/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Completed reading all available Hataraku Maou Sama! volumes a few days ago. Shit just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

I binge read Dungeon Defense yesterday. Was a very good read, pretty edgy but I like edgy.

Any opinions on 本好きの下剋上? Scaji seems to like it.

>>15973349
>that go match at the end
I'm curious how his relationship with the princess will go, considering he killed her in the first chapter.

>>15973349
Seems like this kind of "Dungeon something" is the new narrow evolution of LN fantasy genre, following the wide spread of isekai and narrow popularity of instructor MCs.

Anyway, is this actually good or just "being quickly machine translated from Chinese thus amassing some fanbase" good?

>>15973142
6 years since the last novel

quite a creative constipation that tanigawa has

Light novels are smaller than I expected.

Just finished pic related and decided to make a bookmeter to encourage reading more books. Anyone else use bookmeter to track LNs? I'm interested in stalking other weebs and picking up titles they've read since I'm new.

>>15974720
Yeah, I wonder how long they'd be in English format. I was surprised to finish a LN in only 2 days without trying too hard.

>>15974538
Yeah, but he says it's not the last one right?

>>15974813
I'd recommend stalking the meme cartel's bookmeters, but I'm sure you're already aware of them.

Why is the text in Japanese novels displayed vertically instead of horizontally?

>>15974942
That's how Japanese has historically been written. Horizontal only really came with the west and perhaps more importantly computers.

I read NHK a week ago and thought it was garbage.

>>15974830
yes, iirc in 2011 he said there would be one more book to conclude the series

Are LNs just something you have to be a richfag to get into? It really seems like pretty much everything that's even slightly old is dead torrent wise.

>>15974998
LNs are dirt cheap.

>>15975222
Dirt cheap is expensive for someone who's dirt poor. Anyone with money is a richfag!

Been reading Konosuba. Up to book six it's pretty good
Also picked up volume 1 of LotGH
Still about 60 pages in but the beginning reminds me of Asimov's Foundation series

>>15974538
He wrote himself into a hole. He'll probably try to get himself into a witness protection program and disappear.

>>15973142
I'm a /lit/ poster and I actually have all these on my Kindle. They probably could have been pretty popular if it hadn't been marketed as an anime first.

I've also been curious to try the Slayers novels (I hear they're dramatically different in tone from the anime) but can't find 'em. I don't think ebooks even exist.

>>15975238
I feel your pain.

S'why I bought a Kindle. If you're smart enough to pirate books instead of buying them, the overhead of ~$120 will save a ton of money.

>$110 for hard copies of Sahih Bukhari
Yeah, no Amazon, fuck off with that.

>>15975405
>If you're smart enough to pirate books
Like I said, everything old seems to be dead torrent wise. I'm not in any secret clubs.

There's a new site called j-novel.club which is putting out a bunch of lesser light novels (and Occultic;Nine) that just got announced...
Subscription and weekly releases then ebooks.

>>15975925
>Japanese light novels in English
>in English
Thanks but no thanks

>>15975942
>OP has a stack of english haruhi
>complains about english translated LNs

>>15973874
it has pretty much nothing to do with dungeons or defending dungeons

it's an isekai ln, the game-turned-reality is called dungeon defender hence the title. the beginning is your typical isekai opening - really generic with edge generally sprinkled around but when it gets past that it's better than most other isekai stories

to be honest, the mc scheming isn't something that would wow people. the more interesting part of dd for me is the relationship between the mc and his love interest

>>15973874
i forgot to mention it's apparently translated by a native speaker who is somehow better at english than his native gookspeak, so the quality of the prose is much better than the typical fan translation

Are there any major LN genres out there that aren't (inevitably harem-ish) romance or fantasy?

>>15976131
Death game doesn't seem inherently either of those.

>>15976131
Literally every genre that isn't those two?

>>15973142
>/lit/ doesn't want anything to do with these threads so i thought this was the right place to try and have a thread about Light Novels.
Yeah, both /a/ and /lit/ hate light novel discussion for whatever reason.

>OP pic
>mfw
It's a shame that Yen Press is a complete blight on light novels. Not only do whatever codes of style they have in place remove a good portion of what makes their novels quintessentially Japanese in the first place, but they also shut down translations efforts I actually care about as a result.

>>15976415
What code of styles about them do you not like?

I think I may have just found my LN waifu.

>>15976047
That's not OP

>>15976601
For instance, honorifics are genereally dropped. In Mahouka, Yen Press translated "Onii-sama" as "dear brother." I can't wait to see how they treat "aniue." Jokes are often localized (though this is slightly more understandable, I would prefer a literal translation with a footnote explaining the joke, but this is just personal preference). They remove terms like "tsundere," "NEET," and "hikkikomori," sanitize the more iffy parts of otaku culture, and overlocalize the source material to the point that most cultural reference are gone (can't wait to see how Yahari Ore turns out). In short, Yen Press publishes for people who aren't neccessarily fans of anime/light novels/manga and who don't neccessarily know the tropes involved. See pic related as an example of this mindset and the shitstorm they caused in trying to publishing S&W with that cover.

Yen Press's practices are especially egregious considering that many English manga publishers have come to terms with the fact that the people reading manga do so because they're cultural touchstones. Good manga publishers (like Seven Seas or Kodansha USA) will often leave honorifics intact or provide endnotes about jokes, untranslated phrases, cultural references and differences, etc.

Yen Press suffers from trying to make light novels something they're not. When I watch a foreign film or read a translated work of literature, I expect not to fully understand it. Why does Yen Press feel the need to localize light novels to the point of losing everything that made me want to read it in the first place?

>>15977783
>They remove terms like "tsundere," "NEET," and "hikkikomori,"
To what extent would you take this? It's always troubling deciding what terms to expect readers to know - gyaru and riajuu are two terms, for instance, that I know are somewhat popular, but I wouldn't expect the average reader to know. Are you suggesting by saying "you expect not to fully understand it", you would prefer untranslatable nouns to always be left intact even if the majority of readers will have to google what they mean? That kind of translation process reminds me of translations such as pic related which tend to be seen in a poor light.

>>15977783
>footnote
That would cause an aneurysm on most readers! Never overestimate your readers and try to treat them as intelligent beings.

>>15977783
>I would prefer a literal translation with a footnote explaining the joke
This actually blows my mind. Just learn Japanese.

>>15975925

>My Little Sister can Read Kanji

Jesus Christ the gooks are getting desperate.

>>15977869
What is this post even implying? You should read the synopsis.

>>15977797
Stuff like our pics are dumb, because it's arguable that there are effective English analogues. As for the terms I listed and "gyaruu" and "riajuu," you could concievably translate them, and I'd be okay with it, so long as a footnote about what the actual term was.

Obviously, though, the question become "where does it end?" What terms are okay to translate and what terms aren't? As in a lot of things, context is important. Tsundere, NEET, and riajuu, in particular, are terms that are ingrained in otaku culture. As in, you'd have a hard time explaining the tropes involved if you couldn't use those words.

In general, if you see novels as an outcropping of a specific subculture, then translating terms specific to those subcultures means you lose some sense of understanding of said subculture. It's like if I were to translate The Great Gatsby or other Jazz-age novel into a different language, but I couldn't use the term "WASP."

I would presume, even in American otaku culture, most of the people who would read a light novel would know what a tsundere is and how there's not a direct English translation. And even if they don't know what a raijuu is, that specific term is a cultural artifact--a loaded word, arguably important enough to warrant explanation via translator notes.

But you're right. Figuring out extent is hard. Translation is hard. I'm on the side that leans literalization vs. localization, but even I know it's not a position that can be fully supported.

>>15977841
I'm trying, senpai.

>>15977901
I see what you mean about how certain words are a fundamental part of the subculture, but what comes to mind in response to that is that not all LNs are directly concerned with the otaku subculture, and instead can just be seen as a neutral part of it. For example, the Haruhi Suzumiya series is clearly a very significant part of anime/otaku subculture, but the novels themselves are not particularly concerned with their position. They are loved by otaku, but they are not otaku themselves. For that reason, if otaku terminology casually appeared in Haruhi Suzumiya (for example, a side character shouting out "riajuu" or "tsundere" as a joke), translating it out wouldn't be that harmful to the book, because the novel isn't trying to be a part of the sub culture or trying to give understanding of the sub culture. It's just trying to be funny with a joke.

