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Why Is The Number of Light Novel Adaptations A Problem?

Posted on January 18, 2019July 12, 2019 by Karandi

It’s becoming a fairly standard cry each and every season. “There’s another light novel adaption with all its tropes and cliches.” And then fans of the source get defensive, those who dislike light novel adaptations start throwing out every poor adaptation ever as evidence that the entire idea of adapting a light novel is fraught with peril, and then there’s everyone else who is sitting on the fence and wondering if this light novel adaptation is going to be interesting, a train wreck, or an interesting train wreck.

So is there a problem with the number of light novels getting an anime adaptation?

I will admit, there’s a lot of generalisations about light novels and anime adaptations out there. Just watching season after season it is easy to buy into the idea that the anime industry is actually being taken over by light novel adaptations or that somehow they’ve become almost the staple source of adaptations. I certainly believed there were a lot more than it turns out there actually are.

So I decided to look into this a little bit. Just doing my own quick count on MAL for the anime that aired in 2018 (not continuing series) I found that unsurprisingly Manga remains the main source of anime adaptations. In fact, when you include web manga and 4-koma manga in the mix it accounts for nearly 50% of all source material for anime airing in 2018 that MAL includes in its seasonal pages (I’m totally open to the fact that this is not the be all and end all definitive source of information regarding this but it probably is a reasonable enough representation for this discussion).

What I was surprised to discover was that original anime accounted for 21% of anime in 2018. While I knew Zombieland Saga and one or two other titles were anime originals, I was unaware of just how many other original anime came out.

Then we have games, light novels and other (which accounts for ‘other’ as listed on MAL and novel and visual novel adaptations) which all come in at close to 10%.

Huh.

I genuinely did not see that coming when I first decided to see if Light Novel adaptations were in fact becoming too prolific. While I knew manga adaptations would still be the highest, I kind of thought light novels would be second or third, or at least close to a large chunk of the releases, but it is actually only sitting at 9.1%.

Then when you look at the highest scored title on MAL for each season, you see that in every case it was an anime based on a manga. The only light novel adaptation that came close was actually Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai in the Autumn season.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai Episode 6 - Sakuta

So why do people think there are too many light novel adaptations or that light novel adaptations are ruining anime, or that they get too much attention?

One of the reasons might be how widely discussed these anime are, even if they aren’t scoring the highest for technical proficiency or story-telling. When looking at the number of members each title has in each season we start to see light novels rising significantly higher in popularity than their score rating would indicate. Winter 2018 see’s Violet Evergarden in the top spot with the Overlord sequel in third. Spring was dominated by manga adaptations so the only light novel adaptation that made it into the top 5 was the Sword Art Online spin-off series. Summer saw Overlord 3 and How Not To Summon a Demon Lord in the second and third spots respectively. Finally in Autumn all three top spots were taken by light novel adaptations including Goblin Slayer in the top spot, followed by Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai and Sword Art Online Alicization.

Following along on Twitter or just what gets reviewed on blogs, there is no denying that light novel adaptations are well watched each season. While they may not all rise to high critical acclaim they do generally entertain a wide audience and by and large they provide a bit of fun even if they don’t necessarily have depth. Then again, I was pretty stunned to find Violet Evergarden’s source listed as a light novel and I wouldn’t call Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai particularly shallow in terms of the emotional scope it tried to encompass.

And I can already hear some people arguing that those aren’t the light novel adaptations that are complained about. It is the other ones. You know the ones. The ones with self-insert protagonists that get transported to another world and live out some harem or power fantasy (or both).

Sure, we could look at The Master of Ragnarok and shake our heads in dismay at the state of the entire anime industry being reduced to that kind of light novel adaptation. Then again, we could see that as The Master of Ragnarok just not being very well written or produced as an anime and even by isekai/harem standards it ended up pretty woeful (personal opinion).

I kind of feel most people constructing an argument around whether there are too many light novel adaptations, or that light novel anime adaptations are somehow subpar, or who are arguing for light novel adaptations, all suffer from cherry picking the titles that support their argument. For every Master of Ragnarok there’s a Bunny Girl Senpai. And while isekai power fantasies may not be your personal thing, clearly they sell well so there’s definitely an audience out there for them. Declaring the entire genre trash or that every single story is the same is a little closed minded.

