The Light Novel Age of Anime

In my post about the Ages of Anime last year I suggested that 2011 was the start of our current Age and then that maybe we could call this Age of Anime the Light Novel Age because even though plenty of Anime based on LNs happened before it feels like only in this era have LNs truly rivaled Manga as a Source Material for Anime.  While at the same time trends we associate with LNs have become prevalent even in shows that didn't start there, based on how it was structured I was genuinely shocked to learn that Dress Up Darling was a Manga not a Light Novel.

I decided to take a slightly closer look at the Winter 2011 season on MyAnimeList referred to as MAL for short going forward.  

The first show that comes up that season both when organizing by most members and when organizing by highest scored in Puella Magi Madoka Magica which was not a Light Novel adaption however it's writer Gen Urobochi was already notorious as an author of both LNs and Visual Novels. I'm not making this post to argue Madoka is in addition to everything else it's infamous for secretly a partial cause of the LN take over.  But if I didn't acknowledge the biggest show of that season someone might accuse me of deliberately ignoring it.

The second, third and fifth shows of that season ranked by most members were each LN adaptations.  (Winter 2010 did have at least as many LN Anime but not as congregated towards the top of this list.)  Those 3 are IS: Infinite Stratos, Is This A Zombie and Gossik with Gossik being the second when ranked by score.

But Infinite Stratos is perhaps the most important for my argument.  In one of my Isekai posts I suggested that In Another World With My Smartphone is no where near the first modern Isekai but is arguably the first to fully fit what we typically mean by a generic disposable Isekai.  Well Infinite Stratos I think has a similar role in the history of the Magic Academy genre.  The show Mother's Basement keeps calling the first of this genre of Anime doesn't in my view have the right Vibes to really qualify at all.  Infinite Stratos has the right visual look, basic set up and tone to clearly feel like part of this genre, only that it's technically Mecha rather then Magic is an issue, but they're all Newtypes which is basically Magic.

Spring 2011 had Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl who's Japanese title is slightly misleading since it does not have the vibes that Visual Novel YouTubers are thinking of when they talk about Denpa.

The thing about the history of Light Novels and Anime adapted from them is that what kinds of stories we most stereotypically associate with the medium also changed.  Stuff like Twelve Kingdoms, Slayers, Boogiepop and Others, Kara no Kyoukai, Kino's Journey, Baccano!, Strawberry Panic and Legend of The Legendary Heroes seem like very different beasts.  While the genres we associates with LNs today are still fairly varied, they are connected to each other by how they tend to be Otaku Media at it's most Meta Self Indulgent, and that largely started with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in 2003.

So basically among all the LN based Anime made prior to Winter 2011 only three maybe four franchises I'm familiar with at all feel like the modern LN vibe.  The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, A Certain Magical Index and OreImo, the maybe is Zero no Tsukaima, and all of them got animated during the last 5 years of what I call the Bronze Age of Anime.  And there are no shows that weren't LN based I would mistake for one, rather the opposite most LN based Anime were ones that seem not much different from the Manga based ones.

Manga has by no means ceased to be important if for no other reason then that these Light Novels always get a Manga Adaption first before the Anime, I'm not currently aware of any exceptions to that.  Even Sword Art Online had a Manga as early as 2010 yet no one ever talks about it, all that discourse surrounding that franchise including changes between versions yet no one seems to even be aware of the Manga.