I think it's also important to recognize that light novels are read by all the teens of Japan, not just otaku. They're sold in open stores that all the high schoolers go through. The best selling light novels reach tens of millions. So, in your last bit there, you talk about someone in American otaku culture reading a light novel and recognizing the word. Well, a LN translation would ideally be read by not just otakus, but by all the teenagers and high schoolers of that area, just like they are in Japan.

That said, even though everyone reads them, their identity is indeed important to protect. I was reading a book about light novels earlier and there was a passage about how the largest determining factor of whether a random passerby buys a light novel is the cover illustration, and thus the illustrator is often as important as the writer. I tend to believe this because I read reviews for LNs on amazon.jp and at least half of them reference the cover art with many saying the bought it because of it. With that in mind, changing the Spice and Wolf cover to that of a 3DPD model instead of using (licensing perhaps?) the original cover illustration or something to that effect is pretty disgraceful for the LN culture itself.

By the way, I'm surprised to see you describing "riajuu" in the same tier of popularity as NEET. I didn't know it until I had been studying Japanese for over a year and don't see it in youtube weeb's romaji comments so I figured it wasn't that known.

>>15975399
https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%80%90%E5%90%88%E6%9C%AC%E7%89%88%E3%80%91%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%81%99%E3%81%BA%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%82%8B%EF%BC%8B%E3%81%99%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%85%E3%80%82%E3%80%80%E5%85%A835%E5%B7%BB-%E3%80%90%E5%90%88%E6%9C%AC%E7%89%88%E3%80%91%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA%E3%81%99%E3%81%BA%E3%81%97%E3%82%83%E3%82%8B%EF%BC%8B%E3%81%99%E3%81%BE%E3%81%A3%E3%81%97%E3%82%85%E3%80%82-%E5%AF%8C%E5%A3%AB%E8%A6%8B%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%82%A2%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E7%A5%9E%E5%9D%82-%E4%B8%80-ebook/dp/B00JPB80SY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1476628156&sr=8-3&keywords=%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A4%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA
All the books are on kindle though?

Anybody read Ben-to? I liked the ridiculousness of the anime, but I'm wondering if it blows the novelty of its gimmick at the beginning.

>>15977932
Yeah, I agree with pretty everything you've said. Ultimately, for me, a large part of it has to do with respect towards the source material and respect for the audience. I understand the business imperative to want to draw in a large market, but it's also pretty bad when a company like Yen Press tries to marginalize the most zealous LN fans in doing so. The same thing has been happening in video games for a while. It's why I respect companies like Atlus or XSEED and despise Nintendo of America, even though both can be pretty liberal in their translations, even to someone with rudimentary knowledge of Japanese like me.

>By the way, I'm surprised to see you describing "riajuu" in the same tier of popularity as NEET. I didn't know it until I had been studying Japanese for over a year and don't see it in youtube weeb's romaji comments so I figured it wasn't that known.
I only know it from reading Omae o Otaku and watching Netoge no Yome. The fact that I like both of those otaku-heavy titles could probably tell you a lot about what my tastes are like and why my opinions on translations are what they are.

Any nice series that already ended?
I like action, horror, mystery or comedy.

>>15973142
I'm so in love with every Haruhi suzumiya LN, bought the first two, then the next three, then the next five a year a go, and i was so into reading them i was gradually Quijoting my life up with them. I remember reading intrigues in one day, woke up at 7 with the urge to read it, went to sleep at 11 having read it. The Haruhi light novels are just vital to me. I reread the Disappearance time to time up to the reveal of Asakura. Love them so much.
The last three don't disappoint.

Can we expect a next LN to be released as Tanigawa said he was working on one or are the books just done?

>>15977869
Prequel is My little sister can read furigana

>>15977841
>just learn japanese
should've fucking thought of that, that's genius!
What about the ridiculous amount of kanji that i'm required to know to read even the most dumb and trivial LN?
Even once one knows grammar and sentence structure, Kanji is what stops people from "just learning japanese"

>>15979653
Maybe if you try to learn kanji individually, and not through vocabulary.
I just read a chapter of Kino no tabi with no problems after 10 months of study and not a second it related solely to isolated kanji study.

>>15979703
second of it dedicated*

>>15979653
Guy who knows Japanese here, kanji is really not that big of a deal. Maybe it stops people from starting due to the intimidation factor, but it doesn't stop people who are actually learning. I "finished" learning Kanji (i.e. learning all the jouyou and then some) after less than a year of studying. 11 months.If you learn 8~ a day in 11 months you'll know 2640, pretty much all you need. Easy peasy. Kanji is not hard at all once you get to it and keep at it. There's nothing about Japanese that is truly intimidating once you actually start except the sheer time investment, which is understandable. But that's a fear of time, not a fear of impossibility or difficulty.

>>15979756
Oh trust me, i've started, I'm keeping at it, I've done first two proficiency tests. I've been keeping at it for quite some time. I guess what keeps me from keeping a constant pace and remembering so many kanji is that i've been tackling other languages at the same time, but that's more of a humblebrag than an excuse.
I know vocab, i recognize kanji. Putting the two together + alternative reading is hell.
I guess practice is all I need.

>>15979769
I think what makes Japanese so challenging for most people is that they don't respect the time investment. It's really something you gotta put solid hours into every day without slack. Furthermore, you've got to do it in the right way. The idea of doing proficiency tests as a measure of kanji skill is a red flag, first of all. That implies unnaturally learning kanji to me. I think kanji can be unnecessarily scary or intimidating if you tackle them unnaturally and thus misunderstand how difficult they are to learn.

>>15977932
>By the way, I'm surprised to see you describing "riajuu" in the same tier of popularity as NEET. I didn't know it until I had been studying Japanese for over a year and don't see it in youtube weeb's romaji comments so I figured it wasn't that known.
I'm surprised by this. I feel like I've seen it disproportionally often.

>>15980221
Well, for full disclosure, I've only been consuming Japanese culture in Japanese for many years, it could have spread farther in the West during my absence.

>>15978032
I liked the Ben-To anime too, and it's what got me into the idea of LNs. Unfortunately the Ben-To LNs are sort of difficult (not a lot of dialogue), and my Japanese isn't close to being ready for them. There's one guy who started to translate the first volume but it's going very slowly or stalled.

Is there a place to get (raw) LN epub/pdf? If i buy from bookwalker will i be able to download it as an epub/pdf and read it using epub/pdf reader of my own choice?

>>15977818
This. I know a fujo who's been into anime for atleast 2 years. I've only been in for a year and she still doesn't know what a loli is.
>>15977783
>often leave honorifics intact or provide endnotes about jokes, untranslated phrases, cultural references and differences, etc.
I like this too

>>15981062
There is honestly no need to learn otaku terminology unless you're embedded in otaku culture yourself or intend to read works that are super self-aware about it.

>>15974720
Anon please, why the fuck do you think they're called Light Novels.

>>15980890
Just buy them from amazon and remove the drm.

>>15981781
Thought they meant light hearted stories.

>>15981781
They're definitely not called light novels because of their size. (I was referring to the actual size of the book)
People on Yahoo Japan seem to think this:
>どんな馬鹿でも読んで楽しめる軽い内容の
>軽い内容の、という意味

Does the latest Baccano volume finally finish up the arc or is it going to take another 10 years?

>>15982096
That isn't true, though, because Shuumatsu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABmatsu_Nani_Shitemasu_ka%3F_Isogashii_Desu_ka%3F_Sukutte_Moratte_Ii_Desu_ka%3F)) is a light novel. Now THAT's some content that isn't light, ha!
On Twitter I saw a Japanese author compare his novel, at one time it was published in a LN brand and another in a normal bunko format, you know. And the difference? Nothing really but the text formatting. Light novels have more line breaks and bunko have less. See pic related.

>>15982096
There are also some LNs published in a bigger size, but those are more expensive. Light Novel is nothing more than an marketing word anyway. It's mostly to convey that those are easy to pick up and read, since they are aimed at a younger audience. That's also why they are usually in 文庫本 format to keep the price low.

>>15982126
Yeah I've seen people say that it's incredibly difficult to really define what is meant by a 'light novel' nowadays.
The only near-consistent feature of the light novel is that there's probably going to be a cute girl on the cover.

>>15982144
You know, I was just reading a LN which was really meta bout LNs, and at one point that's pretty much the summary of what an LN is by the author.
The only "hard" definition I know is that there are LN brands, and if the novel isn't from an LN brand, it's not a LN. For example, Bakemonogatari has an anime girl on the cover, but isn't from a LN brand, so in Japan it's not called a light novel (even though Western wikipedia assumes it is, this is incorrect).

