(There's a second list, just add a 2 to the name of this list and you'll find it) ... more>>

There are too many novels with cliché romance and harems with annoyingly useless girls. Reading them gets extremely tiring. There are too few novels with absolutely no form of romance or harem. Here are some novels I've found to not have romance/harem or have an harem/romance theme that didn't affect the plot of the novel to the point of it being annoying. 

Feel free to recommend novels that fit the criteria, arigatou^o^

P. S. I haven't read all the novels in this list so I might not be accurate in judging them. And there are some I've read but didn't finish and the novel ended up having romance or harem elements in a later chapter, please feel free to correct me anytime you see that I wasn't accurate. Arigatou minna-san <<less

UPDATE: There is a new livestreaming tag now! https://www.novelupdates.com/stag/livestreaming/... more>>

I am adding this tag to all of the novels on my lists instead but you can add the tag if I missed it and/or you find a new novel with it!

Novels with Broadcasting jockeys or livestreamers or video posting or YouTubers or vtubers 

Directory

Part 1 < YOU ARE HERE

Part 2:  https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/48872/   <<less

This list is specifically for second chances/age regression in fantasy, historical or VRMMO settings. 
- Not transmigration stories (see: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/16246/)
- Not time loop stories (see: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/10681/)
- Not second chances in modern society (see:  https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/10745/)... more>>

I'll start with a big recommendation for:
1. Metaworld chronicles - wonderful series with well developed characters, magic, monsters and dragons, all set to a really well explored alternate modern Earth fuelled by magi-tech. It's the best in the genre and you should try it out!
2. Selena's Reign - only around 20 chapters out so far, but they're really well done. Beautiful descriptions (though sometimes a bit verbose) and the best depictions of a late 18th century setting that I've seen in an online fantasy. Read this for the magical second chance messiah in a gritty, Louis XIV->Napoleon type time frame world.
3. The Calamity of a Reborn Witch - more of a shoujo take on things, it's filled with political plots and conspiracies of a cinderella type heroine in a rather dark fantasy world
4. Forgotten Conqueror (this was on hiatus for a long time but restarted on the author's site) <<less

These are the novels that I personally enjoyed, though some of them might not be my favorites, they still had enough influence stay in my heart as a decent novel at the very least... well, most of them. (Also I'm actually back now 2022, got burnt out after reading too much reincarnation paradise)[2023 here, uhhh, oops]... more>>

*Rest of description is for when you enter the list*
{I'm back and ready to fix my younger self's s*upid tastes, some are pretty good though}

(My reviews will not be consistent with the list because I go into the read deeper rather than just a overview, make sure to check my oldest comment, it is also the most liked one, it has the unpublished reads)

[S tier is a 5 star read, A is a 4.5 star read, B tier is a 4 star read, C tier is a 3.5 star read, D tier is a 3 star read, E tier is a 2 star read, F tier is a 1 star read] 

[SS and X tier are special. SS is consistency and intrigue, and X is the top 3 with the SS tier also being applied] 

(exaggerated tier which is a new special tier has been added, this is when I give reads that just started a good tier even when there isn't enough chapters to properly review it, the tier of the read will most probably change someday)

(The special tiers will now be accompanied by a regular tier, Exagg. tier will be accompanied with a Z)  <<less

>>> Feel free to recommend me novels in the comment section below, so after I'm back I know what to binge read and give my thoughts on it.... more>>

One of the easiest to tell a novel is a 'Game Elements' is if it has a GAME SYSTEM included - most notable of it being part of the MC. Another one is that the Protagonist got transported INTO a Game World/Fantasy World - most notable are ISEKAI's.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I only include novels that have Game Elements as mentioned BUT ALSO that I have already read from a quite decent amount of chapters to finished reading. Though do not fret for I would accept and feel feel to recommend novels to me and If possible tell me about it.

NOTES: I have tried my best to rank them based on the depth of the world/lore of the novel and it's writing. Every tier (namely Great -> Amazing -> Excellent) have a sub-tier with 1 (+) being the lowest and (+++) being the highest. I would like to say that it is inevitable that there would be a novel being in the same tier and sub-tier - that you would think isn't even on par in terms of quality. Hence why If you could tell why that specific novel about why it deserves to either to go up or down at the ranking - then I would thank you for your time telling me your point. Novels with no tiers can be only one thing - They could have been good.

