Syosetsuka ni Narou Discussion Thread

[sasuke706]

It's due to the rankings encouraging less effort and higher chapter numbers. They're basically number of views over a given time frame, so the less and more frequent chapters will always beat out well thought out longer chapters that update less frequently. And these quick-interest quick-forgotten novels, getting more attention and readerbase, will naturally have more points and reviews, rendering the ability to search by score also pointless.

Like I've come across a recent novel where the protagonist in-story talks shit all over this meta, saying the trend is no effort, all reward, no struggle and maximum power. Which it really is.

The administration does little to help the rankings out. Like a few years back they broke fantasy up into low fantasy / high fantasy, which they define has low fantasy being 'modern fantasy' and high fantasy being 'other fantasy,' and then the rankings further break those up into the low/high fantasies, as well as isekai romance and isekai fantasy. Isekai romance has always been full of otome game protags / saintess protags, essentially female demographic works. Now it seems that audience has spilled over into all the other fantasy rankings save for low fantasy, which was always less popular and rarely changes anyway. Which means there's little actual content variety between most the rankings now, which has been getting worse over time since the division happened.

Honestly the only notable things I can think of the narou staff doing is removing the bookmark limit on categories (but not for the notification tab for some reason) and letting you put memos on bookmarks a few months back. As far as finding novels worth reading they've done actually nothing. Even checking out novels that get published have been massively disappointing, especially considering half the time these novels have been dead or a long time.

I've tried looking up things worth reading on kakuyomu but I've noticed a trend the authors there seem to abandon works or update very slowly, even moreso than Narou ones. Of course I mean kakuyomu exclusive ones, not ones posted concurrently to both sites.

So the question becomes how do you use the search features available to find something worth reading, and honestly, there kind of isn't a way. You just look and get lucky. Authors generally also suck at tagging their own works or make a mess of their synopsis so you can't even really count on those.

[shmaster]

I usually look at the publishers I like if I am to find decent works on Narou right now.
For example, I have positive experience with Overlap more often than not. So I look into the works they are publishing.
Looked into 第７魔王子ジルバギアスの魔王傾国記 from their July list, and liking it so far.

Or sometime I just have good luck. Found 泡沫に神は微睡む by luck and it shows you how a really well thought out exile genre work can be.

Or look at how long the novels have run. The long living ones that survived since 2020 or before, they all have certain level of quality. To name a few between 2019 and 2020.
ロメリア戦記, 階段都市クルケアン, ハイセルク戦記, サイレント・ウィッチ, ループ7回目の悪役令嬢, アルマーク～北の剣、南の杖～

[Rasty]

What am I to imagine for the "dark fantasy" tag on 第７魔王子ジルバギアスの魔王傾国記 ? Is it the "fantasy world is brutal" kind, or "everyone dear to MC gets tortured to death once in a while" type?

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by Rasty

What am I to imagine for the "dark fantasy" tag on 第７魔王子ジルバギアスの魔王傾国記 ? Is it the "fantasy world is brutal" kind, or "everyone dear to MC gets tortured to death once in a while" type?

It eventually boils down to MC's self torture.
MC is a human hero that reincarnated as a demon prince, but he still see himself as the human hero and try to defend human race.
But before he gain power, he had no choice but to stay human. And after he fain power, he has to betray his demon comrades. So he has internal conflict and guilt issues going on.

[sasuke706]

Originally Posted by shmaster

I usually look at the publishers I like if I am to find decent works on Narou right now.
For example, I have positive experience with Overlap more often than not. So I look into the works they are publishing.
Looked into 第７魔王子ジルバギアスの魔王傾国記 from their July list, and liking it so far.

Or sometime I just have good luck. Found 泡沫に神は微睡む by luck and it shows you how a really well thought out exile genre work can be.

