|
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  on a physical copy from amazon.jp so take that however you like.
|
#
¿
Jan 14, 2015 21:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:46 |
|
|
BlitzBlast posted:Surprisingly, he actually kept maintaining paternal distance for all 200+ of the current translated chapters, barring that one time he was explicitly hosed in the head. Go go being so bitter and crazed you can't conceive of normal relationships. There's apparently like 360 chapters though, and the story's really clearly telegraphing that he'll probably stay behind with the Totally-An-Adult-I-Swear tanuki girl as a new mayor or something. Yeah it's kind of surprising how it avoids the whole romance angle for so long (at least through the 100~ chapters I read before I gave up) but then you consider that Naofumi's whole character is pretty much 'I hate women  (unless they are literally my slaves)' and it's ...less surprising. And more disturbing. Well for me anyway the whole central premise made me a bit too uncomfortable after a while to justify wading through the shoddy translations.Trip report: I read Overlord thanks to this thread, hell of a ride. The first few chapters were almost touching, with MC waxing philosophical about MMORPG blues. And then he literally becomes an evil overlord in control of a demon army and stuff which is not a side of the story you see written from very often which is pretty cool. I'll keep an eye on that one, hope it stays good / gets better - but not holding my breath.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2015 01:35
|
|
|
How does the thread feel about OLNs? I picked up Daybreak on Hyperion recently and was astounded by the translation quality only to later realize it was released in English originally  . The writing is pretty good considering it's some translators hobby project and I enjoyed the story quite a bit. The story itself seems kind of cringeworthy at a glance the main character is basically a dude summoned to another world and ALSO turned into a chick but it completely sidesteps most of that particular genre's typical conventions and the change is mostly played to make him feel even more miserable in an unknown land, it's pretty much the most tastefully I've ever seen gender-bending written. But why wade through that poo poo in the first place? Even if it's 'sort-of-alright' poo poo, it's still nasty to step in right? Well yea, but all that takes a backseat to the authors real passion - which is writing about high fantasy medieval warfare, pretty much everything written about is either feudal political shenanigans, set-up for feudal political shenanigans, or magical medieval armies murdering each other while the main character inserts himself from time to time with his modern perspective (he's some sort of war-history buff).I dunno I had fun reading it but then felt kind of dirty when I found out it was probably closer to fan-fiction than literature considering it's an original English light novel... but what the hell it's not like light novels are particularly dignified to begin with 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2015 14:52
|
|
|
Endorph posted:Original English Light Novel? I think we call those... novels. Haha, yea I know right? But it's up over on baka-tsuki and that's how the author is branding it because it's some sort of fan-translator hobby project as far as I can tell. Also format and content are light novel-ish ...but you're completely right which is why I wasn't 100% sure it was appropriate to post - a friend passed it to me without letting me know it was English original and it was up on bt so I just assumed... 
|
|
#
¿
Jan 18, 2015 18:58
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:Why can't it be both? The only people who bother to publish edgelord poo poo are either cynically riding the trend or legitimately believe their derivative schlock is some great work of literature. Unwarranted arrogance by the writer neatly explains your problems with it. I started reading Arifureta due to this thread and personally I think it's just a lack of skill in the writing department exacerbated by a breakneck release schedule without much of an overall vision for the story. Somewhere halfway through volume 3 there's an author's note where he says Poorly translated author's note posted:Now then, it’s the starting of the 2nd chapter. All that said I've only read through volume three and the translation quality took a bit of a nosedive so maybe something is getting lost in translation.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 1, 2015 15:32
|
|
|
Desuwa posted:Overlord volume 3 chapter 2 is completely translated. That explains the stinger at the end of volume 2, and actually sets up a nice plot. I thought that development was kind of bullshit actually I mean Momonga and crew just plow over everything to that point like really plow, nothing any of the characters has encountered thus far has even come close to the least of their powers, I mean like 5 minutes earlier they spent half a chapter talking about how this warrior was at 'the peak of human power' and he unloads everything he's got at Shalltear and she doesn't even realize he's anything special. Stops him with a finger. I mean when every enemy any of the characters has thus far encountered has completely and totally been unable to do anything and then some rando with a staff pops up and mind-controls a vampire... I dunno maybe it'll turn out to be some highly specialized item for controlling undead but it just seems lame as hell. Well, maybe that's just me not wanting anyone from team Momonga to die though. 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2015 18:37
|
|
|
Desuwa posted:Yeah that actually did bother me too. I gave it a pass because they said it was the big god-given artifact from the theocracy. I'll let it play out a bit, but Shalltear is probably the only character from team Momonga that I'm neutral towards whether she survives or not. She's pretty annoying and petty, I'd also be fine if she gets rescued from the brainwashing and mellows out a little. Yea you can't say the author didn't lay out bright flashing warning signs but I figured(hoped) it would just turn out to be Momo being paranoid forever. In any case I'm glad this thread turned me on to Overlord, no matter how it shakes out it's bound to be interesting. Personally I'm hoping Shalltear gets rescued and Momonga lays down some serious lich lord smackdown on the puny humans who dared to cross The Great Tomb. Just have to resist the urge to claw my eyes and/or check the skythewood site every 5 minutes while waiting for the translation. 
