Hey I am going to write a new LN, let's name it: "I-Am-Just-To-Dumb-To-Find-An-Accurate-Title-That-Describes-My-Story-So-I'm-Just-Taking-The-LN-Decription-As-A-Title"
+Zelkiiro "A Wish-Fulfillment Fantasy where a Gary Stu gets together with a Tsundere and teams up with a fucking boring cardboard cutout cast of characters and go on Adventures"
+Zelkiiro The purpose of having long LN titles is to give the potential readers an idea on what the LN is all about. It means, the long LN titles are actually short and concise enough to get the job done. It's not the publishers who are lazy, it's the otaku that are assumed lazy because the publishers thought otaku are lazy enough to read the back of the LN.
"the melon collony of haruhi suzumiya" is literally what i typed into google just now. i heard you talk about the anime so many times and thought its prob something i would enjoy watching so why not do a little more research on it, eventhough its kind of a stupid title, and then google informed me its actually the ~*~melancholy~*~ of haruhi suzumiya and now i feel really really stupid...
No Game No Life. Never before has a Japanese title made so much profound a statement throughout the history of mankind as that title. No Game = No Wife Happy Wife = Happy Life therefore No Game = No Life
I really hope we get out of the current trend of light novels soon. I'm pretty sick of the wish-fulfillment fan pandering who's the best waifu light novels that are popping up like daisies nowadays. It feels like if you want to get popular quick, you write a story with a generic Gary Stu MC, pair him up with a generic tsundere, and then fill the rest of the terribly written story in with cardboard cutout characters that don't matter.
Frankly, I'm only somewhat interested in the world building, but if the rest of the story sucks, how am I supposed to care for it? I think that you put this problem quite succinctly. Looking at my interest in anime, one might notice that I only watched 2 in the last year that I liked. As for the others, I either checked out the LN (which definitely sucked) or I didn't care for the premise (comedy, slice of life, and romance are damn near banned at sight for me).
+Bludflag Yeah, I also tend to avoid comedy, slice of life, and romance too (considering that's what many bad light novels/anime tend to be under). I don't dislike these genres at all, or any for that matter, but these seem to be the target of bad novels/anime pretty often. The only anime under these genre that I've liked recently are....Shimoneta and Ore Monogatari. I can't think of much else...which is pretty sad...
Oh god, I hate those overly long titles. I don't mind the idea of using a short sentence as a book title, but a lot of the titles mentioned are ridiculously drawn-out with very specific grammar-usage that wouldn't surprise me if even the average Japanese native speaker had trouble remembering them (Yu-shibu probably being the worst offender). Thankfully, they almost always have some abbreviated title to refer to them by that's usually around 4 syllables at most (albeit said abbreviation is usually gotten from fandom word of mouth and doesn't always appear in the official print), but it's still pretty bullshit, and even after watching this video, I'm still left baffled as to how the hell that even got started as a trend. I'm pretty sure it didn't start with OreImo, and even if it did, was OreImo so popular that other authors would go so far as to emulate its title design?
+Dogan The way its spoken in the video is a joke, the fact that these are the actual names of the novels doesnt seen very funny at all. It might just be a japanese culture thing, but i honestly think they are just straight up terrible
+YamatoFukkatsu the fault of the long titles are the publishers assuming that otakus are very lazy reading the summary at back of the book and the otakus only read titles. So they write the shortest and most concise title to attract otaku's attention and make them understand what kind of crap they are selling.
Glad I'm not the only one who wondered what the hell happened to Light novels to go from Boogiepop Phantom, Crest/banner of the stars, and Kino's Journey. To sad pandering wish fulfillment fantasy.
Lol the dude that wrote the Haruhi series actually ended up doing a manga in the early 2010s about 3 little sisters in love with their brother but in the psychological horror/mystery genre and much darker than Haruhi. The incest (between biological/half siblings) is more blatant than usual and meant to make you feel disturbed or uncomfortable.
Lucario can track a form of energy called an aura, given off by all living creatures. Lucario is the only known Fighting- and Steel-type Pokémon and evolves from Riolu during the day when its happiness is high enough. Lucario specializes in attacks that use aura energy, like Dark Pulse, and its can’t-miss move, Aura Sphere.
I know what you mean about the Metacentric anime adaptations of light novels. While I love me some meta references to oktaku culture. It just gets "Cringe worthy" after awhile. After watching Haruhi Suzumiya with a friend I almost wanted to punch something.
I thought I was an Otaku. Then I watch a video like this and realize I have no clue WTF is really going on. I just pick a show with characters I think are hot and cute, with a premise I enjoy.
In my opnion Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru is way closer to Welcome to the NHK than to Ore no Imouto ga. If you haven't read it because you thought it was the usual moe trash i insist you give it a second thought and read it thoroughly, no, really i insist.
You kinda glossed over Toaru Majutsu no Index, even though it is highly influential. It was very successful and popularized the exact type of tired LN formula that all the generic shit you mentioned near the end still uses to this day. Urban highschool fantasy with superpowered battles, harem elements, a self-insert protagonist who is special even among already special superpowered people, and who saves a new girl each arc/book. I'd say it's one of the reasons that shit like SAO even got serialized in the first place. And why 4 LN adaptations of the TMnI type are coming out this very season.
It's not that TMnI itself was bad, but you're right, it was super influential. There was even the decision to create a series based on one of the side characters despite not originally having a novel for it. A certain scientific rail gun I believe it was? I watched the first 15 minutes and shut it off because I knew what it was trying to feed me a watered down version of TMnI, which was already very watered down from the original source material. Was TMnI bad? Possibly. I enjoyed it for what it was. Was it influential and start pulling from its own ass with ACSR? Yup. Would people continue to copy that kind of production and writing for years to come? Unfortunately...
Metatronflaren I guess I could see it causing that, though I wasn't aware that/if it is influential. I actually consider Index to be, if anything, more in line with the Faust-style stuff, with its propensity for mystery, violence, and urban settings, though overall it feels more distinctly anime than most of those. I do like Index, though.
***** Look at, for example, Tokyo Ravens or Strike the Blood - they are basically TMnI with a different coat of paint. You can really see its influence in such things. Hell, it's visible even in Mahouka. Not that TMnI itself is that original, it just made a formula that works and that others copied.
Metatronflaren Index executed it well though. The plot was expansive and meaningful along with interesting battles, it followed other storylines of other groups of unique characters with personalities tied to their story, the main character wasn’t too strong and his power was tied to his interesting back story which actually didn’t make him op or a generic mc. He wasn’t a self insert as he had his own characteristics that made him different. The harem elements were whatever as I have seen much worse. The light novel was very enjoyable and the anime adaptation was borderline average as it could have been adapted better but the light novel is definitely a cut above the rest.
Yeah when you compare Magical Index with other light novels that uses the same tropes like Sword art online or Strike the Blood, it's pretty clear Index executed those tropes way better. Even though Index had pervert shenanigans and harem elements, I like how it always kept it down to a minimum. It's only there for comedy and nothing else. It never got in the way of the plot or the characters. I also liked how there's a reason for all the shenanigans. Touma having Imagine Breaker made him lose all his good luck so it makes sense for him to get into these situations. Not many anime if any have a reason for those kinds of things
This may be your most important video posted (or, at least out of the ones that I've seen so far) Whether someone endorses this trend or despises it to its core, I feel like this whole LN adaptation trend seems to just casually pass under the noses of the majority of anime fans. Not to mention that's exactly what these studios want...too much critical analysis of the developmental inconsistencies inherent to a system of animation studios solely concerned with what will sell (as opposed to more innovative, quality projects) = bad business ;)
To aru majutsu no Index is misunderstood. It’s pretty good. The harem thing is a joke that the MC’s friends break the forth wall with. It’s nothing major. It has a great plot and an interesting world. I like its variety of different characters that play different archetypes. It’s also pretty different from normal fantasy LN’s. It implements magic into the real world events such as wars and how it would actually effect our world.
little did digibro know that one of the novels he mentioned in the video would invite the next big boom of light novel trends and bring just as much trash as the meta shit
I know you are referencing some light novel series in the title but all I can think about when I read it is: Light Novel Trends Can't Really Be That Interesting by Fall Out Boy
I honestly find it quite interesting how few of these light novels received any U.S. releases. If they did at all, than they would typically just get the first few volumes translated. Then again, it seems like it's been picking up recently, as Baccano! has finally gotten a light novel translation here in the west. Hopefully that means there's more to come - though I'd probably be okay without most of the newer stuff...
Neat video. I didn't really know about light novels before Haruhi. This is a late comment but the LN trend seems like it's to be going to be "isekai WN turned LN". There are some that I'm not sure about and some I don't know much about but some in that short list are not really "meta" and/or don't have longass titles: -Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko -Jinsei (?) -Papa Kiki (iirc) -Rokujouma no Shinryakusha Although, I'm just using "no otaku character" as a benchmark.
I hear that Record of the Loddoss War started out as the Author's D&D campaign that he started writing into a light novel series after he came across the campaign notes. The time-skipped points, that was a segment of the campaign he had few notes about. And had to locate some of the notes for before he could fill it in any.
Just here to say that this was the first recommended video on the !!FLOOD WARNING!! video for me. Thought it was weird, but also mildly interesting, so came here to let people know. Maybe Digi will see it too and also find it mildly interesting. Who knows
While I largely enjoy this video quite a bit, I feel like lumping Denpa Onna in with all those long-title meta comedy/romance/harem series is more than a little unfair given how *weird* it gets, particularly later on.
There's some light novel anime adaptations that I loved so much I actually want to read the light novels, as with manga adaptions of novels that make me want to read the originals. Series in talking about include Haruhi Sazumiya, Spice & Wolf, DRRR!
+Kofi Awa Chill down man and go read some mango. I don`t get why you`re so twitchy over the way he spelt animey :) *diabolical laughter in the background*
Hooray, someone else knows about Ben-To! I started that show based off of the idea of fighting over boxed lunch and expected some fun, but that anime became one of my all-time favorites.