Or look at how long the novels have run. The long living ones that survived since 2020 or before, they all have certain level of quality. To name a few between 2019 and 2020.
ロメリア戦記, 階段都市クルケアン, ハイセルク戦記, サイレント・ウィッチ, ループ7回目の悪役令嬢, アルマーク～北の剣、南の杖～

第７魔王子ジルバギアスの魔王傾国記 to me is more of a case of knowing who the author is than the publisher. His other big project, Vermillion, had a sad end with the publishing side of it but it was still one of the more interesting isekai with good characterization, and actually had a unique take on a magic system. Sadly it's taken a massive backseat since that, and moreso since he started writing his new work, but it's understandable.

Older novels to me are a bit of a mixed case even then. A lot of the time you'll see like they updated a lot in 2019 or so, barely in 2020, none at all in 2021, and randomly pick back up in 2022. Or they'll consistently update, and persistence and dedication is nice and all, but they aren't much of a writer, as in they put the character's name before each line of dialogue, use commas in place of ellipses, etc. No improvement after a long period time (only novel I've seen phase these bad habits out is ひとりぼっちの異世界攻略). And then there's the strong possibility of plot stagnation.

Then there's the weird trend of stopping all updates the moment their work gets published (manga or novel) that I don't really get. Or rather they stop before it gets published, it somehow gets published and just never continues. Very easy way to turn me away from a work doing that.

I haven't read any of the ones you listed and I'm sure they're great, but I have no doubt they're still exceptions even under your criteria from my own experience. Nice recommendations, though.
Still no good way to find the nicer newer works, either.

[Greenish Growth]

So do some web novels stop just because the author got such a bad reaction from the story development?

Recently there seems to be more than the usual number of formerly popular web novels from the romance real world category have stopped or been deleted shortly after a big story development. It feels like the author got a bad reaction and didn't feel like writing any more. One of them said his web novel will be turned into a book so he'll stop updating it. Hmm. Let's see if it will disappear completely soon.

It felt more like he got a bad reaction from from what he wrote from sharing the blame for the supposed (or was it?) NTR too evenly. Then the main character NTRed his old girlfriend because of what he thought. That meant the main character tainted his old and new relationships from jumping to conclusions too quickly. That just made a big, uncomfortable, unsatisfying mess. Then the story was supposed to continue fairly normally like not much happened.

Maybe more authors should just avoid any feedback if they are going to be quite bothered by it.

[apr]

Caught up to 煤まみれの騎士 today, after seeing it hyped a bit in the 5ch recommendation thread months ago. In the meantime it's gotten two LN volumes and a manga out. Somewhat rough start, with babby's first novel issues, but I think the author improves relatively quickly, and it's a decent read these days. The story follows a promising youth, who inexplicably doesn't receive any blessing of magic in a holy rite at age 15, and the persecution(?) he suffers from other members of his knight order. It gradually grows to include the war with the wicked "mazoku" outside their kingdom's borders, and while the first arcs are hyper focused on the protagonist, by late arc four it's constantly shifting POVs among side characters as well.

Personally I found it frustrating to read for quite a while, because the MC takes so much stupid abuse from everyone, and is so passive about it. It also feels like he's the only competent human around, even if nobody is willing to listen to his wisdom, and that gets pretty grating. Luckily it eventually does let up (after like 500 pages?), but it's easy to see why people would want to drop it. Kind of amazed it got a second LN volume because of that, but I'm curious to know how it ends now, so hopefully it's selling okay.

[apr]

Just finished 音使いは死と踊る, which always had good buzz in the 5ch recommendation threads, but I'd been postponing starting it since the delay between chapters got longer and longer. The author basically took only two years to write the first 90% of the story, and then the final arc somehow took six years to complete. Maybe the LN getting cancelled had something to do with it, I dunno.

Anyway, it was a wild fucking ride, that's for sure. It kind of starts off as a high school romcom with super powered battles sprinkled in between training arcs, and then it gradually falls deeper and deeper into a hole of complete darkness. Pretty literally. The first half or so was really enjoyable and fun, but the second got genuinely uncomfortable, and I can imagine plenty of readers having to bail, but I'd probably still recommend it, since it felt so different from other things on Narou.

