Nakamura Usagi Says Isekai Light Novels Are All The Same
Recently the author of the light novel Gokudo-kun Manyuuki, Nakamura Usagi gave an interview to the website Real Sound where she said that the current isekai Light Novels are all the same.
She basically criticized the various reincarnation isekai light novels where the protagonist goes to another world, gains a very powerful ability and ends up having a harem. See below the excerpt of the interview and exactly what she said:
Usagi Nakamura: I’m not writing light novels anymore, so I’m saying this from the viewpoint of an otaku, but the advent of “Narou-kei” stories was one of the turning points in the industry. Especially the increase in isekai reincarnation type stories.
There’s tons of isekai reincarnation stories, and ones where they reincarnate as evil ojou-samas.
Nakamura Usagi: But when I see the mass production of such stories where the protagonist suddenly gains an overpowered ability and becomes the popular center of a harem, I think to myself, “How’s this original?” and “Don’t people get embarrassed for writing the same sort of stories?”
When I debuted, we tried to write stories were different from others. That was our sort of personal pride – the feeling that “we were the only ones who could write that”.
So you feel that the current light novel industry is too rote and similar?
Nakamura Usagi: This was a while back, but I was chosen as the judge for a male-oriented seinen novel competition, but when reading the candidates, they were so similar that I wondered if they were all written by the same person. I feel the same thing is happening to light novels. Isekai reincarnation genre stories follow the same template so closely that I wonder if they’re written by the same person – even I could write one, despite having lost my touch for light novels.
“Narou” is a system like Comiket where regular amateurs’ works can generate buzz, so that publishers can scout new writers. I believed at the time that “this was the ideal way to find new talent”. I hoped that it would be the best way to find diamonds in the rough that weren’t able to be found by the committee behind amateur writer awards. But when you look now, people are so focused on what others are doing that they’ve become unable to write anything but works following the template. I’m quite disappointed.
As mentioned above, Nakamura Usagi wrote the light novel Gokudou-kun Manyuuki, which was published between 1991 and 1999 ending with 13 volumes, the series won an anime adaptation.
Gokudou-kun Manyuuki Synopsis:
The story focuses about an adventurer named Gokudo Yuccot Kikansky. Unlike most main characters he is an antihero, willing to resort to violence to fulfill his agenda. He does not hesitate to abuse the needs of people, sell out his friends to save himself, run away from any dangers, or ditch others who helped him if he does not have any more interest in them.
His life starts to change when he finds a magical Genie named Djinn who wants to grant him three wishes. As most people would benefit from having three wishes, in his case it leads him to a lot of trouble, and it doesn’t take long before he tries to escape from Djinn, as well as every other person he meets.