A blonde-haired wannabe tough guy who secretly just wants to impress a tough dark-haired beauty gets tangled up with Shinra.
And no, their names are not Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart.
Like the previous Yen On Final Fantasy VII novel, On the Way to a Smile, The Kids Are Alright serves as setup for the movie Advent Children. Also like most of On the Way to a Smile, I recommend reading this one after Advent Children, as it spoils some things about the movie.
In fact, The Kids Are Alright is essentially “Case of Shinra: Part II”, just with a lot more emphasis on brand new characters.
The problem with these sorts of side stories is that any connection to the original cast is going to feel forced. After all, no doubt that readers would rather follow an adventure with Avalanche or the Turks than some kid named Evan and his crush Kyrie. The Turks and Rufus Shinra play a large role in the story, and the FFVII party are all referenced or given a cameo appearance, but it’s not the ideal use of 220 pages.
Anyway, Evan, Kyrie, and two of their friends run business that searches for missing people and things. Unlike the others, Evan had a fairly privileged life even with some health issues and being raised by a single mother. He started going through a rebellious phase when his mother showed up with a man and then disappeared just before Meteorfall. But his new friends (and, in particular, Kyrie) has helped Evan survive in this near-apocalyptic world.
Evan serves as the book’s narrator, but he admits he may be taking some “artistic liberties” with the sections centered around the Turks. He meets Reno and Rude when they bust in and mistake Evan for his friend Fabio. (No relation to the romance novel hunk.) Fabio had stolen some medicine for his younger brother’s geostigma, and this case of mistaken identity leads to Evan getting more and more involved in the remains of Shinra Company. The reason why the Turks are relatively lenient — even by their post-Meteorfall standards — to Evan is likely to be a major surprise for readers. It certainly was to him.
Eventually, the latest (and last) case for the investigation company, the search for a 2nd Class SOLDIER, intersects with the Turks’ mission to find Jenova. As such, it’s the last quarter, maybe third of the novel that readers will find themselves truly interested in the story. There are a few other tidbits to note here and there (including learning a particular someone has survived), but until then, it’s mostly the Turks keeping an eye on Evan and company and the two sides getting into conflicts. Oh, and Evan’s relationship with spunky ex-thief Kyrie.
So overall, I was mostly meh on the story. It doesn’t help that while Evan isn’t especially tough or emo, the fact that everyone is so fond of him gives him a bit of a Gary Stu vibe. He lies (and he notes to readers whenever he lies, like saying that his injuries are hurting when they really aren’t for some sympathy), but he meets famous people, has a connection to them, and gets the girl? Definitely venturing into Gary Stu territory. Plus, Denzel’s story covered much of the struggle to survive post-Meteor, including doing searches for money and the struggle over identifying geostigma. I wish that either Nojima had just kept the story focused on Shinra trying to redeem themselves and finding Jenova and then had a separate, unrelated story about random folk (or NPCs from the game) that shows how difficult life is with the threat of geostigma about.
As for the translation, like the previous, only SOLDIER is in all-caps. Icicle Inn is usually called Icicle Lodge, its original Japanese name. There are also no illustrations outside of the opening character drawings, and it was disappointing to not have a clearer visual of what Fabio or the other new characters look like. Although, since the artist wasn’t Nomura, the style feels off anyway.
So, although Remake is on the horizon, if you disliked the comedy duo of Reno/Rude in Advent Children and wanted to see their kick-butt selves, this is about the closest you’ll get. It provides some neat background on the Jenova/Sephiroth mysteries of the movie, but Final Fantasy VII has enough multi-faceted characters that Nojima could have written a novel about instead of a random teenager.