CATDOLL: Japanese media complains that light novels are only commercial and lack literary style

The term "light novel" is definitely familiar to people in the ACG industry. As the animation industry develops, it has entered more and more people's field of vision, and light novels are no longer unfamiliar to ordinary people. Popular works such as "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", "Shakugan no Shana", "A Certain Magical Index", and "Zero no Tsukaima" continue to appear in front of everyone, which has also led to a rapid growth in the light novel market since 2005.

Nowadays, there are light novel adaptations in the new season every quarter, and the popularity of "Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?" in April this year was so high that the publisher published an additional novel. However, from a market perspective, light novels have fallen into a trough since 2013. So why is this the case? Recently, a Japanese media wrote an article to analyze it, as follows:

First, let's define "light novel". It took more than 10 years for light novels to become known to the public, but there is still no accurate definition. Generally speaking, people think that novels (single volumes) with young people as the main audience can be understood as "light novels" from the perspective of style. In addition, if a work has the participation of illustrators, many characters with rich personalities, and is sold under the name of light novels, then it is naturally of this type.

First of all, we need to know what "light novel" is.

In recent years, one of the reasons why light novels have been adapted into animations and live-action versions is that when the works were first planned, they were based on large-scale media development. This approach is naturally different from ordinary literary works, and the light novel editors are more likely to stand on the producer's standpoint to construct the works and guide the direction of the themes and stages of the works. In this way, many young people who do not read novels are attracted, and the large-scale media development driven by light novels has naturally spawned a new business model. However, at the same time, the appearance of multimedia integration from the beginning will naturally lead to problems.

Do light novel writers have any literary talent?

When people discuss the topic of light novels, they often touch on this topic: "Do light novel writers need writing skills?" If they are novelists, then they naturally need to have a minimum level of writing skills. However, since light novels have a strong affinity with animation images, they pay more attention to the world view and characters when they are animated. What writers need is to find themes that are easy to be animated, and to add highlights to the characters and plot. As for the ability of the novelist, it is secondary.

Of course, this does not mean that businesses will just sit back and do nothing. For example, KADOKAWA's "MediaWorks Library", which was founded about five years ago, has placed its works on the bookshelf of ordinary literary works and tapped into more light novel reading groups. The "Ancient Bookstore Incident Notebook" launched by the library was also made into a TV series, which achieved certain results. Taking this library as an opportunity, libraries of other types such as "character literature" and "light novel literature" that combine light novels and ordinary literature are also being launched. This is indispensable for the cultivation of writers and readers. So, let us once again look forward to the birth of works that can trigger a craze.