Light Novel

Light Novel is a Japanese popular fiction form, generally classified as young adult fiction and aimed at readers from their teens into young adulthood, published in the compact bunkobon paperback format and commonly abbreviated as ranobe or LN. Light novels are typically illustrated in a manga-influenced style, most often in black and white, and are released on a dense schedule of new installments every three to nine months, with many titles later adapted into manga, anime or live-action film. Pulp fiction existed in Japan earlier, but the launch of the Sonorama Bunko imprint in 1975 is generally treated as the form's symbolic starting point, and the term light novel itself was coined around 1990 to describe illustrated science fiction and fantasy titles aimed at a wider readership than a single fan demographic. By 2009 light novels accounted for roughly a fifth of all bunkobon paperback sales in Japan, worth about 30.1 billion yen that year, with the publisher Kadokawa Corporation holding the dominant share of the market through imprints such as Dengeki Bunko.