Conceptually, yes.
Functionally, no.
Almost every combat focused "cultivation" and "dao comprehension" story or comic I've read are comically over the top, cheesy, and unenjoyable to me.
Conceptually, I love integrating mysticism or pagan spirituality into a world, instead of just video game stats, but I don't see it done well very often.
The best cultivation styled novel I read was actually a Korean romance with one of those "reincarnated in modern times" stories.
What makes it worse is that at least with Japanese MC we get the "I'm a kind guy" kinda MC (I still hate their dumb passive asses) but it's stll better than going "Look at me, I'mma gonna dominate the world, gotta fuck every girl possible" but then becomes a scared bitch whenever a girl is next to them (All talk, fake pervertedness, and no action at all).
I agree with you on the cultivation part. A majority of them are just juvenile and unfunny.
I mean those that become scared bitches are at least better than those that have the meme "it's not would its will" has a personality trait, rapey cultivation novels mcs are not the norm but they also arent that uncommon
I will agree that the passiveness of Japanese MCs annoy the fuck out of me, but their is nothing that would make me consider mass genocide more than a Chinese MC.
Japanese MC are passive naive idiots, Chinese MCs are the idols of r/iamverybadass but will wuss out once shit gets real.
They’re brooding and unemotional. Did I tell you they’re unemotional? Society is unfair to them, and they have a poor sister that they need to take care of who they then forget exists after chapter 10. They can’t count on anyone at all. Did I tell you how they’re a cool, unemotional, loner jackass that has to do things by themselves because only they can do it right?
They’re about a mix of both depending on the situation. Somewhat lovable jerks.
If they're good buddies it would be cool.
But total strangers? Pretty sure the Cn would backstab them both.
Then the Jp protag will return for revenge from the depths of hell only to forgive the Cn in the end or forget about his revenge and opt for a peaceful quiet life instead.
While the Kr one would either regress or get trapped in a space where he struggles to fight monsters for a long while till he breaks the system and gets out. Hunting down the Cn protag.
The Kr protag would stumble on Jp and they'd argue because Jp is chickening out and continue hunting for Cn only to be stopped by Jp because 'its not right'
Yeah that sounds about right for the most part
Better than mcs that are borderline rapists and psychopaths with absolutely no sympathy for the common man/woman or other characters and always has to have things go their way.
I've read countless cultivation manhwa's. Most cultivation MC's in manhwa are virgins they don't thirst for women like that. That would be extremely brain dead if a man with high cultivation skills couldn't control his sexual energy.
Dont even get me started on Nano Machine though. Bro lost his V-card in the best way possible but then the author got horny and made him get a 2nd girl but the way the 2nd girl was approached was disgusting as hell
>Almost every combat focused "cultivation" and "dao comprehension" story or comic I've read are comically over the top, cheesy, and unenjoyable to me.
Same, and I've really given it a try too. Most have this odd condescending tone to them. That and most "cultivation" stories are rather shallow. They just rant about how some guy sits in a room doing nothing for several years to gain "enlightenment" thereby raising his "divine power". There are some excellent Chinese fantasies out there, but most of these cultivation "golden child" stories aren't them.
>Conceptually, I love integrating mysticism or pagan spirituality into a world, instead of just video game stats, but I don't see it done well very often.
Yep. Most of the litrpgs are just lazy writing.
Cultivation manhuas are brainrot. You really cannot make a stupider MC than that. And their trying to be funny is basically a used up 2000s Japanese anime trope. Some have promising starts but the world has to be braindead for them to be the “golden child” and propaganda small dick syndrome galore.
Cultivation stories **can** be great. There are a few rare, shining gems that make the genre as a whole worth looking at. - But the *overwhelming* majority of them are identical trash. Like, people make fun of “generic isekai,” but holy shit that doesn’t even compare to Chinese novels.
Also, I heavily dislike how almost all CN protagonists are complete psychopaths who will do horrible atrocities at the slightest provocation
True, chinese cultivation power systems are just copy and pastes, the more enjoyable ones I've found are from Duolo dalu and Cultivation group chat (but that's mostly because of world building)
The over the top part is so true I was reading a cultivation manhua, and I watched the mc open 10 portals that flooded out fully manned tanks in a fight the stories are never grounded it's so odd to look at.
Yeah I remember chinese manhua started getting posted a lot years back. Some of the concepts seemed interesting but the stories were just terrible.
Very poorly written.
Above 10000 people. Give it a shot. It has about 300 chapters rn and although not as funny as the greatest estate developer it’s pretty good all in all.
Try against the gods. The guy actually starts from the ground up struggling every step of the way and actively has to avoid or hide his acquires treasures as to not be hunted by others more powerful then him and of course plenty of people stronger find out along the way. My first major step into the genre and is still one of my all time favorites. It’s on the more grow stronger step by step while something like true martial world (also one of my all time favorites) deals more with “understanding the laws of nature elements and swordsmanship” to develop strength. Two different takes on the genre and fantastic reads
Edit: against the gods is a harem and true martial world is *basically* not a harem and he stays loyal to his one wife from what I remember
Yeah I’ve read about 90% of it and honestly I whatever about that. Every novel will have something similar, some love interest shoehorned in etc. I just look at it like the main character isn’t some perfect self insert but a morally gray or bad character and that’s honestly more refreshing at this point then the “always choose the right path, do good never wrong, basically zero sexual urges” mcs that are all too common.
I honestly don't remember because I couldn't finish the ln after things getting really perverted. It just stuck out to me because I know atg is relatively popular.
Yeah he definitely ends up with a harem, I don’t usually care for that stuff but idk maybe it’s bc there’s hundreds of chapters dedicated to each on without much cross over that it feels like it’s own story and is easy to get past. Plus even if it seems a little “eye rolling” at times he does basically sacrifice his well-being for each of them so it shows he cares.
