The Maiden's Garden
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Of course you can find them relatable. I didn't say you couldn't. But in a cast where I don't find anyone with anything I can relate to, I can route for a character based on just their gender.
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@hakomari said in The Maiden's Garden:
Of course you can find them relatable. I didn't say you couldn't. But in a cast where I don't find anyone with anything I can relate to, I can route for a character based on just their gender.
I find it interesting that you say "I can route for a character based on just their gender" when you say that after saying if there is not anyone you can relate to, this tells me that you do not relate to said male character because there is no one you relate too. In RWBY do you root for Jaune because he is male or do you root for him because he is an underdog that is working hard to improve himself and to overcome his weaknesses? Can you name some of those Characters you "route for [...] based on just their gender?"
edit: This has nothing to do with this but I really like breaking down arguments, ever since I learned and had to break down arguments in class like saying X is a Slippery slope or Y is attacking a Strawman, etc. I have just done it for fun now.
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Tbh, I am not really sure. This isn't really something I have thought about until well... you mentioned it. I just know that he is the character I route for. It was just a guess that I am routing for him based on his gender. It is fully possible that it is actually his story. I find Ruby interesting but I can't really say I relate to her.
Or perhaps it is that just by being male, those characters have enough characteristics for me to be able to relate to them.And tbf routing for a character doesn't really mean you relate to them. Perhaps I misspoke there too.
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@paulnamida Sorry, I didn't see your post. I think it was posted while I writing my previous reply. I realize the OP was asking for stories where there was a developed female character with a role that's more than falling in love with a guy and making him look good. Since I don't have to be as careful with my wording, these were three parts to what I was talking about
Japanese Culture: This was the obvious PC part. I live in a very liberal area so I couldn't quite tell if that wasn't a motivation. I go to conversation events and sometimes they'll phrase it in a way similar to the OP. I was checking this.
Fan Service: Otaku media is full of it. If you can't handle fan service then you're going to hate 95% of the stuff out there. Whether it's pretty girls, cute guys, or wish fulfillment personalities/scenarios, fan service is core to most otaku media. Some are better at dressing it up than others though.
Tropes: During an episode of Writing Excuses, a how-to-write podcast, Brandon Sanderson talked about how different a writer should be. You don't want to be so different that readers, publishers, and stores don't know what to do with your book. Like, what aisle do you stock the story in? However, you don't want to the same as everyone else. He mentioned that in the west, that balance is roughly 30% same and 70% different while for anime or manga, it might be 70%/30%. It's just what the market wants.
I've found that the tropes in anime make the character voices stronger, but stories become more alike. It can make it seem like the characters are just cardboard cutouts once you've seen enough versions of them. So, if you want radically different plots or characters all the time, then you probably won't find it. How many tsundere/yandere/kuudere/other-dere characters are there? How many isekai or battle harems are there? Since the target audience is mostly male, most of these tropes are going to be things that men like.
So, that all leads up to, if you don't like these things, are you sure you want this to be your hobby? Wouldn't you be happier doing something else?
However, like I said, I misjudged her character and taste.
And yes, I was a bit hard on shojo. My distaste for it was coming out. I had a buddy who liked it and watched a bunch, but I never really liked them. The standard romances were better than the reverse harems. It seemed like the heroines always had less personality than the generic harem guy.
Sorry for derailing your thread. Back to recommendations!
The Devil is a Part-Timer - This one is a reversal of the isekai genre that has the fantasy world coming to modern day Japan, where the Demon Lord works at not-McDonald's and the Hero works at customer support center for a cellphone company. There's a lot of back and forth between the two protagonists, the Demon Lord and Hero. There was also an anime a while back too.
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I remember watching Maid Sama! and I think I will start reading the manga for that soon. I think I remember the MC starting off unlikeable but then we see more about her and she starts to grow as a person. I remember liking the Rival to the main Love interest guy, the MCs childhood friend, much more the guy. I remember liking most of the supporting cast in general like the Maid Cafe girls and the (Guy? Girl? Trans? I forgot). The MCs two close friends and that Vice-president guy I remember liking.
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@eins I totally get you about the reverse harems, Ouran High Host Club aside, they end up with the most generic MCs ever. I really dislike that setting. But give me a regular romance/drama shoujo and I'll be drooling all over it.
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The formum software scolded me when I tried to necro an old thread about my Little Sister Can Read Kanji so I decided I'd just post a question here in the thread I OP'd.
I read the first two chapters of this story and am wondering if it'll keep with the Idiocracy theme? I'm kinda fascinated by this Japanese indigenous reflection on what current trends might yield in 200 years. The main story may not be my thing, but it could be worth it if it keeps with the introspection.