Every time I watch your videos I can only find myself nodding along with each point. Let it be known that I was sort of embarrassed to get overly exited just to see Saiunkoku Monogatari in ANY anime videos. It's one of my favorite series of all time, and yet I never see anyone talking about it. Most in my local anime community don't even know it exists. You would think there would be more love for a political reverse-harem story taking place inside a harem, but ??? ; P
Never in all my days watching digi, of which I was one of the earlier subscribers, have o wanted to patron your channel so much. This was amazing Incredibly informative and interesting and I just love it when you read Japanese titles. You speak Japanese so well. Which shouldn't be surprising considering you studied Japanese but it's still rare to actually hear these titles spoken out loud so I get a great kick out of it =3 I know a lot of ppl sadly won't have found this video as interesting as I did but I'm used to hearing massive info dumps exactly like this. As far as I'm concerned Digi is exactly like my Dad except about anime instead of cinema. But seriously you talk about things exactly the same 0_o Alas I have no money to give you. I am recently unemployed, about to return to college and soon to leave the country for several months, which makes disposable income rather tight. If this weren't so I swear to God that you would have a patron for life. I mean it. The moment I have a regular income again I'm pardoning you. How much do you want? I'm actually asking. If it means I can see more of this for as long as I support you then it's worth.the price =3
RantingAbout MLP Haha, thanks a ton for all the kind words/offers. I can't put a price on myself, but I'll take as much as anyone is willing to offer. Really comes down to judging what your engagement is worth and how disposable your income is.
***** Oh you. I means a lot to me that you replied =3 as for how much i would.... hmmmm i'd say about 5 euro. Donating at 1 euro a video would likely be more in my price range but i don't want it to be so small. I suppose only time will tell =T
This was such an interesting video! I would love to see something on visual novel adaptations as well, since those have been going on even longer than LN adaptations...
Every time I watch one of your videos I get really fanboyish and freak out at how right you are about everything. This one in particular gave me a make shift list per se of anime I should watch and LN I should read; since Knk, Fate and Bacanno are some of my absolute favourite shows and are essentially the structures of what I have built my entire library around. Thanks as always and if I wasn't a broke ass college kid I would easily have thrown money at you for this.
While Saekano isn't very original overall, I still quite enjoyed it, particularly due to Megumi, who stands out as feeling like quite a real person by the standards of this kind of show. Her personality and her development throughout the series is actually pretty subtle. Her story could actually be pretty great in the continuation. Since it seemed to have such an impact on your opinion of this kind of show, I'd be quite interested if you made a more in-depth video about it, even if you completely destroy it.
I just finished watching Ore no Imouto (or "OreImo"), and noticed something funny: what you say here (12:22) about the transition from dark supernatural light novels into what we have today seems to match the themes of two of the main characters of the show! Kuroneko was totally into the dark and edgy while Kirino was super into cute imouto. Guess that was also, in and of itself, some meta commentary since it was right in the middle of the turning point of those trends you described! And the irony is that it helped boost that transition. The fact that the main character of the show breaks up with Kuroneko and goes for Kirino in the end also serves as a metaphor for that... This was either really well thought or a huge coincidence! 0_0 Edit: @Digibro, dude you even painted the circles on this venn diagram (12:40) with colors similar to those characters... was that intentional? x'D
I like this video a lot, mostly because I also like to see historical trends in fiction and because I'm also a fan of the Boogiepop/SMT-like urban-fantasy-horror thing, but some of these classifications make little sense to me. Perhaps the biggest offender is Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, that is grouped up as a "straight forward romance" when in fact it's not so different from any of the series featured in the post-Oreimo train. In fact, most of the characters are related to Otaku culture in some way (the main character wants to be a game designer, the two girls in love with him are aspiring to be a mangaka and a seiyuu, prominent side-characters include animators and writers, etc.). If it counts as a "straight forward romance" comparable to Golden Time and Toradora, then so does pretty much everything you listed after (and including) Oreimo. On the other hand, the Oreimo train features several novels almost devoid of Otaku references, like Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko and Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. I would group those two as romance stories set in slightly supernatural (and weird) worlds. Rokujouma no Shinryakusha and Kore wa Zombie desu ka? are also basically just fantasy kitchen sinks whose only reference to anime culture is in the fact that they've got magical girls walking around alongside the alien princesses and the vampire ninjas. Then there's Shinmai Maou no Testament, which is also not referential at all to Otaku culture and which I fail to see how it differs from shit like Absolute Duo and Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance. I also understand that you separate the "sci-fi and fantasy" series from the "dumbass generic shit" series purely because of quality, and I get the feeling behind it, but it's somewhat dishonest to not admit that. There's no real difference in genre between Log Horizon, Jintai and Kawakami's stuff and shit like SAO and Machine-doll, as both would just be "Sci-fi/Fantasy", and the only reason they shouldn't be grouped together is that the former don't suck and are actually trying to advance the genre. The same goes for the works you group under "manga-like", unless you can elaborate further on what you mean concretely by that. In particular, I fail to see how stuff like Shakugan no Shana and Toaru Majutsu no Index aren't clearly successors of Boogiepop's "supernatural urban setting" thread sans (most of) the horror (and personality), and how series like Zero no Tsukaima and Hitsugi no Chaika aren't straight-forward fantasy series like Slayers and Lodoss. Personally, I find the very notion that a medium as diverse as manga (many times more so than light novels, but mostly for longevity) could have a single "style" that light novels could imitate completely baffling.
+ppaaccoojrf The best answer I can give to this comment, is that you both know a lot more about most of those stories than I do, and gave more thought to their classification than I did in the editing process.
+Digibro Oh well. By the way, I forgot to mention, but I think it's a good idea to split the meta-centric series in two different groups. You have the Oreimo-like harem series set in the real world where one or several characters are Otaku, which comes to include almost every romance light novel getting made right now, and then there's the "otaku gets transported to a fantasy world" trend that was probably popularized by SAO's success (as hard to admit as that may be). This one includes the "trapped in a videogame" settings from which we got SAO, Log Horizon and Overlord (and while these aren't really that referential to otaku culture, the fact that the characters are usually hardcore gamers keeps me from leaving them out of this classification), along with more straight forward stuff where the otaku main character(s) are actually transported to a fantasy world, like Outbreak Company, No Game No Life, and yet to be animated popular stuff like Mushoku Tensei and similar. In fact, the latter is probably getting more popular nowadays and phasing out the otaku romance in the real world series with a large title trend bit by bit.
+ppaaccoojrf Thanks for a great post. When thinking about were otaku trends come from, you have to also consider the influence between east and west. My firm belief is for example that the ubiquitous presence of fantastical schools mostly from the influence of the Harry Potter franchise. There may have been otherwordly before (Utena comes to mind), but I am blaming the neverending onslaught of on J.K. Rowling. Culture is not confined to a single country, it flows back and forth, transforming each time. I am also wondering how to categorize a comedic series like Baka and Test, which ridiculously mocks anime overtly and blatantly, while at the same time having a generic love-triangle plot. It is satirizing how insanely stupid most male leads are, and yet, the basic plot is nothing more than a stupider version of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. I wouldn't feel good about putting in the generic light novel-category, because it has a genuine observation on anime story telling. The observation is however fundamentally from that of those books in long-named sisters category.
Thanks for the explanation. I was confused by the really big leap between my fave horror/mystery light novels, with the anime-centric narratives. I bought Book Girl (the one you show; Bugaku Shoujo--) is definitely feels more meta/anime/mystery, while I'm now interested in checking out Boogie Pop.
Digibro is correct in not making a difference. "Light novel" are simply novels under "light novel" label. The difference is artificial, as it isn't made by content. If a title is published over its life both in a light novel label and novel label, then that title will be both without changing a word. If tomorrow NHK is published in a LN label, it would become a LN without changing anything. So no point in caring about which one is what.
Zefyris D NHK doesn't fall under the definition of a light novel because it isn't short. It isn't a flimsy definition or arbitrary label like shonen/seinen (SAO and K-On are officially classified as "seinen"). and it's important to make the distinction, because very few light novels are good, as we know. So if anyone says NHK, LotGH, Tatami Galaxy, or Shinsekai Yori are light novels, I'll correct them.
Roruman Yeah because kyoukaisenjou no horizon is short, mmmh right. You know, I own more than 500 light novels AND novels volumes from japan, and I can tell you this : in average, novels I own are slightly SHORTER than light novels I own. Why is that? Because you're confusing the 'bunko format" with "light novel". Bunko format is made to be carried easily everywhere, and therefore is often cut around 300 pages, which means that if it's longer then they'll make more volume rather than a big one (for example: lord of the rings in bunkobon is 9 volumes long). And that bunkobon is a common format in japan, both for LN AND NOVELS. you won't find that trend in bigger format, LN or not, because there's just no point in it in those case. Just to say, the propention between good and bad novels on the LN side and on the "not light novel" label side is about the same. I own LotGH 's volumes, read it all in Japanese, and I can tell you that this title is just not even half as good as some LN I've read. This novel has so many inconsistencies, illogical behaviours, blatant lack of knowledge on every talked subject from the author (politic, strategy, astronomy, technology, religion, and I could go on for a while) that it will kept me out of the suspension of disbelief pretty much 100% of the time. That is NOT something you can call good on that point. It has its good and enjoyable points too. But its style of narration is heavily pretentious for an entertainment-focused novel (as with the amount of bad stuff I listed above, this cannot pretend to be more than that anyway) which in such case just achieve to make it disappointing all along. I could continue for a while, but TL;DR version : novels aren't better than light novel, and light novel and novels are exactly the same thing, so you should inform yourself before judging.
