Current Events > Light Novel General v0.01 "Not as good as Mushoku Tensei"

(+) Yeah! (+)

Was it because of that Mahouka thread the other day?

It's been a while since I watched it, but I remember liking it because of the world building, magic system, and a surprisingly colorful cast.

Yeah I mean people said it was enjoyable, so I'll have to see. I'm reading 3 things at once atm, and none of them are particularly standing out to me. I don't think Mahouka will be something too crazy, but compared to the other 3, it has an anime, which is a big factor, since it helps me visualize easier
---

Holyyyyyy

So Puzzles and Dragons, a mobile game I played for about 3 years now, is getting a massive Monster Hunter collab.

Rathalos, Rathian, Kirin, Tigrex, Nargacuga, the big 4 monsters from Generations, Diablos...

And you can buy either a male or a female hunter, actually use the monster parts to evolve them... into the hunters with some of the more iconic armors equipped onto them.

Holy crap... they're all so freaking good, too.

Welp... I'm saving my stones for them

http://puzzledragonx.com/en/news.asp?nid=663
---

I quit playing it a few years ago, but damn... those illustrations are amazing.

Speaking of which, the MH Stories anime's plot really went on full force in the last two episodes.
Navi's comedy routine is also toned down significantly, which is a great thing.

PAD's even better recently, and now you have literally 90% of gold eggs during godfest, so it's impossible to roll something useless in that game. It's like, since it's a coop enabled singleplayer, might as well just make everything OP and a lot of bosses just as ridiculous to beat
---

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Gaiden: Sword Oratoria has gotten an anime. I didn't know. Personally, I don't like Sword Oratoria. It's hard to care about anybody but the blond girl. Everybody in that familia just feels like they have the same generic upbeat personality that this author seems to write for lesser important characters, and she's literally the only emotionless one, ironically making her the most interesting. It's also not an underdog steady growing story that the original had, instead doesn't even feel like there's an actual conflict.

But I'll probably still watch it. This is one of those things that needs a season 2, and something I should've read the LN for
---

Eh, I'm got into Danmachi because I was interested in Aiz, so I'm going to watch (and read) it eventually just for her as well. I don't really care much for the others in Loki though.

I'm about 10 episodes into Mahouka, and yeah it's about what I expected. I do think the more logical part of magic is good, but sometimes it does reach into the territory of "why should I care?" explanations that many stories from anywhere do tend to trip into. And yeah the very much blood siblings acting like they definitely wanna bang each other is very Japanese
---

Huh, I don't remember the anime explaining magic to that extent. Most of the stuff I know are from following up on the wiki. Guess I haven't been paying much attention.

As for the siblings... there are a number of incidents that made them that way.

They do explain almost every magic that happens right after they do. It actually takes up quite a bit of the running time, and a lot of them use CGs rather than animation
---

I feel like one of the things mahouka is most known for (beyond the oniisama oniisama) is the massive science-y infodumps of how magic works
---

barnnn has done a really high quality translation on a Monster Hunter LN. It's within some of the pages of this topic. If this topic reaches v2 ever, it'll be on the front page certainly
---

M3sterybumper posted...

barnnn posted...

I mostly read from a physical book.

Woah, hardcore. You from Japan?

Nope, I'm from Thailand.
I took weekly Japanese classes while I was in high school and then just trained myself as I went along.
My country has quite a lot of translated LNs, and apparently there's way more right now. As for imports, I just started doing it recently.

I'm still reading Uchimusume, the one where the guy has a demon daughteru. I'm finally past the time skip where the series starts to become infamous. But an LN reading site that hosts it has some odd script that fucks with adblockers, though previously deleting those scripts in the developer options would stop the pain. Now it seems they moved the scripts elsewhere or has a new script in one of their other things, but I'm too lazy to try to find which is causing the ridiculous ad spam thing.

Luckily, I could just directly go to the translator's website and read it there huehue. See, now I wanna actually disable adblocker for this translator and never visit that other site ever again. Take that karma
---

I'm starting Adolescent Adam, or Shishunki no Adam. It's one of those harem type LNs, but the guy is a nice guy with a power to enslave girls, and these 2 angels try to protect him. Except the MC has sex like 3-4 chapters in, so you know, I'm all for that shit
---

So the funny thing about this so far, the main character bangs like almost everybody so far, even a freaking trap, EXCEPT the main girl. Also, like seriously, I don't think the main girl ever even won a fight by herself. I mean... I guess she kinda sucks in a funny way lmao
---

Huh, I think I read a manga with that name some time ago. Didn't remember much, but I think there was some tentacle rape pretty early on?

