Light novels are popular short storybooks that target the Japanese teen market. Colloquially known as "ranobe" in Japan, these novels are usually heavily illustrated and tend to focus on simple, uncomplicated plot lines with happy endings. The enormous market for light novels has encouraged film studios in Japan to make Animé films of some of the most popular titles. The popularity of light novels has spread beyond Japan, with companies such as Tokyopop already having broken into the lucrative North American market.
The term graphic novel refers to large bound comic books usually sold in bookstores or specialty stores rather than convenience stores and newsstands. It is a fairly broad term, encompassing both comics with plotted storylines and complex narrative progression, as well as a collection of comics bound together in a single volume.
Many well-respected comic book writers dismiss the term "graphic novel" as either pretentious or a cynical commercial ploy. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman and others claim that "graphic novel" suggests an insecurity about reading comics, which may be erroneously associated with only children by some. Additionally, large comic companies regularly use the term as a lucrative marketing strategy for cheap, poorly written comics collated into one volume.
The evolution of the graphic novel has lead to a blurring of the line between comics and light novels. Graphic novels like Alan Moore's Watchmen interrupt the traditional comic book paneling with large amounts of prose text, bringing the form closer to illustrated light novels. The maturity of some of the content of graphic novels far exceeds that of most comic books and engages sophisticated social commentary typically associated with literary novels. Similarly, novels such as Guin Saga and Vampire Hunter D contain much darker themes than what might be expected from the ranobe format.