Generally, How long are light novel series?

I know this is a pretty broad question and it probably depends on what kind of story it is. However I'm just curious since a lot of series seem to stop at around ten volumes while others like Index seem to be these ongoing franchises. I guess I'm used to a series tring to push as many volumes as it can.

The attitude of Japanese publishers is, for the most part, "for as long as it sells", or as long as the author wants to write about the story (AND it sells). Index is a ridiculous example, but there's also SAO and Mahouka as long-runners, nevermind Horizon.

edited 22nd Jun '14 10:47:42 PM by MyssaRei

The author of Zero No Tsukaima died before the series finished.

In general, I'd say most of them are intended to be long-runners. Or rather, they're written in such a way as to leave things slightly open-ended at all places, but not so far away from an ending that you couldn't push one out in a couple of volumes. Series basically only end when it either becomes unprofitable or the author gets sick of it (usually to start another series shortly, so from the publisher's perspective there's no real difference).

edited 22nd Jun '14 11:14:33 PM by Clarste

What they said.

That said, I vaguely recall hearing that light novel series tend to be forced to end if their anime adaptations flop. I don't know if it's true, but IIRC the source was the writer of Mayoi Neko Overrun.

edited 22nd Jun '14 11:52:02 PM by burnpsy

SAO is even worse when you consider that while the plots are independent, it shares a world with Accel World and between them the author has nearly thirty volumes published for a single setting.

But yeah, it's a mix of as long as the author is willing and able to write and the publisher is willing to print them. Which really boils down to everything in terms of writing, not just light novels when you think about it.

The author of Date a Live had a problem in that he didn't get the rights for publishing further than 10 volumes or something, IIRC.

Though I have doubts of that being an actual issue given how well it sells.

The setting only barely overlaps with each other.

edited 22nd Jun '14 11:50:58 PM by KirigayaKazuto

index has like 40 volumes including sidestories, and each volume usually introduces a completely new cast of characters (other than Touma) with their own new conflicts. It says something that the character in the title hasn't been relevant for 30+ volumes.

Date A Live a good test for the "anime doesn't do well" thing mentioned, as the adaption wasn't doing it any favors.

With Mayoi Neko Overrun, there also was the added problem of the manga being cancelled when the artits decided returning to To Love Ru once its rights were fully cleared up.

Haruhi is pretty much the Grandfather Clause 800 pound juggernaut gorilla, since a series with less success wouldn't have been allowed those huge hiatuses without a cancellation.

I don't know. I depends on the circumstances. Banner of the Stars is (as far as I'm aware) still ongoing and its most recent volume was released before the most recent Haruhi volume.

Of course it's less a case of being on hiatus and more that Morioka just writes damn slowly.

Date A Live's anime performed well in sales, kiukiuclk. 8K is nothing to sneeze at.

Something to note about Mayoi Neko Overrun is that the writer is rightfully disgruntled after the manga thing and his anime being used as an experiment and not actually adapting his work for half the episodes (it was a random mecha show with the same cast for an episode, for example).

edited 23rd Jun '14 5:07:14 PM by burnpsy

Er, the ones that we most commonly hear about (Through anime/manga adaptations, translation (Official or otherwise), and their influence overseas) tend to be of the, "Keep publishing until the franchise flops/the creator grows tired," variety, though it's entirely possible there are a plethora of shorter series that we never hear about.

I guess it might be possible to find out the average, but Kawakami's works would probably raise the number by, say, five.

I have it on good authority that that man is responsible for over one percent of all human literature at this point.

edited 23rd Jun '14 5:44:19 PM by Rem