Question Is it just me who noticed

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Joospinch, Apr 16, 2021.

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  1. Joospinch

    Joospinch Don't click my avatar!!!

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    Every.
    Single.
    Time.

    Whenever i look at the nu page of alot of fantasy novels the picture/cover always has the MC in the same exact pose where they hold a light/dark/fire/water/e.t.c magic ball of some sort.

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    Has anyone else noticed this? Also why? Is it our equivalent of the peace sign when we take photos?
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  2. otaku31

    otaku31 Well-Known Member

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    I didn't notice any such pattern. Your obsession with magical balls is frankly disturbing. :blobfearful:
     
  3. Tangshu

    Tangshu Lady Of The Wind ☁️

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    Yes and there always has to be at least one girl in the cover too.
     
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  4. lunarshadow

    lunarshadow Well-Known Member

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    "Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery"

    Artists get inspiration by seeing other works. If they see something they consider cool, they copy it with their own spin. If something sells well, it ABSOLUTELY gets copied. You see this in the English novel market as well. Back in the 90's, every sci-fi/fantasy novel had at least one scantily clad girl on it... even if there were no female characters in the novel!
     
  5. ANonMouse

    ANonMouse Well-Known Member

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    OP gunna turn into this guy :blobpopcorn_cool: goto 0:31
     
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  6. KhayDesu

    KhayDesu ❀Rᴇᴀᴅιɴԍ Eɴтнusιᴀsт❀ | ★ᴅᴇsu~★ | ✿Loquᴀcιous✿『☕』

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    Yep Yep its just part of the bandwagon and this is quite apparent in Isekai novels in general
     
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  7. 8oni

    8oni Well-Known Member

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    ...You just realized people's obsession with balls?

    Joking aside, those effects are cool and also it tells the reader 'Here is our badass MC who can do magic' since you know, picture worth a thousand words.
     
  8. deniss18

    deniss18 Active Member

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    hey hey, what's the name of the novel than the second cover? look interesting
     
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  9. unsungsilver

    unsungsilver Well-Known Member

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  10. Halcyon Observer

    Halcyon Observer Full stop

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    It's because author's don't realize magic doesn't necessarily have to be casted from your hands. If anything, it's casting a spell from your hands is purely psychological.
    If you could only cast magic from your hands, everyone trying to kill you is going to try to cut your hands off.

    All the covers you've just posted have a thing in common: All of the MCs possess magic, and all of the MCs possess a kind of "cheat" for magic. The sort of "magic ball in hand" is supposed to be a representation of power and control. Here I possess magic, far greater and volatile than the common man, and it is always at my very fingertips.

    So it's either one way or the other: they didn't think too deeply about magic or they wanted a poster to show how "op" and "awesome" the MC is with magic.
     
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  11. novaes

    novaes Well-Known Member

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  12. Kansuou

    Kansuou Song of Lone Indifference.

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    With big boobs nonetheless.
     
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  13. Shiroikaze42

    Shiroikaze42 Well-Known Member

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    Yes this.

    Taken a bit further, my brain always flashes warning signs when the cover of a novel or manga most prominently features the female characters, but the protagonist is male. Like it's almost saying "the protagonist isn't interesting, so here's some hot women!"
     
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  14. Fluffums

    Fluffums 【R-18 Researcher】【Seeker of Moe】

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    I haven't noticed it at all. Just from today I read an update for this one:

    [​IMG]

    If any balls are being held, at least it's decently covered up.
     
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  15. Blitz

    Blitz ⛈️ awakened from the reverie❄️

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    Smh, too much obsession woth spheres, mix it up with a cube or something.
     
  16. Halcyon Observer

    Halcyon Observer Full stop

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    upload_2021-4-17_12-42-32.png

    Here's the first cover of the series. While the magic isn't in the form of a sphere, the notion of the hand "casting" still remains. The confident facial expression and hand gesture is to signify the MC's own magical power.
    Both covers have a girl in close proximity to himself. Cover I describes their relationship. Judging by his right hand holding her close to him, it describes him to be the more dominant part of the relationship, in addition to a certain level of trust and or affection. While it could just be limited by the range a cover can depict, the distance shows they are likely intimate.
    In Cover III, the MC holds two girls, one on each side. It shows that they are all likely close to each other, but as the MC is in the middle, both would likely emphasize their own relationship with the MC as opposed to the other. Not only does it show the novel is likely of the harem genre, it still portrays the MC as "powerful" and "awesome." This time, instead of flaunting magical prowess, the cover flaunts his "social" power of popularity with women.

    To be fair, there are only so many different poses characters can do, so it would not be uncommon to see similar postures of them, especially if they are of the same genre.
     
  17. Fluffums

    Fluffums 【R-18 Researcher】【Seeker of Moe】

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    Well, yeah. I remember looking in the romance section of the library a long time ago and all the book covers looked pretty much the same. In the end, for the fantasy genre there's not much better to say "this is the kind of novel this is" than a character holding his weapon in one hand and his woman in the other. If the weapon is magic, he holds magic, if he's a swordsman he'll hold a sword, if he's a tamer or summoner there's an allied beast, if his weapon is a hammer he'll hold a hammer. Or a hammer and a sword.
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    Without even reading the title, you know he's a blacksmith who handles weapons. And you also know he has the kind of harem where women love him but he's not in a relationship (at least as of this novel).The fact that the women are either in the background or a little off to the side, while the hammer is front and center, tells you that the harem is less important than the hammer. The relaxed atmosphere of the cover shows that it will also be mostly slice of life. I think it's a very effective way of making a cover and while it may seem cliche if you start comparing a bunch of similar novels side by side, that's just because there isn't really a better way to do it.

    Especially for the first cover of the series, you need it to show what it is so that people glancing at it in a store or seeing a shopping site's thumbnail know immediately. If it's relevant to their interests, they'll be more likely to notice and buy it, and if it's not, they wouldn't have bought it even with a different cover.
     
  18. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    Haha.
    I want to smoke whatever thread starter is smoking
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