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NEWS: Top-Selling Light Novels in Japan by Volume: 2012


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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1799
PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:52 pm Reply with quote
All right Drrr's acctually on the list! I know we probably won't get it for a long time but I would really love to get a season two.

props to hyouka and Index, especially index which has surprised me by how much I enjoy the novels more than the anime itself!


Last edited by Thatguy3331 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:24 am; edited 1 time in total
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lizardking461





PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Thatguy3331 wrote:
All right Drrr's acctually on the list! I know we probably won't get it for a long time but I would really love to get a season two.

props to hyouka and Index, especially index which as surprised me by how much I enjoy the novels more than the anime itself!


I doubt we'll ever get a season 2, which sucks because it is one of my favourite series, and probably one of the best animes of the past decade or so.
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1799
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:02 am Reply with quote
lizardking461 wrote:
Thatguy3331 wrote:
All right Drrr's acctually on the list! I know we probably won't get it for a long time but I would really love to get a season two.

props to hyouka and Index, especially index which as surprised me by how much I enjoy the novels more than the anime itself!


I doubt we'll ever get a season 2, which sucks because it is one of my favourite series, and probably one of the best animes of the past decade or so.


What makes you say that? I don't recall it being a flush in DVD or BL sales so While I don't think it'd be soon I don't think we can dismiss the possibility entirely... unless I'm missing something...
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:07 am Reply with quote
Is hyouka considerably better in the LN format? It was a nice anime, but not special. Honestly its animation was the only real standout with rather dull "mysteries", fairly generic characters, and probably the biggest fizzle I have ever seen. I did not even know the anime had ended until I checked wiki, its like someone was writing a novel and then just stopped on a word and left.

And SAO, good God, more than half the list is random volumes of SAO.

At least Index is doing well, waiting for anime season 3.
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Kit-Tsukasa



Joined: 16 Mar 2006
Posts: 930
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:19 am Reply with quote
CrownKlown wrote:

At least Index is doing well, waiting for anime season 3.

The Index novels are fantastic. It's amazing how poor the anime adaptations have been in comparison though. Then again, it's J.C. Staff and co. doing it.

SAO is clearly inflated due to the anime's current popularity. Strip that factor out and Index New Testament 3 is likely on top (as it should be). If I had to guess, Kagero Days is likely #2 followed by OreImo 10 to round out the top 3.

Also, if I recall correctly, Hyouka is not really a light novel. It's a regular novel with four additional short stories published between 2002 (I think?) and 2010 so I'm not sure why it's on the list here. It's an ok read with the anime and novel having their own respective goods and bads.
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Thatguy3331



Joined: 18 Feb 2012
Posts: 1799
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 12:19 am Reply with quote
CrownKlown wrote:
Is hyouka considerably better in the LN format? It was a nice anime, but not special. Honestly its animation was the only real standout with rather dull "mysteries", fairly generic characters, and probably the biggest fizzle I have ever seen. I did not even know the anime had ended until I checked wiki, its like someone was writing a novel and then just stopped on a word and left.

And SAO, good God, more than half the list is random volumes of SAO.

At least Index is doing well, waiting for anime season 3.


I can't speak for its novel adaption but I enjoyed Hyouka quite a bit, especially in the latter part where we acctualy got some character development, though I understand it being considered nothing special. The biggest fizzle for me rather was SAO, I acctually liked volume one but watching it in anime form it made me realize just how dumb it was...and the second arc....forget the second arc... I'll probably give it a second chance once its over and I can see whats next.

Lets go S3index!
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:04 am Reply with quote
This list tells me not to watch anything "based on a light novel' unless the author is Ryohgo Narita. I haven't liked much of anything on this list. Useful to know what to avoid going forward.
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partially



Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 702
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:42 am Reply with quote
tuxedocat wrote:
This list tells me not to watch anything "based on a light novel' unless the author is Ryohgo Narita. I haven't liked much of anything on this list. Useful to know what to avoid going forward.


Well to be fair the list is almost entirely made-up of novels which have had anime adaptions in the past year. So its hardly a representative list of what's good in VNs as a whole, just ones that have had a popular TV adaptation in the past year or so. Given Ryohgo Narita makes the list with no recent adaptations shows how popular his work is though.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:53 am Reply with quote
ASCII Media Works is absolutely destroying Media Factory. Infinite Stratos' disappearance is definitely notable.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 2:05 am Reply with quote
partially wrote:
tuxedocat wrote:
This list tells me not to watch anything "based on a light novel' unless the author is Ryohgo Narita. I haven't liked much of anything on this list. Useful to know what to avoid going forward.