|
|
#
¿
Feb 20, 2015 21:15
|
|
|
Desuwa posted:I feel like half of these could save two volumes in aggregate if they just cut out the boilerplate adventurer's guild explanations. It's pretty terrible that I know exactly what you're talking about with the whole 'generic' light novel fantasy setting. The whole concept of adventurer's guilds and the like in fantasy is a bit... But then as a person who actually reads the poo poo from time to time I can't hold my nose too high. Though the one I've been reading most recently, Grimgal, has a very *unique* take on the genre while simultaneously not really stepping outside of the dumb adventurer guild and 'skills' and other bullshit tropes hardly at all. It just plays it a whole lot more seriously. I've only gotten like halfway through the first 'level' (volume? unno) and the tone gets surprisingly bleak and dark for what is typically really lighthearted fare - and not in that creepy way a lot of LNs do 'dark'. What springs to mind is in the party one guy chooses a 'death knight' class and so to advance his abilities he has to cut off ears or something ( can't remember the exact mechanic) but it has all the other characters commenting on what a loving psychopath it makes him out to be, because actually removing the ear from a corpse is a lot more hosed up than right clicking pixels or whatever. It's interesting for a light novel.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 25, 2015 21:41
|
|
|
Recently blitzed through Destruction Flag Otome and found it highly amusing so I thought I'd plug it here. Another 'reincarnated into a game, as the villan' setting but it's set apart by a number of things; for one it's complete (well it's getting a light novelization so maybe more some day) but it has a complete and fully translated story as is. Also it's pretty drat funny, at least in my opinion, though the comedy pretty much all revolves around the main character being an idiot (toy snake subplot...) for a tiny synopsis basically the main character reincarnates as a villain in an otome game (one girl picks from a bunch of guys type game) and the story is about her struggle to avoid the titular destruction flags she vaguely remembers from the game. It can be a bit weird I guess with all the talk of engagements and whatnot between like, 10 year olds, but really the whole romance aspect pretty much completely sidelined for comedy. So yea it's a good way to kill a couple hours.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2015 08:17
|
|
|
Fleve posted:That just doesn't feel very satisfying. Unlike for example 'Kumo desu ga', where the main character does get increasingly overpowered, but the amount of thought, consideration, and effort going into everything makes it feel so much more earned, and there's some actual tension because the enemies are a constant threat. New powers aren't just 'I hit faster/stronger', but involve a lot of tactics and make combat fun to read. And insane monster girl's inner monologue is surprisingly amusing and cute. Oh man I'm glad you mentioned Kumo Desu ga, Nani Ka it's loving great fun, doesn't get talked up nearly enough itt. The translation is kind of shoddy, but I don't feel like it hinders understanding too much, considering the content, and considering the crazy rate they're pumping it out it's understandable. Can't comment on MLS or Xian Ni, I just can't seem to get into these Chinese LNs, especially the ones that already have like a million chapters up and translated...
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2015 13:47
|
|
|
Algid posted:The guy translating it doesn't have that good a grasp of Japanese or English, pretty sure he uses some form of machine translation and then edits it. The author also pumps out multiple chapters a day and there's a lot of foreshadowing just with how the story is structured. Even the prologue chapter has stuff that hints at where the story is going. Yea I sort of feel like we might be missing important bits due to the quality of the translation but as long as it's just a spider running around doing spider things in a cave the gist of it get's across. It sort of falls apart in the side story bits where it's a barely understandable mess of poorly translated medieval politics or something which is a shame. At least the spider doing spider things bits are fun to read.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2015 14:44
|
|
|
It's incredibly confusing to me how someone who speaks neither Japanese nor English fluently ends up translating JP > EN as a hobby. I mean I'm grateful it just seems weird as hell... or is that just me?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 14, 2015 18:35
|
|
|
Anyone else reading Overlord every Saturday? That twist regarding Albedo's characterization at the end of today's chapter caught me by surprise. Also just a generally good chapter all around, feels like the author is setting up all sorts of tension in-between the various residents of Nazarick, will be cool to see how it all plays out. E: oh link I guess...
