Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.
-
With all the discussion about physical releases and their covers, I've thought of another grievance, mostly against a certain publisher: too little text per page, making volumes way thicker and heftier than they need to be. Even if I want to start collecting more series, I'm really starting to hit the point where I'll run out of shelf space just by continuing to collect my current series. If every publisher could fill the pages with text the way j-novel does, I could probably fit 50% more volumes in the one bookcase I've reserved for light novels.
For illustrative purposes:
Guess which volume has the higher word count.
The answer: Ascendance of a Bookworm - 84k words, Reincarnated as a Sword - 79k words. It's ridiculous.
(Back when I bought my first light novel volume, I did so with the intention of stopping once I had filled one smallish bookcase (80cm wide, with 6-7 shelves, three-and-a-half of which have been filled so far). If I want to stick to that, I really can't start collecting any new series. Moreover, finding room for another bookcase in an out of view place would be a pain in the rear. Having more compact volumes would be a big help.)
Edited to add an illustrative photo, and again to add the math:
-
@georgemto
I was just thinking that. They're literally wearing, like, armor. well, book 4 has the twins hugging, but they're fully covered. -
@poisonedbite / @GeorgeMTO So, when I mentioned Bofuri, this is what I was responding to:
@unknownmat said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
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.
Bofuri may be relatively tasteful with how it displays its stars, but it is still a bunch of 'young female' covers.
Incidentally, to add to the list of things that annoy people: Have you seen the armor they use? In medieval times, you wouldn't walk into battle in plate armor deliberately made to expose your upper arms and upper legs. That's basically saying to the enemy "I have too many limbs! Why don't you relieve me of one?" Or lighter armor that has 'tasteful' cutaways on the sides of the torso to show off how toned your abdomen is ("Why yes, sir, I do have too many kidneys! Help yourself!").
This is hardly a Japan-exclusive issue, of course, but it does still irritate me when you see sets of armor (even in video games) that are so clearly designed as costumes rather than armor. Honestly, I'm happier to see people walking around in regular clothing saying that they're protected by their character level or strengthening magic or something...
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/6701/omnibus-builder
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/5745/ascendance-of-a-bookworm-omnibus-editionsThe Primal Desires: Food, Sleep, Sex, StroZero, Hypnotism, and Awayuki Kokorone.
Item Diaria Apothecaria legi debent.
-
@folker46 Personally, I really like when series with a rather op MC do that (The girl who ate a death god, is another example). Because it let us know that despite how powerful those characters are, defeat is coming, which help keep the tension hight.
Obviously it's a problem if those future parts starts spoiling the plot, but as long as it stays vague enough on the MC whereabouts and how major events unfolded it's fine. -
I guess I just don't see the problem with having the characters on the cover. Unless they're like, loli's. I don't judge sao for having kirito on the front. I judge it for a lot of things, but not that.
And it's well known that bikini armor gets more effective the smaller it is. That's just basic magic.
-
@poisonedbite Take that up with @unknownmat, they're his criteria!
And as we found out in Sexiled, that thing about showing more skin helping with the magic was actually a lie! Turns out the guy in charge just wanted to make women wear degrading outfits, go figure...
-
@poisonedbite No worries. You're welcome to collect based on whatever criteria makes sense to you.
@kuali Thanks for providing the context of my remarks. You had indeed responded in the spirit that I had intended.FWIW, let me just give one example of the kind of awkward interaction I'd be afraid of given room full of even "tasteful" images of young 2-D girls.
I have a daughter who is on the cusp of entering middle-school. I can just imagine one of her friend's parents getting a good look at something like this while dropping their kid off at our house:
(NOTE: Just a random image from the internet).In that case, do I say nothing and just hope they understand and appreciate anime subculture? Somehow, preemptively defending myself seems even worse: "Oh! I just read light novels for the plot. It's not at all like I have an unhealthy obsession with young girls or anything. Don't worry! You're daughter will be completely safe at our house. Really! See you at six. Goodbye."
-
@raitoiro said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
Personally, I really like when series with a rather op MC do that (The girl who ate a death god, is another example). Because it let us know that despite how powerful those characters are, defeat is coming, which help keep the tension hight.
I didn't respond to @Folker46 because I took them to be specifically focused on Tanya the Evil. But I agree that revealing the outcome ahead of time can be a useful story mechanic when used well. Another example that comes to mind is The Boondock Saints where this technique is used to turn an otherwise suspenseful action scenes (Two people vs. all those trained killers, will they be OK?) into humorous a one ("Stupid fucking rope.").
-
@unknownmat grin As I said, those flash-forwards are a real dramatic-tension-killer. But hey, if you want your tension killed...
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/6701/omnibus-builder
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/5745/ascendance-of-a-bookworm-omnibus-editionsThe Primal Desires: Food, Sleep, Sex, StroZero, Hypnotism, and Awayuki Kokorone.
Item Diaria Apothecaria legi debent.
-
@waterdweller I will say that I like thicker because the type is bigger and easier to read, it's one of my irritations with LN is they use such a small font I can hardly read it unless it's on an e-reader. Tanya the Evil does that. Yep, getting old sucks.
-
@kuali Diablo in How not to summon a Demon Lord complains about that too, he wants to give better armor to his "harem" but hates that the higher the level is the more skin it shows. Also, why does everyone wear leather armor instead of chainmail? Leather armor can be made to look good but in a real fight it's worthless most of the time. Chainmail wasn't that expensive, provided good protection, and could be repaired while leather was a one use item. I blame D&D for people thinking leather armor is worth anything.
