Little ne0
- Mangaka : Tomohide, Hirao
- Publisher : Shonen Jump
- Genre : Action, Shounen
- Published : March 24, 2019
Contains Spoilers
Discussion Time
Awww, little awkward ne0 was kind of cute to see! Chapter 14 of Ne0;lation focused on a flashback of Arata as a young boy who was clearly disliked for being smarter than most of the other kids his age. We also saw a subtle clue that Arata had always had a desire to take down bad guys seeing as how he was talking about thousands of them being in the ground with his math formula he was practicing with. Aside from that, chapter 14 shows where Arata got his first laptop from a young girl bound to her home with a sickly constitution. The girl—whose name we learn is Tobari—relied on computers to explore the outside world from the domain of her home and we see that she got Arata more into computers as well as they shared time together growing as friends. Near the end of the chapter, Arata gets a used laptop from Tobari and is told to keep in touch via the laptop and make sure to inform her when Arata accomplished something amazing. When Arata gets home with his “new” device, he makes a username and thus, ne0 is born. Ne0;lation chapter 14 wasn’t an overly long or in depth look at ne0’s past—which is a shame—but we at least learn some important factors about our future computer wizard. Let’s explore the good—and bad—about chapter 14.
1. ne0 as a Kid
It’s always necessary to learn why a character in any story ends up the way they are as adults/young adults. Learning about Arata as a young kid and how he got into computers wasn’t that exciting but very necessary to relate more to our “hero.” Plus, that subtle nod to disliking bad guys really proves that ne0 has always wanted to take down villains even before being the hacking/cracking expert he is now.
2. What Happened to Tobari?
While Tobari might not be a huge character—yet—we loved meeting her in chapter 14 of Ne0;lation as she might be a bigger element to ne0 later. Did Tobari die from illness or is she still alive and now possibly a villain or hacking warrior like ne0? We can imagine that Tobari might be a bigger element in later arcs of Ne0;lation but regardless, giving us a new character who came and went in ne0’s life gives us more questions to chew on.
1. Not Enough of a Backstory
Ne0;lation chapter 14 truly made us sigh after we finished reading it. While seeing the birth of ne0 was cool, it equally was a very simple flashback that could have had a bit more meat to it. Maybe later chapters will explore ne0 as a young teen and head towards the current ne0, but we hope ne0 gets more of a backstory arc than what we got in chapter 14. Also, while we’re talking about simple backstories…
2. Overly Simple Backstory!!!
As it is right now, ne0’s back story is laughably cliché and boring. Guy meets girl, girl befriends him and somehow that leads to a future action that changes his life. We’ve seen this in way too many shounen stories and we’re sad that’s what we get from chapter 14 of Ne0;lation. Maybe future chapters will make us take back these words, but until then, Ne0;lation needs a deeper plot for ne0.
Final Thoughts
Ne0;lation chapter 14 was…average to say the least. Seeing the past ne0 as a child gave us a bit more depth to our strange hacking wiz, but what story we did get was extremely simple and not at all interesting. Ne0;lation is a series we expect great things from so we won’t say it’s even close to being bad…yet. What did you think of this week’s chapter of Ne0;lation? Comment below to let us know! For all your Ne0;lation chapter reviews, stay stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime!
Author: Aaron