Most Hated Isekai Cliche

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Goblin Sleuth, Jan 30, 2020.

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Which cliche do you detest the most?

  1. Death by truck!

  2. Dubious Summoning...

  3. Leave forest, carriage event!

  4. Accelerated Leveling

  5. Weak, but becomes strong immediately.

  6. It is humans who are evil!

  7. Demihuman Discrimination...

  8. Slavery is evil; protagonist owns slaves.

  9. Obnoxious Pet Baby Monster!

  10. Adventurers Guild (Who are really just mercenaries.)

  11. Adventure Ranking System Info Dump

  12. Slave girl wants to remain a slave.

  13. Monster Protagonist; immediately gain human transformation.

  14. Monster Protagonist; create monster society, and/or become demon king.

  15. Mary Sue Syndrome

  16. Skill Stealing.

  17. Other

  18. Dropout becomes genius thanks to modern knowledge.

  19. Locals like protagonist weird foreign food infinitely better than the food from their homeland.

  20. Lazy One Dimensionally Cannon Fodder Antagonist.

  21. Average low self esteem, become sexy babe magnet in another world.

  22. Protagonist is aware that they're in an isekai, acts like nothing can hurt them.

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  1. Bachingchung

    Bachingchung Well-Known Member

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    Yes, but they are usually in terms of combat or ideology. Even if there's a pre-existing condition where the MC memorized all the books he read, that's still shallow knowledge.

    That's why I also hate those MCs who suddenly became Virtuosos in the Isekai world.Playing Moonlight Sonata 3rd Mvt like it's nothing. Even if you have the music sheet memorized, if you can't read the notes then it's basically just waste paper.
     
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  2. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    I agree. All too often protagonists are able to do things that would be completely unthinkable in the real world, and it puts a big damper on the quality of the book. To be fair, these books generally have terrible characterization to begin with so having more character inconsistencies doesn't hurt as much!
     
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  3. sjmcc13

    sjmcc13 Well-Known Member

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    Isn't the general idea pretty much the opposite. That it depends on WHY you are not able to do something in real life (normally lack of resources), and if the nature of the Isekai world normally compensates for that in some way (built up wealth, production cheats, and magic materials that compensate for missing info). Most isekai stories are fantasy worlds where the MC gains wealth killing monsters, or some other task, and has access to some form of magic or enhanced body
    Working steam engines existed before the condenser, Watt's engine was an improvement of a previous functional design. Wasn't its biggest effect fuel efficiency, not functionality. On trains they are not one if the core components, but one of the common improvements and safety features added on top of the basic design.
    Also, just giving the concept to 1 person is bad writing, if you have an empire you amass many talented individuals to use as a think tank, not just 1 person.
    Music is something that takes time and practice to master, it is not something you can pick up in a day in most cases.
    However there are many things where having the basic knowledge is more important and knowing the basics could let you re-create it, or a simplified/adapted version using the unique features of the new world. Especially if you are ably to improve yourself in that world to pick up new skills.
     
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  4. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Lack of resources is only one of the reasons why people don't (as different are not able) do something; and it's not even the most important one at that. There are other things like talent, time, skill, willingness, and interest.

    The point is that because of unfamiliarity of the technology, Leonardo in the story wasn't able to build a steam engine that was actually useful. Perhaps this problem could be overcome with time and effort, but that time may not be for decades unless someone handed him the answer.

    Sure, the book isn't particularly great, but why would you claim that this particular example demonstrates that it's bad? Do you know what access the protagonist has to skilled engineers? Or how much resources he has? Or what his immediate goal was in building a steam engine? Or what that represents for his long term goals? Or what kind of priority the task had?
     
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  5. abewan

    abewan 〘Nishikigoi Dungeon〙

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    More sex and more power.

    Agree.
     
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  6. SamStrike

    SamStrike Well-Known Member

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    This is my new favorite phrase from now on. Apart from that I hate:
    1. When the MC has to be cringe and say things like "NANI?!?!"
    2. Author who like to use CAPS or a lot of exclamation.
    3. The first beautiful girl the MC meet is gonna be either his lover or his enemy.
    4. Apparently, it's fine for the MC to insult or be disrespectful towards a God that has the power to decide your life and reincarnation. (Shut the fuck up and have respect, he can decide your life on a whim for fuck sake, you probably would chicken out in front of your job's boss then why are you so 'brave' in front of a fucking God?!).
    5. Villains are always retarded and arrogant for some reason.
    6. STUPID COMEDY: stop fucking use stupid pop culture references or that shit, IT'S NOT FUCKING FUNNY, I want to read a novel and enjoy it, not a drama teenager show. (I hate this so fucking much, when authors try to put 'quirky' comedy to make it funny. I also hate comedy in general and can't stand comedy-based novels, but that's just make it worse).
    7. MC never loses or suffer a set-back, he also never actually think logically on an important decision.
    8. People are always either good or bad, someone neutral doesn't exists.
    9. Harem not done well (basically every harem apart from rare finds)
    I could honestly go on forever, but I feel like this is enough for now.
     
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2020
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  7. Goblin Sleuth

    Goblin Sleuth Well-Known Member

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    This is one you just can't win man, because in the instances where the protagonist is not being an entitled prick to the person who controls their fate, the god is a submissive kowtowing pansy. Like seriously if the god kneels before the protagonist I will most likely drop the novel right there. I don't care a god real or fictional should never grovel and apologize.

    Now maybe if instead of a god it is something like a low ranking angel, then yeah that makes sense. They killed the protagonist by accident, and if the actual god finds out they'll be sent to hell or purgatory. So they need the protagonist to quickly agree to a reincarnation before they get found out.
     
