No.3858
What would you rec for someone unfamiliar with the genre?
Are their any must-reads?
No.3860
>>3859Really anything! I guess slowburn pining is my cup of tea but I'm curious what the most popular/widely beloved ones are too.
No.3861
>>3858My two favorites are Little Mushroom and Thrice Married to Salted Fish. Little Mushroom is a sci fi with a post-apocalyptic setting. The romance is slowburn, and I love the worldbuilding and pacing. It can get pretty bleak, but the MC's POV keeps it from slowing down or weighing down the story. Thrice Married to Salted Fish is a historical political intrigue story, but the ML is actually a transmigrator and it's told from the MC's POV. I really love the main pair in this one, especially the MC who has an entirely unrepentant attitude that's fun to read.
No.3862
>>3860DA but MXTX is the most popular/well-known (in the West at least) danmei author so you could start with her work. MDZS and TGCF are both pretty accessible as they have animated adaptions, the former also has a live-action series (called The Untamed) if you're into that too. SVSSS is her first work and on the shorter side but most people don't care about the adaption because it's kinda ugly. Will include novelupdates links if you want to look at the descriptions for them, there are also tags that'll give you an idea of the story and characters.
>SVSSS (Scum Villain Self-Saving System)>transmigration, isekai type of setting>https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-scum-villains-self-saving-system/
>MDZS (Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)>her most popular work by far, pretty slow burn>https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-founder-of-diabolism/
>TGCF (Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven's Official Blessing)>my personal favorite, her longest work, super slow burn>https://www.novelupdates.com/series/heaven-officials-blessing/Some other popular ones are Sha Po Lang by Priest and The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meatbun.
>https://www.novelupdates.com/series/sha-po-lang/>https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-husky-and-his-white-cat-shizun/ No.3869
Peach Flower House is closing.
https://www.peachflowerhouse.com/closingSo there goes any hope for Golden Terrace ebooks.
No.3881
>>3869what the actual fuck. It felt like yesterday when my oshi was making a collab with them….this sucks man
No.3888
>>3863And it got the worst donghua adaptation.
>>3862>The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by MeatbunOnly if anon is into lots of rape. Like, real rape.
No.3892
I'd love to get into this, but all of them seem to be written following the uke's perspective, which makes it hard for me to enjoy. Do you guys know anything that takes place from the seme's POV?
No.3893
>>3892Meatbun writes from seme POV, so 2HA, case file compendium and yu wu.
No.3894
>>3893Thank you, looking these up, the White Cat saga sounds up my alley. I deeply appreciate it, I've been watching this from afar for some time, without really knowing how to get closer.
No.3909
>>3889I know people generally hate CG donghua adaptations but I will never be over the OP song Qian Qiu got, the official Tencent subs made it sound way more romantic than the fan translations to me. And even though the direction on it was just "spam action scenes", the way they put Shen Qiao sighing and falling against a wall to "stop the anchor where the sea ends" just somehow always hit me with feeling. I don't know how to explain it, there's a strong forlorn fondness in the song. "Put the past behind us and grow old with me"? Are you shitting me, donghua? That's so fucking sweet.
If you've not seen it it's at the very start of this video, put captions on for the subs.
No.3914
>>3909What I can't stand about Chinese 3D donghua in particular is the sameface.
No.3925
Currently reading the official TL of Husky & Shizun.
It's fun so far, but the translator's continuous grammar errors annoy me. I also am not a fan of the lack of translation when it comes to puns. At least _try_ dammit. I paid for you to at least make a sorry attempt, not to explain the homonyms. The lack of localisation is disappointing. As a translator, part of the fun is localising a translated text, to preserve as much of the original feeling as possible, to an audience who is likely not familiar with it. (This is of course more than acceptable when it's a free fan translation, but this… I paid for it…)
Shizun still isn't in the story after 59 pages, but it's fun to read. Mo Ran is a fun protag, I love his scrappy-pulled-from-the-bottom-of-the-heap outlook.
No.3926
>>3925Yeah, I wish they had tried to localize and THEN had a "this is what they literally said, it means this, this is why we changed it" afterward because I genuinely find that interesting.
No.3931
>>3927That's even worse… MFW Seven Seas didn't even hire an editor X.X
Ah well, it's fun so far, looking forward to Lower Slays Higher action.
