Light Novel Recommendations

[Hemisphere]

Dude, I'm already buying 12 LN books worth for my next shipment...and Gran Crest is like the icing on the whole thing. OTL

[n0m@n]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

Dude, I'm already buying 12 LN books worth for my next shipment...and Gran Crest is like the icing on the whole thing. OTL

Lol. You are going to be spending every money you have on LNs
Damn, Im broke so I need to somehow make money soon.....

[Hemisphere]

Might as well take advantage of that cheap yen!

[mike211]

Man, I wish I could read japanese, then I would have a collections as well.

To bad I choose italian over japanese to study during highschool and the wrost thing is, I still didn't learnt anything.

[setsuna86]

Originally Posted by mike211

Man, I wish I could read japanese, then I would have a collections as well.

To bad I choose italian over japanese to study during highschool and the wrost thing is, I still didn't learnt anything.

Yeah, it's the worst Thing. I think I can understand, since I also choose german over japanese.

[mike211]

@ setsuna86, but ain't you a translator on BT?

[setsuna86]

Originally Posted by mike211

@ setsuna86, but ain't you a translator on BT?

I'm a translator, but that don't mean I know japanese well, I only learn that for LN translations.

[mike211]

Well, you are still way head of me who can't read at all but surprisingly could understand a bit which I learnt for watching all those anime.

[Hemisphere]

14 books, damn. Praying that the Yen doesn't skyrocket in the time it takes for my last preordered LN's release and for the shipment to get sent out.

Decided to also grab Rokka no Yuusha as part of it. Here's to looking forward to awesome readings some time soon, I can't wait!

[apr]

This morning I finished reading Saitou Alice wa Yuugai Desu by Chuui. Among all the duds I hit every year, this is certainly one of the worst.

The plot is incredibly familiar: high school girl Alice is a walking vortex of misfortune, and all of society shuns her, except for our protagonist, high school boy Hideaki, who decides to "study" her and discovers she's just a retarded kitten girl who wants friends more than anything in the world. And then there's the busty blonde American teacher who is really a member of the powerful secret organization The Laboratory that operates out of America and has coerced the Japanese government into letting them research Alice.

Uh. So far so good, I guess? If your eyes haven't glazed over yet, you probably don't watch enough anime. The writing is equally horrible, because the author seems to have a thesaurus fetish, where every line is a tedious display of Look How Clever I Am. The experience of reading the book doesn't exactly improve when I have to grab the dictionary every other line.

All in all, it's tremendously bad. Towards the end, I got the impression I was supposed to be feeling some kind of empathy for the girl who decides to be hit by a cruise missile as a means of dutiful suicide, but it's all so ridiculously predictable that the only response it elicits is a pitiful giggle at the ever-rising levels of terrible.

[Shinon]

Maou No Omori o oosetsukarimashita Hi Ro Bunko any1 one know what is this ln about any synopsis or info? thx

[Zefyris]

Originally Posted by apr

Try Time Leap? It's great and easy to read.

Thanks, what's the original name for this one? Is that a novel version of the movie toki wo kakeru shoujo?

Dude, I'm already buying 12 LN books worth for my next shipment...and Gran Crest is like the icing on the whole thing. OTL

Might as well take advantage of that cheap yen!

That's the spirit! I ended up buying a lot of series in May as I couldn't decide which one to buy. In the end I took all of them because of the very favorable yen/euro ratio .

[Hemisphere]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

That's the spirit! I ended up buying a lot of series in May as I couldn't decide which one to buy. In the end I took all of them because of the very favorable yen/euro ratio .

Agreed! Unfortunately, I had to cancel it, dropping four volumes of 剣刻の銀乙女 along the way. I think I have enough titles on my plate...for now. Though, I am still morbidly curious about it, and might pick it up sometime in the future.

I hope Grancrest and Rokka no Yuusha doesn't wring my savings dry.

[apr]

Originally Posted by Zefyris

Thanks, what's the original name for this one? Is that a novel version of the movie toki wo kakeru shoujo?

It's タイム・リープ, so Time Leap as I said.

Unfortunately, now that I look it up on Amazon (and Honto), it seems like it's going out of print or something. I can only find the kindle version for the first volume (of two). Hopefully it'll show up on paper again.

It's not the same as Tokikake, this is a completely different author and was written much later. It, too, was made into a movie, though.

