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Light novels (abbreviated as LNs) are a style of Japanese novel usually aimed at middle- and high-school students. They're roughly analogous to YA fiction, but are generally much shorter than the average novel, which is why they're "light" novels. Many popular anime, such as A Certain Magical Index, Sword Art Online, Konosuba!, and Re:Zero, were adapted from light novel sources. Light novels, however, cost money, come out slowly, and have official English translations that lag far behind the Japanese releases (if they even exist at all), so we read web novels instead. Web novels are a form of serial fiction that are generally written in the same short, punchy style as light novels, but are generally hosted online for free, either on the author's own website or web portals like Shousetsuka ni Narou ("Let's Become Authors", often abbreviated as just Narou). These are generally written by amateurs, and it generally really tends to show, either through stilted, awkward prose or heavy over-reliance on boring, uninspired tropes. However, there are quite a few that are really good, and many of the stories that regularly top the popularity charts on Narou wind up getting picked up by publishers for re-release as full light novels and sometimes even manga or anime series. Due to the sheer quantity of ...decent quality material available, there is a robust community of translators that do ...alright jobs of making these web novels available in English. These translations are all catalogued on NovelUpdates, which is a user-driven repository of web novel reviews and links to translations. Here are some of them that are popular among posters right now, roughly sorted by The Protagonist Is Reincarnated Into A Fantasy Setting By far the most common plot gimmick. The main character(s) are reborn or transported into a fantasy setting, retaining their memories. They use their genre-savviness or special powers to make a name for themselves. Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka? (I'm A Spider, So What?) is a story about a girl who was reincarnated into an oversized spider monster in a fantasy world where she is at the bottom of the food chain. Kumoko stands out from the pack of monster reincarnation stories because it is both funny and well-written. Seriously, those other wn's about monster reincarnation are terrible. -gimme the GOD drat candy Cook of the Mercenary Corp Another one that hasn't been updated in a while, or at least very sporadically. Really talented cook somehow ended up in a fantasy world. Despite blundering about, he becomes an integral part of a mercenary corp. Adventures ensue. -jwang Genjitsushugisha no Oukokukaizouki A guy who's a realist gets summoned to another world to be a hero. Unfortunately, he doesn't get any real power ups, and the kingdom he gets summoned to is in deep financial and political trouble. Luckily the protagonist has read a lot, and thus has a plan forward. -jwang Release that Witch An engineering intern gets reincarnated as the fourth prince of a kingdom. Said kingdom is currently undergoing trials to determine the next crown prince/princess. There's also witches that are persecuted for their powers by the church. A lot of political intrigue and world building, the current translation is about a third of the way through the released chapters. -jwang Everyone Else is a Returnee What is this? Earth is evolving! Unfortunately, this would cause a rise in magical species that threatens humanity's survival. In response, God sends (almost) everyone to other worlds to train for the upcoming challenge. The sole unfortunate soul left behind is our protagonist. -jwang The Lazy King Reincarnated as a demon of sloth, the world's laziest man sleeps his way to power and glory. Propped up by his fanatical army of treacherous and scheming demons, he will shake the heavens and rule the hells, eventually. Right now he just wants to get some more sleep. -Avulsion Running Away From The Hero! Reincarnated into a fantasy world, our protagonist decides that the best way to survive is to stay as far away from the plot as humanly possible. Things go pretty well for the first few decades, and he ends up working as a trainer for an underground criminal organization, teaching new recruits to avoid death flags and brainwashing them to be loyal to him so they won't try to murder him. Unfortunately, the latest class of recruits includes 3 children destined to become heroes. The Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich Living in an underworld kingdom full of monsters, trapped