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Desuwa posted:Speaking of Mondaijitachi, I like it but I had to drop it because I found the translations to be of so low quality that they were almost unintelligible on a line-by-line basis and were incredibly difficult to follow at a higher level. That's sad, as Mondai-jitach begin funs and only becomes better, which is the opposite trend of this kind of work. Sinking Ship posted:I've been reading Mokushiroku Arisu recently (3 volumes released, all 3 translated). I picked it up mostly for it's protagonist who is kind of a huge dick to everyone and because it seems to be a tiny bit outside the norm for LNs. The plot starts out fairly dark (also sprinkled with Alice in Wonderland references) but by the end it gets decidedly more generic for better or worse. The setting is interesting, how it handles magic, how magic is acquired and applied is pretty cool, the strong point of the books is the setting in my opinion. Most people probably pick it up because it's edgelord click-bait with the whole 'Kill the girl, save the world' premise but I spent an hour or two reading it and it was good enough to keep me reading to the end and ultimately dropping like I am unsure why you say it becomes more generic? Or have you only read the first volume? What i like about it: +the MC is Tsun as hell, and is called out on it by everyone, constantly being mocked for it. +the twist at the end of the third volume The rest is... Well, i dislike the magic, and it makes absolutely no sense for the 'power levels' to exist there, given we actually never see anything really impressive. Characterization has a lot of cheap part, though it's definitely a grimdark world.
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Jan 18, 2015 21:15
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on a physical copy from amazon.jp so take that however you like.
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jwang posted:Forgot to mention that Coiling Dragon has an alternate realm story by the same author. If you enjoyed Coiling Dragon and can read Chinese, you probably would enjoy it. Coiling Dragon's protagonist also makes an appearance due to cross-dimensional magic, according to the afterword. You can try searching for a translation, but I don't think anyone is working on it. The title is 星辰变 in Chinese, and Constellation Change when directly translated. Maybe Constellation Transformation or Metamorphosis would sound better? Stellar Transformation: http://www.spcnet.tv/forums/showthread.php/37833-Stellar-Transformations-NO-SPOILERS-ALLOWED This translator stopped after a while (10 or so books?) but a couple of others picked it up. Keep in mind though that Stellar Transformation is set in a much darker and stereotyped world than Coiling Dragon and uses a lot of different themes, all the while having a very similar plot ideas within.
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Mar 22, 2015 13:11
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jwang posted:Stellar Transformation trip report: less Deus ex Machina rear end-pulls than Coiling Dragon, it gets an 8/10 for recommendations. I...what? Stellar Transformation has every asspulls CD does, but x100000000. It's like, seriously insane rear end-pull wise. What's really, really interesting though is how the author pretty much Made the universe Linley created such a horrible, horrible one. Like, seriously compare any situations between ST and CD, and the former has 100x more assholes and hypocrisy. Goddamit Linley.
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Apr 1, 2015 13:44
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Serious Frolicking posted:In ST, most immortals seem to be psychotic. Only the failures who couldn't cut it out in murderous island country ever concern themselves with anything other than their own power. That isn't really their fault, though. Having more and better stuff makes them more likely to survive when the universe periodically tries to murder them. Once they get started on the path to true immortality they can't ever stop. And why would they, even? Not even mortals willingly accept mortality. Thus, they betray, murder and steal in order to seize any advantage. In other words, the very nature of their universe encourages people to be assholes. So yeah, goddamn it, Linley. If it was only that they wouldn't be such assholes. The issue is that the best way to get power is to eat other people. You can literally be given insight and special techniques don't matter compared to just the power you get from eating others. And insight you steal, too.. CD has a lot of what you said above... Except, well, they actually need each others in order to get stronger. So when two saints meet others? It's "yay, let's spar and hopefully we'll learn stuff".
