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Wednesday, July 22, 2020

Visual novels to the rescue?:

Lazy Dungeon Master has become unreadably dull.  I don't know if I'll ever catch up with the translation.  Everything Keima does is so boring and pointless.  What do I care?  Why is this story even ongoing?  What is there left to say about any of the characters?

My books know when to end.  I re-read all of Sellsword in one sitting because a) it's short, and b) it's exciting and gripping throughout.  It said precisely what it needed to say, fully characterized its characters, and then quit on a perfect high note.  Meanwhile I can't whip myself into reading even one more chapter of Lazy Dungeon Master it's so painful regardless of how short the chapters are.

There are so many waifus in '100 waifus' who haven't been given the spotlight, who Christopher never spends time with, that I could easily write about.  I didn't write about them because their story wasn't compelling enough to write anything about, or it overlapped too much with others who had already been expounded upon.  This is called knowing when to quit.  Why hasn't Lazy Dungeon Master quit?  Does anyone really care if Keima gets more godly beddings and thus sleeps more soundly than before?  What does it matter?

Kimetsu no Yaiba knew when to quit.  That's why it's an instant legend and one of the highest selling manga of all time.  It took a limited opponent, and used limited resources to beat it in one hard fight.  Then the heroes disbanded and lived happily ever after.  The end!

What I would give to see the endings to all my favorite stories!  If only everything were like Kimetsu no Yaiba I would have no lingering attachments to this world.

Instead:

Only 5 of my 27 favorite light novel series have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.

Only 32 of my favorite 75 manga series have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.

Only 11 of my top 20 visual novel franchises have both been finished by the author satisfactorily and completely translated.

Only 83 of my top 200 anime franchises have reached a satisfactory conclusion to their tales and been completely translated.

The only good news on that list is visual novels, and the news is about to get much better.  If not this year, then next year, we'll see a translated Rewrite+, Kud Wafter, Summer Pockets Reflection Blue, Hoshizora no Memoria ~ Eternal Heart ~, Majikoi A-4, Irotoridori no Sekai, Aiyoku no Eustia, Trinoline: Genesis and Happiness 2.  The gears are beginning to turn, and that 11/20 ratio is about to shoot up to 20/20.  Visual novels all tend to be massive in length so each of these titles represents weeks of entertainment.  Combine them all together and you're looking at something fun to do for months on end.

The second best entertainment medium for actually reaching the ending is anime, and things will soon improve there as well.  Shirobako, Little Busters!, Evangelion and High School Fleet will end once we see their movies.  Bleach and Utawarerumono have promised tv anime that will reach their respective conclusions.  Girls und Panzer is on its 'das finale' season.  Hibike! Euphonium only has the 3rd year left to go.  Shingeki no Kyojin is almost over.  That gets us to an almost 50% completion rate.

Manga's completion rate will also rise once the final volume of Kiniro Mosaic is released.  Kimetsu no Yaiba only has a gaiden left.  Omoi, Omaware is already finished and only awaits its ongoing translation.  I can envision manga reaching 50% completion as well.

Light novels like Lazy Dungeon Master are the totally helpless field that will seemingly never resolve.  They are the least likable portion of the entertainment world.  I feel like light novel authors are terrible people who intentionally drag their stories so as to rake in more money.  SAO has had so many chances to end but never does.  It's the same for all the others.  It's a mistake to ever get invested in a light novel series because the author will always use and abuse you.  The only exceptions are series like PapaKiki and Unlimited Fafnir where instead the translators will spontaneously drop the ball on you and leave you stranded all the same.  Under no case will you ever get to reach a satisfying conclusion.  The authors would sooner die than let that happen (ala Zero no Tsukaima).

The football season is pretty much assured to be cancelled.  Not because covid-19 represents a threat to fit college age players, but because the hysteria and lockdowns will never fade so long as the press keeps stoking the terror, and they intend to stoke it until after Biden wins the election and a vaccine (regardless of how useful it actually is) is injected into all our veins.  The football season starts before the election so it's doomed.  Maybe the Tokyo Olympics can be held in 2021 because that's after the election.  One can hope.  March Madness is probably doomed because March is only a couple months after Biden's inauguration and I doubt they'll have a vaccine by then.

This means the only entertainment available for the remainder of the year and next year is these old visual novels getting translated into English for the first time.  Thank God for the translation backlog or we'd have nothing at all.

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