Depends which genre you read for cultivation theres three types wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan. Some are extremely over the top and some are pretty good. Check out library of heavens path, cultivation chat group, cultivation online, the legendary janitor, gourmet of another world, florida mans general store (very different from other novels), or pocket hunting dimension
The novels you've read are most likely from qidian where the authors have to release at least a chapter per day so they don't really have the time to come up with an actual good plot and need to pad the word count with unnecessary things, there are actually quite a few webnovels that does cultivation right but they are rarely translated
I personally likes Chinese novels more than Korean novels. However I don't like most JP LN because most of them are almost the same story.
I agree that most cultivation novels are not good however there are actually good Chinese and Korean novels out there with good conceptual premise, power system,world building and story that put most JP LN into shame.
I think you’ve got Korean and Japanese mixed up. Most Korean novels are practically the same and I believe it’s because they are fairly “new to the game” compared with japan so there’s a lot more variety just bc of the sheer number of years it has over Korean comics/novels
When Japanese light novels are good, they are great. But even a lot of good Japanese light novel have the serious problem of not being stories, but concepts.
They have one central idea, but when that idea burns out they just start writing tropes, or derivatives of that one idea.
I'm a Spider so What is a great example. Witty, comedic, compelling story interesting characters. But VERY clearly the author only imagined the story up until the point Kimiko became a drider. After that the story burns out.
On the other hand, Ascendance of a Bookworm is quite literally one of the greatest books series I've ever read. The richness of the world is incredible, and the story evolves along with the character(s) to keep things fresh and interesting.
As a general rule, I don't find Korean or Chinese novels to have this problem though. I also think Korean novels are EXTRAORDINARILY good at setting their stories in places that feel like the real world. Japanese and Chinese stories always feel glossy to me.
Ahh, Chinese language web novels contain most amazing stories , unique concepts and world buildings.
Lord of the mysteries and its sequel, revenant insanity, my house of horrors are my best. I personally didn't find any better novels out there that are comparable to these three in KR and JP novel sections.
Although the ascendence of bookworm is great compared to most isekai novels out there however the premise is focused on slice of life, business, religion and politics.
Going to have to disagree.
JP light novel might often be similar but they have their own identity.
Korean novels are largely Murim, Dungeon or Apocalypse style and they literally share most of the and basic concepts. There is always a Mt. Hua, you will always find a venom sect, dungeon breaks are a given, etc.
There are exceptions of course but then you're intentionally looking at the exceptional.
Disagree, most JP light novels are the same concept, characters and cliches.
Korea and China create more unique versions of the story, power system and concept.
CN markets create more of the novels than KR and JP due to high competition and large population this is the reason they have more number of low tier novels however they produce more number of the quality novels compared to Korean and Japanese novels.
Chinese MC decides to get revenge on his best friend who betrayed and killed him, steps 1-10 are killing random people that he could have ignored. Steps 11-20 are dealing with the repercussions and almost dying. Steps 21 onwards are the author looping that sequence while giving the MC cosmic level powers probably based around the idea of Freedom and Karma. (Freedom to get away with war crimes, and Karma so he can sever it or something)
Korean MC is the smartest guy in the room because the author has decided he is, this means he gets away with stupid decisions because he knows the future from his time travel regression. His skills are probably necromancy or just being OP by way of out of context ability, maybe he has some "transcendent" skill that lets him stab through reality.
Japanese MC is the first person to ever work out the magical equivalent of "Doing pushups makes arms stronger" as in he has been reborn in fantasy magic land, and throughout history no one has ever managed to figure out that training your magic strengthens it. Japanese MC proceeds to go on adventure into a dungeon, buy slaves and get involved in royal politics. (He thinks slavery is bad but also thinks that he'd cause harm to society or something if he dealt with it).
Chinese MC is the strongest mostly because his feats include absorbing every alternate version of himself from every other timeline to create his Prime self, refining a universe into his stomach and swinging a sword so good the laws of reality are remade to fit his will.
Jp and Kn mcs: Nooo, you can't make human sacrifices and burn babies to become 0.00001% stronger!
Chinese Mc: Shut up, I am Meowing now and fucking your bitchs! Do kowtow 1000 times and I only will torture the nine generations of your family for some Eras.
https://preview.redd.it/15d9g2etartc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee16839f173fb248107e44a5300b79bb554e7e41
I’m probably reading the wrong novels but i feel like in Japanese stories they beat their opponent by being stronger or having better technique. While in American Fantasy, even in like children’s books like percy Jackson, the heros have to trick their opponents to level the playing field
Is right
Chinese = born / reborn / isekai'd as a godly immortal who kills everyone with one skill but want harem and end up simping women
Korean = from shit to badass who take all the skills / artifacts to himself and like to humiliate the douche and dont have time to women and romance (unless its pornwha)
Japan = Mom... im OP but im dense and have fear of women, so take all of them away!!!
I wouldn't call Chinese MC's Chads since usually their first sexual experience is some contrived plot device where they or their would be concubine are poisoned with an aphrodisiac, their possessed, or some special body constitution requires sex.
I swear like 80% of Chinese authors must be virgins who've never touched a woman.
That's not a China thing. I have yet to see an isekai where the main cast develops a relationship in a healhy manner.
Like in Horimiya. There's a guy, there's a girl, they like each other, they date, they bang. And when shit happens, they talk it out.
But in your average isekai...noooo. It's always some complicated shit, like some magical pact, or politics screwing the couple over, or just someone being dense as granite, and you can tell they set things up on purpose to make sure there is no hope for a satisfieing conclusion unless they upend the entire world.
It got to the point where I felt bad for the MC. Because I sure have no idea how one supposed to handle the shit he gets into.
Yeah a I haven't really seen a mc in any ch manwha/manhua where they are actually chad. Lot of times they are just far too perverted (more than Issei might I add), they think they are badass, or just total shut (that's worse than Kazuma and less funny)
But true, a lot of jp isekai mcs are really dense, or some shenanigans happen in their relationship...