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Apr 1, 2015 16:17
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Serious Frolicking posted:Saints like having treasures and they are useful when they fight each other or go dungeon diving, but they don't absolutely need them. Saints already live indefinitely unless killed, and the majority seemed to spend their time quite peacefully. There is no inherent reason for saints to fight (to the death, at least), so they generally don't bother. They don't bother with a lot of things, really, and that aloofness is what generally keeps them from being assholes like ST immortals. My point was that Linley's universe is designed in such a way that the Saint equivalent can get to God by eating each others and that has...consequences.
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Apr 2, 2015 00:45
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jwang posted:I Eat Tomatoes tends to over inflate everything. After reading his fourth work, I figured there wouldn't be much deviations in the remaining stories. I say read Stellar Transformation and Coiling Dragon and you've pretty much read all his good stuff. I'm actually pretty drat impressed in how he manages to take the same basic plot elements and make a completely different narrative structure as well as atmosphere. A lot of the enjoyment I derive from his work comes from the worldbuilding (Chinese-style diplomacy in ST, Western-style world in CD, a lot of tribal stuff in Desolate Era, more Sci-fi in Swallowed Stars), and you can see constant improvements in the way he actually handles his characters and plots.
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Apr 4, 2015 17:12
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jwang posted:The main issue I have with I Eat Tomatoes is his works are basically DBZ with extended lifespans instead of hyperbolic time chamber (with the exception of ST, which has both). In fact, I would actually rate Zhang Long to have better growth rate in comparison. Reading about a guy meditating on the ways to break the cosmos via Fist spell is interesting the first few times, but it quickly loses its novelty. I Eat Tomatoes has a stupid love for big numbers and big scale. The guy really can't into thinking what the numbers he is saying actually mean. I...don't think the 'break the Cosmos via Fist spells' is a bad thing as much as 'that's more or less the genre'. At least it actually does it by meditating. Zhan Long... Well, Zhan Long is just bad. It has a horrible protagonist that makes no sense in a world that's tailored to cater to make him badass, and the 'growth' there is, IMHO, even more ridiculous than in IEatTomatoes. Sure, it doesn't (or maybe it does) end up with him being the OverGod, but while the scale is lower all the rest is more exxagerated. I much prefer the story of a big fish in a big pond than the story of the only shark in a red fish pond.
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Apr 8, 2015 13:27
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Given Kumoko herself thinks she has a special way of saying "Nai Wai", it would make sense to keep it 
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Sep 1, 2015 18:17
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Pharohman777 posted:I loved her logic when it come to killing humans on the surface for experience: don't attack civilians, and allow adventurers and humans to attack first to avoid the wrath of the admins. It was a heavy blow when they decided to worship her instead. The sweets, though.
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Sep 14, 2015 20:07
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HenryEx posted:And if it's not the Wills... How'd they all inherit her skills like Appraisal and Language? We know they didn't start out with it. We have already seen that Kumoko is trying very hard to believe they don't have human-grade intelligence. We also know that the stronger a monster is, the more intelligent it is. So they'll get those skills on their own. Oh, and Kumoko doesn't 'ignore' Ronant. He is eye candy.
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Sep 19, 2015 21:08
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Serious Frolicking posted:That's just i eat tomatoes. All of his stories are entirely about gaining power and kind of flounder when he tries to focus on anything else. I don't know, his stoires are usually best in the middle stages where the character actually has peers and a plot is there- Desolate Era for example will have peers that will stay relevant for volume 8-13 or so, and then there is a bigass plot until vol 23. ISSTH... I haven't kept up to date with it in fact because I felt there was an annoying lack of characterisation. I'm guessing it got a lot better, but from the time he left the sec (Chapter 30 or so?) to chapter 120 he was basically alone 99% of the time and it never felt like it was going somewhere.
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Oct 9, 2015 19:28
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Largepotato posted:Oni 5 loving Summoner.
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Oct 15, 2015 17:02
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jwang posted:I guess the male web novel writers have power fantasies because that's what they lack, so they write stories with easy to understand power gain mechanics; the female writers on the other hand seems to regret past choices, so they write a lot of reincarnation ones. Who knows, either way having actual meaningful conflict is not something that these writers wish to have in there stories. Reincarnation is super popular both for men writers and women writers. Douluo Dalu, BTTH, ATG and a ton more begin with those. Likewise, the specific "assassin reincarnated" is especially popular both with women and men writers. If there is a big difference, it's how they treat love interests: both have love interests obviously being super pretty (bijoushos...) but women writers tend to have them strong in a relevant ways. Well, more or less. Descent of the Phoenix still has the love interest be very much token eye candy.