PS: I seem to have underestimated the sheer amount of Novels with Game Elements... also I'm not expert in identifying Alignments <<less

LIST 1 - 10 ARE THE TOP 10 NOVELS I’VE READ. FYI, my standards are exquisite, meticulous and flawless. You can trust my list. ... more>>

SO FAR, I HAVEN’T READ THE REST AFTER #11 BUT THIS LIST GENERALLY HAS GOOD REVIEWS AND ABOVE 4 STAR RATINGS. 

#ANTI BRAINDEAD MCs ALLIANCE. 
#SOME ARE BL

#HANDSOME MALE PROTAGONISTS <<less

i dont like pie from the sky and lucky mc(i get jelaus), i dont like dense mc(i myself can do dense staf), dont like sliceOfLife, dont like selfsacrificing hero, dont like destiny chosen. dont like revenge as final goal.... more>>

btw, why no mc throw pepper in face of thugs? pepper nowaday is really cheap. carrying pepper better than carrying knife or bat. <<less

this is mostly just male mc without female leads like "love interests" or harems :)... more>>

Korean Novels #1 - #25
Chinese Novels #26 - #53
Japanese Novels #54 - #70

* There might be some s*xual tensions towards side characters but mostly it views the improvement of the main characters
* Novels like this just focus on the plot and battle towards mc's main goal and shenanigans but most of the novels here are my male protagonist 'to be read' and I hope you guys find something that suits your tastes <3 so yeah happy reading ^^)/ <<less

I hate harem. Why? Because most of the time it leads the story to a direction that's not pleasing. And most of all I don't... more>> fantasize about having thousands of girl on my lap.  Hell I'm not even interested in romance . Anyway this list contains novels that have zero harem and maybe it will have novels that have romance, but almost all of them are not focused on romance
So enjoy (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧ <<less

I feel really bad when I start reading a good novel thinking that it's quite good and doesn't have useless & annoying harem  it turns... more>> out to be one. It's seriously annoying. This list contains novels which aren't harem . Mc have only one wife/gf or none at all. Let's start( uh..... I'm quite new to nu so don't mind my listing style & they aren't in order) <<less

Action, Adventure and Advance. The triple AAA that the following novels have in my opinion^^.... more>>

Irregular updates but you are welcome to recomend. Continuation in PART 2 & 3 which will link down.

Korean Action Novels Part 2: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/25364/

Korean Action Novels Part 3https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/25368/?ft=yes <<less

you have been looking for this.... more>>

here's a list of op mc Korean novels you have been looking for

(the first few descriptions of the novels are not mine, they are just comments I copied of NU, also please note that while most novels here are Korean not all of them are)

here are some other lists I made: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/46420/ and https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/47255/  check them out if you're interested <<less

Evil and Ruthless Male Protagonists... more>>

More info on what i am searching: (The title may not be entirely accurate.)

Evil mc ( someone who do not care about other people, and can do anything for his goals )

Ruthless mc ( someone who do not hesitate to kill )

Neutral mc ( Neither a good person, nor a bad person, But care more about his own profits, Rational-Pragmatic type of route )

No Romance ( For this one, i also mean, less romance or none maybe, as well. No romance and no female lead are different. )

No Heroine ( i will use this word for those novels where there is no female lead. ) This is a word you find usually in mtl.
Extra:https://www.novelupdatesforum.com/threads/no-romance-and-no-harem-novels-only-can-be-evil-cold-ruthless-or-villain-egoist-pragmatic-mc.161306/

Sharing a Discord Invite Code, For Evil mc novels, But only MTL. Discord invite: ywyGwvK5ns. 

P.S: My reviews might be rough sometimes, but they're my honest thoughts. I wouldn't share a novel in here if I didn't think there was something worthwhile. Use them as a guide and decide for yourself. Treat each novel like a Poison Test. Enjoy your reading! <<less

A list of korean novels I enjoyed and some not entirely. Definitely no harem! 

Everyone has their own preferences and picks.
These are novels that I read. Though some of them I have already dropped.... more>>

In order of how great they are in my view. 

Status: 

Read - I have read it to completion

Up to latest chapters - always up to date with the latest chapters

Waiting for chapters - update frequency is slow, tend to stack up chapters to read

Unplanned Dropped - Dropped the novel with no future plan for it. May or may not continue reading

Temporarily Dropped - Dropped due to inconveniences, fully planned on reading again

[Order is relative to this list and not the subsequent lists]

Second List: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/6452/ <<less

This is a list for my personal 0.1%. ... more>>

List is not ranked in order <<less

Although i m not the person who has read all the novels i most certainly consider my self as one the crazy novel readers.... more>>

One of my favorite types are where you get to see the reactions of other people based of the mc's action and i thats the really fun part and probably the sole reason why "underestimated tag" is famous.