in an undying and inhuman body, hounded by a game system that keeps throwing Evil Quests in his face, a reincarnated lawyer seeks to do good while being technically evil. -Avulsion Evil God Average (Completed) A girl with a very sinister gaze is reincarnated into another world as an evil god. She takes over a dungeon by mistake and things quickly get out of hand. Has an awful sequel. -Desuwa So there's this girl who is pretty normal, except she has the creepiest gaze ever. Through the whims of a god, this girl (now named Anri) is thrown into a RPG-like world and gets a bunch of downright villainous skills. In particular, her gaze has been upgraded so literally everyone she looks at will be too terrified to move. This and a few other problems makes living a normal life as an adventurer impossible, so Anri decides to go with plan B: take over a dungeon, knock out all of the adventurers who come in, and sell their equipment for cash. But a few poor decisions later and... well, let's just say the title doesn't have "Evil God" in it for nothing. Extremely funny and very relaxed, Evil God Average is just an all around excellent story. Also in its favor is that the author knew not to stretch things out: there are only two volumes (four if you count the two sidestory ones), and they are just the right length. If you want to know if you'll enjoy LNs at all, I definitely recommend this one. -BlitzBlast My Death Flags Show No Sign of Ending An ordinary university student reincarnated into the main villain, and most hated character, from a game he was playing. He tries desperately to dodge a myriad of death flags without losing control of the plot of the game or letting anyone know how much he changed. -Desuwa Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu A girl reincarnates as the spoiled, spiteful villainess character from an Otome game she was playing. Once she regains her memories she works hard to be a decent person instead of the villain she remembered. This might not have been the first example of this story but it's one of the best and really got the trend started. -Desuwa Destruction Flag Otome Similar to Kenkyo, a girl reincarnates as the villain in an otome game she was playing. In every route she gets a horrible ending or death, so she tries desperately not to trigger any of her death flags. The main character has no self awareness but it's a fun read nonetheless. -Desuwa Common Sense of a Duke’s Daughter Hasn't been updated in a while, but still a fun read. Good world building, with political and economic shenanigans going on. Summary is: person gets reincarnated into the antagonist of an otome game at the end of a route, then proceed to build up social infrastructure using her knowledge of bureaucracy. Haters get pooped on from up high. -jwang Demon Girl ~Tale of a Lax Demon~ A human reincarnates as a demon who then reincarnates as a human. Now she's not really sure if she's really human or a demon but she doesn't want to be found out but can't avoid standing out and attracting attention. A fairly relaxing read. -Desuwa Ascendance of a Bookworm The protagonist, a serious bookworm, dies in an ironic book-related accident and is reincarnated into the body of a very frail six-year-old girl, whose parents are very poor. When she searches for books to read and finds that the literacy rate is abysmal and books are expensive and rare, she tries (and repeatedly fails) to make her own books using the scant resources she has available. A twist on the "person with lots of modern knowledge gets sent to medieval times" setup, with a fairly realistic take on how applicable modern-day knowledge actually is. -blastron Everyone Is Either Playing Or Stuck In A Virtual Reality MMORPG The technological equivalent of the reincarnation trope. The main character(s) are playing a fully-immersive virtual reality MMO. Sometimes they get stuck and can't get out. Sometimes the only thing distinguishing these from reincarnation stories is the prologue. Only Sense Online is a chill webnovel where a responsible high schooler plays a VRMMO with his friends. He likes to craft things and generally have a good time exploring the game. Nothing too dramatic happens besides the game progression. There's a poorly realized gender bender side plot with the protagonist, but it's inconsequential so you can mostly ignore it. I recommend it if you want something completely divorced from power levels, drama, and unsavory web novel elements. It has a fun element of "what could MMO game design look like if VR was extremely good?" -brainwrinkle VR MMO stories got popular thanks to Sword Art