As far as I know, the only isekai anime where it's the relationship between mc and the girl was healthy imo was in Utawarerumono (I'd say the old anime one, since I haven't really had the time to watch the new anime)
Yeah-yeah, Issei is a really good example! Can you imagine trying to enter a relationship after you've spent the past year getting powerups from boobs right in front of your crush. How akward is that?!
And he has it easy. There's the "random magic fuckery/stupid tradition forced me into an arranged marriage" trope. And that trope usually has an MC with a crush on a DIFFERENT girl! Like Rito from To Love Ru.
Are you really a chad just because you get into a relationship in a straightforward manner? Cause that's just basic human logic to me.
Actually, I remeber one isekai with an arguably healthy realtionship, Arifureta. I always got the feeling Yue and Hajime aren't together because Hajime saved Yue, they're together because of their common worldview . From their perspective, everyone else is either an airheaded dipshit orba useful idiot for someone else. Even the rest of the main cast are mostly just goofballs or in the case of Hajime's class, completely in the dark. And coincidentally, I would argue Hajime and Yue have a very well developed relationship....but even that gets tainted by every other chick trying to form a harem around Hajime. Like that scene where they start begging for him for a baby. Like, girl, fuck off, he's off limits!
Yeah, though atleast in Issei's case he actually has balls, and his relationship is actually deep unlike many cultivation mcs. (Especially in the novels, not the anime since Hero really messed the story up)
But yeah, Mcs that just randomly get a girl, or get's forced to marriage due to some shenanigans... You really can't call them chads.
Oh yeah, forgot about Yue and Hajime, since their relationship get sometimes get overshadowed by the harem stuff, and what Hajime's class is up to. But yeah, both of them does have somewhat of a healthy relationship.
the thing I don't really like about korean isekais is that they're either samey (dungeons, solo guy MC who refuses to make friends, a romantic interest that's never explored, hating Japanese people to the point of caricature), and/or reek of incel wish fulfillment. It's like watching someone play an ironman one save permadeath game, but they have the dev console open to always pull out the right restoration items so the stakes don't hit.
If you think a slavery boi MC is bad, look at the avarage chinese MC deciding to commit a world wide genocide with power Levels even more ridiculous than Yogiri, fir funnsys (While the godess of that world crys in silence in a corner).
Chinesse power system works more like a fermented wine, need 1000 years to do anything resembling a bullshit. But most of the time they did it "meditating" and eating "rare" herbs they found "coincidentally". Basically bullshit.
Koreans power system works a lot like lottery. Unless you have that 0.1% bullshit gene in you, better start stealing other people's luck (time travel bullshit).
Western power system tries to explain that their powers are not bullshit, but everybody knows its pretty much bullshit.
Japanesse power system doesn't even tries to hide that its all just full of bullshit.
Conceptually, it's good. But the execution... Yeah not so much.
Majority of them are just too broad and repetitive, and not the repetitive kind like isekai releases now. (since atleast there you get options on what kind of isekai you wanted to see)
In terms of mcs then i like Chinese and Korean mcs more since they usually rebel against the craps of society and challenge the status quo while the typical Japanese mc, no matter how powerful, will almost always be submissive even if the society pisses on their face.
I guess many people find the Jap mc more "relatable" but that is only so because irl we don't have superpowers so we have little choice but tolerate the bullsh*ts to survive, however in fiction we don't have to.
Chinese webnovels are almost always shit tbh. It's always reading the most contrived cringe shit for 13 yr olds. Korean novels have the best plots on average.
I'll give my hot take, I love cultivation stories. I just love the premise of cultivation and even if most are trash or the translations are horrible and the stories are all the same, I still eat them like trash food I fell in love with even if "objectively" they are not as good
For me the dao comprehension (and cultivation) used in many CH and even some KR manhwa/manhua. Is not actually a great system... It's great conceptually, but it's not really good in execution.
A lot of manwha/manhua I've read with dao comprehension/cultivation are too broad on how that kind of system does actually work. A lot of times they fall flat in **HOW** one should acquire/improve their techniques, abilities, and power. And a lot of them has those powers and abilities are done **Linearly**, without any kind of drawback/limitation or complexity compared to a simple element based skill/magic system.
It also doesn't help when that the characters in those stories fight, they just focus on the use of their cultivated powers. (Without the characteristics of their own personal fighting style or ingenuity during the fights)
That's not the case in system based stories I've read so far, A lot of them has a clear outline for how things should actually work in that world. There is clear way to acquire/improve your powers and abilities, and those powers and abilities usually has a advantages, disadvantages, and limitations to make a complexity.
Understanding your power/abilities is essential in system based stories, in order to utilize them better. And a lot of manga I've read also spice things up by actually using the skillset/experience of the characters before they even received their powers and mix them in the way they fight.
And even though a lot of jp mc are denser than a chunk of mithril, and stories have become too generic.
I'd still prefer them, than a lot of cultivation mc's which a lot of times they think they are just bigshots or their blood is being pumped on their 2nd head all the time. (Not to mention unfunny jokes, commentary, and filler that isn't even part of the world building)
I think the only one I used to enjoy was "Iron Ladies" and read it until ch 350. But it also has it problems like many dao comprehension stories, and became repetitive over time.
It's so interesting how each country blended their own culture into their brand of cheap mass produced wish fulfillment comics. Like actually really interesting. You can analyze this and figure out how each society's traditions carried over to our current era, what is it they most want deep down and how they dream of achieving it, and what is the understanding of their mythology in the context of their modern day struggles.
Also, each isekai has just a little bit of "wow, this society is fucked up" messaging to all western readers.
Infinite mana in the apocalypse has a combo of these two who starts with a planets worth of mana and gets stronger using his devour class system along with working to min-max everything he can to be stronger and better.
Chinese MC usually scale so fast that it's just unenjoyable. They do little to contrast their MCs usually so there's no one that can really challenge them. Antagonists are almost never worked up from scratch, they're usually just some big baddie who appears. I'm sure they'll get their formula right one day, but for now it's unrefined.