Zefyris D Woah that's a lot right there. _"kyoukaisenjou no horizon"_ I see it has many volumes. _"novels I own are slightly SHORTER than light novels I own"_ so the Wikipedia definition is BS? _"They are typically not more than 40,000-50,000 words long (the shorter ones being equivalent to a novella in US publishing terms), are rarely more than a few hundred pages"_ _"the propention between good and bad novels on the LN side and on the "not light novel" label side is about the same"_ Apart from Kino no Tabi, Boogiepop, Narita and NisioisiN's stuff, there aren't good light novels, and even these are not masterpieces. You don't have an Eva or a Berserk among Light Novels. _"I can tell you that this title is just not even half as good as some LN I've read"_ Oh, yes, I hear bold claims all the time, but I never hear proof. I wonder why! _"politic, strategy, astronomy, technology, religion"_ Sure, *half* of LNs are better at handling these topics. I can't wait to read them. Damn, why are only the bad LN like SAO or IS getting adapted? _"I could go on for a while"_ No, you can't, you just listed some themes and what-not and said it was bad. This is still not an argument at all, it's just more claims without evidence backing it up. I feel it's gonna be one of those endless pointless debates, but I'm in, as always... _"it will kept me out of the suspension of disbelief pretty much 100% of the time"_ What? The space travel is irrealistic? Well, duh, it's not hard sci-fi, and you hardly find better anyway. They offer some justification for the choke points (different galactic arms with interference which troubles warp travel, except in those 2 paths. The terraists are 1-dimensional evil? True, but check ISIS... _"its style of narration is heavily pretentious for an entertainment-focused novel "_ It's only pretentious if it isn't as smart as it sounds, but in LotGH's case it is. It really is an epic space opera with complexity and better stuff than you find elsewhere. Have a taste of your own argument: Snob has watched over 1600 anime, so he knows LotGH is better than anything else, so TL;DR: inform yourself. Still, I will continue to call what is referred to as a light novel a LN, and a novel a novel. I'm even fine with LN being called novels, but doing the reverse is wrong.
+Roruman 1)Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon does not simply have many volumes, but lot of pages per volume, with an average of 850+ pages (with several above 1000, with up to 1150 for the biggest) per volumes for a total of 22,000 pages for this title which is still ongoing. But more importantly, you completely missed my point. Bunkobon is a format of published novel that is made to be small enough to fit in a pocket, so that peoples can easily carry it around and read it while in subways and trains. So it usually strive to keep its size small on all accounts. That's why the lord of rings is done in 9 volume in bunkobon. Bunkobon is a widely used novel size in japan, and both novels label and light novel labels uses it a lot. That's why you'll usually have less pages per volumes in bunkobon, no matter if those are light novels or not, most of them are between 250 and 450 pages due to this. LOGH for example fits this since each volume is only 330 to 380 pages long (including postscript that often takes 10-15 pages in LOGH).That's a whooping 3500 pages for the whole main series. Nothing impressive for a science fiction series on that point BTW. Not like I care either way though, since contrary to you, I don't think that number of pages have anything to do with how good is a novel. That's why most of the LN and novels I have from Japan are around that size PER VOLUME : because editors cut it in two or more if it's longer. This doesn't change the content at all, this is just a publisher choice. So for the average length of what U own, it all comes down of the number of volumes on "each side" that are either not in bunkobon size, or that didn't "respect" the general tendency of the bunkobon size. Turn out that I have far more of those in those categories LN side. With KyouHora that I mentioned earlier but also NisiOisiN (that you mentioned earlier) 's Zaregoto novel series that have several volumes above 600 and up to 750 for the biggest, or another series from kyoukaisenjou no horizon's author that have above 500 in average per volume with its last and 14th volume being 1050 page alone, individual volumes among a series breaking the 600 or sometimes the 600 pages (kyouran kazoku nikki, and lots of others) and non-tankobon like Enterbrain's label (youjo senki, yuusha sama no oshishou sama, and so on) being quite often above 500 as well. So yeah, the size and number of pages has absolutely nothing to do with being a light novel. If you compare bunkobon light novel to western novel volume, then YES? it is far smaller. Not because LN stories are shorter, but because Japan has a habbit to cut the novels in smaller parts for the purpose I talked above. So yes, the ENGLISH wikipedia definition is bullshit. They simply cut more, being short or not has nothing to do with being a LN or not. 2) While I enjoy NisiOisiN's flow of writing, he wouldn't enter a list of good author if I were to make one. Plot contrivance, unreliable narrator in mysteries, and so on would keep him out of it. I appreciate Narita as well but he wouldn't make it either. And this time, that's a big NO compared to NisiOisiN. His writings and especially his dialogues are entertaining, but he has no consistency, is unable to plain his plot on the long term (and as a result the author himself doesn't know where the story is going after a while, and he don't conclude half of his series) Kino no Tabi lacks too much development in each of its setting ImO to be validated as a reference as well. Although, I haven't read this one, only watched the anime, so can't talk about it in details (although I informed myself about the novels) I won't talk about boogiepop since I haven't read it and lacks information (only seen the anime which is AFAIK in majority original content) Anyway, as you can see none of those would make it into a list of recommended light novels. They're not bad, but at best most of them would be like 7/10 while feeling generous. (although I still consider Baccano's anime to be one of the best anime adaptation of a LN to this day, we're talking about LNs here, not their adaptations) If you want to talk about recommended light novel, then Hasekura Isuna's works like Ookami to koushinryou and magdala de nemure fits far more the bill, some novels from the genius author Akira like Biscuit Frankenstein as well, Rokka no Yuusha, Kougyoku Iduki's "man eater series" -related titles, the young SukaSuka series, Tenkyou no Alderamin, Youjo Senki, Nanasawa Matari's works, tsukumodou Kottouten, and so on. And... yeah. Science fiction side, Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon as well as Yuusha sama no Oshishou sama fantasy side, I suppose. 3) Hearing proof? I've read all of those titles and listed some better than this title above. Technically almost anyu author who does a little research before writtng is better than LOGH about those subjects, because he CLEARLY didn't took that time at all. The lack of knowledge is not just small, it's blatant, so much that it cannot be ignored because it's repeated and recurring all along. Sorry to burst your bubble, but on those point, your LOGH is absolutely horrendous. And I'm a bookworm, so I probably read more books per year than you read in your whole life.And I'm most probably quite more aged than you, too. If LOGH was the subject of this conversation I could go on for a while, yes, as I already did that on some boards. Turned out that not a single fan of LOGH could defend against any single part of what i said. Of course they can't. It's so blatantly lacking any kind of prior knowledge on those subjects it cannot be contested even by blinded fans. That's not about the space travel boy. The space travel being possible is a common "tacit agreement" between readers and authors in space opera genre. It won't break the suspension of disbelief of anyone. That would be highly unfair from me to reproach it to LOGH. As I pointed out, due to the lack of research on every subject from the author, that title isn't smart at all. As such, writing the story as if it was a history book related by historians is but pretentious. Having the author repeat you all the time how much all those characters are genius when they keep doing stupid stuff all the time isn't especially enjoyable either. It's heavy, and pretentious. You don't like to hear that because you like LOGH? That's fine. Doesn't change facts though. Did you even read the novels, or are you just comparing anime adaptations here ? Because yeah, you seem heavily uninformed on the novel you want so much to defend. Simply put, both your references on novel and Ln side are showing that you aren't informed enough about Japanese's modern novels. And I 'm certainly lacking as well, too. Just not as lacking as you, by far. To stop on the topic of LOGH and comes back to the LN/novel difference, as I said before, only the label it's published under will tell if it's a LN or not, it has nothing to do with the content. Most authors aren't famous and successful enough to be picky about where their books are published (and especially not right away, too). that's why some authors have their books on both LN and novels labels across their career, without it being dependant on content or quality.
If I was Japanese and wanted to write a Manga, I would write a Light Novel first because it is more achievable by a single person, then if the story is good and acknowledged, it will be easier to find an illustrator for your novel. Then if it's a success, it can turn into a Manga, Anime or both.
I have a soft spot for Spice & Wolf. Because it is about medieval economics and I enjoy those thoroughly researched stories that are based off what the author has learnt while writing.
i do feel that episode 0(i wonder if they would`ve used episode 0 if not for FSN last season) of Saekano felt overly generic but comming back after just watching episode one, i have to wonder(not knowing anything but these 2 episodes about the series) if its not trying to show the difficulty of coming up with an original creation(cuz of the main character getting shot down for having his plot been done before and 20 times over)
This just makes me realise how downhill some light novel adaptations have gotten, I've looked into some of the older anime adapations (of completed series) that you mentioned here and find them far better than stuff from nowadays. And I already adored Baccano and was sad it wasn't continued. At least there's Durarara some other quality material, and Ben-to was so hilariously out there that it was a blast to watch, but the cliche LN adaption of a school battle is so prevelant now that I can barely remember some of the ones I've watched. The only decent one from recently I've watched is probably the Worst Knight one, and that's only because the author goes to lengths not just to break some of the cliches but shove it in the face of the consumer that "look, I'm breaking conventions" while not completely breaking them. I'm not talking about ecchi driven stuff like Testament, Demon lord who sits in the back, or High School DxD because none of those stories pretend to be deeper than what they are, I'm talking along the lines of Asterik and SAO and the dozens of almost identical stories.
You made me finally be able to put the word down on the trend that's been going on in anime today. Meta shows. The last trend being Moe, I'm curious what do you guys think will be the next one?
garowice Well, all these shows generally fit in with the moe trend as well, though I think of moe more as part of an overall aesthetic trend than a narrative one. Like, any kind of show can be moe. As for trends I see happening, more and more shows aimed at girls and/or a general audience is something I see very slowly emerging over the next few years.
***** Well yes they do fit in into the moe trend. I was more thinking of Moe themed shows about "cute girls doing cute things". I'f my memory isn't failing me after the success of K-On we had dime a dozen of shows trying to style themselves after it for a few years. They also didn't feature much of these meta elements you mentioned.
