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In this essay I will explain how the cult classic animated movie Avatar is a very smart deconstruction of the military/imperialist isekai subgenre,
Fangz fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Mar 4, 2023 |
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Mar 4, 2023 14:10
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 08:41 |
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RTA Sousha wa Game Sekai kara Kaerarenai has a new update. I can't remember if we've talked about this before, but the gist is the MC is a speedrunner who gets summoned into the game he runs the most, and now he's kind of stuck there. Apparently the author got into speedrunning through watching the RTA in Japan Marathon so I have high hopes for this.
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Mar 4, 2023 14:22
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Ytlaya posted:This comic is absolutely just as jingoistic as GATE. It just takes the angle of "comically evil and smug fantasy foreigners force Japan to crush them with their mighty modern military." The thing that bugs me the most about this one is that Japan suffers no set backs at all. Like an attack helicopter with external missile racks gets hit and coated with wyvern fire and they are like, hmm, no damage at all. That sucker should for sure have exploded. They are in a fantasy land, it would be ok for some stuff to surprise them. Another was when capturing the king. The JSDF soldiers get surprised in a small room with smoke bombs and secret doors open with sword guys coming out literally meters away from them. Those soldiers manage to block all the sword strikes with their rifles, but really they would have been totally hosed. Like I think a sword expert within a couple of meters of a surprised soldier would be able to handle him no problem. Another missed opportunity was when the japan navy was completely wrecking the other navys, they should have had one plucky enemy realize that japans ships are all metal so fire arrows are not going to work, and maybe try out, for a made up example, their metal eating slim/other monster plus catapult. And then one japan ship could get totally messed up and Japan learns not underestimate fantasy crap.
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Mar 4, 2023 18:44
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The slimes are reserved for eating the clothing or armor of captive female knights only.
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Mar 4, 2023 20:05
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ianmacdo posted:The thing that bugs me the most about this one is that Japan suffers no set backs at all. The wyvern fire would have DEFINITELY melted the glass if not blown up the missle racks. The smoke room was completely bullshit. You might be able to turn the tide, but no loving way some buys don't get shanked BADLY and possibly die or are in need of some serious medical attention. If I recall, there was also a brutal and graphic rape of a beast kin lady and her daughters in front of her husband after they're sold into slavery by the villains because of course that's a thing.
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Mar 4, 2023 21:01
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Hardly unique. Lack of any meaningful challenge is what prevents an awful lot of bad isekais from at least attaining the heights of "decent schlock"
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Mar 5, 2023 01:23
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Can't let it get in the way of the power fantasy. I'd be interested in an isekai where the two planets merged rather than just transplanting a single country into fantasy land. Give me a dragon that has AIM-9 missiles strapped to its chest or a main battle tank that runs off of Dwarven ale.
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Mar 5, 2023 02:01
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Yeah I never said it was good. I read a lot of crap.
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Mar 5, 2023 02:03
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I mean the comic was made for a reason and delivers on it relatively well if a bit formulaically. It's just that the reason is jingoistic masturbation. I did really appreciate the detail of modern Japan meeting "totally not feudal Japan" and Feudal Not Japan is the only other reasonable country in the Isekai world. That's twice as much jingoism for your money.
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Mar 5, 2023 02:48
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The junk collector posted:I mean the comic was made for a reason and delivers on it relatively well if a bit formulaically. It's just that the reason is jingoistic masturbation. Isn't there also the Mu country, they seemed reasonable (unless they go bad later, I haven't read the whole thing). Speaking of that, it bugged me how the Mu guy was like "impossible!" upon being shown Japan's technology. I'm pretty certain that a country with early 20th century technology would be pretty capable of comprehending the possibility of stuff like helicopters. Plus the fact that their own history makes "another civilization with more advanced tech" an obvious possibility.
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Mar 5, 2023 03:42
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Yeah the early 20th century nations had autogyros, crude planes with helicopter blades to provide additional lift. That and the various airscrew from Da Vinci's notebooks would introduce the idea of a helicopter quite readily. I don't think the Mu people had Da Vinci though.
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Mar 5, 2023 04:00
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Arc Hammer posted:Can't let it get in the way of the power fantasy. unrealistic, the weakest dwarven ale is way too potent to be used as fuel
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Mar 5, 2023 19:24
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Yinlock posted:unrealistic, the weakest dwarven ale is way too potent to be used as fuel The history of rocketry shows that this is not only untrue, but absurdly so. It is, however, absolutely alcohol abuse.
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Mar 5, 2023 20:12
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Yinlock posted:unrealistic, the weakest dwarven ale is way too potent to be used as fuel FOOF and chlorine trifluoride were considered for rocket fuel in our world, potency and danger are not disqualifiers. Hell, don't tell me you can't hear the engineers declaring that an ale combustion engine would also simplify food logistics.