[Hemisphere]

Some reviews for Maisaka Kou's 夜姫と亡国の六姫士 just came in. Comes recommended if you're a fan of his senki stuff, and it even lives up to the High Fantasy genre. Tons and tons of characters right off the bat, though, and it seems that pacing can come across as weird regarding these character introductions.

[DoomCalibur]

Originally Posted by Hemisphere

Some reviews for Maisaka Kou's 夜姫と亡国の六姫士 just came in. Comes recommended if you're a fan of his senki stuff, and it even lives up to the High Fantasy genre. Tons and tons of characters right off the bat, though, and it seems that pacing can come across as weird regarding these character introductions.

.......Same genre as Gabriela Senki ? Ohhhh..... Wonder why this author like writing all girls type novel this much... The only male protagonist novel he had written is Ochieta Ryou Naga in MF Bunko men.

[Bakaizer]

is there a light novel thread for dogs and scissors, I can't seem to find one

[setsuna86]

Originally Posted by nikohowell

is there a light novel thread for dogs and scissors, I can't seem to find one

I don't think there's one.

[apr]

Finished Golden Time vol 4 by Takemiya Yuyuko. Massive leap up in quality after that horrible book last week. Still the same story about the university student with amnesia stuck in intersecting love triangles, but it's written so vividly that it's more enjoyable than it sounds. Four volumes in now, and it continues to be good, but very much leaning toward gloom and depression, so it's a bit exhausting.

With the anime adaptation scheduled for this fall, I'm feeling stressed to catch up. 6 novels out so far, and I'd imagine there'll be a 7th out for the anime premiere. Wonder if she'll wrap up the novel series along with the anime, like she did for Toradora.

[Hemisphere]

What happens when you mix absurd comedy, harem, tokusatsu and Lovecraft elements with each other? You get Nyaruko! But what if you take out the tokusatsu and Lovecraft and replace them with otaku and chuuni shounen elements? Then you get あるいは現在進行形の黒歴史, a light novel series by あわむら赤光.

Spoiler:

吉岡 英二 (Yoshioka Eiji) just wants to study hard now, so he can live a peaceful life in the future, and die with content, surrounded by the beaming smiles of his future children and grandchildren. But his little sister 吉岡 楓子 (Yoshioka) Kaedeko) won’t stop bothering him. Aside from being overly attached to her older brother, she is a completely off-the-rails otaku whose chuuni delusions have completely taken root in her head, which worries Eiji a lot.

After one particular sleepless night spent writing down an entire dictionary’s worth of grandiose chuuni delusions in the form of a “story”, only to almost miss out on breakfast with the entire family in the process, her particularly rigid father 吉岡 京平 (Yoshioka Kyouhei) decides he’s had enough of her antics. He takes her book of chuuni away from her and goes to where they’re burning some offerings and prayers from their shrine. Eiji tries to stand up for Kaedeko by taking her book away from their father’s grasp, but one thing leads to another and it ends up getting thrown into the purification fire.

Suddenly, the characters from Kaedeko’s delusions all come to life, springing out of the fire one by one! ロザリンド＝ジ・ヴァルハラン＝炎煌（ホムラギ）(Rozelinde for short) first, then アイシャリア＝ロナ＝令美（レヴィ） aka わだつみの海妃 (or Aisha), followed by ☆ キケロクロット＝ナイトメア aka the リトル・ヴァンパイア☆ (the Little Vampire☆ Coque), then ナーシェ＝真機那＝ハーシェル; all of the 堕天使 (fallen angels) in Kaedeko’s chuuni story, who spread their black wings and take to the air, talking for a brief moment among themselves about how they’d like to...read manga? Attend Comiket? Watch some anime? All before flying away in different directions!

