CATDOLL: Japanese light novels have many shortcomings. Is abandoning cuteness and being affectionate the only way to go?

Light novels can be said to be one of the most important components of the animation industry. Excellent novelists can build a huge and vivid world with rich words alone. However, in recent years, this industry has spawned many impetuous elements. Especially today when light novels are becoming more and more homogenized, Japan has even seen something as ridiculous as the "light novel writing template", which has also led many critics to accuse today's light novels of being "simply toilet paper literature."

The so-called "toilet paper literature" refers to some light novels whose text is so bad that it can only be used as toilet paper. These "toilet papers" have one thing in common: although the plot is terrible, the illustrations and character settings are very beautiful, which makes people feel that "the novel itself has ruined such a good character setting." The value of illustrations is far higher than the text itself. "Buy illustrations and get a novel for free" is really sad...

First, you need to have an imaginative cover (from "Love for Used Goods")

When many people talk about Japanese light novels in recent years, they always like to compare them with domestic Qidian online novels. The reason is that whether it is Japanese light novels or online novels, except for the different language carriers, the main themes and ideas they express are becoming more and more similar. To put it more exaggeratedly, it is becoming more and more brainless, relying only on bizarre settings with wild imaginations, harem endings with many wives and concubines, and stereotyped fighting monsters, upgrading, and talking about love as selling points. Each character uses a similar template, the plot jumps too much and the connection is unnatural, and the old-fashioned plot allows readers to predict the content of the whole book as soon as they see the first sentence.

To be honest, today's Japanese light novels are not much more "noble" than the Qidian online novels. As we are both small fry, no one should look down on anyone else.

Of course, in the current industry environment, light novel authors write articles only to generate income, and the threshold is very low. If you have some ideas and can keep writing, you can write. As long as someone buys what you write, it is "successful"... So it is impossible to require these authors to have deep creative insights or experience, let alone reach the level of Akutagawa Ryunosuke or Dazai Osamu. As described in "My Little Sister Can't Be That Cute", middle school girls can become popular writers on mobile websites, and the random words they type are actually praised by readers... If the literary masters are still alive, would they be surprised to see that these thoughtless words can be sought after?

Second, there must be illustrations full of benefits (from "The Weakest Unbeatable Godly Dragon")

For such light novels, words are already insignificant, illustrations are the main part, and illustrators are the key figures in determining whether the entire novel is "toilet paper" or "Luoyang paper". According to the settings that readers like, the useless male protagonist is drawn more ruthlessly to make readers feel more involved, and the female characters are drawn with bigger breasts, more rounded hips, colorful hair, and strong personalities at first and then weak, so that readers can "use" them more happily... Then this novel has taken the first step towards success.

Under the commercial wave, the industry naturally began to become impetuous. In order to cater to the market, light novel authors did not hesitate to give up thinking and took the second step of success with their IQ as collateral. In terms of plot, they refused to use bizarre settings (for fear that it would be difficult to justify the story while writing), relying on the successful experience left by predecessors and applying them; in terms of characters, they randomly pieced together fixed terms such as "tsundere", "silent", "black and straight" and piled them up with a few stereotyped blocks, losing the distinctive characteristics that a novel character should have; in terms of writing style, the dialogue content is increasing, and the descriptive paragraphs that test the writing style are decreasing. The entire light novel is almost covered by dialogue and inner activities. Many authors also like to use large-scale onomatopoeia to express the character's mood (the possibility of cheating on the manuscript fee cannot be ruled out).

In addition, when you have nothing to write, you can use this method to increase the word count.

How do you evaluate the current Japanese light novels ? The current light novels are far inferior to the past, too impetuous Compared with the works of earlier years, the current Japanese light novels and even the industry are showing an impetuous trend. The stereotyped model under commercial operation is really unacceptable. It is enough to read it with a strong sense of immersion, what kind of writing style is needed Nonsense! The current Japanese light novels have richer settings than before, and the character attributes are becoming more and more comprehensive. The male characters are mighty and handsome, and the female characters are curvy. Is there anything more practical than this? people people

Such randomly pieced together "light novels" will naturally have countless similarities. For example, if you combine the keywords "different world", "magic", "last-place male protagonist", and "female protagonist who loves him", you will find that works such as "The Heroic Tale of the Fallen Knight", "Asterisk: Battle of the City of Asterisk", and "The Weakest Undefeated Divine Dragon" are all exactly the same, even the character images are almost the same, and as for the plot development...

The epic masterpiece "The Heroic Tale of the Fallen Knight"

What are the problems with light novels nowadays? One of the drawbacks is that the titles are too long and obscure. Is it that a ridiculously long title can attract readers' attention? Or is it that the author cannot condense the content of the book into a few words and has to use long sentences instead? Many netizens have also complained that the titles of light novels nowadays are "too long" and "obscure and incomprehensible." If you can't guess the main idea of ​​the article by just reading the title, and you have to rack your brain cells to get into the article to understand the author's meaning, doesn't it feel a bit like putting the cart before the horse?

For example, the following harem-oriented work titled "I wanted to train a girl who looked exactly like the student council president to be my lover, but I became a servant instead" -

Third, an extremely long title that is difficult to understand is also essential.

…I really want this author to be punished by copying the name of his own light novel a hundred times.

Early light novel writers, such as Gakuto Mikumo, Mizuki Nomura, and Ryogo Narita, have written works that are not limited to one style. With their unique imagination, they lead readers into one fantastic and thrilling world after another. With the excellent contribution of the translation team, the works of these writers have become more popular. These classic light novels do not use brainless, cute, and erotic stories to build the main storyline, but instead create different groups of characters. The authors give full play to their imagination to construct a world that intoxicates readers.

Of course, there are also light novel writers in the industry who are devoted to writing and working silently. Their works are not worldly and are very fascinating and memorable when read carefully. However, such light novels are basically beaten to a pulp by the "kingly setting" mentioned above, and have disappeared in the vast sea of ​​works, which is a pity. If one day the industry suddenly realizes the current impetuous situation and decides to dig out these gems buried in the soil, I believe it will also be able to reverse the prejudice of the audience.

But will such a day really come?