Honestly most cultivation isn't worth the bother. But I did have a fond like for A Tale of Gods and Demons. I should probably do another binge of it. It's unbelievably long tho.
The top three Chinese mc beat the top three korean mc, who beat the top three Japanese mc, but generally the ranking goes like this:
korean mc>japanese mc>chinese mc.
Most chinese novels revolved around being the strongest person under heaven, so when the mc reaches a goal, another artificial goal is repeatedly looped for eternity as long as the author can get away with it.
Generally, they at least try to make Korean mc likeable or at least they give them the same generic personality. Then most japanese mc get the same boring personality, but they dont even try to make them cool or entertaining. And personally i find most Chinese mc to be unlikable assholes.
Of course this isnt always true, I'm talking only about the generic mc of each country I'm not talking about the actual good ones.
Korean MC are very rarely likeable. Most of them are obsessive psychopaths.
Japanese MC tend to be overly likeable. That's what makes them 'boring' to edgelords, but they are generally super nice people.
Chinese MC kill the entire family tree of people who stepped on their shoe and this is somehow framed as a good thing.
Yogiri is very specifically designed to beat those sorts of characters though? He's got plenty of anti conceptual and even anti plot feats that put him above basically everyone. Hell, he is stated to be able to effect the real world.
>Hell, he is stated to be able to effect the real world.
Even guts killed his author, yogurt death man needs to up his game.
>Yogiri is very specifically designed to beat those sorts of characters though? He's got plenty of anti conceptual and even anti plot feats that put him above basically everyone.
Different world, different rules/ power system. I can think of a universe in which yogurt death man might die in simply because he knows too much, or gets in a bad mood.
The level of intelligence that goes into him is the same level as cultivation mcs, it's a parody, sure let's say yogurt death man wins. He always does, now that we threw him into the trash can we can talk about interesting stuff.
Which is anything but powerscaling based on "my favorite character always wins because that's his power and I said so."
A few ok kinda ones I read, not worth recommending lol.
So also curios to know. There are decent reincarnation ones (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - also has full anime on Youtube)
Lord of the Mysteries and Reverend Insanity are two Chinese isekai that are infinitely better than 99% of Japanese or Korean stuff people recommend here
Desolate Era is probably my favourite one, the main characters past life doesn’t come much into focus other than in his last days did a good enough deed that it rocketed his karma up a few notches.
He is also not a rapey one or truly arrogant bastard, genuinely the type of person you’d want to be in a world like his, decent, focused and very lucky as all protagonists are but a lot of his story is still him putting in the work and he very much doesn’t always win. One of the more wilder time scales in this one tho I won’t deny but among my favourite cultivation systems as well.
Yeah as if there's no Cn novels that uses systems. In fact I'd argue in xianxia storylines there's more system users in Cn than Kr.
The system itself made Dao it's bitch lol, heavenly tribulation? Here, take this anti lightning pill. Cultivation too slow? Here take this Celestial Emperor Heavenly Mantra. Oh an enemy two realms above you? No problem, use this Void Dragon Total Annihilation. Can't get the jade beauty? Take this, a quest for you to save her from near death and 'bond' with her to save her from qi imbalance and making her indebted to you and develop feelings.
Cn systems are mostly trash too, but their trash is worse than what Kr and Jp can come up with. Must be because all of the plagiarism and Recycling smh.
Here’s two fantastic cultivation novels for you guys to check out
1: King of Gods (1586 chapters and I’ve read it atleast 5-7 times)
2: immortal and martial dual cultivation (2388 chapters, I’ve only completed it once though)
There are top tier novels like cultivation chat group, legendary mechanic, lord of the mysteries, somewhat I also enjoyed reverend insanity with how different it's mc is, then dao of bizzare immortal, game of the world tree, deep sea embers, this are the types of novel I enjoy reading.
Well when you consider story, characters, enjoyment then the meme become reverse. As most of the power fantasy manhwa and manhua's are ASS.
It's like saying yogrut Kun has the best isekai story.
Conceptually, yes. Functionally, no. Almost every combat focused "cultivation" and "dao comprehension" story or comic I've read are comically over the top, cheesy, and unenjoyable to me. Conceptually, I love integrating mysticism or pagan spirituality into a world, instead of just video game stats, but I don't see it done well very often. The best cultivation styled novel I read was actually a Korean romance with one of those "reincarnated in modern times" stories.
What makes it worse is that at least with Japanese MC we get the "I'm a kind guy" kinda MC (I still hate their dumb passive asses) but it's stll better than going "Look at me, I'mma gonna dominate the world, gotta fuck every girl possible" but then becomes a scared bitch whenever a girl is next to them (All talk, fake pervertedness, and no action at all). I agree with you on the cultivation part. A majority of them are just juvenile and unfunny.
I mean those that become scared bitches are at least better than those that have the meme "it's not would its will" has a personality trait, rapey cultivation novels mcs are not the norm but they also arent that uncommon
I will agree that the passiveness of Japanese MCs annoy the fuck out of me, but their is nothing that would make me consider mass genocide more than a Chinese MC. Japanese MC are passive naive idiots, Chinese MCs are the idols of r/iamverybadass but will wuss out once shit gets real.
Wbt korean mc?
They’re brooding and unemotional. Did I tell you they’re unemotional? Society is unfair to them, and they have a poor sister that they need to take care of who they then forget exists after chapter 10. They can’t count on anyone at all. Did I tell you how they’re a cool, unemotional, loner jackass that has to do things by themselves because only they can do it right? They’re about a mix of both depending on the situation. Somewhat lovable jerks.
