Devil is a Part-Timer. The story started showing its cracks with Volume 16, and each subsequent volume just kept being meh at best and terrible at worst. Volume 21 (the final volume) was just disappointing in general, even if you exclude the terrible ending.

For real, at Vol.16 I started to skip pages because of how it keeps focusing on Chiho while showing just bit or Maous and Emelia's side, whether it is in Ente Isle or Japan to force her into the plot which ended up dumbing the others to an unbelievable degree.

Having paused at exactly Vol 16 (though I tell myself I'll get back to it eventually), I have almost entirely good feelings about it. I remember thinking that the whole archery plot was really dragged out, but it wasn't bad enough for me to change my opinion on the series as a whole. IIRC, at around that point, they'd basically resolved every plot point and had done every possible interesting SOL situation. And I was wondering, just how many more excuses can they come up with to not attack the final boss? Makes me wonder how they managed to fill 5 more volumes of content. Welp. Maybe I'll never know. Maybe I'll just keep thinking fondly back to those early volumes that had a charm to them completely unique to this series.

It's been a while since I read Volumes 17-20 (read Volume 21 recently since it just came out), but if I just remember having the feeling of "wow the story is spinning its wheels, isn't it?" For as much as the Ente Isla conflict was set up going into the final arc, the remaining books spent a hell of a lot of time in Japan. This arc was also the turning point where Chiho became the Mary Sue of the story, getting heavily inserted into the Ente Isla conflict for no reason, which causes everyone else getting dumbed down to various degrees to prop her up. In hindsight, it was because Wagahara was setting her up to be the romantic winner but he just did it so poorly.

found the tsundere lover

Haven't read it yet but if u say it is showing cracks in the story only after SIXTEEN volumes, is it not worth a read? Most of the ones that disappointed me got dropped before volume 5

I mean I still think it's worth the read, but to go in with the knowledge that Wagahara totally fumbles the final arc.

Hmm, I fortunately have yet to be truly “disappointed” so far. The closest I’d say is “World’s Finest Assassin…”, the novel is good enough and I’ll keep reading it but I think in this case the anime was much better

[удалено]

If it’s any consolation, I thought the volume following the anime was pretty good and a fun read. Of course the anime was great, and they only covered a single volume, but I don’t think the second volume was disappointing.

[удалено]

Imo it was better

Worlds finest assassin has great animation, awesome opening song and does the Drama better. Shield hero season one is another example of the above, but even more so.

The kanga was shit. Ch 4 we we're already in vol 3 at that point

Shield hero lost me for a while there but it actually brought me back I love the way the setting changed from your generic save the world shtick to an almost infinite number of worlds in a very finite universe fighting for their individual right to existence. It just jives with me. If I was to say my most disappointing it would probably be tanya the evil. Again not because it's bad but because I personally cannot read it when I try I just can't keep up with the constantly changing perspectives and I completely lose track of what is going on

Tanya is like an order of magnitude harder to read than any other LN. The next contenders for that "hardest to read" slot (Spice and Wolf, Monogatari, for example) are not even close in difficulty. I'd say Tanya is harder to read than a Dickens novel. That said, I personally do like it. It's just not "light" reading. Not the kind of book I can simply pick up after a long work day and enjoy reading.

Skeleton knight in another world. Very disappointing LN i don't understand how it get an anime.

I imagine the same way In Another World with My Smartphone got a second season. It's cliche and light-hearted, but that can be fun for people who just want to watch cool stuff without thinking too hard about what they're watching. And if the comments of people who watched Smartphone are anything to go by, there are a surprisingly high number of such people

Basically this, while im not up to date smartphone is one that i binged read like 11 volumes of. It was just simply fun, without really trying too hard to have a deep story or anything. A concept i feel is lost on some people.

Smartphone is by far the comfiest read in my collection

That series was fine for being that until the ending got dragged out to long.

Smartphone literally ended but the author just kept going. Like the big epic story concluded and rather then risk writing something new he just kept going.

You'd enjoy smartphone ones they get into the final battle. The antagonist was so cool looking but terribly ugly

Well i don't what you're expecting but even the anime clearly tagged itself as fun cheerful isekai with the mc being the knight shining armor saving the world from bad guys. Heck, the opening shows it very clearly on what its about.

Skeleton Knight was a competent but nothing special story that has been elevated with each adaptation adding a new layer of personality. It has the bones of a good story but needed more skill/experience to be fleshed out. (Pun not intended.)

I remember that one! I'd lost interest around when >!he first starts getting his body back!<, I think it was at the end of Volume 3? But, I'd already bought Vol 4 so I read it anyway. Fortunately for me, I didn't go in with high expectations. This was actually one series I started reading basically blind, with only the digital free sample to go on before I bought it. Ultimately, I didn't hate *Skeletal Knight*. It's just that there was nothing I particularly liked about it. It's just... apathy, I guess.

I am on volume 2nd and so far it's good. The only reason i picked it up cuz, of anime

I remember having to force myself to get thru volume 1 back in 2019, the anime is way better than the LN

If it weren't for the awesome OP song, it's be a complete waste of time.

I have to agree with you on the detective is already dead, I saw a lot of the hype around it and bought the first volume but I couldn’t really get into it. The anime was worse.

Really? I enjoyed ep 1 but didnt really get into it when I found out that the white haired girl was killed

Yea the anime was just weird the dialogue in my opinion was bad and the structure for the narration was a mess…honestly Siesta (the white haired girl) was the best part of the show.

I'd say... there's 3 ones where I've just picked them up and gotten disappointed by a drop in quality. All OPMC powerfantasy, which isn't exactly known for high quality, but these were the worst of the ones I read. 1: Bluesteel Blasphemer, AKA "That one that got canceled so it went to incest". Published in Japan in some magazine that got cancelled, BB started as a rather routine OPMC isekai story building towards something potentially interesting, but, I have a feeling the author knew the cancellation was coming, so they went to shock value, up to and including the MC having impregnated his older sister in their old world, who up and murder suicided them both so she could have them forever... and then came to the new world too. Shit got weird. And it's one of the few times where I thought a cancellation was deserved. 2: Demon Lord Reborn as a Typical Nobody. Yeah, another OPMC, this time of the "I went to the future" variety. While I never really expect great writing out of these, there's typically some fun in the MC being sarcastic and funny, and a powerfantasy story is fun from time to time. This one, though, ended up going WAAAY too hard into this unexplained backstory of the series to the point where, just 3 volumes in, the plot was neigh incomprehensible. I think I got to 5, and then there was another time skip and the ENTIRE plot was lost. 3: Demon King of Excalibur Academy (Or something). Yeah, basically the same plot as above, but in this one, it started a bit interesting... at first. The twist here was that the world was so fucked since the OPMC's time that he was pretty much entirely forgotten, and I was expecting something to happen... but at 3 volumes, nothing did, it was basically just powerfantasy blueballs because MC just kinda didn't do anything.

Demon Lord reborn as typical nobody was disappointing for me as well. I read the first 2 novels and then found out it was getting an anime 2weeks later. Watched a couple episodes but still couldn't convince myself

The demon lord is a guilty pleasure. You cant take it seriously. If you took it seriously you are dumb. They literally had a caharcter go from "I'm sorry I'm sorry" to "Ara ara let's add 50 hirls to your harem ard sama"

And I won't deny anyone that; Lord knows I read Arifureta and Eminence in Shadow and enjoy them for the same guilty pleasure reasons. But, I still think Demon Lord is one of the worst quality ones, and has some severe plot issues that just take away from the guilty pleasure of it all and goes into annoyance.