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Oct 26, 2015 01:46
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Blinks77 posted:My apologies but ISSTH? http://www.wuxiaworld.com/issth-index/ A pretty amusing Xanxia. It shouldn't be THAT good that the MC there actually realise he was a little shite early on, but the genre sadly almost never has a self-aware MC so just having one semi-self-aware is enough to make it noticeable.
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Nov 1, 2015 03:16
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Algid posted:Meng Zhao knows that (1) you shouldn't act like a murderous psychopath and (2) then advertise the fact that you killed a bunch of dudes and/or has a bunch of cool loot.
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Nov 1, 2015 05:02
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Yasser Arafatwa posted:I still feel terrible that the hat has such a severe learning disability How strange than its prvious friends didn't help him go past that!
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Nov 1, 2015 12:40
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Fleve posted:Other novels just seem to nosedive deep into the poo poo and then wallow there. I cannot understand how there are people actually defending any of that in comments. What it does have, however, it 'fun stuff' like Linley befriending Dylin/Reigsm/that soul guy who mind raped his friends, etc. Oh, and also some of Linley's murder were very, very bad. Still, all of this is more of a 'monkeysphere' issue, and less of a 'It's normal to be a utter monster to your friends, let alone your enemies'.
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Nov 5, 2015 02:26
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Cynic Jester posted:The sheer number of stupid as gently caress shitheels protagonists run into in Xianxia novels is my biggest pet peeve with the genre. More often than not their only motivation for loving with the MC is to gently caress with the MC. They have no character beyond being awful people with the survival instincts of a crowd of lemmings approaching a cliff. In most Xianxia, if the protagonist runs into an antagonist with a well built character, decent motivations and a modicum common sense, I just assume that antagonist won't stay an antagonist for long, and unlike the rest, it won't be due to a horrible death. To be fair, lots of Xanxia are not like that. There is a lot of enemies who are actually such because of cultures/clans and they don't really have much choices (E.G blood feuds). Basically the huge majority of enemies in IET webnovels are because of such conflicts, for example. There is also a lot of "MC is a freaking assholes" coupled with "all that fat loot" conflicts in variosu Xanxia (you see this in ISSTH, a lot in DKC, a lot in IET too when it comes to treasure hunting). And, well... those appearls to p&p murderhobos tendencies. I really like Xanxias which have a lot of treasure hunting, especially when the MC is the weakest of the group trying to gather the treasures. ST had some rather amusing parts there, and DKC has basically over a dozen of those.
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Nov 7, 2015 01:25
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CVE posted:
I have HEARD, so don't take my word for it, that King Shura MC makes Chu Feng look like a saint. That might be people lying though, or my memory being wonky.
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Nov 12, 2015 19:59
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CVE posted:I mean being called a Shura or Asura usually means you are a murder-hobo so you might have heard correctly which would be a shame because currently it's quite interesting. Then again I like a lot of starts/beginnings where people first come into power and tend to zone out the further along it goes if the power creep simply repeats itself. To be fair to Xanxia webnovelists, they need to sustain such an insane rhythm of writing that you can't really blame them for the quality of later arcs to dive. This is why IET stays one of my favorite- sure, the later arcs of probably all of his stories lose focus and get boring, but he at least gets out a coherent handful of multi-arcs plot before that. He also seems to improve as he writes more, which is always nice. .. I think ISSTH is fairly impressive so far because it seems like it has a over-arching arc that seems planned and not padded.
