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She's not there, she's off on some adventure and may not be back for a while. The translation can be a little difficult to follow in some places.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:09
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Apparently the author has now deleted The New Gate from Narou, so I guess I won't be following that anymore.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:11
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Schnee isn't even in the same country at that point, and he's got better things to do than sit around.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:28
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yeah, those adoring waifus won't gather themselves. except for when they do. (new gate is very bad)
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Sep 5, 2016 19:30
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I would call it bland at worst. And I guess at best, too.
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Sep 5, 2016 19:32
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it is boring
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Sep 5, 2016 19:33
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Avulsion posted:She's not there, she's off on some adventure and may not be back for a while. The translation can be a little difficult to follow in some places. quote:“By the way, where is Schnee right now? Judging from the conversation so far, it seems that she’s been away for quite a while?” He asks where she is, is told "I can't tell you that", and realizes he has no credibility whatsoever so he drops it. He then proceeds to prove his credibility beyond any shadow of a doubt, and apparantly decides to never bring the subject up again. Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Sep 5, 2016 |
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Sep 5, 2016 20:18
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Annointed posted:For once I'd like to see an mc that didn't really care for power and wealth and actually has a GOAL. What goal is there? All these people have all these schemes for power for its own sake, and never say what they'll use it for. Hell I'd even appreciate an mc that does everything he can to make a mockery of the xianxia anarchocapitalist system, you know Xianxia punk. Xianxia punk would be amazing, yes
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Sep 5, 2016 20:54
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What about a thought through eternity? MC's goal is to live forever
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Sep 5, 2016 21:09
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Captain Bravo posted:He asks where she is, is told "I can't tell you that", and realizes he has no credibility whatsoever so he drops it. He then proceeds to prove his credibility beyond any shadow of a doubt, and apparantly decides to never bring the subject up again. From what I remember of the beginning of New Gate, meeting Schnee just wasn't a big priority. Like it would've been nice to see a familiar face, but it's not life or death. Also you haven't gotten there yet but Schnee is a reaaaaaal big deal in the world of The New Gate. He hasn't done nearly enough to prove his credibility if he wants to meet her even though he easily could've in approximately two seconds.
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Sep 5, 2016 21:12
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there is nothing wrong with having an absurdly overpowered mc, to the extent that no existence could ever threaten them. a story would just need to focus on something other than physical conflict. well, there is nothing wrong with it in theory. in practice, every single story like that i've read has been dire.
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Sep 5, 2016 21:30
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Ehh, that's basically Death March, and I would say Death March is, at worst, inoffensive and bland.
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Sep 5, 2016 22:20
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Serious Frolicking posted:there is nothing wrong with having an absurdly overpowered mc, to the extent that no existence could ever threaten them. a story would just need to focus on something other than physical conflict. well, there is nothing wrong with it in theory. in practice, every single story like that i've read has been dire. Pretty much the only series I've seen that did this well weren't web novels.
