What do you like and dislike about Kinoko Nasu writing?

[Glazy]

There have been a lot of writers who work on TM but the one you (maybe) consume the first was the Mushroom man himself!

Like: He writes Strong Female Characters(tm). Not just Heroines too. For example I like how he handled Noel as both victim and abuser as although you can sympathize her at the end of the day she gets no redemption at the end of the Ciel route. I feel like in the hands of a lesser writer would make her toothless to make her redeemable or make her a one note villain.

Dislike: Some of his technobable world building elements like Spiritrons, QTL, and generally Moon Cell itself.

[Dullahan]

fuckin bullshit sentences

[Ratman]

I think the constant referentiality is not really a good thing. Nasu doesn't overdo it, unless you're reading a title like Hollow that assumes you've read some stuff previously. Still, it inspires follower authors to be way more derivative than they really need to be, which ends in works that are a giant waste of time because you find out it's something you've already read.
One related ghost that hangs around his works, though, is 'exposition-as-value'. This does not necessarily relate to the wider setting (see also: Rinspeak), it can be exposition on characters within the work itself. Pacing often suffers from this, most classic example being the cooking scenes of Heaven's Feel. A skillful author will weave such exposition as action, but it appears that Nasu sometimes doesn't find a good place to do it, so he just sets those scenes aside and disperses them through the story. In Mahoyo it reaches the point where you no longer feel like you're reading a storyline at all, just a bunch of the writer's ideas about what kind of people our characters are. Perhaps Nasu has too many peripheral ideas about his characters that he insists the reader learns about.
Anyway, in Mahoyo this is clearly not a problem, and in KnK it also works in its favor. At most it's a minor flaw. But other writers again take this as license to run with it all the way to the bank. I'm looking at you, Narita.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, this is not just a hate thread? Well, I like Nasu when he gets real poetic, the Excalibur scene at the end of HF comes to mind. Tsukihime is full of it but he stopped doing it over time. He should do it more often.

[Gabriulio]

One of my biggest problems with his writing is what I dubbed "damsel heroine," where the heroine of a route is almost always at her weakest in her route so the MC can stand out.

Aside from that, his sources. You can extend this to TM in general, but man does the mushroom man drink the pseudo-history kool-aid by the gallon.

[Petrikow]

Like: Almost everything

Dislike: His interviews

[ProtoformX]

whats wrong with his interviews lol

[Petrikow]

They just irritate me. It's hard to put my finger on why exactly.

[kirien]

I like how he describes his world and presents characters, their feelings are portrayed very in a way which is rather easy to understand but not simplistic, considering what happens in a lot of his stories I feel like that's not an easy thing to achieve.

As for the dislikes, it's kind of overdone and overmemed but my man really struggles to make sex scenes appealing xd

[Dullahan]

They just irritate me. It's hard to put my finger on why exactly.

(laughs)

[Reign]

I've never really clicked with Nasu's brand of humor personally.

[Norayd]

I love how he can write characters in a similar way as fables (that's the best comparison I can come up with), where characters are stand-ins for specific ideas, while also having more than enough depth to both his writing and his subjects that we end up with actual stories rather than thinly veiled moral and philosophical advices. Maybe not a Nasu specific thing, but definitely something that he does best I think.

[UnlimitedBladeWorks]

Generally I really like the process through which Nasu depicts emptiness/selflessness becoming "something." I dislike....whatever the fuck he was smoking when he decided Dr Roman's character arc would be paced and structured like That.

[Alternative Ice]

Some of the monologues and conversations are unnecessarily long. Man desperately needs an editor to make him get to the point.

I think Nasu is very good at conveying the emotions of the characters, whether its charming slice of life scenes or the character completely losing their mind.

[You]

They just irritate me. It's hard to put my finger on why exactly.

I think I know what you mean

──おふたりから見て、奈須さんはどんな方ですか？

虚淵　底知れないですよね。付き合いが長くなりましたけど、長引くごとに底が知れなくなります。非常に人当 たりが良くて気さくな方なんですが、どれだけ親しくても絶対に晒さない一面を常に維持していて 。

三田　他人を入れないゾーンがありますよね。半径5メートル以内に人の気配があったら、原稿は絶対に書かな いって言ってました。

...

──以前、奈須さんと坂本真綾さんに対談を行っていただいたのですが、奈須さんがご自身のことをたまに「き のこ」とおっしゃっていたのがとても印象的で。

虚淵　そこが底知れないところなんですよ。必ず「奈須きのこ」というアバターを構築して、そこを通して語っ てくる。

...

