Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. Full Metal Panic. Shakugan no Shana. Kino no Tabi. Toshokan Sensou.

What do these anime have in common?

1- They’re awesome
2- They’re popular
3- They’re anime adaptations of light novels.

Ah yes, the wonderful medium of Japanese Light Novels. You may have heard that recently, more and more anime aired seems to be based off a series of light novels, such as the recently concluded Spice and Wolf, the currently airing Kurenai and Toshokan Sensou, or the soon to premier Toradora! It seems like animating light novels has become the latest ‘trend’, as more anime studios are starting to focus on making adaptations of light novels.

Why light novels, or, what are light novels even, you ask? All these questions and more, right after the jump.

Come together and make my day!

I- What are light novels?

Cover of Suzumiya Haruhi no Bunretsu, Volume 9 in the series

Light novels are, simply put, novels with lots and lots of text with occasional illustrations placed inside them. They are written by an author and illustrated by an artist. For example, the Suzumiya Haruhi series featured above is written by Tanigawa Nagaru and illustrated by Itou Noizi (who also illustrated Shakugan no Shana, btw). They are usually serialized in a monthly magazine (just like manga is) before being collected and published into a complete tankubon. These complete tankubons retail for about the same price as a manga tankubon.

Light novels typically include color illustrations at the beginning of the novel, a colored jacket, several black and white illustrations and lots of text.

You get a few color illustrations like these on the first few pages.

Page on the left shows a black and white illustration, while page on the right shows the text.

Once in a while, you get character illustrations and info like these as well, which is always welcome.

Few examples of light novel turned anime include: Suzumiya Haruhi, Full Metal Panic, Shakugan no Shana, Toshokan Sensou, Spice and Wolf, Baccano!, Slayers, Maria-sama ga miteru, Scrapped Princess, Zero no Tsukaima, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, Ghost Hunt, Kaze no Stigma, Rental Magica, Read or Die, Kyou Kara Maoh and so on.

And of course, just like manga, light novels are read from right to left ^^;

II – Why are light novels chosen to be animated?

Light novels are like an untapped gold field. – they have lots of interesting stories just dying to be animated. One of the earliest Light Novel adaptations I can remember is Slayers (in 1995), followed by Full Metal Panic, Maria-sama ga Miteru and Shakugan no Shana. If you ask me, though, the one anime that really piqued interest in the light novel genre was Suzumiya Haruhi.

Prior to Haruhi, most people wouldn’t have known much about light novels, or bothered to read them (I knew of light novels through FMP and Brandy’s translations on Boku-tachi). With Suzumiya Haruhi’s immense success, it’s no wonder that more people began diverting their attention to the rich medium of light novels. Most of the light novel adaptations have also been received quite positively, further increasing the attention towards the medium.

(Though I will admit that several adaptations have been quite bad. Kaze no Stigma almost immediately comes to mind ^^;;)

As of now, there has been an increasing trend to animate light novels, with at least one show every season being an adaptation. Western manga companies have also begun to release their own translations of light novels, notably Seven Sea’s Zero no Tsukaima, Tokyopop’s Full Metal Panic and its upcoming Gosick, and most notably, Little, Brown Books for Young Reader’s Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu.

III – Why watch light novel anime adaptations? Why read light novels when I can just watch the anime?

While light novel translations certainly do exist, they are not as common as manga scanlations. Chances are, if you watch an anime based on a light novel, you will know very little about it, which makes the overall watching experience new and refreshing. You are also less likely to get spoiled by other people compared to when watching an anime based off manga (yes, I am aware that there are people who read light novels RAW, hence the emphasis on the words less likely). How likely are you going to get spoiled on this season’s Kurenai, compared to, say, this season’s Nabari no Ou?

Just like any other form of adaptations out there, anime adaptations of light novels cannot fully cover the source material. There is bound to be extra content in the original novels if you compare them to the anime. In some cases, there might even be huge differences between the adaptations (which is not always a bad thing, as I will demonstrate below). An example would be the infamous gender-bending of the twin assassins in Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid. In the novels, the assassins were a pair of brothers who were raised by Gauron. In the anime, they opted to switch the brothers with a pair of hot, yuri sisters, which needless to say was a great success. On the other side of the spectrum, series like Ghost Hunt (based off a manga, which was in turn based off a series of novels) are ended without a conclusion, and since they will never likely see a second season or OVA, the only way to know of the true ending the author intended is to read the original novels.

IV- What does Light Novels have to do with Ocha!, and what can I expect from Ocha in the future?

Ocha! is just your typically anime blog, with some bits of fansubbing thrown in to the mix. I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce readers to some great light novel series, and occasionally post some quirky pieces about them.

This concludes the first session of Ocha!’s NICE BOOK. This was originally supposed to be my first post here on Ocha!, but exams, crappy internets and general laziness has delayed it to the point that I decided to post the random bit about Colonel-tan instead. Rest assured, I will be updating this column quite frequently, so if you’re here for your weekly Toshokan Sensou fix, do drop in to have a look ^^;;

P/S: If you’re wondering about the name NICE BOOK, its a play on the infamous School Days meme NICE BOAT.

Sneak Preview: Have you ever noticed the books Kagami reads in Lucky Star? Most of those are, as revealed in the series, light novels.

Ever wondered what that book was?

It's kimi no ita kinou, boku no miru asa -STARTING BELL-

We’ll reveal what titles she read throughout the course of the series next time, on NICE BOOK.

This post is tagged *NICE BOOK

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