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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The two "What Happened in the Night" chapters. Aside from the ArcSymbol of the wind-up bird, it has no obvious connection to the rest of the novel and it's not even clear when or where it takes place or whether any of it is even actually happening.
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* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The two "What Happened in the Night" chapters. Aside from the ArcSymbol of the wind-up bird, it has no obvious connection to the rest of the novel (it's only very faintly implied that the child protagonist may be [[spoiler:Cinnamon]]) and it's not even clear when or where it takes place or whether any of it is even actually happening.
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* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 3 chapters.
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* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters.side-characters -- another version of Ushikawa even reappears as a major character in ''Literature/OneQEightyFour''. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 3 chapters.
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* HilariousInHindsight: Towards the end of the story, [[spoiler:the protagonist accesses a metaphysical realm where he kills the mental aspect of the VillainWithGoodPublicity, leaving him catatonic in the real world]]. It's almost like [[VideoGame/Persona5 Tōru entered Wataya Noboru's Palace]].
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* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 2 chapters.
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* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 2 3 chapters.
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Approved by the thread
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* CompleteMonster: [[AmbiguouslyHuman Boris Gromov]], better known under his chosen epithet "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Boris the Manskinner]]", is a well-spoken, well-mannered [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre NKVD]] officer and right-hand to Lavrenty Beria himself. In his chosen profession, Boris is responsible for the mass liquidation, torture, and execution of political dissidents, earning his namesake from his proclivity for having men slowly FlayedAlive by his silent Mongolian aide. Tossed under the bus for torturing a communist politician to death through the application of red-hot irons to the man's every orifice, Boris finds himself in a Siberian gulag and quickly starts [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating his way into power]], having people tortured and killed in giant numbers, even a [[WouldHurtAChild seven-year-old child]] killed with his parents ForcedToWatch. Boris finds himself confronted by Lt. Mamiya, a Japanese man whom years earlier Boris had flayed the comrade of and forced Mamiya to watch before tossing Mamiya to languish at the bottom of a well, and allows Mamiya to have a shot at killing him, only for the bullets to pass through empty air. Boris exits the novel with one final [[KickTheDog spiteful gesture]], placing a curse upon the already war-ravaged Mamiya to live the rest of his days in misery, unable to love and unable to be loved.
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Unapproved
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* MagnificentBastard: Boris the Manskinner's entire power grab in the Soviet gulag establishes him as one.
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* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The book teaches you a lot about the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. A major subplot is focused on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_border_conflicts Soviet-Japanese border conflicts]] and the Battle of Khalkin Gol is prominently mentioned, for instance,
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* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The book teaches you a lot about the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. A major subplot is focused on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_border_conflicts Soviet-Japanese border conflicts]] and the Battle of Khalkin Gol is prominently mentioned, for instance,instance.
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* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The book teaches you a lot about UsefulNotes/TheSecondSinoJapaneseWar. A major subplot is focused on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_border_conflicts Soviet-Japanese border conflicts]] and the Battle of Khalkin Gol is prominently mentioned, for instance,
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* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The book teaches you a lot about UsefulNotes/TheSecondSinoJapaneseWar.the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. A major subplot is focused on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_border_conflicts Soviet-Japanese border conflicts]] and the Battle of Khalkin Gol is prominently mentioned, for instance,
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* UnconventionalLearningExperience: The book teaches you a lot about UsefulNotes/TheSecondSinoJapaneseWar. A major subplot is focused on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Japanese_border_conflicts Soviet-Japanese border conflicts]] and the Battle of Khalkin Gol is prominently mentioned, for instance,
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* MartyStu: Cinnamon comes across as one due to his complete lack of any flaws. Not even his inability to speak is any sort of handicap to him, as when he moves his lips people can just understand what he says anyway.
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* NightmareFuel: The entire [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boris the Manskinner"]] sequence.
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* MartyStu: Cinnamon comes across as one due to his complete lack of any flaws. Not even his inability to speak is any sort of handicap to him, as when he moves his lips people can just understand what he says anyway.