>>3930I tried reading Untamed back when I was in a bad state, and couldn't keep track of the characters. Further, MC isn't a top, which makes it less interesting to me. Are there any MXTX works with seme POV?
No.3932
>>3927Oh I didn't know that. Crabapple is kind of an ugly word in her defense, but she could have used wild apple.
That reminds me of something unrelated but does anybody remember one billion years ago how the person fantranslating MDZS got dogpiled for using the terms seme/uke? Good times, good times…
No.4120
Years after Crunchyroll finally gets MDZS…
>Territories: Worldwide excluding Japan, Korea, Mainland China and Russian-speaking territorieshttps://www.crunchyroll.com/news/announcements/2024/12/10/the-master-of-diabolism-mo-dao-zu-shi-december-11-stream-crunchyroll>bans BL in Russialel
No.4154
>>4153I didn't realize the whole EN thing wasn't out yet. It is probably my favorite of what little danmei I've read. I liked how it was essentially a "timetravel fix-it fanfic" but contained in its own canon.
No.4893
>>4892What is this? A Japanese audio drama adaptation?
A rapist Kagami Taiga haha!
No.4894
>>4893Yes, MXTX had it too
https://x.com/mimifm11 but the jp dub for the anime is different.
No.4899
>>4885Mushrooms have different standards for feet, I see.
No.4960
I bought the first volume of Heaven's Official Blessings (?) a few weeks ago completely blind, I don't know shit about the story, I just know a friend of mine loves the series. It's a physical copy, I'll travel soon by train, should I take the book with me to keep myself busy in the train or would that be embarrassing/risky because of its content? I also want to read Captive Prince for instance but I finished the first book and know it's the type of book I should read in public for instance.
No.4961
>>4960It's safe to read in public.
No.4967
>>4961I can't bring the book with me, it's a large book and I don't have enough space in my bag or suitcase. I'll read it once I'm back home.
No.4969
>>4960There is one type of person on this planet who care about what you are reading and it's fans of the same thing that want to talk to you about it. I read historic books about inquisitors, atomic bombs and hitler all the time in public.
No.4970
>>4969I can get behind the inquisitor yaoi, atomic bombs yaoi, I can see. Hitler yaoi sounds a bit too high level for me, but I don't judge a fellow fujo.
No.4971
>>4969>and it's fans of the same thing that want to talk to you about itYou never read in public and sometimes strangers interrupt you and ask what you're reading? It happened to me when I was ik the middle of the second volume of Captive Prince in the plane and the guy next to me didn't speak my first language so he asked what I was reading and kept trying to talk to me, it was a little embarrassing. I never finished the book by the way, maybe someday I'll read the whole series.
No.4972
>>4971Personally whenever someone asks about what I read/watch I just describe the plot and leave out the fact that it's BL because no one actually cares enough to look it up and is just trying to make small talk
I haven't read Captive Prince, but if someone asked me about TGCF I'd just tell them it's Chinese fantasy, maybe a bit of the premise, and leave it at that (but I wouldn't be reading something like Vol 4 lol)
It helps that most BL sounds extremely mundane and boring when you leave out the gay sex, along with the fact that men are retarded so they don't read books or consume shoujosei
No.5287
So, I just started SVSSS because I've seen a lot of people talking about it. I'll admit I've never read a danmei novel before, which I know is inadvisable for this specific book because it's parodying conventions of the genre, but I've never seen one with a premise that caught my attention. I'm not very far into it, but I just wanted to know if there's a specific translation I should be reading. I'm reading the official translation, and the prose is very weird. I read a lot of translated classic lit, and I usually don't have this issue. I understand those books will have higher quality translations than SVSSS, but it feels like they put the book through Google Translate. I tried looking up people's opinions on the translation online, and it seems like most people think it's good, which is insane to me. I did notice a lot of people talking about fan translations. Are they any better? Alternatively, does the prose improve later in the series? If it helps, it's specifically the sentence structure bothering me. I want to enjoy this series, but I cannot fathom sitting through four 350-page-long books written in this style.
