Is Gakusen Toshi Asteris' LN worth reading?

gabrielrroiz said:
i normally would not reply because i would never read this but after having to hear digibro complain about the anime adaptation through hours i would say there is no way they are worth it

Valaskjalf said:


Yeah because the opinion of a hater of the ANIME ADAPTATION will actually reflect the quality of the original novel. right ?

gabrielrroiz said:

There is no way an animation studio can screw up so much for the end result to be that bad
So yes

"Incidentally, I'm one of those people who loves tabletop RPGs, but my favorite part is reading about the worldbuilding in the rulebooks. You know, things like 'Here are the legends about the gods worshipped in this region and their devotees follow these precepts,' or 'in this country such and such industries are flourishing, and their customs are like this.' Just these tiny pieces of information, but they really send your imagination flying.

In Tabletop RPGs, players have total freedom to make their own story.That means there has to be a foundation from which to build a story, no matter which parts of the worldbuilding the players focus on and how they interpret them. You could call this detailed information the seeds of a story. Of course, the players have the right to build their story while paying as little attention as they want to those seeds. But personally, I prefer worldbuilding where there are as many of those seeds as possible.

That's the kind of worldbuilding I hope to set forth with the Asterisk War. Ayato is the main character, but there are many other students living in this city."

gabrielrroiz said:

There is no way an animation studio can screw up so much for the end result to be that bad
So yes

Manaban said:

I will respond to a year old post if I so please ;_;

But I just recently picked up the physical copies of the first two LNs, annnnnnnnnnd the LNs are so fucking world building heavy that it actually really feels to take precedent to the story and characters an all that. The anime was mostly centered around Ayato and his harem, which is kind of what I wanted out of the LNs, but the LNs spend an absurd amount of time detailing the inner workings of literally every tiny aspect of the way things work in this universe. Like, I am literally only two chapters in and over half of the book so far has been explaining the most minute details of how things in Asterisk work, and after skimming through the first volume for a bit, it doesn't seem to let up. It's...actually really extreme in terms of fleshing everything out about the world they're in to the point where everything the anime focused entirely on is almost a side feature. Which is disappointing because I don't find it to be particularly intriguing worldbuilding, and tbh I just wanted mai waifu.

This is really augmented by the author's note at the end where he basically explicitly stated that he was always more interested in worldbuilding found in Tabletop RPGs and the like and it really shows by the absurd amount of time he spends fleshing out even the most miniscule, unimportant details of the world this takes place in. Like, literal direct quote from his author's note:



It really his basically his express intent, so it's kind of easy to see where the source differs from the adaptation after reading this little excerpt at the end of the book.

I don't find the worldbuilding to be anything incredible, except for how it spends such an absurd amount of time on it, and I honestly would've preferred it if it was more in line with the anime adaptation, but yes - the LNs and the anime adaptation differ substantially in terms of focus.

If anything, after my little skimming through the contents of the first volume last night, I would say there's actually a very significant amount of adaptation displacement, even though the story with Ayato and Julis and Saya is more or less the same as in the anime. I can really only recommend the LNs if you've got a giant boner for worldbuilding that delves into absurdly miniscule details about how things work in the setting, though, or like the anime adaptation with the cute girls and stuff.