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REVIEW: My Little Sister Can Read Kanji Novel 1


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Blackiris_



Joined: 06 Sep 2013
Posts: 535
PostPosted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 5:25 pm Reply with quote
Hasn't that become pretty common? Light novels that exhibit some kind of self-awareness or parodying themselves and other otaku stuff without actually following a different formula?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 6:03 pm Reply with quote
Definitely love the satire and snark in this series. The wording sometimes gets clunky, which I think is somewhat intended? I believe that because this is a 23rd century 'translation' of a novel that the actual source has no kanji which can lead to very vague/ambiguous text. It's a lot more fun than average teen boy gets whisked away to fantasy land where he's surrounded by babes which is what it seems like practically everything else I've looked at. This one at least ain't a harem (up to the part I've read).
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:13 pm Reply with quote
That's one future I'd refuse to live in. LNs being great literature? Oh dear god, that's one creatively abysmal future.
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FilthyCasual



Joined: 01 Jun 2015
Posts: 2165
PostPosted: Sun Mar 05, 2017 8:46 pm Reply with quote
Hoppy800 wrote:
That's one future I'd refuse to live in. LNs being great literature? Oh dear god, that's one creatively abysmal future.

What, no interest in such acclaimed titles as I'm The King of Scotland, but only because my Wife Told Me to Be, My Pointless Life in Algeria is as Meaningless as I Expected, and The Weakness of the Migrant Worker's Name is Lenny?
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mc55





PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 3:18 am Reply with quote
Oi! There are some good light novels out there too.

I'm kinda disappointed. It sounded like a cool read, but now that I know just how creepy, and cringe-comedy-ish this is gonna be, I regret buying it.
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Neohybrid_kai



Joined: 29 Apr 2011
Posts: 143
Location: Indonesia
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 4:15 am Reply with quote
Blackiris_ wrote:
Hasn't that become pretty common? Light novels that exhibit some kind of self-awareness or parodying themselves and other otaku stuff without actually following a different formula?


Yea, I was expecting light novel that satirize light novels that satirize light novels Laughing
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Galap
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Joined: 07 Apr 2012
Posts: 2354
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 5:08 am Reply with quote
FilthyCasual wrote:
Hoppy800 wrote:
That's one future I'd refuse to live in. LNs being great literature? Oh dear god, that's one creatively abysmal future.

What, no interest in such acclaimed titles as I'm The King of Scotland, but only because my Wife Told Me to Be, My Pointless Life in Algeria is as Meaningless as I Expected, and The Weakness of the Migrant Worker's Name is Lenny?


I love you right now. This post was the funniest thing I've read in the past couple weeks.
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Hikarunu



Joined: 23 Jul 2015
Posts: 950
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 9:56 am Reply with quote
FilthyCasual wrote:
Hoppy800 wrote:
That's one future I'd refuse to live in. LNs being great literature? Oh dear god, that's one creatively abysmal future.

What, no interest in such acclaimed titles as I'm The King of Scotland, but only because my Wife Told Me to Be, My Pointless Life in Algeria is as Meaningless as I Expected, and The Weakness of the Migrant Worker's Name is Lenny?

Would love to hear your out of breath voice trying to said such long title.
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SkerllyF



Joined: 02 Sep 2016
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 10:27 am Reply with quote
Srsly, when I was reading the review, I was asking myself: really? is this good? It´s too nice to be true, but a novel that criticizes fetish light novels, and the kind of future that they could be creating?

It may be weird to see parody light novels copying parody light novels, but for as long as they´re intelligent and decent, it´s better than copying mediocre ecchi/magic school/fetish/imouto light novels. So this means that writers are making light novels great again.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
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Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:22 pm Reply with quote
SkerllyF wrote:
Srsly, when I was reading the review, I was asking myself: really? is this good? It´s too nice to be true, but a novel that criticizes fetish light novels, and the kind of future that they could be creating?

It may be weird to see parody light novels copying parody light novels, but for as long as they´re intelligent and decent, it´s better than copying mediocre ecchi/magic school/fetish/imouto light novels. So this means that writers are making light novels great again.

Siskan is from 2011 though. It's more a response to the oreimo boom.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 6:36 am Reply with quote
This doesn't sound too much like a satire to me, based on the review. It sounds more like a contrived way to make the main character hardcore otaku dude innocent of any and all wrongdoing despite his creepy proclivities: i.e., he might express his desires to do something untoward to an innocent young girl (or otherwise engage in boob grabs or look up girl's skirts), but he's from a future where that is all not only allowed, but celebrated as high art. Of course there is the little sister "straight man." That straight man character always part of the formula. Whenever there is a fetishy and/or creepy character who is doing things that society frowns upon (particularly in regard to loli-related stuff), there is always a straight man character who either punishes them physically (with punches, verbal attacks, or other similar forms of violence) or acts embarrassed or ashamed about them to third parties.