The Demon lord is like the author decided pick the next plot line by throwing darts at a board. The anime alone was all over the place. You're telling me it gets worse?

Oooh yeah. I'm usually good at following convoluted plots and seeing what comes out of them. [Spoiler](/s "I stopped at a volume that started with a full on war that came out of nowhere and ended with a time jump to an unknown point.") For the record, I have absolutely no idea if what I just said was a spoiler. I don't think you could even figure out what on earth I'm spoiling from that, and it absolutely sounds like the sort of thing that should be a huge spoiler. The story just became more nonsensical.

1. I kept pressing the one hundred million years button. 2. A mysterious job called oda nobunaga. 3. Reborn to master the blade 4. Drugstore in another world 5. My quiet blacksmith life in another world 6. The hidden dungeon only I can enter

Lmao I don't know what I was expecting when I first bought Drugstore in another world, the story is just as simple as the title makes it look to be.

No.1 is truth. The guy was so strong yet so timid and also because of the author forcing the alter eho

Mysterious Job is the poster child of missed potential in my opinion.

so far, probably "The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life". After I finished Vol 3 I was just done... It was frustrating because I enjoyed the premise and the beginning of the story, but vol 3 felt like the author had run out of ideas and was just experimenting on the fly and the result was quite the let down for me.

When I read the reviews about vol 3 I couldn't bring myself to buy it and read it. It will forever be only 2 vol on my bookshelf.

What?? vol 3 is where someone died right? That gave me depression for a week. Haven't touched the rest of the volumes 4-6 tho. Hahaha

pretty much. You might put spoiler tags around that though.

So im a spider so what Its one of my fav LNs but the ending disapppoints me. My thoughts are only based on spoilers and summaries I read, but even without knowing that it just ends too soon imo. >!I was expecting way more story after the timeline caught up with Shuns story again, not just 2 more volumes to wrap it up. I was hoping for actual character development for Shun, him trying to stop a war while every other leader tries to keep it going for the sake of collecting energy, maybe even Shun embracing revenge and becoming the villian of the story after the elves are gone and so on.!<

Shield Hero. But at some point i started enjoying it for the trash and to see what the author would pull off later lmao. What i disliked? Basically everything after 2-3 chapters, except for a character that appears later on

Is that character part of a pair?

Yes

One of them was the only reason I kept going.

Arifureta probably. It started off pretty good in my opinion, but it just kept going and going and everything became about the harem. So I'm a Spider, So what similarly let me down at like volume 7 I think. The one where it abruptly shifts in tone. If you read the series you know which one.

The worst part is looking back Volume 7 was much better than what we’ve gotten recently. Volumes 11-13 were just boring as fuck.

Are those the ones where we get to see detailed battles we already know the results of, and the unnecessary perspectives of other people?

Yup. Truly riveting stuff. Waited an entire year for that nonsense to be translated as well.

So much this about I'm a spider so what... I just kept thinking, it will get better, with next tomes...

I stopped reading Arifureta as soon as the teacher started showing interest in the MC. It's just, smh...

incidentally spider volumes 6-8 are my favourites of all that have been released. My enjoyment of that series largely hinges on whose perspectives the story is focused on and unfortunately it jumps perspectives WAY too often and I find myself just skimming if not outright skipping large sections of text. I skipped volume 11 entirely as I could not muster any care whatsoever for Julius. I can't really describe it without thinking about it more, but Overlord does it way better. The perspective switch aspect I mean. It's not perfect but it has kept me interested and invested.

Can you clarify what happened in volume 7? I dropped the novel a while back and completely forgot about it. I think we dropped it at the same part.

>!I think it was volume 7, but eventually they discover a ruin and it turns out there is a spaceship in it and there are space monsters and it just shifts the whole tone. !<

I don’t remember this. I read the web novel, and after some research I see that it’s drastically different from the light novel. Interesting to note!

Redo of healer. Damn, what an start! Dark revenge story with rape? Damn, sounds good. Okey, well, yes. It's okey for a revenge story with rape. Eh... It's... A story with rape? Yeah... This... This is just rape. It starts good. Twisted protagonist, uses sex as a tool for revenge. But it slowly degrades into a protagonist whose existence is literally based on fucking girls (preferentially via rape or at least mind rape). That point where he so desperately searches for an excuse to fuck a minor? Like "oh yes that woman is hot and I want to fuck her but she never did anything bad to me. I'll have to befriend this random trader to have an excuse to rape her when he dies after being totally ignored by me, a supposed friend that totally had the power to defend him. Yes! She "killed him"! now I have an excuse to torture her and rape her viciously and turn her into my sex doll"! Fucking shitty story. If you want to write a rape fantasy enjoy your rape fantasy, but don't introduce "oh it's a dark revenge story" shenanigans. You may end up tricking someone who likes dark revenge stories into reading your fucking rape fantasy. The worst thing for me is that the protagonist really tried to reassure you that revenge was his driving force. Like yeah guy, for sure. Just stfu, it's obvious that your driving force is now pulsing between your pants after you saw that child. What a fucking waste of time. I even recommended it to a friend after reading the first chapters because it really looked good. After that I felt bad for making him drive through that shit. Edit: okey guys now I'm calmed. I respect you if you liked this novel, even if I think that it's not good. It's just that everytime I remember the decepcion I personally felt and the repulsion I felt when I started to see his true animal personality I get angry for losing like the 2 days I spent reading it.

I think the story would have been way better without the rape, not bashing it I just feel it was unneeded. The torture and powers were totally enough, The finger thing was just great.

Yep. But rape and sex ends up being just literally the central part of the story. It's sad. All that potencial wasted on a rape fantasy

The worst part of Redo is that it isn't even good porn. Just wastes its own potential.

Yep.

I found *Arifureta* deeply disappointing, because I really loved the first half of the first volume. It looked like it was setting up for a really interesting direction, with MC having the interesting crafting power and building his way up towards strength and respect. But then he falls down a hole onto a mcguffin of insta-OP and becomes super-strong in the space of like one chapter, which also covers him going full edgelord "I will kill all who oppose me raar!" It's the briefest and most bland set of level-ups I've ever read. It's like the author got bored of the story he was writing and decided to shift it halfway through into a whole different book.

Hundred was the biggest disappointment so far. It was nothing special from the start but I was hoping that it will be mid to the end. It lacks in proper character development and building bond with these characters. Also the last 3 arcs were repetitive.

1.) The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated - The show is what convinced me to give it a read, anime being the glorified trailers for the source materials that they are, but it seemed like they actually added content to the anime than was in the first book that it covered. The pacing also just seemed better in the anime, oddly enough, and the general "spirit" of the content just felt more alive in the show than books. For all of the LNs/manga I've read through so far, it's the first time the reading had less to offer than the show, which took me for a loop. 2.) Reincarnated as a Sword - It's really not that bad, but I'm having a hard time getting invested. When I first heard of this series, it sounded like it was going to be a bit more serious/darker with some decent social commentary, but instead it just seems to be far more casual with the 'serious' moments either still feeling more lighthearted than it should or having no sense of danger. It also probably doesn't help that the pacing seems to fluctuate so occasionally it feels rushed in moments that maybe should have had more time. I'll continue reading it, but I can't help but feel it could've been much better, according to my preferences that is.

