It—truth—does not speak. I am an unidentified flying object, spreading love.
Let’s talk about how light novels are defined. The question has long been discussed in Japanese subculture research, and by now there are plenty of persuasive definitions and discussions.
The material below is excerpted from Senko K. Maynard’s Raito noberu hyōgenron [A Theory of Expression in Light Novels].
The light-novel author Shinjō (2006) defines the light novel as “a novel-writing technique that uses illustrations and other expressive means to help readers understand characters more quickly.”
Meanwhile, industry heavyweight Enomoto (2008)—whose light-novel guidebooks are very well known—summarizes the characteristics of light novels as follows:
- Published under a light-novel imprint
- Extensive use of anime- and manga-style illustrations
- The story revolves around its protagonist
- Elements of fantasy
What these two accounts have in common is the importance they give to illustrations and characters. That importance is reflected in This Light Novel Is Amazing! 2011, a magazine for light-novel readers. Its rankings are divided into four categories: works, male characters, female characters, and illustrations.1 This shows how much weight light-novel fans give to illustrations and characters.
Enomoto, who identifies the characteristics above, also considers it difficult to capture accurately the characteristics of light novels as a whole. He suggests that a broad definition—“entertainment fiction for middle- and high-school students”—might be better. Yet in recent years, there has been a marked increase in readers aged thirty to forty. And although light-novel readers used to be predominantly male, the number of female readers has also grown over the past ten years.
Recent works also show that light novels are placing increasing emphasis on story.
As we have seen, neither the definition of light novels nor their readership is necessarily clear-cut. In fact, after defining light novels, Shinjō (2006) adds: “Perhaps light novels should be a mode of expression rather than a category.”
In Raito noberu ★ Metta-giri [Light Novels ★ Cut to Pieces], Ōmori and Mimura (2004) identify the following characteristics of light novels—their degree of “light-novelness”:
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Book design: bunko-format pocket paperbacks, with anime- and manga-style cover art
- Illustrations within the text
- No more than three hundred pages
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Story: avoids an early conclusion and continues as a series of five or more volumes
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Setting: a fictional world removed from reality—fantasy, other worlds with science-fiction elements, and so on
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Characters:
- Dialogue makes the characters stand out (kyara-dachi, キャラ立ち)
- Sign-like qualities; nonrealism
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Cross-media connections:
- Earlier works exist in media such as anime, manga, games, television, and film
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Prose style: frequent line breaks
- Frequent use of onomatopoeia
- Nonrealism
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Themes: an absence of social themes
The book [editor’s note: presumably Maynard’s A Theory of Expression in Light Novels, listed in the references] defines light novels as “a body of entertainment literature with anime- and manga-style illustrations, whose principal consumers are middle- and high-school students, though adults read it too.” It also gives the following general characteristics of light novels:
- Works that emerged within game-like realism
- Character-centered works
- The existence of a character database
- Integration of visual information
- Stories take the form of series
- Through multiple media, the works form an entertainment culture with a pop-cultural character
As is often pointed out, light novels are not an entirely new phenomenon. Japanese history already offers examples: The Tale of Genji, an entertaining narrative that gives prominence to characters, and Edo-period kibyōshi, illustrated fiction that gives prominence to pictures. To some extent, we might even say that light novels represent a return to the literature and arts of the past.
References
Maynard, Senko K. (2012). ライトノベル表現論 (Raito noberu hyōgenron [A Theory of Expression in Light Novels]). Meiji Shoin. Bibliographic record.
Editor’s Note
Since the concepts of the database and game-like realism have come up, we should make the customary mention of Hiroki Azuma.3