|
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2015 17:50
|
|
|
Serious Frolicking posted:Albedo was specifically set to love Momonga. So, she might not give a drat about the old guild any more, much less Ains' attempts at spreading its name. Remember, he burned the Momonga banner when he changed his name. Yea, that's clearly the take away. Though I don't think it would be too much of a stretch to think love for Momonga would extend to supporting his endeavors but we gotta have that sweet infighting to pad out the volumes. e: though honestly it'll be cool if we get something other than stupid sex jokes out of the Albedo segments, so, net gain? sunken fleet fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Aug 15, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 15, 2015 19:41
|
|
|
New chapter of Overlord again. The cliff hanger is real. Demiurge is such a badass  Gonna be Shalltear and Brain round 2 I'll bet. Actually lotta powerful people gonna get wrecked in general I imagine, can't wait to see how it plays out. Also finally a competent floor master in charge of a large scale operation, maybe we'll finally get to see The Great Tomb's competent side. Also they released the entire second drama CD which is like an hour and a half long so I haven't got through it yet but that's cool right? e: chapter 8 out too sunken fleet fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Aug 22, 2015 |
|
#
¿
Aug 22, 2015 17:08
|
|
|
darkgray posted:Thought I'd inform you that there's a new reincarnation web novel that's popular in town -- Tensei Shitara Slime datta Ken. From a couple pages back but I read this cause I was bored and it was linked in this thread (well, read to the current translations) and I dunno I feel some really weird cultural dissonance or some poo poo. The main character is a slime, and is explained as a predator, like eats other things to get stronger predator, but the novel just constantly entirely skirts around death of any sort. Which is cool, not every story has to be monsters grimly chowing down on each other and exploding each other with ultimate techniques or whatever - if the author wants to tell a light-hearted story more power to him. The main character gets increasingly powerful throughout the story without ever really having to 'dirty their hands' to use a dumb cliche. And the whole 'slime eats things to gain their form' is dropped pretty early on after he acquires like 5(?) forms (including a human form from a peron who wants to be eaten for reasons; read: author wants a human form but doesn't want a murderer MC) and the whole consumption angle is just a power-stealing mechanic from then on (like 'eat a guys hand > steal his powers') which is still pretty morbid but played in a very shounen type of way. And the whole story is constantly throwing around these massive numbers of monsters warring with each other and just being insanely optimistic (the army of 10k fights the army of 200k for 4 days and there are 0 casualties) I mean how else can you read that but the author not really wanting to write about any of the depressing poo poo an actual war entails - which again cool whatever. Then at a certain point the slime is the head of a monster city and a human army is coming to purge them because racism so a group of fanatical humans goes into the city, declares war, and then kill 100 monsters while making their escape. In response MC loses their poo poo and singlehandedly massacres the 15000 humans that are en route to invade, just one-sidedly wipes them all out from the sky before they're even aware they are being attacked. Then through some shounen mumbo-jumbo he powers up and resurrects all the monsters the bad humans killed and the novel takes a little break to jerk itself off with some torture porn involving the king of the human army and the group of fanatics who killed the subsequently resurrected monsters. It's just so loving weird. Like the novel is clearly written so as to say that the MCs actions are perfectly justified and not at all morally reprehensible and.... Ugh it made the thing no fun to read after that, like I can deal with light hearted and fun monster, I can deal with spooky evil monster but the whole 'I just genocided some folks, but I'm STILL the good guy, promise' type monster is just weird as hell. Like playing all these shounen tropes (power of friendship type stuff) completely straight all the time with a brief detour down genocide lane is just odd and uncomfortable. Anyone else read this poo poo? I'm not crazy right? That was some weird as hell tonal dissonance wasn't it?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2015 14:51
|
|
|
Silver2195 posted:Haven't read it, but I'm a little confused. How is killing the soldiers of an invading army genocide? Well I guess it's not technically. But the army is marching toward the monster town, and our hero descends from the heavens and murders all of them in like a minute flat - so genocide might be too strong a word but it's clearly slaughtering a bunch of people completely unnecessarily since they haven't the tiniest hope of fighting back or posing any threat at all to the monster side. It's just the extremely self-congratulatory tone that bugged me I guess like I'm the good guy meting out justice from someone who just killed a bunch of people with no ability to defend themselves (except the ones he spares to torture). Maybe it's just me but I felt like that made him at least as bad as the people he was fighting 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 30, 2015 15:10
|
|
|
Cake Attack posted:i think it's more that web and light novels are scraping the absolute bottom of the barrel as far as literature goes Well this is the anime forum after all. 