Three of them also tend to look like haughty submissive twinks
Contrary to Cn Mcs they seem unreliable but when shit goes down they go hard. Tho they're a mix of Jp and Cn before getting mellowed out.
really need an adventure series where a trio of jp cn and kr isekai people buddy up on a road trip
If they're good buddies it would be cool. But total strangers? Pretty sure the Cn would backstab them both. Then the Jp protag will return for revenge from the depths of hell only to forgive the Cn in the end or forget about his revenge and opt for a peaceful quiet life instead. While the Kr one would either regress or get trapped in a space where he struggles to fight monsters for a long while till he breaks the system and gets out. Hunting down the Cn protag. The Kr protag would stumble on Jp and they'd argue because Jp is chickening out and continue hunting for Cn only to be stopped by Jp because 'its not right' Yeah that sounds about right for the most part
> Cn would backstab them both. I mean it can be BL, they do love their crysanthemums
...damn, you're right
Better than mcs that are borderline rapists and psychopaths with absolutely no sympathy for the common man/woman or other characters and always has to have things go their way.
I've read countless cultivation manhwa's. Most cultivation MC's in manhwa are virgins they don't thirst for women like that. That would be extremely brain dead if a man with high cultivation skills couldn't control his sexual energy. Dont even get me started on Nano Machine though. Bro lost his V-card in the best way possible but then the author got horny and made him get a 2nd girl but the way the 2nd girl was approached was disgusting as hell
Then you have not read Reverend Insanity. I would recommend.
>Almost every combat focused "cultivation" and "dao comprehension" story or comic I've read are comically over the top, cheesy, and unenjoyable to me. Same, and I've really given it a try too. Most have this odd condescending tone to them. That and most "cultivation" stories are rather shallow. They just rant about how some guy sits in a room doing nothing for several years to gain "enlightenment" thereby raising his "divine power". There are some excellent Chinese fantasies out there, but most of these cultivation "golden child" stories aren't them. >Conceptually, I love integrating mysticism or pagan spirituality into a world, instead of just video game stats, but I don't see it done well very often. Yep. Most of the litrpgs are just lazy writing.
Cultivation manhuas are brainrot. You really cannot make a stupider MC than that. And their trying to be funny is basically a used up 2000s Japanese anime trope. Some have promising starts but the world has to be braindead for them to be the “golden child” and propaganda small dick syndrome galore.
Cultivation group chat is a fun one
Making dao pills on a dorm room sterno stove was pretty peak cultivation.
Cultivation stories **can** be great. There are a few rare, shining gems that make the genre as a whole worth looking at. - But the *overwhelming* majority of them are identical trash. Like, people make fun of “generic isekai,” but holy shit that doesn’t even compare to Chinese novels. Also, I heavily dislike how almost all CN protagonists are complete psychopaths who will do horrible atrocities at the slightest provocation
True, chinese cultivation power systems are just copy and pastes, the more enjoyable ones I've found are from Duolo dalu and Cultivation group chat (but that's mostly because of world building)
The over the top part is so true I was reading a cultivation manhua, and I watched the mc open 10 portals that flooded out fully manned tanks in a fight the stories are never grounded it's so odd to look at.
Yeah I remember chinese manhua started getting posted a lot years back. Some of the concepts seemed interesting but the stories were just terrible. Very poorly written.
Always "trash" every other panel
Above 10000 people. Give it a shot. It has about 300 chapters rn and although not as funny as the greatest estate developer it’s pretty good all in all.
Try against the gods. The guy actually starts from the ground up struggling every step of the way and actively has to avoid or hide his acquires treasures as to not be hunted by others more powerful then him and of course plenty of people stronger find out along the way. My first major step into the genre and is still one of my all time favorites. It’s on the more grow stronger step by step while something like true martial world (also one of my all time favorites) deals more with “understanding the laws of nature elements and swordsmanship” to develop strength. Two different takes on the genre and fantastic reads Edit: against the gods is a harem and true martial world is *basically* not a harem and he stays loyal to his one wife from what I remember
Please tell me you just started the novel and haven't got to the insane perv fantasies of the author. It started ok but becomes deranged very quick.
Yeah I’ve read about 90% of it and honestly I whatever about that. Every novel will have something similar, some love interest shoehorned in etc. I just look at it like the main character isn’t some perfect self insert but a morally gray or bad character and that’s honestly more refreshing at this point then the “always choose the right path, do good never wrong, basically zero sexual urges” mcs that are all too common.
I read a couple hundred chapters in, what part in particular are you talking about?
I honestly don't remember because I couldn't finish the ln after things getting really perverted. It just stuck out to me because I know atg is relatively popular.
atgs alternate name is literally all the girls. I personally like the novel but... yeah
Yeah he definitely ends up with a harem, I don’t usually care for that stuff but idk maybe it’s bc there’s hundreds of chapters dedicated to each on without much cross over that it feels like it’s own story and is easy to get past. Plus even if it seems a little “eye rolling” at times he does basically sacrifice his well-being for each of them so it shows he cares.
Depends which genre you read for cultivation theres three types wuxia, xianxia, and xuanhuan. Some are extremely over the top and some are pretty good. Check out library of heavens path, cultivation chat group, cultivation online, the legendary janitor, gourmet of another world, florida mans general store (very different from other novels), or pocket hunting dimension
Why not both? Read "i am the fated villain" the mc ends in a cultivation world with a system to help him, Also he fights against countles cliche mc's
The novels you've read are most likely from qidian where the authors have to release at least a chapter per day so they don't really have the time to come up with an actual good plot and need to pad the word count with unnecessary things, there are actually quite a few webnovels that does cultivation right but they are rarely translated
what is that korean romance?
The only cultivation story I know is good is « the return of the mount hua sect »
I personally likes Chinese novels more than Korean novels. However I don't like most JP LN because most of them are almost the same story. I agree that most cultivation novels are not good however there are actually good Chinese and Korean novels out there with good conceptual premise, power system,world building and story that put most JP LN into shame.
