These are incoherent ramblings of a madman; feel free to ignore them.

To put it short and blunt: I don't think this story is for me. It is for someone else, though.

The premise of active suicide risk x passive suicide risk being drawn into another world, finding themselves and each other due to external stimuli, is a strong starting point for interesting storytelling around these two characters, provided one manages to resonate with their personalities and interactions.

I didn't.

For the entire first half of this novel, my reaction to whenever Sayaka and Itsuki spoke with each other was audibly groaning. I don't think that was quite the reaction I was supposed to have, yet I did all the same.

Sayaka believes herself to be worthless and wishes for Itsuki to not waste his time on her, feeling guilty even for dragging him to his death/new weird isekai life. She clearly is in a dark place, even intending to hurl herself off of a cliff at the start of the story.

Itsuki, the flipside of the coin, has lost someone to suicide and blames himself for it. He has developed something of a saviour complex now, even disregarding his own wellbeing to help those in need. He furthermore feels guilty for seeing his ex in Sayaka.

This should be a sure-fire setup for them slowly getting closer to each other. They even both lost someone, connecting them further through the pain. But said growing closer to each other felt, to me at least, rather clumsily executed, making it seem like any and all growth happened in an instant close to the end, without any proper setup to boot.

Any and all interactions until the final set of events feel meaningless, as they seemingly take nothing from them and repeat them a number of times until suddenly, under the added external pressure at the end, they cave and get together. While this is not quite illogical, I can only stomach Sayaka going "woe is me, you are so precious and I am worthless" and Itsuki going "It's not my style to let you be suicidal" before I am tempted to just put down the book.

What's further driving me to insanity is that when looking at what others thought of chapters and moments I found to be not enjoyable, I found nothing but positive responses. They go on about how sweet their interactions are and how Itsuki's rizz is impeccable. I just don't get it.

So what's left in the isekai romance novel for a fool like me that can't seem to gain anything from the romance?

Well, the fights were a highlight for me. For one because both protagonists were largely confronted with more immediate issues. Due to said action sequences, Itsuki gets the chance to show his internal struggle and his resulting state of mind in his actions rather than just vague allusions or direct dialogue. This more indirect approach resonated with me a lot more.

I found myself more interested in side characters native to the world. Stahl is my goat, of course <3. Though I have to agree that they are not explored to their full potential. I had hoped that through confrontation with them and their opposing worldviews it could serve to change and evolve Itsuki and Sayaka's view of themselves and their issues, but sadly they mostly only reacted to each other via the suspension bridge effect and a convenient trauma relic.

The entire fantasy world seems more like but a backdrop to the romance, which, while not a bad thing in itself with the focus clearly lying with the pair, seems like a shame to me. With both bigger factions both seemingly being different shades of dark grey, there is potential there. A close-to-Renaissance fantasy setting, where the jump to industrialisation doesn't happen due to magic, is literal gold for worldbuilding, I think. That was at least the impression I got from it.

The magic system was kind of just dropped in one chapter as a quick explanation for why people can throw rocks and then mostly left on the wayside. Further developing this would be highly interesting.

The writing was somewhat varied in my opinion. Sometimes I struggled to even grasp what was being expressed with these flowery metaphors; other times they hit just right.

To put a crooked and not at all neat bow on all of my thoughts about this novel: I think I am simply not the intended audience. While I myself did not quite enjoy this story, from what I've read in the other reviews and comments, there is clearly an engaged and devoted group of people invested in this.

Feel free to disregard my confused rambling and listen to them; they are your target audience. Cater to them and you'll be fine. ❤️