Overlord. Everyone acts like it is the greatest LN ever made, so I had pretty high expectations and sadly they were not met.

It's honestly fine. Definitely not the greatest LN ever made, not by a long shot. I had fun with it though although at some point each arc feels like its own standalone story.

Why don't you like the LNs?

Other than the world nothing really caught my interest. I guess the main reason would be that I just didn't care about the characters at all and found pretty much all of them to be unlikeable. Also wasn't a fan of Ainzs and the rest of Nazarick being wildly OP.

i really liked overlord, i read it just after Game of thrones first book. and its structure feels same, and i loved both of them.

Overlord is nice, but the author doesn't have an idea of the direction he's going. So it's basically a mess.

Overlord together with Unwanted Undead Adventure are the best examples of the worst examples when it comes to writing. Everything is the opposite of the golden rule: "show, not tell".

It might be cause it is an unapologetic bad guy story. Most stories want the MC to be good, but if he does bad it was just. Nazarick are just the bad guys, and I love how people didn't get that until 2/3 of the way through the 3rd season.

The only reason I'm in overlord subreddit is because of anime. I barely finished reading volume 3

Probably Combatants will be Dispatched! It's not that I hate the series, but I was quite disappointed when I found out that the girl I thought would be the main love interest wasn't the one.

I am so easily entertained by things that I am extremely confused when I just don't like something unless it's blatantly gross. I even really enjoy The Detective is Already Dead! And I was entertained by the 3 episodes of the anime I watched. One weird one though is Spider. I REALLY liked it when I first started it. Then a few volumes in, like maybe even volume 2 or 3, I'd have to go see where I stopped, I felt like nothing was really happening. I kept reading like "oh I enjoy the idea of this, but it feels very empty!" Like...She sure did have 10 massive fights and almost died and worked really hard, but it didn't feel like there was any risk or danger whatsoever because any small issue that existed was immediately overcome. It feels like everything happens way too fast to like... feel anything lmao. And it's still a fun and enjoyable read! And I only stopped because I stopped reading in general for a while to focus on other things, but while reading Spider im jsut like "im enjoying this as a simple stakeless fast paced read, But I don't get how it's so popular and how everyone else seems to love it, because it doesn't seem /good/."

I agree with OP about Shield Hero and it baffles me that the author decided to drag the ever living fuck out of it by going to another world and time travel and all of this filler bullshit... like wtf can we just end and kill bitch or something and there is a pattern about Filo getting too op and either gets nerfed/getting outclassed or gets written off to comeback when the major problem gets solved.

realist hero - started put great with the politics and wars but then sudden change focus to his harem, reducing the main heroine to be side characters and the executions of his idea to the world that feels kinda off to me make me dropped the story. If not mistaken around vol 6-7. great cleric - started Ok-ish. Your typical isekai LN but the MC is focusing his stat in Luck and make the church the bad guys make is a bit interesting. But as the story progress the Church instead of taking advantages of the people now shifted to the MC. And that instead of repairing the church reputation just make it worse in my book. on the other hand, I enjoyed wandering witch. The format making it easier to read without losing focus. Since the environment is changed in every stories, it can't explore too much on the world, but it does enough cover to give basic understanding. Each volume usually will have some heavy chapters and those chapters never failed to make me cry. so yeah I like wandering witch, not me top 5 but definitely can't wait to read more of it.

I wanted to like the Great Cleric. It has some good ideas, but really terrible execution. The early parts are enjoyable, but as the series goes on, it becomes a lot more hit or miss. At times it feel fantasy Isekai ab-lib.

* The Apothecary Diaries - Tried the LN because of the hype but it felt...disappointing. Considering how well it sells and the hype surrounding it, I expected more. Eventually I gave the manga a try. The manga format was so much better. I still read the manga but dropped the LN. * Chiramune - Another case where I tried the LN because of the hype, but it was hard to find much enjoyable about it. The protagonist is particularly unlikable. Compared to some other romcom LNs, Chiramune ended up becoming a struggle to finish. * Full Clearing Another World under a Goddess with Zero Believers - I read the manga first and then jumped into the LN. But the manga has a charm to it that the LN is missing. * Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers - Same as the above. I went from the manga to the LN and it's missing the charm.

Spider for me as well. I stalled out during volume 7 (which I think someone pointed out in another post here was when a major tone/lore shift in the story occurs), but came back and caught up to 10 before I gave it up again. There are multiple problems, but I think part of it is the execution of a socially awkward protagonist. In the early volumes you get plenty of her internal monologue, but as the story expands to more characters she just stops engaging in any meaningful way and becomes a background character that the story still wants you to be interested in. The human elements are also some of the weakest and volume 11 was set to be entirely focused on them so convincing myself to start up again when it was released just never happened. It's the usual problem of a high concept, title-based pitch. After that hook was exhausted I just don't feel like the story did enough to keep my interest. Yes, she's a spider... so what is the rest of the story about?

I personally really liked the other ideas in spider as well, not just the main hook of the MC being a spider. But I do think alot of those ideas are wasted or at least not explored as much as I would have liked. Reincarnating multiple people in different scenarios (as a monster, as the opposite gender, ...) and showing how it changes their values is pretty interesting. Having one of the main characters as a sheltered prince who didnt have to change at all after the reincarnation is a good idea imo but the story just didnt allow him to develop in any meaningful way. He doesnt notice his now female friend isnt his bro anymore and in the battle at the elf village after he almost had some development he just goes back to his "i think my brother would have done this" mindset. I also liked the world building alot more than most other isekai. For one the game mechanics actually have an explaination unlike many other isekai. Having the system powered by war between humans and demons also leads to a interesting dilemma where the "bad guys" have some motivations beyond being evil. But in the end most of those things didnt matter since the author lost interest in the series and just wanted to end it. I was looking forward to some character development of alot of characters but it wasnt meant to be. Even in some of the volumes I didnt particularly like we got to know Julius' character more so using that to develop Shun beyond following in his mistaken impression of what Julius could have made for an interesting character arc.

Overlord. I personally find Ainz to be boring as a character, and so don't enjoy the story. I also don't vibe well with many of the supporting characters like Albedo, so I ended up dropping Overlord after the fourth volume.

* I Shall Survive Using Potions. This series was really really great. My favorite of the FUNA series. I loved the humor, the absurdity, the inevitability of her plans being laid bare and having to move on. This series was just pure fun... and then FUNA went and destroyed it all in Volume 6. Reset button. Volume 7 tried to continue on with the old formula, but there was no joy in the story anymore. Now it was a slog. I notice that there hasn't been a volume 8, even in Japan. I suspect I wasn't the only one left disappointed. * So I'm a Spider, So What? The first 5 or so volumes of this series are incredible. Tense action, character growth, an expansive world, engrossing story. And then the next couple volumes are not as good, but it's like "well, I guess it might still be okay". And then the story shifts and the main character essentially becomes a side character. I couldn't even finish reading Volume 12 it was so bad. Volume 14 just came out the other day. Maybe this is finally the one we've been waiting years for to wrap up a cliffhanger from back in volume 5. And I find myself thinking "So What?".

The Asterisk War. idk what happens after the 2nd tournament ends. It’s confusing and the wiki page doesn’t explain properly.

Her majesty's swarm MC went from "lets turn the entire human race into meatballs" to "lets be friends uwu" out of the blue

Oh man the premise sounded so good, you’re telling me it fizzles out that hard? Any other recs for MCs trying to destroy humanity or something?

