[Toastedpine]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

what is it?

It's almost like a genre when I think about it. Like how sci-fi has certain conventions. In this case, Japanese light novels are usually not as meaty as regular novels in terms of subject, come with a few pictures depicting scenes in the book, and they follow Japanese animation and comic kind of themes like mixing cute (as in marshmallow cute) and dangerous in girl characters.

There's a lot of them that have a bland everyman sort of protagonist, but the everyman is specifically calibrated towards a male Japanese teenager's general thought processes. I think the idea is supposed to be that you can put yourself in the main character's shoes. I don't know what the general trend is for the female-targeted light novels.

Originally Posted by charmian

I only read a single series, but I like Saiunkoku. It's not commercially translated into English, though.

I've seen the series, I wasn't aware it came from a light novel. Shuurrei is one heck of a female protagonist. I pretty much fell in love with her stength of character by the third ep.

Originally Posted by birdbrainbb

Probably the best light novel I've read is Scrapped Princess-- the translation/writing is good, the characters actually have some depth, and the plot isn't over-the-top ridiculous. Have you read it?

Hmmm, I'll see if I can get copies of the Tokyo pop translation here. My selection's pretty thin though unless I pay $60 dollars for shipping.

Originally Posted by fantasyfan

I enjoy the !2 Kingdom novels of Fuyumi Ono. The first four have been incorporated into an anime series but with certain changes. the novels have a great deal more character depth than the series and do convey a strong ethical perspective within the fantasy world she creates.

Thanks for the rec! I'll take a look at this.