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My Disciple Died Yet Again is highly recommended. Each arc brutally parodies a different subgenre of cultivation or reincarnation novels.
Sindai fucked around with this message at 23:35 on Apr 9, 2017 |
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Apr 9, 2017 23:32
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Autonomous Monster posted:Anyway! I'm up to date with Honzuki now (Maine actually turns it around in chapter 24. I have never self-owned so hard in my life Given how strong her family and Lutz's family reacted to that money, they will rip her apart if she pays them more.
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Apr 10, 2017 02:41
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), and it's all good, but now I have a new problem. Maine seems to be really concerned about charging a fair price to the customer... but also perfectly content to bilk her craftmen- her own family. Girl, your priorities are exactly backwards.
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Autonomous Monster posted:There's also Dragon Life, which is about a girl who reincarnates as a dragon and gets up to dragon things. Perhaps not to your taste, though? I think you're the one who has a problem with inhuman protagonists. I don't mind inhuman protagonists/characters as long as they're portrayed in a reasonable way. I just don't really like it when the author/narrative treat a bunch of really terrible actions as being justifiable (or, worse, "cool/badass"). The premise can be interesting if the ramifications of their actions are really explored, or if they have some sort of internal conflict due to their past life as a human (Kumoko not actually being a human in her past life is a big reason why her actions didn't bother me as much once I found out). I guess it could also work if something was 100% a comedy, but usually I get the feeling that protagonists who do terrible things are portrayed as being totally justified and are supposed to be interpreted as being awesome and badass. Thanks for the recommendations! I actually don't mind "reincarnated as a otome game/manga villainess" cliches much (yet, at least*). For some reason I find the whole "girl who starts out hated but manages to gradually make the various hot guys change their minds about her" formula pretty enjoyable. *I imagine part of the reason why I don't mind the cliches is just because I'm not quite as familiar with them. Autonomous Monster posted:Anyway! I'm up to date with Honzuki now (Maine actually turns it around in chapter 24. I have never self-owned so hard in my life Isn't her willingness to bilk her family from after she's been repeatedly criticized by Benno for not "acting like a merchant"? I don't remember her doing the "I shouldn't charge this much" stuff beyond the point where she starts charging a commission from her family's labor. Also, I think her family would understand if they knew that she needed the money to literally save her life.
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Apr 10, 2017 04:57
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Ytlaya posted:Isn't her willingness to bilk her family from after she's been repeatedly criticized by Benno for not "acting like a merchant"? I don't remember her doing the "I shouldn't charge this much" stuff beyond the point where she starts charging a commission from her family's labor. Add to that is she really bilking them? She's making a lot MORE but they're basically making 1-3 months wages in a single night on crafts that they're spectacularly good at but never have time to do because of drudge work. This isn't exploiting coal miners because they don't know what gold looks like, she's having them do easy-to-do crafts to drastically improve their standard of living. Not that she isn't getting wealthy off of it but, at least up until the newest chapter, her "incredible" wealth will buy her 6ish months more to live.
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Apr 10, 2017 05:43
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Autonomous Monster posted:There's a whole bunch of "I've been reincarnated as the villain in an otome game/shoujo manga!" stories- and I mean dozens of these things with the exact same cookie cutter plot. Kenkyo is by far the best of them and if you've read that you've read all of them. But if you want another one in that vein, It Seems Like I Got Reincarnated Into The World of a Yandere Otome Game is alright. Simply Good Taste for a Duke's Daughter is a slightly different take on the same idea (it starts after the villainess's downfall). I enjoyed Duke's Daughter until the first translator vanished and a much less competent one took it up. I read a the first 4 books of An Otome Game’s Burikko Villainess Turned into a Magic Otaku, which has the mildly amusing twist of literally every possible villainess being a reincarnation, before getting completely bored of it. The Girl Who Ate Death was good, but not very much like the rest of these.
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Apr 10, 2017 07:14
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FriggenJ posted:Add to that is she really bilking them? She's making a lot MORE but they're basically making 1-3 months wages in a single night on crafts that they're spectacularly good at but never have time to do because of drudge work. This isn't exploiting coal miners because they don't know what gold looks like, she's having them do easy-to-do crafts to drastically improve their standard of living. Boy this discussion about Maine's ethics will get heated up when the translations get up to part two when she starts exploiting child labor in sweatshops while basically only paying room and board. There's even a spot where she's like "Boy, this would be terrible on earth, good thing labor rights suck here!"