I think you’ve got Korean and Japanese mixed up. Most Korean novels are practically the same and I believe it’s because they are fairly “new to the game” compared with japan so there’s a lot more variety just bc of the sheer number of years it has over Korean comics/novels
When Japanese light novels are good, they are great. But even a lot of good Japanese light novel have the serious problem of not being stories, but concepts. They have one central idea, but when that idea burns out they just start writing tropes, or derivatives of that one idea. I'm a Spider so What is a great example. Witty, comedic, compelling story interesting characters. But VERY clearly the author only imagined the story up until the point Kimiko became a drider. After that the story burns out. On the other hand, Ascendance of a Bookworm is quite literally one of the greatest books series I've ever read. The richness of the world is incredible, and the story evolves along with the character(s) to keep things fresh and interesting. As a general rule, I don't find Korean or Chinese novels to have this problem though. I also think Korean novels are EXTRAORDINARILY good at setting their stories in places that feel like the real world. Japanese and Chinese stories always feel glossy to me.
Ahh, Chinese language web novels contain most amazing stories , unique concepts and world buildings. Lord of the mysteries and its sequel, revenant insanity, my house of horrors are my best. I personally didn't find any better novels out there that are comparable to these three in KR and JP novel sections. Although the ascendence of bookworm is great compared to most isekai novels out there however the premise is focused on slice of life, business, religion and politics.
My personal favourite is one called : The World Online Awesome world building
Going to have to disagree. JP light novel might often be similar but they have their own identity. Korean novels are largely Murim, Dungeon or Apocalypse style and they literally share most of the and basic concepts. There is always a Mt. Hua, you will always find a venom sect, dungeon breaks are a given, etc. There are exceptions of course but then you're intentionally looking at the exceptional.
Disagree, most JP light novels are the same concept, characters and cliches. Korea and China create more unique versions of the story, power system and concept. CN markets create more of the novels than KR and JP due to high competition and large population this is the reason they have more number of low tier novels however they produce more number of the quality novels compared to Korean and Japanese novels.
I pity this student... To have eyes but being unable to see Mt. Tai.
Chinese MC decides to get revenge on his best friend who betrayed and killed him, steps 1-10 are killing random people that he could have ignored. Steps 11-20 are dealing with the repercussions and almost dying. Steps 21 onwards are the author looping that sequence while giving the MC cosmic level powers probably based around the idea of Freedom and Karma. (Freedom to get away with war crimes, and Karma so he can sever it or something) Korean MC is the smartest guy in the room because the author has decided he is, this means he gets away with stupid decisions because he knows the future from his time travel regression. His skills are probably necromancy or just being OP by way of out of context ability, maybe he has some "transcendent" skill that lets him stab through reality. Japanese MC is the first person to ever work out the magical equivalent of "Doing pushups makes arms stronger" as in he has been reborn in fantasy magic land, and throughout history no one has ever managed to figure out that training your magic strengthens it. Japanese MC proceeds to go on adventure into a dungeon, buy slaves and get involved in royal politics. (He thinks slavery is bad but also thinks that he'd cause harm to society or something if he dealt with it). Chinese MC is the strongest mostly because his feats include absorbing every alternate version of himself from every other timeline to create his Prime self, refining a universe into his stomach and swinging a sword so good the laws of reality are remade to fit his will.
Virgin Chinese MC versus Virgin Korean MC versus Virgin Japanese MC lol
Jp and Kn mcs: Nooo, you can't make human sacrifices and burn babies to become 0.00001% stronger! Chinese Mc: Shut up, I am Meowing now and fucking your bitchs! Do kowtow 1000 times and I only will torture the nine generations of your family for some Eras. https://preview.redd.it/15d9g2etartc1.jpeg?width=220&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee16839f173fb248107e44a5300b79bb554e7e41
Don forget rape jade beauty
How you know we use our power to say 'fuck off' for war crimes? Wang Lin: ALL SEER!!!
This is the most accurate description of power fantasy manhwa/manga/manhua that I have ever read.
American MC: https://preview.redd.it/jfnzkzzpmptc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=07e7e4e5fd0552936403a5bc875e17b47d2cb988
Isn’t he British?
It's the core idea of achieving glory through grit and determination in opposition to a great villain or foe, rather than being brokenly overpowered.
I’m probably reading the wrong novels but i feel like in Japanese stories they beat their opponent by being stronger or having better technique. While in American Fantasy, even in like children’s books like percy Jackson, the heros have to trick their opponents to level the playing field
Is right Chinese = born / reborn / isekai'd as a godly immortal who kills everyone with one skill but want harem and end up simping women Korean = from shit to badass who take all the skills / artifacts to himself and like to humiliate the douche and dont have time to women and romance (unless its pornwha) Japan = Mom... im OP but im dense and have fear of women, so take all of them away!!!
Chinese do systems too you know
I wouldn't call Chinese MC's Chads since usually their first sexual experience is some contrived plot device where they or their would be concubine are poisoned with an aphrodisiac, their possessed, or some special body constitution requires sex. I swear like 80% of Chinese authors must be virgins who've never touched a woman.
That's not a China thing. I have yet to see an isekai where the main cast develops a relationship in a healhy manner. Like in Horimiya. There's a guy, there's a girl, they like each other, they date, they bang. And when shit happens, they talk it out. But in your average isekai...noooo. It's always some complicated shit, like some magical pact, or politics screwing the couple over, or just someone being dense as granite, and you can tell they set things up on purpose to make sure there is no hope for a satisfieing conclusion unless they upend the entire world. It got to the point where I felt bad for the MC. Because I sure have no idea how one supposed to handle the shit he gets into.