Did you like the first episode of the second season of Durarara!! ? I haven't managed to see it yet, because europe licensing a shit, and I can't be fucked to clean up my hard-drive.
I love how the video opens with Boogiepop Phantom's opening. It feels somewhat nostalgic knowing that I watched the first few episodes years ago. I didn't even know it was a novel until now...
I am very late to the party, but I want to point out two small criticisms: 1 - Concentric circles are circles that share the same center. What you showed (intersecting circles), resembles a Venn diagram. 2 - Episode 0 of Saekano is more meta than the actual anime. I don't know if you hated it or not, but I recommend you to, at the very least, give the following two or three episodes a try. The author of Saekano is the same author of White Album 2, if that means anything to you.
Really enjoyed this Digi! Very informative and made me realize that I might be more of a light novel fan then I though, seeing as a lot of my favorite shows started out as light novels! Keep up the good work! Also, is it possible you can start listing the songs you use in your videos? I really like the music you pick a lot of the times and would love to use it when I work on homework or write, as it makes great background music!
The81stChosenOne All of the music in this was from the Samurai Champloo Departure soundtrack. And yeah, for a while the majority of my favorite shows were light novel adaptations too, which is how I got interested in their trends.
Jesus christ. I don't know how you could say all those titles at 10:35 man. I would have just quit after evening seeing the list and just showed the pics. You must have some patience to try to say all of the Japanese titles without getting them wrong.
@Digibro You're supposed to pronounce NisiOisiN as "nishio ishin " you know :D. Quite a good surprise to see some titles like Saiunkoku monogatari and kyouran kazoku nikki making it to that video. Nice references here. though, it's incorrect to say that KKN received a straight forward adaptation. KKN had basically the whole main plot removed from the anime, only leaving the initial setting and individual volumes plot, and stopping right in the middle (right where the individual volume plot could no longer be dissociated from the main plot at all). There's still plenty of "that type" of ln adaptation coming after your video though :). And still more to come, like Alderamin in the next season, for example, just like RnY was in last year's summer x)
Holy shet your pronunciation of the Japanese titles were so accurate. It is really amazing how a single series's success can change the entire direction of the anime industry. That said your knowledge on LNs and anime is quite extensive to the point I am jealous I got into anime so late.
Hey Digi anouther great video.....and it enplanes alot of things with Anime O_o; Also Holy crap with you naming off all those novels with long ass Japanese titles O_O If you don't mind, I could make some suggestions for a few videos you could make or maybe a random rant topic you can pick up on Some Suggestions: Your personal 10 favorite animes of all time (not a top 10 list but just 10 animes you basically found to either be awesome or something that actually got you into anime in general) Your personal 10 most hated animes of all time: Anime that you found to be some of the worst representations of what anime is in general What changes are made in Various Adaptations in Terms of Anime What Manga/VN/LN would you want to see a Anime Adaptation of and what Studio would you want to have work on What can make or break an Anime these are just a few ideas A random Question from me: If you were given an Opportunity to Remake/Reboot any Anime of your Choosing which Anime would you pick, why, and how would you change it, would you make it closer to its source or balance it out more? I also have a rather personal Rant on something anime related but dont want to put it into the comment section, if your intrested i can send a note or E-mail of it to ya and I would like to hear what your opnion on it is?
how to make a light novel cover: Add a cute girl with a sexual pose. Make sure your background is white. Finally, integrate your title in the most obnoxious and fucking annoying way ever. Instant bait for those fat tubs of lard that lurk in Anime Castles who just want to beat off to your new cover whilst eating a handful of junk food.
***** Based on when this came out, I assume he was referring to the prologue. After watching that episode, I'll admit I was tempted not to watch the series, but I continued and ended up really liking it.
I get how the meta was what they were going for. I thought the scene involving Tomoya peeping to listen to anime conversation as apposed to the usual peeping intention was brilliant. The thing that annoyed me was how they used the "sexual assault is funny as long as it's a girl victimizing a guy" trope.
I had to check out Saekano after you mentioned it. At first I thought you were frustrated by the first 30 seconds and thought you were being harsh; then I got past the OP. I have or am very close to having a migraine for trying to let it improve. Even so, I couldn't make it past the airplane scene.
Hi, I just started listening to your videos, and they are pretty interesting and informative, and I have found myself aggreeing with your general opinions all the way, especially in reviews which I have been shamelessly binging. I was wondering if there are any videos of yours which might discuss certain tropes and anime media methods of storytelling and creation without as much of a focus on specific titles or franchises. Thinking about it, this is probably would be difficult to attempt without some references, as these tropes are merely an amalgamation of years of productions, but I think it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the tournament fighting anime, or the "moe" style. Like why it is popular and common to see, pros and cons, maybe your own spin on how it could be used. ...Sorry this is so wordy.
Thank you for saying why some light novel anime comes off as so interesting, while others make me recoil and want to vomit. I was feeling really conflicted on this issue and this video really helped me put my thoughts into order.
This was really interesting to watch, actually. I don't actually mind the whole meta trend all that much personally, but on that note I haven't watched more than two or three series that went for that sort of approach, so I'm not really all that burned out yet. Out of the stuff still airing, though, Type-Moon's Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works had an adaptation last series that seemed to align pretty decently with the Faust-style things you had mentioned. I know you mentioned Fate among them at one point but I didn't hear you say anything in the last minute or two when you were going over more recent stuff.
Idylia Writehorse Fate is a visual novel, not a light novel, is why I didn't mention it at the end. Personally I find Unlimited Blade Works impenetrably boring.
ah yes, That...Zero anime, or whatever it's name is. It's got a rather......bizarre history with Fanfics according to TVTropes. Typically taking the form of the Female Main Character Summoning someone (or more) other than the Protagonist. The most Batshit insane one where she summons the main character from Prototype....and all the horrible implications that come with that. Another one where she summons the entire enemy Squad from Spec Ops the Line.
I actually quite like most of the light novel adaptation stuff, even the mediocre ones occasionally appeal to me so long as they aren't too H (seriously guys, actual porn is a thing that exists, you don't need to try to shoehorn it into everything else), but they do need to fucking stop with the 'literal description no literally the thing it is about' titles already. That shit is completely ridiculous.
Must say, even if she's not my first choice in waifus, you've got good taste my friend. Although i figured that an unmarried version of the girl from "I can't understand what my husband is saying" would be your fave, since you've said many times before that it was the relationship you've lived through vicariously, and is what you've always wanted from a relationship. I hope it wasn't someone else who said that, but I'm PRETTY sure it was you. I'm not really original when it comes to this topic.
I feel slightly less ignorant now, thank you. Also for some reason something in this video made me think of Chobits, which is totally random so i figured i would mention it. Honestly I forgot the title of the show and i had to go look it up, that's how long ago i saw it. So yeah if you happen to run out of ideas somehow there's a random one.
Little sisters were a mistake
Manfredo Morales himotos are love, himotos are life
imouto
just like you
ONIIII CHAAAANNNN
Now we all now this is 100% incorrect
Hey I am going to write a new LN, let's name it:
"I-Am-Just-To-Dumb-To-Find-An-Accurate-Title-That-Describes-My-Story-So-I'm-Just-Taking-The-LN-Decription-As-A-Title"
That'll never work. Try this one: "I am So Goddamn Terrible at Writing That I Can't Even Give My Work a Decent and Concise Title!"
+Zelkiiro "A Wish-Fulfillment Fantasy where a Gary Stu gets together with a Tsundere and teams up with a fucking boring cardboard cutout cast of characters and go on Adventures"
Sehej Saraon
There ya go. That sounds like a bestseller!
***** Thanks! I hope A1 will pick it up!
+Zelkiiro The purpose of having long LN titles is to give the potential readers an idea on what the LN is all about. It means, the long LN titles are actually short and concise enough to get the job done. It's not the publishers who are lazy, it's the otaku that are assumed lazy because the publishers thought otaku are lazy enough to read the back of the LN.
2010s light novels - like fanfiction written by your 15 year old edgelord supreme, but with occasional pictures.
"the melon collony of haruhi suzumiya" is literally what i typed into google just now. i heard you talk about the anime so many times and thought its prob something i would enjoy watching so why not do a little more research on it, eventhough its kind of a stupid title, and then google informed me its actually the ~*~melancholy~*~ of haruhi suzumiya and now i feel really really stupid...
Pretty good huh?
I'd watch that tbh
No Game No Life.
Never before has a Japanese title made so much profound a statement throughout the history of mankind as that title.
No Game = No Wife
Happy Wife = Happy Life
therefore
No Game = No Life
roger that
Big sad
I really hope we get out of the current trend of light novels soon. I'm pretty sick of the wish-fulfillment fan pandering who's the best waifu light novels that are popping up like daisies nowadays. It feels like if you want to get popular quick, you write a story with a generic Gary Stu MC, pair him up with a generic tsundere, and then fill the rest of the terribly written story in with cardboard cutout characters that don't matter.
+TheGreatMillz Nailed it LOL
Frankly, I'm only somewhat interested in the world building, but if the rest of the story sucks, how am I supposed to care for it? I think that you put this problem quite succinctly.
Looking at my interest in anime, one might notice that I only watched 2 in the last year that I liked. As for the others, I either checked out the LN (which definitely sucked) or I didn't care for the premise (comedy, slice of life, and romance are damn near banned at sight for me).
+Bludflag Yeah, I also tend to avoid comedy, slice of life, and romance too (considering that's what many bad light novels/anime tend to be under). I don't dislike these genres at all, or any for that matter, but these seem to be the target of bad novels/anime pretty often. The only anime under these genre that I've liked recently are....Shimoneta and Ore Monogatari. I can't think of much else...which is pretty sad...
Dear god we have a weeaboo in the comments.
A weeaboo? As far as I'm concerned, there hasn't been a weeaboo like comment here. :/
I love how you use Nujabes and Samurai Champloo's soundtrack. I really rate that anime as one of the best from the previous decade.