I suppose the utter outlandishness of this imagined future makes it seem more like this should be considered as satire, but I feel like that term (and "parody") have begun to lose their meaning when it comes to anime/LNs/manga. So much these days is claimed to be a "send up" of common tropes in those media, yet they usually seem to me to be just playing with those same tropes in new ways to try and keep them more fresh. At the end of the day, I can imagine that there are lots of people who would be very excited to live in that future described by this LN, and a lot of them will be the target audience.
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samuelp
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Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 7:08 am Reply with quote
ChibiKangaroo wrote:
This doesn't sound too much like a satire to me, based on the review. It sounds more like a contrived way to make the main character hardcore otaku dude innocent of any and all wrongdoing despite his creepy proclivities: i.e., he might express his desires to do something untoward to an innocent young girl (or otherwise engage in boob grabs or look up girl's skirts), but he's from a future where that is all not only allowed, but celebrated as high art. Of course there is the little sister "straight man." That straight man character always part of the formula. Whenever there is a fetishy and/or creepy character who is doing things that society frowns upon (particularly in regard to loli-related stuff), there is always a straight man character who either punishes them physically (with punches, verbal attacks, or other similar forms of violence) or acts embarrassed or ashamed about them to third parties.

I suppose the utter outlandishness of this imagined future makes it seem more like this should be considered as satire, but I feel like that term (and "parody") have begun to lose their meaning when it comes to anime/LNs/manga. So much these days is claimed to be a "send up" of common tropes in those media, yet they usually seem to me to be just playing with those same tropes in new ways to try and keep them more fresh. At the end of the day, I can imagine that there are lots of people who would be very excited to live in that future described by this LN, and a lot of them will be the target audience.

Perhaps the review did a bad job of this, but this isn't even close to what this novel is like.
If anything the moe/little sister elements in the book are really clumsy and ham handed, in a sort of purposefully bad way, and the future is not depicted as a great place or anything really... In fact a major part of the story is how much the educational level has lowered. The main character Gin thinks he'd be superior with his 23rd century education and is completely humbled by the rigor of 21st century schools, etc...
There's pretty much no actual wish fulfillment here.
Gin also would never do anything to his real little sisters ("they're real, they aren't literature! books and real people are totally different!")... He considers panty flashes the high point of literature much like we'd consider two star crossed lovers committing suicide the high point of drama! It's not like any of us would want that to happen in REAL life.

It's far harsher and more critical than any other "parody" meta light novel I've read out there that are much as you described, poking fun at tropes while embracing them. This one is a harsh criticism THROUGH the medium itself, by serving as its own worst example.... Well, just read the free preview and I think you'll get a sense of it. I didn't put it in the Fiction -> Dystopian category for no reason.
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ChibiKangaroo



Joined: 01 Feb 2010
Posts: 2941
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:00 am Reply with quote
I shall do as you have suggested and look through the preview, since I am just reacting to this review.

That being said, one thing that made me feel more suspicious that it was not a real satire is the fact that the main character and sister travel back to our times rather than someone going to this wacky future. If the story took place in the future, and our self-insert was a normal person from our times being aghast at this awful future, it would seem more like satire I would think (e.g. the American movie Idiocracy). Whereas, when you have someone from this crazy future coming back into our times, you get this "fish out of water' (or as Rebecca said, "whale on a mountain") aspect where the self-insert character is the creepy otaku from the future and the comedy seems to be more about how intolerant the current times are of his weird behavior. I'm not sure that that is satire of the future, but seems more like a clever way of getting entertainment out of seeing people put up with his extreme otakuness.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Reviewer


Joined: 16 Dec 2008
Posts: 2599
Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 12:03 pm Reply with quote
I understand the feeling that "parody" and "satire" are overused at this point when talking about current LNs - that's why I opened the review with a literary definition of the term. This is one of the few (Konosuba is another) that I think, as Sam said, is a true parody in its using the material to point out its flaws. Honestly, the term I really would apply here is "burlesque," or maybe "Juvenalian satire," but I didn't want to get too academic.

I should have made it much clearer that Gin is in no way attracted to little girls or little sisters - he knows very well that fiction and reality are not synonymous. All the creep really comes from Odaira in terms of action; Gin is inadvertently unpleasant.

The time travel issue is actually really important to the main plot; I just didn't want to spoil it in the review.
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jr240483



Joined: 24 Dec 2005
Posts: 4369
Location: New York City,New York,USA
PostPosted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 3:49 pm Reply with quote
SkerllyF wrote:
Srsly, when I was reading the review, I was asking myself: really? is this good? It´s too nice to be true, but a novel that criticizes fetish light novels, and the kind of future that they could be creating?

It may be weird to see parody light novels copying parody light novels, but for as long as they´re intelligent and decent, it´s better than copying mediocre ecchi/magic school/fetish/imouto light novels. So this means that writers are making light novels great again.


and considering the fact that the author had both gin and his sister kuroha not blood related make me wonder if this satire is to probably mimic or in some case mock oreimo. cause this sure feels like its a reversal of that series.

that or in some cases a satire storyline of shimoneta since that series was about their govt removed everything that is ero while in this series they have embraced the imouto culture.

definitely know the characters of shimoneta (though the ones that embrace ero materials)would salivate at the chance of coming to that world for sure
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