Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.
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Another grievance I have is with Tanya the Evil. It's a good story but then the writer jumps ahead 40 years and gives away what happens to the Empire and who won the war. The only saving grace to that is that Tanya's very existence is a state secret no one is supposed to talk about, so we don't know whether she survived the war, died in a prison camp, is still fighting Being-x, or is an officer in the new Federal Republic. I just wish the writer had NOT shown us the future, it toke away a lot of the suspense.
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@folker46 The story follows the fantasy version of Imperial Germany in a war that's taking elements from WW1 (that Germany lost) and WW2 (that Germany lost). I have to admit, I kinda saw that outcome coming...
I do get your point about random flash-forwards, though. It is a real dramatic-tension-killer. Actually, I think even worse than Tanya are the series that do that right in the prologue of the first volume. My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World and... I think it was Late-Start Tamer?... come to mind there.
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@masterlillyclaw said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@kuali said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
I'd probably put Erica Aurelia down as my 'interesting, died too early' entry.
Lies down
Tries not to cry
Cries a lot ToTOne of the only series where I was like “Fine! I’ll read MTL, just give me more!”
Yes, that was one I really liked :(
How awful is the MTL? Is it better than gibberish? (I don't read fan TLs, but reading the WN itself is legal.)
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@kuali said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@folker46 The story follows the fantasy version of Imperial Germany in a war that's taking elements from WW1 (that Germany lost) and WW2 (that Germany lost). I have to admit, I kinda saw that outcome coming...
I do get your point about random flash-forwards, though. It is a real dramatic-tension-killer. Actually, I think even worse than Tanya are the series that do that right in the prologue of the first volume. My Quiet Blacksmith Life in Another World and... I think it was Late-Start Tamer?... come to mind there.
Oh, that is another thing I hate. Spoiler prologues trying to act as teasers and giving away the plot.
Loner Life volume 1 does that too, as I mentioned earlier. The book is better if you skip that part and then read it near the end.
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@harmlessdave said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
How awful is the MTL? Is it better than gibberish? (I don't read fan TLs, but reading the WN itself is legal.)
I don’t have a lot of MTL experience; I try to avoid it if at all possible, really. With that in mind, it was “normal” MTL in that it was bad but I dealt with it anyways.
(The only reason I dived in for DDD is because of the current bleakness of future LNs + there being so much more in the WN. Like, last I remember, it started either the penultimate or the final arc somewhat recently. So if MTL is the only way I could read that, for me it was worth it despite the gibberish.)
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@masterlillyclaw said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@harmlessdave said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
How awful is the MTL? Is it better than gibberish? (I don't read fan TLs, but reading the WN itself is legal.)
I don’t have a lot of MTL experience; I try to avoid it if at all possible, really. With that in mind, it was “normal” MTL in that it was bad but I dealt with it anyways.
(The only reason I dived in for DDD is because of the current bleakness of future LNs + there being so much more in the WN. Like, last I remember, it started either the penultimate or the final arc somewhat recently. So if MTL is the only way I could read that, for me it was worth it despite the gibberish.)
Thanks! That's another two for the Hate list:
Business reasons keep JNC from even trying to rescue license WNs for a JNC series that was canceled in Japan :(
Japanese publishers are slow to switch to digital-only releases for less successful titles.
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Oh! I just thought of one...
The cover art for a significant majority of LN series is so raunchy that I can't even support series I like by purchasing the physical volume. Arifureta or Lazy Dungeon Master would be two examples. I'm not about to prominently display images of scantily clad underaged girls (often with ridiculous proportions) in my home library. I should note that anime figurines and posters are also right-out for similar reasons (or would be if I liked collecting such things, which I don't and never have).
With a few exceptions, such as Bookworm, I am an eBook only reader, despite having the disposable income to much more fully support my hobby were any such options available.
I realize that I'm much older than the target demographic for most of these series so maybe this is an unreasonable expectation.
