Why is romance sooo bad in isekai novels on this site.

[someonesomeguy]

Cause what usually goes for romance here is. Man saves girl from slavery.
Man then expresses that girl is attractive.
Turns out that man was the first guy in the whole universe to show kindness to girl. The only good person girl ever encountered in her entire existence.
Definitely first person to ever call her beautiful.

After that girls falls super hard for guy.
Now the guy and girl never actually talk or do anything romantic. Then this continues and other girls join.

Also romance never feels alien or something you might see in different world.







Let me give a example of the type of romance I want in novels.
I have never read something with romance like this on the site

Like something like this never happens.
Guy has helped assist his first murder.
Bandit attack and due to useless mayor. He himself had to fight.

So he has natural reaction of being somewhat cranky and irritated. With a smudge of dread. After seeing how dangerous world is to him and that he might also die.
Or has been struggling at some task for a long time.

No one absolutely no one goes on full crying beside the river after seeing death. That is very unrealistic.
It will probably be anger and dread.


So
this scene happens.
" I just feel like the city infront of me could burn and I wouldn't care at all. Everything feels so irritating. Here I am trying to live a second life but here too I have to deal with this bullish it.
It's just such a shit world. Everyone is ignorant an idiot and each have such huge ego that they don't do anything and there primary concern is just stroking there ego"

Girl-"i sometimes get such a feeling too. Just an irritation at existence and the world. "

"I feel soo empty. I could just poison or assinate the mayor if I could. I feel more angry at him. The bandits did not even have much choice. It was either live a life without pleasurse and die a pointless death or attack some caravans . "

Girl "Anger with helplessness huh. Can't say I haven't felt that before.

You know what. Do you want to hunt? It might decrease your anger. It also provides an amazing feeling of freedom"

"But I don't want to hunt some innocent animal"
Girl "let's hunt a predator then . It's not so innocent "

Girl "let me get one to run I would call when it has started running "

Girl calls. They hunt a little. Naruto running over the trees.
The finally decide to attack the beast.

Guy stabs the beast but it starts yelping and guy starts feeling sympathy for it.

But girl insists that she should also atleast get one stab . Then she stabs a artery. Takes some blood on her hand.

Then she uses healing magic and let's it go.
Girl says that blood is really tasty. They drink a little.

After that guy says he wants to do something more innocent.

Girl suggests hide and seek through the forest.
Guy thinks how many years it has been since he last played hide and seek. Remembers childhood memory.

Then the girl hides.
Guy isn't able to find.
He sits near trunk of a tree.
Something bites playfully at his neck and pulls him to the pond. He falls in it.
He is started for a moment but seeing innocent childlike smile of girl calms him down.
Then they play chase.
Running over the branches.

They then get tired and girl uses wood magic to expand a branch and they sleep together under moonlight and stars on a tree.

The guy can just feel his stress fading away and being replaced by a feeling of warmth and home.

Magic also keeps mosquito away.


See this is romance. It feels alien innocent without making it look like that only thing two lovers can think of is each other.

 

[Milk.Milkan]

People write harems, not romance.
Also romance sucks.

Good evening.

 

[High-in-the-skys]

So you want a mutual understanding romance?
Too bad, isekai's you read are normally a self-insert/self-fantasy. So they would want to go into their fantasy and want to make themselves feel good. This would result in 'happy feelings' prominent in the story and even if they have drama, it doesn't have much since they need to feed their delusions and make their lonely life happy.

Well, if you're looking for stories like that, go look for authors that accept heartbreaks/drama in their story. Just know that as long as there are understanding, there will be misundertanding to highlight it.

 

[someonesomeguy]

So you want a mutual understanding romance?
Too bad, isekai's you read are normally a self-insert/self-fantasy. So they would want to go into their fantasy and want to make themselves feel good. This would result in 'happy feelings' prominent in the story and even if they have drama, it doesn't have much since they need to feed their delusions.

Well, if you're looking for stories like that, go look for authors that accept heartbreaks/drama in their story. Just know that as long as there are understanding, there will be misundertanding to highlight it.

I am incapable of reading anything that isn't isekai .
.
.
.
Wait now I think about it . 21 year old with magical powers sounds fun even if it is in real world.
Like imagine this scene. But it's Russian mafia instead of bandits and running over rooftops instead of a forest.
Girl hides behind a AC instead of a tree.
They sleep on top of a skyscraper. They are strong enough that fall won't do anything.

