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.
