Fans of sci-fi light novels should look into the following examples if they haven’t already.
Light novels are wordier than comics, and have more pictures than a book, hitting a nice middle point for keen readers. They go back to the mid-1970s, though they weren’t called “light novels” until the 1990s and didn’t kick off in popularity until the turn of the 21st century. That’s when the likes of Boogiepop Phantom, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Sword Art Online among others caught on with the crowds.
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But they’re not the only light novels around. Nor are modern-day fantasies, meta-school series, and isekai the only genres. Science fiction has fit the medium just as neatly as it did with manga and anime, producing some classics alongside some hidden gems. Anyone curious should check out these completed sci-fi light novels.
8 Full Metal Panic!
Beginning life in 1998 in Dragon Magazine, to say Shoji Gatoh and Shikidouji’s tale of mechs, military, and romance caught on would be an understatement. The series gained a manga adaptation, followed by three more manga spin-offs in Comic Mission, Overload, and Sigma. That’s not to mention the different anime series it got, including the slice-of-life series Fumoffu.
But it all started with the light novels, where Sousuke Sagara, a member of the secret anti-terrorist PMC Mithril, is tasked with protecting high schooler Kaname Chidori. She’s targeted by several organizations, though he doesn’t know why. All he can do is enroll at her school and try to blend into his surroundings. He doesn’t always succeed, much to Kaname’s chagrin, but he always pulls through when the chips are down.
7 A Certain Magical Index
The original run of Kazuma Kamachi and Kiyotaka Haimura’s light novel ended back in 2010, but it never really went away. The sequel series ACMI: New Testament kicked off in 2011 before concluding in 2019. Then it was succeeded by ACMI: Genesis Testament, which is still ongoing. That’s not getting into the spin-offs, manga, video games, and anime adaptations.
However, that first, complete run can now be found in English via Yen Press. It involves Toma Kamijo, a student with the power to dispel supernatural forces, getting involved with Index, a nun with the data of 103,000 forbidden magical tomes implanted in her head. Together, they visit different magical and scientific worlds, where their Sorcerers and Espers have a bone to pick with Toma’s power.
6 Kagerō Daze
Also known as the Kagerō Project, the light novel is just one part of the whole shebang. Jin (aka Shizen no Teki-P) originally produced it as a Vocaloid song about the Mekakushi-Dan (“blindfold gang”), an enigmatic group of people with optical superpowers. Once the song caught on with NicoNico viewers, Jin adapted it to a light novel form with illustrations by Sidu.
It starts off with shut-in Shintarō getting caught up in a hostage situation at a department store, only to be rescued by the gang and their odd superpowers. Their members can read minds, alter other people’s perceptions, and live within digital technology. Things get stranger from there as the story changes depending on whether people stuck to the light novels, listened to the music, read the manga version, saw the Mekakushi Actors series, or the in a day’s movie.
5 Code Geass
Unlike most examples on this list, the Code Geass anime came first, and then it got turned into mangas, drama CDs, internet radio broadcasts, and light novels. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Red Tracks, and R2 were all by Mamoru Iwasa, while Shigeru Morita wrote Oz the Reflection, and Ukyō Todachi adapted Akito the Exiled into light novel form.
Most of them are fair adaptations of their accompanying manga and anime series. The first one, Lelouch of the Rebellion, stands out as it also serves as a prequel showing how Lelouch and Suzaku befriended each other. Red Tracks focused on Kallen Stadtfeld and how she became part of Lelouch’s Black Knights fighting against the Brittanian Empire.
4 Orange
All the Code Geass light novels are completed, but they can be hard to find as only a few of them got officially translated. Likewise, this adaptation of Orange is rarer compared to the manga, anime series, and movie. Written by creator Ichigo Takano and originally published in Junior Bunko between 2015-2016, it’s more for people who are already fans of the series than newcomers.
Nonetheless, it tells the same intriguing tale of love, drama, friendship, and time travel. One day, high schooler Naho receives a letter from her future self, which asks her to avert one of her “biggest regrets.” If she follows her requests, she can keep the new transfer student, Kakeru, from suffering a grim fate. While it’s light on the sci-fi, the story adds enough to make it a unique take on high school romance.
3 Qualia The Purple
But if readers prefer something heavier on the sci-fi, and easier to find in English, Seven Seas Entertainment has them covered with Hisamitsu Ueo and Shirou Tsunashima’s Qualia the Purple. While the full manga adaptation can now be picked up in The Complete Collection, the light novel has been available in full since December 2022. In it, Yukari has a condition where she perceives other people as robots than as humans.
Her condition and odd behavior made it hard for her to keep friends, save one: Hatoru “Gaku” Manabu. She doesn’t mind Yukari’s condition because she loves and appreciates the person behind her curious, purple eyes. But when a secret organization abducts Yukari with the intent to use her abilities for their own ends, Gaku has to tackle quantum mechanics, alternate dimensions, and other threats to free her.
2 The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes
Mei Hachimoku and Kukka’s work may be more familiar for Studio CLAP’s movie adaptation, which won the Paul Grimault Award at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. But the original light novel is no slouch either, making its run in Gagaga Bunko in 2019 before gaining a manga adaptation the following year. Both are available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment.
The story follows Kaoru, who hears a rumor about a tunnel that can grant the wishes of anyone who enters it, but ages them dramatically in exchange. He doesn’t believe it at first, but when he sees it himself, he wonders if it could bring his little sister back from the dead. When he tries to enter, he discovers he’s been tailed by Anzu, the new girl at his school. They decide to explore it together to see if the rumors are true, unaware of what it may cost them.
1 All You Need Is Kill
Readers may have heard of this one, if only for its Hollywood movie adaptation Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live. Die. Repeat. If only because the English version of Hiroshi Sakurazaka and Yoshitoshi Abe’s original light novel got retitled by Viz Media to match it for its 2014 release. Only the manga and graphic novel versions retain the original title.
It’s essentially a sci-fi soldier take on Groundhog Day, as soldier Keiji Kiriya finds himself caught in a time loop after dying on his first sortie against the “Mimic” aliens. Each time he dies he’s brought back to the day before the battle, reliving the exact same events. He has to find a way to break free or get eternally caught in the cycle of death and rebirth. The question is: how does he do that, and what do the aliens have to do with it?
Fuente: successacademy.edu.vn
Categorías: Anime
