Every once in a while, I like to look at light novels. I am pretty much only aware of the existence of light novels since many manga and anime started off as light novels.
It’s reached the point where I finally looked up what a light novel actually is. Um, it’s just a Japanese young adult novel. The only thing particularly different about them seems to be that they have a particularly dedicated publishing sub-industry.
My luck with light novels has been pretty hit or miss. The first one I read was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was really good. Other books I’ve read since then haven’t been as well written. I actually put down Toradora after one chapter.
I have a number of theories about why I’ve had better luck with manga than light novels. The medium of manga may be easier to translate since it’s driven by pictures. There’s more money in manga so maybe more money is put into translating manga. Or it might be that light novels are churned out at such a high rate rhat there are quality issues.
Or maybe I’m completely wrong about all of that.
So I went into Slayers: The Ruby Eye with trepidation. I watched the first couple episodes of the anime back in the day and just couldn’t get into it. It felt like stereotypical characters in a stereotypical parody for me.
I actually quite liked The Ruby Eye. The characters started out with more depth (I assume they do get it in the anime) and a tighter plot structure. I’ll read some more.
And Slayers still doesn’t answer my ligut novels questions. Not only did they only get translated after the success of the anime so there was more urgency to do a good job, I’ve read that the translator, Elizabeth Ellis, is particularly good. So Slayers may not fit the usual model.
I will continue to look at light novels. For one thing, they are easier to read on my phone than manga lol The Boogiepop books are also on my list.
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