──なるほど。TYPE-MOONの世界には「起源」という言葉がありますよね。“そのモノがそのモノである事をたらしめる”という 、その人の本質を突く言葉で、本能と言い換えることもできます。奈須さんの起源をおふたりが考えるとしたら 、どんな言葉になりますか？

虚淵　それを決して晒さないのが奈須きのこですからね。バレちゃいけないと思ってる……うーん、すごく熱狂 するのに不思議と冷めたところもある人、っていう印象が強いかな。

[ResidentSeagull]

I really enjoy his descriptiveness. When a character goes to a new location or even when they do some mundane daily tasks, it tends to be pretty entertaining just because of the descriptions, as in "Oh, that's a cool way to describe that. I never thought about it like that".

[mami-kouga]

Nasu is harder for me to quantify what I like and dislike about his content but I guess if I were to try:

Likes- most of his character interactions work for me, I like how he's able to balance s super expansive world with elaborate character writing. I like his prose, and almost everytime he writes a character who embodies a theme of sacrificing themselves for the sake of others despite how much they themselves want to live I get a bit emotional.

Dislikes- I'm happy he left sexual assault plot points mostly in the past because God I kind of hate what he does with it whenever it's here. Sometimes characters need to shut up but this applies to like 3 other writers in this franchise so I guess that's just part of the program. I often like his women but some of his writing makes me curious about his thoughts on female sexuality and not in a good way (I have not read CCC). Mostly FGO related but his obsession with heavily tinted boy meets girls arcs ends up working against the story for me because the way it's structured is so blatantly gendered I get less interest the more the romantic angle is played up (the only time it's worked for me is Castoria for obvious reasons).

[Paulie25]

I think Nasu’s strongest point is his theming, every time his themes are extremely strong and his characters are set up very very well to embody them. His heartfelt criticism and love for humanity and people is really nice too, ya can feel passion in all of his works. Also he loves being chunni and goofy stuff which I appreciate, he’s always got room for Rule of Cool even if he’s being very serious with his themes.

Main thing I dislike is a couple typical culture shock things with JP culture, ya know the stuff. Not a fan of the weird stuff he does with Len or Illya. Also sometimes the way he talks about sexuality makes me upset too. Like reading Liz’s profile in CCC and seeing “Homsexual” being lumped together with “Pedophile” and “Satanist” was pretty eyebrow raising. Then there’s a My Room conversation where Hakuno calls Nero’s Bisexuality “annoying”. I can tell he actually doesn’t have anything against homosexuality or anything based on interviews but it feels like he still treats it like this weird out there quirk.

[TomPen94]

There is a lot I like about Nasu's writing, almost all aspects of it in fact. So singling out a single one is a bit on the hard side, but there are two that do stick a bit out to me on a general scale spanning his work.

One is the way in which he narrates fights, that makes it clear to the reader how the interaction of powers at hand works and how it results in the victory of whoever does end up winning. I rarely, if ever, feel like a character wins just because the plot demands it. The stuff that ends up mattering in the battle, be it a specific quirk of an ability, or a fatal character flaw, never feels contrived. It gets to the point that as I read the final segments of the fight its outcome, no matter how unsurmountable it looks at the start, feels like it is a foregone conclusion.
Another is related to his exploration of characters, and how little time he needs to completely flip the reader's perception of a character, without breaking the narrative surrounding them to achieve it. When it's time to explore a character he will make sure you understand who they are and get you to know them better than they know themselves. Sometimes he's overt with it, others are more subtle, but he pretty much always succeeds in getting his intention across.

As for stuff I dislike, I would have to say my least favorite trait in his writing is his attempts at 4th-wall breaking humor. It doesn't help it feels like he genuinely thinks it's the funniest shit ever to be put to paper, so he keeps indulging in it again and again and again. It's unfunny, it's cringe, and it's incredibly tiresome to trudge through. He can also come off as mean spirited with it in unnecessary ways, sometimes using this brand of humor to throw his characters under the bus, which even feels antithetical to how good he is at making the reader care about those characters in the first place.

[Reonardo]

i like how he created an incredible world you can get lost in, contrary to that i despise how he wastes screentime to his boring mcs (male ones) having sluggish slice of life shenanigans

[OnesFleetingGlory]

I like the way he's vibrantly described basically everything happening in his world. Bonus points if they are in the form of narrative text from someone's inner monologue, it helps paint the character's personality and style. They often feel personal and poignant that keeps you engaged and curious on how the story will unfold from this character's point of view.

I dislike how some events happened seemingly out of the established rules. Admittedly, it happens quite often in this setting, but Nasu's versions tend to be jarring sometimes, though it has its charm. Things I could remember at the moment are how Roa can still move even after having his Point stabbed, so that Ciel can swoop in to save Tohno, or when Chaldea seemingly got massacred and then turns out they're not in Nahui Mictlan.