[Tales Thorough Analysis July Edition] The Creative Awards have ended. Thank you all for your hard work 🍵

Good evening, everyone.

I usually post an article analyzing the novel posting site Tales on the last Saturday of every month to show my support, but this month I decided to post it on the final day of the Creative Awards support period.

It took me a while to compile the data, so it's quite late now...
I'm sorry if anyone was waiting.

Well! It started on April 8th, and today, July 31st, the support period has come to an end.

How was the Creative Awards for you?
Writing, promoting, supporting.
I'm sure many writers have been working hard as if running a race.

For me, I feel like these Creative Awards were a time when I made many new connections with writers.

While reading everyone's articles on note, I also spent time reading TALES on the side.

The worlds we express through our novels are things that are either "common sense to us" or "ideals."

Through novels, I feel that the personalities of people I know, the lines they won't cross, and the wishes they hold through their stories come across in a different way than usual.

Even though the Creative Awards are over, our creative activities will continue.
During the hot summer, stay in your cool homes.
There is still plenty of time to enjoy reading everyone's entries.

If you haven't used Tales yet, please try posting your work or finding your favorite stories.

This time, to provide hints for your creative activities, I have thoroughly analyzed the latest popular tags and genres on Tales! I will explore current real-world trends using multifaceted indicators such as "median view counts" and "number of entries in the overall ranking."

I hope this helps your work reach even more people.

Contests to target

To commemorate the end of the Creative Awards this time, I have tallied the contests that the top 100 works in the monthly overall ranking have entered.

Contests with fewer entries may be hidden gems where there is less competition from top-ranked works, broadening your chances of winning. While it's too late to enter the Creative Awards, please keep an eye on other contests.

Looking at this, there is definitely a bias by genre. The prominence of fantasy is striking.

It's a world where top ranking doesn't necessarily mean interesting, nor does it guarantee winning, but I feel there are more opportunities in genres where there are fewer rivals for both readers and writers.

Compared to the Creative Awards, the [Webtoon Original Work Awards] don't seem to appear much in the top rankings. There were 9 works each in both the 2nd and 3rd terms. Since this is a project seeking original works for vertical-scrolling manga, a different criterion of whether scenes can be visualized in pictures comes into play.

Conversely, for those who are confident in that criterion, it is a playing field with fewer rivals.

The 10 entries in the [Creative Awards 2026 Mystery Novel Category] still have room for growth compared to the highly competitive top-tier categories.

On the other hand, here is where the submissions are concentrated.

・Creative Awards 2026 Fantasy Novel Category: 30 entries
・Creative Awards 2026 Work-Life Novel Category: 14 entries
・Creative Awards 2026 Romance Novel Category: 13 entries
・Creative Awards 2026 Entertainment Original Work Category: 12 entries

The Fantasy Novel category stands out, with 30% of the top 100 works gathered here. If you are going to compete in this category, you need to be prepared for the fact that you will be buried unless you show what makes your work different from other submissions in the very first line.

Straight to the point! These are the popular tags right now!

We have compiled the frequently used tags from the top 50 works in the monthly overall ranking to explore this month's featured keywords.

These were the popular tags for this month.

Comparing them to the previous month, the top four have barely moved. Long-form went from 18 to 21, Serious from 14 to 13, and Otherworld and High Fantasy remained at 12 and 11. These can be called completely fixed tags that "most people use."

In particular, the 21 occurrences of "Long-form" mean it is attached to over 40% of the top 50 works. On Tales, works that are serialized for a long time tend to climb the rankings more easily.

Trends seen in key phrases

We analyzed the words used in the key phrases of the top 50 overall ranking works and compiled the most frequently used words.
From these frequent words, we explore the commonalities of phrases that catch readers' eyes.

The frequent words for this month are as follows.

However, even though "world" and "story" appear frequently, they are not particularly compelling words, so it might actually be better to avoid these frequent keywords to stand out.
Please use this as a reference when thinking about your key phrases.

