Crazy Long Titles Due to the Nefarious Influence of Manga, Which Also Has Really Long Titles May 10, 2023
Posted by geoff in News.trackback
Seems like my post titles have grown pretty unwieldy of late. In my defense, I can claim to have been corrupted by manga titles, which have almost turned into synopses over the past few years:
- Regarding That We Decided To Live In The Countryside With The Female Knight Who Came To Us
- The Exiled Reincarnated Heavy Knight Is Unrivaled In Game Knowledge
- The Villainess’ Ruin Is My Fault, But I’ll Try To Make Her Happy With The Power Of The Curse.
- The Former Hero Who Saved Another World Beats The Real World Full Of Monsters
- The Transmigrated Mage Life In Another World, Becoming The Strongest In The World With The Knowledge Of The Original Story
- I’m The Only One With A Failure Of A Skill In Another World’s Summoning Rebellion — Until The Weakest Skill [Absorption] Swallows Everything
That’s just a sampling from the isekai (transported to another world) genre. Seems to be mostly the Japanese – the Koreans and Chinese haven’t caught the ridiculous title bug. [Speaking of “bugs,” how come nobody ever says “germ” anymore?]
All right – you could claim that I could solve the problem by simply not reading these absurd stories.
Hah! Ain’t gonna happen.
Innocent Bystanders 
Portal fiction. Dorothy Gale and John Carter are chuckling.
How about, “The One Who Used to Swim Among Men, Grew His Hair and Now Dominates Your Women, Sees Them Driven Before Him, and Hears the Lamentation of the Men”?
Used to have a 2000-book sci-fi library, but gave it away when I sold my house in Colorado. The only books I’ve since replaced are Burrough’s John Carter of Mars series.
So far.
How about, “The One Who Used to Swim Among Men, Grew His Hair and Now Dominates Your Women, Sees Them Driven Before Him, and Hears the Lamentation of the Men”?
I would append “…Though Nobody Knows the Definition of a Woman.”
I suspect “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” qualifies as isekai, it even has the long descriptive title.
Many isekai are pretty much clones of Twain’s novel, with the “cheat” (they always have a cheat/edge) being their prior knowledge of our world. Sadly, none of the authors actually seem to understand the knowledge their protagonist brings to bear in the new world, whether it be mechanical systems, technology, agriculture, or business/economics.
Reading them requires a complete suspension of critical thinking.
Well, some do appear to exist (just based on synopses). I’ve not read them yet, but the keyword the Japanese seem to be inserting into titles as a clue is “realist.”
From the ‘good guy’ side you have “How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.”
From the ‘bad guy’ side there’s “The Legendary Rebuilding of a World by a Realist Demon King.”
I make no claim as to their quality.
There’s a few “Realist” manga, at least one of which has been translated to anime.
Farming has been popular lately, where farming somehow imbues the protagonist with big level-ups.
Another popular one is where the isekai’d protagonist is rejected by the summoning kingdom because his skills are perceived as being too weak. “Rise of the Shield Hero” is probably the best known of that sub-genre.
Also very popular (isekai-optional) is the “You’ll be sorry when I’m gone” motif. The protagonist is kicked out of the adventuring party for being weak, and, no longer having to suppress his own development for the good of the party, he blossoms into an epic hero. Meanwhile the party that kicked him out falls apart.
The ones I try to avoid are the gamer wish-fulfillment titles, where the wasted hours and empty lives of hardcore gamers are justified by being able to apply their gaming knowledge/skills in a new world. Can’t get over the pathos.
Ms. Peel has gotten addicted to Ascendance of a Bookworm (not a big surprise). The isekai’d protag has some useful knowledge to bring in to the new world (mostly related to her obsession), but when the small number of characters who figure out she’s not from around these parts start picking her brain on advanced scientific topics, she turns out to be pretty useless.