[Jensson]

Biggest reason is simply quantity, Japan churns out hundreds of animated stories from new authors every year, the west do barely anything in comparison.

When you create that much content some of them do become hits, and it also encourages more authors to create more content, while western studios only invests in franchises they can control themselves to create another marvel, while Japan just churns out content while the authors retain the rights.

Edit: Many western authors writes about other worlds etc, they just don't get anything animated since it is so hard to get anyone to invest in your story.

[TheAceOfHearts]

There seems to be some progress in the western animation scene. Dungeon Crawler Carl and Cradle are both getting animated adaptations.

The biggest tragedy is that even incredibly popular authors like Brandon Sanderson don't get a chance of having their own animated series. Mistborn would work perfectly as an anime adaptation.

Marvel and DC historically created way too much consolidation which really limited creative output. And by this point people seem pretty fed up with 'capeshit'. Western comics are also incredibly hostile towards new readers, especially when compared to managa where you can just pick up the story and binge read the whole thing without having to pick up a million other things.

[kombookcha]

>Western comics are also incredibly hostile towards new readers

I agree with this if we are talking American superhero comics, but the European scene is decidedly different. Franco-Belgian comics are usually very pick-up-and-go, as are a great many of the homegrown UK ones. I think we're coming off a decade-ish where the massive investment in Marvel/DC 'verses have been eating up all the oxygen in the room for large comic book adaptions. Or just for general public consciousness attention for comics.

I am pretty confident that it's gonna turn around, but it might take a while on the large scale projects.

[havblue]

Things have definitely come a long way since the nineties where you would read a book or comic and wonder about how great it will be when the property will get adapted and reach a wider audience. It's kind of like listening to a band before they became popular or maybe rain on Arrakis. We got what we wanted and the thing that we anticipated isn't nearly as special anymore. Dinniman and Brandon Sanderson definitely deserve their wider audiences but it just seems anticlimactic as these shows and movies inevitably roll out.

[cgriswald]

Just a handful of Western comics you can pick up and read today:

The Sandman (Netflix show), The Best We Could Do, Pride of Baghdad, Superman American Alien, Superman Red Son (animated), I Hate Fairyland, Bone, Epileptic, Paper Girls (turned into an live action show), Monstress, Saga, The Watchmen (turned into a terrible movie, an adaptation show, and an animated show), Stumptown (also got a show I believe), Daytripper, Maus, Berlin…

[anthk]

>Western.

America is not the whole West, HN readers often forget it. Ditto with thinking on "Dragon Ball in the West" ended in the 00's when we the Europead finished it on mid 90's and began to watch Dragon Ball GT in 1999.

[dfxm12]

Western comics are also incredibly hostile towards new readers

In my experience, it is easy to just pick up a trade paperback, one shot, subscribe to a limited series, etc. Even if you want to just jump in to an ongoing series, the writing and storylines are simple enough that you can usually pick it up in a few issues or just wait for a new arc.

[Cthulhu_]

I'm not at all involved in the industry so here's an armchair opinion; western animation is too expensive for anything but guaranteed hits or kid's shows. Arcane is one of the best western animations of today, but it cost $250 million for just two seasons.

Wages in Japan for animators are much lower, if not exploitative.

[motogpjimbo]

The Cradle adaptation is only an animatic, sadly. Best case scenario is that it generates enough buzz for a Netflix or an Amazon to pick it up for a full series, but then I'd be worried it would get butchered like Rings of Power or Wheel of Time have been.

[corimaith]

None of the japanese literature in this article is being adapted into animation, we're talking about literary fiction here as opposed to more pop fiction like light novels which exist more as mass commercial enterprises.

[Jensson]

Anime gets people started, then they start reading other things from Japan. The west doesn't have such a pipeline to make casual persons into readers.

Edit: Anyway, the culture of celebrating authors in general rather than trying to create franchises helps a lot for all sorts of books.

[corimaith]

No, I don't think somebody getting into Re-Zero is going to start reading VNs like Umineko someday, let alone progress to literature, in the same way as how somebody watching the MCU is unlikely to progress to Infinite Jest.

Geographical distinctions don't really make sense in deciding preference, you start with genre elements and pick from there, regardless if it's Western or Japanese. Ignoring a work because it comes from X country would just be bizarre. As a sci-fi or fantasy fan I don't make distinctions between Japanese or Korean or Western works, nor do I see other fans doing so. For example, I wouldn't be comparing Satoshi Hase's Beatless in the context of "Japanese" works, I'd be comparing it to other AI works. The only limiting factor is translation.

But cross-genre pollination doesn't really happen nowadays, most shounen readers will never go or even avoid mecha, and so forth. Otaku culture especially is much more fragmented today than in the early 2010s.

[Elvie]

I agree with your points, but to be honest Bungo Stray Dogs got me interested in Osamu Dasai and Akutagawa...

[Jensson]

> No, I don't think somebody getting into Re-Zero is going to start reading VNs like Umineko someday

You realize Umeniko got an anime? Yes, some of the people who watched that anime probably went to read the books, is that really so hard to believe? Authors who got their works animated see a lot more book sales as well. Then as they read those books they might want more so they look for adjacent books, fueling the entire industry.

[corimaith]

Well, the Umineko anime was pretty bad... But I illustrated the disprecancy between the VN culture and larger Anime culture for reason that the VN subculture is already very close to Anime subculture yet receives much less attention. Of course a few individuals can "graduate", but we can observe statistically most don't. Majority of AoT fans aren't going into MuvLuv.

Contemporary Literary Fiction as in the article is separated by far more cultural layers, there is virtually no cross pollination with the otaku subculture. You are far more likely to get someone who reads Westen literature to expand to Japanese works than an otaku to do so.

[Jensson]

> None of the japanese literature in this article is being adapted into animation

This is wrong btw, I looked up one and "Makato Shinkai’s She and Her Cat" was an anime. This is about animes as well, not just books.

[Elvie]

Did you even read the article?

churn animated stories? WTF has that do do with an article about fiction books - NOT manga? or even anime?

[Jensson]

You realize most of those stories were originally books? They turn books to mangas and then to animes.

[Elvie]

No, not all start as light novels. In many cases the light novels come afterwards as a way to capitalise (eg Demon Slayer, the manga finished a while ago, so while the anime is still running light novels are coming out).

Apothecary Diaries started as a light novel, but JJK, AoT and many others start as Manga

[Jensson]

Also, the article is about animes as well. Makato Shinkai’s She and Her Cat is an anime, not a book, for example. It talks a lot about books, but it isn't only about books. I thought that was obvious.

> No, not all start as light novels

Many are though, many of the animes that came out for a few years I had already read the LN for. That so many novels becomes animes is likely a big reason why there are so many novels being written along those styles.