>>15982144
It's pretty easy actually when it's released on a Light Novel Label it's an LN if not it's not.

Is there a recommended LN chart/list?!

>>15982321
I'm interested too.
Problem is it'd have to be by someone who knows Japanese, for people who knows Japanese, otherwise it wouldn't be a "recommended LN" chart so much as a "here's all we got, god speed" chart

>>15982321
Just follow the obvious people on twitter if you want some inspiration what to read next.

>>15982352
If you mean "the meme cartel" as the "obvious" people, they don't read LNs much, and tend to not read what a lot of LNs fans actually would want to read.

>>15982371
There are a plenty of people on twitter who read and write about LNs, just follow those with similar taste is what I meant. Those 'meme cartel' people aren't the only ones who use twitter.

>tend to not read what a lot of LNs fans actually would want to read.
What does that even mean?

>>15982408
Well, you said "the obvious people", I can't think of many obvious LN people.
>What does that even mean?
They go after the canon, not the popularity. Like reading a 1995 cult hit from a mysterious author instead of the anime girl stuff most LN fans are after.

>>15981970
Well, the problem is i never used amazon and probably can't. Doesn't it need to register your address and cc? I mentioned bookwalker because it also accept webmoney (jp)

>>15982609
Yea, you would need a cc plus some fake japanese address for amazon.

>>15982433
I mean, if you want a recommendation based purely on popularity, then just look at the rankings on bookmeter/what's popular on amazon.
Makkusu also compiled a list of the 25 most popular light novels of all time on tanoshimi.

>>15982732
Recommendations not based on popularity, but rather, recommendations on which of the popular works are actually good.

>>15973142
>general
Maybe that's why.

>>15982784
It can't be helped, there's no LN board so it's either got to be LN general or a flood of individual LN threads that overwhelm other posts.

>>15974998
Check the daily japanese thread on /a/s guide in the op link. They have a pretty impressive collection

>>15977783
>They remove terms like "tsundere," "NEET," and "hikkikomori,".

Why the fuck would they remove english words? The japanese use NEET and it means the exact same thing, "Not in Education, Employment or Training".

https://twitter.com/a_kareno/status/788076336644431872
I should buy a kindle...

>>15974813
>Just finished pic related and decided to make a bookmeter to encourage reading more books. Anyone else use bookmeter to track LNs? I'm interested in stalking other weebs and picking up titles they've read since I'm new.

Just post your page?

>>15983247
http://bookmeter.com/u/714376

>>15983247
You mean you didn't instantly know it was Quof when he said he recently finished Imouto sae ireba ii?

>>15983257
Thanks, added you

>>15983147
Was also meant for
>>15978056
>>15977932

Seriously, removing NEET is just proving you're not good at your job as a editor.
Anyone thats watched the news about people being out of work should have heard it being said.

That said hikkimori and tsundere should soon become loanwords soon with how much they're used in english online.

>>15980257
I'd want to pick this up someday.

>>15982797
You mean making a specific thread about a specific topic? Who'd have thought!?!?
>>>/out/

>>15983520
LN thread is a specific thread about a specific topic...

>>15983302
NEET is more of a European/British term. I think few Americans outside of those who consume anime would know.

>>15983723
I had to go the hospital several times recently and whenever I had to fill in a sheet with my occupation I wrote "NEET". I always got asked what that meant.

>>15983723
This honestly, for some reason we don't have a specific word or acronym but everyone still hates them for the same reason.

I've used NEET in conversation before and nobody who wasn't also into /jp/ stuff knew what it was.

>>15983901
We have a lot of similar words thought.
Freeloader, Leech, Basketball American.

>>15983950
Yeah but people will also use those types of words to describe anyone who they think is enough of a loser. For example maybe you work part-time but people will still call you a leech because you live at home with a dead-end job; there's no universally accepted term that specifically means what NEET does.

This also probably factors into why a lot of (American) people on imageboards will misuse NEET even if they go to school or something, because there's no concrete "does none of those things" word in common use here, just a lot of adjectives that mean loser.

>>15983723
NEDs>NEETs

>>15974976
"You can wait a little while longer right?"

>>15975405
You have sahih bukhari pdfs in english?
please share

Dungeon Defense's author seems like a marxist

>>15986665
That light novel is so bad that it's good.
He is a leader known to the whole world for jewing the cure of the black pest, sleeping together with slaves and lowborns, and needlessly killing peasants just to instill fear. Now he will trick everybody into starting a class revolution, and he will maintain control of it!
It's like Martin Shkreli trying to play the role of Trotsky.

>>15974813
How did you find it? I'm tempted to give it a look simply because of kantoku's art, but I guess I'm also curious about the story/writing.

>>15993067
Vol1 was on nyaa.
>I'm tempted to give it a look simply because of kantoku's art
You and half of amazon.co.jp , so many reviews were prefixed with buying it because of the art. Felt weird. I can understand with VNs, but there's so little art in LNs... Well, it is good art.

>>15975394
At least it is not a case where the author did want to finish his series but he fucking died so we are forever stuck.

It's like watching a world die.

>>15993134
Sorry I phrased that badly. By 'how did you find it', I mean what are your thoughts on it?
As for the art, I'm just really shallow.

>>15993196
Oh, lol. It honestly wasn't bad, I had laughs and enjoyed the character interactions. The weirdest part of it was the lengthy descriptions given to beer, which was drunk frequently throughout the novel, and how the author would occasionally give lectures in the narration out of nowhere about LNs and random bits of culture. I didn't mind reading them though, so that's not a particular negative. The main problem with the novel is that it spends a good deal of time introducing the cast of characters, which is forgivable sense it's volume 1, but it really wasn't elegant about it.

With that out of the way, I do think it's important to note that the novel really embraces being lowbrow, a lot of the art is shots of the girls naked and it's definitely going for the harem vibe without a trace of subtly. When a nude girl is sniffing MC's underwear within 3 pages of her introduction (to the reader, not him) with a full page illustration of her youthful, bare body you know the novel isn't aiming for anything profound.

I haven't read Vol2 and don't really intend to for now, so I'm not sure if I should recommend the series, but as it stands, Vol1 is a good harem comedy to kill some time with. It's not boring, which may be the best praise for a light novel.

>tfw scene in a LN where someone reads 5 LN volumes in one day and it's played off as a normal thing
Ego hurt

>>15994316
Speed reading is an acquired skill, anon.

>>15994333
Yeah, but I read it coming off of feeling good about reading a normal LN in about a day or so, which made it sting.

>>15994316
I would assume that most natives who read a lot can do this. If you take longer than 90 minutes for a LN you're considered a slow reader.

>>15988493
This, it doesn't help he keeps adding bitches to his harem just to cause more bullshit and keep his rampant jackassery going.

Reading znt and struggling. I don't know why soo many people tell me I have to finish it when even the author couldn't.

My order from honto for Kino 20 came in today.

I have the hugest boner to this cover.

>>15993226
Unrelated but have you actually finished Rakuen?

>>15997093
I didn't 100% it because... well, looking at the time line, I suppose it was because Shura no Chikandou and Sen no Hatou both came out, I have no legitimate excuse. After going through those two, it was hard to get back into Rakuen because I had already rest most of it. I'll do the last bits sometime I'm sure.

>>15996948
That image is really blurry.

Started reading ゼロから始める魔法の書. I'm honestly surprised by how good the opening was, from the title (cough) and the booty shorts on the girl on the cover I had assumed it would be generic LN fare but it's actually been quite good so far. I hope the quality keeps up. The writing style alone is enough to keep me going so far, though.

希　ＬＮ

>>15998675
Honestly, can't fucking wait for reactions of people to this "light" novel.

>>15998812
Tbh I'd buy it if I still were in Japan, but ordering from the other side of the world isn't worth it.

What did Kastel-sama, a true connoisseur of modern media, Japanese or otherwise, mean by this?

>>15998675
Where do I lurk for LN uploads?

>>15999512
google, scans of new ln volumes are not hard to find.

>>15999512
Madokami.

>>15999418
We may never know. He seems to find writing coherent English sentences difficult.

>>15998531
It is 王道 fantasy, but yea it's pretty good for that.

>>15999418
That the people who read light novels in translated form tend to be idiots.

>>15998531
Is that Shimakaze on the cover?