* NightmareFuel: The entire [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boris the Manskinner"]] sequence. [[spoiler: His final scene in the gulag also counts, as when Mamiya tries to shoot him at point blank range the bullet hits the wall ''behind him'' and he subsequently implies that he can't be killed, before passing his curse on to Mamiya so that he dies old and unloved]].
* NightmareFuel: The entire [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boris the Manskinner"]] sequence. [[spoiler: His final scene in the gulag also counts, as when Mamiya tries to shoot him at point blank range the bullet hits the wall ''behind him'' and he subsequently implies that he can't be killed, before passing his curse on to Mamiya so that he dies old and unloved]].
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None
Added DiffLines:
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The two "What Happened in the Night" chapters. Aside from the ArcSymbol of the wind-up bird, it has no obvious connection to the rest of the novel and it's not even clear when or where it takes place or whether any of it is even actually happening.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 2 chapters.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: May Kasahara, Lieutenant Mamiya, and Ushikawa are all very popular despite being side-characters. Boris the Manskinner is also highly memorable despite only appearing in 2 chapters.
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* MagnificentBastard: Boris the Manskinner's entire power grab in the Soviet gulag establishes him as one.
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** Noboru Wataya's incestuous crush on his older sister. Kumiko literally walked in on him ''masturbating to her underwear after she died''. [[spoiler: And it's heavily implied that he has the same sort of feelings for Kumiko, which adds a whole new level to her apparent captivity in the hotel throughout the novel]].
* TearJerker: Oh so very many.
** Creta Kano's entire backstory, for starters. First she was afflicted with crippling, chronic pain over her entire body for as long as she could remember, and then she was forced into prostitution by the Yakuza.
** Lieutenant Mamiya's lingering trauma from World War II. He says that he feels his soul died down in the well in Mongolia and that he's just been moving through life as a ghost ever since.
** Kumiko's letter to Toru where she explains that [[spoiler: she left him because she hates herself and feels he doesn't deserve to be burdened with her. Their later conversation over the computer where she encourages him to forget all about her but he refuses to and swears to find her also counts]].
** The Japanese soldiers shooting all the dangerous animals in the Chinese zoo during the final days of World War II.
* TheWoobie: Mamiya, Creta Kano, and Kumiko are the biggest ones, but Toru and Nutmeg also have definite elements of this.
* TearJerker: Oh so very many.
** Creta Kano's entire backstory, for starters. First she was afflicted with crippling, chronic pain over her entire body for as long as she could remember, and then she was forced into prostitution by the Yakuza.
** Lieutenant Mamiya's lingering trauma from World War II. He says that he feels his soul died down in the well in Mongolia and that he's just been moving through life as a ghost ever since.
** Kumiko's letter to Toru where she explains that [[spoiler: she left him because she hates herself and feels he doesn't deserve to be burdened with her. Their later conversation over the computer where she encourages him to forget all about her but he refuses to and swears to find her also counts]].
** The Japanese soldiers shooting all the dangerous animals in the Chinese zoo during the final days of World War II.
* TheWoobie: Mamiya, Creta Kano, and Kumiko are the biggest ones, but Toru and Nutmeg also have definite elements of this.
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* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: The whole book is LOADED with symbolism, especially in the narrator's dreams.
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Cut for having no context; if anyone wants to re-add, discuss it here
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* CompleteMonster: Noburu Wataya.
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* {{Squick}}: You ''really'' don't want to know how to skin a person alive.
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* {{Squick}}: You ''really'' don't want to know how to skin a person alive.alive.
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Updated to meet new Nightmare Fuel criteria.
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* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: The entire [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boris the Manskinner"]] sequence.
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* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: NightmareFuel: The entire [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Boris the Manskinner"]] sequence.
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* {{Squick}}: You ''really'' don't want to know how to skin a person alive.
** Quite possibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel much more]] than just {{Squick}}.
** Quite possibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel much more]] than just {{Squick}}.
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* {{Squick}}: You ''really'' don't want to know how to skin a person alive.
** Quite possibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel much more]] than just {{Squick}}.alive.
** Quite possibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel much more]] than just {{Squick}}.