[shmaster]

Originally Posted by apr

Just finished 音使いは死と踊る, which always had good buzz in the 5ch recommendation threads, but I'd been postponing starting it since the delay between chapters got longer and longer. The author basically took only two years to write the first 90% of the story, and then the final arc somehow took six years to complete. Maybe the LN getting cancelled had something to do with it, I dunno.

Anyway, it was a wild fucking ride, that's for sure. It kind of starts off as a high school romcom with super powered battles sprinkled in between training arcs, and then it gradually falls deeper and deeper into a hole of complete darkness. Pretty literally. The first half or so was really enjoyable and fun, but the second got genuinely uncomfortable, and I can imagine plenty of readers having to bail, but I'd probably still recommend it, since it felt so different from other things on Narou.

This thing coming back to life all off sudden really took me by surprise. And the ending is as hopeless as it can get made it even better. I was laughing while reading despite how bleak the ending is. Despair like this is exactly what I want and glad the long wait is worth it.

[Kyureki]

So something I've been seeing a few times here and there in the last few years which I've been finding a bit curious is that there will sometimes be a WN that gets a manga first, then may or may not get a LN afterward.

真の実力はギリギリまで隠していようと思う and 神獣郷オンライン！〜『器用値極振り』で聖獣と共に『不殺』で優しい魅せプレイを『配信』しま す！〜 are the first two cases of this I've seen which to my knowledge do not have a LN yet, and then today I just discovered Destiny Unchain Online 〜吸血鬼少女となって、やがて『赤の魔王』と呼ばれるようになりました〜 which currently has 3 manga chapters and only just 2 weeks ago announced it'll be getting a LN.

[sasuke706]

I've seen a few of those as well. A lot of of the time I find the web novel has also just stopped updating for some reason.

Like 世知辛異世界転生記. He's been writing the final volume for 2 years now.
I remember this series as the one Japanese MC who reincarnates, tries Japanese food after living for 16-ish years in another world and contrary to his expectations, it just tastes unappetizingly bland because he has a new taste palette not used to it.

Can't think of other examples at the moment.

[Rinvelt]

^I'm waiting for that one to end. Really liked Heiwa no Shugosha, so even if the genre is different, I'm pretty interested. I mean, at least I know the author makes really good banters and cool old men. lol

Also, yeah, considering how successful Shangri-La Frontier is (WN>Manga>Anime (and game) without even getting a LN) it doesn't really surprise me if from now on more and more WN will get a manga (and maybe even an anime) without a LN.

[cabman11]

How am I still third place after I haven't posted in nearly 2 years

[Kyureki]

^ Because this forum has been really dead for most of that time.

[Greenish Growth]

Has anyone here ever gone out of their way to read the next chapter of a web novel?

It depends on what time zone you're living in I understand, but I used to stay up late at night to read the next posted chapter of 監禁王 even when I had to wake early the next morning. I was rather addicted to reading the first two or three parts of it really wondering what was going to happen next.

Lately I've been waking up early in the morning to read the latest chapter of 格付けされる世界で生きていくjust because the story's been building up so long to finally get to this point. I'm not using my alarm to wake up, but if I wake up at 5:00AM-5:30AM, I get out of bed, read it and then try to get back to sleep.

But it's pretty rare when I'm waiting for the next chapter with baited breath. I think I did that with Mushoku Tensei too.

EDIT:

I see. So no one else has this. Well, it's better that way. It's better to get your sleep guys (or whatever else you're doing) so it's a good thing!

[Kyureki]

So I recently realized something when I go to check out a web novel after getting a peek from the manga. Ones that have a new char added from the start in the LN/manga seems to be a bit of a red flag for me reading the WN since that means at minimum, the start of the WN is really boring and bland to the point that the editor had the author add a new char to join the MC during that period.

Anyone else have any red flags like this that they've found in differences between WN and LN?