No.5289
>>5287I saw your reference to classic lit and was wondering if your gripe with the translation is perhaps the relatively short, almost conversational style of writing? If so it's not so much the fault of the translation but rather it's just the nature for many danmei webnovels where the prose is brief (a la JP LNs) and often reflects the flow of conversational Mandarin, especially for novels with modern settings (or modern MCs like in svsss). There are other novels (e.g. Mxtx's other stuff, Erha, Little Mushroom) that flow better in English because their writing is more descriptive. But yeah if the SVSSS premise doesn't strike a chord with you it might be a tough read.
Personally I like the SVSSS premise enough to tolerate the awkward translation. I also understand many danmei writers do it as a hobby with no professional editors so I don't expect much in terms of literary quality, though of course there are great writers out there. I'm not sure if there are any genres in particular that you're ineterested in. Perhaps some anons here could help with recommending other series to get into.
No.5291
>>5287Out of the MXTX novels that have been published in English, all of them are just fan translations that already existed. SVSSS is actually the best of the bunch, MDZS is literal MTL in places and absolute garbage. For SVSSS, there was another translation that I preferred but forgot the name, it can be found online though. You could try it and see if you like it better? But like other anon said, yeah, these are just the Chinese equivalent of LNs prose-wise.
No.5301
>>5289>the relatively short, almost conversational style of writing?That may be contributing. I haven't read any modern or "light" books in ~5 years, so it might be difficult for me to acclimate to the style.
>if the SVSSS premise doesn't strike a chord with you Sorry if my post wasn't clear! I was trying to explain why I'd never read a danmei novel before now. The premise of SVSSS DOES appeal to me, which is why I'm desperate to get past the writing style. It's not just the premise, but the tone and specific elements related to the characters. I’ll try to finish the first book, even if the prose bothers me.
>>5291>>5297I'll try to hunt it down and give it a shot!
>>5292I'm not far into the book, but I'll do my best. If it seems like I'm nitpicking, I'm not. I genuinely want to like this.
>To wit, Luo Binghe's current pitifulness directly correlated to the future ferocity of his wanton laughter as he ground his foot into your head.This sentence is the best example.
>Why were priceless herbs, spirit elixirs, and peerless beauties everywhere, like they didn't cost a cent? Why were the villains' speeches and poses as they dug their graves and got offed all exactly the same? The dozens of maidens barely glimpsed, all of whom agreed to enter the harem, what happened to them…? All right, skipping that last one for the moment- who had been the culprit behind the scores of atrocities? Exactly what was the purpose of the characters so hyped up for being awesome and without equal? Why did none of them make an appearance, even at the very end?!>Xiu Ya had been with Shen Qingqiu since he was young and newly known, and it could have been considered prestigious unto itself. The flash of its blade was snow white, luminous but not blinding, definitely a top-class armament.>How could someone who’d cursed “dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel” remember ancient content from the beginning of a serialized novel that had been running for four years and covered an in-narrative span of two hundred years? He’d spent twenty days binging the novel from start to finish, so he had clean forgotten that whump-filled arc of pointless abuse that covered Luo Binghe’s beginning at the sect, okay?!I don’t hate wordiness in general, but the book over-explains things. In the last sentence, we do not need to be told the whump-filled arc was filled with abuse; we could gather that because the narrator called it a whump-filled arc. Like, as opposed to the whump-filled arc that was NOT filled with abuse?? It's like saying "the darkness that was black" or "my mother who is related to me." It's the literary equivalent of “the poison. The poison for Kuzco, the poison chosen especially to kill Kuzco, Kuzco's poison. That poison?” I’m not just attacking this one sentence. This has happened multiple times.
Sorry if I didn’t explain this well; I’m not good at assessing the use of language in books. I could try to elaborate, but this post is long enough kek.
No.5305
>>5301I guess I just assumed Shen Yuan was being a petty bitch, because I never really noticed this before. Reading it isolated, it does sound strange.
No.5330
>>4960I'm reading it right now and I put it on my tablet with a big ass font while I walk on the treadmill at the gym.
No.5762
Has anyone here been keeping up with the new SVSSS extras? There's no translation for them yet, but Twitter is full of leaks and the content is all over the place.
The ideas all sound very fun in a fanfiction way, like Shen Yuan returning to the real world and introducing Binghe to his family— but it doesn't really feel like it fits for me, and I'm extremely wary of the retcons as well. So Binghe apparently knew all along that Shen Yuan was a transmigrator? What? I really hope that that leak was a mistranslation, because while reading the book, you can tell that the confusion of SQQ's hot and cold treatment of him really messed with his psychology in such a delicious way.