Online, but by and large they're awful overdramatic messes based on MMOs so poorly designed you have to assume the developers were completely drunk. Enter Only Sense Online, a story that is just about some people playing a cool game. They don't get trapped in it. They're not crazed weirdoes with no lives outside of it. And they most certainly do not die in real life if they die in the game. OSO is a relaxed story centering on Shun, a dude so pretty that the game's automatic avatar creator actually thought he was a girl and made his character female. "Yun" proceeds to meet new people, mess around with a highly detailed crafting system, and in general actually have fun. OSO's strong suit is that it never forgets it is telling a story about a MMO. There is almost no drama, nobody is a mustache-twirling villain, the world does not revolve around the MC, and most of all the game actually sounds pretty fun. Oh and I guess there's this idea that Yun assembles lovely skills and somehow turns them into an overpowered as gently caress setup but we're eight volumes in and none of that has happened at all. It (and the gender bending) mostly seems to be there just to attract people who like that sort of thing. -BlitzBlast A Certain Middle-Aged Man’s VRMMO Activity Log It's not OSO, but at least <important> things aren't on the line here, nor is anyone stuck in Tron. Just a guy having fun and chilling in an MMO. May contain too much Sue for some to handle. -jwang Overlord Tells the story of Momonga, a friendless man who's spent a third of his salary on a free-to-play virtual reality MMORPG for the past decade, proudly building a massive guild fortress with his 40 companions, painstakingly customizing guardian NPCs and tweaking textures to make it as imposing as possible to rival guilds. However, the days of this particular MMO's popularity are long gone, and the company running it has announced complete shutdown. On the final eve of service, Momonga walks alone in the silent halls of the once bustling dungeon, waxing nostalgic over memories past. As the clock rolls over midnight, he closes his eyes and ... discovers that the game has turned into reality. Has its own thread, an anime, a manga, and official LN translations. -Desuwa Fantasy World, Except Somehow Nobody There Is From Modern Japan Sometimes these actually happen. Sometimes, they're even good. The Girl Who Ate Death A starving farm girl takes a bite out of the Reaper that came to claim her soul, and becomes something inhuman. Seeking revenge against the rebels who burned her village, she comes to serve in the army of the corrupt and incompetent Kingdom as it is ripped apart by civil war. Unstoppable and unkillable, she stalks the battlefield in search of her next meal. -Avulsion Ze Tian Ji Dying of an incurable illness, a young monk comes to the big city to find a miracle, and to annul the marriage that was arranged by his Teacher. Before he can state his intentions, he finds himself swept up by court politics. His naive and straightforward nature inspires paranoia and suspicion, his stoicism in the face of his inevitable death is mistaken for machiavellian cunning. Surrounded by powers he cannot imagine, embroiled in plots he does not understand, he is a pawn mistaken for a king. -Avulsion Sevens Once a child prodigy, Lyle Walt's life turns for the worse when his sister Celes suddenly becomes the apple of everyone's eye. Fast forward a few years of isolation in his own house, and Lye is stripped of his status as the heir and thrown out of his family. But before he leaves, one of the servants gives him a family heirloom. Much to his surprise, it turns out to contain the consciousnesses of the first seven heads of his family! With their advice guiding him and their abilities empowering him, Lyle starts a new life... that ultimately sets him against his sister again. I'm mostly only recommending this because it's a decent baseline for stories set in a fantasy world with RPG mechanics as a whole. The MC starts off weak but gets strong, he attracts girls like crazy, everyone he runs into thinks he sucks at first but then realize he's cool, etc. A lot of stories have done the concept better, but even more have done the concept worse. If you just want to try a long runner, then you could do a lot worse. -BlitzBlast Chinese Martial Artists Murder Each Other A Lot Surprisingly, there's also a ton of Chinese web novels that get translated into English as well, almost entirely from the wuxia/xianxia genres. (Think Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but with rapidly increasing power levels and way