Every year since 2005, a light novel guide book titled Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! (This Light Novel is Amazing!) is published in Japan, featuring lists such as top 10 most popular light novels and top 10 favorite light novel characters. To create their final listings, the poll works with multiple categories of voters: the homepage survey (general public), collaborators (critics, writers, bookstore workers, bloggers, etc), and a monitor group (teens who have read over fifty of the year’s light novels). This typically leads to a final list that includes not only the most popular works, but also some relatively overlooked titles that are well-received by those in the light novel industry. Light novel series that have won in the past include Zaregoto, Spice and Wolf, Book Girl, A Certain Magical Index, and Sword Art Online.

This year’s top light novel in the rankings is My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Oregairu), which placed #1 the previous year as well. The series also won the female and male character listings with its main characters Yukino Yukinoshita and Hachiman Hikigaya. The artist for Oregairu, Ponkan 8, also won for top light novel artists.

Top 10 Light Novels

1. My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Oregairu)
2. Sword Art Online
3. No Game No Life
4. A Certain Magical Index
5. Koukyuu Rakuen Kyuujou: Harem League Baseball
6. Zetsushinkai no Solaris (Solaris the Abbysal)
7. Escape Speed
8. Toaru Hikuushi no Seiyaku (Oath of a Certain Pilot)
9. Kono Koi to, Sono Mirai (This Love, and That Future)
10. Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou no Alderamin (Alderamin on the Sky)

Top 10 Female Characters

1. Yukino Yukinoshita (Oregairu)
2. Misaka Mikoto (A Certain Magical Index)
3. Yui Yuigahama (Oregairu)
4. Asuna Yuuki (Sword Art Online)
5. Othinus (A Certain Magical Index)
6. Index (A Certain Magical Index)
7. Shino Asada (Sword Art Online)
8. Komachi Hikigaya (Oregairu)
9. Misaki Shokuhou (A Certain Magical Index)
10. Shiro (No Game No Life)

Top 10 Male Characters

1. Hachiman Hikigaya (Oregairu)
2. Touma Kamijou (A Certain Magical Index)
3. Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya (Sword Art Online)
4. Accelerator (A Certain Magical Index)
5. Tatsuya Shiba (The Irregular at Magic High School)
6. Sora (No Game No Life)
7. Rentarou Satomi (Black Bullet)
8. Bell Cranel (DanMachi)
9. Saika Totsuka (Oregairu)
10. Sorouku Ikuta (Alderamin on the Sky)

Top 10 New Works

1. Koukyuu Rakuen Kyuujou: Harem League Baseball
2. Zetsushinkai no Solaris (Solaris the Abbysal)
3. Kono Koi to, Sono Mirai (This Love, and That Future)
4. Kiniro Quartet!
5. Danshi Koukousei de Urekko Light Novel Sakka wo Shiteiru keredo, Toshishita no Classmate de Seiyuu no Onnanoko ni Kubi wo Shimerareteiru (I’m A High School Boy and a Successful Light Novel Author, But I’m Being Strangled By A Female Classmate Who’s A Voice Actress And Is Younger Than Me)
6. Higashi Ikebukuro Stray Cats (East Ikebukuro Stray Cats)
7. Seishun Buta Yarou Series
8. Majo wa Tsuki Izuru Tokoro ni Nemuru
9. Steam Heaven Freaks
10. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (Re: Life in a Different World from Zero)

Top 10 Artists

1. Ponkan 8 (Oregairu)
2. Haimura Kiyotaka (A Certain Magical Index)
3. abec (Sword Art Online)
4. Buriki (I Don’t Have Many Friends, Denpa Onna)
5. Ukai Saki (Black Bullet)
6. Kantoku (The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat)
7. Miho Takeoka (When Hikaru Was on the Earth, Book Girl)
8. Yuu Kamiya (No Game No Life)
9. Yasuda Suzuhito (Durarara!!)
10. Tsunako (Date a Live)

Top Light Novels (#11-60)

11. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (DanMachi)
12. Kiniro Quartet!
13. The Irregular at Magic High School (Mahouka)
14. Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
15. Danshi Koukousei de Urekko Light Novel Sakka wo Shiteiru keredo, Toshishita no Classmate de Seiyuu no Onnanoko ni Kubi wo Shimerareteiru (I’m A High School Boy and a Successful Light Novel Author, But I’m Being Strangled By A Female Classmate Who’s A Voice Actress And Is Younger Than Me)
16. Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts
17. Durarara!!
19. Hai to Gensou no Grimgal
20. Humanity Has Declined (Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita)
21. Ore no Kyoushitsu ni Haruhi wa Inai (There’s No Haruhi in My Classroom)
22. Seishun Buta Series
23. Nourin
24. Haken no Kouki Altina (Altina the Sword Princess)
25. Majo wa Tsuki Dezuru Tokoro ni Nemuru
26. Ben-to
27. Steam Heaven Freaks
28. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (Re: Life in a Different World from Zero)
29. Heaven’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memochou)
30. Aria the Scarlet Ammo (Hidan no Aria)
31. Wizard’s Brain
32. Hikaru ga Chikyuu ni Itakoro…… (When Hikaru Was on the Earth)
33. Bara no Maria (A Brave Heart of Red Rose)
34. Oute Keika Tori!
35. Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? (Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kurusou desuyo?)
36. Eromanga-Sensei
37. Kino’s Journey (Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World)
38. Kagerou Daze
39. Flame Oukoku Koubouki
40. Gonna Be the Twintails! (Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu)
41. Tensei no Kafka tsukai
42. Kyuuketsuki ni Natta Kimi wa Eien no Ai wo Hajimeru (You Who Became a Vampire Begins an Eternal Love)
43. Black Bullet
44. I Don’t Have Many Friends (Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai)
45. Invaders of the Rokujouma!? (Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?)
46. Tokyo Ravens
47. Ruriiro ni Boketa Nichijou
48. Golden Time
49. Fusen Muteki no Virgin Knife (Invincible Virgin Knife)
50. Amagi Brilliant Park
51. When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace (Inou Battle wa Nichijou no Naka de)
52. Ashita, Boku wa Shinu. Kimi wa Ikiru. (Tomorrow, I Will Die. You Will Revive.)
53. Rakudai Kishi no Eiyuutan (A Chivalry of the Failed Knight)
54. Dog and Scissors (Inu to Hasami wa Tsukaiyou)
55. Miss Fable no Almas Givrer
56. Gekka no Utahime to Magi no Ou (Gekka Hime, The Moonflower Songstress and the King of Magi)
57. Sky World
58. Only Sense Online
59. Netoge no Yome wa Onna no ko jyanai to Omotta? (And You Thought There is Never a Girl Online?)
60. Tenbon

How many of your favorites made it onto these lists? I would comment more on the publication itself (as it looks very interesting), but my Japanese just isn’t good enough to read very much of it. On top of all the ranking lists though, there appears to be a number of articles, some interviews, and a lot of pages detailing all the different light novel series released over the past year. It will be interesting to see how many more of them may one day be translated into English.