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Light Novel |OT| Slightly Better than Manga and Anime!

rrvv

rrvv

Member
better as in worse

p02Lbus.jpg


What is Light Novel?

From wikipedia
light novel (ライトノベル raito noberu?) is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting middle- and high-school students (young adult demographic). "Light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Such short, light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ?) or LN in the West. They are typically not more than 40,000–50,000 words long (the shorter ones being equivalent to a novella in US publishing terms), are rarely more than a few hundred pages, often have dense publishing schedules, are usually published in bunkobon size, and are often illustrated.The text is often serialized in anthology magazines before collection in book form.
Click to expand...

Example:

Sword Art Online
Monogatari Series
Durarara!
Log Horizon
To aru Majutsu No Index
Spice and Wolf

Where To Get:
Check you local book store. If not Yen Press have great selection of it
Milamber said:
For any of you international folk's that have issues with shipping light novels and more to your place, I highly suggest using Book Depository. Free shipping worldwide and they are regularly cheaper than Amazon and Kinokuniya.
Click to expand...

Useful Link:

Englishlightnovel for news related stuff
Light Novel Review
 
O

Owl

Neo Member
I really love the Spice and Wolf as a light novel series and read it after coming across the anime series by accident. I definitely want to start investing time and money in reading more light novels.
 
R

Remembrance

Member
Ah, four volumes of Kino no Tabi right there in the header photo.

Still the most glaring omission when it comes to English translations?
 
M

mdubs

Banned
I'm glad we have an OT for this! I recommend Sword Art Online Progressive, it's a much better version of Sword Art Online and actually a pretty good book in general.

For those curious, I wrote a review of it here http://anitay.kinja.com/sword-art-online-progressive-vol-1-light-novel-revie-1690942285

For anyone wondering a little bit about light novels getting a push in the US again: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...848-light-novels-arrive-in-the-u-s-again.html

Some sales anecdotes (from the Vertical Comics askfm):

Sword Art Online has been a pretty big sales success so far. (Vol. 1 sold over 30K copies in 4 months following release --> Yen Press reported)
Magical Index has been so-so
Dan Machi (Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) has sold pretty well so far.
Accel World has been pretty meh.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
Wanted a thread like this for ages. Have been always unsure whether I should post about novels in AnimeGAF or MangaGAF.

Been reading Lord Marksman and Vanadis. Whilst enjoyable the separation of the main characters most of the time makes it less entertaining than I hoped based on the anime.
 
Q

Quasar

Member
mdubs said:
I'm glad we have an OT for this! I recommend Sword Art Online Progressive, it's a much better version of Sword Art Online and actually a pretty good book in general.

For those curious, I wrote a review of it here http://anitay.kinja.com/sword-art-online-progressive-vol-1-light-novel-revie-1690942285

For anyone wondering a little bit about light novels getting a push in the US again: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/...848-light-novels-arrive-in-the-u-s-again.html

Some sales anecdotes (from the Vertical Comics askfm):

Sword Art Online has been a pretty big sales success so far. (Vol. 1 sold over 30K copies in 4 months following release --> Yen Press reported)
Magical Index has been so-so
Dan Machi (Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) has sold pretty well so far.
Click to expand...

I just wish all the Yen translations were in ebook form (and available outside the US).
 
A

Arabesque

Member
The last Light Novel I read last year was All You Need Is Kill since I got interested in recalling what were the differences between the different adaptations of the novel between the manga and the film. Was pretty good.

I've been trying to get more into reading LN's since, with The Devil is a Part Timer and getting around to finally reading Haruhi Suzumiya, but I need to find time to actually reading them.

Tizoc said:
Did Baccano LNs ever get any official English release?
Click to expand...
Sadly no.

Quasar said:
I just wish all the Yen translations were in ebook form (and available outside the US).
Click to expand...

Are any of Dengeki Bunko imprint available in any ebook format?

I don't think they have them for their Japanese titles (could be wrong).
 
J

JC Sera

Member
Loving that title
Is it ok to link baka tsuki here?

