guys... I think this human hasn't realized that almost all modern light novels are from 'narou' web novels. should we tell him?
That is a good question.
Problem, judging from his "attitude" and his name, i fear he is a "keyboard warrior" (chinese term) that spray/rage on internet with a negative IQ.
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Web novel = novel written on the web, it can be english/japanese/korean/chinese
Light novel = japanese novels with "anime" style published on paper and sold in bookstores + artist is hired to do illustrations with it. BEFORE it was common for a author to start a series with a LN ; but NOW its common and near all authors start with a WN to "test the waters". If a WN get popular (often ranked high in weekly rankings) and/or good plot, the author can be sollicited by companies to get manga or LN publishing. THEN if said manga or LN is popular, the anime will appear.
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Random facts (i am bored, hopefully everyone will like them)
1) For info, even if someone wrote 2+ chaps of a semblance of a story, that means it is a webnovel.
2) In chinese webnovels, among the masterpieces of the past, one is famous because of it's crappy quality. "Invisible dragon". Just like a movie can become famous for being the worst movie in history, this CN (chinese novel) is the same. Some people theory that it was written by a kindergarten kid or by a smart dude that aimed that all along for popularity. You can think like the notoriety of 177013.
3) Like youhei said, "narou" is the number 1 website for WN of japan (R18 not accepted).
Mushoku Tensei for example, is the grandpa of all current isekais. He is the one that popularized the term "isekai" (creating the trend) despite not being the first one (Inuyasha and co are earlier). It was among the early webnovels, even earlier than NO GAME NO LIFE, but its only now we get the anime.
4) Syosetu is the R18 website for ero web novels of japan. There are others though.
5) Pixiv jp website also welcome all kinds of original WN. Both safe and R18. Mostly fanfictions. Lately they accept chinese works too and english. If someone have a rare fetish but crave for a R18novel, going to archiveonourown website works but going to syosetsu/pixiv is best solution.
6)
The difference of time. Often webnovels have a fast advancement in plot compared to manga/anime/LN. Ex: one can have 100+ chapters but LN publishing only did 1 volume of 15 chaps. Manga ? Even worse because they are often MONTHLY chaps. Some monthly mangas like Youjo senki or older ones, are barely scratching the surface of the plot, meanwhile the web novel is already finished, mushoku tensei manga is also example.
7) You dont know but the
manhuas are stories from 10+ years ago hence why they were full of faceslaps and trash plots. But in raw chinese webnovels they had lot of good stories (but lof crap ones too). Its only recently you can see bilibili doing publication of manhuas of some really good chinese webnovels. A few of them being "I dont follow cards accordine to the routine" / "Saint of humanity".
8) Funnily manhua Luo Wuji is as good as Lin Fan and both urban cultivation but do you know that the CN of Luo Wuji have the same title of LinFan chinese novel but only one word of difference ? (Rebirth of the immortal blablabla)
9) Chineses have more accustomed to web novels then other countries. Because access to computers and their artists were utterly garbage hence cant do mangas like japan. So the only remaining way to do a story was to write them on internet.
10)
There are hundreds of thousands of chinese web novels raws. Also if human translation of a CN is barely 50+chaps, it can have 500+ chaps available in the raws. Also translators are humans hence prefer picking novels they prefer. Lately too translators numbers are dropping like crazy because everyone want money and translating is often not worth it even if you solicite donations.
11)
Do you know that in fact the majority of chinese novels readers like "fighting" plots but dont know that "urban" genre have ton of novels ? Singer MC. Movie director MC. Mangaka/anime-creator MC. Dad MC. Sign-in system. Talk to past self plot. Livestream. Variety show MCs. Shop plot. Being reborn in america or korea or japan. Being in the past. Dying and returning 24 hours ago. Predicting the future. Craftman. Sweet romance.
12) In fact chinese authors also have it hard because of censoring. One rare CN "Datang idyll" (completed) luckily dodged censoring and criticizing corruption.
13) Censoring is less now there. Now their authors can write women being killed by the MC compared to before. But MC being a killer etc are still a no-no but not banned and just forcing author to modify slightly the details. Censoring also depend on the style/genre plot.
14)
Even chinese readers disdain the chinese web novels full of faceslaps. Mocking them as third rate etc. Yep. Depending on destiny you could a see a 2022 urban CN character say it.
15) Last thing. Because of saturation but also because of how good plot potentials, funnily it created a weird phenomenon.
China : some fantasy novels (some isekai-type with elves etc) and ero novels are better than japan (detailed gestures vs crappy jp moans)
Japan : better game plots (cough SAO cough) than korea
Korea : better wuxia/xianxia than china (Return of mount hua manhwa)
PS : I crave for a mixed style of japanese+chinese. Japanese goes too overboard and chinese is too serious, korean is too dramatic-tragic.
One rare novel that can show you that the fusion is the best is "The luckiest man" with urban+portals. Random spoilers : First power of MC is causing the enemy have a chance to kneel / A group of assassins died in their car when they tried to kidnap MC's sister without doing anything / lucky MC felt speechless+pity when an enemy activated his too op invincible-zone-power that force MC to play 3 times dices without cheating (if one can't do a double 6 the person dies, but 3x hence near-impossible and making this enemy arrogant but turning mad-scared the more MC succeeded)