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@unknownmat I am right there with you. Even when I was in my 20"s, there was no chance of me buying a figure or books with certain covers. It's just not a conversation I want to have with people.
I plan to buy the bookworm fan books, and I will likely by all the physical volumes.
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@unknownmat Hmm... Looking down the volumes in my subscribed series list, there's actually not a lot in the way of raunchy covers. Cooking with Wild Game's probably the worst offender (since the women of the Forest Edge are basically walking around in modern beachwear and, occasionally, veils). Whearas the romances are all relatively tasteful (admittedly, stuff like Dahlia in Bloom and Marielle Clarac probably weren't trying to market themselves to teenage boys in the first place), and even the front cover for JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World is pretty tame.
(Admittedly, I never read Arifureta and LDM).
But yeah, I skipped out on stuff like figurines and posters as well.
I'm actually an 'ebooks only' buyer, too, but in my case it was for commuting reasons (loading them onto my phone is way more convenient than carrying books to work and back) rather than being scared off by the covers.
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@unknownmat Marvel and DC comics are guilty of the same thing so it's not just the Japanese who are guilty of "spicing up" the cover art. Super hero women have always had unrealistic proportions, clothes so tight they might as well be nude that show off their tits and ass, and covers that have nothing to do with what happens inside the mag. When it comes to teenage boys and young lonely men, sex sells.
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@unknownmat
I love the covers of Bookworm, I've also started to collect the physical editions. I do wish they'd do a physical edition of Apothecary (the LN, I don't read manga).80s romances though are notorious for horrible covers as well. (and 90s ones aren't much better)
Reading: Ascendance of a Bookworm; Apothecary Diaries; Holmes of Kyoto; The Reincarnated Princess Spends Another Day Skipping Story Routes
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@folker46 so do romance books and harlequin. It might not be an exclusive problem, but it doesn't change the fact its a problem.
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@unknownmat said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
I should note that anime figurines and posters are also right-out for similar reasons (or would be if I liked collecting such things, which I don't and never have).
I literally have a naked Rias Gremory on a stripper pole figure in my office ;)
@kalani said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@unknownmat
I love the covers of Bookworm, I've also started to collect the physical editions. I've also started to collect the physical editions. I do wish they'd do a physical edition of Apothecary.I've been trying to get apothecary diaries physicals for...well, since they licensed it.
@salientmind said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@folker46 so do romance books and harlequin. It might not be an exclusive problem, but it doesn't change the fact its a problem.
What, you don't like Fabio?
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My biggest gripes are when the MC's powers interact sensually with their female companions. This was a big thing with Holy Knight's Dark Road, and seems to be a thing with Zero Believers as well. It just feels so unneeded.
Also, when they give an exposition dump hyping up the villian's power only for them to get killed a volume later. Holy Knight's Dark Road did this too with the Founders of Chaos. They were supposed to be so powerful that even the God and goddess couldn't kill them, only seal them away and yet next volume the MC and his new ally kill one.
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@unknownmat said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
The cover art for a significant majority of LN series is so raunchy that I can't even support series I like by purchasing the physical volume.
My solution to this, besides avoiding the worst offenders, is keeping my entire light novel collection hidden away in my bedroom, reserving the bookcase in my living room for "serious" books (which, granted, is a luxury not available to everyone). That said, I have no posters or figurines or anything like that in my collection. Only light novels and a couple of manga series, and fortunately, while they're on their shelves, the covers aren't on display.
Still, avoiding the worst offenders means that I've ended up with a lot of series with female main characters and no romance on my shelves, even if those only make up a portion of everything I read.
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@poisonedbite said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
What, you don't like Fabio?
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Lot of responses here. I think I might have misspoken by mentioning "raunchy" covers. While overtly sexualized underaged girls is a problem for me, it's nearly as bad even if the girls are just the primary focus of the cover.