Hmm I don't remember any significant one. It starts with a kid taking care of his lazy family, then like they just get into fighting really quickly
---

Just looked it up again. Not exactly tentacles, but it's some kind of wire robot monster inside a clock tower. That's actually where I stopped reading it.

Anyway, I just noticed that I can buy (raw) LN eBooks on JP iTunes. It's the cheapest method of import I've found so far, but I don't think I'll get used to reading on a normal sized iPhone any time soon. And exporting it to PC isn't doable because of the DRM. Honestly, this is the first time I ever wanted an iPad.

Monster Hunter was my first and only translation, actually. So I'm not really well known or anything.

You never know. I'll need you to sign this printed copy of your translation so that one day I can sell it for big bucks
---

As a breath of fresh air and doing some dumb garage sale in my neighborhood where like no one came, I decided to read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. It's still a very fascinating read that isn't written for some sake of political agenda but to tell a good story and then leave the readers to brood on it. It's not an easy read whatsoever, and a lot of the sailor terms are lost to me, but it's just fascinating and... honestly kinda fun, especially considering a large part of it was based on his personal experience
---

I think No Game No Life has licensing. There's most likely an official version floating around
---

I actually quite like Akashic Records, which got an anime this season. But boy... animated, that uniform does look very stripperific. I didn't watch the first episode in full, but it is quite a good story. Yet all the anime youtubers are getting up in arms that they're not gonna watch this trash because it looks like the typical LN to anime translation, quoting how incredibly awful the likes of Asterisk War was. Yeah Ass War is utter garbage, and it killed the chance of Rakudan Kishi no Cavalry being more popular than it ended up being. But Akashic Records is not too bad. The main character isn't overpowered but simply very knowledgeable with a large history of magic usage, and most of the conflicts are left to the students overcoming them and the teacher and his personal friends dealing with an even bigger problem in the background. It's decent storytelling, and this anime season will most likely be worth watching.

But the manga is better, and I dunno if there's a decent amount of LN translation. If you liked Mahouka though, you will appreciate the way Akashic explains their magic. Not to mention the way the main character views magic is shared by anybody who's strong. There's a good lore here
---

legendarylemur posted...

I actually quite like Akashic Records, which got an anime this season.

I watched the 1st ep and it was enjoyable enough, especially enjoyed how much of a useless slacker the protag was, but I was pretty sad upon hearing that he becomes secretly super strong and stuff in later episodes. Overpowered protags and "useless but actually overpowered" protags are everywhere, I wanted one for once that really was as much of a lazybones as he first appeared
---

I dunno where you heard that, but the MC is not very much powerful. (spoilers ahead) In fact, his 2 friends that will be introduced together are both vastly stronger than him by a significant margin.

MC's power is just 1, and he doesn't even use it much. He cancels any additional casting in an AOE field, which btw doesn't apply to skills that already got activated or is a long range magic like one of his friends' magics, and he does martial arts to take advantage of his unique skill.

But yeah he's not strong, he's just an incredibly experienced mage who had to learn since he was young. His mother figure is even a better mage than he is. He also actually battles less than his students and his 2 friends
---

Speaking of Rakudan Cavalry, the studio that made the terrific anime for it is currently making Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism. It's quite good
---

I r8 this bump 9/11
---

Lol... there's a rather wacky (?) WN/LN/Manga called Tanaka the Wizard. It's about a literal wizard, virgin at some ungodly age, who accidentally gets killed by god and is just handed a bunch of power and a new world as compensation. But yeah Tanaka, he's not a bad guy? He's very apologetic and does absolutely nothing wrong, but since he's ugly and old and a virgin, he's treated quite badly, so I'm guessing the story turns into something of a redemption story. And supposedly he gets a harem, like most LNs of this type do, but I think in general it doesn't take itself too seriously, though I suppose to spoil something that might turn some people off, the main heroine is pretty much introduced having an orgy with who is actually a pretty upstanding guy. Tanaka NTRs this guy, though depending on your perspective, the her introduction itself is NTR. You decide!
---

Well that sounds pretty weird. Is it like a genre satire? As much as it sounds ridiculous, there's pretty high potential for it to be deep.

Nah, it does just try to do its own thing, just that the protagonist is a 40+ yr old virgin super powerful wizard, and his harem is composed of already sexually active girls. Supposedly if you're not bothered by all the girl's introductions, it's pretty good or something. I only just saw whatever amount of story the manga tells. I seriously can't pick up another WN or I'll never finish any of them
---

You know what, I'll add that to my reading list. It actually sounds interesting.

