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Japanese manga and novels - General Discussion

Reading 'Didn't I say to make my abilities average in the next life?' volume 9. Good story, starting to see more of a larger meta-plot developing.

Also Mavis gets a spotlight, and MAYBE a yuri bit. *lol*
 
I'm reading Moriarty the Patriot manga because I stumbled onto the anime online...

The anachronistic elements in the manga, especially anything military-related is killing my immersion. I get the generic anime bois designs especially for Moran and William's other honcho are for easier character recognition but Moran's sniper rifle design makes me internally screaming lol

Then Albert Moriarty's 'special military unit' came up in the next couple of chapters... I don't know if I can proceed reading it. I have been reading/watching too much Victorian era related stuff to pretty much suss out the discrepancies. Production IG meanwhile have been using so many green color in the anime's design pieces I'm wondering how come these people aren't dead from arsenic poisoning yet.

It's like reading a particularly bad fanfiction, I can't handle it.
 
Ah yes, the Black-Ops Grenadiers. The Queen's Own Operatives. The Victorian Soldiers With SMGs Somehow.
 
Marla said:
I'm reading Moriarty the Patriot manga because I stumbled onto the anime online...

The anachronistic elements in the manga, especially anything military-related is killing my immersion. I get the generic anime bois designs especially for Moran and William's other honcho are for easier character recognition but Moran's sniper rifle design makes me internally screaming lol

Then Albert Moriarty's 'special military unit' came up in the next couple of chapters... I don't know if I can proceed reading it. I have been reading/watching too much Victorian era related stuff to pretty much suss out the discrepancies. Production IG meanwhile have been using so many green color in the anime's design pieces I'm wondering how come these people aren't dead from arsenic poisoning yet.

It's like reading a particularly bad fanfiction, I can't handle it.
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I tried watch the first episode, but I kept fastforwarding because nothing about it was appealing, especially not the generic bishie designs for the main cast.

It's a shame because Kim Newman did a really good novel on Moriarty and Moran having their own cases to solve(or engineer into being) with an incredible amount of contemporary literature references, while being very amusing in a Flashman-style dark comedy way.
 
Gul Damar said:
I tried watch the first episode, but I kept fastforwarding because nothing about it was appealing, especially not the generic bishie designs for the main cast.

It's a shame because Kim Newman did a really good novel on Moriarty and Moran having their own cases to solve(or engineer into being) with an incredible amount of contemporary literature references, while being very amusing in a Flashman-style dark comedy way.
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I searched the Kim Newman's Moriarty novel, and wow Adler gottem good lol. There's also a story where John Watson purposefully moonlighting as Sherlock Holmes' assistant under the Queen's order from a different author, I really liked that one too.


I supposed it came down to the author's ability to make a genius character believable. Also the author should keep the anachronism at a down low, and not rely on them too often when they couldn't be bothered to do proper research on it. I know Black Butler has these kinds of silly anachronism in its pilot chapter but the author stopped after that (and put all the techs on the supernatural side of the setting) and goes the route of 'the demon butler did it' which is believable in the context of the story. This story... Didn't. A shame, I want to like it.
 
Shanejayell said:
Reading 'Didn't I say to make my abilities average in the next life?' volume 9. Good story, starting to see more of a larger meta-plot developing.

Also Mavis gets a spotlight, and MAYBE a yuri bit. *lol*
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Might be I should pick the series up again. Only read the first 3 and maybe half of the 4th LN iirc.

In regards to reading, I just finished the latest translated book for 'Ascendance of a Bookworm', which had Myne deal with her new 'high priest'/head of church duties, set up a new orphanage in a nearby town and try to get an ingredient for a magic potion. The last bit went a tad wrong.

I found it pretty fun, and particularly liked her solution to being bugged by her adopted brother all the time; swap places for a day so he can experience her workload.
 


I learned a new word today. Apparently it means "overcome with emotion".

Source is The Saint's Magic Power Is Omnipotent volume 2.
 
Machikado Mazoku chapter 76 is out and um it's a real thing.

"The Time Hath Come" is no longer funny, poor Metako
 
Did not realize this but apparently there's a manga called Dead Mount Death Play by the author of DRRR. It's incredibly DRRR-like, with the associated billion secret societies in the underbelly of Shinjuku. Highly recommend.
 
Attack on Titan manga have came to a fiery conclusion after 12 years and 139 chapters. Perhaps i shall start reading it even though i spoiled myself already due to the aforementioned fiery conclusion.

Been reading "タテの国", a web manga about a young man meeting a young woman that fell from higher portion of a lone tower world he lives in. Haven't seen english translations but a worthwhile read.

