Light novel , Visual novel and Web novel . Have you ever wondered what the distinction is between them? Which category does each one fall into? Here on the AnimeNew we will explain!
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Something that catches your attention when starting a new read is immersing yourself in the universe created by the authors, with memorable characters, intriguing settings and contexts. And there are several ways to present this experience to fans: But whether through illustrations, detailed descriptions or even music. Today, we're going to discuss the main differences between three popular forms of storytelling: light novel, web novel, and visual novel.
Light Novel
Light Novels are the well-known printed books, generally accompanied by color illustrations of the characters in action, as well as black and white illustrations at times. The term, despite using English words, is of Japanese origin and suggests lightness; these books are usually around 300 pages long. Therefore, they are printed in a format called bunkobon, using A6 sheets to facilitate transport and storage.
web novel
Authors write these stories directly for the internet, without standardized formatting in terms of number of lines per chapter. Typically, the author writes a web novel with the aim of promoting their work, distributing it free of charge for anyone to read. Authors do not usually add illustrations later to the story in web novels. Therefore, when a web novel is successful, it is common for publishers to contact the author to transform it into a light novel. In this process, the story goes through professional review and editing, with the addition of illustrations and, sometimes, changes to the plot.
Visual Novel
Visual novels are a type of game where the player interacts by clicking to make decisions that directly affect the story or the game's route. Therefore, visual novels combine background scenes, plenty of text, ambient sound and character illustrations, with limited animations, such as changing poses or facial expressions.
Finally, now you are aware of this question that ends up confusing.
Source: VNDB