Look at it this way. If I had one or two racy covers in my library then this could be dismissed as an anomaly - maybe I just picked them up in a garage sale assortment or something. But if I have shelf, after shelf, after shelf filled with completed series of carefully sorted volumes that prominently display underaged girls - even if tastefully - people are going to start looking at me funny. After a while, the pattern becomes so clear that it stops mattering whether the covers are technically "raunchy". You might think this is an ironic concern given that my eBook collection actually does contain such volumes, but in my defense these elements are something I tolerate rather than enjoy.
By contrast, a series like Bookworm is less problematic because there are enough additional background elements that the protagonist isn't the sole focus of the art, and although she's prominently displayed she isn't obviously being "posed".
@kuali said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
Hmm... Looking down the volumes in my subscribed series list, there's actually not a lot in the way of raunchy covers.
It's very possible that you have better tastes than me. Just going through my eBook collection: Altina, Arch Demon's Dilemma, Arifureta, I'm a Behemoth, Bofuri, Classroom of the Elite, Demon Lord Retry, Demon Slayer, Didn't I Say To Make My Abilities Average, Gabriel Dropout, Goblin Slayer - and that's just alphabetically up to "G" - all have at least a few covers that I would not be comfortable displaying in my home.
I might have unintentionally exaggerated when I said "signficant majority", but it's at least common enough that there are plenty of examples.
@folker46 said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
Marvel and DC comics are guilt of the same thing so it's not just the Japanese who are guilty of "spicing up" the cover art.
Fair enough. FWIW, I also don't purchase or read western comics.
I dunno. Given my limited exposure I'm on shaky ground here. My impression is that the women - despite all the problems you mention above - are not so obviously underage, and they often share the cover with equally stylized male characters. Somehow, a middle-aged man owning a bunch of DC or Marvel comics comes off as juvenile rather than as creepy. But this may just be my own bias.
@kalani said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
80s romances though are notorious for horrible covers as well. (and 90s ones aren't much better)
Good point. 80s romance comes off as very low-brow, but the actors are not underaged, and the focus is as much (or more so) on the male lead as on the female lead. I would be embarrassed to have a library filled with romance novels but for a completely different reason.
I, too, would be willing to display the Apothecary Diaries books in my library.
@salientmind said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
So do romance books and harlequin. It might not be an exclusive problem, but it doesn't change the fact its a problem.
Fair point. None of these books would be in my library. I suppose the only thing that makes JPN LNs different is that I actually enjoy reading them and actively seek them out.
@poisonedbite said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
I literally have a naked Rias Gremory on a stripper pole figure in my office ;)
Geez. That would be a hard "no" for me. I think it might even lead to a divorce.
@waterdweller said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
My solution to this, besides avoiding the worst offenders, is keeping my entire light novel collection hidden away in my bedroom, reserving the bookcase in my living room for "serious" books (which, granted, is a luxury not available to everyone).
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, because there is no temptation) with a wife and child in the house, there's no such thing as a private space where I can collect such material. I suppose my eReader is the sole private space left to me.
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@unknownmat For the record, I was just talking about my subscriptions list on j-novel club. There are some more... dubious... covers in my wider ebook collection - including some of the ones you mentioned (specifically Bofuri, Average Abilities and Gabriel Dropout). And no, I wouldn't really want to fill a bookshelf with those (even if I was inclined to get a bookshelf).
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This discussion about the acceptability of light novel covers has got me thinking that perhaps I should just buy whatever series I want to without even giving covers more than the briefest of considerations, as the people who are liable to judge me for it would probably judge me regardless of how carefully I select my light novels (or manga).
And anyway, it's unlikely that I'll ever show my collection to anyone who isn't already into the "trinity" of Japanese media (anime/manga/light novels), and who as a group would probably either be accepting, or at the very least understanding of the issue with all the unfortunate cover art.
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@kuali Weird. Bofuri covers don't even proc my concerns, they seem fairly ordinary to me. It's such a weird thing to see how much my opinion of problematic covers can differ from others, because I do agree with most of those other series listed.