My reccs are
Very low amount of anime bullshit:
The Trinity blood light novels (Officially translated)
Rokka no Yuusha
Kamisu Reina & Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (Eiji Mikage in general)
Gekkou (Complete)
Mimizuku to Yoru no Ou (Complete)
Sugar Dark (Complete)

Everything Else:
Ark
Moonlight Sculptor
Tsurugi no Joou to Rakuin no Ko
Psycho Love Comedy (Volumes 1 & 2 only, 3 falls into oni-sama~)
 
bobawesome

bobawesome

Member
I've always wanted to read the LNs for Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. Are there any official English releases for them yet?
 
U

User 10639

Member
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.

I suppose the LNs that would be of greatest interest to me personally would be those that were not yet adapted into anime TV shows. Anybody have any recommendations from that angle?
 
N

Nudull

Banned
A light novel thread. Yay!

Anyone read the Fullmetal Alchemist novels? I've collected and read several of the Viz-localized ones, and I adore the hell out of them. Outside of that, the only other light novel I've read was a Naruto one (Innocent Heart, Demonic Blood I think). I'm happy to branch out, though!
 
Q

Quasar

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.
Click to expand...

Yeah. YA is really a good way to look at it. Certainly thats how I view it.
 
N

NeoForte

Member
I wished the Kino no Tabi novels were translated past the 1st Volume. The Gakuen no Kino series would have been great to own in english too.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.
Click to expand...

Yup, they're pretty much teen novels.
 
S

Sir Blaming

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
I suppose the LNs that would be of greatest interest to me personally would be those that were not yet adapted into anime TV shows. Anybody have any recommendations from that angle?
Click to expand...

Hmm, you can try Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria.
It's not my cup of tea, but it's still good nonetheless.
 
M

Milamber

Member
For any of you international folk's that have issues with shipping light novels and more to your place, I highly suggest using Book Depository. Free shipping worldwide and they are regularly cheaper than Amazon and Kinokuniya.
 
C

Conan-san

Member
Yeah, it's mildly fristrating that the current keystones of this (SAO, quality aside) and such are locked away in Physical Format because the japanese publisher is a load of arse.

Did I imagine "Devil is a Partimer" is getting a release in english?
 
rrvv

rrvv

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.

I suppose the LNs that would be of greatest interest to me personally would be those that were not yet adapted into anime TV shows. Anybody have any recommendations from that angle?
Click to expand...

I am just go ahead and recommended Bungaku Shoujo. It Movie anime and some OVA but those are compressed compare to actual Novel
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
Big reader of LN here .

I guess , the rules are more and less like the manga & anime threads about spoilers.
because i'm glad there is a place to discuss those
 
B

bobohoro

Member
Will start my venture into LNs next week with the first two volumes of SAO. While I'm not the biggest fan of the series, I thought something I'm familiar with content-wise would be a good way to check out the format. Will report back with my impressions.
 
S

striferser

Huge Nickleback Fan
LN thread, finally!
I recently read Moshidora. While i don't think the story is anything special, it does make me borrow Peter Drucker management from a library.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
I love to read LNs. What is kinda sad though is, that somehow they only sell well if there is an anime.

I remember Tokyopop Germany released a lot of LNs in 2006. Boogiepop, Kino no Tabi, Maria sama ga miteru and Gosick followed by Carlsen who released Kyou Kara Maou.
They didnt sell well (in the xxx range). Somehow when Gosick got an anime later, everyone was asking where to buy it (since it was out of print then).

So they canceled almost all. Now they are releasing SAO, Accel World and some others again and it seems they sell okay and that is just because there is an anime. Kino no Tabi itself wasnt really popular as an anime, so the Novel also sold bad.

____________________________________________________

The same thing happened in America. Seven Seas released some Light Novel as well as Tokyopop and they canceled almost all. It seems the average reader didnt want to read novels and rather read manga.
I still have the volumes of Scrapped Princess, Crest of the Stars, Missing in my library. Sad to see they will never be finished.

bobohoro said:
Will start my venture into LNs next week with the first two volumes of SAO. While I'm not the biggest fan of the series, I thought something I'm familiar with content-wise would be a good way to check out the format. Will report back with my impressions.
Click to expand...

Reki Kawaharas writing style is... bad I would say.

