Which of the three countries novels do you prefer?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by UnGrave, Jun 29, 2021.

?

Which novels do you prefer

  1. Japanese

    33.7%
  2. Korean

    29.6%
  3. Chinese

    36.7%
  1. Deleted member 271595

    Deleted member 271595 Guest

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    I don't like Japanese novels because most of the time the MC turn out to be a fool that can't even kill a guy because killing is bad. Also the isekai thingy gets boring quickly. But of course I like some Japanese novels, Forbidden Master for an example.

    I didn't read any Korean novels yet and probably won't if I can't find good ones.I remember looking at some of their plot, reviews etc. and they turned out to be average boring power fantasy.

    Chinese novels are my favorite because not all of their MC's are righteous piece of shits, they are selfish, ruthless and some of them doesn't care about reputation which is my favorite type of MC's. There's lots of reincarnation, going back in time, new body themes in CN's and most of them are boring but there's a few ones that are good. Reverend Insanity and Renegade Immortal are good examples of the themes.
     
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  2. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    Each of them have their ups and downs. The following are from my viewpoint.

    Japanese produces some good works and interesting stories, but it's swamped underneath the vast number of stories produced that's range from either cheap knock offs that missed the interesting part and replaced it by bolding the word harem at it's worst, to stories that follow one of the standard formula's and gives little to no real innovation at the best. Basically, there's diamonds, but you need to wade through mud at best and s**t at worst to try to find it. Though, sometimes you want to have a walk through the mud, and these stories can easily be fun when you find yourself in that mood. Don't know why anyone goes for the s**t, though, but often enough it's somehow got it's followers.

    Chinese occasionally produces something nice and fun, but has an annoying tendency to go from an interesting premise to a standard formula and go on for far, far, FAR too long. One that can be considered as formulaic as an episode of The Simpsons, which returns back to the standard at the end of the episode to start the new episode, if extended out over a far longer time if to give the illusion of real progress. And before you complain about the end point not being the same as the beginning, remember that The Simpsons has had gradual change too, which is why Maude Flanders is dead. There are some good stories here and there, but they're few and far between. It's less looking for diamonds in or around a diamond mine (like for Japan), and more seeing if you can see any dropped $10+ notes on a busy sidewalk you can pick up, and all the rarer for it. Even when you think you might have found one, it can all to easily turn into a trap and fall into the standard rhythms of the market.

    Korean is the difficult one. They're fun and experimental, with a lot of good premises produced. The issue is that the story's so often fall through whenever the premise has either been completed, or the story's passed it for long enough. Some start getting dragged by the fact that the premise has fallen to the wayside. Other's drag themselves forward to get to the conclusion promised back when the premise was still relevant. A third type start twiddling their thumbs, wondering what they should do now while the author comes up with the next plot point. There is that small minority that actually produce something consistently good, which is generally amazing, though many of these also fall off when the story's conclusion starts coming up. Still, tends to produce good stories commonly enough.

    TLDR:
    - Looking for good stories from Japan is like looking for dropped shards of diamond in a diamond mine that a septic tank has a slight leak falling into. You have to dig through dirt and s**t, but you can be fairly certain that there's some there.
    - Looking for good stories from China is like looking for something good on the sidewalk itself. Even if you find it, it'll probably turn into something nasty before you get to it, though there's always that less than 1% chance.
    - Looking for good stories from Korea is like walking into a dollar store to buy a toy gift for a child. You can always find something that can be played with, but you never know if it would be used for five minutes, two weeks, or a lifetime, be it because of the toy or the child.
    - They all have their good and bad points and I can't really determine which is better between Japanese or Korean for me. The Chinese Stories produce so much repetitive garbage, with only an occasional beautiful snowflake, that I can easily stick it at the bottom of the list of those 3. Even with the restriction of all 3 only being relegated to what's translated.
     
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  3. JuniorYouDare

    JuniorYouDare Active Member

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    I like the CN novels the most, the lore and history stuff is fun to read. I have quite some difficulties getting used to how KR novels are written and so many of them seem to be super duper dark and depressing but some are very good (also what is up with the necromancers seriously).

    JP novels seem to be either a full on author fetish insert or some dude that needs to be prescribed 500mg growaset. Its often like an orgy of 12 year old chunni dreams and repressed anger against women. I've only visited China and SK, but I've lived in Japan for a few months and I really can't see where the novels come from. Its like MLG pro kiddos on Xbox Live decided to put down the controllers and write novels, very baffling to me.
     
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  4. Chrono Vlad

    Chrono Vlad 『Banned From Drinking』

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    Novels, Manga from JP & KR

    As for CN. Meh, I totally ignore it.
     
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  5. juststian

    juststian Well-Known Member

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    Could you please recommend some Chinese historical novels?
     
