I also have videos on Youtube explaining this issue in deeper details, please follow the link if you wish to learn more.

Why light novels are bad and spread harm to the anime industry (38 minutes): https://youtu.be/84EXl24BiEs

How I am hoping I can save it (25 minute): https://youtu.be/hcoCKOJqv6U

Tl;dr explanation: Light novels are infamous for lacking originality while being overly reliant on shallow sex appeals and power fantasy.

Currently, to become a light novel author, the primary method is through the publishing company’s individual annual/semiannual contest. Though results have shown that the contest had been massively ineffective in actually selecting good writers. The light novel selection method is unintentionally rigged in such way that made it harder for writers who wish to write deeper, long-term plan contents to be accepted while clickbait tactics are embraced.

This resulted in most animes adapted from these light novels to flop, yet anime studios have no choice but to adapt these novels, therefore the entire industry is suffering both in finances and in reputation. Yet as the light novel suffers no damages, they see no reason to change.

I am an author who is attempting to use the stories I wrote, together with inspiring other aspiring authors to help sway the standards of the light novel industry so that it could provide better materials for anime adaptations that will stop the industry from going under.

Full version.

Light novel is currently maligned as a laughingstock of the anime-related medium due to its utter lack of originality, where easily more than half of the novels coming out are stuck under either Isekai and/or harem category.

It is made worse when those 2 genres are themselves infamous for exploitative and shallow sex appeals and Mary Sue/Gary Stuism power fantasy, which in turn creates a bad stereotype for anime and its fans for being overly self-indulgent.

And that is made EVEN worse yet when those light novels are adapted into animes, and exactly failed to make profit because they do not have an identity to call their own. Too many light novel-originated animes are too similar to each other and therefore, are fighting over a small pool of niche audience.

This results in 30% of animes being flops, 80% of anime studios being in the red, and industry workers being forced to suffer terrible working conditions for minimum wage pay just so the studios can keep their lights on.

Animators in particular suffer the worst as they need to have talents and many will even have to go through 2-3 years of college before they can enter the workforce, only to not be able to make enough money to even eat or provide for rent. The only reason they chose this career was because of genuine passion for anime. A third of new animators quit within the first 3 years.

And please remember, all of this to make animes that will most likely flop and be forgotten in 3 months, all because they are adapted from a source material that is far more interested in convenience than innovation, artistic merits, respectability or even business.

 

The reason light novels are so bad can be drawn back to the major recruitment method of light novels: the contest system.

The contest system, at first glance seems like a fair method where the applications are filtered through multiple tiers of judge, each with increasing experiences and closer relationship to the actual publishing company, but it is actually just the opposite.

The judges on the lower tiers are not professionals, are not interested in what any authors can offer to the company long term, not interested in the development of the market nor the effect their actions may yield on the light novel industry itself, much less some other industries they do not feel connected to.

Because they are not professionals but are nevertheless assigned to grade dozens of submissions, most judges develop a checklist to make it easier for them to evaluate the books. This means anything not familiar to them, be it an unusual writing gimmicks, unique characters, different worldview, etc, often ended up doing more harm than good while staple clichés are encouraged.

Furthermore, they also judge the novels on a standalone basis. This is despite 90% of light novels on the market being series. This means the judges also frowns upon any buildup for plot, setting, and characters which do not resolve within a single book.

This means long-term planning is discouraged and in a way, the judges are forcing the stories to be shallower, merely because it would be harder for them to judge a deeper book. They will not ponder upon where the plot can head next, how the characters can develop, what any symbolism could mean or what message the story might be trying to convey.

 

As such, the writers who passed the contest system are very often writers who cannot make long term plans and can only resort to recycling a handful of clickbaiting tactics that will help engage the reader from moment to moment but can never build up to anything bigger.

And because of that, many cannot even continue their writing career for long, as 46% is the average amount of writers who could continue work after 5 years. Even Dengeki Bunko, the largest light novel publisher(Sword Art Online, Toaru Majutsu no Index, Durarara, etc) only have 59% author retention after 5 years.

This is exactly because what the actual career asks of you and what the contest sought of you are two very different things. It is akin to trying to recruit 100m sprinters expecting them to win a triathlon race, all while refusing anyone who tried to present to you any other skills.

