Ask John: Why Aren’t More Anime Novels Available in America?

Question:
Why aren’t the books on which anime are based ever translated and brought over to the US? I, for one, would love to read the original Lodoss, and I really, really want to read the Boogiepop books. You would think it might even be cost effective, since you only have to translate the books: no timing, encoding, or dubbing required.

Answer:
I think, traditionally, Japanese “lite novels,” as Raijin Comics referred to them in an extended English language article, haven’t been translated into English and released in America because there’s been little perceived demand for them. The original Great Adventure of Dirty Pair novel, first published in 1980, was released in an English language version in Japan in 1987, and a handful of copies of this paperback novel filtered into the hands of American collectors. And Yoshiyuki Tomino’s three Mobile Suit Gundam novels were released in English translation by Del Rey in 1990. But it wasn’t until 2003 that Japanese anime related novels started getting somewhat regular official American publication. It’s probably accurate to say that it wasn’t until 2003 that the American consumer market for anime merchandise was big enough to support English language translations of Japanese lite anime novels, and wasn’t until around 2003 that the American anime, and especially manga distribution industry was wealthy enough, and diverse enough to branch out into translating prose novels.

To the best of my knowledge, the first anime related novel released in English translation was Eiko Kadono’s Majo no Takkyubin, the basis for Hayao Miyazaki’s anime film of the same name, subtitled “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” A few months later, Comics One introduced the first anime novel specifically targeted at the American anime fan community, the Onegai Teacher novel. Since that release other anime related novels including Slayers, Onegai Twins, RahXephon, and Vampire Hunter D have been released or scheduled for American release.

But there hasn’t been exactly a flood of Japanese “lite novels” pouring into the American market over the past two years. The titles that have been released seem to be minor sales successes at best, implying that the American market for English language “anime novels” may be big enough to support a handful of titles, but isn’t supportive enough to encourage a wholesale importation of numerous Japanese “lite novels.” When these titles begin selling well in America, we’ll see more of them. But right now the sales of Japanese novels in America don’t seem to be profitable enough to encourage translating companies to acquire many new titles.