What makes your favourite light novel your favourite?
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@paulnamida this is such a perfect description of why I like Dendro, and I had no idea how to word it until now. I freaking LOVE battle shonen so much, and what drew me to this novel was really the depth of the game's setting, worldbuilding, characters, and how they all clash to shape the future. It's very One Piece in a sense, especially with Ray fighting to live in a way that he can be proud of while keeping his ideals.
On that note, Infinite Dendrogram is definitely my favorite light novel from Jnovel. Something else I love is that the embryo system makes it so that even though this is an MMO with typical RPG classes, they really build upon the whole "infinite possibilities" thing. No two characters have the same power. Everyone's embryo and their abilities are a reflection of who they are, it's like stands or nen, making it fun to peel back the layers of characters and figure out WHY they have their power or what happened in their lives to make them act or respond in certain ways. One of my favorite reveals of all time was in volume 10
This series just delivers everything I want from action, juggling a wide cast of characters, to absolutely gorgeous art. I can't stop thinking about Dendro whenever a new volume comes out lol. This anime adaptation is gonna tide me over until the prepubs come back.
I also agree on Spider btw! It's my favorite Yen title and I love the sheer density of content from the double POV and time perspective changes.
Besides that if I were pressed to make a top 3 I would like to shout out Obsessions of an Otome Gamer, published by Cross Infinite World. It is one of the MEATIEST releases I've seen, and it's an otome isekai romance played completely straight. It has drama, it has suspense, it has a lot of intrigue. And it's a love triangle, no harem. The first novel is set in primary school days, and second volume set in middle school. Also, the slant on the otome game was about classical music. You can tell how much the author loved or researched classical, romantic, baroque music etc. There is a very unique fervor in the way that the prose describes the effect music has on the characters, and the descriptions used as similes and metaphors for the music itself. I was consistently impressed with the writing, I want to shake the translator's hand!
The character development is incredibly impressive and even though those books were like twice or three times the length of a normal LN, I devoured them within a week, reading them before I went to bed, on my commute, and as soon as I got home from work. They were that good. I hope Jnovel Heart can get some super solid romance dramas like that one, because when the prose hits you, it hits! I haven't had a chance to look at prepub stuff because life got in the way in December, but from what I saw of the license hauls at ANYC, there are some really promising titles we got...
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My favorites are usually the series I find to be the most immersive, you know the books you lose track of time reading and find hard to put down. For me some examples are Crest/Banner of the Stars, Alderamin on the Sky, Lord Marksman and Vanadis, and Tokyo Ravens.
