In terms of conflicts you hate, I don't like it when you manufacture a conflict just for the sake of drama.
It happens a lot in romance plots/sub-plots, for example
MC: I'm going to choose side characters plan/method instead of love interests
Later Love interest is either jealous or begins questioning how MC feels about them
and now that is going to be the sub-plot/character motivation for this episode of love antics (added points if side character is actually another potential love interest)
Or a none romantic example
Side character: Why is MC acting so suspicious, instead of asking them about what they're doing I'm just going to secretly investigate/stalk them
Or they ask and the character is just being vague for no reason

But like with anything if it's written well enough (and/or for comedy) I'd still forgive it

@myskaros Uou. That was fast :)
Nice to know. Thanks a lot.

@paulnamida said in Who is the most clueless male protagonist?:

@paul-nebeling Bakarina's black hole tier denseness is probably unbeatable.

I kind of want to see what would happen if Bakarina met one of these dense male MCs
I mean can you imagine what would happen if she met Ichika? I'm sure the two of them will get along fine, but their harems?

Voting Monday for Elf Bride, Dendro, and Werewolf (and technically Kokoro, but I won't start that until the ebook comes out).
I also need to read LDM one of these days. I might binge it when more is out.

Meh we never will get such a thing in germany. Damn book price binding.

The Great Justus R. Stone has decreed Megumin as "Best Girl, Fight me!" (in his newest top ten list) My faith in lord Justus R. Stone has only deepened! I will even commit the sacrilege of JNC if the holy Sam disagrees and fights back! Do not worry my Lord, even if you do not like to "fite" I will.
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I've actually brainwashed my twin boys (not-identical). They both love the idea of reading. When they were learning to crawl, I would read books with me and the book on the floor a couple feet in front of them to encourage them to start crawling. They were extremely curious about what was keeping my attention.

We would read stories to them almost every single night before bedtime (punishment for extremely bad behavior was having the story time taken away).

My biggest tool I used to brainwash the kids was the concept that "people seek to confirm that which they already believe". I talked about how great school was and told hem what they would be able to do when they learned to read and do math. I got them excited about things like pen and paper role-playing games and more.

One kid I was a little too successful at brainwashing, when I told him how long Christmas break was he started crying. When Valentines Day came around the teacher had him fill out a card that had "love is" printed on it he wrote "scool" [sic]. He just got out of kindergarten and two days ago I asked him how he liked his summer break; he said "I don't. I hate breaks."

The kid has already read three of the five books from the Prydain Chronicles on his own without help (AKA The Black Cauldron series). I didn't read that series on my own until I was well into first grade.

My other son has struggled a little more but seems to be doing much better after he finished the summer reading class we put him in.

Back on topic though, I prefer light novels over manga. I would rather read the light novel before watching the Anime or read the manga.

I was summoned to another world with the power of magical wish contracts

My name is John Smith and I was summoned to another world yada yada human kingdom alliance yada yada demon king yada yada you get the general idea. It turns out I have an extremely broken power as I am able to put an end to the war between humans and demons, well not necessarily as the cost is too great for that. What cost? Well I can grant any wish possible but the wisher needs to pay a price to me that I keep for myself. Now to an extent I can choose what the price is, as I need to think it a fair price and one I want myself. The thing is, if I save someone else's life I think it is only fair that their life belongs to me now. You can see the problem when this is on a world scale. I can not stop the war but I can take the top demons out of the picture, the price is still great but at least if the human alliance shares the price it can be granted. What is the price? Well I am a young healthy teenage boy, the price was well... every cute noble girl. It turns out in the whole alliance there was 1278 cute noble girls. Well there was a bit extra for that price but this was really the main bulk of the price. The other part was money and land, 25% of land and money from each nation part of the alliance. This is how my life started in this other world, wiping out all the top-level demons, getting a harem of girls and starting my own kingdom with a bunch of money too. The war with the demons would only last a few more months before the demons spread across the world scattered and peace fell upon the world. I go on adventures, grant people wishes and lived peacefully. Or so I thought 10 years later all the top-level demons returned, this is why you should be specific when you make a wish. Sigh.

I kind of talked about it in the first podcast I did, but the biggest thing that holds me back from reading English made works are their art. If the art looks cheap, it makes me think the rest of the product is a cheap cashgrab too. Even some of the better art looks doujinishi quality.

Though, I just looked at Varnell's two latest releases that are not in the American Kitsune series, and they look good, especially the third volume character; the first volume art looks off to me though, not quite LN quality.

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There are good artists out there taking commissions you could contact to create something. If you're going to do an English light novel inspired novel, and you think your story is of high quality, go all out with at least the cover to match the story quality.

Here are all of Varnell's works from Goodreads so you can take a peek at them:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/8031812.Brandon_Varnell

@eternal-wanderer I hope so anyway! I think I've determined the source of the issue (hardware acceleration attempts to stretch it using OpenGL bitmap textures but your devices memory is too small for the resolution it tries. Changing the resize method to software before rendering should fix it.

Prompt: These Donuts are great! Nothing beats a Jelly filled Donut.

@smashman42 Obviously Airi Arcadia is leagues better than the other girls.

@tremorc
Yea, they're B2 sized. The perspective might throw you off a bit cause that's a pool table they're sitting on.

@drone205 only time I'm okay with this... is when they are genderbent. Damn, is Kyonko x Itsuko hot AF

Just finished “In the Pool” which @BloodyGaikotsu mentioned in another thread and loved it. Very funny collection of short stories about a neurology doctor by the guy who wrote “Lala Pipo”. I wish some more of his stuff would get translated, really dig his work. He’s also written Light Novels and I feel his work would be appreciated by LN readers with a certain sense of humor.

Also went to Kinokuniya in LA yesterday and loaded up on some Japanese fiction. “Tokyo Zodiac Murders”, “Strange Weather in Tokyo”, “Cult X”, “Convenience Store Girl” and a collection of Murakami short stories. Along with four volumes of Rokka of the Braves, 4 Sword Arts, the second Bakemonigatari and both volumes of the Laid Back Camp manga and I’m set for a bit... (ok, I over indulged but I blame that on Kinokuniya withdrawal since the Costa Mesa store closed).

I'm finding the Netflix series Trollhunters to be quite good.

@paul-nebeling said in ???Mystery???:

While I'm not a huge fan of mysteries, I've found that they fall into two broad categories. The more prevalent "Who done it" and the less common "How done it". I've found the latter to be more interesting.

Sherlock Holmes (books, certainly not the Sherlock TV show) would fall under the " How done it" category then while Agatha Christie would fall under the "Who done it."