I used to be a voracious reader when I was young but somewhere in my mid 20's I just kind of stopped for no real reason. Probably the internet taking off had something to do with it but I just find between the few western tv shows I enjoy and some movies and now anime taking up almost all of my entertainment time I just haven't found time for books anymore.
But I just finished this show and the ending killed me, I know it wasn't a great show but I really enjoyed it and the ending left me feeling hollow. I want to know what happened and fill in all the giant gaps in the plot that I could tell are missing. But I'm afraid of diving into LN's, do they suffer from the same problems as anime with plots that go nowhere and stories that never get resolutions? I love anime and manga but unfinished stories gall me and make me regret a lot of shows. I don't want to start reading LN's if they are going to have the same problem. How would you say they compare to casual western writing? Are they simpler or can they have really complexly written stories?
It's YAshit but worse. Don't bother unless you really want to know what happens at the end and there's a proper translation and all the volumes are out.
>It's YAshit but worse No, western YA is just as bad. The only advantage is it doesn't have to be translated by amateurs for you to read it.
David Hall
Comparing YA to light novels is like comparing cartoons to anime. Too many tropes writing styles, and just cultural differences to make such a comparison pretty fucking stupid. >inb4 shit like Avatar and Teen Titans I'll fucking kill you
Jason Lopez
You're not exactly wrong, but I think that Western YA has more quality control and therefore what comes out ends up being more polished if nothing else. Maybe I'm just ignorant of the modern YA market because I get no exposure to it other than the occasional stroll through a bookstore.
Alexander Peterson
The vast majority are basically just manga but in novel form. So a lot of Young Adult crap with self inserts and teen drama. There are a few that are good and deal with more interesting topics though but even these tend to be thoroughly YA rooted. Of course some change tone and evolve in their own way and become rather different. For example, Overlord goes from adventures and exploring the world to political maneuvers and scheming.
It takes a lot of sifting through all of the stuff to find the true gems. Unfortunately, most of the time, the stuff that are fan translated and pick up traction are what the publishers notice and end up making official translations, which ends up killing the fan translations. In the worst case, the switch from web format to official light novel format might even cause the web novels to stop being written. Also most of the fan translations you'll find online are actually from web novels, so the quality of the writing is rather inconsistent. A lot of these web novels eventually get serialized into official Light Novels.
Also, the question about complex stories, Youjo Senki is such an example. It draws in a wealth of information from philosophy, religion and history. It actually uses a lot of specific terminology that made it particularly hard to translate.
>Western YA has more quality control Doubt it. I think English (language) YA has less output because we read less, but I don't think it's any better. Try reading best selling award winner Ready Player One and telling me it's not utterly horrific.
Blake Kelly
>light novels Welcome to the NHK was good, but that's about it.
Levi Lee
OP has a nice question, but what about getting into the light novel medium itself? Like, if a light novel series has an anime or manga adaption that I enjoyed, of course I'd read it. But what about those that haven't? Like the manga and vn medium, are there a lot of gems out there for light novels that make it worth exploring? I'm sure it's because of my low exposure to the light novel medium but, it just seems like there are a lot more meh and mediocre works compared other mediums. If it is something worth getting into, are there any recommendations? As I said, I'm not really talking about the titles that got recognition due to their adaptations.
Charles Turner
Unless you can read Japanese you're at the mercy of translators, usually amateur ones.
Xavier Sanchez
It's not even a light novel
Aiden Morris
oh, well fuck them then
Nathan Butler
You're better off reading something on fanfiction.net, LNs are fucking terrible.
Light novels are only worth it if you really like an anime based on a light novel and want to know what happens after the anime.
Lucas Nelson
Or worse official translations that get rewritten, localized or censored.
Matthew Rodriguez
>rewritten that's sort of the point
Ryan Diaz
There is a difference between a translation taking a page of text and altering it to make the sentences flow more naturally while maintaining the intent of the original script and just scraping the whole page and making shit up to replace it.
Austin Ross
nope
Noah Perry
It's literally just fucking anime except in a literary form. If you're already watching anime, it's stupid to act like LNs are some uncharted territory.
Jackson Sanchez
>Implying YoungAdult novels are a boring read Whoever says this, I believe they don't really have much fun with. anything. Sure YA novels are simple, but they're pretty much shonen with a little bit more romance (or none at all, they don't always have a focus on romance).
By that token, yes, LN's can be a fun read. Some simple plot about saving the world, classses, a harem, powercreep.. the same shit you've seen a million times in anime can get pretty interesting once written down in novel format. The descriptions are better than what anime studios can usually do or are willing to adapt. Monologues.. just reading people talking and thinking.. that's nice and it can be more interesting than the actual fighting part. So yeah your average LN is better than your average anime by providing you with a better story.