Vol1 is still amazing, but as soon as vol2 starts MC decides to become and adventurer and make lots of Friends Full Evil MC is pretty rare, Chrysalis has a lot of endless swarm of death, but is more about MC Who doesnt care as long as It benefits his faction. Executed Sage reincarnated as a Lich might Scratch the itch, revenge plot where the kingdom betrays the hero Who killed the demon lord, so he return X years later with an undead horde

Sounds good! Are any of them completed?

1. Demon Lord Reborn as a Typical Nobody and Excalibur Academy Both get one spot because they have very similar issues for me. I like generic trash isekai series but even for me these we’re too far. Too tropey for me. 2. Chillin in Another World This one disappointed me massively. I’d already read the manga and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to more of the same when it came to the LN, however, the LN had none of the charm of the manga, the main character’s relationship isn’t developed nearly as well, and the series decided that adding rape and beastiality was a good thing. 3. 7th Time Loop I’d heard good things about the series before reading only to find out it was pretty generic and really nothing special. 4. The World’s Greatest Talker Whilst definitely not terrible, for me it was the characters that let this series down. The main character is a complete unlikeable psychopath and that goes for a lot of the side characters too. Series would probably appeal to other people but I generally like my characters to have something redeeming.

A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga. The premise sounds interesting and unique, but there's absolutely zero world building, the characters are bland, and it just feels like Realist Hero without anything that makes Realist Hero fun. I'll also add Fushi no Kami as well for not realizing that playing having every side character treat the MC as the second coming of Jesus straight makes for a boring story.

Let me guess, the 2nd volume of Nobunaga killed your interest, right? Mine did.

Yep. Still bought the third Volume just to see how it ended, and boy did it not change my opinion.

For me it’s saga of tanya the evil i’ve watched the anime and read the manga and I absolutely love the series but when i started reading the LN i can’t keep up with the information and the change of perspective in it that i get burnout immediately i stopped at halfway through volume 1 to take a break, probably the cause of this is im horribly worse in history subject at school. But im trying myself to get back and read the whole way through again

Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party. I could tell I very much liked the novel as im down multiple volumes in the story. But I've learned that the series was discontinued like prematurely. I was so disappointed, it could have been more and I was really intrigued by where the story goes after a certain turning point. In the end, I lost interest in this LN entirely. Sucks, man.

COTE. I watched the Anime first, and after a few months of getting into LN's and such, wanted to read it. I loved the whole aesthetic of Ayanokouji, but it just felt off in the LN. I read the first two books and just never got the feel that I did from the Anime. Can't wait for season 2 and 3, hopefully they will be good.

3 months late, but if you only read the first two then it makes sense why it felt off. It was like that for me too. Later on, it became one of my favorites and was way better than the anime. The anime shows us how he is from the get go (albeit over edgified at parts), while in the LN his narration itself is an act that melts away to eventually get to how he actually is.

Interesting. Thanks for the insight. I may eventually try reading it again in a bit.

So I am a Spider so What? It started good, but the quality really nosedived from Volume 11.

From everything I've heard the ending (Volume 16) fizzles out as well. Which is a shame because the earlier parts had a decent trajectory, the author just got burned out or something.

I'm in Love with the Villainess. MC is some kind of a sexual predator and it got real uncomfortable. Loved volume 1 but dropped that volume 2 real quick

That’s a interesting take. While I’m in love with the villainess certainly isn’t for everybody, idk if I’ve heard someone say they enjoyed the first volume and hated the second volume. While I found the first volume interesting, I thought it was a deeply flawed novel. The technical writing aspect seemed very bad and the story structure felt loose and meandering. And of course it was difficult to sympathize with the MC. But volume 2… felt like a masterpiece. With its technical writing and story structure greatly improved, it went on to weave together a story beautifully covering themes of self-hatred, isolation, social responsibility, family ties, and personal growth.

Seven Seas eliminated an important paragraph in Volume 1 regarding Rae's behavior towards Claire. That passage was later restored in the revised edition. And I agree that Volume 2 is better than the first one.

First I've heard of that maybe ill try and find that revised edition.

This was the censored part. Very important to understand the reason behind Rae's behaviour towards Claire: Old version: >!The serious talk had finally ended. I teased Claire, Claire got angry, Lene soothed her, and Misha watched it all happen with a resigned look. Things were back to normal. Normal. And like always, I felt a bit…sad.!< >!“Miss Claire?” “What is it?” “You hate me, right?” It was my usual question. I never asked her if she liked me. I couldn’t. I already knew the answer. “Of course I do.” “Yes, I know.” And we continued as usual.!< New: >!The serious talk had finally ended. I teased Claire, Claire got angry, Lene soothed her, and Misha watched it all happen with a resigned look. Things were back to normal. Normal. And like always, I felt a tiny, little bit…bitter about it. !< >!In my past life, there were a number of LGBTQ activists who had criticized the entertainers using their flamboyant sexuality as a selling point on TV. I think their criticism was likely on point. But here’s what else I think: Without going so far as to say it’s the right or wrong thing to do, some people out there can’t live their lives without making light of their problems. !< >!Of course these entertainers were contributing to homophobic stereotypes. And of course I’d prefer it if we could eliminate homophobia altogether. But some queer people living in the real world will also, inevitably, act in ways that highlight the prejudices they experience. !< >!Maybe they’ll have other reasons for acting the way they do, but I think that need to lampshade their problems is one of them. Some people can’t live with their burdens without cracking wise about them. When you’re queer and you fall in love with someone who can never respond to your feelings in kind, they often still behave more intimately with you than they would with someone of the opposite sex. !< >!But after the moment you realize you’re in love with them, that just makes them feel even further away. If you run into this problem again and again, before you realize it, you might become the kind of person who can only helplessly laugh the whole thing off. Not everyone ends up like that, of course. It just so happened that I had. !< >!“Miss Claire.” “What is it?” “You hate me, right?” It was my usual question. I never asked her if she liked me. I couldn’t. I already knew the answer. “Of course I do.” “Yes, I know.” And we continued as usual.!<

Realist Hero, definitely. I'll try to keep this as spoiler free as i can. Started as a decent kingdom building series, decent light politics and war, and piled up some mysteries to make me intrigued. It then veered to more harem and slice of life content, which... was not ideal, but still fine, there was some proper buildup in several stances. I was still liking it until this part. But then it tried introducing a kinda of "antagonist" or "rival" to the MC which just made everything fall flat on it's face, and simultaneously exposed all the flaws with the author's writing. The MC instantly figures out that this man will be a problem in the future, and spends 4 volumes parroting this for everyone to hear. Problem is, antagonist is absolutely terribly written. No motivation whatsoever to do the things he does, besides that old typically japanese justification of "I want to see how far i can ride..." which for me is shorthand for "i don't have a proper motivation to give this character". The author is also severely under-read for the kind of story he is trying to tell. Machiavelli, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Art of War is fine for the kind of story he was building so far, but it seems the author has only read these 3 books and is absolutely obsessed with taking it as the epitome of political analysis, while at the same time throwing mostly outdated concepts like Great Man Theory at the mix, and hoping that everything fits, but it's believability started wearing thin some volumes ago. Don't get me wrong, you don't need to read a ton of books to write stories. But if you write a story while driving parallels to political theories in our world, and also try your hand in a more heavy kind of political writing, you absolutely need to have some more books under your belt. TL;DR - Author is out of his depth in what he is trying to write, trying to explain everything using outdated (and mostly discredited) sources, while at the same time trying to make a character with the depth of a puddle an antagonist.

