I’m caught up on the light novels for Ascendence of a Bookworm (through H5Y v2), and Apothecary Diaries (through LN 17 ch 8 fan translation)- and I have read more than my share of fanfics in both worlds- also read Silent Witch…

What series should I tackle next???

ETA
Please don’t downvote other people’s recs! If you disagree please explain why? I’m looking for honest opinions- not just reactions. Thanks!

Basically as the title says. I love reading romance light novels and/or webnovels but am getting tired of wimpy/stupid protagonists that either are too stupid to realize the other character is in love with them or do realize but have an aversion to affection (haven’t read too many of the later ones but still) I haven’t read too many different LNs and I can’t really remember all the ones I have read so just give me recommendations and I’ll try them out. A couple that I remember the names of and I’ve liked so far are: “The Girl Who Rejected Everyone on the First Day of School, and She Became My Super Sweet Girlfriend” and “Gunatsu” (though I’d prefer if the mc wasn’t such a pushover)
(Harem is fine as long as it has the characters being affectionate)

PS sorry if this hard to read I’ve never been good with punctuations

She's quite a popular author and I just got the book from a local Japanese book shop, so I was curious if there was at least a fan-made translation somewhere out there. I didn't find anything from Google, but I figured someone on here might know. If not, maybe I'll try starting some sort of fan translation.

People often say that most Isekais are generic trash, that if you've read one, you've read a hundred, that they are nothing more than a compilation of overused tropes.

As someone who reads a lot of Isekais and generally enjoys doing so, I will not deny the veracity of these claims. However, it is exactly because many Isekais are similar to each other that good writing is all the more important and bad writing becomes all the more obvious.

In the following, I want to highlight some common types of bad writing I found, specifically in Isekais.

Age

In reincarnation Isekais where the mc starts off as a baby, the disparity between physical and mental age can make things very awkward for the reader.

To start off with some examples, here is a quote from Love & Magic Academy:

"Excuse me, I'd like you to teach me how to swordfight and use magic." By three months old, I was able to walk and talk.

In Isekai Tensei:Recruited to another world, it takes the mc three years to be able to walk. He, too, immediately behaves like an adult and masters magic.

Consequences for this trope are the mc becoming OP and incomparable to other characters his age, which affects any future relationships to other children his age because they are not equals to the mc.

There is also the issue of the way other adults interact with the mc. An adult that does not know the mc should interact with him like they would with a regular child of mc's age. Yet authors often just have them interact as if they were all adults, which is confusing for the reader.

Common sense / Immersion

Authors often have their protagonist behave as if they were playing a video game. What I mean by this is that they act in a way that defies the common sense of their new world.

For example, in Pens down, Swords up! the protagonist regains memories of his previous life at the age of 12. The author explicitly states that the mc is a fusion of both the 12 year old boy and the japanese man, not just a reincarnation of the latter. This should mean that the common sense of the 12 year old boy still remains in his body. Yet he pays no respect to nobility or authority and treats others as if they were NPCs. He always tries to force his will unto others and completely disregards their motivations and opinions.

This results in a story where there are many characters but only the protagonist really matters. Everything revolves around him, which is another type of bad writing. Everyone has an unnatural interest in him: The king, the teachers, all the nobles and all his classmates are interested in him and treat him like he's the main character of their own lives. They all are completely willing to go to considerable lengths to help him for no apparent reason. The protagonist's words are valued unreasonably high and seem to be strangely convincing.

Another trope is the usage of pop culture references. The protagonist will say or do something that only makes sense to the reader.

All of these issues can of course be applied to other Isekais and lead to broken immersion.

Other otherworlders

In many Isekais the protagonist is not the only otherworldler, which can lead to issues.

If the new world is the world of a video game for example, the premise of the story would be said video game becoming real. The characters would no longer be merely NPCs but real persons and the mc would come to treat them and think of them as such. The introduction of other transmigrators creates a division between former NPCs and "real" people. This downplays the importance and impact of non-transmigrators.

It can also be detrimental to the character development of the protagonist.

An example would be the mc of Imperial Reincarnation: The mc's character arc is about him accepting his role as emperor and gaining the resolve necessary to do so. Of course, this entails his efforts to behave accordingly. But in the presence of transmigrators, despite not even remembering his previous self from Japan, he completely abandons his royal behaviour, which undoes a lot of character development to the reader.

Final thoughts and clarifications

It should be noted that I do not mean to say that any of the LNs I used as examples are bad LNs. I merely used some aspects of their writing that I consider to be bad as examples. I also do not think that all LNs that use certain tropes I criticized are automatically bad or that the trope can not be handled in a good way.

For example: I do not believe that featuring another transmigrator is always bad. That depends on how the author handles it.

Thank you very much for reading and please feel free to let me know your thoughts.

i just finished binging witch and mercenary and im looking for stuff to binge, honestly could be any genre though just not isekai, fluff romance, or villainess. Some of the stuff i really enjoyed are kept man of princess knight, your forma, 86, apothecary diary, shibouyugi, and silent reading.

Got some heavy discount to buy my, quote on quote, "first" physical light novels.

Between;

A. Eminence in Shadow Vol 1-3

Or

B. Iseleve (aka, I Got A Cheat Skill In Another World And Became Unrivaled In The Real World, Too) Vol 1-3

Which one is the better choice?

Can you tell me a suicidal mc webnovel??

To be honest this is the first series of LNs that I have read and so far I have read the first five. I am actually really enjoying the story since the writing style reminds me a bit like the books I read back when I was young. Any other readers out there and what do you think about it?

Looking for LN similar to- I Am The Game's Villain, -Reincarnated as the Final Villain's Vessel,-Young master pov. Where mc is a villain and interacts with heroes and heroines to prevent or alter whatever the plot of the game or LN was supposed to be

Honestly it felt like most of the one shot romances filled with Sad or Bittersweet endings nowadays.

It's started to get annoying on how many one shot romance ended in a sad ending one way or another. Honestly I felt more Annoyed and irritated than actually sad.

Can't we have a ending where the couple lived 'Happily ever after'? Without anyone dying or disappearing.

I really loved happy endings tbh

Everything is so fleshed the hell out whatever the mc is thinking and every narration of event happening, description of the action of the attack, looks of the armor and it's texture. This is overthinking final boss dawg.

But glad to say I'm finally comfortable reading with its pacing.

anyway the vol 3 was such a huge cliffhanger😭

Just curious as I have just finished vol 4 in the LN and morbidly curious about the rest of the story. Where in the WN roughly does vol 4 leave off? And how different are the two?

I have noticed that quite a few fantasy light novels and chalk-full of tropes. Such the weak supporter actually carrying the heroe's party, or a guy being betrayed and swearing revenge.

What are some tropes or plots you guys avoid in your light novels?

So I just rewatched Your Name and I now want to read a LN that will make me feel that kind of pain.
Thank you.

I love the books and have read them a few times now. The last book was in 2020 in Japan

I notice 99% of the light novels (except spice and wolf that for some reason has the same author and illustrator) i have read have a different illustrator from the author does anyone know how its decided who would illustrate a novel