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Apr 10, 2017 07:28
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Ytlaya posted:Thanks for the recommendations! I actually don't mind "reincarnated as a otome game/manga villainess" cliches much (yet, at least*). For some reason I find the whole "girl who starts out hated but manages to gradually make the various hot guys change their minds about her" formula pretty enjoyable. Fair enough! Each to their own. I don't hate the basic premise, but almost every one of these I've checked out has been extremely formulaic. Even the "I've been reincarnated into a world that's like a JRPG for some reason and I'm a total badass" stories have a little variation in what the settings are like and how the protagonist approaches the situation. Ytlaya posted:Isn't her willingness to bilk her family from after she's been repeatedly criticized by Benno for not "acting like a merchant"? I don't remember her doing the "I shouldn't charge this much" stuff beyond the point where she starts charging a commission from her family's labor. They would absolutely understand. Her father would mortgage his eyeballs if he knew. But they're not being given a choice. She's lying to them about how much the work is worth and she's lying to them about what fraction of that she passes on to them. And she starts doing before she realises she needs the money to save her life (that's chapter 44). As to the other- Benno scolds her in 40, she's still worrying about it in 41, and she tries to talk Benno into setting a low price for the mass-produced hairpins in 42. She hasn't been worrying about it since, but she also hasn't been negotiating prices for her goods, either. I don't know, maybe she does have the killer instinct now.  (You have to understand, I read the whole thing in a one-er, so in my mind everything since they made the paper is "recently"). FriggenJ posted:Add to that is she really bilking them? She's making a lot MORE but they're basically making 1-3 months wages in a single night on crafts that they're spectacularly good at but never have time to do because of drudge work. This isn't exploiting coal miners because they don't know what gold looks like, she's having them do easy-to-do crafts to drastically improve their standard of living. Everything else aside, she's paying them a tiny fraction of the value of their labour and lying about it. That's exploitative behaviour.  The illness gives her an understandable and sympathetic reason to engage in this behaviour, certainly. But like Ytlaya points out, she could be perfectly honest with them and still get all that money. And more. So she's not actually gaining anything from exploiting them, all that's going to happen is that they'll be super pissed when they inevitably find out. Best I can tell, her thought process here has gone "Benno has explained to me the capitalism is about being an rear end in a top hat -> I should practice being an rear end in a top hat". I don't know, I think I'd have a much harder time not paying my loved ones a fair wage than overcharging a stranger. Bakanogami posted:Boy this discussion about Maine's ethics will get heated up when the translations get up to part two when she starts exploiting child labor in sweatshops while basically only paying room and board. There's even a spot where she's like "Boy, this would be terrible on earth, good thing labor rights suck here!" this is a joke right  Ytlaya posted:I don't mind inhuman protagonists/characters as long as they're portrayed in a reasonable way. I just don't really like it when the author/narrative treat a bunch of really terrible actions as being justifiable (or, worse, "cool/badass"). The premise can be interesting if the ramifications of their actions are really explored, or if they have some sort of internal conflict due to their past life as a human (Kumoko not actually being a human in her past life is a big reason why her actions didn't bother me as much once I found out). I guess it could also work if something was 100% a comedy, but usually I get the feeling that protagonists who do terrible things are portrayed as being totally justified and are supposed to be interpreted as being awesome and badass. Well, when I say "inhuman" I meant literally inhuman- not necessarily physically, but definitely psychologically. I draw a distinction between that and characters that are theoretically fully human, integrated members of a society who nevertheless act like psychopathic randroids. The latter I loathe and will drive me to drop a story very very quickly, but with the former... I enjoy reading stories written from very alien perspectives. So Kumo didn't bother me at all, because, even if she was a human in her past, she's clearly a spider now, with the mindset of a spider. Or at least, a highly intelligent spider with some human memories. So the revelation that she was always a spider was a cute plot twist, but it didn't change my perspective on the character much at all. I could have done without Similarly, Akasha in Taint is unmistakeably a monster now, even though it seems like she was a perfectly sane as a child, but given how she came by that I can hardly begrudge her her perspective. Sif drives me up the wall, despite "only" being a assassin. Taylor in Worm is an interesting case, as the slow erosion of her morality is more or less the point of the entire story. KOGAHAZAN!! fucked around with this message at 15:12 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 12:52
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Yeah, I love stories about people with alien viewpoints. That's also one of the reason I like that Demon Girl story so much. Chapter 9 was what really did it for me, and I've been following it since.