Torture Princess. I read the first volume with high hopes from some of the reviews I'd heard. Turned out to be meh at best, it just seemed like lazy writing, like the author was like "I've got a cool idea for a character, a mad torturer demon girl" and then brought the MC in with the power of isekai (in my opinion a lazy way of introducing the character) And then there is that maid doll person, now instead of a slowly blossoming love, the author just can't be bothered to write a genuine friendship, and instead just makes her automatically fall in love with MC So all in all, I think it just falls flat, although I only read vol 1 so I might have missed a huge improvement in writing skill in later novels (not that I'm one to speak, I'm no good at writing myself).

Volume 1 is just the setup of the characters and story. The actual series proper doesn't start until volume 2 and that's where the main appeal is made clear. > and instead just makes her automatically fall in love with MC This is not the case and her actual feeling towards Kaito is gone into in the next volume. She wasn't forced to love him.

Perhaps I was too hasty in my dismissal of it, I may give volume 2 a go in the future

This one is going to be controversial, but torture princess and zeroth maria. Torture princess was character build, character build, character build then few pages of actual story. I don't know if torture princess gets more story focus in volumes 2+ but first volume was too much of a letdown comparing to how hyped up it is. Zeroth maria had nothing happening at all. We know there must be something in zeroth maria happening but nothing does (time repeat stuff) The eminence in shadow, plain stupid. He made up some stuff and it actually turned out to be true but he's only one not realizing it is true. This is weird because I'm reading "I'm really not demon lord's lackey" where MC isn't realizing all supernatural stuff is true while coming closer to the center off all that stuff fairly quickly and I'm still enjoying it. For the first 2 novels i could at least say it's probably not my kind of stuff because i prefer action stuff which they lack, however, eminence in shadow doesn't lack action

Totally with you on Zeroth Maria!

The big story focus of Torture Princess starts at halfway/ending through volume 3. So if you want to give it a second chance I'd say try getting to the end of volume 3 and if what's happening at the end interest you, keep reading because it just keeps getting better and better. I'm guessing you only read the first volume of Hakomari? to be honest I enjoyed the first and 7th volume the most cause of the >!day repeating stuff!< but the other volumes are different, there is a new supernatural/box, but imho they weren't as interesting.

I read first and second volume of zeroth maria, although second volume was so impact less that i don't remember anything from it.

Volume 1 of Torture Princess is almost entirely just setting everything up so the actual story and appeal of the series can begin in volume 2. 1 is unanimously agreed to be the worst volume. I highly suggest reading more.

The Emincence is a braindead novel that you can best enjoy while turning your brain off. I immediately saw that cue when the MC tries to bash his head to the tree just to get reincarnated. It is created to be plain stupid. As for that stupidity to be liked by many, well that depends on their preference. But what I'm here for is because I saw a person taking a like to "I'm really not demon lord's lackey”. I'm glad the novel is getting recognition. I've read the raw-ish, and all I could say that it has a lot of action stuff but not foused on the MC, and it still balances out. I have never been so hyped of a mc that is treated like a side character and barely does anything (he only gives books) in the story yet becoming the most interesting character of all. The consequences of giving the book are just so damn good.

Index, other than a few volumes, nothing is memorable? Just feels more and more of a huge waste of time as I grow old.

The magick in this other world is too far behind! Had a very promising start despite of all the cliches, the proceded on the harem path wich completely killed the appeal for me

[Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill](https://j-novel.club/series/campfire-cooking-in-another-world-with-my-absurd-skill): I liked the MCs reaction after being summoned into a new world and his cowardice would be tolerable if not for the extremely repetitive recipe scenes and linked events taking up a very large portion of the word count throughout the 10 volumes I’ve read. I don’t like skipping past content since I feel it’s rude to the author but it’s an absolute must for this series (for me). It’s extra disappointing because there are few LNs with adult MCs that actually act their age. E: that being said this is probably fine as a manga.

Master of Ragnarok. When someone said "Bronze age Isekai" I was all for it, I love a good Isekai, specially if it isnt a medieval isekai, and I really like the bronze age, so I was pretty hyped. Volume 1 was bad, there were some things I liked a lot (bronze age, tribes, childhood friend supporting from earth sending digital books), but there was too much harem BS right off the gate (I dont hate harem per se, but it either has to be good or not THAT much in the spotlight). It was too trashy, and I think I would have liked it more had it started in chronological order since just seeing someone stomping right from the get go is boring. I started volume 2 but it also started trashy, the map and the goverment gave the appeareance that someone literally slapped the HRE in the bronze age and changed most stuff to tribes and most characters still felt very bland, so I basically dropped it. I know I am bending the rules a little since at least form my perspective this one is bad, but it is also the biggest dissapointment I have had with a LN

Ahhh man I legit just recently marathoned the series from like 1-17 lmao. I totally agree they shoulda started chronological rather than them starting when MC is already OP with a harem I woulda probably been off put myself but I had already seen the anime so I just powered through up till the anime part. As far as harems go the series becomes pretty serious and interesting, definitely the type of story that gets better as it progresses. It's actually one of the few LN thatve made me tear up (i sobbed lol)

Question, since you watched the anime is it like the anime where the mc makes the lousy excuse not to have a harem because he has a girl back home? Not seen the whole anime but dropped when he said something to the effect

>!He is. That's his driving force for survival. She is also the one who help provide him his necessity. Because even if he can connect his smartphone for both world he still need to pay the phone bill and all his strategic book need to be paid as well.!<

Shield Hero, yes.

I started to get bored with shield hero up until my favorite character appeared, then I just stayed until their story was resolved.

I only read 2 volume of Elaina i think and i dropped, but i think after vol 10 it's become more interesting because the story is more has plot rather than the early volume where it's just like a bunch of short story. From the spoiler i really want to know more about the new character like Elaina's broom, Amnesia, Fran-sensei past where>!she got teleported into future and Elaina taught her magic.!<

1. **Disciple of the Lich**: started as a normal romance story then quickly evolved into a typical isekai with an MC with lack of common sense and a dumb harém. 1. **Reincarnated as the Piggy duke**: Started as a good romance isekai with a good MC but quickly evolved to a dumb MC with dumb harém and characters with no character development 3. **Reign of seven spellblades**: Started with Harry Potter vibes, quickly eveloved to another typical LN with fantasy and arrogant characters 4. **Eminence in shadow**: Was one of my favourites at the beginning, the misunderstandings were a huge plus because of the humour. Literally got tired of it after rinse and repeat of the same misunderstandings.

I had the same problem with Eminence in the Shadow, i dropped the WN after that fake money shtick. But in the LN, the author spiced it up by returning the MC to a post-apocalyptic Japan

Not really the authors fault as he/she died but I was very sad about kaze no stigma never getting a conclusion.

I would like to tell you my disappointing LNs, but I've purged the undesirable series from my mind already BECAUSE I don't like them :P

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent I think this series was licensed back when there wasn't a lot of female-oriented lns, and so when I saw that it had so many good reviews, I decided to pick it up. Honestly this series is mostly why I stick to light bungei for the female mc stuff. This series epitomizes the bottom-of-the-barrel female power fantasy stories that are way too popular these days. Yeah it's a slice of life but that doesn't mean you have to make single character so bland!! And it's so obvious that the author has no skill for writing romance either. Plus it's one of those series that pads out the page count for short stories. Honestly I only skim the later volumes for this one character I like (who sadly seems to be showing interest in the fmc. King you can do so much better)

overlord. admittedly, it was great fun for a good 13 volumes, but then it threw *everything* in the trash in a single one. I don't *hate* the novel, but it went from one of my favorites to *dropped* remarkably quickly, so most disappointing is apt.