I think the Isekai boom was still waiting to happen around the time this video came out. Oh how naive we were...
Oh god, I hate those overly long titles. I don't mind the idea of using a short sentence as a book title, but a lot of the titles mentioned are ridiculously drawn-out with very specific grammar-usage that wouldn't surprise me if even the average Japanese native speaker had trouble remembering them (Yu-shibu probably being the worst offender). Thankfully, they almost always have some abbreviated title to refer to them by that's usually around 4 syllables at most (albeit said abbreviation is usually gotten from fandom word of mouth and doesn't always appear in the official print), but it's still pretty bullshit, and even after watching this video, I'm still left baffled as to how the hell that even got started as a trend. I'm pretty sure it didn't start with OreImo, and even if it did, was OreImo so popular that other authors would go so far as to emulate its title design?
+YamatoFukkatsu I think it's meant to be a joke.
+Dogan
The way its spoken in the video is a joke, the fact that these are the actual names of the novels doesnt seen very funny at all. It might just be a japanese culture thing, but i honestly think they are just straight up terrible
messypeter I don't really care as long as there's a shortened version, but I guess it can get a bit odd.
fair enough
+YamatoFukkatsu the fault of the long titles are the publishers assuming that otakus are very lazy reading the summary at back of the book and the otakus only read titles. So they write the shortest and most concise title to attract otaku's attention and make them understand what kind of crap they are selling.
I get the feeling the title of this video is parody of a certain other series's name.
Its a reference to My Little Sister Cant Possibly Be This Cute lol
Ah. Thank you.
"A certain other series"
I feel like that is a reference as well.. Is it?
Goreamir
not intentionally but I see how it could be taken that way lol. Let's just say I planned to reference "A Certain Scientific Railgun"
This Video's Title Can't Possibly Be a Knock on the Title of a Popular Light Novel
Glad I'm not the only one who wondered what the hell happened to Light novels to go from Boogiepop Phantom, Crest/banner of the stars, and Kino's Journey. To sad pandering wish fulfillment fantasy.
Lol the dude that wrote the Haruhi series actually ended up doing a manga in the early 2010s about 3 little sisters in love with their brother but in the psychological horror/mystery genre and much darker than Haruhi. The incest (between biological/half siblings) is more blatant than usual and meant to make you feel disturbed or uncomfortable.
Lucario can track a form of energy called an aura, given off by all living creatures. Lucario is the only known Fighting- and Steel-type Pokémon and evolves from Riolu during the day when its happiness is high enough. Lucario specializes in attacks that use aura energy, like Dark Pulse, and its can’t-miss move, Aura Sphere.
Thank you, Mr. Pokedex! 😀 Oh, where would we be without you? 😉
Lucario is a furry
I know what you mean about the Metacentric anime adaptations of light novels. While I love me some meta references to oktaku culture. It just gets "Cringe worthy" after awhile. After watching Haruhi Suzumiya with a friend I almost wanted to punch something.
When you said obnoxiously long titles... you weren't kidding.
I thought I was an Otaku.
Then I watch a video like this and realize I have no clue WTF is really going on. I just pick a show with characters I think are hot and cute, with a premise I enjoy.
Sounds like you need to expand your horizons. Humans learns and grow through experimentation.
That explains the MLP pic.
(I kid, I kid.)
I don't care about the hot cute part because I have accepted that I will be a forever virgin but the premise is still important
Calm down son it's just a drawing.
In my opnion Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru is way closer to Welcome to the NHK than to Ore no Imouto ga. If you haven't read it because you thought it was the usual moe trash i insist you give it a second thought and read it thoroughly, no, really i insist.
Hearing Digibro say "Onii-chan" 😩😂
You kinda glossed over Toaru Majutsu no Index, even though it is highly influential. It was very successful and popularized the exact type of tired LN formula that all the generic shit you mentioned near the end still uses to this day.
Urban highschool fantasy with superpowered battles, harem elements, a self-insert protagonist who is special even among already special superpowered people, and who saves a new girl each arc/book.
I'd say it's one of the reasons that shit like SAO even got serialized in the first place. And why 4 LN adaptations of the TMnI type are coming out this very season.
It's not that TMnI itself was bad, but you're right, it was super influential. There was even the decision to create a series based on one of the side characters despite not originally having a novel for it. A certain scientific rail gun I believe it was? I watched the first 15 minutes and shut it off because I knew what it was trying to feed me a watered down version of TMnI, which was already very watered down from the original source material.
Was TMnI bad? Possibly. I enjoyed it for what it was. Was it influential and start pulling from its own ass with ACSR? Yup. Would people continue to copy that kind of production and writing for years to come? Unfortunately...
Metatronflaren I guess I could see it causing that, though I wasn't aware that/if it is influential. I actually consider Index to be, if anything, more in line with the Faust-style stuff, with its propensity for mystery, violence, and urban settings, though overall it feels more distinctly anime than most of those. I do like Index, though.
***** Look at, for example, Tokyo Ravens or Strike the Blood - they are basically TMnI with a different coat of paint. You can really see its influence in such things. Hell, it's visible even in Mahouka.
Not that TMnI itself is that original, it just made a formula that works and that others copied.
Metatronflaren Index executed it well though. The plot was expansive and meaningful along with interesting battles, it followed other storylines of other groups of unique characters with personalities tied to their story, the main character wasn’t too strong and his power was tied to his interesting back story which actually didn’t make him op or a generic mc. He wasn’t a self insert as he had his own characteristics that made him different. The harem elements were whatever as I have seen much worse. The light novel was very enjoyable and the anime adaptation was borderline average as it could have been adapted better but the light novel is definitely a cut above the rest.
Yeah when you compare Magical Index with other light novels that uses the same tropes like Sword art online or Strike the Blood, it's pretty clear Index executed those tropes way better. Even though Index had pervert shenanigans and harem elements, I like how it always kept it down to a minimum. It's only there for comedy and nothing else. It never got in the way of the plot or the characters. I also liked how there's a reason for all the shenanigans. Touma having Imagine Breaker made him lose all his good luck so it makes sense for him to get into these situations. Not many anime if any have a reason for those kinds of things
This may be your most important video posted (or, at least out of the ones that I've seen so far)
Whether someone endorses this trend or despises it to its core, I feel like this whole LN adaptation trend seems to just casually pass under the noses of the majority of anime fans. Not to mention that's exactly what these studios want...too much critical analysis of the developmental inconsistencies inherent to a system of animation studios solely concerned with what will sell (as opposed to more innovative, quality projects) = bad business ;)
God dammit i hate light novel animes, they just keep having open endings.
***** Then we get Moonlight sculptor that is 40 tomes (and going) and full translated.
***** And amazing in how many times the "They are not blood related, so is okay" is used too.
Like blood related would make it more wierd, seesh.
Ofc they have open ending, LN adaptations are not artistic anymore, it's 12 episode advertisement for LN.
"the potentially forthcoming new Haruhi series"
*cries*
You pointed out the problem with naming light novels so well in the title
To aru majutsu no Index is misunderstood. It’s pretty good. The harem thing is a joke that the MC’s friends break the forth wall with. It’s nothing major. It has a great plot and an interesting world. I like its variety of different characters that play different archetypes. It’s also pretty different from normal fantasy LN’s. It implements magic into the real world events such as wars and how it would actually effect our world.
little did digibro know that one of the novels he mentioned in the video would invite the next big boom of light novel trends and bring just as much trash as the meta shit
Didn't notice till now that almost over half the shows I've watched have been light novel adaptions..
I know you are referencing some light novel series in the title but all I can think about when I read it is:
Light Novel Trends Can't Really Be That Interesting by Fall Out Boy
I love how the video title is a play on how recent light novel titles have been as well. Smooth.
I honestly find it quite interesting how few of these light novels received any U.S. releases. If they did at all, than they would typically just get the first few volumes translated. Then again, it seems like it's been picking up recently, as Baccano! has finally gotten a light novel translation here in the west. Hopefully that means there's more to come - though I'd probably be okay without most of the newer stuff...
Neat video. I didn't really know about light novels before Haruhi. This is a late comment but the LN trend seems like it's to be going to be "isekai WN turned LN".
There are some that I'm not sure about and some I don't know much about but some in that short list are not really "meta" and/or don't have longass titles:
-Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
-Jinsei (?)
-Papa Kiki (iirc)
-Rokujouma no Shinryakusha
Although, I'm just using "no otaku character" as a benchmark.
10:30 It sounds like Digi is having a stroke
I hear that Record of the Loddoss War started out as the Author's D&D campaign that he started writing into a light novel series after he came across the campaign notes. The time-skipped points, that was a segment of the campaign he had few notes about. And had to locate some of the notes for before he could fill it in any.
Just here to say that this was the first recommended video on the !!FLOOD WARNING!! video for me. Thought it was weird, but also mildly interesting, so came here to let people know. Maybe Digi will see it too and also find it mildly interesting. Who knows
While I largely enjoy this video quite a bit, I feel like lumping Denpa Onna in with all those long-title meta comedy/romance/harem series is more than a little unfair given how *weird* it gets, particularly later on.
There's some light novel anime adaptations that I loved so much I actually want to read the light novels, as with manga adaptions of novels that make me want to read the originals. Series in talking about include Haruhi Sazumiya, Spice & Wolf, DRRR!
This pretty much sums up why I cna't find decent aneemay anymo
a-n-i-m-e
+Kofi Awa Chill down man and go read some mango. I don`t get why you`re so twitchy over the way he spelt animey :)
*diabolical laughter in the background*
+White Knight meh that depends most of my favorite series come from a light novel/visual novel.
I almost didnt pay attention due to that Nujabes beat
Hooray, someone else knows about Ben-To! I started that show based off of the idea of fighting over boxed lunch and expected some fun, but that anime became one of my all-time favorites.
tsukihime was never adapted into anime
Its now 2018 almost 2019 and the true trend is sadly isekai started by SAO.....