Now, do I personally read LNs? No, I find them a huge time sink, but I read the Irregular at Highschool and some others I don't remember and I could see they were leaps and bounds above anime. But I'd just recommend reading wikis and TV Tropes to scratch that reading itch, then come discuss on Yea Forums threads and you'll eventually absorb the plot. I'm not even shitposting, I fucking know the plot of Index without having watched it beyond the first anime season, I just skimmed through the wiki, came to Index threads to discuss and got corrected to hell and back or it just naturally happened that someone talked in lenght about the plot. So I now know everything about Accelerator and the Misaka network and angels and some other shit as if I had read it.
Ryder Bennett
>making shit up to replace it yeah, that's how you "maintain the intent of the original script"
Scratch my whole post and do this. VNs are the true way to not feel like you're wasting your time. It's like giving you your green veggies disguised as meat. VNs are ""videogames"" so I feel nice playing them but it's just intense hours of reading.
Hunter Robinson
>I know it wasn't a great show But it was a great show!
It had happiest girl in the world!
James Richardson
>Sure YA novels are simple, but they're pretty much shonen >classses, a harem, powercreep > Irregular at Highschool >index >But I'd just recommend reading wikis and TV Tropes to scratch that reading itch
>Visual novels = Erotica Yes I winked my wank so hard at Ace attorney, danganronpa, hotel dusk, Fate Hollow Ataraxia...
This, pretty much the same as Manga. And just as manga, the anime is never on par with the source material. On manga it's art that gets a downgrade, in LNs it's the story itself and dialogues.
>Fate Well of course, it's never been anything but a shoddy fapfic.
Evan Thompson
LN's have bad grammar, especially when the fan translator didn't hire a proofreader. It is hard to get into, sometimes you'll find yourself skipping a lot of parts due to bad grammar. The time between the releases of each volume is also random and it is hard to get back into reading a series after not reading for a while.
Read Chinese and Korean translated novels. They're pretty fun. Most Japanese LN's are fanfiction tier at best. I'm not saying Chinese and Korean novels are masterpieces (although some are really, really good) but they're at least fun to read and won't blueball you on action by having a pussy MC.
Luis Hernandez
Your pic related is like one of the very few LN's actually worth a damn to read. But ultimately, no. not really.
Julian Russell
VNs are great because you can actually have decent plot and development, something that usually anime lacks of
Chink novels are literally bottom of the barrel trash
Adrian Morgan
By god i completely forgot about Ready Player One, that shit was worse than Sword Art Online. >oy mate look there isn't that a great reference to {insert old game/movie here} It's worse than self insert harem shit in modern isekai stories.
Hunter Gomez
>Maybe I'm just ignorant of the modern YA market because I get no exposure to it Yeah, if you pick up anything published in the past 10 years then you'll find it's absolute garbage. Authors either focus on making an interesting narrative(basically their imitation of a sarcastic 16 year old), or put everything into the setting. Just like LNs, there's the same lack of character development and interesting themes.
LN's are literally anime in book form but longer, we're here so shitting on them is silly. They do tend to get actual endings and its generally around 20 volumes for the bigger series. Also each volume generally takes about 4 hours to read (unless its something like youjo senki).
Get Sukasuka, anime is 3 volumes, whole story is 5 volumes. There is a complete fan translation but I deleted that as I'm buying the books, 3 are out and the last 2 will come out in july and november, then there's a sequel series with different characters. If you want something different with an ending go with spice and wolf to start off with. There should be both the fan translation and physical books released for that.
Zachary Wright
>LN dialogues Yeah, you're not losing anything of value here.
They are not the same. Different dialogue, no music. No visual quality, you are not only naive but dumb.
John Long
Thanks captain obvious retard. You're completely right there's no music, what would we do without your genius insight? And half of LNs fucking read like an anime script I dunno what the fuck you're talking about the dialouge is different.
Connor Moore
I would give her a massage. If you know what I mean!
Minoru Kawakami writes long, complex LNs with actual resolutions. Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere is probably the best example of that. It's actively translated on Baka-Tsuki too. Really nice read, especially if you're a history geek.
There's a sequel and spinoffs and shit, are you just referring to the main original LN?
Jaxson Long
>read like a script fucking this. The most annoying thing about LNs is it's usually hard as fuck to tell who is speaking during conversations with more than just two characters. Authors usually get around this by adding speech ticks, which is annoying in anime, but downright cringe in a written format.
Austin Garcia
ITT: EOPs criticizing LNs after reading shitty translations.