Wasn't his sudden foray into masochism a response to SQQ's harsh treatment of him, which after he endured turned to love? What about his attachment issues? The fact that he doesn't understand any of it is a major contributor to why he goes so far off the rails later on, and to hardwave it away and say he knew all along just cheapens his character and depth.
SVSSS has always been my all time favourite and of course I'm thrilled to have any new content at all, but given what's being said about it, I'm just so wary.
No.5764
>>5762>>5763I saw someone post link to TL of new extras on twitter but didn't save it, shouldn't be that hard to find.
No.5766
>>5765I'm still not a fan of having Luo Binghe know all along, but after reading all that… I kind of enjoyed it, lol. I take back most of my initial concerns.
A few scenes got a kek out of me, like Mobei Jun scaring the hell out of SQH by climbing out his computer monitor like the girl from the ring, but seeing Shen Yuan act like a redditor really made the extras for me.
> You can waste time gathering your little downvote brigade, or you can face me yourself. Can't even be a proper keyboard warrior? Then at least mop up after them.Peak SVSSS silliness.
No.5783
>>5782Isn't this common in translated media? Every culture has their own terms for kinship. Most translators keep them in to retain the flavour and cultural elements, and also to prevent awkward direct translations down the road.
No.5786
>>5782I don't mind this. I prefer it to localizations where I'm supposed to know about american culture.
No.5787
>>5783>Isn't this common in translated media?Which media lol.
>Most translators keep them in to retain the flavour and cultural elements, and also to prevent awkward direct translations down the road.Except these terms have perfect equivalents in English (jiejie = sister, gonggong = eunuch, shaoye = young master). 'The first wife' should be just 'Madam', since it's not a face-slapping palace drama and there are no second, third wives in that household (if the translator had bothered to read the whole story before starting work).
>>5786I can't treat seriously anybody who claims that pic-related is the preferable way to translate. They are most likely trolls.
No.5788
>>5787Yeah if there’s an obvious translated equivalent to a word, I’d rather they use that instead of some pinyin word I struggle to pronounce. The only time I don’t mind untranslated stuff is like Japanese honorifics. Although I kinda wish they localized some of the Chinese names in some of these novels. Like made them easier to read phonetically though, not giving them a whole new name.
No.5790
>>5787I know your pic is a joke but young people in my country unironically speak like that, every second word they say is in English. I used to do translation work myself and I genuinely prefer it this way, sorry.
No.5791
>>5787>Which mediaPrinted media like comics and literature, live action media like movies, serial tv? In East Asian media terms like senpai, ahjussi, ahjumma, gege, jiejie etc are commonly adopted in place of direct translations. In European lit, untranslated words (even if they have English substitutes) are common as well eg people have debated over Albert Camus' maman for decades. Translators are wary of flattening cultural contexts by defaulting to the closest equivalent in English language. There's a whole world of difference between borrowing native words/foreignisation, which are proper translation strategies, and weeb shit like doki fansubs.
Tbh the translator for the excerpt you posted is quite inconsistent (translating first wife but keeping shaoye as it is) so I don't really want to sound like I'm caping for them. But imo for gonggong, keeping it untranslated might be better since the more 'official' term for eunuch is taijian. Translating gonggong to 'eunuch' in this context is like referring to someone constantly with their full job title, which is awkward.
No.5792
>>5787>>5782keeping honorifics untranslated is just better. it’s what most people prefer anyways
No.5793
>>5790>young people in my country unironically speak like that, every second word they say is in EnglishWhen I have heard people do this in certain languages it personally drives me up the wall but that's just my perspective as a native English speaker. I don't get the logic behind which parts are randomly chosen and why. I guess it does just make me think of the weeb-speak but in reverse so I have that instinctual cringe reaction.
(My most hated anime character trope is foreign characters who use 'me' and 'you' as first/second person pronouns in Japanese, it's the most grating thing in the world, but I would find it equally grating if it was languages other than English)
No.5796
>>5787>>5788Agreed. When they translate from english to chinese or japanese, they don't call everyone Mr. or Mrs., they use the language's native honorifics because that's what makes sense to the readers.