>>15999805
same designer

>>15999664
>To avoid scope creep, madokami will no longer be accepting new raw uploads, as of 2016-06-06.
Well, that was worthless.

>>15999664
Is there enough raw LNs to be worth registering there?

>>15996948
Is that Unbreakable Machine-doll?

>TFW Qidian is a jewish filled shithole that wants all the shekels to do shit.
>TFW its complete shit but the easiest place to find new LN's/WN's to read

>>15998872
Uh, yeah it is. Just buy a ton of shit at once. I used to only make one or two big orders a year to make the shipping worth it. These days it's much more convenient to get LNs near release since I buy a new video game every 2-3 weeks from amazon.co.jp and I can just tack whatever books recently came out onto the order.

>>16001276
Don't go all Moogy on me, I'm not a PS4 owner.

>>16001307
I'm not either.

>>16001315
What games have you been buying recently?

>>16001276
Books are really heavy though. Even adding 4-5 cheap books makes shipping price heartbreaking.

>>16001925
Doesn't buying in sets make shipping much cheaper?

>>16001955
yes, especially amazon sets

>>15998872
Just buy the Kindle version when it's out?

>>16005216
I don't own a kindle.

>>16005249
Fix that then.

>>16005249
Amazon has Kindle apps for smartphones and tablets and I believe you can read Kindle books on PC/Mac as well.

>>16005249
Less than 50 euro second hand. Pirating lns and western books gets you your money back pretty quick

>>15974720
Well, most of them are.

>>16005916
What might that be?

>>16005979
Ten cents says Horizon

>>16006025
You're not much of a betting man are you?

>>16006037
What is even the point of having novels that large? I much prefer 150-300 pages depending on the stock it's printed on.

>>16006041
I don't know about nihon, but I read novels in English about that size (full set of A Song of Ice and Fire, about a thousand pages each) and it really is just that the narrative demands such length. Usually a novel will have a rough beginning and end plotted out, not necessarily a mini-arc but rather just a structure that's conducive to the pacing of the overall story. Perhaps ideally the books would just be linear progressing, uninfluenced by the gap of time and distance (both physical and mental) between each volume, but in reality each novel has to end at a proper point, begin on a proper point, and maintain its own pacing. Because of this, large stories like Horizon or ASOIAF have large volumes because the pacing demands it.

>>15973142
Are ASCII Mediaworks and MF Books releases considered part of LN?

>>15973349
This one is actually really fucking good.

>>16006096
That's fine, but books already have chapters. You can't tell me that they can't split up each book into three or four parts, even if they just call them part one, part two, etc.

Literally the only reason I read e-books for stuff like ASoIaF is because the books are a pain in the ass to read, not to mention transport.

Spice and Wolf for example has perfectly sized books.

>>16006244
>You can't tell me that they can't split up each book into three or four parts, even if they just call them part one, part two, etc.
They can do that but the resulting interbook pacing would be subpar.

>>16006247
>but the resulting interbook pacing would be subpar.

>>16006283
It's an advanced concept and one that largely has to do with the wait in between novels. To bring back the ASoIaF example, a book ending right before a major battle would be blueballing, so the book has to end after it, right? Or a book ending in the middle of a hotly explored mystery with no resolution with lead to the mystery's answer in the next volume being underwhelming since too many details have faded from one's mind. And so on and so on. With complex, lengthy stories the factors one must account for are very numerous, so ending stories later can't be helped.

>>16006314
I'm literally just talking about the size of the fucking book. The books are too damn big to read comfortably. They can release one at a time, or release a thousand at a time, I don't give a shit.

Literally. Just. The. Size. Of. The. Book.

Make. Them. Smaller.

>It's an advanced concept
Take your head out of your fucking ass for five fucking seconds and learn how to fucking read.

>>16006329
The idea of splitting up a single book into multiple parts to sell each part individually or into some weird pack is so outlandish I was assuming you meant sell the single book before it was completed as it was completed.

>>16006041
Books are usually most satisfying if they build up to a climax (a series of books generally have a series of climaxes working up towards the series climax).

Some stories need a lot of telling to reach a climax. They could cut the books down into smaller parts but then each part would be a less satisfying read on its own, which would especially be a problem if they released them separately.

>>16006345
>The idea of splitting up a single book into multiple parts to sell each part individually or into some weird pack is so outlandish
>some weird pack
>outlandish

Does the word "anthology" mean anything to you? People do literally exactly that all of the fucking time. Are you seriously fucking telling me that the idea of packaging text in a smaller format that is easier to read and transport is so foreign, so alien to you that you can't even begin to consider why someone would want to do it? Are you actually retarded?

>>16006377
Anthologies are of different books, not single books split into parts. A single book being sold as an anthology on it's own is outlandish, yes.

>>16006377
An anthology is a lot of little works bound into a single big work, not a big work broken up into a bunch of little works.

>>16006383
>An anthology is a lot of little works bound into a single big work
I thought he was referencing sets of a series, like "The X Anthology" containing books 1-10.

>>16006382
>>16006383
I don't even have anything for this

>>16006396
No publisher in history has ever waited for books 1-10 of the X anthology to come out before publishing them all at the same time.

>>16006529
It's just an example dude. Same deal for 1-3, 1-4, 1-5, and so on.

Not that any of this already matters because Kawakami's books are already split into parts.
>there will never be an OnC compilation
>there will never be a Horizon compilation
I want them to do it just because they can.
I would even buy it.

>>16006037
>removing the obis
angry_pepe.png

>>16006632
I remove them on everything.
Everything.
I take it off and throw it in the bin.
Even if I buy a book second hand and it has the obi still on it I throw it away.

>>16006582
You can get the entire Horizon set (23 books) for only 10k Yen on amazon.

>>16007627
I have the entire set. I just want them all in a single book as a laugh.

Anyone know if Novel0 novels get released on amazon or honto?

Want to read 警笛を鳴らせ、自由のために but its only available through kadokawa and as an ebook version.

>>15998675
the descrition sounds awful to be honest.
Fan of the writer but come on グルメ??

>>16006037
They really should put Kawakami's books on kindle.

>>16008678
Obstacle is available on Kindle at least

>>16006345
>The idea of splitting up a single book into multiple parts to sell each part individually or into some weird pack is so outlandish I was assuming you meant sell the single book before it was completed as it was completed.
You know the Lord of the Rings is literally this all three books were released the same day. It sold quite well

>>16010517
>For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955
?

>>16010531
My mistake. "The work was initially intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion, but this idea was dismissed by his publisher. For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955."
My misunderstanding doesn't affect the fact that this refutes >>16006345

>>16010544
Not in particular. A single case of something happening doesn't make it usual.

>>16010549
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-volume_novel
>The three-volume novel (sometimes three-Decker or triple Decker) was a standard form of publishing for British fiction during the nineteenth century. It was a significant stage in the development of the modern Western novel as a form of popular literature.
>Though the era of the three volume novel effectively ended in 1894, works were still on occasion printed in more than one volume in the 20th-century. Two of John Cowper Powys's novels, Wolf Solent (1929) and Owen Glendower (1940) were published, in a two volume edition, by Simon & Schuster in the USA.

The Lord of the Rings is a three-volume novel, rather than a trilogy, as Tolkien originally intended the work to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion, but this idea was dismissed by his publisher.[10][11] For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955.[10][12] The three volumes were entitled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.

Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami has written several books in this format, such as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and 1Q84. However, many translations of the novel, such as into English, combine the three volumes of these novels into a single book.

It was a recent example but it used to be quite popular

Are there any good primary/middle school level LNs or even story books in txt or html format? I need to word analyze them and use some for reading practice. But I can't search with Japanese. Thinking of the 'bunko' series from Kodansha.

>>16012246
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3463221

>>16010517
Lord of the Rings falls under >>16006370 where each part leads ends in a climax building towards the final climax.
So it is fine.

Imagine if the first book ended just as the Fellowship left Lothlorien. It would have been terrible. Too far from the Balrog and just before splitting of the Fellowship would have been a terrible place to stop it.

The story basically has to be structured in a way that you can split it sensibly, and not all are.

Bump

what are you reading?

>>16024137
Horizon 3A

>>16024137
Kumoko vol. 4

Has anyone read this? The summary on Amazon sounded pretty interesting and the art looks nice.

>>16024902
I too read LNs for the three pictures in 200 pages.

