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What does the 「にも」 after the volitional form 「作る」 do here?

死んだら食べ物は必要ないし、死んでるんだから、物は当然産まれない。作ろうにも材料も何もないし。 がっかりさせて悪いけど、天国にはね、何にもないのよ。(『この素晴らしい世界に祝福を』シリーズ、第一巻)

I would assume it means something close to "in order to" but I'm not entirely sure.

I would assume the sentences together mean something along the lines of:

When you die, there's no need for food, because you're dead, so it's natural things are not produced. There's not even any ingredients to make anything. It's difficult to feel so disheartened but that's heaven, there's nothing.

I feel like I'm missing quite a few things here but there one thing I know I don't understand is the 「作ろうにも」材料も何もないし.

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    It's difficult to feel so disheartened but -> 「がっかりさせて悪いけど」means "I am sorry to disappoint you."（「～して悪い」 means 「～して申し訳ない」「～してごめんなさい」, "I feel bad / I'm sorry to do~~" ）
    – chocolate ♦
    Aug 20, 2016 at 1:48
  • so it's the reading 「わるい」 not 「にくい」 then? and thanks for the correction!
    – noobtube2
    Aug 21, 2016 at 2:31
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    悪い is read わるい. (the にくい reading for 悪い is rare.. you'd use 難, as in 読み[難]{にく}い "difficult to read", rather than 読み悪い)
    – chocolate ♦
    Aug 21, 2016 at 3:26

1 Answer 1

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This is an instance of the pattern VようにもBない

作ろう is what is often called the "volitional form" in English. The root verb is 作る [to make].

にも expresses "even though" and when joined to the volitional form makes a conditional "even if you wanted to V". Here, it means "even if you wanted to make some thing [to eat]"

材料 = ingredients in this context

も何もない = there is not anything to

So altogether it becomes

Even if you wanted to make [food], there are no ingredients [to use].

See http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=younimonai

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