My list belongs to the type of novel I read and Let me tell you what you won't/will Find here

1. Bull sh*t about Friendship Spirit and love which makes me puke out of cringe.

2. Novels which people disregard based on things like "this doesn't make sense how can there be magic and modern day" 

3. Novels which people disregard saying" the explanations are too much" which you can skip with enough intelligence and some other dumb shit. 

4. Novels where the MC gets lucky at every single step one after another like a who*e who succu....*chough* *cough*..... You get it.

5. Novels which are worth read and you will be spending time on them and the novel with too few chapters wont be there or if they are then you can be sure that the mtl is readable and its available on lnmtl

5 Make sure to know the novels won't have all the tags but most probably atleast one.

6. Looking for Male protagonist novels doesn't mean im a sexist

Enjoy

<And oh yeah if you have read all the novels on the list then congratulations mine and yours tastes match woooo!.. so now you can suck my d**k.(you know i m kidding right ;p. ) <<less

A VERY subjective list. I'll keep updating it and add the reviews/rankings whenever I have time. The rating is based on MC > Story > Supporting Characters.... more>>

Check out my other lists here!

Badass Heroines who aren't damsels in distress 1 - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/62346/

Badass Heroines who aren't damsels in distress 2 - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/63149/

Girl Crush FL (CN Only) - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/89513/

Top Tier Novels (Personal Opinion) 1 - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/62483/

Top Tier Novels (Personal Opinion) 2 - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/74300/

Slow Burn Goodness - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/64099/

The Blissful World Of VRMMORPGs - 
https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/73205/ <<less

I've been going on a journey from A to Z due to lack of novels for me to read, as it felt like I read everything. Like I read way too much on this site... I just hit 650 reviews... though most of them were just a few words / sentences... I decided to finally make a reading list of what I think the best novels on this site are for male readers. Some stories were worse off in quality, but they were interesting enough to keep me reading.... more>>

I USUALLY ignore 4 types of novels

1. Romance focused

2. Historical focused

3. Female Leads

4. Dropped novels

Now, before u get mad, I only included ones that I CONTINUED liking. Because many times, the story quality ends up dropping the farther along the story is. I read a lot, so I'm very picky. Like when I first came to this site, I literally loved isekai, vrmmo, cultivation novels so much because everything was new... but now... there are comparisons... Another possible reason your novel isn't here, is that the novel is just new, and I have not read it yet as it was released after I went past that point alphabetically.

Please note the list will change in the future. I only read up the translation at the time of reading, so some of these books may be removed due to later chapters ruining the story.

Although I have read and liked a few FL Romance focused novels, I will not be including them to this list to be non biased, as I have not read enough of those to be picky about them. <<less

What I love to read. ... more>>

PS: No particular order <<less

The isekai here is pointed to another world, but not only to the usual Jpn isekai with reincarnation/rebirth/transmigrate MC. It can be the world that's totally not in the earth, and maybe it's not a reincarnation/transmigration and MC is from that world. ... more>>

My ideal isekai novel is the one with the world building as its central theme and the romance is non existent, even if there's romance element in it, usually it's slow and just as unnecessary side dish.

NO HAREM for me. Tho few of them has harem and romance tags, for me there are those that are not romance and harem, so I'll explain in related description instead. 

  <<less

You want a main character that summons a lot? Well this list is for you!... more>>

Note: NO BL, NO SHOUJO. There is generally romance, could be 1 to 1, could also be harem. No particular order. <<less

I've been reading LN since 2017, I initially started with JP and then moved on to KR and CN, especially those with character names that don't appear as random jargon to my eyes (as most of the CN ones), but with a few exceptions (some KN ones).... more>>

I mostly prefer fantasy with a bit of romance on the side, but also don't mind other genres when done well. These are the ones I liked that I hope will keep you entertained.

I will keep adding more as I remember/read others.

Honourable mentions (not on NU):

 The beginning after the End, Mother of Learning, Supreme Magus, Underland <<less

Calm , chill, cold, cunning and op MCs with gripping plots (in my opinion).... more>>

And a personal request, if you come across any novels that have a similar vibe to these, please forward them onto me or just let me know about them .

Not in order . <<less

[Ranked based on Number of Readers] Included Tags: Royalty/Historical/Adventure/Fantasy