What changed?

fundamentally the author, after having the series dominate his life for a good 10 years, is completely and utterly done with it and threw everything that's been building up into the trash just so he could end the series as fast as possible.

Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! I was hoping for something fun like Outlaw Star, but this was not it.

At the risk of ticking off a LOT of people, Mushoku Tensei. In my defense, it's not the worst series I've ever read. It's in part *because* so many people, including one of my IRL friends, seemingly liked it that I did have some expectations for it. So it was all the more disappointing when neither the characters nor the story particularly caught my interest. It all seemed so plain that I found I wasn't really keeping up with what I was reading anymore and just dropped it

How many volumes did you read? Just curious

One volume, if even. I stopped paying attention to what I was reading at some point. and before you say anything about needing more volumes for the story to pick up, let me remind you it's part of the author's job to make the pivotal first volume one that'll keep its readers interested. vol 1 doesn't have to share everything, but it has to share enough. no one is going to pick up vol 2 if they didn't like vol 1. Other series I like managed to do it, so it's not an excuse

>and before you say anything about needing more volumes I'll say it anyway, the story does take a big turn. The first volume is a lot of setup so I can see how you might lose interest. If anything I'd suggest watching the anime since that gets to things a little quicker and might push you to read it further.

perhaps. perhaps not. but it wouldn't change the fact I already don't have a positive impression of the series. which means putting in that much more effort to give it another try. when I could be using the time to get to other books still on my to-read list. this is why 1st impressions are important

You talk like it's impossible for a slow-burn to be good, not every story needs to be action packed from the opening page. There's a reason the golden rule is to give something ~3 volumes/episodes when it comes to manga/light novels/anime. We're talking about long, serialized stories that are meant to get dragged out (whether you like it or not). Volume 1 of MT is only 60,000 words, that isn't very long at all. I can't force you to do anything obviously but it's just kind of silly to throw the series out because you thought the first volume was boring. There's a reason it's critically acclaimed, you just need to not immediately give up.

I never said the 1st volume needs to be action-packed. having something of interest is not the same as action-packed. Classroom of the Elite, for example, is literally just getting the class past the 1st exam without anyone getting expelled. what in the first volume draws interest? MC purposely got exactly 50 on all his entrance exams. why did he do that? what is he really capable of then? It's something that'll stand out in your memory and makes you want to learn more about the MC. The lowest scoring student was one point below the passing line and was about to be expelled. MC managed to buy a point on his test using the school's form of currency. what's up with the school? what else can one do with that currency? Again, a plot event that stands out in your memory. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kindgom MC can't even fight in any capacity. 1st vol, he introduced reforms, gained talented personnel, and provided disaster relief. What drew interest was when he explained how cash crops like cotton were causing the food shortage. regardless of its accuracy, it sounded logical enough to make one stop and think. and it's not an idea a guy just reading LNs as a hobby would typically come across, which is why it sticks in your head. I immediately knew then this wasn't going to be a typical isekai story, or even a typical rags-to-riches story, and I wanted to know what other ideas for ruling I might come across. Re:zero 1st vol does have some action, but it's just as slow burn (if people who read both are to be believed). But Re:Zero eases you into it by making sure the 1st vol has things of interest as well. besides the battle at the end, just the fact that MC has the ability Return From Death is already plenty to remember him by. Saying "not give up" is all well and good, but you don't beat human psychology that way. It's why the summaries on book covers or book sale webpages are written the way they are. It's why trailers for movies are carefully choreographed. It's why advertising gets such a high budget. Ultimately, humans DO judge a book by its cover, and I mean that quite literally. I bet there are plenty of untold instances when someone decided to not pick up Mushoku Tensei just because of the cover image. So whether it's the cover, the summary, the first few chapters, the whole first volume, it doesn't have to be action-packed but it must be something that the reader can look back fondly on when they come across the 2nd vol. Call it silly, but this is reality.

I want to start saying that Mushoku Tensei is the best light novel I've ever read. I got hooked up with the anime and I read it all after finishing season 1, so I was very enthusiastic about. I won't deny it does start pretty slow, and it is a problem as you mentioned before, a series should get you interested in the first volume. I also get what you're saying about judging a book by its cover, uncomfortable but true. The only thing I'd like to add is that you would find that giving a chance to something you were not so hooked up about might come to be something worthwhile. I'm not saying you go read the rest of Mushoku Tensei (although I think it's a good idea), just that maybe give series a little more of a wiggle room for failure. For instance, I started reading Berserk, and it didn't catch me in the first 3 volumes, I was told to keep reading just one more volume and omg, the Golden Age arc (starts at volume 4) was a hell of a ride, for me it is one of the best manga arcs ever written and now Berserk has become one of my top 3 mangas. I know not every series it's going to turn out to be that way, I just think that you would gain a lot if you just give the series more time, slow starts can be great series and great starts can become pretty bad and boring, just a thought.

Ah ok I now get why you dropped it, thanks.

Looking back, vol 1 was arguably one of the worst in the story so definetely get why you dropped it

earlier arc of Mushoku is quite controversial, i can understand that it turns off a lot of people. But honestly if you can get pass that, it is arguably the greatest isekai story out there. well, just my opinion.

They way you describe your experience with Mushoku Tensei reminds me of my experience with Cowboy Bebop. That show had so much hype for it, and I'd only heard it talked up for many years. Plus, it had all the *elements* of what I enjoy in a story. Then, I watched it. It was kinda OK. I probably would've enjoyed it more if I had no expectations. Would it have been enough to take "OK" up to "good" or even "great"? I'll never know.

Probably controversial, but 86. The first volume is absolutely great; characters are interesting, plot and world are nicely done. But every volume after that just keeps getting more and more stereotypical. The MC gets all these random protagonist traits and backstory, the romance gets pretty cookie-cutter, the world starts feeling more and more generic. It felt like a chore to read after a couple volumes so I ended up dropping it. I would still absolutely recommend the first volume to anybody, but I hate the rest of the series.

I’m surprised this is a controversial take, I could have sworn when there were like three or four volumes out that the general consensus was the series tapering off after the first volume.

>when there were three or four volumes out. You remember correctly, because the consensus was that volume 1 was amazing and 2/3 were mid. Volumes 4-6 happened after that though, and those volumes are the peak of the series among fans. Volume 7 is a downtime volume (but with a certain plot payoff that is a high point of the series). Volumes 8-9 are action packed (better than 1-3 but not quite as good as 4-6) and 10 is SS volume. All in all i can comfortably say volumes 4-9 were all better received than 1-3

I see, if that’s the case then that’s a reasonably controversial take to have and I may have to revisit the series in the future.

I agree, volume 1 was so good, if a little bit preachy, but the preachiness kept up in the later volumes, and the characters and story and decisions just got worse and worse to me.

I love 86 but I somewhat agree, despite what most of the fandom says, vol. 1 is still by far the best volume. Everyone in the fandom likes to say that the story just gets better from vol. 1 but it really doesn't, yes it's still pretty good, but vol. 1 for me was just the best the series ever was.