  8. Bachingchung

    Bachingchung Well-Known Member

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    There are novels with that kind of world. However, I don't read them because it's just too much wish fulfillment. It's supposed to be a world where you can learn skills through practice, not a game where you just put points on a skill tree or use a skill scroll and poof you can destroy a planet now.
     
  9. Bitter Sweet

    Bitter Sweet 『Gomi Delivery Service』

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    Iya... the poll is so accurate it hurts me to read it. I wonder how many times I've read the scenarios that always seem to pop up...
     
  10. Lamo Lamp

    Lamo Lamp Well-Known Member

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    Lol agree here, even for comedic purpose it's actually not funny, even Aqua always told people to pay respect to her
     
  11. berdanka

    berdanka Active Member

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    I hate most of the popular tropes, but I can go along with them until their execution starts to be shallow. Tropes without any substance or efforts from the author, what is a common practice nowadays, are the worst.

    Examples:
    - Transmigration with the only purpose of keeping MC related to our culture so he can annoy us about soy sauce and stuff.
    - Meet a real God right after transmigration. You won't be getting the next meeting until forever because he was irrelevant.
    - The adventures guild that is a disguise for how few efforts the author is applying to drive the story. It's so convenient that there is a quest board!
    - A status window just because the author is too lazy to make MC properly analyzing himself or his enemies, and not because the whole magical system is game-like (Kumo for example).

    And so on. Low efforts from the authors are what makes us hate these and many other tropes.
    But there is one cliche that I hate unrelated to any efforts, the cooking isekai. For hundreds of years, poor hunters never learned how to bleed their game to remove the odor from the meat! Or maybe they never thought about making a hot-dog! Heavens, this requires help from Japan!
     
    Last edited: Mar 7, 2020
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  12. Yamcha

    Yamcha Friendnemy

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    The author losing itself into its own fantasy. I get that it is fantasy but needs still needs some logic to keep it interesting.
     
  13. BurgerKong

    BurgerKong Well-Known Member

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    Their editor demanded it, so in case it ever gets a more visual adaption said baby monster can be used for merchandising.
     
  14. BurgerKong

    BurgerKong Well-Known Member

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    So the author doesn't have to explain how the local magic/technology works. I like how Grimgar did it where they go into a game world, but the game abstraction is removed (e.g. you don't gain experience points, just experience)

    How do you feel about Release That Witch, where the transmigrated was a mechanical engineer who by the necessity of his job would know about such things?

    I fully agree with you. Like, just making him an apprentice or a farmer or whatever who gets cheat powers? If it works for Robert Jordan it will work for you.
     
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  15. Bachingchung

    Bachingchung Well-Known Member

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    I still find it as a bunch of BS. Mechanical Engineers usually involve themselves to the automobile industry. They also go to maintenance when it comes to factory facilities and whatnot. No Engineer would waste their time memorizing the measurements of the gears and nuts involved in creating an ancient invention.
     
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  16. ATrueStory

    ATrueStory Villainesses, Historical Shit, Noble Circuses

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    In starting to hate isekai stories because the villainess/isekai'ed character becomes too boring for me to even root for. All the actions are becoming predictable that I can binge read release with the same points with different tweaks. I also hate that just to power up the MC, who is usually female, the other's background gets a backburner. I want a story that explores each character and just not resort to tropes...which is the reason I started reading isekai...to gain a different perspective on a story that already been told.

    I swear ML are either cardboards or doormats. I don't like that. I already know the MC will save the world. Give me compelling characters that I can also like.
     
  17. That One Average Fellow

    That One Average Fellow Well-Known Member

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    "strongest living slow life" type of stories bore me and overly descriptive food chapters get on my nerves.
     
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  18. ludagad

    ludagad Addicted to escapist novels

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    Oh man, if I ever needed proof that all I my likes and dislikes are mainstream, this was it. All my picks have the highest percentages, lmao. I guess the one that irks me the absolute most of all, is the weak to immediately strong trope. It just takes all my enjoyment out straight away. It doesn't need to be slow, but I like the process of the MC becoming badass (eg. Solo Leveling). If MC's immediately OP, I can only expect endless slice of life (and harem management) afterwards, with the occasional dumbass coming to challenge the peace and quiet the MC seems to obsess about, and the MC dominating them immediately. Boring. Only exception is One Punch Man, of course. And that's cause it's not slice of life and the MC actually wants to use his strength, and other reasons, but I'm not gonna start writing an anime essay here.

    Another pet peeve is the slice of life with harem. I want action and adventure, but most isekais only manage to bore me to death. It's why I've stopped reading Japanese novels >_>; I get it's all about escaping stress and leading an idyllic life where nothing can threaten you, but it's simply not for me.
     
  19. cosmicpeach

    cosmicpeach Well-Known Member

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    For me the thing that I hate the most in Isekai (with plot of otome game/novel thingy) is:

    Protagonist is aware that they're in an isekai, so she/he acts like everything they did will ruin the plot.
    So for the sake of "the original plot" they will act like "NO I CAN'T DO THIS! I WON'T AND CAN'T FALL IN LOVE WITH THE MALE/FEMALE PROTAGONIST! I DON'T WANNA DEAD YET SO I BETTER NEVER APPEAR AT THE MAIN STAGE" no dear, whatever you do or choose you still gonna ruin the plot so please just do everything YOU WANT for the sake of your own life in isekai.
     
  20. Wujigege

    Wujigege *Christian*SIMP*Comedian

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    I hate how the protagonist is capable of using every type of magic by chapter 1
    It is pretty pathetic
     
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