This week, a fan's comment made waves on Japanese forums when he questioned the quality of current romance anime. His comment points out that the quality of novels has changed due to the influence of the isekai on the light novel market.
For the Japanese, romance anime are losing quality
The comment in question talks about the time when many romance animes were adapted by successful light novels. Between 2010 and 2015, the light novel market was dominated by the romance genre. Names like Oreimo: My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute and Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko were very popular in the otaku community. According to the source, these animes sold many Blu-ray/DVD copies and had very famous characters.
However, the fan mentions that it is difficult to find a quality romantic comedy among light novels now. While there are still some adaptations, they don't have the same enthusiasm as in the past. Since the isekai genre dominated the light novel market, the romance genre has fallen by the wayside. There are still successful novels like Gotoubun no Hanayome and Kaguya-sama: Love is War , but only in the manga media.
Furthermore, he/she says that current romance light novels are derivatives of isekai, being about different worlds and reincarnation.
“I know it's not that the works are bad and that I'm old, or maybe I'm a little nostalgic! I wonder if high school students today think that when I say “Light Novel,” I mean “Isekai.”
Japanese comments regarding this:
- “After all, there are a lot of romantic comedies mixed with the isekai genre, right? In a modern environment, it seems that this is what has become popular.”
- “Isekai villains are all the rage these days. This is a genre that is very open to other options, so you can add romance, comedy and even battles.”
- “See the ranking of those who say that “romantic comedy is in fashion”. No matter how you look at it, those that are isekai are more popular.”
- “Harem romantic comedies don't have enough scale if you get easily attached to a person, so the psychological descriptions are really tricky. I couldn’t keep up halfway.”
Anyway, do you also think that the quality of romance anime has changed so much due to isekais? Leave your comment below!
Source: Kudasai
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