Discussion Novels with female lead

Let me say this firts, im a guy and when i was in elementary school i used to hang around my older female cousin. I was a bookworm at the time ( still am ) and didnt know anything about anime manga and all that.

Long story short i read her collection of Ouran high school host club and other manga ( which is all shoujo but i didnt know it at the time ) and started watching anime and now...Im here.

Because of that i read quite a lot of shoujo manga but for some reason i cant read novels with female lead ( that include both chinese and japan ones )

There is several exceptions to this and they are
-Kumoko
-Meow Meow Meow
-Bathroom goddesss
-A love so beautiful
-Because I Reincarnated as a Succubus, I’ll Squeeze Out Milk
As you may or may not notice they range from action fantasy to comedy to pure romance to reverse harem to pure romance, which means im not picky about genre.

And here are some shoujo which I have read:
-Ore no monogatari
-Faster than a kiss
-Gekkan shoujo nozaki kun
-Love so life
-The wolf king's bride
-Kimi ni todoke
-Inu x boku SS
-Vampire knight

I feel perplexed about my inability to enjoy the majority of novels with female leads in them even though i can read shoujo manga just fine. Any idea???

 

Maybe because it didn't have any picture?

 

perhaps because of the way it portrays the characters? Manga is often much more a story of interactions, what the character does, while novels can go into much more detail in words about what characters are thinking and feeling, which you may find harder to relate to.

And here's a suggestion for you to read because I like suggesting things even if people aren't asking for it.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-girl-who-bore-the-flame-ring/

 

Picture or not never have anything to do with how much enjoyment i got out of a work. That's just not a problem a bookworm like me will ever have

 

How about a list of ones you don't like as well? Maybe there is a specific element that makes it less enjoyable to you? Kind of like a peeve that may not show up in manga but shows up in novels?

For example, maybe you don't like things that get too wordy(unless it is comedy)? Something that doesn't happen in manga but happens in novels.

 

I feel that maybe one of the reason, and thanks for the recommendation

 

"Shoujo Manga" just mean that it target Girls Audience, it doesn't mean Female Lead. Even I also like many Shoujo manga.
While for your reason for can't enjoying Female Lead novels, then maybe because you are too in-reading about them that you can't understand it, since you can't relate to it or something?

 

Well, there is Kenkyo Kenjitsu for funny, romance, comedy and making fun of standard shoujo tropes,
action female leads are Doomsday Wonderland and more character oriented is Dominion's End

 

If you put it that way, there are several things i can say:
-Dense character be handle badly by author. I can tolerate dense character as long as they are logical ( by my standard ). Sometimes i just get frustrate about the denseness and the misunderstandings that this attribute of the character creates ( this happens to both female and male lead so >.> ) In fact in one of the novels which i really like the main character is literally a cat reincarnates in human form and the story revolves around the misunderstandings her idiotic actions create which is both funny and lovely. As a cat the denseness of her as a character is more than that of a neutron star but i still enjoy it nontheless. As for some other female lead which i wont name...ugh...
-Cold love interest cliche: same as above which can happen to both male and female lead but sometimes i enjoy it while other time i dont...

This is a rabbit hole of a topic which i can fall into pretty easily so there you go.

 

I'm gonna +1 this. OP, perhaps you have trouble liking FL novels because you are unable to 'detach' yourself and try to see through the character and their presence in the world? Novels do rely a lot more on the reader's perception to bring the world across whereas Manga has it much easier due to copious amounts of pictures. I realize my hypothesis would probably sound a bit weird but it's the best way i could explain it (out of 5 different tries).

I can agree with you on those two points, especially the cold love interest cliche when it comes to CN >.>

 

Hmm, i dont know if this means i cant relate to them, certainly there are times when i feel very angry about a decision a character makes, but that apply to both female and male lead.
I'm very picky in choosing novels and i havent dropped anything because it is uninteresting, i dropped them mainly due to rage inducing moments in the story, like i invest my emotion heavily in them and sometimes i just feel so angry and betrayed and dissapointed and... you get the idea.

 

Did you ever try the yuri genre ? Gnehehe join us yuri lovers on Yuri Garden (NUF), you are always welcome.

 

The Cold Regent Keeps a Fox as a Consort
Transmigrator meets reincarnator
Crossing to the Future, it’s Not Easy to Be a Man

 

Hmm... so just avoid most Chinese ones(cold male lead) and most JP reverse harem ones(dense MC). But you are fine with them for comedic purposes?

Have you read things like?
Demon Girl ~Tale of a Lax Demon~ - dense MC for comedic
I Said Make My Abilities Average! - dense MC and misunderstandings for comedic
Tilea’s Worries - Dense MC and misunderstandings for comedic (GB though)

The Strategy to Become Good at Magic - CN with no cold leads (though not sure if they are really leads)
Stunning Edge - CN with non-cold leads(at least not fully)

Did you read any of those and not like them? If so, why not?

 

I read lax demon and i like it, havent read the rest though

 

So far it's sounding like it may have less to do with male/female protagonist and more to do with the writing? Perhaps it's a certain writing trend that tends to accompany female protagonist stories?

 

I've only seen the anime, but Moribito has Balsa as the primary character.

 

Side Characters Transmigrations: The Final Boss Is No Joke
The End Of World's Poisonous Mom And Monster Baby - badass kickass mom and cute baby.
Quick transmiggration the canon fodder counter attack

 

@Chronos Bee I think it might have to do with the overly strong domination of the female 1st person point of view. (All you see and here is from the female POV)

It's less pronounced in a graphic form (anime/manga) because the other characters are visible all the time.

On the other hand, you only get to know the other characters inside a novel from the narrative of the female mc.

That's also why I keep finding myself writing in multiple point of views for my story. It felt so boring just to write from the main female lead's POV.

 

yep exactly