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Forum - View topicWhat's A Light Novel?
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Parsifal24
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there is also the fact that Light Novels to quote the TV tropes page on it
The web novel aspect of it I actually think is helpful as it helps a creator gain a feel for how they want to write Tsutomu Satō before he got Mahouka published was writing the novel while working as a Salaryman and the novel had to be reworked heavily. Same for Tappei Nagatsuki author of Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World who had to have his novel worked down from the thousand page manuscript he submitted. As far as the writing contests go those can help find some diamonds in the rough but you also get stuff like "Vending Machine Reincarnation" or a slew of Isekai titles. Last edited by Parsifal24 on Wed Oct 19, 2016 8:00 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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kinghumanity
Posts: 365 |
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I mostly want to know how all these awful assembly-line made "magic high school battle harem fantasy" light novels get published and animated in the first place. Surely their sales aren't that great, especially after their 14th permutation of the exact same story setup?
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Are there any Light Novels that are NOT (intended to be) "serial" in nature? That seems somewhat like the main defining characteristic to me. While there are definitely novel "series", Light Novels seem to be made with the INTENT to be a series. Basically, the difference between "tv series" and "movie". In that sense, you can have a movie series like "Star Wars" that has multiple iterations, but each movie was made largely as a distinct entity. Whereas tv series are made to be released on a (usually) set schedule and maintaining a consumer base.
I'm not really well versed in LNs, (I read a few series) but that seemed to be how most of them go, so I was curious if there's any "1-shot" or "single, self-contained" LNs that break this pattern. (I mean, I'd assume there are efforts that don't catch on and fail just like manga series, but I'm curious if the "serial" aspect is an intentional goal) |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-05-29/top-selling-light-novels-in-japan-by-series-2016/.102641 Many of the top selling are battle harem. After the "lost in parallel fantasy world" is the most popular trend in LNs. And why is animated is simply promotion, promotion, promotion. Every big publisher have a anime office where the only job they have is to assemble anime Production Committees to promote light novels and manga. If you watch the credits at the end of most anime you will see the name of a big LN/manga publisher, that is the big promoter of that anime. More or less most anime nowadays is created because of LN/manga publishers. The line is more or less: New LN have good sales. Make a manga to promote that LN. If sales are improving, make a anime to promote that LN. If there is a good improve of LN sales, even if the anime BD's don't sale that much and the anime lost money, a new anime season may follow.
LN work like manga. If the first volume don't sale, they are dropped. And if there are a big drop of sales, don't matter what volume is, the author are give the next volume to wrap up the story and the LN series is axed. Last edited by Jonny Mendes on Wed Oct 19, 2016 11:36 am; edited 1 time in total |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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So they ARE intended to be serial works? Again, that seems the defining trait to me. |
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zztop
Posts: 650 |
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I have heard of some publishers who request the web novel be pulled down the moment they are published as light novels. Readers have said in these cases the webnovel wasn't subject to heavy editing. |
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Vaisaga
 Posts: 13242 |
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Here's a crazy thought: maybe people genuinely like those kinds of stories. Yes, people can like things you don't like. As some one who consumes this sort of media en masse, I can assure you that while two works might have similar premises, the stories can develop in a lot of different ways. Each individual author brings their own unique beliefs, perspectives, and preferences to their works so no two novels are exactly the same. Some are better than others, of course, but that goes for any sort of media.
There are plenty of one shot light novels out there, but in general yeah it's preferable for a series to be ongoing to generate more profit. |
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Treeborn
 Posts: 729 |
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The way I generally look at light novels is that they are writings made purely for entertainment purposes, rather than for artistic merit. It's a story written by someone who isn't necessarily trying to tell a cohesive and meaningful story, but has these characters and scenarios that they want to see in print and (lets face it) turned into an anime. Which is why they tend to be lacking in things such symbolism, motifs, foreshadowing (I don't consider pointless prologues foreshadowing), and all that other artsy-fartsy stuff. And also why LN series are just volumes of arcs which don't really amount to anything in the end.