-
@folker46 said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@waterdweller I will say that I like thicker because the type is bigger and easier to read, it's one of my irritations with LN is they use such a small font I can hardly read it unless it's on an e-reader. Tanya the Evil does that. Yep, getting old sucks.
That's another nice thing about an e-ink reader. A couple of taps and you've made the font as large as you want.
I get the fun of collecting physical novels, and I did that back when most books were only available in paper editions. I had bookshelves overflowing with more boxes of books in a bedroom closet.
Once you switch to ebooks though it's nice to be able to have hundreds of books taking up zero space.
-
@unknownmat said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@poisonedbite No worries. You're welcome to collect based on whatever criteria makes sense to you.
@kuali Thanks for providing the context of my remarks. You had indeed responded in the spirit that I had intended.FWIW, let me just give one example of the kind of awkward interaction I'd be afraid of given room full of even "tasteful" images of young 2-D girls.
In that case, do I say nothing and just hope they understand and appreciate anime subculture? Somehow, preemptively defending myself seems even worse: "Oh! I just read light novels for the plot. It's not at all like I have an unhealthy obsession with young girls or anything. Don't worry! You're daughter will be completely safe at our house. Really! See you at six. Goodbye."
Ah, I see what the problem is. You think people will care, and you care what those people think. Trust me, no one is going to pull books off your shelf and judge you about the covers. Unless your family and friends are like, super religious or something. Which they might be given your aversion to something as completely unsexual as Bofuri. Books marketed to teens have teens on/in them. It's just japanese YA.
And, well, if someone does ask, that's when you convert them into a weeb too.
One of us. One of us. One of us.
-
@poisonedbite said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
Which they might be given your aversion to something as completely unsexual as Bofuri. Books marketed to teens have teens on/in them. It's just japanese YA.
It doesn't bother me, but the volume one cover has Maple in Bikini Heavy Armor as if that makes sense. I think you've become a little bit desensitized to fanservice ::)
-
Let’s leave the best slight jab contest for another topic
(Which I will immediately lock)
Thank you
-
@harmlessdave
Her armor is historically accurate, actually. The shield covers the thighs, cuisses aren't worn to improve mobility. It's also not a bikini, that's a tasset, and the skirt is her faulds. She's also not wearing pauldrons, but the great shield covers that too. -
It seems to really bug you that I draw the line at Bofuri. I don't really know what to say. You do you, but I'm just not comfortable being publicly associated with 2-D anime girls. The prominent placement of the characters on the covers of the books will prevent me from ever purchasing the physical volumes.
-
@poisonedbite said in Hate on what you Love. Let's air our grievances.:
@harmlessdave
Her armor is historically accurate, actually. The shield covers the thighs, cuisses aren't worn to improve mobility. It's also not a bikini, that's a tasset, and the skirt is her faulds. She's also not wearing pauldrons, but the great shield covers that too.First, my apology if you took my comment as a jab, it wasn't intended that way.
To me, a female character who is supposed to be a heavy armor tank being shown with bare shoulders and bare legs is fanservice. It feels like (heavy) bikini armor since I'd expect her to at least be wearing heavy cloth or leather on any area not covered by the armor.
It doesn't offend me, I just roll my eyes and think "yup, fanservice."
Contrast Maple's armor with Paks' here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deed_of_Paksenarrion
-
If I may change the topic, I have another grievance that I wanted to discuss...
Namely, the writing in many LNs is just bad. There are professionally published LNs that seem to violate every rule of good writing. And while I realize that poor writing is not unique to LNs, there is certainly a lot there to be found. I can overlook, or even enjoy, many of the tropes and quirks of Japanese media. Harem antics, improbable isekai setups, OP MCs. These hardly give me pause. But bad writing ruins my suspension of disbelief like nothing else can.
A category of bad writing recently came to my attention, courtesy the "Leadale" series, that I thought I would share. I will call this category the "misapplied medium". In this case the author seems to think s/he is writing a script for an anime, rather than a novel. Consider the following specimens:
Realizing he'd been toying with her, Cayna fell to her knees. Waterfalls poured from her eyes as she inched over to Elineh.
and ...
Speechless and dumbfounded, Lonti watched as the headmaster of the Academy clung to Cayna from behind like a large child (puppy ears and tail included).
Visual metaphors, such as waterfalls from the eyes or a wagging dog's tail, make sense in anime because they depict emotional states that would otherwise be difficult to convey. But in a written medium where the narrator is sitting behind the character's eyes, and the author has the entire breadth of the English (or Japanese) language to build vivid imagery, falling back on these visual metaphors is just bad writing. And while there are plenty of other examples of bad writing in Leadale, a lot seems to stem from the author wanting the story to read like an anime, rather than like a novel. For example, trying to mimic anime tsukkomi-boke back-and-forth leads to strange (often, over)reactions that make no real sense and thus make it hard to get a read on some characters' personalities.
-
@unknownmat - good one. "Writing as if an anime or manga script" annoys me every time I read of nosebleeds, which only make sense as a G-rated visual stand-in for arousal, not in prose. Just say they are aroused for puffin's sake.
(Hall of shame award to the Strike the Blood LNs for trying to give a "logical" reason for nosebleeds.)