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Sep 5, 2016 22:22
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Ok, well it's definitely not a fluke in The New Gate. The protagonist is straight up a loving imbecile. Like, a complete moron who cannot remember poo poo day-to-day. He reads a book in the library that says the powerful monsters of the world occupied the ruined cities of the past, never leave, and occasionally spawn lower-leveled monsters in nearby areas that harass people. The next day he then wonders why there aren't any high-level monsters around anymore, and why all the poo poo he's fighting is so low-leveled. This is in the same loving chapter, mind you. There's maybe 3 dozen paragraphs separating "Powerful monsters congregate in these special areas" from "Durr, where are all the powerful mosters at?  "I mean, I guess I shouldn't have expected much intelligence from a protagonist that described himself as a 20-year-old shut-in whose only talent was playing a game longer than anyone else had played the game, but I didn't expect the MC to be so loving stupid he can't even be trusted to put his own pants on. If nothing else, it adds an interesting twist to the story. I don't think I've read any other novels about the adventures of a moron. Edit: Hahahaha, holy gently caress man. quote:Shin dropped his shoulder as he heard that from Els. He could imagine that it would be quite bad if the church knew he had that skill. That skill, if he were to stand out, it would attract a lot of enemy who would want to inherit that skill. Again, quote:He could imagine that it would be quite bad if the church knew he had that skill. Two chapters later: quote:In addition, he didn’t expect that the skill would be 【Purification】, but he daringly said that he had the information about 【Purification】. Although he had poor knowledge about this world, he wasn’t that foolish to teach the skill to the sister during their first meeting. Again, quote:he wasn’t that foolish to teach the skill to the sister during their first meeting. The protagonist is specifically warned not to tell the church that he has the Purification skill. He then goes to the church, tells them that he has the Purification skill, and pats himself on the goddamned back for not immediately teaching it to the first loving nun he stumbles across within ten minutes of meeting them. This series has gone from trash to loving gold with the revelation that the MC is a dumbass.  Edit: quote:When he thought about it, since human was another race that had high magic resistance, the INT of the first princess who was able to take on 1000 opponents would exceed 500, and even her MP would be quite large. It was extraordinary in this world to be able to use several magic attacks at once. And then the second princess who paired with her, probably had high HP, and one of STR, VIT, AGI values was near 500. He couldn’t help but smile wryly as he divided the warrior type and magician type splendidly. "Magicians have lots of magic, and warriors have lots of strength! What a splendid observation I just made. Good job, me!  " I'm kind of starting to get emotionally invested in this story now. Poor dumb guy is just doing his best! Treasure those little victories!
Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 23:09 on Sep 5, 2016 |
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Sep 5, 2016 22:33
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Captain Bravo posted:"Magicians have lots of magic, and warriors have lots of strength! What a splendid observation I just made. Good job, me! This paragraph is just mistranslated. Don't get so upset.
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Sep 6, 2016 00:04
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Captain Bravo posted:Ehh, that's basically Death March, and I would say Death March is, at worst, inoffensive and bland. I like death march 
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Sep 6, 2016 00:21
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UberJew posted:I like death march Not to offend your sensibilities or accuse you of anything but... Death March is full of lolita wish-fulfillment. WHAT SAY YOU TO THESE ACCUSATIONS? FriggenJ fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 01:52
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Welp, made it to Vol. 2 Chapter 4 of The New Gate, then this happened:quote:The figure that was stark naked and sleeping peacefully, was a little girl of around 10 years old. Guess it's time to move on. In other news, Leftover Princess and the Knights of the Round Table is pretty drat good. It's a perfect mix of politics, action, and fantasy. The writing is crisp and on-point, there's no long, stupid treatise on useless minutiae, everything in the story has a point and the story never bogs down. (At least so far as I have read) There's a princess. She needs 12 knights to be Queen. She must use her wits, her strength, and the knowledge and magical powers of the kings before her to win over the powerful knights of the kingdom and swear them to her service, while avoiding assassinations and magical peril. quote:“Would you please stop harassing my knight?” Captain Bravo fucked around with this message at 03:36 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 03:26