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Nov 12, 2015 20:44
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Cynic Jester posted:This is another reason why I really like ISSTH, as in most Xianxia, schools seem to encourage murdering fellow cultivators, even of the same school, which just seems utterly retarded. ISSTH actually makes the point that the entire reason for Meng Haos original sect being poo poo was that they tolerated such behavior. Well, that, and the Patriarch. It's actually lampshaded that the Patriarch purposefully made that rule in order to ruin the sect and trample on the Demon Sealing Sect's honor.
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Nov 13, 2015 04:04
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Serious Frolicking posted:I had no idea that a 10th dao pillar was previously unheard of. Though, anything that reaches perfection tends to call down tribulation lightning, and tribulation lightning is vexation's favorite food. This could all go very wrong. My biggest annoyance in ISSTH is how many of those 'never heard of' things Meng Hao stumble on for no reason. I really hope they are all things that are pretty common elsewhere, because it's geetting super-grating how much the setting seems to rely on people having really low quality cultivation so that Meng Hao stumbling on better quality makes everything much easier. At least there is some kind of philosophical bent for Alchemy/enlightenement where he seems to actually have to look for answers.
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Nov 13, 2015 04:53
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Cynic Jester posted:I mean, if you're okay with the Mirror he finds early on, by chance, you should be okay with the everything else that happens, considering the mirror is basically the most broken thing he has obtained by a mile and he got it all the way at the start of the story. Without the mirror, there would no Meng Hao. Well, and no imploding asses, which might be more important to this discussion. See, it's one thing to find the most broken poo poo ever that helps Meng Hao become top tier. But then he finds the second most broken poo poo ever, and then the third, and then the fourth, and.... Given how gently caress huge the place is supposed to be, it's a bit annoying how basically no one ever managed to get those things and how the general level of cultivation hasn't improved from "horribly bad". I mean, it's OK when something is either completely lost at very high level, or when the level is just middling, but to have constant "and everyone is doing everything wrong times 10" when they actually know they are doing it wrong but haven't managed to do anything about it gets very frustrating. Maybe it's just my desire for Meng Hao to have actual peers giving me bias, though.
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Nov 13, 2015 19:59
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jwang posted:It gets really, really good. Like at the end of her third reincarnation, you'll be amazed that this is actually Xianxia with actually decent plot and an actually decent person as the main character. She doesn't go off the rails and decide that hey, since she's doing this for justice, murder/rape/larceny is A-okay! At one point her master actually states that she's too kind, and that she could have solved the problem already by preemptively killing off the problem person. It's incredibly refreshing, and I'm going to be really disappointed if this isn't complete. I tried looking it up on various Chinese sources, but none of them lists it as complete. The latest chapter can be translated as "The Final Finale", so here's hoping. One of the comments on the translated chapters was that this was completed really recently.
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Nov 21, 2015 23:13
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jwang posted:From what I can tell from IET works, a lot of the time it's just a constant escalation till the point where he has no idea where to go, and then try to figure an out for everything, usually with a Super Primordial Saiyan Ultra Voltron Deus Ex Machina of some sort. I read Coiling Dragon because it's somewhat okay to pass the time with, the Stellar Transformation because it's tied somewhat to Coiling Dragon. Nine Cauldrons is somewhat okay simply on the merit that it's shorter, but overall his works always similar patterns that gets tiresome. After you've read 3 of IET, it's of my opinion that you need to move on to another author, specifically one that doesn't follow his template. IET is actually really solid- as long as you are aware that he might have big dip in quality in later arcs.However, both his world-building, character and arcs are really decent until you get to the "and nothing happen anymore". So, in CD's case, everything's decent until you get to the god part. Desolate Era actually stays good for a much longer while book-wise, but I don't know if it's any good post book 23 (as it also does something like 'going away' and I was wary so stopped reading). Lord Xue Ying, so far, has a very solid plot.
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Nov 25, 2015 09:34
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Urgh.... There is a lot of fun stuff in ISSTH, but I really, really, really dislike how many "THIS IS THE ONLY ONE" stuff Meng Hao gets. Whether it's 13 cycles on Qi,10 of foundation, perfect foundation/core, that Parrot, being the meat jelly master, etc..... All those things are 'it was never seen before' level. It would be so much easier to take if all those things had other people getting them (even if it was just different people), just very rarely. But noooo And it happens all the drat time for Meng Hao, which is really frustrating.