This also means light novel industry is subjecting itself to a fate of stagnation, where the whole industry can survive on quantity over quality business model. The authors and the publishers can continue to make small profits, but are actively choosing not to grow as they continue to refuse to innovate and diversify.

 

Though of course the story is different when you consider these novels being adapted into anime. Light novel industry itself require very little investment on individual projects and can gain a large bulk of profits even from the lowest-selling books, but anime is different.

Each and every anime is a project hundreds of people will have to spend at least half a year to create, yet the numbers of both animes themselves and anime studios are rising in spite of the numbers of animes and companies that can even make their money back going down.

This shows that there certainly is not a shortage of people who wants to go into anime career because they genuinely hold passion for it, yet despite their hard work if the materials they are working with is bad, derivative and forgettable, then they will not be able to make money.

This leads to many to quit and a shortage of talents and passions in the industry, all because they have no choice but to work with bad materials.

Most anime studios, lacking in funds as they are, cannot afford to buy more popular stories with more expensive licenses to adapt into anime, nor do they have the time nor marketing budget to make an original screenplay into a success.

As such, they do not have a choice but to adapt stories with cheap licenses, in other word, obscure light novels, just to keep their own lights on. This leads to the majority of the industry being driven into inhumane working conditions, working for projects that chances are, will result in a flop.

A proposed solution to solve the crisis is to have less seasonal animes and less anime studios, but then it would not change the fact that many studios that cannot afford expensive licenses will have to resort to bad stories, which would simply drive the vicious cycle over.

These stories tend to be very niche, but target easily impressionable fans with loose wallets. So not only are they fighting over a very limited pool of customers, they are overall narrowing the anime market down.

 

Which is why I suggest it is important that there has to be an outsider to go in and change this. Japan is a country known for being old-headed and resistant to change, many still think animes should only be reserved for people within their own country, despite the rapidly growing international anime market.

Which is why it is going to be difficult to believe they will do something to change it and as a foreigner who do genuinely care for the industry, I think we very well could be the key to change.

Not only to raise the standards of the anime, create more stories that can be more respected by the mainstream, diversify in ideas that will help raise the profits and spread the reaches of anime instead of narrowing it down.

Many related Japanese industries, most notably games had since taken major steps to move into this direction. They know that the Japanese market alone cannot sustain their industry and therefore must make more products that will be able to reach the hearts of both Japanese and non-Japanese alike. It is high time we give the same push to the light novel industry to save the anime industry.

 

I have been attempting to do just that ever since 2015, I have spent 3 years applying to different company contests(each contest takes 6 months to finish), only for my works to be turned down in despite of high praises, exactly because as stated, the lower level judges of the system simply are not equipped to deal with anything unfamiliar.

I have tried negotiating for a direct meeting with the editors of the publishing companies, so that I may clarify what plans I have, how many books I have on hand, how I intend to end them, how many I can write in a month, the fact I can do my own character design, and so forth, all of them otherwise important elements to prove to them that I can certainly continue working for them for decades to come.

Yet despite being utterly unable to justify their reasoning, unable to deny that a direct meeting would have been far more effective and efficient for all parties involved, unable to deny that the current method of the contest actually is making it nigh-impossible for a foreigner to pass, for new ideas to succeed, despite my request being to simply hand a phone or email over to the editors, the receptions of these companies refused my wish.

This is thanks to the Japanese’s rigid bureaucracy, the stubbornness to stick to rules despite not knowing why said rules even exist and who it benefits.

 

Which is why I implore you to sign this petition to help be the weight that help me reach out to the editors, to prove to them that the contest system is a cancer and that I am at the very least, attempting to fix that situation.

Please note that this is not me trying to take an easy-out for myself, I am not trying to force my books on the publishers, only to get them to be willing to open up and try a different method of selecting an employee.

And I do not intend to be the lone Superman saving the industry by himself, I am also attempting to inspire more foreigners who otherwise love animes to similarly pursue this writing career with the purpose of saving the anime industry, so your help will certainly help pave the way for many others in the future as well. If you are interested, please check this playlist out where I give away free story ideas that you may start writing your own novel on.

If you are under the impression that the reason I failed the contest simply was because I am too incompetent a writer, please check out this playlist on Youtube where I introduce each of the stories I am working on, then you can be the judge to it.

Thank you very much.