This time I'm half expecting this thread to be filled up and last forever, but I'm curious and will make it anyway. I'm looking for stories that nobody should actually read. I ask that each recommendation for a story to be avoided be fit into one of four categories on how bad it is: 1. "Personal" Rank - Stories that you don't like, but understand that others do. I would prefer if there weren't any recommendations of this rank, but understand that I can't control others. So I'm including it so that people can put their pet peeve stories on here. 2. "Avoid" Rank - Stories that you don't see any appeal too, and wonder why other's would enjoy it. Basically stories at the level of cliche ridden stories that refuse to deviate from the cliche, even if it would make sense. 3. "Masochist" Rank - Stories that go beyond the level of horribly cliche, making bog standard cliche ridden stories seem enjoyable by comparison. In other words, stories that make you wish they only fit Category 2 Level, and you feel only a Masochist would be able to read and/or translate because the writing's that bad. 4. "Why God Why!" Rank - Stories that are outright torture to read. MC's who act as idiotic hypocrites in every other breath, writing that can't stay consistent for ten seconds, that type of thing. Basically, stories that make you ask "Why did the translator even consider picking this up, even masochists wouldn't go that far?". Basically, the category for the worst of the worst. Stories that are completely irredeemable, or that you outright know are written purely for sadistic glee at the thought of others reading them. Short Version of the list descriptions: 1. Personal - I don't like it. 2. Avoid - I don't know why other's like it. 3. Masochist - I feel like the translator and readers of this story are masochists. 4. Why God Why! - Why did this piece of garbage get written in the first place, and how did someone think it was a good idea to translate it? Anything up from Invijible Panda to "I actively want to kill the author because their writing's that bad" levels. I will try to make a list, but I don't guarantee that I will keep it updated. Spoiler: Category 1 - Personal I will almost certainly not update this one, due to the fact that I expect it to overflow. Spoiler: Category 2 - Avoid *I Was Reincarnated *Author - Fishman the Second *Era of Disaster *Going Back and Forth Between Earth and The Other World with Space Time Magic *Only Sense Online (LN) *The Desolate Era *Everyone Else is a Returnee *My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s *Talisman Emperor Spoiler: Category 3 - Masochist *A Wife's Cry *In a Different World with a Smartphone *Invincible Saint ~Salaryman, the Path I Walk to Survive in This Other World~ *Kami Sumeragi Yuusha no Eiyuutan 《Ryokou Tan》 *Very Pure and Ambiguous: The Prequel Spoiler: Category 4 - Why, God, Why! *Invisible Dragon *Invijible Panda *CEO Above, Me Below *Author - Ye Fei Ye *Still, Wait for Me *Martial God Asura *Zhan Long
3 I Was Reincarnated I enjoyed the world building, which is the only reason this isn’t category 2. It isn’t category 1 because I don’t think anyone can like this. The “romance,” which is the centerpiece of the story, is so terrible in this. I binge read 87 chapters, then was never able to get myself to read the last few ones.
Category 1: Second Chance by Number 7. Lots of tragedy and NTR/cuckolding. Story made me cry a lot, and get very emotional in the early chapters, which I will commend the author for stimulating those emotions. But after that, it just became torture to keep reading. Enter cycle of bad things happening.
I am confused about your post. The later categories are worse than the earlier ones, so 3 is worse than 2. Why is it that you enjoying the world building caused the story to gain a worse ranking than if you hadn't? Understandable. I'm the same.
Because it’s worse than 1, but 2 doesn’t fit because, as I said, I did enjoy the world building. 3 doesn’t seem worse to me, because, unlike 2, it didn’t say that there were no redeeming qualities. It just said that the cliches were worse. So I didn’t consider 3 a “worse” category, just different.
