Many anime are adaptations of mangas and light novels. Both forms of media are well known in Brazil and around the world. However, 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 manga. But if you're an otaku here in Brazil, you'll see that manga is the most talked about. So much so that it is very difficult to find Light Novels in English, even translated by fans.
The biggest fansubs are for manga, the biggest youtube channels tend to talk mostly about manga, and even publishers that license Japanese works tend to prefer manga.
With this, it is easy to know that reading light novels here is much less popular than reading manga. So this is reflected in other ways for otakus, for example, translations of light novels are not common in English, so getting a copy of one for reading is a little more difficult.
After all, why bother reading a light novel? Mangás, at least have the drawings and manage to capture and attract much more the readers' attention. With this thought, reading light novels becomes less and less popular every day.
Table of Content
Why read light novels?
It may not seem like it, but reading light novels can raise the level of imagination much more than manga and anime. Our imagination is very important when it comes to establishing a critical standard of things.
Explaining better, I always enjoyed following the Overlord light novel. Since volume 10 I had already been taking the pirated drafts from the internet in English and I had been translating them on my own. And the best thing about this novel is how much it demands of your imagination.
Let's say you have to imagine a whole new fantasy world, without any kind of base drawing, just with the information that the author gave you. And if you can't even get a rough idea of it, sooner or later you'll get lost in the context.
But the point is, your imagination goes wild. And not only Overlord does this, almost every novel requires it from you, some more, some less. But some demand they will make for your imagination.
imagining is having fun
And as I always say, using your imagination for something like this is fun for 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 pleasant.
Another point is that imagination is something that the world is demanding more and more. More and more works are emerging based solely on imagination, and whoever has the best imagination is the one who does well.
Besides, these people always tend to be more open-minded about things. Therefore, situations that would be difficult, can be very simple for them. All because they have an imagination that allows them to be that 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's also a great hobby, a great disguise for a cultured person.
In addition to helping people with their difficulties in reading and vocabulary. And if you're an extra level, it helps you learn English. anyway, the reasons to read light novels are numerous.
the situation changes
The fact is that this is changing. Light novels are increasingly conquering audiences, especially seinen, aimed at young people and adults, so more and more titles fall into popular taste and are adapted for anime.
An example of a successful anime based on a light novel is Read or Die, written by Hideyuki Kurata. Read or Die has been adapted into manga, anime, and a live-action series. Another successful adapted anime was Sword Art Online. The two have sold over 300,000 light novel volumes, and the anime has been equally successful.
Currently in Brazil, the same publishers that publish manga are the ones that publish some light novels, such as Newpop, JBC and Conrad, doing the translation into Portuguese, in addition to translations on websites, made by blogging teams.
There are already many light novels translated into English that have not yet been translated into Portuguese from anime that are currently being broadcast. The more audience you have here, the more novels and the faster they will be translated.