Jose White
>n-no but you see, this excerpt where MC talks about how great fondling boobs is is actually deep and insightful, the translator just couldn't express it properly! Always the same excuses from LNfags
They are but you'll need to need to know what you're getting into with each series to see if they're worth the time sink. Also, raw is best here and be wary of WNs because many will want to make make you want to yell at the authors for their terrible prose.
Again the key to getting to the good stuff is whether or not you know nip because TL'd LNs are rarely have all the below qualities:
>good story >is not an isekai >good and accurate translations >consistent release speed
The only ones I would recommend for reading are the ones translated by js06 because nearly every other wn/ln translation manages to trigger me hard a few pages in. His work isn't perfect and there's some obviously stilted phrasing but the overall quality is more than acceptable and the release speed and quantity is sublime.
Austin Wood
read it man
Carter James
>I think that Western YA has more quality control Tell me the differences between hunger games, mockingbird, maze runner, divergent and twilight.
Jacob Young
I'm learning Japanese because there is a light novel series that I must read and translate before I die. Waifuism can be a good motivator.
Daniel Butler
Sorry about your child-taste user
Christopher Nguyen
What is it?
Jayden Hernandez
sure thing keep telling yourself that you moron
Adrian Torres
Seiken no Blacksmith
I read the manga, ended up enjoying it a lot, then wanted more after reading the ending, found out the LN had a lot more content but wasn't translated, so I eventually decided to just learn the language to read it and do my own damn translation someday.
Wyatt Allen
Ya I really enjoyed it I just meant on a technical level it had a lot of flaws. Massive plot holes and things never explained, characters that show up that seem important and are never seen again. Chekov's guns raining from the sky. I gave it an 8 because I am a massive softy and it made me feel, but if I was being objective I would have to say it was probably a 6 at best.
Luis Perry
What the hell are you talking about? The anime or the LNs?
Matthew Howard
The anime, I just finished it last night so I'm still kind of processing it. The ending just really pissed me off, it made me feel which I like but it made no sense and felt like just another show that was meant for people who have already read the books and is just a teaser. I hate hate that shit and it is my number one pet peeve about anime but what can you do.
Julian Peterson
Yeah, I know what you mean. Some details are explained in the LNs. Some details are in the sequels. Like who and what Elq is.
Michael Diaz
His writing annoys me at times with the way he tends to repeat certain phrases a lot and quite massive shortcuts taken by having entire dialogues as IRC logs but the rest is good enough to make up for that imo
I think the main point to understand here is that Chtholly's story is just a small part in the whole narrative. Anime does great job of her story. But doesn't do much for story as a whole.
Yep I usually just shrug my shoulders and move on but I am interested in the world and the characters that I want to know more. There were so many things in the anime that were just hinted at and never explained or just mentioned and dropped, it was really frustrating. Like that sword that was supposed to save her personality, they build up to it being their ultimate goal and they finally get it and they don't even do anything with it. How does the plant monster get destroyed on the island and is still on the planet? What is with the 3rd party super monsters that are maybe good guys now? The talking skull? It was the thing he was fighting at the beginning of the show I think but why is it a good guy now? How are they different from the people turned into monsters? That's just a tiny amount of stuff from the show that left me wanting more. I'm just sick of 12 ep shows that I know going in will have no chance of telling a complete story. I don't understand why anime stopped making shows with 20+ episodes.
Christian Richardson
>Like that sword that was supposed to save her personality, they build up to it being their ultimate goal and they finally get it and they don't even do anything with it. That is actually pretty simple trope of setting up false hope and then showing it cannot be used. Nothing else. Actually, the swords get pretty shitty representation in anime. LNs makes them much more interesting and fleshed-out. >How does the plant monster get destroyed on the island and is still on the planet? I think it was obvious that they are all copies/clones of the same monster? LNs make it much clearer. >What is with the 3rd party super monsters that are maybe good guys now? The talking skull? It was the thing he was fighting at the beginning of the show I think but why is it a good guy now? How are they different from the people turned into monsters? Yeah, thats the sequel stuff.
James Bennett
>I'm just sick of 12 ep shows that I know going in will have no chance of telling a complete story. Agreed. You'll have to read the LN for answers
Anthony Long
Anything I should know beyond a google search for LN reading? I found a site called novelplanet that had it. Other one I saw mentioned a lot was Baka-Tsuki, but they only had rare translations like indonesian and things like that. Is it a legit place to look for LN's? How can I tell the difference between a random fan translation and an official or a good one?
Caleb Price
Did the same but with re zero, started to read the web novel this week end and I'm at the 6th chapter by now.