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Apr 10, 2017 13:20
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Autonomous Monster posted:this is a joke right It is not  If you want specifics, she winds up in charge of an orphanage full of starving orphans, builds a workshop in it, and uses the proceeds to turn the orphanage around so that the orphans are no longer starving and can use the skills they learn to feed themselves in the future. And that's just early part 2. Honzuki goes loving places.
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Apr 10, 2017 16:36
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Bakanogami posted:Boy this discussion about Maine's ethics will get heated up when the translations get up to part two when she starts exploiting child labor in sweatshops while basically only paying room and board. There's even a spot where she's like "Boy, this would be terrible on earth, good thing labor rights suck here!" The only thing Maine loves as much as books is exploiting the proletariat!  Let me guess, she starts an daycare and puts those brats to work. Edit: OK, posted my guess right after someone explains the details.
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Apr 10, 2017 16:47
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Autonomous Monster posted:Taylor in Worm is an interesting case, as the slow erosion of her morality is more or less the point of the entire story. Yeah, I consider Taylor in Worm to be the best way to deal with protagonists doing bad stuff, assuming they're either human (or used to be human) and aren't literally sociopaths. You get to see the way other characters and Taylor herself react to her actions, which makes them more interesting. I get the impression that many WNs with "alien" (demon, etc) characters are just an excuse to have a power fantasy where the protagonist kills a bunch of people without repercussions (or at least repercussions they can't handle because of how powerful they are), though. I mean, I obviously can't prove this, but it's just the feeling I get. Bakanogami posted:If you want specifics, she winds up in charge of an orphanage full of starving orphans, builds a workshop in it, and uses the proceeds to turn the orphanage around so that the orphans are no longer starving and can use the skills they learn to feed themselves in the future. This is the sort of thing I think many people would say is okay (since it technically makes the orphans better off than they would have been otherwise), but actually isn't for obvious "it is clearly exploitation even if you ignore that they're children" reasons. Though to be fair children seem to be expected to work at an earlier age in their society, so giving the children work skills is more necessary than it would be in a modern developed nation (though this doesn't excuse not paying them anything aside from room/board). One question: By that point is she still trying to save money to cure her illness? Because even though it's still morally grey to say the least, I could understand "I need to do this to save my life" as an excuse (while "I need to do this to make books or just increase my wealth" isn't so excusable). I won't exactly be holding my breath for any deep examination of this kind of thing, though, since I find that Japanese nerd media (manga/WNs/LNs/etc) tends to be pretty right-wing in general.
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Apr 10, 2017 16:53
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The stuff about the family not knowing just how expensive things are will be addressed quite soon; within the next 9 or 10 chapters. As for saving money to stave off the Devouring, based on the first three chapters of arc 2, by the time Bakanogami's spoiler happens (which I haven't actually reached yet), she'll have access to relics that will let her unload her mana. Of course by that time she has other things looming over her that she has to worry about.
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Apr 10, 2017 17:16
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Ytlaya posted:One question: By that point is she still trying to save money to cure her illness? Because even though it's still morally grey to say the least, I could understand "I need to do this to save my life" as an excuse (while "I need to do this to make books or just increase my wealth" isn't so excusable). I won't exactly be holding my breath for any deep examination of this kind of thing, though, since I find that Japanese nerd media (manga/WNs/LNs/etc) tends to be pretty right-wing in general. Not exactly, no. To be specific:(Honzuki end of part 1/start of part 2 spoilers)At age 7 she discovers that the temple has a small library and promptly discovers religion. The Temple agrees to take her in when they find out she has magic power, because they use magic for ceremonies and there's a crippling magic shortage at the moment. By using her magic at the temple, her illness ceases to be an issue, meaning that she only passes out every now and then instead of all the time. She's still desperate for cash for a while, though, because the position she gets at the temple was intended for nobles with a lot more money than her.
