Comments on: Answerman’s Take on Light Novels

By: jayers

jayers — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:35:58 +0000

“ANN has been a little better since I first started reading it but there are still columns or statements that they publish that grate on my nerves every once in a while.”
I know what you mean. There are times where they write would write something really good but then they make dumb comments that just ruins the whole thing and tick me off. I have to fight the temptations to make a fake account and troll the person with horrible comments >.<

By: Omonomono » Gadget Geeks Supports Toradora!

Omonomono » Gadget Geeks Supports Toradora! — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:33:13 +0000

[...] intercharacter drama that wrapped up like a satisfying trashy romance novel. Toradora is based on light novels, [...]

By: steelbound

steelbound — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 23:01:37 +0000

I couldn’t access ANN yesterday but today I looked over this column and thought this guy’s a complete idiot or he’s trolling. I checked the last column to compare and towards the end of the previous column Answerman posted a piece of a letter that someone wrote-in ” ‘This is why you never get good Flakes of the Week. You should try to be more antagonistic and nasty. ‘ ”

For me personally, I don’t like to see someone resort to trolling. It makes it hard to take that person serious in the future.

By: omo

omo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:30:56 +0000

Well, to Answerman’s credit, the term [romance novels for men] IS funny. And we know it’s just not accurate and to not take it seriously, so no harm no foul.

And yeah, I think he was thinking about Toradora. Which makes it a total troll. But I do it too so… If he was thinking about “anime these days that are based on light novels” though, then he probably just only watch one type of “anime these days that are based on light novels.” There are all kinds of weird stuff out there…

By: BluWacky

BluWacky — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:55:04 +0000

If I were to be charitable, I’d suggest that a lot of light novels are like the experience that women stereotypically have with romance novels. They’re frequently trashy and predictable, and I would suggest that perhaps Brian is just thinking of most of the anime these days that are based on light novels with their seemingly endless rehashing of the same tropes, whether romantic or shounen fighting or whatever.

If I were to go into fanboy rage mode, I’d froth about Twelve Kingdoms until the heavens were displeased with me, but I’m a rational mature individual…

(and I dearly love ANN in that they’ve upped their news reporting game considerably in the era of blogging, but they do write a lot of deliberately inflammatory stuff to get page hits (see: Answerman, every review Casey Brienza writes) and their constant trumpeting of ZOMG FANSUBS ARE BAD annoys me when their season previews mysteriously update after fansubs appear…)

By: Anna

Anna — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:48:21 +0000

@kadian: I agree. Maybe Brian’s just channeling Zac this week.

@omo: You and your technicalities! I personally just think of Faust as an anthology, but I think there was a point when even the Del Rey marketing shill was using “magazine,” so hey, that argument worked in my favor.

Like I said above, I have no problem with the term “romance novels for men,” which is all marketing copy to me anyway — I just wish Brian had specified what he had read to make him say that. Did he read Full Metal Panic or Trinity Blood or what?

@M: oh you!

@Kris: I never said that romance novels for guys didn’t exist, but I don’t believe all the Japanese (light) novels that have been licensed in English belong under that classification. I actually think most of the light novels would find a good spot in many YA sections of bookstores and libraries, regardless of being associated with an already existing anime/manga.

By: Kris

Kris — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:14:34 +0000

Of course there are romance novels for men, they just always couch them as something else, like mystery or adventure or most commonly, erotic fiction.

By: omo

omo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 17:14:08 +0000

Also forgot to add: Macias’s Otaku USA might have a bone to pick with this week’s Answerman.

By: omo

omo — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:57:09 +0000

To be fair, Faust is technically a mook, or a literary magazine that is more book than magazine even by Japan standards. The US version is even more like a book, shedding the plus-size form factor and the matching print paper. To its credit, I would totally buy a serialized version of Faust if stories of that caliber were to make themselves available on a monthly basis. But even the Japanese Faust come out only once every half a year or something.

Honestly, I think a magazine like Newtype USA can survive, but as it was, NTUSA just wasn’t hitting its target audience. Let alone the other problems hitting ADV at the time. I think we all can agree that the magazine format is one that has little to no margin for error in today’s conditions.

Romance novels for men. LOL. I prefer to see them as alternative to those sci-fi classics pre-teens and teens pick up in their libraries. But I suppose I do read them and some of them have romance elements in them.

Rakshun x Yoko fo lif! [/lol romance novels for men]

By: MKoulikov

MKoulikov — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:42:24 +0000

In general, I’m getting the feeling the man is trying too hard to be “edgy” and controversial and hard-hitting, and unfortunately, yeah, little important details tend to get left out.