Many of my favorite indie horror games made in Japan have received light novel adaptations or spin-offs, and I’ve been able to collect a few of them during my time living here. For Halloween, I took some pictures of a few illustrations found in these books:

Shiro no Noroi

This book is the standard size of light novels in Japan, and has a typical number of images interspersed with the text. The story from the game is a cute one (well, for a horror story), and I quite like the character designs.

Ao Oni

This light novel is a bit larger in size, but seems a typical length. There are many illustrations, including a few pages of manga acting as a prologue. There appears to be a couple new characters added for the story to work with, and I’ve seen at least one sequel in bookstores released.

Misao

This light novel is quite huge. It’s big in size, but more so it’s a very long story. Almost 500 pages! I imagine there’s been a lot added to the story of the game… The illustrations are quite nice though, and I especially love the cover and color inserts. The use of just red, white, and black on the cover is striking, and I quite like the style used for the character showcase in the first color insert.

The Witch’s House

I really love the cover for this one! I believe this is a spin-off of sorts for The Witch’s House, as this novel appears to be the “Diary of Ellen.” The paintings for the cover and color illustrations are very unique and beautiful.

Yume Nikki

Yume Nikki is my favorite game, so I had to get this book as soon as I was able to. The artwork is quite lovely–the color inserts as well as the black and white images leave a strong impression! I wish I was good enough at Japanese to be able to read this… My best hope will be for a good fan translation in the meantime, I suppose. I’ve always been fascinated by Yume Nikki’s haunting dream worlds.