Date it, make it shy, take its first kiss, and be included in the harem.
Speaking of the "Dating Wars" series, the first thing that many people jump out of may be the word "harem". The young man Gokawa Shidao, who has the power of sealing elves, redeems the beautiful girl elves in the face of danger and puts them in the harem.
Back then, it was known as "the fastest adaptation into animation in history" of the light novel, and after the first season of the animation was launched, it became popular all over the two-dimensional half of the sky with excellent characters such as Kurumi Tokizaki. As early as 2019, the sales of the original novel exceeded 6 million copies, and 5 seasons of anime, 1 theatrical version, manga and games ("Wars: The Return of the Elves", etc.) were released, and it became a homebound work for many people.
The Covenant Elves return
But at the same time, its controversy has always existed, to borrow the phrase of sticker 8: "buy illustrations and get toilet paper" and "animation saved this light novel". So, aside from the filter, what kind of work does "About War" belong to in the light novel?
1. Representative toilet paper
First of all, I want to talk about a violent theory here, "About War" is indeed toilet paper, but it is a very representative toilet paper, if you want to study the light novels and even the two-dimensional culture of an era, it is even an existence that cannot be bypassed, even if it is toilet paper, it is also "toilet paper that has the effect of connecting the previous and the next".
The discussion of the work certainly cannot ignore the background of his time. "Dating Wars" is a work in 2011, and the "This Light Novel is Really Powerful" of that year included "Catalogue of Magical Forbidden Books", "My Few Friends", "My Sister", "Sword Art Online", etc., which is considered a peak period of light novels, but it is not difficult to see that the light novel market at this moment has begun to move towards flattery. In the same year, the "IS" anime, nicknamed "The Wall of Masterpieces", also began to air, and writers who were more literary than the previous "Looking Up at the Night Sky of the Half Moon" began to prepare to run away with buckets.
(The "IS" series, which is jokingly called the wall of masterpieces, generally refers to works that are poorly written but have high sales)
Speaking of which,"The wall of masterpieces" "is" is also the beginning of the connection between the word toilet paper and light novels.,It's said that because the author has a good illustrator.,The character design is good.,Basically, people who buy books are going to get illustrations.,But the book itself is too badly written.,So there's a "buy illustrations and get toilet paper".。
In this context, the orange company, whose debut novel was "The Exorcism of the Sky", a lily novel, resolutely turned around and began to write the "Dating Wars" series.
Second, the character is right
"The War" can be said to be a work that integrates the house into the setting.,Like a kiss seal.、The spirit costume has disappeared.,If you think these settings are for welfare.,Then I can only say that you really guessed right.。 The color inserts of its multi-physical book simply have a picture of each elf's welfare, and it is said that this almost even attracted the Iron Fist.
As a work that follows the trend of flattering houses, the orange company can be said to have absorbed a lot of old-timers' experience in success (flattery) and gong (house). For example, in the 2011 "This light novel is really amazing", there was "My Sister", and the popular sister culture was in that year, and the orange company also equipped the protagonist with two sisters who could not do it. Like "Catalogue of Forbidden Books of Magic", when it became popular, it also talked about various European hardcore content, while "Dating Wars" used the Kabbalah 12 Mass as the basis for setting and so on.
Although there is a meaning of following the trend and stitching, I have to admit that the stitching is good, not embarrassing, and even looks good...
Yuan Ye was really attracted by this pink spirit suit
The representative of the following character is naturally "long hair in the night" (isn't the illustrator really colorblind?). The night sword god Shika, this girl's big stomach king swordsman, the setting of the former high cold and the later sand sculpture is undoubtedly a reference to Artoria of the "fate" series (even the ultimate is almost the same). It's not just the character design, but in terms of the plot, the multiple dating sequences of the Fate series in 2011's "Fantasy Carnival" were later adopted by the orange company, and even the overturned car was the same...
(Isn't this purple?) ）
3. Sell character design or plot?
If "Dating Wars" is just a follow-the-trend, it is naturally impossible to become a classic. The reason why it is so popular is largely because it answers the ultimate question of light novel creation: sell character or plot?
There is only one truth: character design or plot
Why are many heroines far less popular than female supporting actors? Like Rem and Emilia, Sister Cannon and Intix, the popularity of the former is much higher than that of the latter, but the authors still use the latter as the protagonist, the reason is that many authors' requirements for the heroine are "can pull the main line", after all, the ending of entering the Rem line is 486 bucket runaway. Funny .jpg
This outcome is not acceptable to everyone. Like "My Sister", the ending of the sister is written on the title, and in the end, because of the failure of the black cat, there are not a few endings in which the author is sent a blade. But in my personal opinion, according to the theme of the novel, it makes sense for my sister to win.
Fourth, beautiful girls are more important
A well-known two-dimensional scholar of tyranny, the prophet of the wrong path, once mentioned three stages in light novels in his theory of "Doomsday Clock": 1. Fa-rectification period: as long as you see a beautiful girl, you will be very happy; 2, like the law period: you have to be happy when you have contact with beautiful girls; 3. The end of the law period: beautiful girls must be loyal to themselves to be happy.
The secret of light novels is to increase the degree to which readers are recognized by all kinds of beautiful girls, so the author only needs to do two things well - make beautiful girls, so that beautiful girls like the male protagonist for various reasons.
Crazy Three Gaiden
What's the plot? It's not important.,As long as you can shape the character.,It's all for the sake of character service.,So don't have any half-incomprehensible subtitles like "A Shake of the Student Union" and "Haruhi Suzumiya's Runaway", it's simply "Stranger Shixiang", "Killer Crazy Three", etc., write the characters you want to create directly on the waist of the book, and it's convenient for the reader and the author.
The more beautiful girls have scenes, the more they cater to readers, and the more the light novels sell well, and "About War" is undoubtedly the best in the entire series, and more importantly, it creates a market practice - you give readers beautiful girls, and readers give you sales.
V. Finally
Now, for many toilet paper authors with average pen power, they have also learned to sell characters directly. For example, the selling point of the character is Russian, then the name is "Erin next door occasionally quietly spoils in Russian", the character is an ex-wife, then "The rejuvenated ex-wife is in my class", etc., you can guess the ending when you see the title, it's not too straightforward.
Erin-san
I have to say that the road that completely brought light novels into "selling characters" is the series of light novels such as "About War", and the huge impact they have caused is really deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In short, if you put aside the filter, "Dating Wars" is indeed toilet paper, even toilet paper that follows the trend, but it is also a hugely influential toilet paper, a classic toilet paper.
Text: Fox Mo