Question Long title in Jpn Ln. A trend?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Kaylee, Sep 2, 2021.

  1. Kaylee

    Kaylee Well-Known Member

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    Whenever I see a series with long ass title, even before I look at the COO, 99% is def Jpn light/web novel.
    Is this a trend there? To make it more catchy for reader? Or unique?
    Or the Jpn sentence structure is just that long winded??
    Just reading the title is making me not wanting to read them.

    Example that I took from latest series
    Ars Goetia – The Boy Called Incompetent Uses 72 Demons To Become Unstoppable
    No Matter What You Call Me, I’m Just a Court Librarian
    When I Asked Her Why the Girl Sitting Next to Me Was So Venomous, She Said, “Because I Want To Marry You in the Future,” and School Life Became a Lot More Fun
    She’s a Saint Who Was Banished for Being a Late Bride, but She’s Being Spoiled to the Fullest by the Count Who Found Her
    The Beautiful New Student Who Transferred to My Class Was the Childhood Friend Who I Promised To Marry When I Grow Up
    I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Scumbag, Prickly Best Friend Who Collects Hate in a Gal Game. And the Main Character Is Too Incompetent To Be Useful…
     
  2. Blank-1

    Blank-1 Fantasy-holic

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    I heard that it’s something about how web novels are shown by a Japanese publisher (soyetsu I think). I think it’s something like differentiating your novel from every other isekai/Japanese western fantasy and establishing the premise with the title alone, without making users check the blurb.

    I feel put off by titles like that as well, it’s like it’s broadcasting that’s yet another isekai-like cookie cutter with only a simple premise to distinguish it. I mean, it’s fine if you’re reading them for the few times, but gets dull when most such novels are so similar
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
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  3. Deleted member 369806

    Deleted member 369806 Guest

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    Probably a trend yeah XD
     
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  4. 0000000

    0000000 I B SMILING!

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    The main reason is because when published as physical light novel books, most japanese readers (office workers mind you) do not even bother to read the synopsis and thus, the publishers (writers) just write their summary as their title. It is supposed to be quick and easy for the reader to decide if they want to buy the book or not.

    Then the summaries got longer.
     
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  5. slightofhand

    slightofhand Well-Known Member

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    I actually like it because its actually descriptive unlike the CN novels which are all some variation of the same title(Peerless Martial God, Earth Shattering Martial Arts, etc.) These titles tell you nothing about the book except that the author found discovered a thesaurus.
     
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  6. Aean

    Aean Well-Known Member

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    JP novels also had the advantage that their syllabic alphabet can fit much more words compared to their English translations.
     
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  7. Beer_Kitty

    Beer_Kitty Just a very very drunk kitty that likes beer

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    If you can imagine how japanese system works. Its fast pace and really shit load of work that may kill you someday.

    After work its usually rush hour in every office/workplace/station. So only a few individuals have time to walk into a bookstore. And often times those walk-ins are just picking up what peaks their interest.
    Rather than checking each and everything, they either just look at the artwork, familiar names or simply read the titles. No one reads the synopsis that would take a few minutes and gets put back in the shelf since they dont like it.
     
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  8. Lissi

    Lissi 『Queen of Lissidom』『Holy Chibi』『Western Birdy』『⚓』

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    Because no one gets to read summaries in the raw site lol

    So their title's their summary.

    I don't read them either, I don't like the titles >.<;;
     
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  9. Kaylee

    Kaylee Well-Known Member

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    But with title like peerless martial god, etc, the story can get more wide with all sort of conflicts than "I’ve Been Reincarnated as a Scumbag, Prickly Best Friend Who Collects Hate in a Gal Game. And the Main Character Is Too Incompetent To Be Useful…" or "The Beautiful New Student Who Transferred to My Class Was the Childhood Friend Who I Promised To Marry When I Grow Up" which I dont know where it will go after the story reach the intended-title situation. And even if the story can get publish as ligh novel, the rest of the idea inside the story might not conform/stick to the title anymore.
    I mean, are we going to read about "The Beautiful New Student Who Transferred to My Class Was the Childhood Friend Who I Promised To Marry When I Grow Up" all the time??

    A bit sad situation and a shocked since my logical mind "who'd buy/read book without reading the summary?"
     
  10. sjmcc13

    sjmcc13 Well-Known Member

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    It is from Japanese webnovels, because people were not reading the synopsis so the titles got longer to try and draw in readers.

    Do you realize how many novels get bought because the cover clicked with the buyer?
    A lot of people do not bother to read it, the cover matters more to many. Especially with digital publishing with easy refunds if you do not like it.
    Or kindle unlimited like services where there is no cost to read the start of a work.

    Plus the synopsis does not really tell you if you will like the book, other then if you hate the genre or subgenre it is in, which you can normally tell from the cover as well. What is important is how the story flows and progresses and how well the characters click with you, which takes more then most are willing to put in to a story based on the droves of biased/prejudiced reviews out there where the reviewer has guaranteed not read past chapter 5 of a 100+ chapter work, or are idiotic enough to think they know how a story will progress from the initial set up only.
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2021
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  11. Owl Escapee

    Owl Escapee Well-Known Member

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    Hahaha how many threads have we had recently about "why are Jp titles so long." This one has probably the clearest explanations tho.
    In America some physical magazines are now like $8+ which is more than the price of an ebook. If you're standing in the checkout line and you see "The big spring cleaning issue Our best cleaning tips ever!!" people will know they probably already know some(or most, lol) of these tips, but they pick up the magazine anyway, solely based on the title. And maybe the entire magazine turns out to be completely useless, but they still bought it. Most people won't, but clearly enough people do buy it that the publishers keep doing it like this. I imagine it's the same thing with LN.
    Yeah this. Plus summaries can be misleading or useless. There are so many novels I thought "this sounds interesting" and started reading, only to quickly drop. Scrolling through the series lists here, the combo of the title/cover/genre tags must intrigue me enough to click further, right? I sure don't click on every single novel.