How to tell whether a manga will be bad before even reading the first chapter

[Question2]

This has a near 100% accuracy rate.

-The title or synopsis reads like gibberish

-The title is unnecessarily long

-The title or synopsis uses certain phrases like "cheat", "skill", "trash", "revenge", "master", "immortal", "ultimate", "level", "villainess", "slow life" and other variations thereof

-The synopsis uses extremely cringey phrases like "this is the story of a boy" or "what will MC-kun do now?!".

-The synopsis uses way too many ?!?!?!?! punctuation marks.

-The author is well known for ending series with an abrupt cliff hanger ending that doesnt resolve any of the plot hooks or answer any questions (cough Junji Ito cough)

-The synopsis describes any of the following :

[ol]
-MC gets OP powers. Especially if he gets a harem shortly after.

-MC gets betrayed for the lulz

-The MC is a "villainess" that is a pure, 10/10 good girl that isn't an actual villainess

-MC gets everything handed to him/her on a silver platter with no effort required on his part AKA "MC just lives the perfect pampered life"

-Most of the people in the setting are described as idiots that cannot recognize how amazing the MC is

-The MC is clearly the author's self insert

-The villains are clearly self inserts for the author's bullies

-A girl shows up out of nowhere and instantly falls for the MC without him doing anything, even though he is a highschooler with average looks.

-The plot clearly breaks suspension of disbelief, e.g. the MC's female relatives arrange for her to be gang raped for some trivial reason.

-The MC is described as being in a love triangle with a "bad boy" type and a "nice guy" type who exists solely to be NTRed by the MC (but its not the MC's fault of course)

-The MC is described as having no flaws and everyone else is in the wrong for ostracizing him/her

-The "plot" is basically "lol look at this guy having to turn down free sex, isnt that funny???"

-The "plot" is basically "lol look at these girls who are compelled to have sex with the MC because of a curse or something, isnt that funny???"

-The "plot" is basically "lol look at this guy who is forced to have sex for some contrived reason, isnt that funny???"

-The MC is a teenager who's ambition is to be the "strongest" or something like a "pirate king", "bushi", "magic emperor", etc. Especially if the cover art shows him screaming like an idiot.

-The main cast is a bunch of university kids who get stranded on an island populated by "lol so randumb" crazy masked killers

-The synopsis reads exactly like the synopsis of several other series, except with a few minor details like the character names changed.

-The author is an idiot who thinks that medieval era farming is relaxing instead of being backbreaking work that peasants slaved away at from dawn to dusk while being subjected to the mercies of the weather, bandits and feudal lords

-The MC runs a cafe that can use amazing, top tier ingredients to make dishes that can compete with expensive restaurants, but he can still sell them at a very low price with no explanation on how he manages to make a profit and still stay in business.

-The synopsis describes the police actually taking a "high school detective" seriously
[/ol]

Probably a lot more that I cant think of off the top of my head.

 

[Skine]

wrong

 

[ernsthaft_]

gg very accurate

 

[Arugel]

Boy, with that many points wonder what doesn't fit with any of those.

 

[justforthelulz]

 

[421cookies]

So if the translator write suck synopsis then the story will be suck, fair enough.
Personally I find most things that I like just by looking at:
-Title sense (especially if you understand japanese)
-Cover art & logo
-Author*Artist
-Publisher/Magazine

 

[MMagni]

I feel like that's semi-true, some of what you're listing is just cliches, which yes, tends to be bad, but it can be good if the author executes it in an engaging and interesting way.

 

[Beregorn]

@Question2 you forgot:
- it's a chinese isekai/reincarnation/time rewind
- it's done by LHtranslation

To be honest LH translation is a bit a mixed bag: almost all their isekais are good and -dare I say it- even original, but between chapter 15 and chapter 25 they become cringey AF...