fewer nice people.) I Shall Seal The Heavens! is mostly a standard wuxia cultivation story. However, the big difference is that the protagonist sometimes gets into absurd and amusing shenanigans where he cons every arrogant spoiled cultivator that crosses his path. Those parts are very good! However, the rest of the wn which is mostly about how he becomes stronger and then astonishes the people he fights are somewhat tedious. I think the good parts more than make up for the mediocre parts, but some people here disagree. -gimme the GOD drat candy My Disciple Died Yet Again is about a programmer whose mind is transported to a wuxia setting where she is expected to debug the problems created by genre-standard psychotic cultivators, except she keeps dying. It is mostly dedicated to taking the piss out of many common wuxia tropes involving the exaltation of incredibly brutal, treacherous and all-around evil protagonists. -gimme the GOD drat candy World of Cultivation Amnesic and disfigured by unknown magics, our protagonist has no ambitions beyond becoming a licensed Spirit Farmer, tending to his fields, growing rich and living peacefully. Unfortunately, a chance encounter leaves him with a head full of ancient knowledge and a mild case of demonic possession. Mistaken for a cultivation genius, he is forced to leave his peaceful life behind and reluctantly learn the way of the sword. Driven only by greed and survival instincts, he stumbles head first into a life of fame, power, and unrelenting danger. -Avulsion A Thought Through Eternity A coward pursues immortality in order to escape death. Unfortunately for him, all the other immortals seem to be obsessed with fighting and killing. Relying only on his cunning instincts and driven by his constant terror he will become the strongest man in the world, if only so he can run away faster. -Avulsion English-language web fiction Tired of lovely machine-translated prose? There are plenty of English-speaking writers putting out the same kind of trash you'll find on NovelUpdates. Now you can read prose that has no excuse for being so lovely! There's a thread in TBB for these. blastron fucked around with this message at 01:32 on Aug 25, 2017 |
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Oct 4, 2016 19:56
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blastron posted:Many popular anime, such as A Certain Magical Index, Sword Art Online, Konosuba!, and Re:Zero, were adapted from light novel sources. Could've at least included a KonoSuba link!!! Gifting this Wonderful World with Blessings! Kazuma, just an ordinary teenage boy, is run over by a truck while trying to save a girl's life. He meets a goddess in the afterlife, who asks him to help save another world. Kazuma accepts, and the goddess follows him to this new (video game like!) world. Starting off as an ordinary adventurer, Kazuma assembles a party of beauties and begins his quest to save the world from the Demon Lord! Hahahahahahaha just kidding, that's not what happens at all. Konosuba is the story of two douchebags meeting, screwing each other over, and then attracting two weirdoes into one dysfunctional as hell party who somehow manage to save the day in spite of themselves. It is the epitome of a story not taking itself seriously, and is overall a complete blast to read. Or watch, since it got a very nice anime! I'm actually kinda mixed on recommending this as a starter, because it is first and foremost a parody of the entire Reincarnated Into A Game genre. It is absolutely an excellent comedy on its own, with one of the best casts I have ever seen and a tight narrative (if something is mentioned, no matter how minor, it's probably going to come up later!), but I kinda feel like it's even better after you've flipped through a few other stories of its ilk first. KonoSuba has gotten successful enough to launch some spin-off series too. Gifting this Wonderful World with Explosions! covers fan favorite Megumin's adventures prior to her joining the party, and Consulting with this Masked Devil! is a one-off focusing on various side characters (and Aqua). Overall I'd heavily recommend Masked Devil, but Explosions falls flat for the first three volumes because it turns out removing 75% of the main cast kinda neuters the humor. The fourth volume is very good though!
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Oct 4, 2016 20:36
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While we're on first page, I just want to note that a large mass of the discussion in the previous thread made no sense until I read Wikipedia about the xianxia genre.