Well to be fair the list is almost entirely made-up of novels which have had anime adaptions in the past year. So its hardly a representative list of what's good in VNs as a whole, just ones that have had a popular TV adaptation in the past year or so. Given Ryohgo Narita makes the list with no recent adaptations shows how popular his work is though.


From the bulk of what has been adapted, it seems like the LN business caters to the otaku market. Granted, I might be only seeing the microcosm, since very little information about Japanese Light novels makes its way over here.
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RyanSaotome



Joined: 29 Mar 2011
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Location: Towson, Maryland
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 2:37 am Reply with quote
tuxedocat wrote:
From the bulk of what has been adapted, it seems like the LN business caters to the otaku market. Granted, I might be only seeing the microcosm, since very little information about Japanese Light novels makes its way over here.


Its not much different from anime that way. Look at all the top sellers in anime and its generally all otaku stuff. There will always be some that you might like but you'd have to dig past all of the most popular ones.
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potatochobit



Joined: 26 Aug 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 2:41 am Reply with quote
these numbers tell me all the good shows ended last winter, lol...
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 3:03 am Reply with quote
RyanSaotome wrote:
tuxedocat wrote:
From the bulk of what has been adapted, it seems like the LN business caters to the otaku market. Granted, I might be only seeing the microcosm, since very little information about Japanese Light novels makes its way over here.


Its not much different from anime that way. Look at all the top sellers in anime and its generally all otaku stuff. There will always be some that you might like but you'd have to dig past all of the most popular ones.


So you are stating that ALL light novels are aimed at otaku? Well, I guess that is why we don't see them in print over here.

Manga must be a safer bet, judging from the top 2012 lists that ANN has been posting today. Very little otaku stuff on those lists.
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Saffire



Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 1256
Location: Iowa, USA
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:13 am Reply with quote
Kit-Tsukasa wrote:
Also, if I recall correctly, Hyouka is not really a light novel. It's a regular novel with four additional short stories published between 2002 (I think?) and 2010 so I'm not sure why it's on the list here. It's an ok read with the anime and novel having their own respective goods and bads.
There's no clear delineation between what's a novel and what's a light novel, so it seems mostly dependent on whether the company wants to market it as one or not. For example, if you see this list on other sites, there are usually a few additions not on the Oricon list because someone reporting it thought they were. I don't know how Hyouka gets marketed but it is under the same label as Haruhi, so that could be it.
tuxedocat wrote:
So you are stating that ALL light novels are aimed at otaku? Well, I guess that is why we don't see them in print over here.
There is a significant segment of light novels that are specifically aimed at otaku, but there's more to them than that. For example, I think there's five light novels currently being printed in English, and only two (Haruhi and Spice & Wolf) that are well known in anime fandom. Maybe Vampire Hunter D? Not sure if people still remember that. Book Girl and Kieli definitely aren't though.
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tuxedocat



Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
PostPosted: Mon Dec 03, 2012 4:36 am Reply with quote
Saffire wrote:
tuxedocat wrote:
So you are stating that ALL light novels are aimed at otaku? Well, I guess that is why we don't see them in print over here.
There is a significant segment of light novels that are specifically aimed at otaku, but there's more to them than that. For example, I think there's five light novels currently being printed in English, and only two (Haruhi and Spice & Wolf) that are well known in anime fandom. Maybe Vampire Hunter D? Not sure if people still remember that. Book Girl and Kieli definitely aren't though.


I have some of those Vampire Hunter D volumes. The ones I have don't have a lot in the way of illustration. mybe four black an white plates throughout the entire book. They read kind of like "novel"-novels.

I've heard that Saiunkoku Monogatari are a "novel" series, much like The Twelve Kingdoms and the Moribito books. Those last two titles, which I own, seem an awful lot like most "novels" to me. minimal illustration. I guess I was under the impression that "light novels" fell somewhare in between "novels" and "manga", since I've seen discussions about the art in "light novel" series. It gave me the impression that there was more art in them. It is very confusing what counts as novels vs. light novels in Japan and how they are differentiated from each other. Confused
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