Admittedly, I’m not jumping up and down and saying that everyone should watch How Not To Summon a Demonlord anytime soon. There’s an audience for it though, and that audience greatly enjoyed it. Even some people who normally aren’t up for an isekai story full of fan-service and the like ended up enjoying Demonlord as it went about writing a story with fairly good pacing and combining its base elements to most entertaining effects.

How Not To Summon a Demon Lord Episode 7

So why is the number of light novel adaptations a problem?

I don’t believe it is. It is another source of stories same as other novels, games, manga, etc and when adapted well can lead to some truly interesting anime. While it might feel like there’s too many similar light novels being adapted we need to consider the fact that clearly there’s a market for that story if it keeps selling, some of the adaptations are actually pretty good (while some are fairly objectively terrible) and that maybe it just isn’t your genre. Someone who doesn’t like shoujo love stories would declare those all the same as well and yet a die-hard romance fan would argue that every single one is different because of how the characters are constructed and the combination of elements around them.

It’s only been since starting the blog that I ever began reading light novels, and what I’ve found from reading them is that there’s a huge range in the quality of writing and the stories being told in them. However, I started reading light novels because there were some anime adaptations that were based on light novels that I fell in love with and I wanted more of the story. Which kind of means the anime did its job at promoting the source and was entertaining enough in its own right (or else I wouldn’t have bothered). So while I get that some people don’t like light novel adaptations, and some people hate isekai, I don’t think it is ‘taking over’ anime or that it is too highly represented, or even that adapting light novels is a problem. Like with everything it is about looking at each work on its own merits, or lack of them, and the personal opinions of the viewer. So while some people will continue to avoid these titles, others will eagerly await the next announced title.

grimgar e2b noscale — Not from 2018 but still an awesome light novel adaptation.

That said, I’d love to know your thoughts so leave me a comment below and you can also check out my pretty terrible infographic with my findings from spending an afternoon reading MAL below.

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Karandi James

Tuesday’s Top 5: Anime Mascot Characters and Pets of 2018

Posted on December 18, 2018December 27, 2018 by Karandi

Previously I hadn’t done a yearly post for mascot characters and the closest I’ve got is my favourite mascot and pet character top 5 list written back in 2016. However, that isn’t really fair to some of the adorable mascot characters out there and 2018 had some great mascot characters.

So, my criteria is that the character is more cute than annoying and is important enough to the plot of their story that removing them would actually hurt the narrative. They also need to feature heavily in fan art and merchandise. That means main characters are actually able to also be mascot characters. I know that other people will define it a bit differently and that’s fine, but that’s what I’m working off for my choices. And if you want to know why I lump pets in here as well it is because with some characters it is difficult to tell if they are a mascot, a pet, or both.

Without any further delays, let’s count down my top 5 anime mascot characters and pets of 2018 and then I’d love to know which characters caught your eye this year.

Honourable Mentions:

This time I’m giving honourable mentions to Sir Balgary from Record of Grancrest War (great potential character but too limited in appearance) and Navi from 100 Sleeping Princes (too annoying and fairly useless).

Number 5: Romero from Zombieland Saga

In case you are wondering, I do appreciate that I am choosing a character from a show I dropped. That said, the name alone is enough here to warrant a mention. In a story about zombies giving a shout out to a legend of the horror movie genre was an A+ move and one I definitely appreciated in the first episode of this series. However, I don’t have a lot more to say other than zombie dog with a taste for squid because honestly I didn’t hang around long enough with this series to really get into the character (so breaking my own criteria before we even really get into the list).

Number 4: Kero from Cardcaptor Sakura Clear Card

Kero, or Cerberus, is the guardian of the Clow Cards (though apparently not that good at his job) and he’s been with Sakura since the beginning of her journey. He continues to play as her stuffed toy in Clear Card, coming under increasing scrutiny from her brother, still insatiable when it comes to sweets, and still just not quite as useful as it seems he should be when it seems like he’s needed but other-times surprisingly useful. That said, Kero remains an amusing member of the cast and one who is needed in a lot of scenes or Sakura would end up talking to herself a lot and that is not a good sign.