 

[rarewaifu]

MC gets OP powers.

looks at solo leveling

 

[Yatsuki]

Lol. Btw I know it's super trivial but soap and cosmetic making I used to work for a company making those products from natural items and it's always ticking me off a little seeing these "I saw/read a bit about soap and cosmetic making before and try to recreate it and voila, I success" moments.

It's true that with modern/electronic scales and ingredients, it's not too hard to make these items, but back at the undeveloped era where you actually have to use extract lye from tree ashes and animal fat to make soap instead of the ready-made oils and lye, it's actually quite hard and it can easily fail. And oh boy, don't even mention the cosmetics, complex af but hey MC can totally make it in 5 minutes and it totally works for every types of skins

Also baking, you know traditional old oven didn't have convenient dials so you have to watch the cakes carefully, manually adjust the fire by adding more fuels or reign it in so the cakes don't burn. Same with cooking, it's quite hard to make sugar syrup to the desired stage because the fire can't be adjusted quickly. Don't worry though because MC will make sure the fire is just right or obtain some very convenient magic stove XD

 

[LowSanity]

@Question2
I would say that i agree in 99%.

 

[AAA1]

Bwahaha. Lol. Isn't that exactly nearly all famous manga's premise? I hope you really can find a perfect manga you can enjoy. Weird i can't find you in mangas other than this criteria.

 

[BzzBzz]

OP's "Troll" skill = 0/10

 

[Question2]

@Arugel @AAA1 : If you cant think of several other series that dont fit that list, you are doing something wrong....

Just off the top of my head :

Berserk
Gantz
Blood and Steel
Immortal Hounds
Shinigami's daughter
Re:Zero (Debatable, I dont like how quickly Rem falls for the MC, just reeks of author waifuism, at least it has an actual plot)
Death Note
Darwin's Game
Break Blade
Spice and Wolf
Kono Suba (only because its a comedy)
Mookhyang Dark Lady
Helck

You know one thing that all those cliches I mentioned have in common? There is no actual plot. Nothing that makes the reader want to keep reading to find out more. It's like reading the author's blog. So the MC gets OP powers and a harem...and? Why should the reader care? There is no plot, nothing to keep them reading.

Its like if some guy on discord/facebook/reddit/whatever just suddenly messaged you out of the blue and started telling you about how OP his MMORPG character is, how he can solo raid bosses, how he has the best gear, how he is the most popular guy on the server, is the guild leader of the most powerful guild, etc...

Whats your reaction to that? Its definately not going to be "oh wow dude, tell me more!". You have no reason to care about this guy at all. Same issue with all these series. There has to be a plothook, a reason for the reader to keep reading, like at the start of Berserk, you want to figure out Guts' past, why he's going around killing demons, etc.

You can do the "MC gets OP powers and a harem" thing. You can do it as a comedy/parody, you can do it like One Punch Man where Saitama isnt the MC (he gets less screentime than other heroes for a reason) or you can put in effort and make a well developed setting and plot like what Shinju no Nectar does. Most of these garbage series make zero effort to do any of that. You just have a MC get OP powers, instantly get a harem and all the characters just behave like robots instead of actual people. All the girls fall madly in love with the MC forever even though he ignores them, they have no actual wills or desires beyond "i luv the MC forever!". There is no character development other than getting even more OP skills and making girls wetter. All the villains are just moustache twirling villains who are evil for the sake of being evil and exist purely to be the MC's punching bag.

 

[strider_01]

Honestly the main problem with the whole MMORPG setting isn't even the LOOK AT HOW OP I AM MCs (though that's a big problem too), it's that the people don't act like MMORPG players.
Why are they all playing by the rules?
Why is everything bug-free and working as intended?
Where is the playerbase attempting to break everything, and abusing everything that can be abused?
Why are all the girls actual girls instead of men playing as girls because god damn character customization is the shit?