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Oct 4, 2016 20:52
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The only good light novel is bungaku shoujo
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Oct 4, 2016 21:49
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Really can't recommend ISSTH enough. It's a pretty fun and amusing read, even with the large amounts of ~~cut to astonishment for 3 chapters~~
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Oct 4, 2016 22:13
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rizzen posted:Really can't recommend ISSTH enough. It's a pretty fun and amusing read, even with the large amounts of ~~cut to astonishment for 3 chapters~~ Much as I dislike where ISSTH ended up going, the first several hundred chapters are admittedly quite fun, and that's still a loooot of good content Adelheid fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Oct 5, 2016 |
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Oct 5, 2016 00:06
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I think that if you read these web novels and you're an adult, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:17
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lol you play wow
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Oct 5, 2016 01:22
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Yea buddy take a look around, full steam ahead.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:24
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Pewdiepie posted:I think that if you read these web novels and you're an adult, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path. Fun police is here, all fun is now secured. Proceed with only seriousness and wipe that grin off your face. Also, movies, comics, anime, and video games are banned as well. Let's throw in non-fiction for good measure.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:25
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like, drat dude. i'm a broke-brain vet who likes anime and has read every translated chapter of mahouka, but at least i haven't sunk so low as to play wow in 2016.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:35
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:like, drat dude. i'm a broke-brain vet who likes anime and has read every translated chapter of mahouka, but at least i haven't sunk so low as to play wow in 2016. Its neither here nor there but I play World of Warcraft casually as a way to connect with my friends who moved out of town.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:43
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I think that if you play wow and it is 2016, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path.
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Oct 5, 2016 01:47
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Pewdiepie posted:I think that if you read these web novels and you're an adult, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path. I think you should chill the hell out Jake
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Oct 5, 2016 01:51
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i read web novels casually as a way to connect to my friends, who all were run over by a series of trucks in high school and are now trapped in various mmos
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Oct 5, 2016 02:21
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Web novels are almost universally schlocky trash and that's exactly what I want sometimes.
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Oct 5, 2016 02:32
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For me, I use web novels to comprehend the Great Dao of Web Novels. Soon I will form my nascent soul of wish fulfillment.
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Oct 5, 2016 03:29
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Stexils posted:i read web novels casually as a way to connect to my friends, who all were run over by a series of trucks in high school and are now trapped in various mmos
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Oct 5, 2016 03:53
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Pewdiepie posted:I think that if you read these web novels and you're an adult, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path. let's all avoid liking things that are in the least bit embarrassing, here in the anime forum
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Oct 5, 2016 04:50
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Anil Dasharez0ne posted:let's all avoid liking things that are in the least bit embarrassing, here in the anime forum if you about to say anime is embarrassing you're about to be in for a world of hurt. 
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Oct 5, 2016 04:56
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Anil Dasharez0ne posted:let's all avoid liking things that are in the least bit embarrassing, here in the anime forum anime is good and cool
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Oct 5, 2016 04:58
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i read web novels casually as a way to connect to my friends, who all were a series of trucks in high school and are now running over Japanese teenagers
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Oct 5, 2016 05:11
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I read web novels to remind myself why I still belief in Buddhist principles. Mostly involving hatred towards mobsters, thugs, crime lords and psychopathic old men in young boys' bodies fondling underage women as trophy concubines.
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Oct 5, 2016 05:26
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I read web novels because I hate myself and the english language.
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Oct 5, 2016 05:49
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Pewdiepie posted:I think that if you read these web novels and you're an adult, you should take a step back and critically re-evaluate the life choices that led you down this path. This, except the novel about Meng Hao the taoist fucker which is for epic sirs.
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Oct 5, 2016 05:57
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BlitzBlast posted:I read web novels because I hate myself and the english language. 
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Oct 5, 2016 06:09
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I read webnovels because im a giant nerd, and one that really likes the reincarnated as a monster perspective. Overlord got me into the genre and Kumoko showed how awesome it can be to get a different perspective.
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Oct 5, 2016 07:59
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y'all have such noble thoughts. my secret is that i love garbage, and also that i love to devour garbage
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Oct 5, 2016 08:09
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My secret is that I am garbage. That's right, I am a Japanese Web Novel. I contain gratuitous amounts of slavery.
