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It's the 10th anniversary of Media Work Bunko!! (and now, they have a mascot?)
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Media Work Bunko is a Kadokawa imprint that was derived from Dengeki due to necessity of dealing with the demographic shift in the LN audience.
The old audience has grown up and the modern LN industry catered more to the new gamer audience, which aliened a lot of the older LN readers.
In order to cater for the older LN readers who either ain't into the modern LN genres, or just want more stories and characters that they can relate to easier by featuring older characters or covering their concerns as new adults; contributing to this new medium that couples the LN--these character-focused novels featuring a lot of dialog--with more adult characters, mature stories or more serene atmosphere, which is well reflected in their refined illustrated covers.Today marks their 10th year of operation and they celebrated by creating a mascot and since it happens to be Neko no Hi (or Cat day) today:
The mascot became Medi-nya(メディニャ) which seems to be combination of "Media" and "Nya".
The logo has always been "M" reflected as "W" and now, they are the ears and the tails respectively.There is no English release of any of their work so far but there are a few among the forums suggestions:
Three Days of Hapiness
london Ghost Ballad
Biblia Koshodou No Jiken Techou
Kamisama no Goyounin
One of Makai Tantei Meiousei O publishersSource:
https://twitter.com/mwbunko/status/1098922404766568448 -
I hope one day we get something from them too. A lot of their books I saw on Amazon looked good and refreshingly different. I'd probably never know about Media Works Bunko if it weren't for one of your posts, so thanks for that.
I know they're not from this publisher, but I hope Tomihiko Morimi's books do well enough so that we can get similar Japanese works that lean more toward novels/literature, not just light novels.
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@hyperion
Even before Tomihiko Morimi work, there is "I want to eat your pancreas," which is of the same new hybrid medium but from different company.
There are a lot of MW Bunko works which is quite similar to it like Three Days of Hapiness or the more-hyped You shine in moonlit night (which has live action adaptation currently in the theaters, sequel coming, new manga adaptation and cover by the same illustrator as pancreas one...so if we are gonna get anything from them any time soon, it would be this) -
@bloodygaikotsu
Oh yeah, forgot about Pancreas. I have it, but I still have to read it. Whatever we get next, I'd be fine with. All I can do is support what comes out, hoping they do well enough to encourage publishers to get more. -
@hyperion
I also like to believe in marketability of this new medium to western YA and NA (new adult) audience.
While they are read like LN, they are devoid of many questionable or very otaku-ish elements that may alienate non-otaku. (Also, it ain't very male-oriented like majority of LNs which makes it easier to sell to the girls-filled teen novels market) -
Yeah, Media Works Bunko's books are kinda hard to classify. "Grown-up light novels", "light bungei", "not light novels at all ". It is also somewhat of a gateway label into regular literature for LN writers. It is without a doubt seen as an "upgrade" when writers go from Dengeki Bunko to Media Works Bunko. And some of those go into straight up regular literature from there on.
Pancreas is a what I'd consider a regular YA novel. Perhaps you could say it belongs to a similar category as Media Works' books.
Morimi Tomihiko's books, on the other hand, are just good old literature that happened to get an anime adaptation. Books such as these are better off being published by companies who have a reputation of publishing modern Japanese literature. I personally don't think Morimi Tomihiko's books interest say, Yen Press' core customer base much. My only hope is it reaches the ear of Japanese literature enthusiasts.
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@hakogami said in It's the 10th anniversary of Media Work Bunko!! (and now, they have a mascot?):
It is without a doubt seen as an "upgrade" when writers go from Dengeki Bunko to Media Works Bunko.
Dunno, it seems for authors who don't wanna write fantasy action, ridiculous Romcom, or any story that specifically targets gamers or otakus but still wanna be connected to the medium.
Like majority of authors who went to MW are like Mikage, prefer writing mystery or drama or psychological or anything different from regular LNs stuff, especially older authors like Keiichi Sigsawa or Shinjirou Dobashi.