|
|
#
¿
Aug 31, 2015 13:18
|
|
|
HiveCommander posted:Mushoku Tensei: Did we ever get trip reports on these in this thread? Since they're both mega-long and also completely translated at this point, did people think they were worth reading? I vaguely remember I started and dropped both of them months ago but since I notice they're complete now I'm wondering if they're worth going back and giving a read through? People were hype as gently caress for a while weren't they, but I don't see any recent discussion from this thread?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2015 15:21
|
|
|
Well that's unfortunate, you would think there would be some sort of merit just considering the sheer volume of stuff that had to be translated. Oh well.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2015 16:11
|
|
|
Captain_duck posted:Meanwhile kumoko finally Defeated the earth dragon alaba, the one that destroyed her nest way back. That was a pretty amazing battle. Yea the dragon powering up mid-fight and Kumoko's resulting indignation was pretty great. That's for protagonists!
|
|
#
¿
Sep 4, 2015 17:39
|
|
|
Desuwa posted:Got around to reading The Lazy King since someone mentioned it earlier. It was pretty good, short, and to the point. I rather liked it but there is one chapter of R15 stuff that feels a little out of place but isn't terribly creepy. It's a reincarnation story but that doesn't factor heavily into it. This is really great.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2015 16:51
|
|
|
Yasser Arafatwa posted:spider girl story is great, just started reading it earlier but i find myself scrolling past the non-spider chapters In one of the authors Q&A chapters he addresses this, it's pretty funny. quote:Q, S series is boring He's not lying they do tie together eventually. (I agree they're boring as gently caress though)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2015 16:39
|
|
|
So I noticed BakaTsuki coughed up like 3 volumes of Rakuin no Monshou recently and I remember vaguely enjoying the first volume... two volumes? like a year or two ago christ time flies haha. Curious if any of you guys here read this or know if it's worth reading? Anime takes on classic literature are always kind of interesting but I dunno if it's worth slogging through six volumes. My recollection is vaguely positive and apparently someone felt it was appropriate to put out 3 volumes this month so?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2016 08:24
|
|
|
Well I mean that thing people are talking about at the top of the page is literal pornography, complaining about it is like going to PornHub and complaining about the state of American television. Though admittedly the not-porn light novels are only marginally better most of the time. Annd since this thread is good for unsolicited recommendations I'd like to take a second to rave about The Girl Who Ate Death which is my favorite light novel I've read all year (apologies if it was brought up earlier when the translation was still ongoing in May) it's about war and shades of grey I guess? Not exactly treading new ground in fiction pointing out that the good guys are bad guys and the bad guys are good guys and mostly everyone fights wars legitimately convinced of their own righteousness but it's fairly well done I think. The story is tight and doesn't wander and meander the way a lot of web-novels do, felt the author had a story he wanted to tell, told it, and stopped when it was over - which is a bit of a rarity. There is some mildly interesting military tactics stuff, some vaguely supernatural magic stuff and Schera is a main character I couldn't help but root for throughout the whole story. All in all a really enjoyable experience to get out of a web-novel, really didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did when I started reading. Fair warning though; Schera and company and pretty firmly on the 'bad guy' side of things, I was trying to find something cool to quote and most everything was either spoilers or Schera coming across like a bloodthirsty psychopath, which she is I guess? But it works in the context of the story I think. Is there any sort of compilation of stuff the thread thinks highly of? The thread OP is a bit out of date and most recent discussion has been about Chinese stuff that I really don't generally care for (it sounds terrible but it's hard for me to get past the foreign names in Chinese and Korean stuff) but I've been on a webnovel binge lately because it's cheaper than my other hobbies. It's been a while since I found a really engrossing light novel though, it's a shame - maybe goons can help?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2016 00:39
|
|
|
darkgray posted:I have notoriously bad taste, so my personal favourites are probably of no use, but in case you didn't know, the author of The Girl Who Ate Death has a few other works as well: Thanks for this I wasn't aware of those actually, will defiantly read. And thanks for the various recommendations guys, I'm reading blastron's kumoko right now. I read the MTL up to chapter 50 or something ages ago but the translation is worlds better now - it's cool! E: quote:Then I leap! The centipede tenses up in fear, but it’s far too late! I spin it around and around, rolling it up in my silk, and then I go in for the kill! Chomp! Ahahaha! How do you like my new strategy, codenamed “look out, I’m right above you”?! I’d say it’s a pretty overwhelming success! Spider story is too much fun to read
sunken fleet fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Sep 20, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Sep 20, 2016 02:16
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 09:46 |
|
|
Desuwa posted:I subscribed to the RSS feed for the entire oniichanyamete site but that was definitely a mistake. I simply cannot follow this and it's worse than many MTLs. Plus I opened it without remembering which story it was and it turned out to be the ninja slavery one. That site used to have one translator that was really good, but then months back a bunch of other people were brought on board and the first guy disappeared and the whole site went to poo poo. I miss when it was better.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 23, 2016 03:18
|
|