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 Thanks for reminding me about sun knight by the way. I stopped around volume 8 or 9 and forgot about it a while ago, it is good. Reading Desolate Era raws right now, its still better than stellar transformation, but IET is just some sort of machine that churns out words and pads chapters by having characters repeat stuff to each other. He averages like 2 chapters per weekday. Also always leaves a post script asking for votes. Er Gen post scrip was much more fun, he talks about stuff like waving a knife around and making sound effects when writing fight scenes, playing with his daughter while watching a magical girl show, checking out hot foreign chicks (but not too long since the wife was right there next to him), and sneaking onto private proptery while on vacation. Algid fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 03:41
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I've come to the conclusion that this "Utsuro no Hako" WN is pretty good/interesting, though it's the sort of mystery story that could be retroactively made worse by a bad ending.FriggenJ posted:Not to offend your sensibilities or accuse you of anything but... Death March is full of lolita wish-fulfillment. WHAT SAY YOU TO THESE ACCUSATIONS? Yeah, I've found that a lot of WNs cross a line where you can't just use "oh I just read it for fun" as an excuse. I think that it sort of unavoidably says something about the person who enjoys them*, since they're almost explicitly means to fulfill a wish of the reader being surrounded by hot girls who think he's awesome. I've found that in a bunch of stories the harem is clearly the focal point, even if there's some other plot that exists as padding. To further elaborate, some level of wish fulfillment in fiction is acceptable. A story where the main character falls in love with some attractive woman/man and has an interesting adventure is wish fulfillment to some extent, but I think it's okay to enjoy that sort of thing. But a lot of these WNs cross a line where they just go WAY overboard and feel the need to not just make their character appealing, but make him some sort of demigod who has a massive harem consisting of almost every girl he encounters on his journeys. It's such a prominent element to these stories that it becomes inconceivable that someone could enjoy them without also sharing these sort of fantasies. It's like some sort of psychological masturbation. If I had to compare it with something, it's sort of like someone who just slathers a pound of dressing on a salad or pours an entire cellar of salt onto their meal. This stuff can normally be good in small doses, but it just becomes sorta gross when it pervades every element of a story. * This sort of depends upon the person's age. There's a good chance I would have enjoyed some of these terrible WNs as a teenager, and I think being a teenager excuses most bad opinions about things. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 05:13
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KonoSuba's MC has occasionally tried to insist to himself he is totally not a lolicon for thinking about dating a 14 year old, and personally I think it's supposed to be a joke on how loving weird nerds are about lolis because he's 16. At the same time KonoSuba probably has the best romances I've ever seen in a LN mostly because I can actually understand why the people involved even like each other. Which is kind of sad since the romance isn't even close to being KonoSuba's priority.
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Sep 6, 2016 06:01
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Hm, I'm a little confused about this plot twist in Utsuro no Hako (volume 1). So apparently Mogi was the owner of the box and Kokone had been calling Hoshino to tell him that Mogi was interested in him? But during a scene where Kokone (or is it Mogi? it doesn't mention the name after switching to another loop iteration) confesses to Hoshino, he mentions how she talked to him about the mascara that morning, which implies its Kokone confessing to him. Were both the girls interested in him or something? And why was Kokone inviting Hoshino to meet afterschool? Did she want to set him and Mogi up (which is why Mogi was also there)? I would appreciate if someone could explain all this to me, because I'm dumb and kind of confused by it. edit: Something else that comes to mind is that it seems like people would have commented on Mogi's personality change, since from their perspective she was really talkative and energetic yesterday and suddenly drastically changed her behavior. I guess maybe she could have somehow rejected that reaction? Was there any concrete evidence for this plot twist other than "Mogi's personality is probably flat due to remembering all the iterations." While I see how it can be true, I can't think of anything concrete that could make a reader come to this conclusion. Oh, the "Please wait until tomorrow" thing is pretty good evidence. Also Mogi's reaction to Hoshino remembering Otonashi. edit2: Oh, they address the people not noticing Mogi's personality change issue. Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 06:20
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"When Meng Hao heard the words ‘vein of spirit stones,’ his eyes began to shine. He then began to ask about the specifics. One man, one bird, and one meat jelly flew back toward the ancestral mansion, conversing with each other in hushed tones." 