Joshua Martinez
No one is perfect. I don't mind the IRC logs but the spergy levels of detail with which the fight scenes are described just make me skim through them.
Thomas Howard
Read VNs instead. You can get much more intricate stories with them while not suffering from the consequences of serialization. Plots will actually go somewhere and stories will get resolutions.
I liked all the characters, it's impossible to tell whether you will
Xavier Lopez
>YA shills Fuck off, those shit are garbage. Noone even reads them.
Adam Jackson
Read it first upto book 3 then watch the anime. Then read the rest. Anime has some original scenes or expands on scenes that were a single page in the book. There are only 5 books for the main story.
Currently reading Spice and Wolf just because the anime was good and I know there won't be any other season so I'll have to read the fucking 20 volumes.
Mason Perez
YenPress has only volumes 1 and 2 translated. Search for fgilantranslations and orlandritl
Isaiah Price
And we always call you a faggot wiki reader and tell you to read the LNs, and you still don't. You don't know a shit of the plot but pretend you do.
Nathan Williams
3rd just got released
Jeremiah Roberts
What’s a good site to read LNs?
Anthony Martin
>novel updates >ninarou (if you know japanese) >nyaa
Gabriel James
It depends, usually the blog of whatever tl group. Baka-tsuki got tons of material, but they are cowards and delete everything whenever it gets licensed, which is almost everything that you find through anime.
Brayden Robinson
>reading on a computer screen >trying to read with music/voices playing I hate the idea of them so much.
Daniel Bailey
>Also each volume generally takes about 4 hours to read (unless its something like youjo senki). Hold up, just started on broke mercenary's manga then moved over to the LN and finished the first volume in like and hour and a half while also watching some documentary during the first half of that. I'm used to finishing raw LNs of 300~400 pages long in about 5~6 hours so I haven't really read one in english in a long time but was that 4 hours for translated novels or 4 hours for raw novels? And thinking about it, a heavy object novel translated by js06 usually takes me 2~3 hours and I actually do consider them lengthy.
Is my reading speed actually monstrously fast now cause I think I have to rethink the workloads I'm giving out as reading assignments.
I've always been a big reader (native language is English) and in my teenage years I got into anime. A few years later, I started to self-study and eventually had enough experience that I could watch anime without subs and read moderately difficult VNs at a decent speed. Both of those accomplishments helped me understand the works with more depth and gave me a greater appreciation of the Japanese language as I picked up the subtleties which were lost in translations. That was not true of light novels which, as a lifelong reader, I had been excited about diving into. Light novels are exactly what the poor Baka-Tsuki translations make you think they are. They're poorly written stories built almost entirely of cliches that teenagers buy because they have pictures of cute girls in them. The Monogatari series is great, but every BookOff I've been to in the Tokyo area has them in the novels section, so I'm not sure if they're actually considered light novels.
Jonathan Bennett
Depends, the quality can vary wildly even before taking TL quality into consideration. At this point I just stick to the ones TL'd by js06 after suffering through the translator roulette of Mushoku Tensei
Not sure if you didn't understand him or if you are just funposting.
Michael Richardson
delet this
Camden Howard
If you like to cry, yeah
Owen Gonzalez
Those light novels? That shit is THICC
Logan Jackson
It's the way things should have been
Parker Baker
That right there, that shit pisses me off, she's wearing that dress, the cat faerie sykes him up and he just walks up to her and says you look beautiful and then it just cuts away and that's it. I thought they would at least hug or kiss or have a dance or anything. It's always like this, it's always the cliffnotes of the experience instead of a real story. Why did I ever get myself sucked into this hobby.
Evan Torres
waifus
Jacob Ramirez
the only decent LN worth reading post-2000 is Spice and Wolf, no joke.
>imitation of a sarcastic 16 year old I hate that shit.
Cooper Moore
High School DxD is a thousand times worse, like holy shit! How can someone read that with a straight face and say that it's good because the MC is a pervert?
Jonathan Evans
There are millions of people that legitimately read fanfiction and think it's good. It's either they are so unaccustomed to reading that they have nothing to compare things to and so everything feels novel, or they're the type of person (usually female) who only enjoys interpersonal interactions, so endless tripe dialogue is exactly what they want out of their stories and fanfiction/LNs are perfect.
Luis Martinez
Name one LN that's as good as the Alex Rider series. I'll wait.
Zachary Lee
All of them. I mean, come on what kind of faggot is named Alex?
Jack King
This
Chase Scott
>Are LN's No. Just no.
Grayson Howard
Only light novel I enjoyed was Zaregoto and that's been in translation hell for more than two years now
