Why do Light Novels Have Such Ridiculously long titles, isn’t it kind of hard to remember and not really catchy marketing or maybe it’s a language thing and they’re shorter in Japanese?

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First of all, no… I looked it up and the titles are just as long in the original Japanese language….

If you’ve been an otaku for a while, you’ve probably come across manga’s wordier cousin, light novels. These are essentially young adult or youth-targeted novels which may feature a few illustrations and have gotten a reputation for having unwieldy titles. The trope is so common that it’s become a running joke within fan communities.

Personally, I have always liked the trend, but I started to wonder why it’s so prevalent. As my own post title mentions, there are drawbacks to naming your series in such a way that most people can’t remember it and it takes 15 minutes to type out whenever you want to talk about it. Traditional advertising wisdom goes completely against it. You’re supposed to pick names that are snappy, catchy and short. Preferably one word!

Turns out, it’s not just a weird cultural flight of fancy. There are in fact very specific reasons for this tendency. Down to earth, business-oriented reasons at that!

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magical!

In short, you can think of it as an analogue version of cramming all the potentially relevant tags in your posts. In Japan, the light novel market is both wide-ranging and potentially very lucrative and also very crowded. Moreover, like a lot of popular media these days, it tends to get dominated by whatever tropes happen to be popular at the moment. When you need to make your work stand out and grab readers somehow, one of the quickest ways is to put the right hashtags in.

That’s essentially what those titles are trying to do. Put in enough information to grab all the angles that could potentially draw fans in. If you have a romance heavy action adventure in a post-apocalyptic setting that features both zombies and cyborgs and some sexy times, all of that needs to be reflected in your title.

It also serves as what boils down to a one-sentence plot synopsis. The idea is that your average fan scanning through hundreds of titles at the local book store won’t have the time or motivation to pick up individual books and read the back, they have to be interested in the story just by the title on the spine.

Also, light novels are usually printed fairly cheaply. You can’t count on gorgeous dust jackets and beautiful bound hardcovers to draw the eye. That title is your entire sales pitch. When you think of it that way it starts to make some sense.

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my confused girls are invading Karandi’s blog

On a more esoteric level, I saw several arguments that boil down to “nerds are wordy”. More specifically hardcore manga and anime fans, which also happen to be the target demographic for light novels, (and chuunis) have a tendency to use really long sentences and pepper their speech with lots of adjectives. Hmmm…. Why does this sound kind of familiar…I wonder…

So those titles could also be considered a publisher’s attempt at teenspeak or something like that. How do you do, fellow kids? 

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I’m not so sure about that second reasoning but it doesn’t really matter. To me, the business/marketing angle is more than enough to justify the titles. And I have to say, I’ve seen a similar trend with my posts since I started this blog. Sure, short obscure titles may pique people’s curiosity, but you need to give them enough info if you really want them to click on your post. And I’m just trying to convince people to look over a few paragraphs of randomness for free. I’m not selling an entire novel. My most successful posts, in terms of views and interaction, have always had clear titles that spell out the content of the article.

But is it really worth the drawbacks, I hope you’re asking yourself cause that’s what I’m going to address now.  And to this I say, what drawbacks? 

For those of you that don’t know, I write my posts while I commute to and from work. Some of my long-time readers may be a little worried right now that I am making my way to work completely sloshed. But no! Entirely sober, I promise.

Yes, the downsides of the protracted title that I mention above do still apply. However, the light novel industry has a very easy and organic way to get around them. Mainly, we fans shorten everything. We give our beloved ships cutesy little compound names. Our favourite characters have their monikers reduced to a syllable or two at most and endless light novel titles will usually get their own nicknames as soon as they gain any level of popularity. KonoSuba, DanMachi, you get the idea. Having that cute little handle makes a series even cooler. That way you know who the real fans are, and everyone wants to be a real fan!

DanMachi Bell and Hestia
I know I could find DanMachi pics here!