Every time I watch your videos I can only find myself nodding along with each point. Let it be known that I was sort of embarrassed to get overly exited just to see Saiunkoku Monogatari in ANY anime videos. It's one of my favorite series of all time, and yet I never see anyone talking about it. Most in my local anime community don't even know it exists.
You would think there would be more love for a political reverse-harem story taking place inside a harem, but ??? ; P
~3 years later, isekai dominates. So you were right about a new trend emerging.
Never in all my days watching digi, of which I was one of the earlier subscribers, have o wanted to patron your channel so much.
This was amazing
Incredibly informative and interesting and I just love it when you read Japanese titles. You speak Japanese so well. Which shouldn't be surprising considering you studied Japanese but it's still rare to actually hear these titles spoken out loud so I get a great kick out of it =3
I know a lot of ppl sadly won't have found this video as interesting as I did but I'm used to hearing massive info dumps exactly like this. As far as I'm concerned Digi is exactly like my Dad except about anime instead of cinema. But seriously you talk about things exactly the same 0_o
Alas I have no money to give you. I am recently unemployed, about to return to college and soon to leave the country for several months, which makes disposable income rather tight.
If this weren't so I swear to God that you would have a patron for life. I mean it. The moment I have a regular income again I'm pardoning you.
How much do you want?
I'm actually asking.
If it means I can see more of this for as long as I support you then it's worth.the price =3
RantingAbout MLP Haha, thanks a ton for all the kind words/offers. I can't put a price on myself, but I'll take as much as anyone is willing to offer. Really comes down to judging what your engagement is worth and how disposable your income is.
***** Oh you. I means a lot to me that you replied =3
as for how much i would.... hmmmm i'd say about 5 euro. Donating at 1 euro a video would likely be more in my price range but i don't want it to be so small.
I suppose only time will tell =T
This was such an interesting video! I would love to see something on visual novel adaptations as well, since those have been going on even longer than LN adaptations...
10:30 Ah, so this is where everything started to go wrong
Every time I watch one of your videos I get really fanboyish and freak out at how right you are about everything. This one in particular gave me a make shift list per se of anime I should watch and LN I should read; since Knk, Fate and Bacanno are some of my absolute favourite shows and are essentially the structures of what I have built my entire library around. Thanks as always and if I wasn't a broke ass college kid I would easily have thrown money at you for this.
While Saekano isn't very original overall, I still quite enjoyed it, particularly due to Megumi, who stands out as feeling like quite a real person by the standards of this kind of show. Her personality and her development throughout the series is actually pretty subtle. Her story could actually be pretty great in the continuation.
Since it seemed to have such an impact on your opinion of this kind of show, I'd be quite interested if you made a more in-depth video about it, even if you completely destroy it.
I just finished watching Ore no Imouto (or "OreImo"), and noticed something funny: what you say here (12:22) about the transition from dark supernatural light novels into what we have today seems to match the themes of two of the main characters of the show! Kuroneko was totally into the dark and edgy while Kirino was super into cute imouto. Guess that was also, in and of itself, some meta commentary since it was right in the middle of the turning point of those trends you described!
And the irony is that it helped boost that transition. The fact that the main character of the show breaks up with Kuroneko and goes for Kirino in the end also serves as a metaphor for that...
This was either really well thought or a huge coincidence! 0_0
Edit: @Digibro, dude you even painted the circles on this venn diagram (12:40) with colors similar to those characters... was that intentional? x'D
I like this video a lot, mostly because I also like to see historical trends in fiction and because I'm also a fan of the Boogiepop/SMT-like urban-fantasy-horror thing, but some of these classifications make little sense to me.
Perhaps the biggest offender is Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, that is grouped up as a "straight forward romance" when in fact it's not so different from any of the series featured in the post-Oreimo train. In fact, most of the characters are related to Otaku culture in some way (the main character wants to be a game designer, the two girls in love with him are aspiring to be a mangaka and a seiyuu, prominent side-characters include animators and writers, etc.). If it counts as a "straight forward romance" comparable to Golden Time and Toradora, then so does pretty much everything you listed after (and including) Oreimo.
On the other hand, the Oreimo train features several novels almost devoid of Otaku references, like Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko and Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko. I would group those two as romance stories set in slightly supernatural (and weird) worlds. Rokujouma no Shinryakusha and Kore wa Zombie desu ka? are also basically just fantasy kitchen sinks whose only reference to anime culture is in the fact that they've got magical girls walking around alongside the alien princesses and the vampire ninjas.
Then there's Shinmai Maou no Testament, which is also not referential at all to Otaku culture and which I fail to see how it differs from shit like Absolute Duo and Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance.
I also understand that you separate the "sci-fi and fantasy" series from the "dumbass generic shit" series purely because of quality, and I get the feeling behind it, but it's somewhat dishonest to not admit that. There's no real difference in genre between Log Horizon, Jintai and Kawakami's stuff and shit like SAO and Machine-doll, as both would just be "Sci-fi/Fantasy", and the only reason they shouldn't be grouped together is that the former don't suck and are actually trying to advance the genre.
The same goes for the works you group under "manga-like", unless you can elaborate further on what you mean concretely by that. In particular, I fail to see how stuff like Shakugan no Shana and Toaru Majutsu no Index aren't clearly successors of Boogiepop's "supernatural urban setting" thread sans (most of) the horror (and personality), and how series like Zero no Tsukaima and Hitsugi no Chaika aren't straight-forward fantasy series like Slayers and Lodoss. Personally, I find the very notion that a medium as diverse as manga (many times more so than light novels, but mostly for longevity) could have a single "style" that light novels could imitate completely baffling.
+ppaaccoojrf The best answer I can give to this comment, is that you both know a lot more about most of those stories than I do, and gave more thought to their classification than I did in the editing process.
+Digibro Oh well. By the way, I forgot to mention, but I think it's a good idea to split the meta-centric series in two different groups. You have the Oreimo-like harem series set in the real world where one or several characters are Otaku, which comes to include almost every romance light novel getting made right now, and then there's the "otaku gets transported to a fantasy world" trend that was probably popularized by SAO's success (as hard to admit as that may be). This one includes the "trapped in a videogame" settings from which we got SAO, Log Horizon and Overlord (and while these aren't really that referential to otaku culture, the fact that the characters are usually hardcore gamers keeps me from leaving them out of this classification), along with more straight forward stuff where the otaku main character(s) are actually transported to a fantasy world, like Outbreak Company, No Game No Life, and yet to be animated popular stuff like Mushoku Tensei and similar. In fact, the latter is probably getting more popular nowadays and phasing out the otaku romance in the real world series with a large title trend bit by bit.
+ppaaccoojrf
Thanks for a great post.
When thinking about were otaku trends come from, you have to also consider the influence between east and west. My firm belief is for example that the ubiquitous presence of fantastical schools mostly from the influence of the Harry Potter franchise. There may have been otherwordly before (Utena comes to mind), but I am blaming the neverending onslaught of on J.K. Rowling. Culture is not confined to a single country, it flows back and forth, transforming each time.
I am also wondering how to categorize a comedic series like Baka and Test, which ridiculously mocks anime overtly and blatantly, while at the same time having a generic love-triangle plot. It is satirizing how insanely stupid most male leads are, and yet, the basic plot is nothing more than a stupider version of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. I wouldn't feel good about putting in the generic light novel-category, because it has a genuine observation on anime story telling. The observation is however fundamentally from that of those books in long-named sisters category.
Love these videos, man. Keep 'um coming!
Thanks for the explanation. I was confused by the really big leap between my fave horror/mystery light novels, with the anime-centric narratives. I bought Book Girl (the one you show; Bugaku Shoujo--) is definitely feels more meta/anime/mystery, while I'm now interested in checking out Boogie Pop.
NHK is a novel, not light novel.
Digibro is correct in not making a difference. "Light novel" are simply novels under "light novel" label. The difference is artificial, as it isn't made by content. If a title is published over its life both in a light novel label and novel label, then that title will be both without changing a word. If tomorrow NHK is published in a LN label, it would become a LN without changing anything. So no point in caring about which one is what.
Zefyris D
NHK doesn't fall under the definition of a light novel because it isn't short. It isn't a flimsy definition or arbitrary label like shonen/seinen (SAO and K-On are officially classified as "seinen").
and it's important to make the distinction, because very few light novels are good, as we know.
So if anyone says NHK, LotGH, Tatami Galaxy, or Shinsekai Yori are light novels, I'll correct them.
Roruman Yeah because kyoukaisenjou no horizon is short, mmmh right. You know, I own more than 500 light novels AND novels volumes from japan, and I can tell you this : in average, novels I own are slightly SHORTER than light novels I own. Why is that? Because you're confusing the 'bunko format" with "light novel". Bunko format is made to be carried easily everywhere, and therefore is often cut around 300 pages, which means that if it's longer then they'll make more volume rather than a big one (for example: lord of the rings in bunkobon is 9 volumes long). And that bunkobon is a common format in japan, both for LN AND NOVELS. you won't find that trend in bigger format, LN or not, because there's just no point in it in those case. Just to say, the propention between good and bad novels on the LN side and on the "not light novel" label side is about the same.
I own LotGH 's volumes, read it all in Japanese, and I can tell you that this title is just not even half as good as some LN I've read. This novel has so many inconsistencies, illogical behaviours, blatant lack of knowledge on every talked subject from the author (politic, strategy, astronomy, technology, religion, and I could go on for a while) that it will kept me out of the suspension of disbelief pretty much 100% of the time. That is NOT something you can call good on that point. It has its good and enjoyable points too. But its style of narration is heavily pretentious for an entertainment-focused novel (as with the amount of bad stuff I listed above, this cannot pretend to be more than that anyway) which in such case just achieve to make it disappointing all along.
