Oh no! We've been transported to another world where podcasters fight in some sort of Battle Royale (and also Z has been turned into a washing machine)?! This week, we're talking about the fascinating fandom that is Light Novel fans, with special guest, Justus R. Stone!
Next week, we'll be going to another other world... in ... space? Talking about... Galaga?!
Justus R. Stone is the author of the apocalyptic fiction series, The Bleeding Worlds, and has a podcast (Light Novel Podcast) and YouTube channel dedicated to light novels.
You can also find him on Twitter (@justusrstone), Instagram (@justusrstone) and Facebook (... @justusrstone).
History and Origins:
Light Novels are short (approximately 50 000 words), Japanese novels primarily targeted at high- and middle-school students which are often accompanied by manga- or anime-style illustrations. The "light" in the name actually comes from the lack of hard-to-read kanji (ideographic characters in Japanese).
Light novels are sort of the evolution of pulp novels and magazines in Japan: Somewhere in the 1970s, many pulp magazines had started to move away from classic-style covers towards more anime and manga style covers and including illustrations at the beginning of stories.
In the 1980s, novels like _The Heroic Legend of Arslan_ and _Record of Lodoss War_ took a hold of audience, as did _Slayers_ and the _Boogiepop_ series in the 1990s (note that many of these were turned into anime). Interest in light novels really took off in the mid-2000s with the success of the _Haruhi Suzumiya_ series.
Search Data:
By Google Trends search volume, Light Novels have become much, much more popular since 2004 and are arguably the most popular they have ever been. Since 2006, they have been on a steady climb upwards with exception to the last few years where interest has been a bit flat. There was a sharp increase in interest between February to August 2015, but we couldn't figure out why.
In terms of search volume, the top ten countries for_Light Novel_ are: Japan, Taiwan, Macau, Hong Kong, Phillipines, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan.
Fan Demographics:
Based on some data from the r/LightNovel Community Survey from 2016 (with over 1500 respondents):
Some other interesting bits of data from the survey:
Erica
What do you think are the qualities of light novels as a genre that makes them so interesting as reader and reviewer of light novels? (What are your thoughts about the genre as a whole, and personal interpretation of why you like them)
G
Why 'light' novels? Why