So, there you go. Sadly, it’s not some shadowy conspiracy to impose the Japanese language on the world by forcing fans to learn all of it in order to name their favourite light novel series. Before I leave you, here are a few light novel titles I came across while researching this post, that I particularly like:

  • I Leveled Up Through Parasitism But I Might’ve Gone Too Far
  • I’m Bad at Communication, But I Maxed Out My Negotiation Skills So I Got Reincarnated
  • They Say You Can’t Get Reincarnated in a Fantasy World If You Get Hit by a Truck, So I Decided to Work with a Pretty Girl
  • What If the Guy in the Village Before the Final Dungeon Lived in the Starting Town?
  • Do You Like Your Mom? Her Normal Attack is Two Attacks at Full Power
  • I’ve Been Reborn as an Aristocratic Pig, So This Time I Want to Tell You I Like You
  • Will You Like Me If I’m Cute But Slutty?
  • Sew It Up! Take It Off? Change!! My Girlfriend Failed Her High School Debut and Became a Hikikomori, So I Decided to Coordinate Her Youth (Fashion)

To name just a few, light novel titles are hilarious!!! I have to say, I think there’s really something to the strategy. Just by reading through the titles there are at least a dozen series I’m now interested in!

Do you have a favourite light novel title? Please share it. I think I want to start a collection!

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Contributed by Irina
from I Drink And Watch Anime!

Tuesday’s Top 5: Visually Appealing Anime Titles

Tuesday's Top 5

I’ve recently noticed that some anime have had some really interesting title images and thinking back I felt this list really did need an update. Not that the original titles on the list are in any way bad, just not so sure some of them hold up visually if I take away the nostalgia lens. So, here is the updated list of visually appealing anime titles. As always though, I would love to know what your choices would be so please leave us a comment below.

Please Note – Probably no spoilers this week.

Honourable mentions go to:

Vampire Knight and Tsubasa Chronicles and 91 Days.

Removed from the list: 

Evangelion – previously at number 3. I’m kind of sad about this one because the Evangelion title is actually really visually distinct and I certainly have very fond memories of it. However, looking at it now, it just doesn’t hold up to the others on the list.

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Attack on Titan – previously at number 2. As gorgeous as the image is and as iconic as the opening scene is, just looking at the title itself, this one really doesn’t hold up and needs to come off the list.

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Another – Previously at number 4. Another still totally fits the anime but again, it just can’t compare with some of the new titles I’ve added to the list so it had to come off. Still, it is a brilliant and simplistic title that serves its anime well.

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Number 5: Darling in the Franxx

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Okay, I have a lot of issues with the Darling in the Franxx anime but the title isn’t one of them. Actually, the whole OP is pretty spot on even if it feels a trifle wasted on the anime it is attached to. It is full of iconic moments and visuals and the title itself really does an excellent job of getting you interested in the show. If only the show managed to be good enough to deserve it.

Number 4: Sailor Moon (1990’s)


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Alright, it doesn’t look like much these days but back when I first saw this anime the opening song and the final shot with the girls striking a pose behind the title really left an impression. You have the main cast, including the cats (even before all the characters were introduced so you knew who was coming), you’ve got the crescent moon in both the sky and behind the title, you have the love heart over the I, and the weird spot light on the scouts with the rest of the background detail left kind of hazy but still quite pretty. By my tastes today, I probably wouldn’t think too much of this title, but the lingering impression it left forced me to concede this title serves an absolute purpose in appealing to the target audience of the show so it deserved a place on my list.

Number 3: Bleach

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This title used to be number one and in terms of nostalgia is still my number one (even over sailor moon). Why? Because it absolutely screams what the show is, which is larger than life. More importantly, this basic text title with it’s red, white and blue colour scheme is recognisable and stands out from the crowd. The flames out the side frame it perfectly. The whole thing is fun and not taking itself overly seriously while at the same time making you feel there’s something more to it.

Bleach actually gets a double hit here because in addition to the series title being iconic every single episode gets it’s own eye-catching thematically appropriate episode title screen. Preparing you for the episode to come in both subject matter and tone (even if you don’t get it when you see it at the start of the episode by the end you’ll know exactly why the title looked like that). I still haven’t done that top 5 list of Bleach episode titles and I really need to get on it.

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Number 2: Voice of Fox

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This really impressed me (for what it was) during the Autumn season. While it isn’t going to go on a best of the season list any time soon, there’s something quite enjoyable about it. However, the episode title is what really stood out to me as it really captures the spirit of the show and is incredibly iconic. You can get a fair idea of the emotions and ideas in the show just by looking at that title and the small details such as the flower in the centre, the use of limited colours, and everything else about that title screen just works.