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Nov 26, 2015 01:12
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The Lord of Hats posted:Not that it's necessarily born out by the actual story, but I get the impression that the world of ISSTH is stuffed to the goddamn brim with unique magical bullshit, and Meng Hao just started in the most backwater of backwaters. Like, back in the State of Zhao, there were people who were fairly impressive, or had some kind of reputation for themselves because holy poo poo guys, they're in FOUNDATION ESTABLISHMENT, except in come the Southern Domain cultivators who just point out "ahahaha you guys are all such hilarious garbage, look, their flying swords are all made of tin! They think Foundation Establishment is a big deal!" It's completely true, too--outside of Patriarch Reliance, the entire State is really puny. Yes- and those mana draining swords and item replication and exploding butts and qi condensation great circle and blood legacy and... those are all things that are stronger than spirit-severing adepts have. Now, most Xanxia stories have ONE of those- or at least most decent ones. ISSTH has so many good things in so many ways that it's more frustrating to me that it never has 'Meng Hao gets lots of good loot but it's still loot that other people in the setting can get' and not 'oh hey he constantly gets things that the strongest beings of the setting want'. brainwrinkle posted:How do you know his peers and opponents don't have cool one-of-a-kind stuff? Other people's treasures and legacies are unimportant to the plot until they interact with Meng Hao. Other treasures by other people are either a°) treasures that are very weak and just there for a couple levels, b°) treasures that are there for Meng Hao to steal and they kept secret from everyone else so Meng Hao can be the only one to have it. quote:Hell, the latest chapter is Meng Hao trying to avoid a fight because he knows that he is outclassed despite his special snowflake advantages. Avulsion posted:Most cultivators spend their lives meditating in a cave and pursuing the safest path to immortality. Are you joking? We constantly see that most cultivators risk their lives as much if not more than Meng Hao.
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Nov 26, 2015 01:57
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Serious Frolicking posted:Safe, yes. No one in the violet fate sect is gonna go up against Pill Demon directly, and that dude is very protective toward his disciples. But that doesn't mean his situation won't become a lot less comfortable when they find out that the person they already considered the living incarnation of deceit has been deceiving them. Not really. Like, seriously, Fang Mu's poistion now isn't mediocre or just 'powerful'. You also have to keep in mind that a poo poo load of people admire Meng Hao. By the time Meng Hao was running away in Song, half the sects had decided to get him in the sect instead of simply stealing the Sublime Scripture. Him revealing himself as Meng Hao would only mean "He gets more famous" and would only elevate his status even further if that's possible. It's.. not, given he probably is considered above all the Dao Children currently. My big issue currently is why the gently caress he didn't give the sublime scripture technique to Pill Demon, as even in-character that makes sense. I guess he just wasn't in a hurry to do it.
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Nov 26, 2015 15:18
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Serious Frolicking posted:I dunno if the black sieve sect is willing to openly go to war over Meng Hao, but even if they are not he still won't be able to go outside without them trying to gank him. But then, this all assumes that he goes back to his sect after his identity is revealed. It will probably be some big public spectacle instead, after which Meng Hao escapes or is forcibly whisked away. The Black Sieve can't gank him if he goes outside. That would be like Ganking a Dao Child each time he goes outside because he knows stuff/whatever. This is basically a declaration of war.
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Nov 27, 2015 00:01
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Serious Frolicking posted:Ha, so much for all of those theories. Meng Hao ditched the violet fate sect on his own, without them ever learning his identity. It's pretty clear he ditched them because the Ji clan is going to learn he is the one who killed that guy, so he doesn't want to cause a war between Violet Sect/Ji. As such they are totally going to learn his identity.
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Nov 27, 2015 13:39
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Mygna posted:Just finished reading the translation of vol. 2 of Grimgar. This really is
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Nov 28, 2015 21:51
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: The Novelization. Now I just hope the anime will be a decent adaptation.
