Main characters

Mikoto Sayama (佐山・御言, Sayama Mikoto)

Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Drama CD)

The main protagonist. Taka-Akita Academy's Student Council vice-president. Second Year. Team Leviathan representative, negotiator and leader. Always accompanied by Baku. Georgius' user. Currently without any relatives, the Tamiya household take care of him. He was trained by Hiba Ryuutetsu at the Hiba Dojo, so he is quite proficient at martial arts.

By the will of his deceased grandfather Kaoru Sayama, he was designated as the representative of Low-Gear in the negotiations. His grandfather was one of the Eight Dragon Kings (八大竜王, Hachi Dai Ryūō) who destroyed the other worlds. Despite being his grandson, Mikoto's father was adopted so he was not really blood related to his grandfather. As the successor of the villain Kaoru Sayama, he was entrusted with the negotiations that will shape the destiny of the world itself, the Leviathan Road.

He has been raised from childhood to be a superb villain, in other words, to perform necessary evils. However, all his grandfather had taught him was how to do it, not when. As Sayama doesn't know when the abilities he carries are truly necessary, he has grown to never be really serious about anything, at least until he finds about what happened sixty years ago and meets Shinjou, the one who will be his counterbalance.

Sayama has a quite unique and self-centered personality, and even after meeting Shinjou, to whom he shows romantic interest from very early, he does not put the brake to his own eccentricities. As he puts it, "I'm Sayama Mikoto, the negotiator of the Leviathan Road and the person at the center of the world." He likes to wear suits, so when not wearing the school uniform he usually wear a three-piece suit. During fighting, he uses his UCAT anti-Gear combat uniform made up of a white body suit and thick, black tights with white shorts and a coat worn over that. Also he always wears a women's ring on the middle finger of his left hand.

Despite being an active part in the struggles and negotiations surrounding the Leviathan Road, he has a physical and mental handicap that is triggered under certain occasions. Because of his past experiences (like when his mother apparently attempted a shared suicide with him) every time he remembers his family he suffers from symptoms similar to an angina, causing severe pain that sometimes even forces him to his knees. As the story progresses and he gradually discovers the involvement of his parents with UCAT, Sayama has to face that condition. Also, in his second year of middle school, he advanced to the openweight finals for student karate but he lost after breaking his fist, so he still feels some phantom pain while clenching it.

Sadagiri Shinjou (新庄・運切, Shinjou Sadagiri)

Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya (Drama CD)

The heroine. Taka-Akita Academy's Student Council secretary. Second Year. In charge of Team Leviathan's vanguard protection. Ex-St user. Having grown up in the mountains of Okutama her common sense is behind about 10 or 20 years.

Mysterious girl assigned to the Team Leviathan. Receives preferential treatment in UCAT Japan and those who know her true story are very few, like Ooshiro Kazuo. She has lost her memory, so she does not remember where she came from or her own parents, so she joins the Leviathan Road to find information about her past. However, the clues are very scarce as besides her name, she only has a men's ring in her right hand's middle finger and the memory of the Silent Night song.

As a gunner, she uses the Cowling Staff Ex-St as her personal weapon, but during combat often hesitates whether to shoot or not the enemy. At Shinjou's request, Ex-St's attack power is proportional to the strength of her intentions, so it would not create more destruction than the user wished. But even with such a function, Shinjou feels a great sense of rejection when she presses the trigger. Opposites in nature, Sayama finds in her sweetness the justice he does not have, so they quickly get fond of each other and she becomes his counterbalance.

The truth of her past seems to be directly connected to the Concept War to the point she is referred by the holy sword Gram as "the key that binds it all together" and the end to the history that began 60 years ago. The story advances as she tries to discover the truth of her parents alongside Sayama.

Kaku Izumo (出雲・覚, Izumo Kaku)

Voiced by: Kishō Taniyama (Drama CD)

Taka-Akita Academy's Student Council president. Third Year, but actually twenty years old. Team Leviathan vanguard force along with his partner Kazami Chisato, who is also his girlfriend. V-Sw's user. Son of the current president of IAI and a 10th-Gear mother, so he is a Low-Gear and 10th-Gear mixed race that has inherited divine protection from his mother, making his body extremely resilient. An irresponsible and cheerful individual.

He lives with Chisato in one of the Academy's dorms since the presidental election, and even if they are not married yet is as if they were already. They met two years ago during an incident that involved 6th-Gear and 10th-Gear. He is always lasciviously joking around with Chisato, and she hits him all the time due to it.

In combat, he easily wields V-Sw, an unconventional enormous Cowling Sword that differs from other more common Concept Weapons in that it has 6th-Gear Concept Core sealed inside and powering its abilities. V-Sw has a will on its own, recognizes Kaku as its owner and its power is based in the concept of "destruction and rebirth" making it one of the most powerful weapons that the Japanese UCAT has at their disposition.

