Discussion Who's the intended audience for Time Travel novels?

Was reviewing some novels I read, "The Human Emperor", "I am the Monarch", "Second Coming of Avarice", "Mushoku Tensei" and realized I wasn't sure who the intended audience was for these types of second-chance time-travel novels. Especially because these novels get randomly flagged as "shounen", "seinen", "shoujo", "josei".

EDIT: By time travel I mean going back to being young again. As pointed out by the NU Forum Police.

In these novels (non-spoiler), the MC is almost always some middle-aged/old man (or woman), at least in their 40s, who time-traveled and/or transmigrated to relive their life, usually back to when they were teenagers/pre-teen. It seems to be a unique theme for asian novels only.
Here's the problem. Was the author's intended audience an adult, or a teen?

I noticed way too many reviews lauding brainless time-travel novels with content on the level of "The Hunger Games" or "The Maze Runner". And you just know most of those reviewers are kids. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, there are always novels suitable for all-ages.
But why would a teenager identify with a middle-aged protagonist who wants a second chance at life?
And why would an adult reader identify with going back to their teenage years and being in school again, messing around with teenage and pubescent ... ah that last one was rhetorical.

 

yo share that blunt fam, im waitin

 

Why wouldnt an adult understand the want to go back in time and fix mistakes and to profit of future knowledge like how bitcoins were practically worthless then they went up to like 5000 dollars each

 

The weird part is that you and I get that that's one of the best uses of time-travel. And no MC does it in the novels.

 

Novels with time travel are usually set in fantasy or unnamed future which has vr capsules. So that might be why

 

Its not that they identify(teens) with the middle-aged protagonist, or that they(mid-age) want to mess around with younger folks
I'd rather say that they(both) identify with regretting choices, while enjoying the "suddenly rising above your peers" thing.
for middle aged people, it probably just shifts more towards romantic regrets, like "that person might have had a crush on me, or not?" or something. But by the time they realize that, its far too late and that person moved on, or something.
Which would make going back in time the only "realistic" option of righting that wrong, maybe.

 

Good point about distinguishing "romantic regrets" vs "rising above your peers". I guess the latter is the bigger draw for teens while in school.
I still dunno whether teenagers actually think that far ahead or have profound regrets about wasting life's opportunities.
Isn't Gen Z (born mid 90s to early 2000s) the generation of no health insurance, armed with the feeling of invincibility?
Yea totally dating myself here.

 

Mushoko Tensei is not a time travel novel. It is a trope in Japanese media (reincarnation in another world with your memories) but not time travel. Sure it does cross over with second chance but second chance does not equal time travel. Unless you consider time travel to be "mc is a different age than they once where" which is not really what it means.

 

If the story is interesting, anyone will enjoy it even the outside target audience.

 

But I think you are misunderstanding the point of the novels like this, that are not Mushoko Tensei. Most of these novels are not about regretting past decisions or targeting the mc at an age group by mixing the ages, they are actually about the author having an excuse to power up the main character and drive a plot, nothing more. It's an easy way to make a junk food novel that has easy excuses for Bs plot progression.

 

It's simple, you're saying it like it can't be good if it's not identifiable. For example i don't care if i identify with it, it's not real, all i care about is if i find it interesting or fun.

 

I can only really speak from my own personally experience. I am 34 and started reading some of these types of novels five years ago. I usually read female protags that lost everything and are reborn as their past selves (second chance) types. The main reason I started reading them is two fold. The first is because they were unique to me at the time. I have read a lot of western fantasy fiction, and I liked that new type of novel. The second is because I could relate to the MCs in these novels when it came to regrets and the loss of loved ones. My fiance died in my arms. He had a birth defect in one of his heart valves that we did not know about. Since then I have had many sleepless nights wondering what I could have done differently. In that way, I have found that these novels have helped me cope to some degree.

 

Yea I noticed the big rise in popularity of "nostalgia" themes that might be interesting for a large audience.

Tons of examples in all media, but the intended audience for those is pretty clear cut. That's why the asian novels are actually kinda unique.
Ready Player One (novel/movie)
Star Wars (all the recent ones)
Reply 1997/1994/1988 (kdrama)
Time Traveller's Wife (movie)

 

Totally understood, my condolences
Same story here, she passed away a few years ago.
I'll admit my interest in second-chance novels started from there. So it's odd for me to see teenagers following this genre.

 

I see your point. But the question is who the AUTHOR's intended audience is. Am not questioning whether it's good or not.

An author writes with a target audience in mind, not just because something is cool. Just like an inventor doesn't make a widget with no idea who's going to buy it. There is intent in the structure, plot development, writing style, etc. What surprises me is that teenagers clearly like this genre.
And maybe authors realize that and try to aim down the middle and capture both age groups?

 

i think the teenagers are more interested about the "knowing the future" part of the novels not the "regrets"

 

You forgot to mention it went from 0 to 20000, then came back down to 5000

 

Honestly I think you give these webnovel authors too much credit.

They found that Isekai/Second Chance/Transmigration/Reincarnation/whatever-the-fuck is hot shit and thus they hop on the bandwagon... I don't think they care about target audience per se, they just write whatever that's mainstream/popular.

Because that's the entire point of a target audience, to cater to them to get more readers, but if you know you'll get readers there's no reason to do some market research or whatever.

 

I also agree that most likely these authors are not targeting any audiance in particular. The envinroment for Asian novels is completely different that western novels. Most every popular story spawns from a web novel that got popular on a website instead of in the west where things are made with targets in mind in order to actually sell the book. I guess I would equate the environment to be closer to a western fan fiction than a traditional author publisher relationship. Although after the web novel phase they do actually go through publication and the normal process to enter the main stream Asian market, then they usually get targeted retroactively when they are drawn as manga or made into an anime.

 

I think 20 is still teen and I've been reading since 16, was a fan of second chance tags the early days I was captivated by the 'knowing the future' but recently I've grown to appreciate the ones fixing their regret as I do have thoughts of if only I did this or that I would've been happier or better off. I do mull over my mistakes as it's mostly my flaws and failures I remember than my succeses and strengths. I'm still haunted by the fact I say stuff only to be proven wrong afterwards.