>>16024910
He also said the summary is interesting and the art just caught his eye, what are you even salty about?

>>16024936
Nothing, you?

>>16024902
Read first volume, it's similar to Kino but more lighthearted and not so thought provoking. Witch is cute.

>>16024950
Thanks man.

So how much is the regular book? How many volumes are there on average? How many pictures?

I don't know enough Japanese to understand LN but I've read the one about twin tails in English. The shit is retarded and the writing is not very skillful. I thought it was because of the translation.

Anyways, I liked it because it didn't have this stupid pretentious aura to it like most literature books in my country. I want to write something like this, maybe import the format and kind of the trend.

Any suggestions? Cool titles?

>>16028195
Learn japanese if you want to read them. None of your questions make sense they literally are just books marketed in a specific way and nothing more.

>>16028220
So asking for average price doesn't make sense when a product is marketed a certain way and for a certain demographic group with measurable purchasing power?

I guess someone needs better reading comprehension

>>16028268
Are you too dumb to open up amazon?

>>16028273
Prices are different online than offline most of the times. I get you have no information but it's OK, just stop pretending you do.

I mean if everything there is to know about this topic is on the internet somewhere and we all ask each other to just look for it, then what's the point of this thread anyway?

Maybe I should have specified, I'm trying to figure out the customer experience intended for these books. Is online shopping the best option really? I can imagine me having just read the first two volumes of a series, going to the bookstore only to find there's only the 4th and 5th volumes available. Have any of you experienced this problem? Have any of you been around the kiosk on the train station, figured out you have some loose change and purchased the 1st volume of a LN on impulse? Is this the kind of experience intended?

>>16028307
what i can tell you about the point of this thread, is that it is not to spoonfeed you pricing or distribution strategies

do your own homework, or try again but more subtly, kthxbye

>>16028307
If only the west had book series too... oh wait.

>>16028307
There's a core group of LN readers that buy series they are reading as they are published. Local book stores carry the most popular series, and yeah, they don't always carry every volume in a long series but it's not hard to order them.
That all changes for series older than 6-7 years, because like a lot of Japanese retail stuff, they go out of print. When that happens you will end up searching around used book shops to find it. But that's where amazon.co.jp independant sellers wil bundle old series up and sell them cheaply used. Prices range from 500-800 yen a volume for tanks, and 1200-1500 for larger format "novels".

>>16028195
>How many volumes are there on average?
There's no set amount but for successful series you can bet on there being more than ten.
>How many pictures?
Varies per book, again, It'd average out it around 1 every 20 pages or so. So 10 for 200 pages, 15 for 300, etc.
>The shit is retarded and the writing is not very skillful.
That's 50% the translator and 50% the books being written for teenage boys.
>I want to write something like this, maybe import the format and kind of the trend.
Like someone said, LNs are just books marketed in a specific way. LNs are just the young adult fiction you can find anywhere, with an added focus given to illustrations on the cover and on the inside. What draws so many people to LNs is the Japanese culture which pervades through them, so you won't have much like trying to import it. The only thing you could really important is the focus on illustration and the text formatting style (line break for every spoken sentence, break up paragraphs into individual lines when possible, first person perspective, etc).

LN threads always attract idiots like this when they go on too long.

>>16028628
>implying the west has good book series that arn't trope filled trash and crappy dime novel womens bathroom porn.

>>15976415
>Yeah, both /a/ and /lit/ hate light novel discussion for whatever reason.

/a/ is a pretty good place for light novels when the mods aren't deleting them, and those shitposters aren't constantly shitposting in them.

>>15973142
LNs are tricky because they generally are written like shit. You kind of have to find something in them because the text itself cannot carry the book. I keep reading Haruhi (fun school life), Baccano! (fun characters), Durarara!! (fun characters), Kino no Tabi (good atmosphere), Boogiebob Phantom (well-built mythos), R.O.D. (FUN), Ookami to koushinryou (fun first five books, then got incredibly boring, what the hell).

>>16033508
That's just young adult / genre fiction in general dude. The only time "text itself" carries books is in high literature.

>>16033508
You can say that about anything. Books, anime, movies, games etc, the majority of everything is always gonna be shit.

>>15974971
>>15975294
> NHK
> LotGH
NHK is a novel. LotGH is novel series. Not light novels.

>>16033562
LoGH is actually considered to be a light novel. I was surprised too but it's true.

>>16033593
Some books have been recategorized as light novels long after they came out. The term only started to be used in the 90s, but popular series like LoGH, Record of Lodoss War, Slayers, Juuni Kokuki, etc, are still popularly considered light novels.

>>16033712
The reason why LOGH is a surprise to me is because it has the "double box" (i.e. two vertical lines split in the middle to fit in more text per page) format which I don't see in LNs practically ever. That and of course the heavy non-standard content make me question why it's considered a light novel. But, it seems to be, so I'm not arguing.

I'm currently reading 砂糖菓子の弾丸は撃ちぬけない A Lollypop or A Bullet. It pushed me to finally get around to figuring out how to get the kobo's dictionary function to work on JP epubs converted from azw. Apparently all p tags need to have an "id" attribute defined (e.g. id="p1", id="p2", etc) in order for text highlighting to work. I'm not sure how widespread the issue is or why it occurs, but that attribute was missing from the handful of books I tested. Once I added the id attribute to each p tag (can be done en masse in calibre) text highlighting worked and I was able to use it to bring up the dictionary.

>>15996948
Any particular reason you bought 2015/03 and 2016/01-05 specifically?

>>16033869
I've never heard of this before so I looked it up and holy shit! It's from the writer of Gosick. Completely forgotten about that one.

How do you like it so far? And can I ask where you got the azw file from (and where you get text LN files in general from I guess, nyaa only has scans)?

>>16033933
>How do you like it so far?
I'm about halfway through and quite enjoying it so far, but I haven't read Gosick so I can't make any comparative statements. The lazy rural surroundings + escalating sense of foreboding combo is something I'm partial to and I think the story flows pretty well. It hasn't felt like a chore to slog through any parts so far.

>And can I ask where you got the azw file from (and where you get text LN files in general from I guess, nyaa only has scans)?
I actually just buy all the LNs I read these days, so I'm of no help there. A long time ago I used to get 青空文庫形式 versions off share/pd and convert them, but I'm not sure how viable that is anymore.

>>16034161
Ah gotcha. Well I'll throw it into my backlog anyway for when I decide to buy a batch of books since buying single ones is mega expensive shipping wise.
Looking forward to your thoughts when you're done with the book (and this thread is still up hopefully).

>>16034252
>since buying single ones is mega expensive shipping wise.
Why not opt for an ebook?

>>15996948
Does it have a world in there characters are traveling doing things or everything is mostly centered around school or similar single place?

>>15973794
>I'm curious how his relationship with the princess will go, considering he killed her in the first chapter.

No, that was someone else in the prologue.

if someone got me that book set for christmas i wouldn't be mad

This is the only one I own, currently.
I read the Baka-Tsuki one years before it came out too. That's actually where I get most of my LNs. I've been meaning to get through the Index series soon.
>sucks being an EOP huh dork
Yeah.

>>16034508
ebooks costing the same as a physical book just pains me. I can't justify it

>>16036375
Ah, I can understand that. If I didn't have physical storage issues I would probably feel the same way.

is there a way to tell when an ebook goes on sale / how long it's on sale for

>>15973142
>/lit/ doesn't want anything to do with these threads
Why?

>>16041038
Probably too different from their board culture. Light novel threads would attract folk from /a/ and most of the current residents wouldn't read the thread so yeah. It's kind of like a printed My Little Pony comic on /co/ - yeah, it fits on the board, but it'd attract /mlp/ people and not many /co/ regulars care for it. A tricky subject for sure.

>>16041038
Next to noone there can read japanese and translations tend to be garbage.

>>16028927
> Like someone said, LNs are just books marketed in a specific way.
Exactly, I love this marketing style.

>What draws so many people to LNs is the Japanese culture which pervades through them, so you won't have much like trying to import it.
I don't know how much of a Japanese man's DNA is perceived through reading printed text, but I guess you mean its history and yes it can be referenced (imported) just as many Japanese mangas reference American culture whilst still being "uniquely Japanese"

>The only thing you could really important is the focus on illustration
Exactly, I love this. I mean, children's books are purchased for their drawings and still considered mainly literature rather than a pictures book. LNs hold a place just between graphic novels and novellas.

