ARG isn't a brand new thing at this point, and I'm sure that there are books that have tried this "immersive experience" thing. And everyone and their parents try to make meta-narratives work.
But executing such a meta-narrative is no easy feat. And two storylines, even harder. One of which follows the "reboot" of an anime series, and the other follows the blog of a fan of said series. The two storylines complement each other. The blog storyline provides context for the anime storyline, while the anime storyline builds dread for the blog one.
I'm impressed by the author's ability to convey so much under the guise of these two formats, maintaining both the surface narrative (fake) and the underlying story (real) at the same time.
The "real" main character of the story doesn't appear until the last 1/3 of the story. But I already feel like I know her for the whole story and am already starting to root for her. Because one storyline represented her inner world and the other represented what an outside view of her would be like. The psychological descent felt like a culmination of the previous 2/3 of the story, even though the main character isn't "present" there!
My heart genuinely breaks for the main character there, which speaks to how much I've become invested in her. Speaking of emotions, the horror is also effective, even though bad things are happening to literal anime characters.
The theme of alienation is interesting too. The parallel between the MC and the blogger brings the story into a more coherent whole, and I'm sure that if I analyze the anime storyline more deeply, I can find even more symbolism.
Oh, how can I not mention the clear love directed towards classic slice-of-life CGDCT anime like K-on and even school anime like Haruhi. The Japanese sprinkled throughout and the cinematic, script-like format of the anime storyline really immersed me to a point where I can visualize the thing as an anime.
I admit that some aspects of this story might not be appreciated by everyone. The meta-"gimmicks" might bring out eyerolls from some. But personally, I think it fits the story and welcome them.
The only "downside" (if you can call it that) is that I think I expected the explanation to be more complex, but it turns out to be quite simple. The payoff of the mystery aspects feels... less than I had hoped, but maybe this is just the problem of my high expectations. And overall, this story definitely exceeds it. (you can tell by me writing this review)
Ok I'll stop rambling now before someone commits a murder because of my review.

This is Gem, signing off.

o7