Light-Novels are Poorly Written and Adapting Them Shows That

For those who don’t know, Light Novels are short books released in Japan, aimed at young adults, and would usually be considered to be novellas in the west. As a medium, they could technically have a variety of genres and tropes, and yet, just as anime has things we consider to be “genre-tropes”, the same is true for Light Novels. This article will try to pinpoint what some of them are, what people are referring to when they say “This is so LN-esque!”, and how they affect characterization of characters, and the effect it has when adapting them (and some western books as well).

Kyon narrates, wryly.

First, to get us started, here is something I consider a quintessential example of light novels, which isn’t actually from any given LN, but had been written by myself:

“He stared intently at her shapely leg, while thinking wryly to himself that he understood her completely in that moment.”

And if you think that this isn’t typical of action LNs, then to reinforce this is about style, here is another quote I whipped up in half a minute:

“He smirked, holding his sword confidently in hand. He could see the course the fight would take, if you could even call it a fight, as he was sure he knew all the moves his opponent would take.”

Light Novels not only would fail according to the Hemingway App (which redlines your text based on Hemingway’s style), and Stephen King’s advice in “On Writing”, but are very intensely modern, in the sense that they put the individual at the center. Well, time to break that down.

Month in Review – September 2009. Purchases and Media.

Since September was a slightly weaker month on the purchase department, I’ve joined both sections together for this post: Both the media I had consumed, and the things I had purchased.

For those who are wondering, this week Icon-2009, Israel’s largest convention is taking place. Today I’m only going for one lecture, and tomorrow I’m not going at all. I must tell you, the ability to not spend all day every day at a convention and to return home every night does wonders to one’s ability to enjoy the convention.
You will get a con report later on, and perhaps a post on conventions in Israel, in a week’s time or so.

Anyway, before we continue (after the “More” tag), I want to share with you a hauntingly beautiful song from a movie I’ve watched yesterday at the convention. The movie is called “The Secret of Kells”, and the song is called “Aisling’s Song” (pronounced Ashlynn).

Media:

Media Consumption: August; Main Test Crunch.

Another monthly media consumption post. Yes, this month is rather lean, because I had a lot of studying to do. And I have a lot more studying to do until the 13th of September. After the 13th of September I could return to my wanton consumption of books and anime. Dependant on whether I get a job or not, of course.

Movies:

• Ever After: A lovely film. It’s not a great film if you compare it to movies in general, but as a cute fun movie, it’s very good. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. My favourite Drew Barrymore role.

TV:

• Californication Season 1, reviewed.
• Californication Season 2, aside from the last two episodes which aired in September. Feel free to head over and read the review post of season 1. Season 2 was not as good, but a thoughtful review is forthcoming.
• House M.D. reruns of season 4.
• Boston Legal season 4 and Damages season 2, one episode a week. Enjoying both.
• Didn’t watch it yet, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that I found out the last three episodes of Pushing Daisies were released, and I obtained them. One of my favourite series of recent years.

Books:

• Sabriel by Garth Nix. A bildungsroman (coming of age story) which is enjoyable. I notice the pattern in which it was built much more now, on my second read. I need the other two books in the series.
• Too many philosophy books to mention, and hardly enough.
• Reading Wheel of Time books 6 and 7 not in order still, when I feel like it I’ll spend the couple hours to fix the connecting parts and finish them in order (this happens when you are re-reading books you’ve read half a dozen times before, you skip to the juicy bits).
• Ribbon Drive RPG and Mix-CD(!). Not a book for reading, but here it is.
• No Quarter Magazine #25, for Privateer Press’s Iron Kingdoms setting and games.

Manga:

• Rurouni Kenshin 16. Need to step up and finish it this month, not to let it fizzle. Also planning to get back to reading Fruits Basket. Seeing the omnibus at the comic book store helped there I guess.

Anime:

• 07-Ghost episodes 1-21 (up to date). I thought the show was slow to begin, well, it was. I found it odd as I thought it’d be a 26 episoder, but seeing as it’s based on a currently running manga series, I understand. But at this rate, it’ll take 500 episodes, dude.
• Toaru Majutsu no Index(A Certain Magical Index) episodes 1-17. This series has different arcs in them, of varying lengths. It’s an enjoyable series, it has one of my favourite girls in anime (Misaka Misoto), but I’m not sold on it being anything special.
• Voices of a Distant Star. Short, beautiful. The animation is not as good as I rememebered, but then again, I remembered just the story :)
• Kannagi season 1. Reviewed.
• Element Hunters episodes 1-2, reviewed. It was horrendous.

I might still do a review of August in terms of how this blog did, but August, the first full month of posts on this blog saw it receiving 154 comments (including my own) and 1,955 hits. Thank you to all the readers :)

August Purchases

So, time to speak of what I purchased, pre-ordered and/or received during August, eh?

RPGs:

•  Bloodstained Stars Limited edition pre-order plus patch arrive in mail.

Miniatures:

• Formula P3 Basic painting techniques DVD arrives in mail.
• No Quarter magazine #25 arrives.
• No Quarter magazine #26 ordered at 15% discount.
• Dingy plastic colour-mixing palette purchased.
• Odor-less turpentine for varnish removal purchased.
• Flesh and Armor washes from P3 ordered. Badab Black and Devlun Mud washes from Citadel ordered. 15% discount.

Books:

• Eisenhorn omnibus arrives.
• Wheel of Time book 8: The Path of Daggers, purchased (not like I could finish book 7 and continue onward otherwise, y’know?).
• Dengeki Hime magazine with Komaki Aika figure arrives (not really a book, but..)
• About $80’s worth of Philosophy books and articles (Kant, Hobbes, Rousseau, etc.) purchased.

Figures:

• Neliel tu Oderschvanck figure by Banpresto arrives.
• Evangelion XXnano figures of Sachiel and Lilith (mini-Rei!) , arrive from Bluedrakon.
• Ymir from Queen’s Blade 1/7 by Griffon arrive from Bluedrakon.
• Shuraki Trinity Box 5 – Rize (1/8) by Good Smile Company arrives, along with Drama CD and art booklet. Spectacular (technically I only got it away from the hands of the customs on September 1st).

Others:

• Gave the comic store old comics for $95 in credit.
• Hyuga Hinata enamel key-chain, for the cute factor.

Conclusion: Month ended with me having some money in the bank. Submitted a resume today somewhere.