A few thoughts on MM! and a few other Light Novels

Now that I finished reading the manga for MM!
The content I will be talking about... and thus spoilers for are...
MM!
Watashi-tachi no Tamura-kun
Mushi to Medama series
Shinigami no Ballad

By the way, it kinda gets long.




First of all is the main topic, MM!
Although I did not feel that way before, now that I think about it, MM! didn't actually end on that bad of a note.
Mio-sama realizes her feelings for Tarou and declares war with Arashiko.
Right? Sounds like a good stopping point. If they continued, it could have pointlessly dragged on for a while.
Of course, this does not change the fact that the series ended without "finishing", but if you had to end it somewhere, this was a good place. Heck, there are some Light Novels that end... and still have a disappointing end.

BTW, as you can see, the manga really evolved from Volume 1 (top) to Volume 7 (bottom)
And you guys remember the nightmare that was the artwork for Zero no Tsukaima's manga? Yeah. Another thing that MM! had going good for it.

BTW, we finally get to see Mio-sama in a dominatrix(?) outfit at the bonus manga at the end of volume 7.
I am happy.

So anyways, while we are talking about Light Novels ending, I wanted to bring up a few examples of Light Novels that completed within different lengths.

First is Watashi-tachi no Tamura-kun (2 volumes).
Love triangle story that did what it needed to do and ended in just 2 volumes. I definitely liked it.
...And was then quite disappointed when I read Toradora. Yes, this is the previous work from the author of Toradora. No, Toradora's volume 1 was a snoozer. No, I did not watch that anime. Yes, I wish for an anime adaption of this.
BTW, girl I voted for won. Which? Hmm...

My next example is the Mushi to Medama series (6 volumes).
Perhaps it would be easier to understand if I said the author did the Kyouran Kazoku Nikki LN that was animated a while back? Remember that chaos and crazy characters.
Take out the hypertension and just have a whole bunch of unique characters and unique names that would remind people of, say, the Magical Index series.

Now I tell you, this is a great Light Novel. As you can tell from the length, the author clearly knew where he wanted to start and end, and he did it. No "extending several more volumes" crap.
In fact, if I remember correctly, Volume 5 was technically the end of the story with Volume 6 being extra, but I can't remember the specific details.
Not too short, not too long.

It is a great shame that this hasn't been animated, though it would be quite gruesome. Spoon in eyesocket? Yeah. Fun.

The artwork is cute too. (Even if the content is... not as friendly)

I didn't really say anything about the story, but I'm sure the summary can be found or translated on the web. Put simply,
Girl dies. Girl comes back to life. Mysterious girl speaks mysterious stuff. Sh*t goes down.
(And yes, boys do appear. One is her boyfriend. And they play plenty important roles)


Finally, Shinigami no Ballad (12 volumes)
It's about a shinigami that gets involved in the lives of many people.
As you saw above, you got short, normal, and now you get a long series.
First, I would say that this Light Novel is something you just have to read in Japanese, due to the poetic nature of the author's writing. It's quite interesting to read, though sometimes cryptic.

Yes, I do have Volumes 1 to 6 as well, but I didn't feel like picking all of them off the bookshelf at the time.


Now, unlike the other two, which had certain ends, when I first read the final volume, I didn't even realize the series ended.
But now that I go back, I can understand that that was the last volume. It was still confusing, since it starts to go into parallel worlds and all, but I... think I understand where Momo came from.
If I am right, her twin sister died and she tried to commit suicide to follow her, with both becoming Ann and Momo. But at the end, she wakes up from her coma?
Anyways, I get that it was a good ending and it was great seeing the past characters grown up and having progressed since their original stories.

And hey, this is the last illustration of Volume 12. Of course it ended! The illustration screams it!