[Rasty]

Originally Posted by Kyureki

So I recently realized something when I go to check out a web novel after getting a peek from the manga. Ones that have a new char added from the start in the LN/manga seems to be a bit of a red flag for me reading the WN since that means at minimum, the start of the WN is really boring and bland to the point that the editor had the author add a new char to join the MC during that period.

Overlord added a whole bunch of new characters in the LN...

Originally Posted by Greenish Growth

But it's pretty rare when I'm waiting for the next chapter with baited breath. I think I did that with Mushoku Tensei too.

EDIT:

I see. So no one else has this. Well, it's better that way. It's better to get your sleep guys (or whatever else you're doing) so it's a good thing!

I did that with the translation of Mushoku Tensei. I remember smashing the F5 button a lot when waiting for the next chapter. Also recently with Blue Core.

It's a bit of pity that this forum is slowly dying off. I wonder whether that's because Narou itself went so much down or just all of us old-timers mostly moved on.

[Kyureki]

Originally Posted by Rasty

It's a bit of pity that this forum is slowly dying off. I wonder whether that's because Narou itself went so much down or just all of us old-timers mostly moved on.

In my case, it's mainly because I don't have as much time to read anymore, so not much to talk about.

[Greenish Growth]

Originally Posted by Kyureki

Anyone else have any red flags like this that they've found in differences between WN and LN?

I wish I could answer you, but I'm only reading web novels.

Originally Posted by Rasty

It's a bit of pity that this forum is slowly dying off. I wonder whether that's because Narou itself went so much down or just all of us old-timers mostly moved on.

It's probably both eh.

Kakuyomu has better NTR web novels than syosetu. I did laugh when one web novel at Kakuyomu said = What did the two of them do next? Intensive exercise. - because I don't even expect syosetu to avoid mentioning H that much.

Say does anyone know why 『剣装の付与魔術師』～Sランク勇者パーティーを全力でサポートしていたのに理不尽な理由で追放された件。 俺がいなくなったら永続バフが解けるんだが……って、攻略失敗して降格させられた？いや、説明 済みですが～ got deleted from syosetu? The page says This novel has been deleted by management because it contains content that violates the terms of use. It's not like it was an explicit NTR novel or anything. I got up to chapter 52. I might have to wait for Kakuyomu to catch up to it if ever. I just wanted to find out how it ended.

Succubus Twins was deleted from Nocturne which is too bad.

[sasuke706]

To me Narou's average creativity has dropped considerably over time. Of course there used to be more creative works when there were less "templates" to latch on to. Narou's popularity system encourages these kind of works and do basically nothing to get works with actual effort noticed. I haven't found a newer novel I really liked in a long time, and put in a lot less effort to find them as well.

A lot of the works with more effort take long periods of time off to plan as well. Pretty much the only series that update regularly that I still love and read as soon as I can are 菱影代理's (kuro no maou, jujutsushi) works. One notable work that take long times off to do volume updates that I really like is モブ高生の俺でも冒険者になればリア充になれますか?, among some others.

Originally Posted by Kyureki

Anyone else have any red flags like this that they've found in differences between WN and LN?

I typically don't reread WN to LN releases—sometimes I do but rarely—but I mostly judge on meta behavior.

Like the author hasn't updated for half a year for his clearly still ongoing novel and either doesn't even make an announcement for the book release, or does a small chapter that's basically just to announce it to never update again are pretty big flags. Means the series is never going to finish. LN-original endings are also kind of scary when both are ongoing. Janitor Hero fell into a massive slump with the author just apologizing for still not finishing the WN once a year due to this.

Good point out on the novel only characters, though. I never put it together that the often extremely boring starts of many novels end up adding a character early on to compensate. I did wonder why so many series got published due to sheer bad pacing let alone plot, and honestly still do even with the added character. Not like a character or two is going to save the whole story. Then again directionless 'slow life' seems to be pretty popular in general.