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Apr 10, 2017 17:21
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There's a novel called taint??
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Apr 10, 2017 21:27
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Namtab posted:There's a novel called taint?? https://lsdell.com/ A young girl is kidnapped and thrown into a demon infested dungeon, becomes "tainted" by demon blood and turned into a monster. After nearly 300 years of constant fighting, with only a telepathic spider to talk to, she finally escapes the dungeon and goes looking for her family and the people who stole her from them. The protagonist is pretty inhuman and antisocial, terrifyingly powerful and prioritising survival above all else.
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Apr 10, 2017 21:40
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I'm going to check the taint book out E: this appears to be weeb trash Namtab fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Apr 10, 2017 |
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Apr 10, 2017 21:43
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Namtab posted:I'm going to check the taint book out LN reaped again.
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Apr 11, 2017 00:01
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Sindai posted:My Disciple Died Yet Again is highly recommended. Each arc brutally parodies a different subgenre of cultivation or reincarnation novels.
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Apr 11, 2017 04:16
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it is good as long as you have at least a passing familiarity with the kinds of stories it parodies.
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Apr 11, 2017 06:41
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Just blew through what's been translated of Honzuki. I need more. If I could read Japanese, I wouldn't mind death by being buried by Honzuki LN volumes.
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Apr 11, 2017 13:42
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My Disciple Died Yet Again is a fun read, no matter whether or not you understand the terminology used. It's a good entry item into the Xianxia genre, though it may spoil you for future stories. All you need to keep in mind is Xianxia is the Chinese version of Swords and Sorcery, and cultivators are all muscle wizards. From there, everything pretty much falls into place. In terms of new recommendations, Qidian International has begun localizing Gourmet of Another World (异世界的美食家). While I don't know how well Qidian has been translating its works, the story itself is definitely a fun lighthearted read that mostly ignores Xianxia conventions in lieu of literally magical cooking. Definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy humorous Xianxia stories like My Disciple and Cultivation Chat Group.
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Apr 11, 2017 16:05
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Meme Emulator posted:Terror Infinity is so incredibly dumb, I dont know why Im reading it but Ill probably make it through a few movies before I get bored. Update: I stopped at The Mummy and by the time I got bored I really had the feeling I could have written a better novel with the same premise and im am ametuer who has communication problems when talking to people IRL. I keep thinking about it. I could definately pull off this premise better
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Apr 11, 2017 17:47
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jwang posted:In terms of new recommendations, Qidian International has begun localizing Gourmet of Another World (异世界的美食家). While I don't know how well Qidian has been translating its works, the story itself is definitely a fun lighthearted read that mostly ignores Xianxia conventions in lieu of literally magical cooking. Definitely worth the read, especially if you enjoy humorous Xianxia stories like My Disciple and Cultivation Chat Group. Its pretty generic but amusing in its own way. As for Qidian translaters, they seem to be going around and hiring existing fan translators to republish and continue their work on their site. Quality seems a bit inconsistent between works because of this but so far has been decent enough and definitely looks like English and not a half edited machine translation.
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Apr 12, 2017 07:43
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ZTJ: I have missed darling Tang Tang. I missed the entire Academy crew, in fact. It's a pity Luo Luo's still stuck in the Li Palace. How long does that have to go on for?
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Apr 12, 2017 19:24
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I fell off of ISSTH around something something Sea God World. Is it worth picking back up, or has it just been power level wankfests? (Pill-making wankfests are acceptable)
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Apr 12, 2017 20:37
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The Lord of Hats posted:I fell off of ISSTH around something something Sea God World. Is it worth picking back up, or has it just been power level wankfests? (Pill-making wankfests are acceptable) No, its all battle all the time now. Ive dropped it, Ill blast through books 8-10 in a weekend once theyre all done.
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Apr 12, 2017 20:45
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The apocalypse war has been going for what feels like hundreds of chapters at this point as both sides reveal their twelfth or thirteenth super secret hidden backup trump cards and Shui Dongliu is still being enigmatic and thinking to himself the true purpose of all this has yet to be revealed. It's certainly epic but Er Gen is really not playing to his strengths here.