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Mar 5, 2023 22:46
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Arc Hammer posted:Can't let it get in the way of the power fantasy. So Versus.
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Mar 6, 2023 01:18
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Kwyndig posted:Yeah the early 20th century nations had autogyros, crude planes with helicopter blades to provide additional lift. That and the various airscrew from Da Vinci's notebooks would introduce the idea of a helicopter quite readily. Yeah, but most current tech is derived from tech from the early 20th century directly enough that such a civilization would likely think "ahh, that makes sense" if exposed to it. Stuff like smart phones/computers or modern television displays would probably baffle them far more than helicopters or jets (since the latter use physics/technology that they're likely already at least somewhat familiar with, while the former would be more of a complete mystery to someone from an era before microprocessors).
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Mar 7, 2023 01:24
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yeah it's worth remembering that arthur c. clarke, when doing science fiction in the mid 20th century, managed to do a pretty good job at predicting a lot of things, but was absolutely blown away by the concept of a graphics user interface in his later years. i think he put it something like "if you told me i could carry a library in my hand, that would not surprise me, but to know that library could be displayed in any font at any print size would be beyond my wildest expectations"
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Mar 7, 2023 04:29
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Ytlaya posted:Yeah, but most current tech is derived from tech from the early 20th century directly enough that such a civilization would likely think "ahh, that makes sense" if exposed to it. Stuff like smart phones/computers or modern television displays would probably baffle them far more than helicopters or jets (since the latter use physics/technology that they're likely already at least somewhat familiar with, while the former would be more of a complete mystery to someone from an era before microprocessors). 
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Mar 8, 2023 02:09
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Farming Isekai ep10 the dark elfs (mountain elves) are a cool addition. i think too much time was spent on the trio of noble ladies, didn't really care for them. and first/best girl might be pregnant?! Didn't expect that development. But given the series' habit of making fakeout cliffhangers and then it be resolved in the first 5 minutes in the next episode, we see if its a fakeout, or the time for a bunch of new babies to arrive
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Mar 10, 2023 16:00
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continuing mushoku discussion where it belongsLorneReams posted:I seem to remember some improvement, but it is never enough. a little, iirc he becomes relatively more hardworking but never really lets go of the more odious parts of his personality and remains a self-centered dweeb it's a shame because "absolute shitstain slowly develops into a better person via an earnest desire for self improvement" is a good isekai character hook
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Mar 11, 2023 04:32
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Yinlock posted:continuing mushoku discussion where it belongs The reason I read more than I should is that it would occasionally have those moments where he'd go "I really hosed this up in my past life, I will not do that again" which were good, but they didn't outweigh the rampant skeeziness and pedophilia.
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Mar 11, 2023 04:58
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I read it for the world building and fights and Roxy/Eris
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Mar 11, 2023 05:13
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i read it because for about a year i obsessively read webnovels without any standards. mushoku, shield hero, toycar's various mega harem wn's, whatever. i make a lot of bad choices.
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Mar 11, 2023 05:23
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i read it because for about a year i obsessively read webnovels without any standards. mushoku, shield hero, toycar's various mega harem wn's, whatever. i make a lot of bad choices. I do that with manga, but I've gotten a lot better at bailing on stuff that sets off warning bells. So instead I read a lot of C-tier stuff until one day I realize I don't care about the next update and drop it. Then I pick up 3 more to replace it and the cycle continues.
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Mar 11, 2023 05:32
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i read it because for about a year i obsessively read webnovels without any standards. mushoku, shield hero, toycar's various mega harem wn's, whatever. i make a lot of bad choices. 
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Mar 11, 2023 05:34
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Yinlock posted:continuing mushoku discussion where it belongs Which is why people should read Faraway Paladin and Undead Adventurer instead. Granted, neither Will or Rentt were shitstains in their previous lives. Edit: I just read the wikis and assorted spoilers from people who have actually read it. That's more than I'm interested in diving into these. doomrider7 fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Mar 11, 2023 |
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Mar 11, 2023 05:48
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Yinlock posted:it's a shame because "absolute shitstain slowly develops into a better person via an earnest desire for self improvement" is a good isekai character hook Isn’t this Watamote
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Mar 11, 2023 06:01
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Mushoku Tensei has a lot of horrible poo poo yeah, but it's also just completely loses all interest in any actual plot halfway through. It starts pretty interesting, introducing you to the setting and systems and then throws in a lot of tension with the huge teleportation spell and all the characters in some bad situations. They link up, and then separate and then it goes into a loving magic school arc and becomes the most tedious thing in the world. I have a lot of tolerance for the distasteful bits because those are easy to make fun of, but I stopped reading because it was dull.
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Mar 11, 2023 06:24
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i read it because for about a year i obsessively read webnovels without any standards. mushoku, shield hero, toycar's various mega harem wn's, whatever. i make a lot of bad choices.