>break up paragraphs into individual lines when possible
This would look terrible on English, though. The editor's standard is to have uniform block of text with as few gaps in between as possible(looking from a distance they look like rivers). This is not a problem in Japanese I guess, but I should ask a Japanese editor.

I know Japanese but never read a whole book of it. I Guess it would take some effort from my side to get used to their blocks of text, which I believe they have vertical gaps between them.

>first person perspective, etc).
Does this even improve readability or it's just a myth?

>>16041038
While /lit/ has shitposting it is still mostly about actually good literature. Light novels really are light in that they have no message. They are just something to waste time with, you will learning nothing from reading them. The are the male-targeted Japanese version of shitty chick lit.

>>16042517
Yeah don't talk about things you have no idea of.

>>16042517
/lit/ has frequent genre fiction / YA threads

>>16042517
But I've learned stuff from some vns...

So is Sora no Tsuku just a moege? Disappointing if so

>>16042499
The thing about first person perspective is that it greatly facilitates inner narration from the protagonist in between spoken lines which is essential for LN style of smooth reading.

>>16034252
I finished it, but I'm having trouble sorting out how I feel about it and how to talk about that without spoiling anything. There are bits and pieces I didn't like and some parts that didn't feel fully-formed, but it was tough to put down and I liked the girls. I was expecting it to leave me feeling a more cathartic kind of "bad" than it did, but that's my fault. I'd say it's a good read overall.

>>16042517
>actually good literature
Considering the deciding (LN or not) factor is usually the label, you're essentially saying that the label is more important than the content, when deciding something's quality or literary worth.

Can someone help me identify a book? I remember seeing an image of the cover maybe a year or so ago. It had a girl who might have had purple hair and she was holding a shiba inu. Any ideas guys?

>>16043906
Are you talking about this?

>>16043920
Yes! What is this about?

>>16042517
>they have no message
How can you say that? LNs are packed with messages. All media is packed with messages, mostly the same ones /lit/'s favorite books have, just with less fog of pretension around them.

>>16043920
>that author
Oh boy

Anyone read Ideologue?

>>16034252
>>16043708
I just finished reading the manga adaptation, and (oddly) I think I prefer it slightly to the novel. There's a change in when a key piece of information is provided that I think makes for a better story. The atmosphere isn't as rich and some things are lost by skipping a couple of internal monologues, but I do like the structure and less was lost than often is in transition to manga (or maybe it's because the novel is still fresh in my mind and I'm filling in the gaps without realizing it).

>mfw waiting for The Other World Dining Hall to be translated again

No one deserves this fate. The heartwarming comfy is too great of a power for any man to undertake

>>16047066
Haven't read a manga in a while so I picked it up and it's pretty cool. It reminds me a lot of older セカイ系 stories

>>16043775
Oh man. I can tell you've never heard the term 'genre fiction' before... keep clear of /lit/ you innocent free-spirited thing

damn this thread is so dead

>>16056060
Then do something about it instead of complaining

>>16056060
I'm just lurking here to collect titles that sound interesting and put them into my backlog mostly. My Japanese isn't good enough yet to participate. I imagine it's the same for others, there's only a handful of people who are fluent here on /jp/ and and an even smaller number of those actually read light novels/care to talk about them.

page 10 save

>>15977869
I thought it was some pseudo-educational bullshité a la manga guide to calculus

>>15982328
not one not two but THREE Murakami pics
and no Rashomon
this is kind of unlit if you catch my drift

>>16067473
Rashomon is included in the Akutagawa collection (it's actually called Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories) on the second line of modern literature books.

What's the difference between a light novel and a dark novel?

>>15975436
Most people here probably use animebytes, but that doesn't really matter because it's a shitty system that makes it almost impossible to maintain an account if you are exactly the kind of poorfag who needs to pirate shit. My account is barely on the fringe of being maintained, I can't even use it anymore or it will go under.

>>16068672
What LNs does animebytes have that nyaa lacks exactly?

>>16068684
Oh, a lot. animebytes in general has a huge collection, which makes it worth it, but it can be very frustrating when everything you want to read/watch/play is something no one else is interested in downloading. Of course I only use AB for stuff I can't find anywhere else, but it means that my ratio is in steady decline, and due to my erratic taste in anime/games/LNs, almost nothing I download has anyone else who wants it.

>>16068708
I can empathize with your problem, but I recall hearing that on for example bakabt people would keep their ratio up by downloading popular stuff the moment it dropped, even if they didn't care about it, just to seed it.

>>16068708
>Oh, a lot.
Well, can you list like 3 titles then? I want to know whether it's worth it to try to get in there solely for books.

>>16054192
Glad you enjoyed it.

>>16068708
>>16068717
Just wait until the sitewide freeleeches which happen every couple of months thanks to the people who donate BP to the pool and stockpile enough material to easily hold out at least until the next one. Unless you're seriously lacking in hard drive space.

>cant talk about english translated LNs at /a/ cause it triggers then
>cant talk about it also on /lit/ cause of the same reason
>cant talk about it in /jp/ cause youll be branded as an eop

So where do you guys grab your epubs that doesnt come from legal sources

I mostly use goddess

>>16070356
>cant talk about english translated LNs at /a/
/a/ is pretty much the only place you can talk about it though. But it has to have a manga adaption or something otherwise it'll be deleted.
Or you can mask it by mentioning 'isekai' and thats it

>>15973142
I only came to appreciate Tanigawa's writing after experiencing how garbage other LN authors' writing can get.

Also, has anyone here read all of the Juuni Kokki (Twelve Kingdoms) novels? I can't help but feel that they really haven't aged well at all -- I can't get past 魔性の子 which is incredibly boring and 風の海 迷宮の岸 drags on endlessly. Which is a shame because I enjoyed the latter half of 月の影 影の海 very much. (In japanese obviously) At this point I'm inclined to just watch the anime or give up on the series entirely.

Finally, anyone got recs for fantasy LNs without adaptations or where the source material is better than the adaptation?

>>16071132
>Finally, anyone got recs for fantasy LNs without adaptations or where the source material is better than the adaptation?
人類は衰退しました

>>16071132
ブギーポップ

>>16006244
Each horizon volumes have already been splitted into 3 parts but each parts is still this thick

>>16071169
Very interesting. I'll probably pick this up, thanks.

>>16071153
I read a few of them but had to stop halfway because of how bored I was getting of it. I know that it's an LN, but the way the content is delivered is really shallow for a written medium and more suited for an anime I think.

>>16071230
Uh...

>>16071233
anime good, book bad

>>16043932
Why don't you read a summary on Amazon? If you can't, you can't read the LN itself, so no loss.

>>16070565
I think its fine to talk about it in this place.

The thing is that not many people read LNs here in general and if we're talking about なろう系 which is frowned upon, there's maybe like 5 people including me.

>>16071132
Coincidentally, I've finished 風の海 迷宮の岸 just yesterday. I felt that the story really came together at the end. I'd suggest you finish that book at least since the focus is how Taiki's deals with being not actually human and the bond that exists between an emperor and his kirin. That seems like something difficult to convey in anime form and, although it's been a few years since I watched it, I remember not being nearly as impactfully conveyed in the anime, whereas I didn't have such an impression with 月の影.

>>16071237
You clearly didn't get it. Try again when you're older / your Japanese is better. Jintai is one of the most carefully constructed LNs out there and the author is arguably the most talented working in subculture. And the anime is fucking terrible and misses the entire point while cutting entire volumes.

If you only read LNs for shallow wish fulfillment/escapism stories then you obviously won't like something actually good.

>>16071257
I think you didn't recognize sarcasm in his words.

>>16071257
>You clearly didn't get it.
I love these

>>16071257
Nah. It doesn't move fast enough for an LN and isn't deep enough to be regular literature. The whole gimmicky funny/satirical writing style gets old real fast as well and isn't anything new -- there are authors who do it better and less pretentiously like 森美登美彦.

If I wanted to read real literature I'd read something by Souseki, not an LN. What I desire from an LN is decently fast developments, a decent story that doesn't require historical/political/literary knowledge to understand and prose that doesn't make me want to vomit blood.

>the author is arguably the most talented working in subculture

Yes, the same author who includes a Groundhog Day cliche taking up half a volume and spends a hundred pages describing the main character and the assistant walking through a tunnel is the most talented working in subculture (whatever that means).