Number 3: Rimuru From That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime

While it has taken this show a fair while to grow on me, there’s no denying that the titular slime is an iconic character of the season and the year. Not to mention I would love to get my hands on a Rimuru plush because that would be just this side of adorable. With his internal monologue critiquing the world and reacting far more exuberantly than his exterior slime self, Rimuru has been a pleasant enough protagonist but his most valuable trait is that he just looks so cute (and when was the last time you saw a cute slime).

Number 2: Mii-Kun from How To Keep A Mummy

You have no idea how hard it was not to give this adorable let bundle of bandages take out the first place. Seriously if someone had floated the idea of ‘cute mummy’ prior to my seeing this series I would have asked them what planet they were from. And yet, How To Keep A Mummy gave us the single most adorable mascot character ever and it didn’t matter what Mii-Kun did, he was cute. I’d love pretty much anything Mii-Kun themed and honestly this character deserves to be in some kind of cuteness hall of fame.

Below my number one choice I’ve shared a tweet from the amazing Mel that actually combines my number 1 and 2 choices together. This absolutely made my day.

Number 1: The Platelets from Cells At Work

Honestly, I don’t think it could have been any other group of characters. The platelets are cute and every scene they are in makes you tilt your head and go ‘aww’, even as they serve a vital function both in the ‘body’ and in the anime. Still, any platelet scene was just precious and clearly the writers knew that spacing them out beautifully so that you never had too much but got a continuous drip feed of adorableness. Given how easy this one is to cosplay and how cute people look in the costume, I’m expecting that we’ll be seeing platelets for a fair while to come.

For #inktober day 5, I decide to make @100wordanime and @MechAnimeReview (probably) happy and draw out dear Mii-kun cosplaying a platelets pic.twitter.com/G5ybzSX3Re
— Mel is drinking with Haiji (@MelinAnimeland) October 5, 2018

Right, so that is my list and now I’m turning it over to you: who are your top mascot characters and pets from 2018.

Thanks for reading
Karandi James

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Zombieland Saga Episode 4: Zombies At A Hot Spring

Posted on October 27, 2018October 26, 2018 by Karandi

Kotaro as the manager is doing a good job at fighting with Haiji from Run With The Wind for gaining the title of most obnoxious character of the season. Haiji at least has his good moments in between being a blatant manipulator whereas Kotaro here is just obnoxious in every single scene he is in. It is almost a shame that he’s voiced by someone so recognisable because I’m honestly never going to be able to hear that voice again without seeing this smirking idiot screaming into the faces of the zombie girls or being unbearably smug about doing something fairly lame.

And the reason I’m fixating on that is because very little else in this episode gained my attention. The girls are all about working together to overcome their doubts and actually practice to become idols (meanwhile they have this touching heart to heart while shirking practice to take in some sights). We get a performance that goes better than most of their shows so far and then we get dumped into what I guess is more traditional zombie horror territory but here it is played for cheap laughs and to be honest it wasn’t so much amusing as it was just a little mind boggling.

Still, I guess episodes 3 and 4 have at least established the idol tone this show is going to take, I’m just not so sure I’m up for a whole season of this. The character dialogue between the girls is very flat, the music isn’t really getting any better, and even though the girls are zombies they clearly have no interest in exploring the horror element of that, so I’m just not sure what is left for me to enjoy here.

I’ll probably give this another episode but I’m fairly certain this one is going to get a mid-season drop because I’m just not feeling it and unlike other titles that aren’t exactly nailing it for me, I’m not even overly optimistic that this one will improve as time goes on.