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Sep 6, 2016 06:41
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Yasser Arafatwa posted:"When Meng Hao heard the words ‘vein of spirit stones,’ his eyes began to shine. He then began to ask about the specifics. Mr.Krabs_drooling_a_river.exe
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Sep 6, 2016 06:47
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Hahaha, I know this is unintentional and only funny when translated to English, but this line in Utsuro no Hako: "Kazuki, I'll let you touch my box. After that, you won't be able to ask a stupid question like 'who are you' anymore." edit: "Perhaps Maria wasn't just letting me touch her box for my sake." Ytlaya fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 07:39
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FriggenJ posted:Not to offend your sensibilities or accuse you of anything but... Death March is full of lolita wish-fulfillment. WHAT SAY YOU TO THESE ACCUSATIONS? i appreciate that the mc wants nothing to do with any of them apart from cooking them big dinners and training Ytlaya posted:Yeah, I've found that a lot of WNs cross a line where you can't just use "oh I just read it for fun" as an excuse. I think that it sort of unavoidably says something about the person who enjoys them*, since they're almost explicitly means to fulfill a wish of the reader being surrounded by hot girls who think he's awesome. I've found that in a bunch of stories the harem is clearly the focal point, even if there's some other plot that exists as padding. this is true in a lot of works i have dropped but i don't think it is true in death march, where when the mc finally got a love interest it was someone not involved with the whole harem business at all atelier morgan fucked around with this message at 08:02 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 07:57
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UberJew posted:this is true in a lot of works i have dropped but i don't think it is true in death march, where when the mc finally got a love interest it was someone not involved with the whole harem business at all I haven't read Death March so I'm not necessarily referring to it specifically, but "the MC's primary love interest isn't part of a harem" doesn't exactly invalidate the reason the harem exists (which is the aforementioned "lots of girls being interested in the main character" thing). The focus isn't on the protagonist reciprocating the feelings of the harem; it's the fact that harem exists in the first place and a bunch of girls find the protagonist attractive.
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Sep 6, 2016 08:08
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Ytlaya posted:I haven't read Death March so I'm not necessarily referring to it specifically, but "the MC's primary love interest isn't part of a harem" doesn't exactly invalidate the reason the harem exists (which is the aforementioned "lots of girls being interested in the main character" thing). The focus isn't on the protagonist reciprocating the feelings of the harem; it's the fact that harem exists in the first place and a bunch of girls find the protagonist attractive. my contention is mostly that particular wish fulfillment is not the focus of the work, not that it isn't an element (if it wasn't there wouldn't be a harem at all), though maybe it just isn't the focus of the work as i read it
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Sep 6, 2016 08:20
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death march has slaves who insisted on staying slaves because of how convenient it was. gently caress death march.
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Sep 6, 2016 09:34
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UberJew posted:my contention is mostly that particular wish fulfillment is not the focus of the work, not that it isn't an element (if it wasn't there wouldn't be a harem at all), though maybe it just isn't the focus of the work as i read it I understand what you're saying, but even if something isn't the focus of a work it can still detract from its value (in many cases to the point of completely ruining it). For example, if you had a action/adventure book that also happened to include a bunch of prominent* racism (with it not being made fun of or treated as satire), even if the sci-fi plot was the "main" plot it would still probably be a terrible book. While I guess you could argue that racism is more malicious than harems (though you could also argue that harems are pretty sexist), the point about "a single prominent bad thing can ruin a story" still stands. *I say prominent, because there's obviously a lot of older literature with a bunch of racism that shows up in the writing or as part of the setting. But harems are a pretty significant aspects of the plots of the WNs that contain them (even if they aren't the focus); I mean, many of the female characters are mostly defined as being a member of them. They tend to be integrated into the plot to such an extent that you can't really remove them without ending up with a story that doesn't even resemble the original one.
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Sep 6, 2016 09:44
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the harem is the point in death march. averting your eyes isn't helpful. if the point of the story was traveling and cooking, then why does the mc only bring girls into his entourage? very young girls, at that.
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Sep 6, 2016 09:51
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Serious Frolicking posted:death march has slaves who insisted on staying slaves because of how convenient it was. gently caress death march. its all true and problematic, i just like it despite those bad things
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Sep 6, 2016 10:30
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Ytlaya posted:I've come to the conclusion that this "Utsuro no Hako" WN is pretty good/interesting, though it's the sort of mystery story that could be retroactively made worse by a bad ending. What makes you think it's a web novel? It's a light novel original, as far as I know. I've only read vol 1, some four years ago, but these were my impressions at the time: Done reading Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria vol 1 by Mikage Eiji. I got through it pretty fast, so it must have had something going for it, but in the end I'm left feeling disappointed. It suffers from being overly "magical", I think. Magic is fun when it works, but when it's wielded as a tool that seemingly explains anything and everything, I just stop feeling engaged. There has to be some set of rules constricting mysterious powers, so I can be safe in knowing what can't happen. When poo poo comes flying in from out of bounds, it's like I'm being cheated. And once something unexplainable is allowed, I'm forced to ask why there aren't even more convenient ways to solve issues, only to get bits of the author's arbitrarily applied (hitherto hidden) ruleset rubbed in my face. Bleh.