Like most of the other Team Leviathan members, his grandfather Zen Izumo was one of the Eight Dragon Kings, specifically the one in charge of 6th-Gear and 10th-Gear destruction. Both his grandmother and his mother were former inhabitants of 10th-Gear, and 10th-Gear blood flows strongly within him. Until two years ago, when he met Chisato, he lived in a 10th-Gear settlement in the Kinki region and he even had a different name and used a different language. After a battle caused by the remnants of 6th-Gear where both him and Chisato became involved, both joined Japanese UCAT and their destinies mixed together.

Chisato Kazami (風見・千里, Kazami Chisato)

Voiced by: Ai Maeda (Drama CD)

Taka-Akita Academy's Student Council treasurer. Third Year. Team Leviathan vanguard force along with her boyfriend Kaku Izumo. G-Sp2 and X-Wi user. Originally she was a Low-Gear ordinary person, but after the Leviathan Road with 6th-Gear and 10th-Gear two years before the story began she became a member of the Japanese UCAT. Her father is a TV Program Planner and her mother was a popular singer and she also performs in a school band. A bright but violent and impulsive girl.

She lives with Kaku in the Academy's dorms and even if they are not married yet they already have a de facto marital relationship accepted by her parents. Unlike the other Team Leviathan members, her family had not any relationship with the Concept War or the other Gears in the past, so she lived an ordinary life until she met Kaku in an incident two years before, when she became accidentally involved in a fight against 6th-Gear. Both Kaku and her survived and ended as Team Leviathan first members.

Her main weapon is G-Sp2, a Cowling Lance that holds inside 10th-Gear’s Concept Core. This is a "divine lance" with a will on its own that recognizes Chisato as its owner. She also uses the Concept Equipment X-Wi, producing yellow wings of light who lets her to leapt high into the sky and fly across the battlefield, giving her high mobility. From ensure air superiority to assault the position of the main enemy force, she has a wide range of roles in the battlefield and is one of the Team Leviathan main assets. Because of the blessing of G-Sp2 she also has a superhuman strength, but Kaku is able to withstand her blows thanks to the defense granted by his maternal blood.

Within a Team Leviathan full of eccentric individuals, she is the one of the most grounded in common sense and at times also coordinates the group's efforts. While cheerful and lively, once she experiences failure she is prone to have a hard time getting back on her feet.

Ryuuji Hiba (飛場・竜司, Hiba Ryuuji)

Mikage (美影, Mikage)

Dan Harakawa (ダン・原川, Dan Harakawa)

Heo Thunderson (ヒオ・サンダーソン, Hio Sandāson)

Terminology

General terms

Gear (G/ギア, Gia)

Worlds are perceived as individual gears and so they are referred to as such. They have their own unique characteristics or concepts. They are not parallel, they exist in multiple phases atop each other like a planetary orbit and they could approach each other and interact on cycles. There are ten Gears from 1st-Gear through 10th-Gear and a Low-Gear (that represents the Earth). Ever since Low-Gear began to exist, it has crossed paths with the other Gears a few times and that has created connections via its ley lines, so that has given it the characteristics of all the other Gears’ along with myths, legends, and cultures related to said Gears. In other words, each world is the basis to one of the mythologies of Low-Gear.

Concept (概念, Gainen)

The power of how things are. The characteristics that each Gear holds. A power that can control even the laws of physics. The ultimate reason behind everything.

String Vibration (自弦振動, Jigen Shindō)

The concept of the very existence of an object. A variable fixed-period vibration that indicates the power of a concept. Everything in any of the worlds has a string vibration for their world and a string vibration for the object itself.

Parent String Vibration (母体自弦振動, Botai ji gen shindō)

The string vibration of a Gear. It shows to which Gear the existence having it belongs.

Child String Vibration (子体自弦振動, Kokarada ji gen shindō)

The string vibration of an individual. It shows the particularities the existence having it holds.

Existence Percentage/Collapse Percentage (存在率/崩壊率, Sonzai-ritsu/Hōkai-ritsu)

The string vibration supports the very things themselves. If a portion of an existence concept is destroyed, no portion of the object is destroyed but its existence percentage drops, and if more than 50% of an object’s existence is destroyed, it will be annihilated. A Concept Space is usually created by accessing about 20% of the string vibration of the things in the area, so if said Concept Space was created three times and destroyed each time that would lead to the real area being destroyed in some natural way. This also applies to the Gears, so if a Gear loses over 50% of its concepts, it will be destroyed. That was what brought the end of the other worlds during the Concept War, as the halves of the Concept Core of said Gears were stolen and the worlds ceased to exist.

