ASCII.jp: 5862 Entries Competed in the 18th Dengeki Novel Prize Competition, The Most Yet!

This year, over 5,800 entries were submitted to Dengeki, a rise of several hundred from the previous all-time record, last year’s 5,400. The winner was some book you’ll never read because it’s in Japanese.

2channel users comment:

4 名前：名無しさん＠涙目です。(群馬県)投稿日：2011/11/13(日) 13:46:36.86 ID:3nCcN4Oi0

Former NEETs, every single one of them.

5 名前：名無しさん＠涙目です。(WiMAX)投稿日：2011/11/13(日) 13:46:52.20 ID:Q0aIXBbq0

Maybe I’ll try writing one, too. If I use my cell phone to write during my commute, I’ll have something in a month.

7 名前：名無しさん＠涙目です。(dion軍)投稿日：2011/11/13(日) 13:48:08.65 ID:/pxxuMwd0

Wannabes read them, wannabes enter them. These otaku industries have pretty small cycles.

9 名前：名無しさん＠涙目です。(熊本県)投稿日：2011/11/13(日) 13:48:31.13 ID:9/poRXPE0

Here’s a recent light novel:

[The last image reads, "World Cup"]

28: >>9 Awful

30: >>9 You’d flip the pages so fast, it’ll look like you’re speed-reading lol

33: >>9 They try to make up for substance with one-shot gags. Just make doujinshi.

44: >>9 Hilarious

64: >>9 You can’t even call them novels at all at that point.

74: >>9 That kind of “Let’s throw in a Jojo’s reference” thing is getting OLD and I wish they’d cut it out already. Pretty much anything sold to nerds has a Jojo’s reference.

11: Programmer: “I could write a program that writes light novels.”

12:

Regular novel: “There was a loud explosion behind me. Surprised, I turned around.”

Cell phone novel: “Boom! A boom turned me around.”

Light novel: “There was a violent explosion to my rear. I figured this would be another pain in the butt, and thoughts like ‘It’s probably going to make me skip lunch.’ swirled in my head as I turned around.”

Yuusuke Yamada: “There was the sound of a big explosion. I was surprised at the shock. I turned around.”

Ryoutaro Shiba: “There was an explosion. Getting off topic, but did you know that the first time fireworks were used as a weapon in Japan was around the time of the Mongol Invasion?”

Hiryohiko Araki: “There was an explosion behind meeeeeee! I stopped! And I turned around at the same time! And the blast hit me!”

Ryukishi07: “BOoOoOoMM! There was a big explosion behind me…! I noticed the conditions of my surroundings… Before my brain could react, I took action…!! Immediately, I turned around to look behind me…!”

Ryuu Murakami: “There was an explosion behind me. A black cat ran away, a beggar woman vomitted, the excrement collecting at her feet. And then I stepped on the tomato as hard as I could, and turned around.”

Kinoko Nasu: “Suddenly, the sound of an explosion rang out behind me. At that very moment, I spun around faster than anyone had before…!!”

Mari Yaguchi: “I loved to play Bomberman when I was a kid, so when I heard an explosion, I turned to see. I thought maybe it was a stunt by the world’s biggest Bomberman fan.”

Natsuhiko Kyogoku: “A thunderous noise shook the ground. …Was it an explosion? If you were to ask me, it was about as plain as tea without the leaves. …That’s why I replied. With a ‘What?’ A bell, that is, a wind chime, was singing somewhere else.”

Sho Ikegami: “Now, I’m sure everyone is wondering what this explosion was. That’s why I’ve prepared a diagram. Please look behind you.”

13: The judges are totally used to this by now…

14: I bet around 5000 of those entries weren’t even novels.

15: I think the “Rookie Of The Year” awards these magazines give out are more to increase their own sales than anything, lol.
There are more authors than readers in actual literary magazines. (Because authors are pretty much the only ones who read them, heh.)

17: Dengeki is better than the other publishers.

Dengeki>>>Sneaker>>>>>>>Fantasia (lol)>MF (rofl)

24: Big deal. They’re all about the same

34: Aren’t they all run by Kadokawa?

22: It seems kind of weird for a voice actor to get work from a light novel.

27: All these guys have from spending so much time on the computer is being able to do touch typing. They can’t draw, programming seems to hard, and music is a mystery. But of course, they can write.

29: They’re gonna start running out of character ideas at some point.

31: That means the art will be set from the start.

32: If it’s by Buriki, anything’s OK.

37: >>31-32 Ladies and gentlemen, it’s these kinds of people that should be kept out of the light novel business.

51: Being a light novel author or voice actor isn’t that involved so there’s been an increase in people giving them a shot.
Of course, the more people you get, the better chance you have of finding the ones who are really good at it.
Isn’t that all right?

53: Hey, moron. They got light novels in school libraries, too. Are you stupid or something?

94: There’s too many of them. Dengeki’s editing department must be going crazy.

128: Yeah, I figured it’s a good thing to keep them catagorized separately from actual novels. Everyone would go crazy if you put this kind of stuff with the regular books.

186: Let’s write a light novel!

Original post: My Game News Flash (Japanese)

Translated by N-Forza