Started reading "Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (地縛少年花子くん)" , the story and characters are soft.

"Fire Punch ( ファイアパンチ ) " is in general a very interesting manga and highly damaging to my psyche. Everyone should read it.

Just discovered that Bleach had ended. Also discovered that i never read Naruto past Gaara's kidnap. Though i read tons of fanfic for those two series.
 
I've finished reading all currently translated Otherside Picnic novels now.
I'd probably give them maybe 7.5/10 but I'm fairly picky.
 
VoidZero said:
Started reading "Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (地縛少年花子くん)" , the story and characters are soft.
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Toilet bound Hanako also has an anime adaptation with the eponymous Hanako sharing the same voice as the famed Ikari Shinji. It's quite amazing experiencing Shinji's voice being crass and lewd. Would highly recommend.
 
J-Novel Club, which has been my go-to for (official) light novel translations and releases, has been acquired by Kadokawa.

More specifically, Kadokawa bought a "majority stake" in JNC, so it's de facto an acquisition, but not a full one as such.

Sam Pinansky (JNC founder and president) also posted a brief FAQ, which boils down to "nothing about JNC will be changing distribution-wise, this just lets JNC have more leverage in licencing future LNs". Which is a relief, considering Kadokawa Bookwalker's deep DRM, and JNC's stated commitment to having zero DRM for any of their ebooks.

My primary concern is that Kadokawa is notoriously conservative when it comes to international distribution, and regional restrictions might happen for future LNs.
 
Adloquium said:
J-Novel Club, which has been my go-to for (official) light novel translations and releases, has been acquired by Kadokawa.

More specifically, Kadokawa bought a "majority stake" in JNC, so it's de facto an acquisition, but not a full one as such.

Sam Pinansky (JNC founder and president) also posted a brief FAQ, which boils down to "nothing about JNC will be changing distribution-wise, this just lets JNC have more leverage in licencing future LNs". Which is a relief, considering Kadokawa Bookwalker's deep DRM, and JNC's stated commitment to having zero DRM for any of their ebooks.

My primary concern is that Kadokawa is notoriously conservative when it comes to international distribution, and regional restrictions might happen for future LNs.
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My knowledge about JNC is quite limited since I don't read LN in English, but from quick research, it's a digital publishing company, right? Since KDKW already have Bookwalkers, why would they want to buy something of the same kind?
 
Slayers148 said:
My knowledge about JNC is quite limited since I don't read LN in English, but from quick research, it's a digital publishing company, right? Since KDKW already have Bookwalkers, why would they want to buy something of the same kind?
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Bookwalker is a digital book distributor vendor, in the same way Amazon Kindle or Kobo is one. JNC is a translation and publishing company, in the same way Yen Press (more on that in a bit) or Seven Seas or Cross Infinite World is. The potential point of confusion is that JNC also sell the ebooks on their own website, rather than solely going to other vendors like Amazon or Kobo or Barnes And Noble. (JNC does also sell on those platforms; they just include the option to buy directly from them.)

Having said that, Kadokawa had already bought Yen Press (again, specifically 51% share), as mentioned in the press release. So it's possible Kadokawa is trying to consolidate the various Japanese LN translation publishers under their umbrella.

At the moment we don't actually know the details of what either JNC or Kadokawa are getting from this arrangement.
 
Don't know if any of you are already aware, but manga has been outselling Western comic books by a huge margin. In April they took over the Top 20 graphic novel spots on ICv2. There are multiple videos on YouTube that talk about it.
 
Tundra Sniper said:
Don't know if any of you are already aware, but manga has been outselling Western comic books by a huge margin. In April they took over the Top 20 graphic novel spots on ICv2. There are multiple videos on YouTube that talk about it.
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Haven't US comics struggled a bunch this past year or so due to being mostly print media, and thus difficult to distribute during lockdown & such?
 
Mizu said:
Haven't US comics struggled a bunch this past year or so due to being mostly print media, and thus difficult to distribute during lockdown & such?
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That, along with a few other reasons as well. One of the big critiques is that mainstream comics prefer to play it safe rather than innovate while manga creators in Japan have more creative freedom, and thus gain more popularity. Another reason is that well...some comic book writers have been known to insult their audience for not liking their work and this results in fans being driven away.

Here's a video that covers the reasons better than I could.

 
"Hey, how do I start Jojo/One-Piece/Demon Slayer?"

"Start at chapter 1."

"Hey, how do I get into Spider-man?"

*throws a 3,000 word article on which storylines you want to get into*
 
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