Discussion Why are shoujo novels so bad

I'm tired of shoujo and josei genre novels, they are so bad. The characters have absolutely no depth, not the female lead, not the side characters and don't get me started on the male lead. "Oh look at me, my only character is that I'm rich, cold and ruthless, as a bonus I hate all women, they are all sluts, scum of the earth. Poor me, women just keep trying to climb in my bed. Good thing with my power I can ruin their lives especially their careers, but, I'll make an exception for the female lead, for some reason."

Hate the female leads they're all "I'm going to change story line, I won't bow to anyone, (3 seconds later) oh look it's the male lead, save me, I'm so weak, I can't take care of myself after seeing how godly you are, now all my goals and ambitions revolve around you. I'll even let you dictate every move I make, I'm such a strong independent gorl".

And Jesus christ do these authors hate female side characters. Let the female character be sultry or independent, and she's fucked, let her wear a red anything & she's done for. Let her pursue the man she loves without being submissive and she's fucked.
A male character that fucks women everyday is to be worshipped and a woman that does the same is a bitch that deserves to be trampled in the worst way possible (they always end up dieing in brothels, raped or a druggie). Like what the fuck is that.

Can we just have a female lead that is truly independent, does not tolerate dominance over her from men she just met. And can we have male leads that have depth, something other than wealth, lack of emotions and how they don't like others touching them other than the female lead.

I hate the rapey vibes coming off from these novels. These aren't romance novels they're Stockholm novels written by an unreliable narrator.

Yeah, about that touching thing, male lead, get some help. Ha, the side characters, the freaking side characters. What are they, why are they there. Those side characters are horrendous.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

 

here’s a like

 

This is the main reason why I don't read any CN/KR shoujo or Josei; they all end up being trash tier stockholm syndrome novels. Even the ones with high(ish) ratings are really meh, idk what the readers see in them tbh. I do have to mention though that some JP shoujo/Josei novels are rather well-written, I enjoyed some of them even though I don't like the shoujo or Josei genre in general.

 

Well, considering that most of those novels have over 4 star ratings, it means that there are many people who enjoy it. Yah... It's kinda like Japanese novels and beta main characters. We all hate it but somehow they are everywhere. It just means that it's good business, I guess.

 

Dont read any romance as the main theme of a novel with chapters going over 200. Characters there are full retard, never go full retard.

 

Had nothing to do with the stories actually, and everything to do with the target audience, which i assume would be female.
The reader want 'fantasy' to basically 'run away from reality just for a moment' .
Why do you think novel like 50 shades of gray are famous? Because the ml is rich, if he's poor and with bdsm tendency and it will be another story (attempted rape most likely).

 

I quit reading jp shojou manga due to those dumb cutesy FL and the perfect handsome ML. But mostly cause the FL is so dumb and annoying.

CN novel has the most annoying side characters. They exist only to become fodder and be jealous to FL and call her slut. Just because a girl is attractive she's already a slut this damn logic. Plus the damn bastard of ML that is yandere and doesn't take no from the FL I hate also how FL mary sue cause how absurb it is.

The one I don't like at CN is mostly ML love at first sight cause the FL is pretty then they want to lock her up. And we have FL that just forgive ML for all the abuse WTH!

Beside all the use of drug for first time. Geez! China has strong regulation against drugs but their romance novel relay on it to get laid. Do they now that ALCOHOL is more common and legal!?

Either way, CN is worst to me in moral sense while JP shojou are usually boring if FL is dumb or cutesy.

 

Yup, that's why I stopped. Your next steps are to either start reading novels without romance or BL/GL. If you hate the shallow depth of character then I would avoid harem novels too.

 

Admittedly a reason why I tend to stay away from Josei novels with descriptions like "billionaire" and "CEO" and "black-bellied."

But by filtering out those kinds of novels, I find that the Josei and Shoujo genres tend to lean more in character development in a genres, say, Shounen or Harem.

