Since around the mid-2000s, the length of Japanese light novel titles (referring to the actual title of the work) has gradually become longer. Back then, there were games like Slayers, Record of the Lodoss War or Maria Watch Over Us. Today, there are countless longer titles like That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill, or The World's Finest Assassin Gets Recarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat. Longtime author of Full Metal Panic! series Shoji Gatoh commented on how short his series' title was compared to other series.
Image via Shoji Gatoh's Twitter Account
©賀東招二 Gatoh's favorite mecha anime Armored Trooper VOTOMS © Sunrise
Gatoh mused about the length of light novel titles on his X (formerly Twitter) account on January 15, noting that he was “not worried” about the shortness of his novel titles. compared to other novels released on January 19. Gatoh attached an image to the tweet to make his point.
今月のファンタアジア新刊だけど。俺のだけタイトル短かい… pic.twitter.com/8iYv6G5Oyj
— 賀東招二 (@gatosyoji) January 15, 2024
This month's new release from Fantasia. Mine was the only one with a short title… I felt nervous.
In a follow-up tweet, Gatoh noted that the problem with light novel title lengths began about 15 years ago. He also said that popular manga tend to use shorter titles, but “it's not a matter of which is better or worse.” So he understands the usefulness of long titles. than.
タイトルの長さ問題、15年前くらいにはもう業界的にけっこう長くなってて、 「新聞のTV欄みたいなもんだろ」とどこかでコメントした覚えがある。
メジャー漫画誌のヒット作のタイトルは今で.というか。— 賀東招二 (@gatosyoji) January 15, 2024
Regarding title length, titles became quite long in the industry about 15 years ago, and I remember commenting somewhere that it was “like TV listings in the newspaper.”
The fact that the titles of popular works in major manga magazines are still very simple makes me think. No, it's not a matter of which is better or worse. It's more like the difference in the arena.
Of course, one thing Gatoh hasn't addressed is the difference in title length between the Japanese domestic market and the international market and the fact that there are still light novel series with short titles. Solve the latter first, Goblin Slayer! or The Rise of the Shield Hero are examples of modern light novels with relatively short titles, not only in English but also in Japanese.
That's the difference between the Japanese and English titles, however, in that things become intriguingly different. One thing in common is that English titles tend to be longer than Japanese titles because the shorter number of characters contains more information. For example: Arifureta-From Commonplace to Worlds Strongest is a good story in English. However, its Japanese title when read in Japanese, Arifureta Shokugyō de Sekai Saikyō (ありふれた職業で世界最強) is not as long as one might think. Even the That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime series mentioned above isn't very long in Japanese, it's a tiny Tensei Shitara Suraimu Datta Ken (転生したらスライムだった件).
However, there are still obscenely long titles in Japanese, such as Danshi Kousei de Urekko Light Novel Sakka wo Shiteiru keredo, Toshishita no Classmate de Seiyu no Onna no Ko ni Kubi wo Shimerareteiru (男子校生で売れっ子ライトノベルI am a male high school student and a famous light novel author, but I'm being strangled by a girl younger classmate, a voice actor.) Even the titles Gotoh included in his first tweets, images that were longer than typical modern novel titles.
Source: Shoji Gatoh's X/Twitter account (link 2, (link 3) via Otakomu
