The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, Vol. 1 by Eiji Mikage

A show like Stargate can have Jack and Teal'c go through hundreds of repetitions and come out unfazed, but Mikage knows that anyone in this situation would be going crazy after the first thousand cycles. Just imagine being trapped not just in trigonometry forever, but having it be the same lesson. It helps that the characters are all high school students, which greatly limits their freedom of movement. And whereas most TV series that use the concept follow Groundhog's Day approach and treat it as comedy, Eiji Mikage chooses instead to focus on the horror of the situation. Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (0's Maria and the Box of Oblivion) is the first lengthy prose work I've encountered that tackles this idea. A single day or a week doesn't allow much variety for your experiences, or time to see any effect from your actions.) Being able to relive large portions of your life isn't the same as being forced to repeat a short time-span ad nauseum. The guy who's about to say, 'What about Ken Grimwood's Replay?' Don't. And yet there are surprisingly few literary takes on the concept, and off the top of my head I'm not aware of any novels that use the concept. Less than two decades, but the concept has become a staple of sci-fi television - it's hard to think of any SF show that hasn't had a Groundhog's Day episode. You know what's amazing? It's only been 18 years since the film Groundhog's Day popularized the infinite time-loop story.

The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria, Vol. 1 by Eiji Mikage