Check out the popular genres!

Based on the rankings, we analyze the popularity of each genre to explore current trends!

The top 3 for this month are as follows.

・1st Place: Otherworld Fantasy, Number of rankings: 22, Median views: 6,831
・2nd Place: Work/Human Drama, Number of rankings: 8, Median views: 3,835
・3rd Place: Modern Fantasy, Number of rankings: 7, Median views: 4,200

The 22 works in Otherworld Fantasy account for over 40% of the Top 50.
It increased by 2 from the 20 works of the previous month. The current situation is that not only is the 1st place unshakable, but it is gradually expanding its influence.

Genre power map read through long-term trends

We accumulate monthly aggregate data in a time series and analyze the trends in the number of rankings in the top 50 overall for each genre (last 6 months). We decipher the rise and fall of genres and seasonality that cannot be seen from a single month's snapshot.

Looking at this, you can see that modern fantasy and isekai fantasy are almost inversely proportional. I wonder if the reader demographics are similar.

Analysis of the 'length' of popular works in each genre

We aggregate the median character count (total for all episodes and per episode) of the top 20 works in each genre. We explore the trends of genres that prefer short stories versus those that prefer long-form works.

This doesn't change much from month to month, but this month's median character count per episode was longest in youth fiction at 2,471 characters, and shortest in creative theory/criticism at 1,644 characters. In terms of total characters for all episodes, isekai fantasy was the longest at 128,996 characters, and creative theory/criticism was the shortest at 41,232 characters.

The reason why creative theory/criticism is the shortest in both categories is likely because they tend to summarize what they want to say in a single piece. So-called essay-style. Readers are likely reading them because they want to know the answers quickly.

Conversely, the reason isekai fantasy stretches to nearly 130,000 characters is likely because they need to use character count to explain the world. Geography, races, the mechanics of magic. When you have to advance the story while explaining those, the total volume inevitably increases.

On the other hand, the character count per episode is always between 1,600 and 2,400 characters.

For readers reading on smartphones, shorter episodes directly translate to a lighter burden. If your own work has episodes exceeding 3,000 characters, try finding a break and splitting it into two episodes.

Just doing that might change the probability of having your work read through to the end.

This month's featured work

Today, I picked up the work that had the highest number of 'likes' relative to the number of views. From isekai fantasy, 'Tenalp Eht Evas - The Legend of Aeon' [Author: Ako].

Against 3,861 views, there were 4,091 likes. Since likes are given per episode, a simple comparison isn't possible, but it still means that almost everyone who read it left something behind.

The reason it is supported might be in the first line of the synopsis.
What if you read the title backwards...?

Instead of being explained, you realize it yourself.
At that moment, the reader has taken a step into the world of the story.

The fact that it is completed with 86 episodes and 87,779 characters is also a factor that makes it easy to start reading with peace of mind. It has also been submitted to the Creative Awards 2026 Fantasy Novel Category.

This month's personally recommended work

I will introduce works that I am personally reading or supporting.

There are many, but this time, it is 'Karete mo Kaorashi' (Fragrant Even When Withered), a modern novel by Tomoka Hanaura @Re-Curator.

Recommendation reviewI also wrote a.

After reading to the end, I felt a refreshing sensation, much like the aftertaste of a coming-of-age novel.

It has a slightly spicy beginning, but in reality, it realistically expresses the life uncertainties that everyone feels.

I was curious about what would happen next, and I looked forward to reading it every day.

"I've made it this far in life. It's stable, and I don't have any major complaints. But, is it really okay for me to just stay like this?"

This was a novel I wanted people who suddenly feel anxious and want an "answer" to life to read.

Conclusion

I hope this article is even a little bit helpful to you as you write stories on Tales. I have posted the same content on Tales as well, so please feel free to bookmark it if you'd like.

Thank you as always.
May your days on TALES be enjoyable and fruitful.
I hope for good results for the works submitted to the Creative Awards as well.

Past articles:

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