Yeah next time I will try moden fantasy

 

[AKnightWithaKnife]

If yah looking of romance sc isn’t the place to look. Half of romance novels are either harems or weird bdsm shit. Go to Royal Road as they have a much better writer base

 

[someonesomeguy]

If yah looking of romance sc isn’t the place to look. Half of romance novels are either harems or weird bdsm shit. Go to Royal Road as they have a much better writer base

Even on royalroad. Female lead are usually not smart enough to comfort protagonist with his problems.
The only one I was able to like was simulacrum.

 

[someonesomeguy]

Ok someone recommend romance with magical powers which is actually like this.

 

[JayDirex]

I am incapable of reading anything that isn't isekai

there's your real problem right there.

 

[High-in-the-skys]

there's your real problem right there.

You know as a lurker, I usually leave a reaction...
But I don't know if I should react with a like, a laugh or a sad here.

 

[Moonpearl]

That's what male-aimed isekai is usually like, even outside of this site. There's a long-standing history of people complaining about it.

If you want decent romance, then how do you feel about reading some Girls Love or Boys Love? And what about fantasy settings that aren't isekai?

 

[FlutterOfCrows]

Romance can be bad or good regardless of who the lead is, just gotta find those stories among the buried trash, it's just something one has to look around for.

 

[LostLibrarian]

There's also another problem with romance and webnovels in general:
Not talking about the "love at first sight"-trope, romance usually takes time. Like a lot of time. People have to meet, they have to get to know each other, they have to learn to understand each other, they need to find comfort in the other's presence, etc.

A more realistic romance takes a lot of words to develop. Webnovels - especially LitRPG, isekai, and the like - are often about fast-paced plots and consecutive high points. I won't say that it can't be done, but it's something that needs a lot of work to fit together.

Just one example out of my own experience: I introduced a girl at chapter 5 or so and the first comment was "Is she the love interest?". The moment a second girl entered the stage it mostly wasn't about "who is the love interest?" but "will there be a harem?".

There isn't really anything wrong with it in itself, but those are expectations you get when you write isekai. And either you break those expectations and risk people downvoting or simply not reading your story, or you fulfill the needs of your target audience.


Hence most writers who want to write romance will write romance. Not "a bit of romance inside an isekai" but "romance". So if you want to have better written romance, you either have to look for romance novels or try to look for isekai outside the trending- or top-lists. And there you might find a gem...

 

[LordAstrea]

*nervous sweating*

 

[LostLibrarian]

*nervous sweating*

Don't worry... catgirls trump romance :D

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Cause what usually goes for romance here is. Man saves girl from slavery.
Man then expresses that girl is attractive.
Turns out that man was the first guy in the whole universe to show kindness to girl. The only good person girl ever encountered in her entire existence.
Definitely first person to ever call her beautiful.

After that girls falls super hard for guy.
Now the guy and girl never actually talk or do anything romantic. Then this continues and other girls join.

Also romance never feels alien or something you might see in different world.







Let me give a example of the type of romance I want in novels.
I have never read something with romance like this on the site

Like something like this never happens.
Guy has helped assist his first murder.
Bandit attack and due to useless mayor. He himself had to fight.

So he has natural reaction of being somewhat cranky and irritated. With a smudge of dread. After seeing how dangerous world is to him and that he might also die.
Or has been struggling at some task for a long time.

No one absolutely no one goes on full crying beside the river after seeing death. That is very unrealistic.
It will probably be anger and dread.


So
this scene happens.
" I just feel like the city infront of me could burn and I wouldn't care at all. Everything feels so irritating. Here I am trying to live a second life but here too I have to deal with this bullish it.
It's just such a shit world. Everyone is ignorant an idiot and each have such huge ego that they don't do anything and there primary concern is just stroking there ego"

Girl-"i sometimes get such a feeling too. Just an irritation at existence and the world. "

"I feel soo empty. I could just poison or assinate the mayor if I could. I feel more angry at him. The bandits did not even have much choice. It was either live a life without pleasurse and die a pointless death or attack some caravans . "

Girl "Anger with helplessness huh. Can't say I haven't felt that before.

You know what. Do you want to hunt? It might decrease your anger. It also provides an amazing feeling of freedom"

"But I don't want to hunt some innocent animal"
Girl "let's hunt a predator then . It's not so innocent "

Girl "let me get one to run I would call when it has started running "

Girl calls. They hunt a little. Naruto running over the trees.
The finally decide to attack the beast.

Guy stabs the beast but it starts yelping and guy starts feeling sympathy for it.

But girl insists that she should also atleast get one stab . Then she stabs a artery. Takes some blood on her hand.

Then she uses healing magic and let's it go.
Girl says that blood is really tasty. They drink a little.

After that guy says he wants to do something more innocent.

Girl suggests hide and seek through the forest.
Guy thinks how many years it has been since he last played hide and seek. Remembers childhood memory.