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Apr 12, 2017 20:50
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Is there any XianXia novel that knows how to fight other than power shin kicking? I feel like the concept of dodging is lost on them.
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Apr 12, 2017 21:54
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Annointed posted:Is there any XianXia novel that knows how to fight other than power shin kicking? I feel like the concept of dodging is lost on them. If you need to dodge, the fight is already lost.
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Apr 13, 2017 01:26
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In most Xianxia stories, you'll generally see females dodging while the men use their manly testosterone qi to tank blows. Notable exceptions include novels with assassin protagonists(though even those tend to have quite a bit of facetanking) and well written stories.
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Apr 13, 2017 12:40
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Meme Emulator posted:Update: I stopped at The Mummy and by the time I got bored I really had the feeling I could have written a better novel with the same premise and im am ametuer who has communication problems when talking to people IRL. I keep thinking about it. I could definately pull off this premise better Hey, I like Terror Infinity! But it doesn't really hit its stride until you get to the second arc, which starts in Book 11 I think (the end of the first arc is the second Resident Evil movie). Also, you're clearly not the only one who feels that they could do it better, because the basic premise has spawned an entire sub-genre.
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Apr 13, 2017 14:14
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Vol 1: Chapter 1-1. Zheng Zha (Zheng) always felt that he was dead in reality. Go to work, come home, eat meals, go to bed and wake up; he didn’t know where the meaning of his life lay. It was definitely not in that face of his fat supervisor, not in that white collar woman’s body that he met in the bar, and not in this steel and concrete forest – the modern city. Zheng felt he was rotting. Going to rot from the age of 24 til the end of his life, then become a part of the earth and leave behind a name. No, not even a name, since no one would remember him. No one would remember a little white collar. Whether he lived as a truly graceful person or just pretended to be one, he was just a tiny piece of this world. He wanted to change something. He wanted to have his meaning. ‘Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live… a real life?’ When he turned on his computer at work today, a message popped up. This was obviously some newbie hacker seeking attention. It would force you to download a virus, whichever option you choose. Zheng laughed at it and was about to close it. Yet, his heart skipped a beat when his hand touched the mouse. He paused. ‘Want to know the meaning of life? Want to live… a real life?’ Zheng felt a little lost. An indescribable force attracted him to put his finger on the mouse. Then he clicked on the YES button and lost consciousness.
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Apr 14, 2017 02:23
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Namtab posted:Vol 1: Chapter 1-1. I actually like the generic bored office worker introduced there. The attempts to give him individualized characterization later in Volume 1 are pretty bad.
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Apr 14, 2017 02:37
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So how much of this is the author typing out the movie script?
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Apr 14, 2017 02:46
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Namtab posted:So how much of this is the author typing out the movie script? Some of the movies adhere more closely to the plot than others. It's been a while since I read the early chapters, but in relatively recent volumes there's been a wide range in how related their story is to the actual plot, ranging from essentially tracing the entire plot of Lord of the Rings from the Shire to Mordor but on the opposite end they enter the world of The Mummy but end up fighting a Pillar Man from Battle Tendency JoJo's.
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Apr 14, 2017 03:07
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Uhoh, blastron, guess all that work was for nothing.
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Apr 15, 2017 19:59
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But that's the LN, blastron is translating the web novel version.
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Apr 15, 2017 20:03
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Tamba posted:But that's the LN, blastron is translating the web novel version. Er, that doesn't seem entirely important to me. Anyway: https://twitter.com/Hello_itsWendy/status/853285847327686656 https://twitter.com/Hello_itsWendy/status/853288376736206849 https://twitter.com/Hello_itsWendy/status/853289013481885696
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Apr 15, 2017 20:04
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darkgray posted:Er, that doesn't seem entirely important to me. It means that Yen press probably won't be able to send a C&D to blastron, because they don't have the rights to the web novel version.
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Apr 15, 2017 20:11
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Tamba posted:It means that Yen press probably won't be able to send a C&D to blastron, because they don't have the rights to the web novel version. It seems reasonable that they could at least nudge the original author to complain, though. Or something about trademarks. In the end it's more about how blastron would feel about clearly undermining the author's economical situation, I guess.
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Apr 15, 2017 20:15
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