The "System" That Made Light Novels Suck vol. 1 : Debuting - Newbie Contest

#anime #2023anime #lightnovel
Light novels are infamous for it's stereotype of being monotonous with power fantasy, Isekai, harems, overuse of fanservices and just being generally shallow and forgettable.
In this series we will be going through the reason why I believe this isn't merely because of supply and demand, but because light novel platforms, be it publishers or web novels, are systematically and unintentionally rigged towards these tropes while putting sheer disadvantage towards any attempts to be unique. This week, we'll start with the contest or shinjinshou 新人賞, one of the major routes for debuts in light novels.
If you came from my clips, thank you for your support. I have always put the disclaimer in all of my clips that I am not a dedicated clipping channel, and so going forward I will try to keep a weekly upload of these more personal contents. I hope you can find it informative or at least entertaining, and if not, I hope you'll be kind enough to just ignore 1 extra vid in your feed per week. My clipping schedule should not change much.
The original goal of this channel is to try and recruit some other foreign writers and artists to the anime, manga and light novel industry to bring fresh, new and diverse paint to the current monotony of the industry that keeps doing this even if it means hurting its own profits and reputation. So if you are interested, feel free to join my Discord at / discord
Otherwise, a like, comment, or share are also very greatly appreciated.
Source: • 【小説家になろう/なろう系】考察シリーズ
note.com/you96/n/n0939fc02f696
Many other info on this and future videos are also based on personal conversations with staffs from multiple publishers, 5 teachers from writing colleges in Tokyo, 1 previous contest winner. Though I either did not ask or they did not give permission for their name to be cited, so it is up to your own discretion if my info is reliable.
Disclaimer on the chart labeling light novels as isekais or harems at 6:39, The light novels are judged mostly on their titles/volume description summary. "Isekai" here is used broadly for any power fantasy set in a fantasy world where the words "isekai"（異世界）, "reincarnation"（転生）, "strongest"（最強）, "unbeatable"（無双）, "cheat"（チート）etc are used, regardless of whether the characters get transported to a different world or not.
Additionally, this is a sample size taken for March-May 2023, where the number of monthly releases also have went down considerably post-pandemic.
BGMs used from Persona 5
- Layer Cake
- Tokyo Emergency
- The Spirit
- Restlessness
- Butterfly Kiss

[@KeebeThePlush]

Novel writers deserve a lot of appreciation for the amount of work they put into developing then and winning contests

[@pierredelapotterie5996]

From the two path you've presented, I would have thought that it's from web novel to light novel where the source of bad LN, due to writers are not necessarily trained/competent writers. Insightful video thanks

[@conkle7955]

It is sad to think that there are a lot of light novels that actually have unique stories yet they tend to get swept under the rug for not following trends. It is understandable that companies need trends to boost their sales, but it does not excuse them giving burgeoning authors rules that limit their creativity. Although I don't particularly consume any LN content due to the clichés, it did make me ponder on the knowledge that there are authors out there whose works are unique but did not get a platform due to such a bad judging system

[@foolishscum]

The pages limit are understandable especially since you are supposed to write a 'light' novel and you need skills to write less while conveying more. But yeah traditional publishers kinda have their pro and cons. Webnovels are nice because what the people truly wants are the one that can get into the spotlight but a lot of writers need some editor help and perhaps that is why LN contests still exists; it's where the editors can find these unpolished writers. It's a shame they've limited their choice of genres etc due to the fact that reading a thousand submissions would be very taxing.

[@Tilde_Shii]

Interesting video. I never took interest in Light novels, the only book that I actually took interest in(for now at least) is Hyouka. And that is a novel. But I can see the problems you are explaining here, certainly having short amounts of pages and expecting to get a long running series will be very hard. I like this type of video once in a while between the clips, would love to see more of your thoughts on the LN industry.

[@azhargenius6304]

this is very enlightening i was wondering what is up with anime the past few years and this is why

[@alpaca8128]

Great video! I never really thought about this topic before so everything was fresh and new to me. Looking back, most of the light novels I like originated as web novels so I guess this video proves a point 😅 Again, thanks for the interesting video and looking forward to part 2

[@SiinThings]

Hey, thanks for the video. I already watched your previous series on this topic, so didn't really hear anything new this time, but it's still great content. Has anything changed since the time you made previous videos (was it like two years ago?) More contest LNs getting anime adaptations? Maybe some improvments to search/rate systems or UI of WN websites?

[@oboretaiwritingch.2077]

Apart from economic effects from the pandemic (the unbalance in budgets between smaller and larger animes became more apparent, and less light novels coming out per month), not much. At least, I do see that more non-Isekai stories seem to be winning contests now. So thinking positively, we might be entering a phase where the industry is starting to move away from isekai power fantasies. But at the same time, I do see much more power fantasy mangas and manwhas coming out too, so it's a win on one hand and lose on the other.

[@arkhielr3252]

@@oboretaiwritingch.2077 One step forward, two steps back....

[@Poyonep]

I respect that you focus on writing. I mostly came here for VTuber clips but this video is also amazing

[@zigaudrey]

As a reader who read mostly LN on baka-tsuki (translated to my mother language French), I have a strict list of what kind of LN I choose. Its source has to be the LN itself, not based on Video Game or Manga. Its date has to be around 2000-2010. And I don't remember the third. I prefer J-Novel over Light Novel. Yeah, like Fan-Fiction and digital writing plus the length, LN is also an abused format. Some claim this is like Manga turned into Literature thanks to focus on action and dialogues.

[@Sultan-wj3gp]

Interesting info, def gives context to all the garbage series around. Thank you for the video!

[@wootoo3435]

今まで異世界系、なろう系にどうしても興味持てなかったから面白い動画だった！ 賞で評価される能力とその後に期待される能力の違いの話、小説とマンガで媒体は違うけどジャンプが進撃を落としてマガジンに取られた話を思い出した

[@joshuagabrielcatindig7607]

Finally, writing content! And yeah, too much power fantasies and harem animes. Probably how unicorns in the vtube industry are made. At the very least, it has to have a part in the unicorn's genesis.

[@slevinchannel7589]

INSANE

[@leolee.]

LN for me is about dialogue. And long ass titles in their names

[@LinceNico]

5 min in the video and it seems nice and interesting, also nice ASMR voice (?

[@joshuagabrielcatindig7607]

I dont even care too much about Oscars, imagine ine for each studio. Breh.

[@ejmuerterisefromthedead8924]

and its the reason why anime stories are becoming degrading at this point meaning, we starting to have hunger on good stories. like what animesnob(youtuber) said anime/manga/light novel are producing low quality stories and this is the sad reality we are facing it now. edit: btw i hope you can adjust your volume a bit higher