Kino no Tabi (at least the German translation) was really great on the other hand.
 
D

dramatis

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.

I suppose the LNs that would be of greatest interest to me personally would be those that were not yet adapted into anime TV shows. Anybody have any recommendations from that angle?
Click to expand...
Could try All You Need is Kill. No anime adaptation, but there is a Hollywood adaptation that differs significantly in the story department from the LN. Has an English translation.
 
B

bobohoro

Member
Chairmanchuck said:
Kino no Tabi (at least the German translation) was really great on the other hand.
Click to expand...

I basically stopped reading german translations of literature a decade ago after discovering that I vastly prefer english ones, probably due to not being my native language and me therefore being less picky about certain stuff. Bukowski (obvious) and Murakami (a bit less obvious) were the two big ones that made me switch, since I read quite a few of their works both in german and english and in all of the cases prefered the latter. Native german authors are of course the exception.

I have the feeling that this disparity would be even bigger in LN/manga and therefore kinda never really tried them in german, except for One Piece (Volume 1-38) which I'll probably sell sometime down the road to replace them with the english volumes. I don't expect good writing from stuff like SAO, just a feeling of flow that helps fueling the imagination, and I think english is better suited to achieve that end compared to german overall. It's a tough language to get right, and even harder to do creative things with.
 
Q

Quixzlizx

Member
icarus-daedelus said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are light novels basically the Japanese equivalent to young adult literature in the West? I'd never thought about them in those terms before, but it makes a lot of intuitive sense to me. Interesting that such similar phenomena exist in two radically different publishing cultures.

I suppose the LNs that would be of greatest interest to me personally would be those that were not yet adapted into anime TV shows. Anybody have any recommendations from that angle?
Click to expand...

Just like in the West, the book is often better than the movie. Not that most LN series are going from 10/10 literary masterpiece to 8/10 mildly disappointing in comparison yet solid anime, but there's still usually a dip from whatever level the LN started at. You'd be surprised at how much more depth the characters can have in novel form even in trashy fanservice franchises (although again, I'm just talking about relative quality when compared to the anime). I'm sure there are also bottom-of-the barrel trash LNs where just having a professional anime studio involved raised the quality from the source material, although I don't know how many of those get chosen to be adapted.

I'm not suggesting to always read the novels after watching the anime, but you might want to at least check out the novels of any of your favorite shows that originated as novels. Crest of the Stars is probably one of my favorite 3 anime shows ever, and I'm really glad I read the novels afterward, and I'm still salty that the Battleflag/Seikai no Senki novels were never licensed. I guess it also depends on whether you prefer action-driven stories or character-driven stories, as I suppose anime can even improve the impact of the former.

bobawesome said:
That's disappointing but not surprising. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly how much this can be discussed, but the Haganai fan-translations are close to the best you'll get from LN fan-translations. Of course I'd buy them if they were available for sale here.
 
M

mdubs

Banned
bobohoro said:
Will start my venture into LNs next week with the first two volumes of SAO. While I'm not the biggest fan of the series, I thought something I'm familiar with content-wise would be a good way to check out the format. Will report back with my impressions.
Click to expand...

Read Progressive instead! You'll like it more I can almost guarantee it, the quality of writing is much higher and the plot makes a lot more sense.

Milamber said:
For any of you international folk's that have issues with shipping light novels and more to your place, I highly suggest using Book Depository. Free shipping worldwide and they are regularly cheaper than Amazon and Kinokuniya.
Click to expand...

Yes, this would be good to add to the OP. Right now the broader future of the English LN market depends on how Yen Press's LN push does, apparently (according to Vertical) a lot of the publishers are watching this with interest to see how the format does.
 
B

bobohoro

Member
mdubs said:
Read Progressive instead! You'll like it more I can almost guarantee it, the quality of writing is much higher and the plot makes a lot more sense.
Click to expand...

I thought Progressive was a collection of side stories that accompany the original series? I planned on getting it, but thought it should be read after the first (and maybe second) novel initially.
 
V

vareon

Member
I just ordered Yen Press' Log Horizon. It's the only English-translated one I'm interested in so far. Would kill to have Full Metal Panic or Durarara!!.
 
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