Originally, I had a long block of text here, but then I realized I got off tangent for far too long and that I need to just post this and move on with my life.

 

You only need to finds out how many chapters aka fillers does the novel has in COO. If it has 1k chapter, axe that. You can actually find out how it will goes from chapter 1-5 by seeing the paragraph density and how its all worded. Rn i have acquired this skill to distinguish quality novel quickly. I generally goes for the right amount of dialogue and description on a paragraph.

And as time goes on so does your taste, you can go for bl/gl, or search novels by jpn or kn too as they have different paragraph composition.

 

I know a few good shoujo novels that don't fall into any of those disliked criteria.

 

Ahahhaha I feel you. At the beginning I picked some CN novel and somehow all (what you write) was there. Stockholm syndrome so strong there. And rape seems normalized, not mention war in harem. Of course those isekai and reincarnation trope always there.

But you could use @Drake98 tips. And got your hand on published Novel. Especially the one won award. Not mainstream at all. And had great storyline. My favorite one for now:
The Pharmacist`s Monologue (kusuriya no hitorigoto). Its kinda raised the bar for me.

 

Have a like! But yeah very few actually decent shoujo/romance stuff comes from kr or cn. I think its the writing culture that is the problem, cn and kr novels tend to go at very fast paces, Arcs or relationship developments go by in low double digits or even single digit amounts of chapters.

Japanese authors in the other hand, are pretty good at the slow brewing romance and relationship development. Although JP novels still tend to fall into cliche characters and development, when the author can integrate them into a coherent and rational story, it really shines like no other cn/kr novel does.

 

because the taste of those translator is trash?
similar with xuanhuan trash? or harem trash or beta trash?
oh wait is that mean this cat taste is trash cuz like such story?

well first of all as defense, this cat have only so much choice ya know~ can't bother digging thorough mountains of moonrunes via mtl that have various side effect~
secondly it seem many cats also read similar stuff so it kinda mainstream so kinda safe it ok-ish... maybe?
third, because of various reason this cat kinda picky eater no picky reader on that genre so dunno wut happen... maybe.... why on first place you still read those kind of story tho?
real question after your rant is over~

 

Can you name any Japanese webnovels that are good at this? I like this kind of story but I have a very hard time finding ones that have anything more than minimal characterization.

 

There are not bad. You are just not the target audience.
You should graduate to Josei like many have done.
As a dude who grew up on shoujo, I cannot stand them anymore
It is either Josei or no party.
I highly recommend Kimi Wa Petto and Shitsuren Chocolatier

 

I read shoujo and josei and I don't read novels like the ones you describe. Maybe look elsewhere? Or select other tags? Or don't read mainstream ones?
I don't read pure romance, and never romance and drama, maybe that's why I don't find so many clichee ones?

 

That's why My Disciple Died Yet Again is the best shoujo/josei novel.

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/my-disciple-died-yet-again/

You're just reading the wrong novels. There's plenty of good and romantic CN novels for girls/women.

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/sansheng-wangchuan-wu-shang/

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/little-phoenix-is-not-an-immortal/

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/cultivating-to-become-a-great-celestial/

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/your-highness-i-know-my-wrongs/

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-general-wants-to-hug-and-sleep/

 

Like readerz said, you're reading the wrong novels. I mean there is are great tetrabytes of trash, and so it ain't your fault.

If you do like romance novels, and aren't just reading them to malign them, Japanese josei romances can be really good if they don't have their usual "I have to change myself to catch a man" shtick; usually no CEOs.

Here are my recs, if you haven't read them yet - I would be greatly surprised;
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/good-morning-miss-ghost/ and all the other novels this author has done - varied heroes and heroines. Hilarious too!
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/intense-love/ fun heroine
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/i-am-being-chased-by-a-perfectionist-man/
https://www.novelupdates.com/series...th-gynophobia-and-the-eccentric-lady-scholar/ super lovely! very easy going imo.