Concept Core (概念核, Gainen Kaku)

The foundation of a Gear. Masses of concepts on the level of an entire world, so they have an even greater density than a Concept Text. It could be equated to the existence of Gear itself. All the Concept Cores were split in two, so now they have more or less half of the concepts of a Gear. The concepts used by Low-Gear are usually a degradation extracted of one of these Concept Cores, and they are needed as a master for creating Concept Texts. As a result of the Concept War, the two Concept Cores of the Gears are sealed, usually one within a dragon and the other within a weapon.

Minus Concepts (マイナス概念, Mainasu Gainen)

The negative concepts that form the core of the Low-Gear. They appear as a product of the load of the positive concepts and they are just a force that harms everything without any characteristics on their own. The negative concepts of the other Gears are also dropped to the Low-Gear, so those ten form a pair of Concept Cores. It has been predicted that their activity will reach its critical point in December 25, 2005, destroying Low-Gear in the process.

Concept Space (概念空間, Gainen Kūkan)

When an out of phase space has concepts added to it, it is known as a Concept Space. A pseudo-alternate world created by borrowing a portion of an area’s string vibration. For example, if a Concept Space is done using the concept "metal is alive", the space will serve as a pseudo 3rd-Gear where the metal will come to life. When a Concept Space is deployed, two versions of that area exist on top of each other. They are created by rewriting a portion of the parent string vibration, creating a space where a part of reality is based on the concept of another world. As only a portion of its parent string vibration was altered, they are connected to reality and are easy to deploy and remove. Due to the difference in vibration density one cannot leave without a String Watch that match the wearer’s parent string vibration accordingly. Without one of those, one cannot usually enter into one unless their string vibration was registered by the one who made the space.

Concept Text (概念条文, Gainen Jōbun)

A voice heard in the mind of the one who goes into a Concept Space informing you of the effects of the concept. It is made by gathering inferior reproductions of an extracted concept. Each individual concept is very weak, but it can be heard as a voice once it reaches the level of a Concept Text. The voice is the same as that of the listener. In a Concept Space, what it is heard is usually particulary strong concepts important to said space, so weaker or less important concepts cannot be heard. The String Watch also shows these Concept Texts as a red text scrolling across the watch’s black face.

Media

Light novels

Owari no Chronicle began as serial light novel series run in Dengeki Bunko Magazine in 2003. When it finished in December 10, 2005, it had 14 compilation volumes covering seven separate arcs published by ASCII Media Works' imprint Dengeki Bunko. By 2008, it was #44 in the overall ranking from 1979 to 2008 of top-selling light novels by series^[1] with 1,300,000 estimated copies sold.^[2]

Drama CD

A Drama CD was released after the main series ended, in March 31, 2006.^[3]

Music

A series of music albums were released by Voltage of Imagination and Tenky, named GET SET - TEAM LEVIATHAN CHRONICLE (released in August 25, 2008), AHEAD - TEAM LEVIATHAN CHRONICLE (released in November 5, 2008), BREAK - TEAM LEVIATHAN CHRONICLE (released in April 28, 2009) and GO AHEAD - TEAM LEVIATHAN CHRONICLE (released in August 14, 2009).

Reception

The Ending Chronicle ranked two times in the top ten of the Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, a list of the most popular light novels and their characters according to their readers: fifth in 2006^[4] and seventh in 2007.^[5] Between the 2005 and 2007 issues of Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, main character Mikoto Sayama ranked three times, third place in 2005,^[6] second place in 2006^[4] and finally he was the No. 1 ranked male light novel character in the 2007 issue.^[5]

References

General References

• Owari no Chronicle 1-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. June 10, 2003. ISBN 978-4-8402-2389-8. 
• Owari no Chronicle 1-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. July 10, 2003. ISBN 978-4-8402-2407-9. 
• Owari no Chronicle 2-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. October 10, 2003. ISBN 978-4-8402-2493-2. 
• Owari no Chronicle 2-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. November 10, 2003. ISBN 978-4-8402-2515-1. 
• Owari no Chronicle 3-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. April 10, 2004. ISBN 978-4-8402-2654-7. 
• Owari no Chronicle 3-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. June 10, 2004. ISBN 978-4-8402-2698-1. 
• Owari no Chronicle 3-C (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. July 10, 2004. ISBN 978-4-8402-2731-5. 
• Owari no Chronicle 4-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. December 10, 2004. ISBN 978-4-8402-2884-8. 
• Owari no Chronicle 4-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. January 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-2913-5. 
• Owari no Chronicle 5-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. June 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-3062-9. 
• Owari no Chronicle 5-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. July 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-3081-0. 
• Owari no Chronicle 6-A (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. November 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-3214-2. 
• Owari no Chronicle 6-B (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. November 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-3213-5. 
• Owari no Chronicle 7 (in Japanese). Dengeki Bunko. December 10, 2005. ISBN 978-4-8402-3240-1. 

External links

• Publishing Imprint site (Japanese)
• Publishing Company site (Japanese)