romantic story; colorful story; highly embellished story
Refers to a story that is fanciful, romantic, or exaggerated, often with a sense of being too good to be true. The English gloss suggest a tale that is embellished or colorful rather than strictly factual.
His adventure stories always sound like romantic tales; it's hard to tell how much is true.
This book collects colorful stories from the Edo period.
Standard kanji spelling; 奇 means 'strange' or 'curious', 談 means 'story' or 'talk'.
Alternate kanji spelling using 綺 ('beautiful' or 'ornate'); less common than 奇談.
Compound of 奇 (ki, 'strange, curious') and 談 (dan, 'story, talk'). The alternate spelling 綺談 uses 綺 (ki, 'beautiful, ornate'), suggesting a more embellished nuance.