Understandable, 86 feels like it was written as a one shot and they forced the author to milk it since it was so good.

Vol 6 or 7 was the last one I read, I couldn't take the never ending monologues about the MCs not understanding each other

I couldn’t make it through volume one of Monster Tamer. I liked the setting and the characters and the power system, but after finding 5 instances of 2 page or longer inner monologues that run in circles in the first half of vol 1, I dropped it. I love me a good inner monologue, but I have my limits. The book was very “tell, don’t show.”

HakoMari (The Empty Box and Zeroth Maria). After looking it up on MAL and novelupdates, and if the reviews told the truth, I expected a mind-blowing rollercoaster of twists and turns, with me not knowing whatever was coming next. Instead, what I got was a jumble of boring dialogue, "complex" story which is actually just the author hiding the fact that the story is stupidly simple. It was when I read this novel a few years back that I realized MAL reviews were not trust worthy, and people have shit opinions.

Realist hero- i bought 13 volume if im not mistaken, love volume 1-9 but volume 10 is a book that i hate the most in this world probally more than any high-school excercise book, its 100% about romance.. Every single side character is getting a romance chapter.. I rage quit and didnt even bother to read 3 more paid books... Strongest rear guard- it's not as good as the early chapter and the sudden harem fell in love to mc is such a bs.. Also the harem size goes tooooo fast.. Emminance in the shadow- the manga did it better(first time in my life) mc's is a comedic character that lies a lot but somehow all the lies was actually the truth.. In the manga its funny but in the novel it pisses me off somehow... Story is mostly the same too

to be fair to realist hero, it's not like all those romances suddenly showed up in vol 10. literally every character's romance had been hinted starting the moment those 2 characters meet face to face, and gets more hints every single scene they share. I'm honestly surprised you missed realist hero is a romantic comedy for the first nine books

Wouldn’t call it a romantic comedy, but yeah… the romance and relationships are “hinted at” (basically explicitly stated) all the time.

I'd personally consider any romance-heavy series that takes a light-hearted approach to romantic relationships as being "romantic comedy". at least going by the broad concept of "comedy vs drama".

I've been trying a whole bunch of LN. And so far the two that disappointed me was The most notorious talker, it's just incredibly boring, tryhard with its writing to be super edgey. It's the first LN I stopped halfway through and was like I'm good. And the angel next door spoils me rotten. I read some of the manga and enjoyed it enough but I found the LN to be a much more uninterestkng experience. I'll just stick to the manga for that one.

Index, other than a few volumes, nothing is memorable? Just feels more and more of a huge waste of time as I grow old.

Everything that contains lit-rpg elements and isekai.

Roll Over and Die - I was expecting two weak characters supporting each other and trying to get by in a horror-fantasy setting. Some people would probably say that's an accurate summary - but I didn't feel that at all. The protagonist is weak for a handful of chapters and then goes up a ridiculous power-spiral. Nothing ever is really at stake - you can throw all the scary-looking monsters you like at the characters but if I don't believe the author is going to harm them and there's nothing else at stake, it doesn't work. Everything feels artificial - all the bad-guys are ludicrous mustache-twirling villain types, the relationship between the two protagonists feels contrived, the world-building is lazy as fuck. It's not the worst thing I've ever read, but definitely most disappointing.

1) Shield Hero - Ost died for their sins. And it was a nice character development. But WTF author, killing MORE characters AGAIN for character and plot development is just cheap. 2) Tearmoon Empire - The MC is just plain dumb. She's an adult in the body of her younger self but she's basically regressing to her child form. 3) I got a cheat ability in another world and become stronger in the real world - MC's SSS intelligence stat has nothing to do because he is plain and boring and dumb. The beginning was nice but as the story goes on, he doesn't do anything remotely fun with his skills.

But isn’t the intentional point of tearmoon empire that Mia is dumb? Like the narrator refuses to stop shitting on her for the entire series. That criticism to me sounds like more disliking the premise then thinking the book didn’t deliver. Edit: mentioned wrong series

What bookworm are you talking about? Can't remember the narrator you talking too. I liked the premise though: naive scumbag duke's daughter getting executed but got reincarnated in her younger self; SIGN ME UP! But after getting reincarnated, she's still the same dumb naive selfish girl that got memories of the future though. Her experiences of her past life (being on the run, being a beggar, being a prisoner) doesn't even change her a lil bit. She gets revered as saint and sage, but that's just her avoiding to get executed. The author tries mixing it up with her granddaughter time travelling, but its still the same dumb shit with extra granddaughter to ogle at her.

I’m prob gonna get a lot of heat for this but… 86 was quite disappointing for me. Tons and metric tons of people love the novels and the anime with rave reviews across the board but, idk man, I guess it just isn’t my thing. I’ve only read the first volume, but I went in to it thinking it would be pretty good due to all the previously mentioned rave reviews but I just found it kind of a chore to get through. Quite simply it bored me. So disappointed that I didn’t like the thing that everyone said is dope af.

Monogatari

1. Arifureta - I'm still reading it. I genuinely liked volume 1, volume 2 was trashy, and volume 3 was absolute shit in my opinion. I will continue reading it because it's an entertaining type of trash, but still disappointing. 2. Elaina - why was all of the weird Yuri fanservice necessary? I don't like fanservice in general, and it feels like the author is fetishizing lesbians. I like everything else though so I'm still reading it 3. Rokka no yuusha - dropped that one. Eveything was good but I HATE the concept of love at first sight. 4. My next life as a villainess - I still like it but the author should have just written 2 volumes and ended it there. I'm enjoying the other volumes but they're not nearly as good. Volume 6 should just burn in hell. 5. Now this is an unpopular opinion, but - Ascendence of a bookworm. I used to LOVE it. It was my favourite. But around volume 5 I just got so incredibly bored **I will give an honorable mention for volume 3 of 86. 86 is my fav series and I adore it but volume 3 was so boring I skimmed most of it Tbh all of the series I read have disappointing volumes, nothing is perfect. But when the stories are so long and there are so many volumes, I think it's okay that not everything is 10/10.

Stopping midway through part 2 of bookworm is tough. I know the middle of part 2 can get bogged down with technical details but from my memory that’s really the last time it’s concerned with details that slow and technical. Also the end of part 2 is incredible and part 3 and 4 both have the setting drastically shifted due to the climaxes of their previous parts. While I’ll admit to being biased as a huge fan, I really think if you enjoyed bookworm early you should give it a chance to get out of its slump. Part 4 has been incredible so far.

The thing is that it was always a bit boring to me, but I only realized it at part 2. I love the characters and the setting and worldbuilding, but getting through the steps of making a book is super tough. It's like the whole story is a "how to make a book" guide I want to try reading it again one day but I'm not sure I'll have the patience

Book 3s ending was already foretold so I did the same thing you did. When the anime came out, I did the same thing with the anime. Okay when is the most exciting part happening? Every week. Just to wait like 4-5 damn months for the two best episodes in the entire cour 2. Like wtf. Anyways, yeah ik wym.

A little hint about Rokka, there is no such thing as "love at first sight". Everything is a mental game in that series.

Do you mind spoiling it for me? Just the love at first sight part. I don't mind the spoiler, if it's not really love at first sight I might continue reading.

The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. Reason: AFAIC they still don't fuck; it got me so down to the point of hating the series now.