Then came the 聖天使メープル (Sacred Angel Maple), who resembles Kaedeko (as she is Kaedeko’s author insert avatar, for obvious reasons) and is the most powerful of them all (because she is Kaedeko’s self-insert avatar, obviously), who goes ahead and takes Eiji’s first kiss (even though Kaedeko’s been dying to do this for all her life) before being driven away by Kyouhei and his wife (and their mother) 吉岡 優子 (Yoshioka Yuuko) with purifying salt (that she just went to the kitchen in order to retrieve). But before they could all breathe a sigh of relief, out comes yet another fallen angel; マリシエル (Marishiel) aka 殺戮の天使 (Angel of Slaughter), who informs the Yoshioka household that she’s actually a 死神 (reaper) whose task is to recapture the formerly-dead souls who have been incarnated into Kaedeko’s delusions made real. She chose to incarnate into Marishiel in order to be able to interact with the physical world and do her duty; however, she’s the weakest of all the angels. Worse yet (for Eiji), he’s stuck with the duty of having to help Maris recapture them all, as it’s his fault that they were able to attain incarnated bodies in the first place. If he doesn’t help her, he’s dead - because she’s the Angel of Slaughter, after all. Worst part for Eiji is that he is the designated male contract partner for all the Angels; if they end up making a contract with him, they can become stronger for a certain period, and Maris plans to use this to buff herself up and accomplish her duty. But Eiji just wants to study, and not get dragged around by Maris with her blade slithering along his neck each and every time!

As you can probably surmise from the above, it’s a completely absurd comedy, fueled by chuuni machinations gone berserk and otaku references up the wazoo. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, as the charm lies in its bizarre goofiness.

Kaedeko is the oniichan-attached imouto whose otaku levels have filled her brain with a repetoire of absolutely impractical chuuni knowledge that’s almost useless in day-to-day life.

Marishiel or Maris is the emotionally aloof (due to her being a reaper in nature), stoic blue haired girl who can turn her hair into a weapon or tentacles depending on her mood, or make something explode.

Rozelinde is the tomboyish, hammy actor who loves chewing the scenery and hamming up her “background” as a knight, and will cut you down without remose if you so much as mention her true name slight her pride and honor.

Aisha is the adorable, ideal wife who can cook, wash, massage, and she just wants to release an original doujinshi for Comiket - never ever give her any alcoholic drinks if you value your life and the lives of those around you.

Coquelicot is the self-important, self-proclaimed little vampire idol whose modus operandi involves hijacking concerts, wearing her hadaka mantle 24/7, biting people to brainwash them in order to do their bidding, and cackling as loud as she can while jumping off high places and imitating Batman (safe landing not included).

There are also Eiji and Kaedeko’s childhood friends; 山本理子 (Yamamoto Satako) and 山本舞子 (Yamamoto Maeko). Satoko is Eiji’s closest friend, and while he think of her as tomboyish, she’s got enough charm in her to pull off a nosebleed or two from him. On that same note, Maeko is Kaedeko’s closest friend and closest otaku acquaintance; the two are on the same otaku level and share the same chuuni vibes, but while Kaedeko is lively and active, Maeko is more reticient and shy. Maeko is also Eiji’s ideal younger sister, and he will defend her to the death, whatever it maybe! Is the feeling reciprocal? Spoiler alert!

The writing is just as comical as the characters involved. Nothing in the story is meant to be taken seriously, and none of the fantastical elements will hold under scrutiny; “dramatic” scenes have an undercurrent of absurdity to them, and whatever dramatic tension exists solely to have the piss taken out of them later on. Deus ex machina is prevalent, and the magical elements that exist have no reasoning attached to them aside from “just because”. In this regard, it’s an entertaining comedy, though it does have some mood whiplashes from time to time - Volume 7 being the most obvious and most glaring change in tone. One can also see how, after said volume, what might have inspired the author’s decision in coming up with his new series 聖剣使いの禁呪詠唱. Given the nature of this series’ genre as an absurd harem comedy, fanservice moments abound, and they can be pretty funny from time to time. Most of it involves Aisha’s supple breasts, or the girls trying to monopolize Eiji on their own terms, or the usual harem arguments.

Vocabulary is fairly simple, if not a big jargon-y. Be warned with Kaedeko and her chuuni-ness, as she will spout terms and jargons out of nowhere in order to explain a scene or such; thankfully, such terms and jargons get explained over the course of the story.

As an absurd comedy, it doesn’t even feign to put up some degree of realism behind its fantastical elements. What you read from the first volume is essentially what you get further down the line down to even volume 10. Those looking for a serious read are better off looking somewhere else; but for those who want something just as goofy, childish and crazy as Nyaruko, they might find this series just as entertaining. It’s akin to a rollercoaster ride with no semblance of seriousness or dramatic brevity save for some moments, but it’s still a fun ride to be had.