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Cynic Jester posted:Sound advice. Tensei doesn't have the sheer creep factor of Shield Hero, but it has an MC I just can't stop hating. Awful in so many ways. Yeah, huh... Shield Hero is awfully bad, but Mushoko Tensei manages to somehow be worse. Well, at least as bad in a slightly different ways. Basically, shield Hero goes in a pedophilia harem trip that's "but it's totally not my fault". Mushoko Tensei goes in a pedophilia harem trip that's "I purposefully brainwash people in order to make them dependant on me and then I'll pretend I am being reticent so I can pretend I have the moral high ground".
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Dec 15, 2015 10:14
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Cynic Jester posted:Xianxiaville got picked up, 13-15 up. Ruling the world, one radish at a time. What and where is that?
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Jan 29, 2016 10:51
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Fleve posted:
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Feb 6, 2016 22:50
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Ytlaya posted:
I read that differently. I saw it as Ranta is a really, really big rear end in a top hat, but it's just how he is and we can count on him in a fight itself so we can deal with it. E.G, his PoV showed, to me, that he just thinks very very weirdly and is unable to actually understand what people are saying.
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Feb 7, 2016 09:01
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Avulsion posted:I'm more than willing to overlook the overpowered protagonist cliche because Meng Hao is the best protagonist ever. If you want specifically interesting or well written cast, however, I would suggest Ze Tian Ji or World of Cultivation. quote:All the best scenes in ISSTH involve Meng Hao stealing other people's poo poo (and other people's reactions to him stealing all their poo poo): However, He really, really hasn't earned any of them. Meng Hao is absurdly lucky whenever it comes to having just the right person to steal stuff just at the right time. In fact, it's even worse considering he is also one of the Xanxia protagonists who are in the "doesn't work that hard" category, so it makes it more painful. I have to say I do like a lot of the "philosophy of the Dao" parts though.
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Feb 16, 2016 10:11
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Another thing it does that I love is that it has a truly "Genius disciple" who is the best friend of the MC, and it's not "Yeah, he is a genius but MC is totally better anyway", it's "OK, this guy is a real genius". It's refreshing to have other characters have some agency and relevance sometime 
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Feb 18, 2016 13:34
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Cynic Jester posted:It's the same point ISSTH made. The Reliance sect was you typical double hitler murderhobo institution and it was the shittiest sect around. It was also a ploy to keep the school down by a gigantic turtle, but that's just par for the course from ISSTH. Yeah, Reliance Sect basically being "It sucks because it was made 'competitive' in order to destroy it" is almost self-aware, but then you have a poo poo ton of other sect/clans that still do all the usual Xanxia cliche in it, so.... IET is usually pretty good at making "clans/sects that actually try to make sure they are loyals to each others", which is nice, but he isn't the only one, it's just that a lot of the more popular/first translated Xanxias have all the shittiest cliche sects. Things like Demon Diary, World of Cultivation also have that, and usually in a more fleshed out manner. Then there are things like True Martial World, where the MC is basically the most assholish guy of the sect and more or less the only betrayer there- but he obviously coats it into terms to make himself believe he isn't the most evil guy there.
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Mar 14, 2016 08:49
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Cynic Jester posted:Are you thinking of another Xianxia besides TMW? The MC there is milquetoast xianxia goodguy. No, I meant TMW- the MC basically has either everyone bending over to help him or people being rivals or people being minions... If someone is bending over to help him, he screws them and steals from them. If someone is being a rival, he screws them over doubly and, steal from them, and then pretend they are assholes for not accepting their death nicely. If someone is being a minion, he then make sure they can't develop or have a mind of their own and anyone who has close to the same temperament he himself as is classified as a "bad person" who must be killed.
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Mar 14, 2016 16:40
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I don't know, I have issues with the incredible luck and the arrogance, it can get grating when it goes too much against Meng Hao's self-estimations. OTOH, it is 100% correct that a lot of the humour comes from the arrogance and the luck, and everything that makes ISSTH decent is the humour.
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Apr 26, 2016 13:15
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