Any novels by the authors below: Ye Fei Ye -- 4. You should add a 5th category: Translator is a masochist, because the novels are so bad that it falls into this. Fishman the Second --2 and 3
Pretty much everything in my Dropped list falls under category 1 but In my mind they're category 2 or 3 at least. I have dropped them all for a reason but it's been a long time so it's hard to remember specifically, here's some. Category 1 Absolute Choice - Couldn't stand the chuunibyou "This King" bullshit. skipped ahead to see if it ever stopped, it didn't. Coiling Dragon - Birth of the never ending scope. Power and locations continue to scale exponentially until you get continents millions of kilometers across. By extension Swallowed Star can fit alongside it. Cook of the Mercenary Corp - Food porn if you like Japanese dishes, fell dry to me with constant perspective changes and bland story telling. Girl, I’ll Teach You Cultivation - I don't even really remember this. Think the MC just got way too holier-than-thou and just had constant weak people confronting him so he can display his power Category 2 Era of Disaster - Followed the same tired pattern as Walking Dead. Go from 'safe zone' until someone fucks it up, go to next 'safe zone', repeat. Going Back and Forth Between Earth and The Other World with Space Time Magic - Think this one legitimately falls under Category 4 cliche as fuck. Standard dense as fuck MC, standard over attatched little sister who doesn't accept anyone getting close to her brother. Girls fall for him for no particular reason. Only Sense Online (LN) - MC genderbend doesn't mean anything. He is literally a girl, in body and mind. From his motherly instincts to his embarrassment at interacting with a male friend.
4. In a Different World with a Smartphone - this is soooo f*cling dumb, all the characters are devoid of personality and the cliches are abused there 4. Invincible Saint ~Salaryman, the Path I Walk to Survive in This Other World~ - it started with a good premise, then it became a boring sh*tshow 4. Kami Sumeragi Yuusha no Eiyuutan 《Ryokou Tan》 - this one's easy, sh*tshow since the start. 4. Very Pure and Ambiguous: The Prequel - I don't know what it prequels but I'll be damned, I don't want to know. This started pretty interesting then became a Chinese self insert so cringy and badly written that my eyes bleeded, having Bill Gates profusely bowing to you? F*CK OFF! The fact that it uses the world where we live and screws over every notion we have, without even trying to do a better research breaks the suspension of disbelief so hard that it rebounds to the other side and almost send you to the hospital.
1 I Shall Seal the Heavens 2 Everyone Else is a Returnee 2 The Desolate Era 2 90% of the Japanese isekai novels 3 NEET Receives a Dating Sim Game Leveling System 3 Oh no! After I Reincarnated, My Moms Became Son-cons! And the list goes on and on (I only put the ones I remembered) PS: my English is not good
Essentially, I'm the same. I do try to read stuff but when it just gets terrible, I quit it. One novel, however, I remember. Still, Wait for Me. - 4 Male reincarnates to the past where he's about to enter uni and hopes to make the right decisions in this life. Vows to set things right with his girl. Promises to not change the course of history. Hypocrite. Supposedly, he's soft-hearted so he can't bother to hurt a girl's feelings so he doesn't outright reject their feelings for him (essentially making a harem coz these women are vapid and seem to have been raised wrong coz why else would they be attracted to this guy???) He's got no spine, that's what. Bland character, poor reasoning as to why he does what he does, and just outright irritated me. I hate spineless males and this one takes the cake.
3 My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s - I fell asleep many times reading this novel out of boredom because the novel was fucking boring. It isn't bad, but it isn't good either, just meh 2 Talisman Emperor and any other generic xianxia - it was cliché and sucked ass after the author stopped giving a shit in 500+ chapters 4 Martial God Asura - do I need to say more? 4 Zhan Long - jesus fucking christ was this trash atleast NSHBA was actually funny(despite not being a comedy) except for this trash. It tried so hard to be funny but made you cringe in pain instead 2 - slow life+OP from the start MC+slice-of-life - most of these are just absolute trash. I have read many good ones with these tags buy many more trashy ones.