I could continue for a while, but TL;DR version : novels aren't better than light novel, and light novel and novels are exactly the same thing, so you should inform yourself before judging.
Zefyris D
Woah that's a lot right there.
_"kyoukaisenjou no horizon"_
I see it has many volumes.
_"novels I own are slightly SHORTER than light novels I own"_
so the Wikipedia definition is BS?
_"They are typically not more than 40,000-50,000 words long (the shorter ones being equivalent to a novella in US publishing terms), are rarely more than a few hundred pages"_
_"the propention between good and bad novels on the LN side and on the "not light novel" label side is about the same"_
Apart from Kino no Tabi, Boogiepop, Narita and NisioisiN's stuff, there aren't good light novels, and even these are not masterpieces. You don't have an Eva or a Berserk among Light Novels.
_"I can tell you that this title is just not even half as good as some LN I've read"_
Oh, yes, I hear bold claims all the time, but I never hear proof. I wonder why!
_"politic, strategy, astronomy, technology, religion"_
Sure, *half* of LNs are better at handling these topics. I can't wait to read them. Damn, why are only the bad LN like SAO or IS getting adapted?
_"I could go on for a while"_
No, you can't, you just listed some themes and what-not and said it was bad. This is still not an argument at all, it's just more claims without evidence backing it up. I feel it's gonna be one of those endless pointless debates, but I'm in, as always...
_"it will kept me out of the suspension of disbelief pretty much 100% of the time"_
What? The space travel is irrealistic? Well, duh, it's not hard sci-fi, and you hardly find better anyway. They offer some justification for the choke points (different galactic arms with interference which troubles warp travel, except in those 2 paths.
The terraists are 1-dimensional evil? True, but check ISIS...
_"its style of narration is heavily pretentious for an entertainment-focused novel "_
It's only pretentious if it isn't as smart as it sounds, but in LotGH's case it is. It really is an epic space opera with complexity and better stuff than you find elsewhere.
Have a taste of your own argument: Snob has watched over 1600 anime, so he knows LotGH is better than anything else, so TL;DR: inform yourself.
Still, I will continue to call what is referred to as a light novel a LN, and a novel a novel. I'm even fine with LN being called novels, but doing the reverse is wrong.
+Roruman
1)Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon does not simply have many volumes, but lot of pages per volume, with an average of 850+ pages (with several above 1000, with up to 1150 for the biggest) per volumes for a total of 22,000 pages for this title which is still ongoing. But more importantly, you completely missed my point.
Bunkobon is a format of published novel that is made to be small enough to fit in a pocket, so that peoples can easily carry it around and read it while in subways and trains. So it usually strive to keep its size small on all accounts.
That's why the lord of rings is done in 9 volume in bunkobon. Bunkobon is a widely used novel size in japan, and both novels label and light novel labels uses it a lot. That's why you'll usually have less pages per volumes in bunkobon, no matter if those are light novels or not, most of them are between 250 and 450 pages due to this.
LOGH for example fits this since each volume is only 330 to 380 pages long (including postscript that often takes 10-15 pages in LOGH).That's a whooping 3500 pages for the whole main series. Nothing impressive for a science fiction series on that point BTW. Not like I care either way though, since contrary to you, I don't think that number of pages have anything to do with how good is a novel.
That's why most of the LN and novels I have from Japan are around that size PER VOLUME : because editors cut it in two or more if it's longer. This doesn't change the content at all, this is just a publisher choice. So for the average length of what U own, it all comes down of the number of volumes on "each side" that are either not in bunkobon size, or that didn't "respect" the general tendency of the bunkobon size.
Turn out that I have far more of those in those categories LN side. With KyouHora that I mentioned earlier but also NisiOisiN (that you mentioned earlier) 's Zaregoto novel series that have several volumes above 600 and up to 750 for the biggest, or another series from kyoukaisenjou no horizon's author that have above 500 in average per volume with its last and 14th volume being 1050 page alone, individual volumes among a series breaking the 600 or sometimes the 600 pages (kyouran kazoku nikki, and lots of others) and non-tankobon like Enterbrain's label (youjo senki, yuusha sama no oshishou sama, and so on) being quite often above 500 as well.
So yeah, the size and number of pages has absolutely nothing to do with being a light novel. If you compare bunkobon light novel to western novel volume, then YES? it is far smaller. Not because LN stories are shorter, but because Japan has a habbit to cut the novels in smaller parts for the purpose I talked above.
So yes, the ENGLISH wikipedia definition is bullshit. They simply cut more, being short or not has nothing to do with being a LN or not.
2) While I enjoy NisiOisiN's flow of writing, he wouldn't enter a list of good author if I were to make one. Plot contrivance, unreliable narrator in mysteries, and so on would keep him out of it.
I appreciate Narita as well but he wouldn't make it either. And this time, that's a big NO compared to NisiOisiN. His writings and especially his dialogues are entertaining, but he has no consistency, is unable to plain his plot on the long term (and as a result the author himself doesn't know where the story is going after a while, and he don't conclude half of his series)
Kino no Tabi lacks too much development in each of its setting ImO to be validated as a reference as well. Although, I haven't read this one, only watched the anime, so can't talk about it in details (although I informed myself about the novels)
I won't talk about boogiepop since I haven't read it and lacks information (only seen the anime which is AFAIK in majority original content)
Anyway, as you can see none of those would make it into a list of recommended light novels. They're not bad, but at best most of them would be like 7/10 while feeling generous. (although I still consider Baccano's anime to be one of the best anime adaptation of a LN to this day, we're talking about LNs here, not their adaptations)
If you want to talk about recommended light novel, then Hasekura Isuna's works like Ookami to koushinryou and magdala de nemure fits far more the bill, some novels from the genius author Akira like Biscuit Frankenstein as well, Rokka no Yuusha, Kougyoku Iduki's "man eater series" -related titles, the young SukaSuka series, Tenkyou no Alderamin, Youjo Senki, Nanasawa Matari's works, tsukumodou Kottouten, and so on. And... yeah. Science fiction side, Kyoukaisenjou no Horizon as well as Yuusha sama no Oshishou sama fantasy side, I suppose.
3) Hearing proof? I've read all of those titles and listed some better than this title above.
Technically almost anyu author who does a little research before writtng is better than LOGH about those subjects, because he CLEARLY didn't took that time at all. The lack of knowledge is not just small, it's blatant, so much that it cannot be ignored because it's repeated and recurring all along. Sorry to burst your bubble, but on those point, your LOGH is absolutely horrendous. And I'm a bookworm, so I probably read more books per year than you read in your whole life.And I'm most probably quite more aged than you, too.
If LOGH was the subject of this conversation I could go on for a while, yes, as I already did that on some boards. Turned out that not a single fan of LOGH could defend against any single part of what i said. Of course they can't. It's so blatantly lacking any kind of prior knowledge on those subjects it cannot be contested even by blinded fans.
That's not about the space travel boy. The space travel being possible is a common "tacit agreement" between readers and authors in space opera genre. It won't break the suspension of disbelief of anyone. That would be highly unfair from me to reproach it to LOGH.
As I pointed out, due to the lack of research on every subject from the author, that title isn't smart at all. As such, writing the story as if it was a history book related by historians is but pretentious. Having the author repeat you all the time how much all those characters are genius when they keep doing stupid stuff all the time isn't especially enjoyable either. It's heavy, and pretentious. You don't like to hear that because you like LOGH? That's fine. Doesn't change facts though. Did you even read the novels, or are you just comparing anime adaptations here ? Because yeah, you seem heavily uninformed on the novel you want so much to defend.
Simply put, both your references on novel and Ln side are showing that you aren't informed enough about Japanese's modern novels. And I 'm certainly lacking as well, too. Just not as lacking as you, by far.
To stop on the topic of LOGH and comes back to the LN/novel difference, as I said before, only the label it's published under will tell if it's a LN or not, it has nothing to do with the content. Most authors aren't famous and successful enough to be picky about where their books are published (and especially not right away, too). that's why some authors have their books on both LN and novels labels across their career, without it being dependant on content or quality.
Considering Baccano is an Italian word, wouldn't it make sense to pronounce the title in Italian fashion rather than pretending it says バカノ?
BAH-kan-oh
Inou Battle makes so much more sense to me now.
On another note, have you talked about Kurenai before? It's kinda tickling my brain.
Limey Lassen I've never said a lot about it, but I do love the show so I may try to at some point.
If I was Japanese and wanted to write a Manga, I would write a Light Novel first because it is more achievable by a single person, then if the story is good and acknowledged, it will be easier to find an illustrator for your novel. Then if it's a success, it can turn into a Manga, Anime or both.
I have a soft spot for Spice & Wolf. Because it is about medieval economics and I enjoy those thoroughly researched stories that are based off what the author has learnt while writing.
This, actually, was probably one of the more interesting things I'v seen this week, god job sir, and thinks for the fantastic video ^^
i do feel that episode 0(i wonder if they would`ve used episode 0 if not for FSN last season) of Saekano felt overly generic
but comming back after just watching episode one, i have to wonder(not knowing anything but these 2 episodes about the series) if its not trying to show the difficulty of coming up with an original creation(cuz of the main character getting shot down for having his plot been done before and 20 times over)
This just makes me realise how downhill some light novel adaptations have gotten, I've looked into some of the older anime adapations (of completed series) that you mentioned here and find them far better than stuff from nowadays. And I already adored Baccano and was sad it wasn't continued. At least there's Durarara some other quality material, and Ben-to was so hilariously out there that it was a blast to watch, but the cliche LN adaption of a school battle is so prevelant now that I can barely remember some of the ones I've watched. The only decent one from recently I've watched is probably the Worst Knight one, and that's only because the author goes to lengths not just to break some of the cliches but shove it in the face of the consumer that "look, I'm breaking conventions" while not completely breaking them. I'm not talking about ecchi driven stuff like Testament, Demon lord who sits in the back, or High School DxD because none of those stories pretend to be deeper than what they are, I'm talking along the lines of Asterik and SAO and the dozens of almost identical stories.
