Is it worth reading Light Novels?

Many animes are adaptations of mangas and light novels. Both forms of media are well known in Brazil and around the world. Yet, there is still a significant gap between the popularity of mangas and novels here in Brazil. Simply put, reading mangas is much more popular than reading light novels.

The point is, there are as many light novels as there are mangas. But if you are an otaku here in Brazil, you will see that what is most talked about are mangas. So much so that it is very difficult to find light novels in Portuguese, even translated by fans.

The biggest fansubs are for mangas, the biggest YouTube channels tend to mainly talk about mangas, and even the publishers that license Japanese works tend to prefer mangas.

With that, it becomes easy to know that reading light novels here is much less popular than reading mangas. Therefore, this reflects in other ways for otakus; for example, translations of light novels are not common in Portuguese, so obtaining a copy for reading is a bit more difficult.

After all, why bother reading light novels? Mangas at least have drawings and can capture and attract much more attention from readers. With this thought, reading light novels becomes less and less popular every day.

Why read light novels?

It may not seem like it, but reading light novels can boost your level of imagination much more than mangas and animes. Our imagination is very important when it comes to establishing a critical standard of things.

To explain better, I have always enjoyed following the light novel of Overlord. Since volume 10, I had been picking up the pirate drafts from the internet in English and translating them on my own. And the best part of this novel is how much it demands from your imagination.

Let’s say you have to imagine a completely new fantasy world, without any kind of base drawing, just with the information the author has given you. And if you can’t at least have a rough idea of it, sooner or later you will get lost in the context.

But the point is, your imagination goes wild. And not just Overlord does this; almost all novels require this from you, some more, some less. But they will demand something from your imagination.

Imagining is having fun

And as I always say, using your imagination for something like this entertains anyone. Just the experience of being able to see that world, thing, or being in our imagination, and giving characteristics to it, is already very pleasurable.

Another point is that imagination is something the world is increasingly demanding. More and more jobs are emerging based exclusively on imagination, and those who have the best imagination are the ones who succeed.

Moreover, these people tend to have a more open mind towards things. Thus, situations that would be difficult can be quite simple for them. All because they have an imagination that allows them to be this way.

Of course, the more you train your imagination, the better it gets. But even so, reading light novels is not just for that. It is also a great pastime, a great disguise of a cultured person.

In addition to helping people with their difficulties in reading and vocabulary. And if you are a level above, it helps to learn English. In short, the reasons to read light novels are countless.

the situation is changing

The fact is that this is changing. Light novels are increasingly gaining an audience, especially the seinen, aimed at young adults, which is why more and more titles are becoming popular and being adapted into animes.

An example of a successful anime based on a light novel is Read or Die, written by Hideyuki Kurata. Read or Die was adapted into manga, anime, and a live-action series. Another successful anime adaptation was Sword Art Online. Both sold over 300 thousand volumes of light novels and the animes were equally successful.

Currently in Brazil, the same publishers that publish mangas are the ones that publish some light novels, such as Newpop, JBC, and Conrad, translating them into Portuguese, in addition to translations on websites, done by blog teams.

There are already many light novels translated into English that have not yet been translated into Portuguese from animes that are currently being broadcast. The more audience there is here, the more novels will be translated and the faster they will be.