>>16071254
The real bottleneck for me here is 魔性の子. Most people recommend reading it to get maximum enjoyment out of the rest of the series but it's written in a horror/thriller style where nothing fucking happens. 迷宮の岸 is a real problem for me as well because of how slowly the novel moves at the start (it seems to happen at the same time as 魔性の子), plus every time I come back to it I have to flip back the pages to refresh my memory of the kanji words the author created. Remember the part when the rat dude explains the province/county system in the first book? That fucking slayed me.

Anyway, did you read 魔性の子? Is it really that important? I'm thinking of just bulldozing through 迷宮の岸 if the rest of the books are going to be as interesting as the latter half of 月の影.

>>16071315
No, I heard 魔性の子 is somewhat of a side-story and not entirely canon or something along the lines, so I decided to not read it for now. In the latter half not many new words appear anymore, I believe, although I have the benefit of having watched the anime.

>>16071315
>It doesn't move fast enough for an LN and isn't deep enough to be regular literature.
>If I wanted to read real literature I'd read something by Souseki, not an LN.
Oh boy.
>>16071275
I don't see it, this guy seems genuinely stunted/ADHD. Anyhow I'm gonna stop here.

>>16071351
Idiots like you really make me laugh. It's not like you're very well-read, yet you pretend to be.

You read someone's opinion that Jintai is the best, therefore you conclude that it is, and can't accept that it isn't as good as you think.

>ad hominem

There's no way a story that moves so excruciatingly slowly with mediocre writing can be good. This is a fact.

>>16071825
Third party here, making no claims about you or insult any taste here, just want to say that I am familiar with many people (not children) who read works such as "The Grapes of Wrath", "Crime and Punishment", etc and react by calling them excruciatingly slow, boring, not well written, etc etc. I don't want to use an "appeal to authority" or anything here, but in cases like that I think it's clear that the book is not actually those things, the ugliness is in the eyes of the beholder. From the perspective of the user you are responding to, you no doubt appear to be like such people, reading a well-written work of literature and responding with critiques of one poorly read and ignorant of literature or what have you. That is probably, too, why he quoted your reference to Souseki and not reading LNs for literature, because those indicate an unfamiliarity with Japanese literature.

>>16071842
Kids who have little understanding of literary references or people who have insufficient proficiency in a language will naturally dislike or avoid literature because the actions of the characters can be subtle and not exciting enough for them.

The reason why I perceive Jintai to be boring is because the novels don't focus on character development, they focus on the adventures of the protagonist and the her reactions to them. It's unacceptable then that the story developments in the novels are as slow as they are, dragging on and on. Yet unlike 'a well-written work of literature', nothing very interesting happens in these sixty to hundred page stretches of text. More often than not it follows the so-called LN formula of a few sentences describing the setting, the protagonist being sarcastic, and some dark/abstract humour from another character.

That's why I said that the anime adaptation is better. The setting is rendered for the viewer and there's the monologuing protagonist. Nothing is really lost, because the source material doesn't exactly have extra depth.

The Jintai circlejerk seem to think that it offers some sort of deep commentary on social, political and historical issues and the dark humour is some sort of breakthrough in writing but that really isn't the case. They're the ones who have 'an unfamiliarity with Japanese literature'.

>>16071971
>Kids who have little understanding of literary references
>I am familiar with many people (not children)
Well I mean if you were making a case for your reading comprehension you have failed.

anyone here read tate no yuusha?

>>16072214
Not yet, but I recently finished Mushoku and now I'm reading the Laplace spinoff

>>16077070

>>15999805
yea its her

>>15973142
I started reading Death March a while ago and no arc has compared to the Ban and the Selbira labyrinth people arc.

I want another arc with Ban and the tsundere vampire.

>>15980890
https://mega.nz/#F!Dwd2TJIZ!p3o66BOnFLbkrFHFHldjrw
Also some on the 小説 sheet of
http://djtguide.neocities.org/cor.html
Use the file format entries on the left hand side as a guide.

>>15973142
Light novels have changed. They're no longer about character depth, development or relatability. They've become an endless series of proxy stories, self inserted into by loser Otaku and NEETs. Light Novels, and their exploitation of the basest of urges, have become a well-oiled machine. Light Novels have changed. Generic Gary Stu heroes carry over powered Gary Stu weapons, wearing dark and edgy Gary Stu gear. The wish fulfilment inside their bodies enhance and regulate their abilities. Genetic control. Information control. Emotion control. Harem control. Everything is monitored, and kept under control. Live Novels changed. The age of bold characters and interesting plots has become the age of predictable self insert masturbation fantasy. All in the name of averting catastrophe from the the NEETS. Light Novels have changed. When the industry is under total control, shitty self insert stories... become routine.

>>16085784
weak pasta

Has anyone read Bara no Maria?

>>16085784
Light novels then: Legend of Galactic Heroes
Light novels now: Onii-chan, sniff my panties kudasai!
What the FUCK happened?

>>16085784
>>16085804
“This is the postmodern desert inhabited by people who are, in effect, consuming themselves in the form of images and abstractions through which their desires, sense of identity and memories are replicated and then sold back to them as products.”

>>16085884
Woah what the fuck, that's really smart

>>16085884
Sounds a bit too chill and fun to be a desert.

>>16086512
Desert as in there's nothing but sand and nothing good growing.

>>16085884
I agree, this is not very good.
>sold back to them as products
So we should fight against it by sharing freely. Everyone, please upload stuff you bought and post links here ASAP. This will show you are not mindless bots trapped in endless cycle of yourself and exploited, but true human walking your own path.

Anyone read anything from the 信長の野望シリーズ before? I'm thinking of picking it up

Anyone know any good detective LNs? One with good "tricks".
I recommend people read Dangan Ropna Kirigiri, it's very well written.
I wish everyone could feel how good "閃き" feels.

>>16091381
Zaregoto

>>16091399
Only the first two books are actually mystery, and the mysteries aren't that hard.

Anyone know anything about this? How is it?

>>16091381
Christie, Dickson, Ellery - all 3 of them wrote some pretty good light novels.

>>16092394
Agatha Christie?
I watched the movie version of and then there were none, but there was no real deduction going on just people dying until killer is revealed.

>>16092438
"And then there were none" is one of her unusual ones, I would recommend reading her Poirot books for a more typical fair play detective story.
"Dead on the nile" or "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" are both pretty good if you want to get into her.

>>16092473
Why is it regarded so highly then?

>>16092647
He said unusual, not bad. Reading comprehension is important if you want to read books mate.

>>15973142
Holly fuck just read ch 172 of Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu

I want the next release so bad someone spoiler me

>>16091381
Raymond Chandler wrote the best American mystery stories. Most of his work was good enough to get films but I recommend the books. They focus on the detective as character more than the mystery, but the mysteries are also top-tier.

who mahou shoujo ikusei keikaku here

>>16100804
has that series ever gotten better or is it still full on retard with the jackass goddess and typical harem/isekai cliches?

>>16101216
The addition of a male main character Shiki was a god send and I feel like it lifted the series.

I think the only harem parts are the sisters which haven't appeared in a while, kinda relegated, along with tomoe and mio they don't come out often either unless they're POV shifts. Mostly just MC and Shiki being teachers and running their company

It does have a lot of isekai cliches, but the narrative points in a direction of interesting stuff.

I don't really read isekai type novels other than Mushoku tensei and konosuba, but this series really appeals to me.

>>15973142
>Ctrl-F "hakomari" no hits
wtf

>>16102680
>>>/a/

https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E5%A6%96%E5%A7%AB%E3%81%AE%E3%81%8A%E3%81%A8%E3%82%80%E3%82%89%E3%81%84-%E3%82%AC%E3%82%AC%E3%82%AC%E6%96%87%E5%BA%AB-%E5%B8%8C/dp/4094516417

it's out

>>16103144
>そうして青年は、時々発作的に訳のわからない食欲を妖の少女に催したりもして──。

What, so he goes around adventuring with the youkai girl and occasionally snacks on her?

>>16103144
I'm guessing this is one of those books where the author uses 此れ and 迄 and uses as much kanji as possible

>>16103206
Mareni has a verbose writing style but I wouldn't call it pretentious - he just writes what he knows, and as someone who studied old Japanese literature and has spent a lot of time with older language, what he knows ends up being some more difficult, purple language. What I want to convey, though, is you say "uses as much kanji as possible", which implies he will be writing intentionally to be difficult, but that is not the case, he writes what he likes and that's that, not pretentious or "trying to be hard", it is what it is, and what it is is interesting and funny and so on, you've just got to not get too caught up in the writing style.