Linked Reviews:

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Zombieland Saga Episodes 2 + 3: With The Gimmick Revealed, Does This Have Staying Power

Posted on October 20, 2018October 19, 2018 by Karandi

As much as the first episode made a splash and instantly grabbed my attention with its zany and hard hitting first scene and a follow up that was fairly surreal mostly because the audience didn’t see it coming, episodes 2 and 3 had an uphill battle to maintain that. Firstly, the surprise is lost. We now know what this Zombieland Saga is about and so far there hasn’t been anything added to the plot beyond that initial zombie girls forming an idol group to somehow save Saga. So without surprise and without any kind of overall plot we’re left with a group of zombie girls who intermittently practice and perform slightly improved routines becoming more and more idol like interspersed by Kotarou (the manager and supposedly the guy who brought them back from the dead) shouting at them or generally being fairly incomprehensible in both his motives and actions.

Needless to say, this isn’t going to be enough for this to stretch a whole season riding on the shock enjoyment of episode 1. While meeting the now awakened rest of the girls is reasonably done, and the scene where they were essentially playing catch with Tae’s head while attempting to perform a concert and it ended up being a rap battle was amusing, and even the bad CGI actual idol performance in episode 3 kind of served its purpose if you are attempting to mock idol culture and idol anime, there just isn’t enough in this show to offset the lack of direction and the generally bad writing that even the most enthusiastic Mamoru Miyano (of Steins;Gate and about a zillion other anime fame) cannot seem to elevate beyond slightly eye-brow raising.

Not to mention, any pretence of this actually being a horror got thrown out the window once we started to meet our zombie crew. In the first episode, Sakura was alone and scared and neither she nor the audience knew what was really going on. It really worked as both horror and comedy. With no suspense left, nothing lurking in the shadows, and zero atmosphere to speak of, episodes two and three suffer horribly as they need to be carried by the momentum of the actual story (which we already established isn’t up to the task) and the character interactions (which might get better but certainly aren’t amazing here).

Now it isn’t bad enough yet to declare dead in the water, but without an injection of some serious chemistry between the characters or some fantastic plot direction, this one is going to end up wallowing in its own inadequacies before someone finally puts it out of its misery. A few good and eye-catching moments aren’t enough to hold an episode together and they certainly won’t hold a show together for a whole season without something sitting behind them.

Linked Reviews:

Episode 1: Zombies and Idols, Who Would Notice the Difference?

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Friday’s Feature: The Not-So-Wonderful Wizard of Saga

Posted on October 19, 2018October 19, 2018 by Karandi

Zombieland Saga Episode 1 - Zakura and Tatsumi

Three episodes in to Zombieland Saga, and I spent a good hour of my life staring at a blank blog post thinking of how to actually review episodes 2 and 3 without just throwing the entire thing into the trash and calling it a day. As much as the first episode had left a strong impression and made me interested in the show to follow, episodes 2 and 3 (watched together) essentially brought the worst of my expectations to life in that while the anime had a concept (Zombie girls become idol group) it felt devoid of direction or actual theme. Simply parodying other musical scenes while occasionally throwing in a zombie limb separation joke isn’t enough to build a series around unless the comedy is really landing its mark which after the shock of the episode one opening act hasn’t managed to reach such a height again.

Zombieland Saga Episode 1 - Sakura — Admittedly, this would be a hard act to top in terms of shock and comedic timing.

But while there are a myriad of problems facing Zombieland Saga in terms of actually crafting a story worth paying attention to over the next couple of months, perhaps my biggest concern at this point came in the form of Kotarou, the manager and he one who more or less proclaimed he brought the girls back to life. So while I delay writing a draft of my review of the episodes yet further (it is due out later today but that’s neither here nor there at this point), I’d like to consider Kotarou as a character in the past three episodes and why he has become the face of my problems with the anime.

The Wizard of Oz reference in the post title also wasn’t just for my own amusement or because I’m suffering from a creative block (though I’d probably agree that there might be a bit of both of those behind it). After carefully contemplating the hollowness of Kotarou’s character the comparison seemed beautifully apt. While he may not be hiding behind a curtain, everything about Kotarou’s interactions with the girls seems scripted, over the top, and designed to distract from seeing the man behind the shades and the inability to actually use jacket sleeves (those who remember my Top 5 questions after rewatching Snow White with the Red Hair will know that Prince Izana also bothered me to no end because of his inability to actually wear a jacket the way it was intended).