As far as the "poorly-written" part goes, that mostly falls on the publisher. No surprise that they higher random amateurs who write solely to appeal to a target demographic, as I would imagine it is very cost efficient. They probably only pay the author pennies, and I would imagine the publishing house doesn't even edit the work before sending it out into the public. Of course, this isn't to say that all LNs are bad and they all consist of the flaws I mentioned. But, I think after a certain quality is achieved, it no longer falls under the category of light novel; its considered a [insert genre and sub-genre] novel. The illustration has certainly become a staple in light novels, but I don't think its a defining characteristic. I could definitely see some new adult novels here in the states using manga art :p |
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Jonny Mendes
Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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That is the main goal. But all depends of the first volume sales. The first volume is write in a way that can be regarded as a single book without a cliffhanger in the end, so even if is not successful can be easily dropped. It works as test to see if it sales. There are single volume LN's but is mostly those unsuccessful. I don't remember any LN write as a single volume as a main goal, but maybe someone in the forum can remember some. |
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meiam
Posts: 3450 |
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I always saw light novel as the spaghetti on wall approach to publishing, where the publishing house has very very low standard and just publish almost everything, most likely paying next to nothing for the initial work and letting the market decide what's worth keeping.
And I like that, if the public really feel like it needs 10 magic school harem then it should get its 10 magic school harem. But it does mean that smaller niche title aren't doing too well and that innovation might be stifled. |
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WingKing
Posts: 617 |
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In American equivalency, I tend to think of light novels as being similar to the "pulp" writing of the early 1900s. Pulp writing was also primarily light, disposable entertainment, and (like many light novel serials) published in magazines that catered to fans of genre fiction (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, western, mystery, or romance). Pulp characters who caught on and became popular (Tarzan, Conan the Barbarian, Zorro) would get their stories and adventures serialized, and sometimes even made into movies or radio dramas, while the unpopular characters were left to wither on the vine. And just like modern light novels, many of the authors were poorly paid amateurs - for every Edgar Rice Burroughs or HP Lovecraft whose popularity has endured, there are dozens of would-be pulp writers published in those same magazines that time has long since forgotten.
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redcar
 Posts: 172 Location: Texas |
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Thanks for the article! I've always liked the light novel format, and I'm glad to see that it seems to be slowly picking up again in the states. I just hope that some of the things that didn't quite make it here in the past eventually get license rescued: Full Metal Panic, Gosick, Shana, Familiar of Zero to name a few. I wouldn't hate the Seikai series either, though I'm not actually sure those count as light novels? Regardless, the format scratches a particular itch between anime and books that nothing else does for me (since manga is...different).
Also, here's some interesting reading from last month regarding best-selling light novels in Japan: https://tanoshimi.xyz/2016/09/02/best-selling-light-novels/ |
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phia_one
Posts: 1663 Location: Pennsylvania |
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Interesting article. The only LN series I have sitting on my shelf is Log Horizon which I still need to read. I'd love to read the Irresponsible Captain Tylor and The Third: The Girl With the Blue Eye LNs.
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TheCrimsonClaw
 Posts: 6 |
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Gekkou was only one volume, and as far as I can tell, was only ever intended to be one volume. Beyond that though, I can't think of any others. |
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rizuchan
 Posts: 980 Location: Kansas |
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Thanks for this article. I've always had a fairly good idea of what Light Novels were but this really helped tie it all together.
I always thought of Light Novels as sort of equivalent to teen fiction. I know the article points out that Light Novels are supposed to target more than just YA, but that's obviously the group that consumes them the most, and they have that same sort of simplistic story telling and easy to read language. I was originally very excited when more and more LNs started coming out in the States, until I realized that most of them were... not very good. I was also disappointed to discover that LNs are so "light" in content and so targeted toward the anime market that most of the anime adaptations match the content of the original so closely that if you've seen the adaptation, there's no gain in reading the original. People make jokes about the Lord of the Rings movies being longer than the book, but that actually is the case with most light novels. It took me an hour and a half to read The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya while the movie is 2.7 hours. I'd bet this is consistent if you compare episode run time to the light novel volume equivalents of most series, assuming you're a reasonably fast reader. Of course, if the anime doesn't adapt the entire series, the light novels provide more story and the incentive to buy them. Personally, I've wanted to continue a few stories but it's such a struggle to get through the volumes covered by the anime I never get to the sequels. I should just skip them... but I'm always worried I'll miss something, even though I should know better by now. Edit: On the topic of one volume light novels, I offer up Welcome to the NHK. |
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