Then the girl hides.
Guy isn't able to find.
He sits near trunk of a tree.
Something bites playfully at his neck and pulls him to the pond. He falls in it.
He is started for a moment but seeing innocent childlike smile of girl calms him down.
Then they play chase.
Running over the branches.

They then get tired and girl uses wood magic to expand a branch and they sleep together under moonlight and stars on a tree.

The guy can just feel his stress fading away and being replaced by a feeling of warmth and home.

Magic also keeps mosquito away.


See this is romance. It feels alien innocent without making it look like that only thing two lovers can think of is each other.

Nothing surprising. Most authors on this site write what sells, less so what they want. Romance doesn't sell unless it is flatter than cardboard, but it is popular. So who cares.

 

[LordAstrea]

Don't worry... catgirls trump romance :D

Phew!

 

[LimitBound]

Because romance sucks
Also most of Isekai is harem

 

[Xiaoshen]

It's isekai. It's wish fulfillment. You want fleshed out characters and relationships, grab an actual book and not just an internet power fantasy.

 

[Zurai]

It's isekai. It's wish fulfillment. You want fleshed out characters and relationships, grab an actual book and not just an internet power fantasy.

What, you mean like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Or The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Peter Pan? Howl's Moving Castle?

All of those (and many, many more) are actual book isekais. You're not even judging books by their covers, you're judging them by a single word that you don't seem to fully understand.

 

[Horizon42]

Cause what usually goes for romance here is. Man saves girl from slavery.
Man then expresses that girl is attractive.
Turns out that man was the first guy in the whole universe to show kindness to girl. The only good person girl ever encountered in her entire existence.
Definitely first person to ever call her beautiful.

After that girls falls super hard for guy.
Now the guy and girl never actually talk or do anything romantic. Then this continues and other girls join.

Also romance never feels alien or something you might see in different world.







Let me give a example of the type of romance I want in novels.
I have never read something with romance like this on the site

Like something like this never happens.
Guy has helped assist his first murder.
Bandit attack and due to useless mayor. He himself had to fight.

So he has natural reaction of being somewhat cranky and irritated. With a smudge of dread. After seeing how dangerous world is to him and that he might also die.
Or has been struggling at some task for a long time.

No one absolutely no one goes on full crying beside the river after seeing death. That is very unrealistic.
It will probably be anger and dread.


So
this scene happens.
" I just feel like the city infront of me could burn and I wouldn't care at all. Everything feels so irritating. Here I am trying to live a second life but here too I have to deal with this bullish it.
It's just such a shit world. Everyone is ignorant an idiot and each have such huge ego that they don't do anything and there primary concern is just stroking there ego"

Girl-"i sometimes get such a feeling too. Just an irritation at existence and the world. "

"I feel soo empty. I could just poison or assinate the mayor if I could. I feel more angry at him. The bandits did not even have much choice. It was either live a life without pleasurse and die a pointless death or attack some caravans . "

Girl "Anger with helplessness huh. Can't say I haven't felt that before.

You know what. Do you want to hunt? It might decrease your anger. It also provides an amazing feeling of freedom"

"But I don't want to hunt some innocent animal"
Girl "let's hunt a predator then . It's not so innocent "

Girl "let me get one to run I would call when it has started running "

Girl calls. They hunt a little. Naruto running over the trees.
The finally decide to attack the beast.

Guy stabs the beast but it starts yelping and guy starts feeling sympathy for it.

But girl insists that she should also atleast get one stab . Then she stabs a artery. Takes some blood on her hand.

Then she uses healing magic and let's it go.
Girl says that blood is really tasty. They drink a little.

After that guy says he wants to do something more innocent.

Girl suggests hide and seek through the forest.
Guy thinks how many years it has been since he last played hide and seek. Remembers childhood memory.

Then the girl hides.
Guy isn't able to find.
He sits near trunk of a tree.
Something bites playfully at his neck and pulls him to the pond. He falls in it.
He is started for a moment but seeing innocent childlike smile of girl calms him down.
Then they play chase.
Running over the branches.

They then get tired and girl uses wood magic to expand a branch and they sleep together under moonlight and stars on a tree.

The guy can just feel his stress fading away and being replaced by a feeling of warmth and home.

Magic also keeps mosquito away.


See this is romance. It feels alien innocent without making it look like that only thing two lovers can think of is each other.

The focus of casual isekai usually isn't really about romance and mutual understanding really isn't a thing in such environments. It could be done for sure, but the focus of the story would have to shift away from the guy being the good guy or hero. There's a few novels that do this, not many of them are on this site though. As a casual writer, depressing/ultra realistic novels are hard to write and incredibly uncomfortable. And not many readers can stomach all that bitterness without a little bit of sugar to balance it.