  6. kkgoh

    kkgoh Well-Known Member

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    Echo a lot comments about CN novels vs KR or JP.

    CN novels tend to have more detailed world building, with team-based (loosely) themes and a grander scope.
    You often have entire factions/civilizations/races competing with one another. Maybe that's also a consequence of how CN webnovelists are paid by word count.

    KR/JP novels tend to be more of a one-man army, YOLO swagger, focusing entirely on how MC gets OP or uber-cool. JP webnovels tend to be excessively childish and cutesy for no reason.
    That gets pretty annoying after awhile.

    That said, there are some pretty good KR/JP novels with interesting themes.
     
  7. novaes

    novaes Well-Known Member

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    I kinda read mostly english amateur novels now. I got a bit too tired of EXPELLED ADVENTUREHERO PERSON KICKED OUT OF QUICK TRANSMIGRATION AND CAPTURED BY BLACK BELLIED DADDY HEAVENLY CULTIVATOR (OMEGAVERSE).

    Maybe it's confirmation bias, but a lot of the new stuff I picked up are just the same few popular stories on repeat. As for the nationalities, there are trends, just as people here have noticed, but I am more partial to Korean novels since their protagonists tend to be more willful without being thoroughly psychotic or mentally 13 years old.

    I just wish Korean action novel protagonists were more human and less... whatever the heck that is. Robotic? Stoic? A puppet for competency porn???

    I'm not saying they are all like that, just that you notice trends.
     
    Last edited: Jul 3, 2021
  8. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    Sure, but most of them are untranslated:
    回到明朝当王爷
    步步生莲
    醉枕江山

    For something less Chinese-centric there's 燃烧的莫斯科.

    And for translated novels (fully and partially):
    Bu Bu Jing Xin
    For a Prosperous World

    Ideally you'd want to read all of these in Chinese as the translation will water down a lot of the quality, and MTL can outright destroy it. The exception is 燃烧的莫斯科 as the story doesn't even take place in China and everyone is supposed to be speaking Russian anyways.
     
  9. Deleted member 283793

    Deleted member 283793 Guest

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    CN is my favorite. I mostly read shoujo and josei, and CN novels seem to be the best at it. JP nor KR suit my taste. Or I read so many of these that my mind can't accept anything else... like an addict. Oh well.
     
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  10. SunnyFlowers02

    SunnyFlowers02 Active Member

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    When it comes to reading fantasy or supernatural, I would always read CN and KR novels over JP. JP has great mangas that I love, but when it comes to novels, CN and KR win by a mile. I'm not sure if it's because I'm too picky or something, but just find most JP novels predictable or repetitive, especially when it's isekai. That's my opinion anyway. :sushi_peak:
     
  11. asriu

    asriu fu~ fu~ fu~

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    destroy the balance yay!

    ehem
    pure fantasy this cat prefer JP, they have bunch of ideas! but fail at execution perhaps? maybe cuz they have the most develop ..... no more like most variation on entertainment? not sure how to say it, their entertainment media can vary from moe moe loli to downright insane murderer magic versus whatever! from innocent cute first love to insane sadistic err killer? those spread among manga, anime, games then you get cats who consume those thing put into novel medium~ they have nice idea but fail on execution nya~ hmm maybe fantasy not really the correct term~ imagination perhaps the better word for JP novel~

    CN is good on intrigue hmm you know faction war stuff~ maybe cuz their history is full of it~ oh well there various stuff available on CN but this cat really fascinated by how faction war slap each other on CN story~

    for KR, this cat think nah this cat have insufficient knowledge~ maybe cuz there less variation on current KR translation stuff~
     
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  12. Dr_H_16

    Dr_H_16 Well-Known Member

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    JP LN >>>>> JP WN, which is obvious since WN is often just a draft. You can find good ones easily by just filter out anything with harem tag.
    KR is fun ones, since a lot seemed to be experimental (as in new ideas), but that came with its own drawbacks when the author fail to develop the plot properly to the end.
    CN... if you had finished at least one of those 1000+ chapters CN novels, I think you can skip over most others CNs past the first 40 chapters. Especially cultivation ones, which I feels certain that you don't need to read anything else other than the classics (IET's novels, ISSTH, and Reverend Insanity).
    I stay clear of any CN Empress novels, and only read any Shoujo/Josei that a lot of people already highly recommended.
     
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  13. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    I strongly disagree with this. Mostly because I consider the first 40~80 chapters of these 1000+ CN I read tend to be the most interesting part of the entire story. Usually because it's a cultivation story. This is the point at which they establish the world, set up their cultivation system, and actually give the MC proper challenges to overcome. Once you get past that, you can literally skim every 20 to 50 chapters and miss NOTHING of major value to the overarching plot, only some specifics that, while they MAY affect the specifics and minor foreshadowing of the plot. And I used the word "may" because, honestly, it's quite common for the specifics given in those chapters to end up just being filler, droning on, or explaining something that aren't really significantly going to affect the plot beyond what you can easily guess when you look at the later chapters.

