Anywhere in the world today, there seems to be a growing trend for light reading. What exactly does this encompass? It’s basically comic books that are like light novels. In Japan, they are called ranobe.
Publishers have no clear cut standards as to what really makes ranobe. However, in general, you would see that ranobe is characterized by a heavy emphasis on dialogue and illustrations. The plots of these novels are very straightforward and easy to understand. In short, there is not much thinking to be done when reading ranobe.
Ranobe extends to different genres. Romance and comedy are some of the more popular genres. However, ranobe also covers science fiction and fantasy. The main audience groups for this type of reading are teens and those in their 20s.
To attest to the popularity of these light novels in Japan today, several of them have already been made into movies. At present, there are plans to make more of them into the film format.
[tags]Japan, culture, books, novels, anime, illustrations, manga, ranobe[/tags]