>>16103196
>delete of shame
>>16103206
Marenis text is more intricate than your usual book, yes, but he doesn't do it just for pretentiousness sake or whatever and it reads very nicely. Few authors paint as beautiful pictures as he does. I'm guessing his LN is several levels toned down from his VNs anyhow so it should be a good starter novel into him.

>>16103220
I see. If I happen to see it in a bookstore I'll give it a try then.

>>16091381
>>16092394
>>16100970

https://tanoshimi.xyz/2016/10/16/what-are-you-doing-in-ja-fucking-pan/

This might be worth reading then.

>>16000841
Yes, I really like Yaya, but the series is kinda trash.

>>16033869
I was really into yuri at the time, they were having a promotion with pictures of the yuru yuri girls. Eventually got bored of yuri and I stopped buying them.

>>16107451
I was super impressed by this writeup, then I saw the way the author tweets. 幻滅した

Meta posting about LNs killed this tread.

The guy that said he reads LNs for quick developments is right. If I am going to read something slow paced it's going to be a masterpiece of literature and culture not a light novel. I am not saying LNs can't be good, after all it's an arbitrary label at best and a misleading label at worse. I just wish authors that want to be taken seriously would stop using the label all together. I've said it be before and I'll say it again, light novels are commercial enterprises they are written in such a way that they can be made to continue indefinitely so long as it sells, because of that they are inherently weaker to true literary works not driven by making money.

Debating what to buy next.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san or something more serious like “文学少女" 、”人類は衰退しました”、　or "半分の月がのぼる空", as a huge Lovecraft nerd/fan I know I will find Nyaruko more entertaining. I do love Romeo and people keep telling me jinrui is a masterpiece, I believe them just have not gotten around to it.

>>16107677
bad post

>>16107677
Going past the bump limit is what's going to kill this thread.
By the way, in terms of profit motive, did you know that for example Dostoevsky wrote a book just to pay off gambling debts? It's true. Naturally a series built to last potentially forever will suffer but that's not to say profit motive always hurts art. It made me feel a little sick when I first learned this, but did you know David Hume set about writing philosophy solely because he yearned for fame in the literary world? It's true.

>>16107677
nice post dude

>>16107677
Hantsuki is very good, I recommend that.

>>16107677
>文学少女

The first volume is decent, the second is melodramatic, unreadable garbage. The author shamelessly rips off classical literature for the plot of the story and ruins it with 20 pages of dramatic screaming at the end with plot developments more ridiculous - no, stupid - than you could ever imagine. The author apparently has a very prominent lack of vocabulary as well. When I reached the third volume I was repeatedly assaulted by deja vu every 3rd sentence and I started to wonder whether the she copy-pastes her sentences from the previous novels. Then I put down the novel for good and swore that I would never read anything written by her again.

My advice: Read the books referenced in this series instead of the series itself

>人類は衰退しました

I'd say go ahead and read it. It's fairly simple and the writing style is a breath of fresh air from the usual stuff (you know what I'm talking about). See for yourself whether it really lives up to the hype, and if you like it you get to join the circlejerk (who doesn't love those)?

>>16107707
>did you know that for example Dostoevsky wrote a book just to pay off gambling debts? It's true. Naturally a series built to last potentially forever will suffer but that's not to say profit motive always hurts art.

That is a very valid criticism of my post, and I should have been more specific. Writing for money is not a bad thing at all. In fact you can see the felling of desperation for money in Crime and Punishment and those emotions drive a powerful and well formulated story. The difference is money did not shape Dostoevsky's writing format which is just as important as prose. LN authors often try to tell a story that does not end, or a story with no real goal or message in mind. The stories are deliberately shaped to be long financial successes. Even when an author wishes to end a series, sometimes he is prevented by contracts or by the publishing company or out of fear that he would lose his fanbase(this more than anything shows insecurity in being able to write). It results in a lot of series that either never ended, or got rushed ending. The problem with money is when money shapes the format of the story, which is undoubtedly the case in the LN industry.

>>16107805
There's plenty of series for which this isn't the case and your previous post tells people who try to make good, non standard stuff to fuck off, basically. So you're just signaling you want those fast-paced junkfood never ending ones instead. Pretty hypocritical. It also sounds like you're extremely oblivious to the existence of ガガガ文庫.

>>16107805
You can't make a post like that without including examples

>>16107817
I said in that post, "I am not saying LNs can't be good, after all it's an arbitrary label at best and a misleading label at worse.", honestly sounds like you just got your feelings hurt because I said I would prefer classical literature for slow paced stories, that's just my opinion man and it's based on my situation. I mostly read light novels when I am working, or walking, or on my break. I have at most 10-20 minutes to read. I don't have time for some long build up. When I am at home siting down I'll read something like "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath", over your "typical" light novel. Yes some light novels are good, damned good, I mentioned some of them on the post you are criticizing. I would still rather read about the crawling chaos wanting to impregnate a teenage japanese boy when I only have a short amount of time to read.

>>16107615
>幻滅した
I think it's just proof that you can act autistic online and still be smart.

Although 4Chan proved that a long time ago.

>>16107854
It's almost like they're books like any other and you can just pick what you want to read depending on your mood. Saying they ALL should be junkfood quality because you personally like that is ignorant.
Also lol at you thinking a mediocre writer like Lovecraft is a "masterpiece of literature" or somehow more "worthy" of your time

>>16107908
>Also lol at you thinking

This is why I hate trying to have a discussion with LN readers.

>>16107934
You forgot to tip your fedora. Now hush and back to your highly intelligent fiction such as Lovecraft and Harry Potter.

>>16107908
The man was literally the face of the World Fantasy Award for years until the whole racism thing blew up and everyone is PC now. He shaped popular culture like no Light Novel author ever has or ever will. His characters and mythos are ingrained into modern horror and he has a unique and instantly recognizable writing style. He invent cosmic horror and pioneered ideas such a deep time.

There are many MANY valid complaints about Lovecraft from purple prose to too many "unknowable horrors", however "mediocre" is not a word that can be used to describe Lovecraft. Get your head out of panty sniffing light novels and read something with value for a change.

>>16108025
Sorry but I can only read Lovecraft when I have 5 minutes at work or something. When I'm at home I rather read actual good literature like Ulysses and the Odyssey, not some cheap brain masturbation with no literary value for people with the reading comprehension of a 14 year old.

>>16108096
That's pretty weak bait, lurk /lit/ more to see how it's done. Also Ulysses is too main stream now, didn't you get the memo?

No one can agree on what a light novel is, not even people in the industry, so arguments about "are light novels good?", are pointless. I could rewrite alice in wonderland, stick in a few anime pictures with panty shots and call it a light novel.

>>16107566
>they were having a promotion with pictures of the yuru yuri girls
Ah, the bromides. I see. Thank you for answering.

Anyone reading sevens? Also rate the ancestors.

3>1>7=1>4>5>6>2

Mr Lyle is still best boy

Still no illustration rip for his series?

>>16109656
Ew, homo shit. Please leave.

>>16109662
>Ancestors
>Dead men

He's not a necrophile

Pic related is his main girl

>>16109656
This looks pretty cool but I'm gonna have to ask.
Is it fujoshit?

>>16109710
No, the blokes you see behind him are his ancestors.

He earns a harem of dangerous bitches who can more or less can start a world war.

>>16109746
Picked up

>>16109750
Pic related is the first chick he picks up other than his fiancee, it gets mad around 9th volume.

https://yoraikun.wordpress.com/7s-chapters/

>>16109773
What a qt

>>16109656
LYLE>1>3>7>4>5>2>6

Just caught up, kinda sad how Lyle is actually helping Beim even if he was thrown out and they are needed for his Empire plans, but leaves a bitter feeling. Still sad Tanya chose the guild over Lyle they would have been so OP not as harem member but as consul.

>>16109656
If this is the cover for the first volume, I'd magine only fujo/fudanshi would pick it up only to be disappointed afterwards. Then proceed to write fanfics of the ancestor without reading the rest of the story.

Whoever keeps uploading Kindle rips of Yen Press and Viz novels to the sekrit klub, could you please pick a source to rip from other than Kindle? Kindle is pretty much the only one that deliberately murders image quality. Pick Google Play Books or Kobo or something that actually allows a publisher to save the images in a decent resolution and JPG quality.

>>16109656
How different is the LN from the WN?