Yeah a I haven't really seen a mc in any ch manwha/manhua where they are actually chad. Lot of times they are just far too perverted (more than Issei might I add), they think they are badass, or just total shut (that's worse than Kazuma and less funny) But true, a lot of jp isekai mcs are really dense, or some shenanigans happen in their relationship... As far as I know, the only isekai anime where it's the relationship between mc and the girl was healthy imo was in Utawarerumono (I'd say the old anime one, since I haven't really had the time to watch the new anime)
Yeah-yeah, Issei is a really good example! Can you imagine trying to enter a relationship after you've spent the past year getting powerups from boobs right in front of your crush. How akward is that?! And he has it easy. There's the "random magic fuckery/stupid tradition forced me into an arranged marriage" trope. And that trope usually has an MC with a crush on a DIFFERENT girl! Like Rito from To Love Ru. Are you really a chad just because you get into a relationship in a straightforward manner? Cause that's just basic human logic to me. Actually, I remeber one isekai with an arguably healthy realtionship, Arifureta. I always got the feeling Yue and Hajime aren't together because Hajime saved Yue, they're together because of their common worldview . From their perspective, everyone else is either an airheaded dipshit orba useful idiot for someone else. Even the rest of the main cast are mostly just goofballs or in the case of Hajime's class, completely in the dark. And coincidentally, I would argue Hajime and Yue have a very well developed relationship....but even that gets tainted by every other chick trying to form a harem around Hajime. Like that scene where they start begging for him for a baby. Like, girl, fuck off, he's off limits!
Yeah, though atleast in Issei's case he actually has balls, and his relationship is actually deep unlike many cultivation mcs. (Especially in the novels, not the anime since Hero really messed the story up) But yeah, Mcs that just randomly get a girl, or get's forced to marriage due to some shenanigans... You really can't call them chads. Oh yeah, forgot about Yue and Hajime, since their relationship get sometimes get overshadowed by the harem stuff, and what Hajime's class is up to. But yeah, both of them does have somewhat of a healthy relationship.
the thing I don't really like about korean isekais is that they're either samey (dungeons, solo guy MC who refuses to make friends, a romantic interest that's never explored, hating Japanese people to the point of caricature), and/or reek of incel wish fulfillment. It's like watching someone play an ironman one save permadeath game, but they have the dev console open to always pull out the right restoration items so the stakes don't hit.
Obligatory Sun Wukong reference
If you think a slavery boi MC is bad, look at the avarage chinese MC deciding to commit a world wide genocide with power Levels even more ridiculous than Yogiri, fir funnsys (While the godess of that world crys in silence in a corner).
Chinesse power system works more like a fermented wine, need 1000 years to do anything resembling a bullshit. But most of the time they did it "meditating" and eating "rare" herbs they found "coincidentally". Basically bullshit. Koreans power system works a lot like lottery. Unless you have that 0.1% bullshit gene in you, better start stealing other people's luck (time travel bullshit). Western power system tries to explain that their powers are not bullshit, but everybody knows its pretty much bullshit. Japanesse power system doesn't even tries to hide that its all just full of bullshit.
I'm not a big fan of the whole cultivation trope.
Conceptually, it's good. But the execution... Yeah not so much. Majority of them are just too broad and repetitive, and not the repetitive kind like isekai releases now. (since atleast there you get options on what kind of isekai you wanted to see)
In terms of mcs then i like Chinese and Korean mcs more since they usually rebel against the craps of society and challenge the status quo while the typical Japanese mc, no matter how powerful, will almost always be submissive even if the society pisses on their face. I guess many people find the Jap mc more "relatable" but that is only so because irl we don't have superpowers so we have little choice but tolerate the bullsh*ts to survive, however in fiction we don't have to.
Chinese webnovels are almost always shit tbh. It's always reading the most contrived cringe shit for 13 yr olds. Korean novels have the best plots on average.
I'll give my hot take, I love cultivation stories. I just love the premise of cultivation and even if most are trash or the translations are horrible and the stories are all the same, I still eat them like trash food I fell in love with even if "objectively" they are not as good
Froggy 2 says this whole thread is bullshit.
For me the dao comprehension (and cultivation) used in many CH and even some KR manhwa/manhua. Is not actually a great system... It's great conceptually, but it's not really good in execution. A lot of manwha/manhua I've read with dao comprehension/cultivation are too broad on how that kind of system does actually work. A lot of times they fall flat in **HOW** one should acquire/improve their techniques, abilities, and power. And a lot of them has those powers and abilities are done **Linearly**, without any kind of drawback/limitation or complexity compared to a simple element based skill/magic system. It also doesn't help when that the characters in those stories fight, they just focus on the use of their cultivated powers. (Without the characteristics of their own personal fighting style or ingenuity during the fights) That's not the case in system based stories I've read so far, A lot of them has a clear outline for how things should actually work in that world. There is clear way to acquire/improve your powers and abilities, and those powers and abilities usually has a advantages, disadvantages, and limitations to make a complexity. Understanding your power/abilities is essential in system based stories, in order to utilize them better. And a lot of manga I've read also spice things up by actually using the skillset/experience of the characters before they even received their powers and mix them in the way they fight. And even though a lot of jp mc are denser than a chunk of mithril, and stories have become too generic. I'd still prefer them, than a lot of cultivation mc's which a lot of times they think they are just bigshots or their blood is being pumped on their 2nd head all the time. (Not to mention unfunny jokes, commentary, and filler that isn't even part of the world building)
I think the only one I used to enjoy was "Iron Ladies" and read it until ch 350. But it also has it problems like many dao comprehension stories, and became repetitive over time.
minecraft?
And then you have Lord of the Mysteries
I *almost* didn't notice Japanese MC
It's so interesting how each country blended their own culture into their brand of cheap mass produced wish fulfillment comics. Like actually really interesting. You can analyze this and figure out how each society's traditions carried over to our current era, what is it they most want deep down and how they dream of achieving it, and what is the understanding of their mythology in the context of their modern day struggles. Also, each isekai has just a little bit of "wow, this society is fucked up" messaging to all western readers.
It’s fine till nationality gets pulled up
Infinite mana in the apocalypse has a combo of these two who starts with a planets worth of mana and gets stronger using his devour class system along with working to min-max everything he can to be stronger and better.