Speaking of which, I read a little bit more of MH Tamashii. Kio (MC) is more of an idiot hero compared to Zeeg and sticks to his ideals too much, but that's appropriate for his age since he's supposed to be just around 10. The novel really does start from the bottom with the mushroom gathering and Velocidrome, but the dynamic between Kurtaiz and Kio keeps things entertaining.

So supposedly UchiMusume has been licensed, but only the first volume came out. But the licenser, J-Novel Club, only told the current fan translator to take down what they translated. Very nice of them, and I gotta check them out now
---

I checked out J-Novel Club, and they have a few pretty prominent ones that I've read to full, like UchiMusume as mentioned, Arifureta, and I Saved Too Many Girls And Caused The Apocalypse. All 3 are worth reading, though I don't think they're on the level of Mushoku or Shield Hero or anything, but very fun read nonetheless.

I might just write up long reviews on the more prominent ones I've read though, and Arifureta, as I said many times, despite the many flaws, is very worth reading and is very very very fun.
---

I finished Mahouka. I mean... this guy is literally Jesus. I admit, his vanquishing of that suicidal truck might be one of my favorite scenes, but it's pretty funny that it generally goes unnoticed except by like 2 people.

I started Akashic Records, and yeah episode 1 really fucking sucks, but episodes 2 and on are as good as I remember. I really like the series, and if you liked Mahouka, there's no real reason not to like this one as well. Not to mention... the fan service literally stops after episode 2. Not even like every now and then, it just literally stops because the manga and LN simply didn't have any either.
---

legendarylemur posted...

the fan service literally stops after episode 2

???

I might start reading something soon, I learned konosuba got a spinoff story about megumin so maybe I'll go with that
---

kirbymuncher posted...

legendarylemur posted...

the fan service literally stops after episode 2

???

I might start reading something soon, I learned konosuba got a spinoff story about megumin so maybe I'll go with that

Lols I haven't gotten to that episode yet, but I definitely don't remember that from the manga. Might be one of those things anime added.

The konosuba spin off is pretty good. It's less eventful though, and not having Kazuma there means it's just less good. But you learn the backstory of the cat thing, which is pretty funny, and obviously Yunyun plays a major role
---

So... I got to check out some book stores after I got back home. Quite a lot of translated stuff caught my eye.

I got MH Tamashii, MH Hayate, Your Name Earthbound, Gundam Wing, and Konosuba. My wallet is practically bleeding right now.

Online book store? There isn't a physical bookstore that would sell an LN around my house hours away
---

Ah, by home I mean my country.

It's a physical store. For some reason, physical books are selling better than ever here, especially LNs. Apparently SAO was super popular here back when it first aired and caused like 5 manga publishers to start doing LNs all at once.

Lucky you. I wish there was a bookstore like that near me :(. I might buy a novel soon, but yeah it's just not the same buying this stuff online
---

I started reading the Nogi Wakaba is a Hero LN because I accidentally saw a spoiler, and the manga translation wasn't going anywhere. It's pretty enjoyable, and I really wish I had found out about the Sonoko After chapter sooner since Yuyuyu's ending has been bothering me for like two years.
---

Interesting, I haven't run into that one yet and don't know anything about it. What genre is it and all?
---

The Yuusha de Aru series(I think this is what it's called as a whole?) is a Magical Girl one that I've been expecting to go dark ever since the first anime aired due to its similarities to Madoka. The ending answered nothing I wanted answered, but apparently a short chapter in one of the LN's did which I never read.

The Yuki Yuna is a Hero anime aired in 2014 and was an anime original, but then a prequel LN started while it was still airing. The second season is coming out later this year and had its first half(which is one of the LN's) split up into three movies, two of which are already out. Without spoiling too much I get way more of what I wanted in its two prequels than the main series.
---

Nice, I'll have to check them out. Not gonna lie, my imagination isn't good at drawing anime chicks. I'd definitely rather have a good enough reference, and reading the LN becomes a whole lot easier. Since both have anime, I'll have to check them eventually. Been picking up too many series though, so I dunno, I gotta find a balance or make some hard choices and permanently drop the ones I'm less interested in
---

Since I'm gonna pass out from being too tired I'll just bump now
---

So I completed Your Name Another Side: Earthbound. Most of it is lighthearted fun, while the last chapter answers a major plot hole from the movie. A nice supplementary material to the movie, I would say.

Also, MH Tamashii volume 1. This one is OK, I suppose. The main story is that hunters are hired to aid in the establishment of Jumbo Village, but the volume focuses mostly on Kio training under the snarky veteran hunter Kurtaiz. Overall lighthearted and goofy, but can get serious when it counts.