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Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Asterisk War Novel 1
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Izanagi009
 Posts: 465 Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA |
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While I suppose that the Asterisk War LNs are better than their adaptations, I personally believe that it's still subpar compared to the annals of light novels. The romance angle feels stiffer compared to Holo and Lawrance from Spice and Wolf with the interactions seeming far too adversarial for it to be normal. In addition, Ayato in the LNs even later on in the story is far too bland for him with him seeming very stereotypical of a self-insert: generically kind and heroic, with a standard loyalty to the female lead and the others around him. Nothing about him stands out in any way.
I will also comment briefly on fights later on in the series as being too word heavy even for a literary genre though I suppose that's more personal. In fact, feel free to call me "pretentious" if desired as I understand how my language seems to others. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 2653 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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I don't think your language sounds pretentious.
I can see how this series could go downhill as it goes on - the premise is definitely a bit thinner than comparable plots. Wordiness is a serious problem with LNs in general, and I suspect editorial oversight might be behind it to a degree, since it isn't an issue I've had reading translations of non-LN Japanese novels. They may have the opposite editorial stance about Young Adult fiction than the English-language markets, which is an interesting thought. In any event, I'll enjoy this while I can. Hopefully it takes a while before it stumbles. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2417 |
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I feel like the series has enough going on in the plot to make it interesting, but I also feel like the focus on the school tournaments holds the larger plot back a lot.
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Alan45
 Village Elder Posts: 10018 Location: Virginia |
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Something I found to be a bit more explicit in the novel than in the anime is that these are modern day gladiators. The novel mentions in the tour of the city that the main stage is based in part on the Roman Coliseum. It is also noted in the information at the end that the fights of the Festa are broadcast worldwide and that they use students because they are young and beautiful. While they are not specifically supposed to kill each other they are basically risking serious injury or death strictly for entertainment purposes.
Since these are young people with powers it makes a sort of sense to control them by concentrating them in a single location and have them fight each other. It also explains why no one is really concerned if these students maim or kill each other. As explained in the information in the back they are called to this location by a combination of financial and other rewards combined with anti-genestella prejudice in the general population. In many of the other magic school series they are supposed to be training to protect the world or what is left of it from supernatural forces or outer space invaders. In those cases it always bothered me that they would let promising students destroy each other because of typical high school conflicts when they were needed so badly (Freezing being an example). |
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SkerllyF
Posts: 244 |
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Can we have a review on Rakudai Kishi(LN),or can someone make a comparison with AW?
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G S Palmer
 Posts: 246 |
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Just as a heads up, that's the cover of the first manga volume, not the first light novel.
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10018 Location: Virginia |
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I hope we can avoid this. I always thought it was unfortunate that both shows came out the same season. Too much time was spent comparing the two, to the point that it obscured the strengths and weakness of both shows. In the event that the Rakudai Kishi novel is published in English, I would hope that any review would be limited to that by itself. What matters is if a given volume is entertaining, if it is it doesn't matter is it is better or worse than a different title. Even if you establish a given title as "best in its genre" are you going to read that repeatedly in lieu of anything else in that genre? |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer
Posts: 2653 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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When/if the LN is licensed and released in English, I'd be happy to review it. But we have to get to that point first. I will say that when I hit the restaurant scene in this novel, I forgot for a second which series I was reading and had to remind myself that this was Asterisk and not Rakudai. 
EDIT: Alan45, I'm sure that whoever reviews it in the event of its release would stick to the book itself. I agree that's how it ought to be done. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2417 |
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They're pretty different even if they start out fairly similarly and share the magic battle high school tournament aspect. Asterisk is straight up harem rather just a single couple and does a lot more world building. By that I mean it explores the history of their world and introduces lots of different factions with different motivations. Rakudai is really driven by the development of the 2 leads and the development of their relationship. There is a plot lurking behind the tournament (basically a staple for the whole high school battle tournament shtick), but it really doesn't have the world building and set up behind it that Asterisk does. The plus side to a more shallow overall plot is that because the focus is really just on developing Ikki and Stella, it isn't really hamstrung by the school tournaments. On the other hand, the tournaments in Asterisk really feel like they're just in the way. |
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FilthyCasual
Posts: 2370 |
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Did Ayato's sister tongue him too :lol: |
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JacobC
ANN Contributor
 Posts: 3728 Location: SoCal |
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So it is. Sorry, these things are automatically generated by the encyclopedia, sometimes erroneously. I'll fix it manually. |
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SkerllyF
Posts: 244 |
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Also I wanna now if the Antimagic LN is better that its anime counterpart? I heard somepeople saying that. Is it true?
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2417 |
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Personally, I thought the anime was pretty fair in adapting it. Yes, the anime was rushed and loads was cut, but in general what you saw in the anime is what you get with the LNs just with more explanations and more additional scenes. The last arc in the anime had the ending changed compared to the LN. I'm assuming because they know there won't ever be a season 2, they adjusted the anime ending to be less cliffhangery. If you didn't like the characters, story, and setting in the anime, I don't think the LN is going to do much for you. I also have yet to see a case where LN readers have ever said that the LN wasn't better. As an LN reader, I think that is somewhat fair because the anime pretty much always cuts things and certain things might work in written form while coming off awkward in an anime. However, I think there is a lot of undue hatred and bashing on a lot of LN anime just because they didn't perfectly adapt every single thing written in the LN. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 10018 Location: Virginia |
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FilthyCasual wrote:
No, she was more into bondage (with chains). |
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Hongu
Posts: 9 |
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Ah, I see Aniplex is still paying you guys to shill Asterisk Wars huh?
No way this review is actually serious. Lmao |
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