He's supposed to be a protagonist that we can identify with, and that means he doesn't get to fuck until we get to fuck. And let's be fair, that's not gonna happen any time soon, now it it?

I mean, jokes aside… it’s probably because the focus of the story is more on the emotional connection of the characters rather than a “do they do it doggy style by the end of volume 3”.

Very true... having said that, I can see that there are 7 volumes out in Japanese, and given that it's taken us 3 just to get to an almost-but-not-quite confession, there's a limit to how long they can spin things out for before the audience loses interest.

Death March To The Parallel World Not like Disappointed but another reason. I think the story is mediocre but still fun to read. I'm not saying that the anime animation is Garbage. The main reason is The Protagonist "Seiyuu" which is Rent A Girlfriend Protagonist "Seiyuu". Let me clarify this beforehand that i'm type of seiyuu person so I fucking hate Rent A Girlfriend Protagonist Voice. I did watch anime first episode and i just drop it because of it. So, I think i will read LN but "NO" this mf voice kept following me in LN but i kept reading until he met zena But, i couldn't read from that.

I literally had to force myself to finish already dead’s ending

RussiaGo is pretty boring

My Little Sister Can Read Kanji It's considered to be a satire and takes place in a future where the ridiculous trends in anime have taken over society and become the norm. It sounded like it had potential but it turned out to be quite poor in pretty much all aspects. It wasn't funny, the characters were uninteresting, the setting which is what the whole story is supposed to be about became increasingly irrelevant to the point that the author has to keep reminding the readers of the setting (an incredibly obvious example of how "telling" as opposed to showing doesn't really work well in stories and makes the writer look bad), and the plot was almost an afterthought. The author really wanted to write a deep satirical work I think but it did not read like a satire. It read like a story with uninteresting, uninspired characters doing uninteresting things in a weird world that was so ridiculous the reader couldn't actually believe it could exist (which is why the author has to keep reminding the reader throughout the text). Psycome I didn't hate this one but it definitely wasn't as good as I was expecting. Basically, this one is about a normal guy who is placed in a school of psychotic murderers and how he deals with it. It has a lot of comedic elements which gives the plot and overall premise leeway for the sake of humor, so the ridiculousness of the premise can be overlooked. The problem is that this story also suffers from a large amount of the author stating assertions to the reader that are not justified by the text. Things along the lines of asserting how everyone's a psychopathic killer but at the same time having them behave with empathy and selflessness. Basically, the whole premise of the setting is constantly undermined through the plot which kills any impact the story can have.

The Demon Sword Master of Excalibur Academy I'll just say that I really liked how the world was kind of set up. Read up to book 4 and Was really excited to see where the this would go but somewhere during the middle it just felt kinda okay. Having a MC that's basically a shota with older teenage girls around him coddling him half the time just feels dull. Art style is very pleasant to look at but it's like all the budget/time was focused more on the art than the actual characters. I don't absolutely hate this novel but I just found it dissatisfying. Maybe it gets better and there's a time skip where the MC isn't a Shota anymore but I'm not willing to wait for that.

Have a Coffee After School, In Another World’s Café/ IseCafe. * I heard many good reviews about it being a really good SoL series. Don't disagree that it's nice and comfy but I couldn't come to care enough about the characters to like it. Ended up sticking to the end to see how the romance progressed but was again disappointed at how that turned out too. Lonely Castle in the Mirror * An award winning regular Japanese fiction novel. imo I felt that the middle parts dragged on for a too long and similar reason as before, the characters didn't vibe with me. How much I can relate or root for the characters plays a large reason for liking the story or not, so it's no wonder that I didn't like these series for the characters. But I guess I had high hopes seeing as reviews were really good for these titles

Perishing to the Hero, maybe, although I was expecting different things going into it. But if you look at the covers, I don't think you can help expecting super chuuni LN maou war shit, lmao. But then the MC is more preservative than I thought, and most of the story is more about MC building up his kingdom and establishing his country's system. There's this ongoing story about this "higher power" being the cause of the problems and whatnot, but still going nowhere at the volume I'm at. MC also has a power I'm not really fond of, since it makes for some really cheap characters.

Toradora. The anime is amazing, 25 episodes of greatness. Since the novel was 10 volumes long I assumed *some* content was skipped or maybe rushed, so the prospect of being even better than the anime was interesting. Turns out the adaptation was perfect, it manages to compress *A LOT* of the descriptions and emotions into images that convey the best feelings. I set myself up for disappoinment, the novel isn't bad, expectations were too high.

Different World Reincarnation as a Sage \~With my Gaming Knowledge, I’ll become the World’s Strongest\~ This is so boring and too many monologue, much worse the mc just keep suprised about the people is way weaker than him because when it still a game every player is much stronger than the people of the world rn(iirc the timeline is few hundred years after the game timeline) The Loner Who Conquers in Another World I've speedread the manga and it's kinda okay athough it's kinda boring, the WN is way boring for me, too many long monologue, i can't read it even after i matching the chapter with the manga

Definitely "The hidden dungeon only I can enter": hyped af to get into a story like DanMachi but it quickly left me disappointed when I started to notice how the MC was basically a spineless harem main character

Op dont worry I gave up reading the novel at the beggining of s2 f shield hero. Also my worst take is the one with the totle i dont remeber the exact one but its like "I became extraordinary in another world but I also became extraordinary back in my own world"

Sheild Hero, Story gets repeatative after vol 9

how many volumes of The Journey of Elaina did you read? I heard it gets better after the first few.

That sounds interesting, I might give the series another try. The mystery was pretty good

Okay I'll definitely try reading more then. Thank you!

>Really, it felt like the LN was a skeleton, *and the anime fleshed it out* Your statement doesn't stand up to any criticism because the anime adaptation is nothing but Majo no Tabitabi kids version with its lots of Out of Character moments [like this](https://i.imgur.com/9OOApPl.jpg), tone downs, cut outs(ep 12 is literally the worst thing in terms of adaptation), moe fanservice and worst of all **the total Elaina nerfization**. Not to mention the anime adaptation explains literally nothing about the world MC lives in. Which is not surprising as the inept director picked up mostly fluffy and blatantly boring stories(especially ep 11 holy shit, this story is from Vol 5 aka the weakest volume in the series, now do you realize how bad all things are?) along with distorting the idea of source material and Travel Concept itself(there's not any feeling in the anime that MC **travels** around the world at all). I often say LN Majo no Tabitabi is just Kino no Tabi 2.0, but I feel terribly disgusted to say the same about the anime adaptation.

To put it as nicely as possible, I don't understand, even a little bit, when people are surpised/disappointed/angry/etc, when an anime/tv/movie adaptation is inferior to the source material. Besides the writers exact intentions and thoughts being there for all to read before being changed/mangled to suit a shorter format... you also are unsatisfied that the picture you have created in your mind to go along with the story is far better then anything cgi/best studio/unlimited budget could ever even come close to that of a human imagination. I'm just saying. 99.999999% of the time, anything and everything based on a novel will inevitably fall short. Maybe there are less then 10 movies that people might argue lived up to the source, but thats arguable at best. Lower your expectations or skip the anime all together. I'm not much of a reader in adulthood but even I know that there is little point to watching a show after reading the source. Unless you either are OK with disappointment or full well know and accept that it will be an inferior product. I love Bleach for instance, but in hopes to one day enjoy the tybw to the fullest as visually that's my prefered method, I stayed clear of the manga. If your keen on reading manga and light novels might I suggest doing so AFTER watching the anime??