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Oct 5, 2016 10:20
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Pls don't troll my friend, Pewdiepie, for having bad opinions
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Oct 5, 2016 10:23
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I finally decided to just cut to the chase and skim through the rest of Sevens in Japanese, and can pretty confidently say at this point that it's... a 7/10.  The story's biggest problem is Celes. She never rises above being the most generic "humanity is awful" antagonist imaginable, and her motivation is extraordinarily weak: she started hating everyone because they paid more attention to Lyle than her. Like seriously, that's it. She pretty much just exists in the background for 17/18 volumes, and even though the story tries to build her up as this horrifying monster I just didn't give a poo poo. Lyle's confrontation with his father was far more enthralling in my opinion. And hell, I think even the author realizes how nothing Celes was, because she's unceremoniously defeated a third of the way through the final battle so Agrissa can come out. That ties into my other problem: the finale was weak. It's very cathartic, since all of the Ancestors and other important side characters come back and get to do things again, but the end result is that Agrissa comes off as kinda pathetic. Like there's this long bit where Lyle reveals his final skill (Sevens, because title drop), and then she literally just floats there and listens to several long conversations. She's not even the real final boss: that ends up being Novem. And I'll admit that fight was funny because it's basically an incredibly overdramatic lovers spat, but it only served to make the finale feel even less tense. There's a nice assortment of bonus chapters that take place after the end (most shining a spotlight on one particular girl), and even a sorta teaser that takes place far in the future. They were better than volume 18 in my opinion, which to me pretty much means that Sevens was better at being romantic comedy than a drama. Though I was really disappointed that the Ancestors Biographies only went up to the Fifth, and that there was never a proper discussion of Lyle's skills because I still have no idea what the gently caress Sevens was supposed to do (It forcefully turned him into mr lyle? It summoned the spirits of the Ancestors? It gave him the power of Septem?).
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Oct 5, 2016 10:30
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Ze TIan Ji, or Way of Choices, is the only one of all these stories with actually good prose, something evident despite the shoddy translation. The characters are also complex and mostly three-dimensional, the protagonist is very likable and a good person and the world-building is fantastic. Even the fights, which are rarer than most novels of its kind, are usually interesting to read and not the usual xianxia crap. tldr, Ze Tian Ji is written like an actual fantasy novel and more people should read it.
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Oct 5, 2016 10:31
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Sharkopath posted:if you about to say anime is embarrassing you're about to be in for a world of hurt.
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Oct 5, 2016 10:49
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i leik anime and im an embarassment to myself and all my family and peers
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Oct 5, 2016 15:38
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Neurophage posted:Ze TIan Ji, or Way of Choices, is the only one of all these stories with actually good prose, something evident despite the shoddy translation. The characters are also complex and mostly three-dimensional, the protagonist is very likable and a good person and the world-building is fantastic. Even the fights, which are rarer than most novels of its kind, are usually interesting to read and not the usual xianxia crap. I should get on the Chinese version after I get caught up with my lovely WNs.
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Oct 5, 2016 16:26
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I love anime... and I vote!!
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Oct 5, 2016 17:20
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I like the spider LN because the author knows that the thing people reading these novels care about isnt plot, or characterization, or setting, or anything like that, what matters is skill progression and builds.
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Oct 5, 2016 22:15
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Meme Emulator posted:I like the spider LN because the author knows that the thing people reading these novels care about isnt plot, or characterization, or setting, or anything like that, what matters is skill progression and builds. nah, that is only true until kumoko gets out of the labyrinth. there have been exceedingly few stat sheets lately.
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Oct 5, 2016 22:28
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How could I ever overcome my disgust of spiders enough to read this? Gross!
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Oct 5, 2016 22:41
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Jackard posted:How could I ever overcome my disgust of spiders enough to read this? Gross! i dunno, maybe try reading a few chapters of the manga? they do a pretty good job of de-horrorfying a giant spider eating a bunch of weird bugs and animals.
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Oct 5, 2016 22:53
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