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REVIEW: My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected Novel 1

it's clear that Watari is interested in reproducing a cast of familiar people most of us knew in high school without resorting to typical anime tropes and types.

Miura's boyfriend Hayato

The biggest issue is that it's often difficult to tell who is talking, which in all fairness might be due to the translation, as English only has one word for “I” while Japanese has several, making tags less necessary to identify speakers.

The biggest problem for some readers may be the way Hachiman refers to Miura and Yui, who both roll their skirts and unbutton their blouses a bit, as “sluts.” That's a very loaded word, and while it may be a realistic thing that someone like Hachiman might think, it also adds an air of meanness that the character otherwise lacks; it would have been better if a different word had been used in the translation.

I think that's a problem only for you. I find it difficult to imagine a reader having an issue with how a character decides to call other characters in a story. That's just reaching at straws.

Garuniks wrote:

I think that's a problem only for you. I find it difficult to imagine a reader having an issue with how a character decides to call other characters in a story. That's just reaching at straws.

Nope, that's actually an issue for me as well. At least in the anime, where the subs used "bitches", it comes off to a Western viewer as Hachiman trying to act superior. But insinuating that the girls who follow fashion norms that are pretty bog-standard in anime and manga are somehow "sluts" just paints Hachiman as excessively mean and petty. My reaction changes from "Yeah, yeah, you've got an inferiority complex" to "Dude, WTF?"

One thing's for sure, though. No one is going to care or remember that the main character used a word or two, once they reach the later volumes, and it is most definitely not the reason which is going to deter them from continuing, so it's a non-issue, and thus reaching at straws.

Unless Hachiman's attitude is enough to dissuade newcomers or folks who don't like being in the same headspace as him (a problem the anime avoids by sheer difference of medium) from continuing past the first volume, which I think is the point Rebecca was trying to make.

No, sir, it's clear you understand squat of what Watari was trying to do.

whiskyii wrote:

Unless Hachiman's attitude is enough to dissuade newcomers or folks who don't like being in the same headspace as him (a problem the anime avoids by sheer difference of medium) from continuing past the first volume, which I think is the point Rebecca was trying to make.

It is the point I was going for. Also as a female reader, it can be very off-putting in general, no matter if it goes away later.

Garuniks wrote:

No, sir, it's clear you understand squat of what Watari was trying to do.

I'm a "ma'am," not a "sir." And that was the conclusion I arrived at after reading his afterward, where he discusses what motivated him.

As for the boyfriend/girlfriend thing, maybe that was the YenOn translation - and I'd be interested to have people come back to this when the book is actually released - but, that was the impression Hachiman's words gave. They could very well be single, but in the novel, as narrated by Hachiman, he implied that they were dating. (I've not seen the anime, as a point of reference.)

Garuniks wrote:

I think that's a problem only for you. I find it difficult to imagine a reader having an issue with how a character decides to call other characters in a story. That's just reaching at straws.

Nope, that's actually an issue for me as well. At least in the anime, where the subs used "bitches", it comes off to a Western viewer as Hachiman trying to act superior. But insinuating that the girls who follow fashion norms that are pretty bog-standard in anime and manga are somehow "sluts" just paints Hachiman as excessively mean and petty. My reaction changes from "Yeah, yeah, you've got an inferiority complex" to "Dude, WTF?"

@Garuniks

This review is made based on the first volume of the series. You really should not be arguing with people based on information to come out in later volumes. It is not fair to those of us who wait for a legal translation.

That's really just the anime subs being slightly less accurate in word choice. He uses ビッチ(bicchi) which is obviously the Japanese use of the English word bitch. However, the connotation of the word in Japanese isn't the same as that in English. In English it's usually more a mean, annoying, or otherwise unpleasant woman. In Japanese it has more of a sexual connotation of a promiscuous, or 'easy' woman so "slut" is really the word that more accurately carries the intended meaning.

it's clear you understand squat of what Watari was trying to do.

You need to follow the series further in order to realize what the general intention is:

No one is going to care or remember that the main character used a word or two, once they reach the later volumes

Garuniks wrote:

Quote:

it's clear you understand squat of what Watari was trying to do.

That is not a statement of facts, that is an argument.

Quote:

You need to follow the series further in order to realize what the general intention is:

Quote:

No one is going to care or remember that the main character used a word or two, once they reach the later volumes

This is what I meant by information from later volumes. I didn't say you used spoilers. What you did is disagree with the review and used information you said was from later volumes to support your argument. Given that neither the reviewer or most of the people reading the review have legal access to this it comes across as very smugly superior. At best your comment is pointless and at worst rude.