 

[Teddy]

I object

The Villainess' Slow Prison Life Began with Her Broken Engagement

Altina the Sword Princess

Tondemo Skill de Isekai Hourou Meshi

Isekai Izakaya “Nobu”

Isekai de Cafe wo Kaiten Shimashita.

Dungeon Meshi

Welcome to Cheap Restaurant of Outcasts!

Lonely Attack on the Different World (Better than expected and MC is not a loner)

Takarakuji de 40 oku Atatta ndakedo Isekai ni Ijuu Suru (actually terrible but good terrible)

Sengoku Komachi Kuroutan: Noukou Giga (She's cute)

The Monster Duchess and Contract Princess

Maou no Ore ga Dorei Elf wo Yome ni Shitanda ga, Dou Medereba ii?

I Became a Legend a Decade Later After Telling my Comrades to Leave Everything to Me and Retreat First (helped by scanlator's choice of words)

Handyman Saitou In Another World

Ossan Boukensha Kane no Zenkou

Maid kara Haha ni Narimashita

Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu

Ryoumin 0-nin Start no Henkyou Ryoushusama

Mamonotachi wa Katazuke Rarenai

Honzuki no Gekokujou ~Shisho ni Naru Tame ni wa Shudan wo Erandeiraremasen~ Dai 1-bu 「Hon ga Nai nara Tsukureba Ii!」

The 31st Consort

Tensei Shitara Dragon no Tamago Datta - Ibara no Dragon Road

Henkyou no Roukishi - Bard Loen

Koushaku Reijou no Tashinami

Yes most of these are slow slice of life's. Don't diss my slice of lifes. Slice of life ftw!!!

 

[Question2]

Actually I find MMORPG series the least cancerous ones but thats probably because the fad has moved on and they arent popular anymore. Its all about isekai into medieval fantasy or otome game settings now.

The main issue I have with MMORPG settings is that they dont actually bear any resemblance to any MMORPGs. There are almost never any bugs and they feature game mechanics that would never be used in any actual MMO. For example :

-Unique items, in the sense that only ONE copy of the item is in the ENTIRE GAME. No developer would waste their time with this, unless its some small RPG where its the dev's personal pet project.

-The MC starts playing and on his first day instantly beocmes one of the strongest players in the game, beating people who have been playing for months or years. Usually by finding some "unique item". People wouldnt play for very long if this could happen, imagine playing WOW and getting to max level and having all the best gear on your first day...

-Extremely outdated or weird game mechanics like "train a skill by using it 10000 times". Nobody does that anymore, that is extremely old school, its all about skill points and stuff like that these days. Good luck getting the modern gamer to sit there manually swinging a pickaxe for 100 hours to level their skill, it would be even worse if it was a VR game.

-There are usually way too many real girls playing these games and the author never addresses the issue of people playing a different gender

-Being able to PK and spawn camp in the newbie starting zone with zero issues, theres a retarded series where the MC manages to do this with a character she literally created a few minutes earlier, effortlessly killing all the NPC guards and players who tried to stop her. If a newbie could do this, some higher level troll or PK guild would have been spawn camping the starting area and the MC would have died instantly.

Its like most of these authors have never even played a MMO before...

 

[omegamasher]

Sounds like you hate 90% of all mangas.

Looks like you need to find a new genre lol

 

[deerafl]

Dear OP, looks like these manga would be perfect for you
- Rose of Versailles
- Candy Candy
- Doraemon

 

[MadeOfMagicAndWires]

I mean in all honestly you can trim these criteria down a whole lot.

My general rules of thumb are (either/or):
[ul]
[li]Title contains more than 4 words[/li]
[li]Based off a light or web novel[/li]
[/ul]

Light/Web novels are by far the most pulpy medium you come across today, in an already incredibly pulpy subculture.

Now, don't get me wrong, pulp definitely has its place: everyone has got their own trash; but I am always amazed and almost impressed at how they've boiled down the power fantasy to its purest, low-cost high volume form, and seemingly complete changed what everyone is working on just through sheer output.