Two of my favorite anime is in the middle! Bakemonogatari and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Oh yeh!!!
:D
You made me finally be able to put the word down on the trend that's been going on in anime today. Meta shows. The last trend being Moe, I'm curious what do you guys think will be the next one?
garowice Well, all these shows generally fit in with the moe trend as well, though I think of moe more as part of an overall aesthetic trend than a narrative one. Like, any kind of show can be moe. As for trends I see happening, more and more shows aimed at girls and/or a general audience is something I see very slowly emerging over the next few years.
***** Well yes they do fit in into the moe trend. I was more thinking of Moe themed shows about "cute girls doing cute things". I'f my memory isn't failing me after the success of K-On we had dime a dozen of shows trying to style themselves after it for a few years. They also didn't feature much of these meta elements you mentioned.
Did you like the first episode of the second season of Durarara!! ?
I haven't managed to see it yet, because europe licensing a shit, and I can't be fucked to clean up my hard-drive.
Nordguy95 It feels the same as it always has, though since it's a start of a new arc it's impossible to tell what the hell's going on yet.
The first song is Nujabes - Aruarian Dance
I love how the video opens with Boogiepop Phantom's opening. It feels somewhat nostalgic knowing that I watched the first few episodes years ago. I didn't even know it was a novel until now...
I am very late to the party, but I want to point out two small criticisms:
1 - Concentric circles are circles that share the same center. What you showed (intersecting circles), resembles a Venn diagram.
2 - Episode 0 of Saekano is more meta than the actual anime. I don't know if you hated it or not, but I recommend you to, at the very least, give the following two or three episodes a try. The author of Saekano is the same author of White Album 2, if that means anything to you.
Really enjoyed this Digi! Very informative and made me realize that I might be more of a light novel fan then I though, seeing as a lot of my favorite shows started out as light novels! Keep up the good work! Also, is it possible you can start listing the songs you use in your videos? I really like the music you pick a lot of the times and would love to use it when I work on homework or write, as it makes great background music!
The81stChosenOne All of the music in this was from the Samurai Champloo Departure soundtrack. And yeah, for a while the majority of my favorite shows were light novel adaptations too, which is how I got interested in their trends.
I like the new look of the "screencap TV". I would love if it was still a bit bigger, but now I'm just nitpicking.
Concentric circles are circles with the same center point, a better term to describe what you showed (a Venn-diagram) would be intersecting circles
Glad to hear someone talk about Boogiepop Phantom; really underrated series.
4:07 omg Mikuru's skirt (girl on the right) is positioned so perfectly XD
Jesus christ. I don't know how you could say all those titles at 10:35 man. I would have just quit after evening seeing the list and just showed the pics. You must have some patience to try to say all of the Japanese titles without getting them wrong.
@Digibro You're supposed to pronounce NisiOisiN as "nishio ishin " you know :D. Quite a good surprise to see some titles like Saiunkoku monogatari and kyouran kazoku nikki making it to that video. Nice references here. though, it's incorrect to say that KKN received a straight forward adaptation. KKN had basically the whole main plot removed from the anime, only leaving the initial setting and individual volumes plot, and stopping right in the middle (right where the individual volume plot could no longer be dissociated from the main plot at all). There's still plenty of "that type" of ln adaptation coming after your video though :). And still more to come, like Alderamin in the next season, for example, just like RnY was in last year's summer x)
After seeing a comment in the 2019 Boogiepop anime trailer, I suddenly remembered this video and had to rewatch it.
Even though I have seen some of those long-ass-titled shows, still be nice to show their names in romanji.
I'm grateful that Shakugan no Shana and Haruhi Suzumiya were two the the first franchises I really got into.
Holy shet your pronunciation of the Japanese titles were so accurate. It is really amazing how a single series's success can change the entire direction of the anime industry. That said your knowledge on LNs and anime is quite extensive to the point I am jealous I got into anime so late.
Thank you for showing The Third: the girl with the blue eye. No one ever talks about it
Hey Digi anouther great video.....and it enplanes alot of things with Anime O_o;
Also Holy crap with you naming off all those novels with long ass Japanese titles O_O
If you don't mind, I could make some suggestions for a few videos you could make or maybe a random rant topic you can pick up on
Some Suggestions:
Your personal 10 favorite animes of all time (not a top 10 list but just 10 animes you basically found to either be awesome or something that actually got you into anime in general)
Your personal 10 most hated animes of all time: Anime that you found to be some of the worst representations of what anime is in general
What changes are made in Various Adaptations in Terms of Anime
What Manga/VN/LN would you want to see a Anime Adaptation of and what Studio would you want to have work on
What can make or break an Anime
these are just a few ideas
A random Question from me: If you were given an Opportunity to Remake/Reboot any Anime of your Choosing which Anime would you pick, why, and how would you change it, would you make it closer to its source or balance it out more?
I also have a rather personal Rant on something anime related but dont want to put it into the comment section, if your intrested i can send a note or E-mail of it to ya and I would like to hear what your opnion on it is?
But NONE of them ever even comes CLOSE to Boogiepop. That shizzle was AMAZING.
how to make a light novel cover: Add a cute girl with a sexual pose. Make sure your background is white. Finally, integrate your title in the most obnoxious and fucking annoying way ever. Instant bait for those fat tubs of lard that lurk in Anime Castles who just want to beat off to your new cover whilst eating a handful of junk food.
What were your problems with Saekano? And were you referring to episode 1 of it or the prologue episode of it?
***** Based on when this came out, I assume he was referring to the prologue. After watching that episode, I'll admit I was tempted not to watch the series, but I continued and ended up really liking it.
TheCatlover192 I thought the prologue episode was brilliant. The meta humor was really clever I thought.
I get how the meta was what they were going for. I thought the scene involving Tomoya peeping to listen to anime conversation as apposed to the usual peeping intention was brilliant. The thing that annoyed me was how they used the "sexual assault is funny as long as it's a girl victimizing a guy" trope.
***** Because apparently Metahumor = Stuck up your ass.
+thrashrockerpunk
fucking this
I'll give you an invisible cookie for pronouncing all this names:
.
Yes! Some coverage of Boogiepop on your channel(s) finally! Good analysis too.
I had to check out Saekano after you mentioned it. At first I thought you were frustrated by the first 30 seconds and thought you were being harsh; then I got past the OP. I have or am very close to having a migraine for trying to let it improve. Even so, I couldn't make it past the airplane scene.
shadowpower69 Yeah I made it about 9 minutes into the episode before I just couldn't take any more.
and now there are isekai LN adaptations running amok. There are too many to count and I'm getting sick of them. Only a handful are good
Hi, I just started listening to your videos, and they are pretty interesting and informative, and I have found myself aggreeing with your general opinions all the way, especially in reviews which I have been shamelessly binging. I was wondering if there are any videos of yours which might discuss certain tropes and anime media methods of storytelling and creation without as much of a focus on specific titles or franchises. Thinking about it, this is probably would be difficult to attempt without some references, as these tropes are merely an amalgamation of years of productions, but I think it would be interesting to see a breakdown of the tournament fighting anime, or the "moe" style. Like why it is popular and common to see, pros and cons, maybe your own spin on how it could be used.
...Sorry this is so wordy.
Thank you for saying why some light novel anime comes off as so interesting, while others make me recoil and want to vomit. I was feeling really conflicted on this issue and this video really helped me put my thoughts into order.
This was really interesting to watch, actually.
I don't actually mind the whole meta trend all that much personally, but on that note I haven't watched more than two or three series that went for that sort of approach, so I'm not really all that burned out yet.
Out of the stuff still airing, though, Type-Moon's Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works had an adaptation last series that seemed to align pretty decently with the Faust-style things you had mentioned. I know you mentioned Fate among them at one point but I didn't hear you say anything in the last minute or two when you were going over more recent stuff.
Idylia Writehorse Fate is a visual novel, not a light novel, is why I didn't mention it at the end. Personally I find Unlimited Blade Works impenetrably boring.
Awesome video, puts everything into context!
ah yes, That...Zero anime, or whatever it's name is.
It's got a rather......bizarre history with Fanfics according to TVTropes.
Typically taking the form of the Female Main Character Summoning someone (or more) other than the Protagonist.
The most Batshit insane one where she summons the main character from Prototype....and all the horrible implications that come with that. Another one where she summons the entire enemy Squad from Spec Ops the Line.
Where did you get that background beat from? I bloody loved it.
I feel like this is one of your better videos. More like this please.
I actually quite like most of the light novel adaptation stuff, even the mediocre ones occasionally appeal to me so long as they aren't too H (seriously guys, actual porn is a thing that exists, you don't need to try to shoehorn it into everything else), but they do need to fucking stop with the 'literal description no literally the thing it is about' titles already. That shit is completely ridiculous.
Must say, even if she's not my first choice in waifus, you've got good taste my friend. Although i figured that an unmarried version of the girl from "I can't understand what my husband is saying" would be your fave, since you've said many times before that it was the relationship you've lived through vicariously, and is what you've always wanted from a relationship. I hope it wasn't someone else who said that, but I'm PRETTY sure it was you. I'm not really original when it comes to this topic.
Ahhh haruhi suzumiya
Really nice and informative video, thank you very much for making this!
Nice breakdown, I know almost nothing about Light Novels (besides watchin Durara) since I grew up with mostly Shonen Jump related content.
I feel slightly less ignorant now, thank you.
Also for some reason something in this video made me think of Chobits, which is totally random so i figured i would mention it.
Honestly I forgot the title of the show and i had to go look it up, that's how long ago i saw it.
So yeah if you happen to run out of ideas somehow there's a random one.
Can someone tell me the name of the first background song?
Arurian Dance by Nubajes from the anime Samurai Champloo
I was hoping that you would mention DRRR...and you did!!! THANK YOUUU!!!!!!