Some light novel titles won’t fit in subject heading

 One thing Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town by Toshio Rito proves it that some light novels have titles that are way too long.

I came upon it in my never-ending quests for escapist fluff for decompression reading  (And Japanese light novels are a great resource for that) Lloyd Belladonna is the weakest person in his isolated, rural village and goes to the capital to become a soldier in order to make a difference. Of course, his village is the basically at the gateway to the realm of the demon lords and everyone there has been fighting Eldrich abominations for generations so that's just Tuesday for them. Lloyd, even as the weakest person in the village, is still a cross between Superman and Doctor Strange as far as the rest of the world is concerned. And he never twigs to that fact.

A lot of light novels I look at are driven by high concepts, ideas that are fresh, unique and compelling. (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a good example) Suppose is not one of the light novels. The concept of a country bumpkin who comedically and unknowingly overwhelms more sophisticated folks is a saw so old it is literally folklore. Robert E Howard's Breckenridge Elkins is just one of many examples and I'm using it just because its fun to remind people that Conan the Barbarian's creator also wrote funny westerns.

Suppose definitely has some weak elements. The omniscient narrator regularly breaks down the fourth wall to explain the jokes, which is definitely not a strong writing technique. There are times when it feels like Rito was writing a manga script and trying to use a thousand words to convey what would make sense in a single wordless panel. With that said, when the author actually focuses on the story and the characters, Suppose get much better. 

While Lloyd is more overpowered than many examples of the trope, that's not what makes Suppose interesting.  What kept me reading Suppose was the characters. While not particularly deep, everyone is very distinct and the half of the fun that isn't Lloyd doing something ludicrous is watching the different personalities bounce off of each other.

While its hard to argue that Lloyd doesn't have a lot of Mary Sue qualities, he manages to remain sympathetic been his earnest desire to help people and his absolutely crushing low self esteem. That last one is essential to making the story work. We need to be able to believe that Lloyd can’t understand that he is a walking force of nature.

The other characters are also distinct in speech patterns and motivations. Like I said, they aren’t particularly deep but you don’t have any problem mixing them you up. You get to watch personalities ricochet off each other like a box of bouncy balls.

Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town isn’t brilliant but it works as comfort food.

… What did I just read?

After reading Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill, I wondered if Japense light novels had reached the point where deconstruction no longer has a functional meaning. What’s more, I really doubt that it’s the most absurd or extreme example out there.  

Campfire (I refuse to type out the whole name again) started out as a web novel. Since then, it has become a light novel series, a manga and an anime. I’ve just stuck to the light novels because they’re easier to read on my phone.

After going pulled into a fantasy world, salaryman Mukohda quickly figures out that he’s been summon by an evil empire and takes off to do his own thing. He’s able to easily figure things out because he’s read lots of web novels!

More than that, he has a unique magical talent: Online Supermarket. It’s a magical combination of Amazon and Grubhub (that still costs him money) With it, Mukohda has access to modern Earth food and other products. With the power of refined sugar and prepackaged sauces, he is able to gain unbeatable legendary monsters as allies and  the favor of the gods.

Campifire is such unbelievable wish fulfillment that it’s fascinating. There’s no shame about it or trying to hide it at all. Thanks to his shopping skills, Mukohda has no functional worries beyond cooking meals for his monster buddies.

To be fair, that does sound pretty fun lol

I will note that, while there’s tons of food description, I really wouldn’t call the descriptions foodie or gourmet. Mukohda uses lots of prepackaged and premade ingredients. Which actually just builds on the whole wish fulfillment angle. I mean, that’s how I cook.

 

I have to say that I found the actual writing to be stilted with a lot of repetitive phrases. I don’t know if I should blame Ren Eguchi or the translator. There were pieces of dialogue that felt like they would have made more sense as a comic panel full of speech balloons.

But the absurdity of the concept and the way the work went whole hog into wish fulfillment just kept my interest.

Campfire is a profoundly self aware work. It couldn’t exist in a vacuum. Instead of a parody, it’s a celebration of escapism.

How do light novels work anyway?

Every once in a while, I like to look at light novels. I am pretty much only aware of the existence of light novels since many manga and anime started off as light novels.  

It’s reached the point where I finally looked up what a light novel actually is. Um, it’s just a Japanese young adult novel. The only thing particularly different about them seems to be that they have a particularly dedicated publishing sub-industry.

My luck with light novels has been pretty hit or miss. The first one I read was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was really good. Other books I’ve read since then haven’t been as well written. I actually put down Toradora after one chapter.

I have a number of theories about why I’ve had better luck with manga than light novels. The medium of manga may be easier to translate since it’s driven by pictures. There’s more money in manga so maybe more money is put into translating manga. Or it might be that light novels are churned out at such a high rate rhat there are quality issues.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong about all of that.

So I went into Slayers: The Ruby Eye with trepidation. I watched the first couple episodes of the anime back in the day and just couldn’t get into it. It felt like stereotypical characters in a stereotypical parody for me.

I actually quite liked The Ruby Eye. The characters started out with more depth (I assume they do get it in the anime) and a tighter plot structure. I’ll read some more.

And Slayers still doesn’t answer my ligut novels questions. Not only did they only get translated after the success of the anime so there was more urgency to do a good job, I’ve read that the translator, Elizabeth Ellis, is particularly good. So Slayers may not fit the usual model.

I will continue to look at light novels. For one thing, they are easier to read on my phone than manga lol The Boogiepop books are also on my list.