Light novels you'd like to see licensed

I already compile a board-wide "manga license wish list" ranking on the AnimeOnDVD forums. After reading more light novels and realizing how much I love the medium, I want to make a similar ranking for light novels. The question is...well, what would my own wish list even be? Some things that would definitely make it are:

Shigofumi: Like a lot of titles I'd consider, I'm interested in this since I've seen the anime. I love the way it combines light and dark, intellectual and sentimental. I think it could do rather well in the US, too.

Strike Witches: The series has a lot more emotional depth to it than people give it credit for. It's way more than just fanservice, especially past the TV anime. No matter how much merit it has, though, the combination of history/military nerd-ery and cute yuri pairings will forever overclock my fanboy meter.

Moshidora, or "What If a Female Student Manager of a High School Baseball Team Reads Drucker's "Management"?": Management science and schoolgirls is a similarly great combination. And it can't be too bad, if it was the best selling book of the year in Japan.

Maria Watches Over Us: God bless the company that actually tries to print this in English.

Angel Beats!, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Just due to fanboyism for Jun Meada/Key and Ryukishi07. Even though the last two are just the script of the games collected into a book.

I'm sure there's plenty of other series I'd love but haven't heard of, though. So I wonder, what titles would you be interested in?

Baccano! and Durarara!!

It looks like Vamp! got licensed but didn't sell well or something? I don't know, but...

I was, of course, introduced to them through the anime adaptations (haven't seen the Baccano! one yet), but having read a fan translation of Durarara!! and things I've been told about Baccano! from those who have read it, the novels are right up my alley even more than the adaptations (I have been buying the anime discs in order to maybe help with decisions to license the novels, though).

I also kind of want the light novel of Inukami. The anime and manga are so completely different, but both enjoyable, that I'd like to see the original version.

Also, for Maria Watches Over Us, though I'm not particularly interested in it (I hate the schoolgirl lesbians trope that the Japanese have such a fascination for - it's so unsatisfying, next to some of the BL and Bara stuff, especially as a lesbian myself), I think Seven Seas (gomanga.com) wouldn't shy from doing it. They've done a few schoolgirl yuri in the past - in fact, when I saw you list it here, I had to stop and question whether they hadn't already licensed the novels. (Perhaps this is the license that was referenced on their Twitter recently about a yuri title they almost had and would've been well-received, but the owners ultimately decided not to do it?)

>2 keristars:

I think some of Adam Arnold (Senior Production Manager of Seven Seas)'s comments doom the possibility of the company releasing Marimite:

"We really did try to give light novels a go (even going so far as to push their launch until we were distributed by Tor/Macmillan), but bookstores (and, ultimately, manga fans) just weren't interested. Our Light Novel imprint flopped and we simply had to cut our losses and move on.

The biggest issue is really cost. Light novels cost three to four times what a single volume of manga does to translate and they barely sell a third of what any given manga does, so there just isn't a solid market for anything but the top-tier of print-based light novels. And even then, the further along you go in a series, the harder and harder those become to break even (as all the costs add up). A 14+ novel series just isn't sustainable in the long run."
- Adam Arnold ( http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1126439)

The Marimite novels have already have 38 volumes.

"I don't want to dash anyones hopes for Marimite, but that is a title that's from Shueisha. So it's all but exclusive to VIZ at this point (if they want it). " - Adam Arnold (http://www.mania.com/aodvb/showthread.php?p=877721)

But, at least they will be finishing the Strawberry Panic novels in June with an omnibus, which I'll totally be buying.

I should probably read ANN's forums & news and whatnot, but I'm already stretched thin. Oh well...

But Adam mentioned that they tried to do those light novels in 2006-2007. Yen Press started doing Haruhi in 2009 and has put out a few different series since then (albeit the absolutely abysmal My Girlfriend is a Geek probably didn't take much effort to translate), so I wonder if that may have changed the market somewhat?

And I didn't realize Marimite was already so long. I thought it was still half that length! Book Girl is about 15 volumes long itself, no?

At any rate, I decided to start learning Japanese over other languages so I could read certain series that will never finish being translated to English (or French - poor ARIA), and wanting to read certain light novels has only hammered home how much harder I need to work on it, my ADD be damned.

I'd love to see Baccano! get a commercial translation. I just finished watching the anime and absolutely loved it.

Definitely the Toradora light novels. I've seen the anime twice and would like to read it's original form, please.

The Saiunkoku Monogatari light novels. Now that the manga is licensed, I hope some company acquires the light novels as well.

I also hope Kodansha USA publishes the rest of The Twelve Kingdoms novels.

I would like to see The Irresponsible Captain Tylor novels, also known as The Most Irresponsible Man in Space.

Via ANN on the recent Yen Press panel at SD Comic-Con 2011:

"Yen Press' short but filled-to-capacity panel began with Editor-in-Chief Kurt Hassler announcing that while they had no new light novel licenses to discuss, they were working on some that could be announced in the near future."

(http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2011/san-diego-comic-con/13)

Thanks!

I saw that they licensed the DRRR!! manga, hopefully that means we'll get the light novel too eventually...

Yen Press does often get both the manga and the light novel (like with Spice and Wolf, Haruhi (with Hachette), Kieli, My Girlfriend's A Geek). It seems the only light novel for which they don't also have the manga for is Book Girl. So this might just be preparation for getting the DRRR!! novels, and the negotiations just aren't done for it yet.

I second this. Have always wanted to read more, having read the shorts that got translated in the DVD box set I got a long time ago. Hard to believe it hasn't been licensed yet.

edit: this was in response to bakabaka84's post.

A 28 year old 9-volume series which is relatively unknown among newer parts (ie. the vast majority) of the fandom?
I can't say that I'm too surprised about it not having been licensed.