Number 1: Banana Fish

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The text doesn’t get more basic than bold, black capital, however the words aligned beautifully with the water and the cityscape is visually compelling and there is no doubt that this was the title I most clearly remember of all the more recent anime and the one that I recognise the quickest when I see it. Not to mention, it lays the scene for the story and draws you straight back into the world of Ash and to be honest it is a fantastic title screen. Again, it doesn’t need to be complicated to be memorable.

Alright, over to you. What anime titles have grabbed your attention?

Thanks for reading
Karandi James
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Top 5: Boring Title Characters

Tuesday's Top 5

My lists are always entirely my opinion and highly subjective (which is why I’m always happy for people to comment on who they would have added to the list). This week is no exception as I look at boring title characters (as in characters named in the title who end up being the least interesting thing in the anime).

As always, feel free to add your own views in the comments.

Please Note – There are spoilers below. You have been warned.

Honourable mention this week goes to Astarotte from Astarotte no Omocha.

Boring Title Character Number 5: Akame (Akame Ga Kill)

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Other than the fact that she survives until the end, why is the show named after her? Okay, first episode she pulls a very cool and scary assassination entrance and looks completely amazing and then… well then we watch her hunt for food, wring her hands over her friends and generally not ever change her facial expression.

Even when Akame is dealing with her sister being part of the team hunting them down she barely bats an eye and while stoic can be a good character trait Akame doesn’t have anything to really make her interesting. You can count the things we learn about her as a person (not things she’s done but what she’s actually like) on one hand and in honesty if they’d killed Akame off I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.

Boring Title Character Number 4: Haruhi Suzumiya (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

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Haruhi suffers from an excess of personality but she’s still actually kind of boring. The characters around her are fascinating and the set up of the show is interesting, but Haruhi is just a bully who nobody ever slaps sense into. Frantically running from one thing to the next, Haruhi is bored with her own existence because she has nothing inside of her that defines her. She seeks external events to find a reason to exist and as such is always empty and that pretty much sums up who and what Haruhi is and its the driving force behind everything that happens in the show.

So, Haruhi is an excellent plot point and as the force that gets Kyon moving and actually paying attention to anything (given he’s the narrator and kind of needs to pay attention) Haruhi works. As a character, she’s still number 4 on my list of most boring title characters.


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Boring Title Character Number 3: Nozaki (Gekkan Shojo Nozaki Kun)

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I know I’ve said this on other people’s posts but my least favourite character in this comedy is Nozaki. He’s just so bland. And I know it is deliberate. He’s the observer of human nature. He internalizes things for use in his writing. But it means that everyone around him is vibrant and dynamic and he’s just this stagnant rock around which events revolve.

Boring Title Character Number 2: Aria (Aria the Scarlet Ammo)

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Aria, how I wish you had a personality above and beyond the cliché angry girl with trust issues. I actually really liked the concept of the world crafted in this anime and some of the side characters are quite entertaining (if you can deal with fan service and violence), but mostly I just disliked Aria and kept wanting her to stop snarling and shrieking and insisting on having everything her way and then acting like it didn’t matter one bit to her. She was an irritating character and one we’ve seen before.

Boring Title Character Number 1: Tatsuya Shiba (The Irregular at Magic High School)

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Here I’m cheating a bit because his name isn’t actually in the title but he is the irregular so I’m going with this. And while I actually really like Tatsuya and the anime, I couldn’t honestly say that he isn’t boring. Why? Because Tatsuya defines overpowered protagonist. Normally I don’t mind overpowered characters and as I said, I quite liked Tatsuya, but there is never even vague tension in this show because you know that Tatsuya will solve the problem.

Even more so once you realise he can effectively undo life-threatening damage to himself or others (at a cost but not enough of a cost that it puts him out of commission or allows his enemies any chance to win). So other than taking tests for the school, Tatsuya is pretty much perfect at everything and while that makes him awesome it also makes him boring and that is why he took out the number one spot.

I will point out that when it comes to Tatsuya I’m a little bit up and down. One minute I think he’s incredibly dull the next I think he’s the most amazing person ever. Objectively I know he’s boring. Emotionally I can’t get enough of watching him in action.

That’s my list done. Who would you have put on yours?


Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
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Karandi James