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Sep 6, 2016 12:57
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UberJew posted:i appreciate that the mc wants nothing to do with any of them Not that I'm trying to convince you to drop the novel. But, while the MC claims he wants nothing to do with 11 year old girls, the author spends a WHOLE lot more time sexualizing/infantalizing them for me to be comfortable with his motivations there. Like, after he buys one of the slave girls(literal girl, she's written as prepubescent) she jumps into his bed butt naked and uses mind magic to make him want to have sex with her. That's all kinds of gross. While said situation ends with the MC being all "I DONT LIKE CHILDREN SEXUALLY!!!!" you can't really ditch how absolutely gross and unapologetically the author wrote the situation as "sexy". FriggenJ fucked around with this message at 13:13 on Sep 6, 2016 |
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Sep 6, 2016 13:10
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even if the mc isn't a pedophile, the author sure as gently caress is.
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Sep 6, 2016 13:15
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Ytlaya posted:Hm, I'm a little confused about this plot twist in Utsuro no Hako (volume 1). No, that is Mogi who confesses. The name is intentionally left out during that scene, to make you think that it's Kokone confessing, the same way that exactly whose bag is being searched is not said either. The mascara is a red herring, because Mogi used to wear makeup but doesn't bother anymore. Mogi puts on Mascara the same as Kokone during that confession to see if it will make Hoshino like her even more. Since it doesn't, she stops wearing makeup, which actually does improve his mood towards her. When they're searching her bag, he finds the makeup kit, which is odd because in his mind she never wears makeup. Maria remembers that she used to wear makeup and realizes that Mogi has changed from who she initially was at the start of repeating classroom, therefore she's the box. It's all set up to make the reader think that it's Kokone, but it's actually Mogi. That being said, yes, both girls are interested in him.
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Sep 6, 2016 17:09
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darkgray posted:What makes you think it's a web novel? It's a light novel original, as far as I know. Ah my bad, not sure why I thought it was a web novel. I'm not sure what your impressions are referring to, since things seemed to make enough sense to me. The only thing that comes to mind is that certain aspects of the way the Rejecting Classroom function aren't revealed until later, but everything still seems to be consistent throughout. Speaking of which, the premise of Volume 2 is really harsh, I feel bad for the protagonist. I wonder what in the world he can even do in such a situation, unless there's some unknown constraint to the power of this particular box. FriggenJ posted:Like, after he buys one of the slave girls(literal girl, she's written as prepubescent) she jumps into his bed butt naked and uses mind magic to make him want to have sex with her. webnovels.txt
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Sep 6, 2016 19:35
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I actually like the way the magic works in Utsuro. It's basically this: Except the problem is that the nigh-unlimited powers are being wielded by stupid people, so all you have to do is find the weak link in the chain that they subconsciously added because people are naturally flawed beings. And once you've figured that out, then all you have to do is look for the element that doesn't play by those rules, and boom you've found god. It's awesome, because every volume has its own unique, internally consistent system that sets the rules. The magical powers are completely different and the mystery of each volume is working out how they work. It's like if every book had to begin with figuring out what physics are, except each time the answers are different. It kicks multiple different kinds of rear end.
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Sep 6, 2016 21:13
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The only thing that bugged me about Volume 1 is how they mention the truck hitting Mogi (or whoever tries to save her) being a rule of the box, but don't explain just how that rule would be forced if, for example, Mogi decided to just not go to school that day or go someplace that can't possibly be hit by a truck. I'm imagining Mogi up in her 7th floor apartment and this truck just flying up and smashing into it. Are her actions controlled during the morning of the second day or something?
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Sep 6, 2016 21:20
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i think that demonstrating a ridiculous extreme to show how absolute the rules are would have been a good idea.
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Sep 6, 2016 21:42
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