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Mar 11, 2023 06:26
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mt and mia should be forbidden
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Mar 11, 2023 07:06
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doomrider7 posted:Which is why people should read Faraway Paladin and Undead Adventurer instead. Granted, neither Will or Rentt were shitstains in their previous lives. those guys werent particularly lovely though, i mean a complete garbage human. thetoughestbean posted:Isn’t this Watamote i was thinking kurosawa, either/or. it's still a hook for isekai that i haven't seen explored much. Fellis posted:Mushoku Tensei has a lot of horrible poo poo yeah, but it's also just completely loses all interest in any actual plot halfway through. It starts pretty interesting, introducing you to the setting and systems and then throws in a lot of tension with the huge teleportation spell and all the characters in some bad situations. They link up, and then separate and then it goes into a loving magic school arc and becomes the most tedious thing in the world. I have a lot of tolerance for the distasteful bits because those are easy to make fun of, but I stopped reading because it was dull. a magic school arc because the protagonist's dick stopped working. just the most thrilling content. magic school arcs are always the rock-bottom of isekai creativity but that is like the least compelling hook for one I can possibly think of.
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Mar 11, 2023 07:28
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GateOfD posted:Farming Isekai ep10 Well they are married, expecting them to not fool around at all is unrealistic. But judging from the next episode title it's going to be baby season, lots of babies. "Progenitor" is a fancy way of saying parent, after all.
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Mar 11, 2023 13:57
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Kwyndig posted:Well they are married, expecting them to not fool around at all is unrealistic. But judging from the next episode title it's going to be baby season, lots of babies. "Progenitor" is a fancy way of saying parent, after all. At this point in the Farming Life in Another World Light Novel , and further on He's definitely sleeping with nearly all the adult female characters who live in the village and can assume conventionally attractive humanoid forms. So if more of the second-generation characters are going to start being born, it's kind of weird that they've set things up to imply that he's exclusive, or at least, primarily with Lulushi. Admittedly, how Lulushi and Tia join the village in the anime are significantly better than they were in the novel.
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Mar 11, 2023 15:07
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:i read it because for about a year i obsessively read webnovels without any standards. mushoku, shield hero, toycar's various mega harem wn's, whatever. i make a lot of bad choices. oh same, picked it up as a quarantine habit and im slowly unlearning it.
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Mar 11, 2023 15:52
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Every time someone posts about 'GATE' i think they are posting about "New Gate" and theres always a brief moment of confusion.
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Mar 12, 2023 02:36
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Rigged Death Trap posted:oh same, picked it up as a quarantine habit and im slowly unlearning it. i still give even the most obvious dumb poo poo a couple chapters' read(unless it's like explicitly vile) because sometimes you get hidden gems from extremely stupid premises. e: i drop stuff way faster than i used to though by sometimes i mean like .05% of the time ofc Yinlock fucked around with this message at 10:47 on Mar 12, 2023 |
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Mar 12, 2023 10:35
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Yinlock posted:i still give even the most obvious dumb poo poo a couple chapters' read(unless it's like explicitly vile) because sometimes you get hidden gems from extremely stupid premises. e: i drop stuff way faster than i used to though I've definitely learned to not waste time checking out stuff where the tags/description are giving off warning alarms, even if I am curious to know just how bad it is. I've never found a diamond in the rough with one of those. However I'll still give outright dumb/generic setups a try, since the worst that can happen is I kill some time until they toss in the inevitable slave harem.
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Mar 12, 2023 14:01
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i stopped randomly reading a lot of terrible poo poo after i began using the tag filters on novelupdates. in particular, my readership of new cultivation webnovels plummeted once i filtered 'rape victims become lovers'. the no consent zone is a horribly common trope in that genre, where the mc and a woman randomly end up in a spot where they have no choice but to bang. basically, everyone involved is forced into an involuntary gently caress frenzy so it's totally not the mc's fault for raping someone. it's awful, and i'm happier not even seeing those webnovels on nu. as for why i ever read them if that tag was listed in plain sight, well, have you seen the tag lists for anything remotely popular? it's a page or more of mostly banal, meaningless descriptors like 'special abilities' and 'family' with the occasional red flag hidden in the crowd.
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Mar 12, 2023 23:12
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So many of the tags are also useless. Like if someone makes a sandwich in ch 573, suddenly the series is tagged 'cooking' despite it being the only instance food is mentioned What I'm saying is those tags are a lot more useful to filter out things you don't want to see ever than for finding things you actually want to read
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Mar 12, 2023 23:20
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| # ? Jun 5, 2024 08:41 |
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I just automatically skip anything whose title includes words like "invincible", "peerless", "level 9999", or anything similar. "Ascendance" is only acceptable because of Bookworm
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Mar 12, 2023 23:45
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