Anyone here read Japanese novels?
One of the main reason I learned Japanese was so I could read the stuff they write. The Japanese YA market is just exploding right now, with each company desperate to find new authors to make new IPs so they can turn them into anime, games and other merchandise. It's great! Plus they have a very strong online novel community with several of my favorite authors publishing their stuff for free online.
It'd be fun to talk about industry trends and things that make Japanese writing unique, but I'll just start the thread off mentioning a few of the series I'm really enjoying recently:
HONZUKI NO GEKOKUJOU (Bookworm Revolution) - One of the 'reborn in an alternate world' fantasies that has been trending in recent years but with a big twist: there's no demon king to slay and no princess to save. Instead our main character is a female college graduate reborn into the body of a five-year-old in a fantasy kingdom. All she wants is to read, but how can a peasant girl get ahold of books (or even learn to read) in a world before the invention of the printing press? Luckily she has an encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything thanks to being such a bookworm in her previous life. The series is nerdy as all get-out but the worldbuilding is so incredible and the cast is very entertaining. A must-read for book fans.
KYOURAN KAZOKU NIKKI (Diary of a Chaotic Family) - Ouka will do anything to serve his country: hunt down monsters, fight off aliens, bust some ghosts, but now his country is asking him to get married and raise a bunch of 'kids' (a girl, a talking lion, a killer cyborg, a crossdressing playboy and a... jellyfish?) Because if these kids don't have a happy home life, one of them may turn into the reincarnation of a destructive God and wipe humanity off the face of the earth. The author has a gift for finding the absolute perfect mix of wacky comedy hijinks and tear-jerking family drama in this heartwarming series.
FATE/STRANGE FAKE - A spinoff of the popular Fate/Stay Night series which is about modern mages summoning ancient heroes in a magical fight for the Holy Grail. This time the stage is set in a small American town and the cast is more diverse than it's ever been. A girl in coma, the last chief of an ancient tribe, a goofball British mage, a... wolf? Many players are assembled, each backed by a hero from world lore. This time the Holy Grail War is going to be quite a mess. A very fun to read mess. The same author who wrote the stellar BACCANO series breathes new life into this franchise with a bizarre and creative cast and gripping writing that never fails to satisfy.
What Japanese books are you reading? What do you think of the current trends dominating their YA market? What do you think of the (few) translated books we get over Stateside?
Let's discuss!
One of the main reason I learned Japanese was so I could read the stuff they write. The Japanese YA market is just exploding right now, with each company desperate to find new authors to make new IPs so they can turn them into anime, games and other merchandise. It's great! Plus they have a very strong online novel community with several of my favorite authors publishing their stuff for free online.
It'd be fun to talk about industry trends and things that make Japanese writing unique, but I'll just start the thread off mentioning a few of the series I'm really enjoying recently:
HONZUKI NO GEKOKUJOU (Bookworm Revolution) - One of the 'reborn in an alternate world' fantasies that has been trending in recent years but with a big twist: there's no demon king to slay and no princess to save. Instead our main character is a female college graduate reborn into the body of a five-year-old in a fantasy kingdom. All she wants is to read, but how can a peasant girl get ahold of books (or even learn to read) in a world before the invention of the printing press? Luckily she has an encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything thanks to being such a bookworm in her previous life. The series is nerdy as all get-out but the worldbuilding is so incredible and the cast is very entertaining. A must-read for book fans.
KYOURAN KAZOKU NIKKI (Diary of a Chaotic Family) - Ouka will do anything to serve his country: hunt down monsters, fight off aliens, bust some ghosts, but now his country is asking him to get married and raise a bunch of 'kids' (a girl, a talking lion, a killer cyborg, a crossdressing playboy and a... jellyfish?) Because if these kids don't have a happy home life, one of them may turn into the reincarnation of a destructive God and wipe humanity off the face of the earth. The author has a gift for finding the absolute perfect mix of wacky comedy hijinks and tear-jerking family drama in this heartwarming series.
FATE/STRANGE FAKE - A spinoff of the popular Fate/Stay Night series which is about modern mages summoning ancient heroes in a magical fight for the Holy Grail. This time the stage is set in a small American town and the cast is more diverse than it's ever been. A girl in coma, the last chief of an ancient tribe, a goofball British mage, a... wolf? Many players are assembled, each backed by a hero from world lore. This time the Holy Grail War is going to be quite a mess. A very fun to read mess. The same author who wrote the stellar BACCANO series breathes new life into this franchise with a bizarre and creative cast and gripping writing that never fails to satisfy.
What Japanese books are you reading? What do you think of the current trends dominating their YA market? What do you think of the (few) translated books we get over Stateside?
Let's discuss!