I suppose I don't feel as strongly about japanese honorifics because I'm used to them, though. 'Young Master Ciel' is fine, but 'Mr. Kakashi' gives me hives.
>Like made them easier to read phonetically though, not giving them a whole new name.Chinese names are easier to read for native English speakers if they're romanized using wade-giles, but pinyin is the standard now (Wei Wuxian becomes Wei WuHsien, as an example, which looks insane if you're used to Xian, but its more obvious to an english speaker that X is 's', rather than 'X' like 'x-ray' (yes, I have heard fans that have only ever read the name pronounce it like 'Wu-ex-ian')).
No.5884
I was sad that MXTX didn't/couldn't write sex scenes in TGCF but after reading SVSSS I'm very glad she didn't. Why is she so obsessed with describing buttholes in as many ways as possible. I already knew people didn't like her sex scenes but I never expected it to be so hilariously bad.
No.5893
>>5884I always figure that quality can get lost in translation, especially with Danmei where companies will rush out as many English volumes as they can using amateur translators and minimal (if any) editing. We've been given a bad hand for sure, and it always makes me want to be a bit lenient on the authors since I know I'm not reading it as it's originally intended.
But when it comes to MXTXs sex scenes… theyre just so, so bad. And it's not as if she doesn't have some great ideas. That incense burner scene where Wei Wuxian is watching Lan Wangji's dirty dream of attacking his younger self? Shouting at him not to show any mercy? So damn hot. Too bad the actual execution is so… blah.
Does anyone know how the CN fandom feels about her smut? I know that access to it there is very hush hush, but it does exist and has been read.
No.5895
>>5893I haven't read MDZS but yeah, in SVSSS the scenes definitely had potential, but she just fucks it up by focusing on things nobody wants her to focus on. Like why is she telling me Shen Qingqiu almost throws up while Luo Binghe is fucking him? If she wants to emphasize how big his dick is, there are better ways.
No.5908
>>5896See, this was another scene that had great potential. It starts with LBH and SQQ reading rpf porn written about themselves, Binghe comparing it to their irl lives, and then taking inspiration. It's a great idea, but then out of everything she could have done with the scene… she chose the wine.
We should all be glad we were spared TGCF smut. How could any of us continue to think Hua Cheng is sexy when reading about how Xie Lian loudly squelches when he fists him. No thanks. I'll stick to fanfiction.
No.5924
>>5908Honestly it's not the first time I've had enemas in my bl so you know, I could've digged it. But she wrote the scene in such an unsexy way, it killed any potential it could've had.
Ngl I often think about how TGCF probably wouldn't be what it was if not for the censorship. There's always a silver lining I guess. She has gay moid tier tastes when it comes to sex scenes, it's awful.
No.6122
Are there any good danmei that aren't in the xianxia genre? I've read MXTX's works and like the style but the cultivation fantasy stuff is kind of confusing and boring to me.
No.6123
>>6122Saye, little mushroom, mo du, can ci pin.
That's just the few I know. I think novelupdates is a good place to look for new danmei novels, reviews and ratings are quite useful.
No.6277
>>6276Another reason to just suck it up and learn mandarin at this point…
No.6278
>>6276I've been seeing danmei fandom losing it over this but since it's a Japanese company and their documents seem to be talking about localizing manga, isn't it more likely they're planning to use AI on manga the parent company already owns? 7S insists they won't use it for translation, but we know Japanese publishers have been experimenting with AI typesetting (which has in 100% of cases needed replacing with human edits) and AI sound effect replacements. The "six month process" they mentioned in their outlines is largely proofing and typeset, and should already be faster with Japanese staff on call to check things.
Media Do's big concern is that somehow the US isn't shifting manga on digital platforms fast enough for their liking. They might actually be incensed by danmei selling better and let danmei take its sweet time with the human process.
No.6279
>>6276>>6278Last I heard, their AI LLM was only mean to be used on regular japanese books and not manga, and also not danmei since the LLM is only for japanese.
>>6277I started learning the second I finished my first danmei. I've already been through this rodeo with japanese. I fucking hate dealing with localization companies and fan translators. I can't fucking wait to git gud so I can ignore all of them like I do for manga.