Yes, sometimes I’m petty. Okay a lot of the time I’m petty but I usually try to minimise the truly petty criticisms when writing a blog post (usually).

There’s also the manner in which he deflect questions or providing explanations. Kotarou quickly goes on the attack when Sakura wants to know how they became a zombie. Whenever asked about the specifics of the idol group or Saga he launches into a rant or some other distraction and the question is swiftly forgotten. While there might be another reason for this, like he could just be a jerk, it kind of feels like perhaps he just doesn’t know the answers and is hoping to bluff and bluster his way through. Though that in turn leaves me with bigger questions about how the girls became zombies if Kotarou either didn’t do it or doesn’t know how (somehow I doubt the show is that deep but maybe we could give it the benefit of the doubt that we’ll get a bit reveal later on that someone else in fact resurrected the girls).

Alas, that is where the relatively favourable comparison of Kotarou to the mostly charlatan Wizard of Oz will end and we just have to look at his actions at face value.

Whether he raised the girls from the dead or not, he has claimed responsibility for turning the girls into literal monsters that other people want to kill on sight. He has offered no apology for this. Having raised them from the dead, he has forced his plan of them forming an idol group upon them and accepted no criticism, questions or refusal. The girls have nowhere else that they can go and are seemingly entirely dependent upon this eccentric ‘manager’ who has a vision but no plan and seems to be rushing on some agenda that he hasn’t fully explained. His only reaction when something doesn’t go to plan is to shout loudly. Like literally getting inches from one of the girls’ faces and shouting at them.

While Zombieland Saga still has some potential, the problematic character of Kotarou may very well see me bail on the show long before it ever realises that potential. Or maybe that theory I saw floating around on other blogs that Kotarou is also a zombie and just wearing make-up will pan out as true and while that won’t excuse his actions, it would certainly make him a bit easier to empathise with depending on how that situation came about.

For now, I’m going to go back and try and write my episode reviews but I’d love to know your thoughts on Zombieland Saga so far and Kotarou as a character so be sure to leave me a comment below.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Zombieland Saga Episode 1: Zombies and Idols, Who Would Notice the Difference?

Posted on October 6, 2018October 4, 2018 by Karandi

Right, so I have no idea where this plans to go or whether or not MAL labelling it as an action/horror is accurate. So far I’m getting a very horror/comedy vibe and this first episode is highly entertaining but it left me wondering what they intend to do for the next 11 episodes and whether or not this one is going to suffer from diminishing returns. That said, its a zombie story so of course I’m going to keep going for at least another couple of episodes.

Of course, that makes it sound like this first episode was disappointing which is completely untrue. This first episode is a blast. We start off with our typical high school girl, Sakura, who wants to be an idol dressing for her day at school and running out the door and immediately get hit by a car. The timing is perfect as this sequence doesn’t drag and the impact of the girl flying through the air as the music starts to play is pretty fantastic.

There’s also the fact that when the girl awakens she doesn’t seem to realise she’s a zombie. Though I think the real supernatural effort goes to her clothes and hair ribbon which somehow have survived her getting killed and being dead for ten years. Even the bullet hole she acquires just kind of seems to disappear.

Tatsumi, as the manager and guy I assume is responsible for making them zombies, might become super annoying. He has this tendency to either be really vague in his responses and explanations or to just randomly start shouting. While it could be amusing in small doses if it becomes a prominent and repeated theme it is definitely going to become one of the lower points of this anime.

However, the end of the episode where the zombies are taken to perform at a death metal open mic kind of thing, is fantastic. No rehearsal or plan, most of the girls still mindless zombies, and there they are up on stage. It is exactly the kind of train wreck you would expect from such a set up.

ZombieLand1e — Make-up fixes everything. Even death and decay apparently.

So yes, plenty to enjoy provided you find zombie idols amusing though I still have to wonder what the long term plan for this show is because the vague ‘save Saga’ goal the manager threw out there isn’t exactly something I can see happening in 12 episodes.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Zombieland Saga

Why Is The Number of Light Novel Adaptations A Problem?

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