Hi Has anyone noticed that the new batch of translated novels, specially since last couple of years have shifted towards comedy/slice of life genre. Yes I am talking about all these sign in and transmigration novels. It has come to the point, where its tough to find new cultivation stories with a typical hero's journey and smatterings of philosophy and dao. When was the last time you guys read some thing like Grasping Evil, Renegade Immortal etc? Heck even Coiling Dragon and Desolate World are miles better compared to newer works of I eat tomatoes. Maybe i am missing something and serious cultivation novels are still being churned out but i doubt it. Thanks for listening to my rant!
Even authors get demands for lighter works, Renegade Immortal was serious, then you got ISSTH which was comedic at times, then his writing totally shifted to shameless little fatties. Meanwhile Reverend Insanity level novels get censored.
the shift of translator~ nothing new realy~ it mean newer translators just not interested to common cultivation story~ well some of translators come from readers so it really depend on their taste, its like sudden influx of BL story back then there maybe more reasons if we consider many cultivation story come on qidian, there also need to mind current translation have plenty of patreon stuff so maybe it just not really profitable to translate cultivation story~
Personally I can't see the appeal for non-stop comedy, ISSTH could be said to be a rare blend with right proportions of tragedy and comedy but these new crop of novels don't even try. If you recall, all the memorable novels, none of them all slapsticky in nature. Well I wouldn't mind shift in preferences and tastes if the works are good but there seems to be a dip in quality of novels being translated as well. Will Eternal was not to my taste but still i finished it because for all its faults it was written and translated well.
Absolute Resonance has a nice balance, probably because it employs comic relief (which has the dual benefit of saving it from genericness) instead of turning the novel into a full-blown gag (as the OP rightly pointed out, many now are wont to do), and this coming from someone who used to avoid that particular author's works after dropping BTTH early on. P.S. As someone who used to MTL not long ago, I squarely lay the blame on the Chinese community for the flooding of the kind of cheap novels you mention.
you mean the original story or the quality of translation? no comment about original, on translation quality side maybe the newer translators just go lol? hmm its like on JP side on Baka-Tsuki era and current era there really distinct different~ still this cat rarely read cultivation story since mid 2017 cuz the story itself rarely interesting so dunno