The Final Frontier of Japanese Media

The “light novel” has achieved mass popularity in recent years in Japan. For the unfamiliar, a light novel is a prose fiction story usually employing characters from a popular manga or anime series. The light novel is often a novelization of a manga or anime story, but completely separate stories appearing in no other format are common as well. The popularity in Japan is no surprise, if you think about it. Die-hard fans of popular series will read just about anything that includes their favorite characters, but despite the fact that light novels usually have a handful of illustrations, the fact it is prose means the readers use their imagination when thinking about how the story unfolds. This has an extra layer of appeal all its own. From a country where fan-fic and doujinshi is so popular (and accepted by publishers), the rise in the popularity of the light novel is really no surprise at all.

We have seen a steady increase in light novels being published in English over the past year or so, and it is very possible that trend will continue. Dark Horse editor Carl Horn called the light novel “the final frontier of Japanese media” at a recent speech at Portland State University. I think this is a telling observation. Over the last 25 years we have seen translations from Japan go from only movies and classical literature to video games, manga, anime, pop novels, puzzle books, craft books, and now the final frontier: the light novel.

As interesting and exciting as this might be, it is very possible that this Japanese light novel trend will fizzle out stateside before its time. As someone who has spent much of the last couple years translating light novels, I certainly would hate to see this happen for personal reasons, but also looking at the state of the industry today, I think this would be a minor tragedy. Generally less expensive than a single volume of manga, but provide more hours of entertainment and engage the brain's imagination, light novels are a great entertainment value that might fade away before given the best chance to thrive.

There are a few reasons why this could happen. One is that these books are directed toward a very narrow market in a demographic and country where reading-for-fun free-time had a lot of competition. It's summer vacation, and I have heard about more completions of GTA IV and the new MGS release than I have about great books already read (an act that takes about 10% of the time of finishing a video game) from the teens around me.

Another reason could be that fans aren’t always aware that the novels exist. There could be several reasons for this problem, but one I notice most often is that bookstores aren’t sure how to shelve titles in this very new and relatively unique genre.

In some stores light novels are shelved in “fiction”, and in others in “young readers”. Sometimes they are placed with “manga” and other times in “foreign titles”. Most often they are spread sporadically over several sections. None of these sections are wrong, and some might say there aren’t quite enough titles—yet—to merit their own shelf or aisle. I have a real hope this changes. I think the most logical slution would be to reserve a shelf next to the manga section exclusively for light novels. This way fans could easily find the light novels that correspond with their favorite manga, and they could see that other novels they didn't even know about were available on shelves.

Bookstores have struggled with shelving manga because too many damn titles come out every week. However the biggest culprit, Tokyopop, will be slowing down and as the manga boom naturally plateaus, I believe the idea of having a light novel section shelved near the manga (or anime, for that matter), is more realistic. Sticking Psycho Busters in youth fiction or foreign sections is a death sentence for the title. Although someone like me does read foreign fiction as well as light novels, I think the crossover is pretty limited.

So if you think you have read or seen all the stories there are for Naruto, Trinity Blood,Blood+, Vampire Hunter D, Ghost in the Shell, Psycho Busters, Oh My Goddess, Welcome to the NHK, Dirty Pair (and many others) pick up one of the light novels for a new look at a favorite series. One thing I have noticed in reading light novels is there are things you can do in fiction that you can’t do in anime and manga which can add a whole new dimension to the story.

In the case of Blood+, much more background is provided, and reading the novel with the anime feels like you are getting some inside secrets that the anime creators obviously had in mind. There is a scene in the plantation in Vietnam where Karl and Solomon are talking in an office. In the anime the camera pans over a deskful of photographs showing the ageless Chevalier posing with a variety of individuals, including one in a Nazi uniform. There was no way to explain that in the anime, but in the novel we find out the picture is of an actual member of Hitler's Third Reich who really fought for the Nazis. Later in a flashback in Russia we are introduced to Grigori, who also existed in Russian history, and whose real-life story is surprisingly similar to the almost immortal Chiropterans.

If you can’t find any of the titles I listed above (check here for a more complete list), tell the staff at your favorite bookstore. They want to stock what you want to read.