What do you like and dislike about Kinoko Nasu's writing?

[kirien]

Nasu's hospitalization was in early 2023 though no?

According to this post, yes, it was.

For those who're curious, it's this one.

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But from this post it also looks like there was a period of him being in poor health before going getting to see doctor who actually helped. So I think it makes sense in the timeline

[Nanaya]

so that Ciel can swoop in to save Tohno

I like to think being Roa-adjacent gives you a teensy bit of leeway.

I hate that he is even trying to make one

Blame the type of experience they try to create(sell) I guess since how they write and present(Alterego, independent character etc) is going to probably be based on that.

[Username55]

What I like: Characters, their dynamics and themes

What I dislike: Loose world building, lore, internal consistency and hardness

[Petrikow]

The hardness... of his writing?

[Username55]

Yeah, what I mean is that he does world building and magic in a very soft and loose way. He doesn't have like a rigid structure or internal consistency with his stories, stuff are there to look cool (and make some but not a lot of sense).

[Glazy]

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).

interesting perceptive on Nasu's romance. I can see how the whole boy meets girl thing is very gendered but I do think Nasu makes the relationship itself compelling by having both boy and girl be screw up. Although the gendered lenses do get in there from time to time
Nasu romance is werid to me like it does work. I do feel emotion whenever the two characters come together but I don't feel THAT strongly about any one relationship. Like maybe is just a me thing but I don't really go "Shirou/Shiki should end up with X because X is the most compelling/fulfilling/BestGirl". Maybe that's the point with multiple routes to show there isn't one singular best girl but outside I just don't feel diehard about any of the romantic relationship. I find the protagonist/antagonist relationship to be more compelling.

[OnesFleetingGlory]

Wasn't Arcueid the antagonist of Ciel's route? Then it's a win-win situation.

[falseCeilings]

His works can put me under a spell, it's something quite unique. Can't really pinpoint what it is, it doesn't really work that way. The vibe is there.

The MC sometimes doesn't feel very natural. Not enough to ruin the overall experience, but the internal monologue/behavior can sound rather dissonant/unbelievable.
The way in which two characters will miss out or avoid communicating extremely pertinent plot points to each other often feels contrived.

[TomPen94]

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.

I think I should add to this point especially now that I'm high off of finishing CCC, but I think this might be an extension of Nasu being able to rly immerse the reader in a character's way of thinking, and getting the reader to buy into every single thing that character decides to do or say (provided he has the necessary narration space to do so). I think this particularly shines through when it comes to getting the reader to root for the narrator character.

Fate/Extra CCC

I noticed this when I was reading the final "conversation" in CCC's True End, the final meeting with Sakura right before going through the door to the Near Side. I was always invested in the Sakura throughline of the game, but I think the ending stretch of the True Route rly made me fervorous about it. Like, I was straight dogmatic. I was so happy to see Sakura there, and I was shouting at the screen when she kept trying to deny herself her happy ending. And I think this is down to being in Hakuno's head and how deadset they were on saving Sakura both throughout the game and throughout the ending sequence. When the background turned gold, and Sakura finally broke her shell, my brain was swimming in dopamine.

Initially I was surprised at how strongly I reacted, but then I looked back and I noticed this wasn't rly the first time that had happened. I have similar feelings to convey regarding New Ciel True, Mahoyo, and also Heaven's Feel to a smaller extent. Nasu rly cooks with this stuff.

Or maybe I'm just an idiot who was swept away by Last Piece Again blasting in the background.

[Namelesss]

Uniquely personal

[Kurozetto]

What I both like and dislike about his writing is the "vagueness". He writes vaguely enough to create this sort of unique atmosphere in his works which I like a lot. But if you look deeper into it, you'll find that there are a bunch of inconsistencies with what Nasu says in his work and what he actually does in said works. Like, he's establishing a narrative about something being a known and obvious fact i.e. "A human can't beat a Servant", "It's not possible to summon a Servant from the future" and so on, only to break this so called "rule" by the flow of the story. Not that it's a terrible thing in itself, but sometimes, I'd like more consistency with rules in a setting. And then there's a Kaleidoscope, that exists to patch some holes in the lore by saying that "this is a parallel world which is mostly similar, but still different" which I find somewhat amusing, because it's both a genius and lazy way of dealing with inconsistencies.
Also, I don't like his writing style that much, because like people before me said, it's fairly hard and heavy (though in Kara no Kyoukai LN, as I recall, it was the exact opposite, quite simplistic and "dry" in terms of writing style).


Characters are definitely his strong part, no argument about that.

[Dullahan]

Here is a brutal truth: nasu can write a relatively wide array of characters, but can only write about 5 or 6 different types of relationship between characters

[Rafflesiac]

Here is a brutal truth: nasu can write a relatively wide array of characters, but can only write about 5 or 6 different types of relationship between characters

Love because same, hate because same, love because different, hate because different, admiration without understanding?

[Ratman]

this is just the 5 heroines of tsukihime all with one guy, isn't it

Love because same - Ciel
hate because same - Kohaku
love because different - Arcueid
hate because different - Akiha
admiration without understanding - Hisui

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seems a bit reductionist to me...

[Dullahan]

No, that's too abstract. I mean specific patterns of interaction. The most obvious one is A (doll) becomes human through connection with B which has been done like 8 or 9 times now. There are a few others you can spot

[forumghost]

No, that's too abstract. I mean specific patterns of interaction. The most obvious one is A (doll) becomes human through connection with B which has been done like 8 or 9 times now. There are a few others you can spot

Right? Like, pick a new character arc for someone, you damn mushroom.

[Paulie25]

Nasu’s bread and butter is reusing concepts with a spin on them Imo. Aoko, Azaka, Akiha, and Rin are all different characters of course… but there’s a reason he talks about how they’re all from the same lineage basically. After writing Ryougi he proceeded to write Tohno… who’s literally got the same basic concept as Ryougi down to name and ability but mixed with Mikiya. He’s done a ton of Heroes of Justice, like all 3 of the OG Fate Protags are spins on that concept (Bazett not withstanding).

I think the way he spins on those concepts in interesting ways and creates new characters throughout us really cool but it is kinda funny how literally every character can have “Oh so they’re like X” thrown at then

[Maedhros]

I can't hate a re-used concept if it's great every time. Be it Nasu or Adachi Mitsuru.

[UnlimitedBladeWorks]

No, that's too abstract. I mean specific patterns of interaction. The most obvious one is A (doll) becomes human through connection with B which has been done like 8 or 9 times now. There are a few others you can spot

Another big one is "idealist/goal driven person loses sight of their goal because of love/connection." Roa, Ciel and Shirou are the like big examples of this but there are others.

[forumghost]

Another big one is "idealist/goal driven person loses sight of their goal because of love/connection." Roa, Ciel and Shirou are the like big examples of this but there are others.

RIP Zouken, fallen Hero of Justice™