    If you're talking about the "betrayed wife gets revenge by becoming more successful while ex-husband becomes a pauper" novels specifically, then I understand where you're coming from, but feel that you probably should still skim the first 40 chapters for those, possibly only reading every third or fifth chapter or so until the MC actually manages to get her divorce, though I haven't read enough of those, or "Shoujo/Josei" to actually be able to give a properly qualified opinion. I mostly read stories with notable action scenes, so my comments and opinions have been based on them.
     
  14. Bobasis

    Bobasis Weeeeee

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    Each of them have their strengths but I just find myself reading more KR novels and JP novels . I haven’t read that much CN novels . I started out reading more CN then I quickly started to change to KR novels then I went to JP novels . But most stories I read are either KR or JP.
     
  15. God slayer

    God slayer Retired God Slayer

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    Hm:hmm::hmm::hmm: I'd choose Korean novels... Only if the mc of Korean novels weren't that much pushover:blobtongue::blobtongue::blobtongue:
    But tbh I don't like cn novels that much too. Mostly because protagonist are most of the times too much bloodthirsty...:blobawkward::blobawkward::blobawkward: but gotta choose one I guess. And I don't like Japanese novel... Because most of them are harem
     
  16. Xian Piete

    Xian Piete Author of many mediocre stories

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    I find that Japanese authors tend to write characters that are off-putting so I usually avoid them. Chinese stories are tainted a lot of the time by what the censors allow there, so I chose Korean for this poll. Honestly, I have read good stories from all three.
     
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  17. theweebbecomesme

    theweebbecomesme Well-Known Member

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    i just find jap shit pretty cringe
     
  18. Airlol

    Airlol Well-Known Member

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    Another opinion on the novel by me (For JP I only talk about Light novel NOT WEB NOVEL).

    Characters of MC - between the 3, JP is the most naive and dense and harem bastard but the most growth. KR is the most steady and realities but the growth of the MC to fast after the Middle will stop growing. CN, the most aggressive and bloody but the most arrogant and denied other other than strength, nothing is growth especially the mind. (I don't know if other had same opinion but for me CN Comic MC is more Stupid and Harem bastard than JP... )

    Side characters - JP, We can see the interaction with MC and other but sometimes to focus that the MC will be forget. KR, the side characters is most good and interesting. CN, what is side characters, never see and more like the stories only about MC only and the other sides characters is only showing 1% in all the word stories include the harem.

    Plot - JP, interesting plot and moral (Between the 3) but sometimes to stupid and alway saying Japan food. KR, the plot is one of the amazing between the 3 but also the most easy to destroy interest of reader from. CH, hot-blooded novel and pace but the most repetitive storyline and easy to know ending... The strongest person... Only that.

    Ending - JP, some of the ending will make people plentiful emotional but some will say that ending is to normal that don't give any reaction. KR, it's good but not many be in you memory... To easy to forget the ending because the story to impact. CH, The most worst ending between 3, to rush, Totally rush, more like because the novel ending because company say the novel can't bring more money to them. The other at least give time to bring good ending but the CN need to rush the novel. Of course not all but majority.

    World Building - JP and KR Nothing noticeable to said but no major problem to say also. CN, The most world building in novel.. of course you had if the novel had more than 1000+ chapter. Other world building stop at 20+ chapter but the CN novel is continue and not stopping that you see word wall.

    Romance - JP is to most amazing and funny in this case but the harem sometimes annoying. KR, the most steady in romance but the untrustworthy. CH, the worst and the romance is more like Slave and Master, I can't see how the FL suddenly like the MC.

    Cheat - JP and KR cheat is normal to call a cheat but the CN is more like Bug and not enough of that cheat, their give MC an plot armor that can't be killed even when the word is destroy. Unlogical cheat.

    Chapter count - JP and KR chapter count can still be count an normal and good pace but CN is more like word wall...

    Author - JP, to many that follow the popular novelist and always try to see new way that sometimes not logic but we can't help but laugh. KR, Not many author I know so I can't say anything. CH, follow the published to the core that alway priorities with word count

    Racist - JP always proud with the JP food and culture but never touch much other race culture. KR, don't talk much. CH, always talk much and always proud the racist. (I don't know why the CN in novel is alway been bullied)

    Translation - JP, the most slower. KR, not many been translate. CN, the most faster been translate.... And abandon.

    This only my opinion. I hope nobody is angry with my opinion...
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2021
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