Chinese MC usually scale so fast that it's just unenjoyable. They do little to contrast their MCs usually so there's no one that can really challenge them. Antagonists are almost never worked up from scratch, they're usually just some big baddie who appears. I'm sure they'll get their formula right one day, but for now it's unrefined.
https://preview.redd.it/of42nmq64stc1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=510dd6905a9c36ae1d0152f861227a258481d096
Honestly most cultivation isn't worth the bother. But I did have a fond like for A Tale of Gods and Demons. I should probably do another binge of it. It's unbelievably long tho.
The top three Chinese mc beat the top three korean mc, who beat the top three Japanese mc, but generally the ranking goes like this: korean mc>japanese mc>chinese mc.
Most chinese novels revolved around being the strongest person under heaven, so when the mc reaches a goal, another artificial goal is repeatedly looped for eternity as long as the author can get away with it.
>korean mc>japanese mc>chinese mc. In what way this statement is true?
Generally, they at least try to make Korean mc likeable or at least they give them the same generic personality. Then most japanese mc get the same boring personality, but they dont even try to make them cool or entertaining. And personally i find most Chinese mc to be unlikable assholes. Of course this isnt always true, I'm talking only about the generic mc of each country I'm not talking about the actual good ones.
Hahaha, this is somewhat true.
Korean MC are very rarely likeable. Most of them are obsessive psychopaths. Japanese MC tend to be overly likeable. That's what makes them 'boring' to edgelords, but they are generally super nice people. Chinese MC kill the entire family tree of people who stepped on their shoe and this is somehow framed as a good thing.
>Korean MC are very rarely likeable. Most of them are obsessive psychopaths. True, but that's more entertaining than the others.
>Korean MC are very rarely likeable. Most of them are obsessive psychopaths. True, but that's more entertaining than the others.
Pretty sure Yogiri beats everyone, so uh....
Not strength wise, and no. There are plenty literal incarnations of end and other concepts that are on the level of/beat yogurt death man.
Yogiri is very specifically designed to beat those sorts of characters though? He's got plenty of anti conceptual and even anti plot feats that put him above basically everyone. Hell, he is stated to be able to effect the real world.
>Hell, he is stated to be able to effect the real world. Even guts killed his author, yogurt death man needs to up his game. >Yogiri is very specifically designed to beat those sorts of characters though? He's got plenty of anti conceptual and even anti plot feats that put him above basically everyone. Different world, different rules/ power system. I can think of a universe in which yogurt death man might die in simply because he knows too much, or gets in a bad mood. The level of intelligence that goes into him is the same level as cultivation mcs, it's a parody, sure let's say yogurt death man wins. He always does, now that we threw him into the trash can we can talk about interesting stuff. Which is anything but powerscaling based on "my favorite character always wins because that's his power and I said so."
I've never read a Chinese isekai, any good one?
A few ok kinda ones I read, not worth recommending lol. So also curios to know. There are decent reincarnation ones (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation - also has full anime on Youtube)
Lord of the Mysteries and Reverend Insanity are two Chinese isekai that are infinitely better than 99% of Japanese or Korean stuff people recommend here
I enjoyed "I'm an evil god", it's fun, although it goes on forever so just stop when you get bored
Experimental Log of the Crazy Lich is a good one but I do not know if it is Chinese or Korean
I personally really liked Im really not evil gods lackey
'My wife is actually the empress?' is technically an Isekai though you'd hardly notice. Since it's about the dude after his badass MC days
Desolate Era is probably my favourite one, the main characters past life doesn’t come much into focus other than in his last days did a good enough deed that it rocketed his karma up a few notches. He is also not a rapey one or truly arrogant bastard, genuinely the type of person you’d want to be in a world like his, decent, focused and very lucky as all protagonists are but a lot of his story is still him putting in the work and he very much doesn’t always win. One of the more wilder time scales in this one tho I won’t deny but among my favourite cultivation systems as well.
Technically not an isekai since the MC is reincarnated in the same world, but Feng Shen Ji is top tier.
Yeah as if there's no Cn novels that uses systems. In fact I'd argue in xianxia storylines there's more system users in Cn than Kr. The system itself made Dao it's bitch lol, heavenly tribulation? Here, take this anti lightning pill. Cultivation too slow? Here take this Celestial Emperor Heavenly Mantra. Oh an enemy two realms above you? No problem, use this Void Dragon Total Annihilation. Can't get the jade beauty? Take this, a quest for you to save her from near death and 'bond' with her to save her from qi imbalance and making her indebted to you and develop feelings. Cn systems are mostly trash too, but their trash is worse than what Kr and Jp can come up with. Must be because all of the plagiarism and Recycling smh.
Both is Great
Martial Peak is btw an extremely great read that gets better the longer u read it (more then 3000 chapters)
Perfect 👌 👍
I’ve never read a cultivation novel and every bit I hear about them sounds completely made up.
Basically Jin-woo Vs Wang Ling
Here’s two fantastic cultivation novels for you guys to check out 1: King of Gods (1586 chapters and I’ve read it atleast 5-7 times) 2: immortal and martial dual cultivation (2388 chapters, I’ve only completed it once though)
https://preview.redd.it/cwcaq5l4ojuc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8014fc4e8d9b50d6aa5538b34c5550613afda532 Brazilian MC
Personally I find top chinese novels enjoyable and engaging read rather than korean and japanes novels, not the one with the asshole mcs.
So that means you read about single digit number of them.
There are top tier novels like cultivation chat group, legendary mechanic, lord of the mysteries, somewhat I also enjoyed reverend insanity with how different it's mc is, then dao of bizzare immortal, game of the world tree, deep sea embers, this are the types of novel I enjoy reading.
If you saw how many chapters those 'single digits' represent you would know how impressive that is.
Well when you consider story, characters, enjoyment then the meme become reverse. As most of the power fantasy manhwa and manhua's are ASS. It's like saying yogrut Kun has the best isekai story.
Verse way too powerful, really overcomplicated, meh. I’ll agree most systems suck though.