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@eins @DrYuriMom The Devil is a Part-Timer is pretty good with mostly good female characters. The anime covers the first two volumes with a side story from the seventh and one original episode (a swimsuit/"beach" episode). Yen Press is the English publisher and there are 10 volumes in print. There are 18 or 19 volumes in Japan, plus two "prequel" volumes.
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Well in addition to "Me I'm a Genius" and "Outbreak Company" I'm finding other good titles on J-Novel.
I'm thoroughly enjoying "The Magic in this World is Too Far Behind". Yes, it has an OP male protagonist who collects an ever-larger harem, but the female characters are well portrayed and they all have well-described reasons for being a groupie for the protagonist. Oh, and I like the idea of a story not from the Hero's perspective. :-)
And, as noted earlier, I did get hooked on "Walking my Second Path in Life". I'll share more in the main thread for that.
Finally, a guilty pleasure. "How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord". I should not like it, but I do. Sigh.
I have only read the first chapter of the first volume, but the "Faraway Paladin" does look potentially fantastic. It is where my next credits will be going.
So far I've only found one "run, don't walk to the nearest exit" and one "not quite sure about this. I think I'm running about 75% positive?
@Paul-Nebeling and others, I watched the Devil is a Part Timer anime and loved it. I'll look for the LN. Thanks for the tip!
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@dryurimom The Devil is a Part-Timer! Is published by Yen Press. I get my copy digitally thru Amazon.
P.S. After reading Faraway Paladin, my thought was that it's too good for an anime.
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I just got Toradora LN now. I have not watched the anime but I certainly have watched the Fight that takes place in it. That Fight puts most Shonen Fights to shame, Two girls that just brawl it out and who know how to fight. Girls who just Slap are kind of lame but those who punch and kick are great. I have also seen the "Boing, boing, BOING!" scene too, that was funny.
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I am in tears right now as I write this, my mind still spinning from having read the first volume of the Faraway Paladin. It is by far the best book I have read here on JNC and among the best LN's I've ever read.
Mary made it instantly onto my "best anime/manga/LN moms list, ranking high enough to join my "fantasy girl's night out" along with Kaname Junko, Lindy Harlaown, and a handful of others. I can hardly wait to learn more about William's guardian, Gracefeel!
This story is exactly what I meant when I said that a story can have a male protagonist and still speak powerfully to women. This story gets an A+.
@drone205 Re: Toradora, the banter between Taiga and "bakachi" is awesome, isn't it? :-)
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I just got the Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online LN and I have watched the Anime and I can safely say that this series would make it here (though part of the reason is that it is just a good series, to begin with). The Characters are great and I just love the Protagonist, Karen or Llenn (anime show all letters in caps like LLENN) as she is called in the game. I just love the characters and especially Llenn, they all just feel so real to me and I can just go on with how much I love them if I really want to.
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another series I really love that would be here too is the Monogatari series. I love almost every character in the series and how for the problem to truly go away the character(s) dealing with the problem have to "save themselves," and not wait for some white-knight to come save them. Obviously, this is not a Romance so the Romance is not the main focus or even that much important to the story happening at the moment but it is done really well. Araragi and Senjogahara make a great couple that does not have any of those really cliche and tropey Romance stuff you would see in other series like NEVER ASKING ABOUT ANY CONTEXT WHAT SO EVER! the romance just feels kind of real especially without any of that lovey-dovey stuff or the like (like seriously! what is with nearly every romance trying to jam in all the Lovey-Dovey stuff every chance it gets. Most of that just happens at the beginning of the relationship anyway, not the whole relationship). another thing that helps me love this series is that the Fanservice is not for the audience but for Araragi the MC, none of the characters Araragi has no romantic or sexual feelings for, get any sort of Fanservice scene or moment. Even if they do get into a Fanservice moment, it is not written as such because Araragi has no romantic or sexual feeling for that character.
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@drone205 said in The Maiden's Garden:
I just got the Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online LN and I have watched the Anime and I can safely say that this series would make it here (though part of the reason is that it is just a good series, to begin with). The Characters are great and I just love the Protagonist, Karen or Llenn (anime show all letters in caps like LLENN) as she is called in the game. I just love the characters and especially Llenn, they all just feel so real to me and I can just go on with how much I love them if I really want to.
I hope the novels are a bit more fleshed out - the last episode was waaaay too happy ending whiplash when really Pito would still be super screwed up. I wanna know more about the other characters that got introduced, the one that Llenn took the ammo from and the one that boom! head-shotted Pito
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@smashman42 well, they just adapted 2 volumes, the series is up to volume 6 right now in Japan, so I'd keep my hopes up for that.
