12 Manga I would sell pieces of my soul to have turned into full-length novels

The other day I wrote a post about books I wanted to see as manga series so I thought I’d follow it up with a post about manga I’d like to see become full length novels or novellas.

Often, popular manga will have companion novels adapted from the series, but this can be rare, and if they do end up being created, they sadly either don’t garner a large audience or aren’t well written.

That’s why I’d love for these twelve series to be adapted into powerful, well-written novels that really do them justice.

1. Bleach

As everyone knows, this is one of my favourite manga series (of all time) and there are a few short companion novels, but they’re not based on the main series itself, they are extra stories. I’d LOVE for a talented fantasy writer (preferably V. E. Schwab tbh) to adapt the series into a novel (or ten because it’s like 60+ manga books long!) and bring the fantastical world of Bleach to life in prose form. (It deserves it after what happened to the anime. *weeps*)

2. Tokyo Ghoul

I’ve just started watching the Toyko Ghoul anime and reading the manga, and I would pay someone serious dollars (if I had any) to adapt this into a novel. It’s set in a dystopian version of Tokyo, where the city is shared by humans and ghouls – beings who have supernatural abilities and feed on humans. It’s a pretty dark series, but I think that element of it would transfer brilliantly into a horror novel.

3. The Seven Deadly Sins

This would be like Game of Thrones, but with more magic and less death and I am here for it. The characters in this series are so colourful and funny, and I’d love to have prose about their adventures.

4. Yona of the Dawn

Ugh, I just love this series so much, I will literally take it more of it in any form. More anime seasons, a spin-off series, more volumes of manga (please) or even a set of companion novels about Yona just being  badass warrior princess. But preferably I’d take an 800-page novel about her and the gang going on adventures.

5. Orange

Orange has such unique storyline among manga, and its themes of friendship, highschool and growing up would make for a great contemporary novel.

6. Fairy Tail

Fairy Tail is one of the most exciting manga I’ve ever had the enjoyment of reading, and if adapted into a full length novel I just know it would be action-packed and thrilling to read. Plus I’d just love to see someone describe in detail all their wonderful hair colours and random outfits!

7. Pandora Hearts

The concept of Pandora Hearts is just so interesting – fifteen-year-old Oz is condemned for a ‘sin’ he knows nothing about and thrown into purgatory – that I think it would make a great fantasy novel. This series is actually loosely based on Alice in Wonderland, but the world-building is very different, and I don’t think it would be anything like the original story if written as its own novel.

8. Sailor Moon

Honestly, I just want more books like Sailor Moon, where the majority of main characters are women and have wonderfully strong friendships with one another. Bonus points if they have magical powers. Even more bonus points if they’re not fetishised or sexualised as part of the ‘magical girl’ trope. Nobody has time for that.

9. +Anima

+Anima has such a unique premise that I think it would work brilliantly as a YA novel. In the series, children become anima – part human part animal – when a traumatic experience happens to them, and the animal attribute they take on is dependent on their need at the time of the trauma. Cooro, the MC you can see on the front of the volume, became a bird +anima because he needed to escape the ground he was on at the time of the trauma. The four MCs are so lovable and have such engaging backstories that I would 100% read this in prose format.

10. Haikyuu!

As a high school basketball manga and anime, Haikyuu sounds like your typical sports comic at first, but the characters and extraordinary tension of the matches make it something special. I would love to see more of this series in prose form, it’d be so much fun!

11. Spice and Wolf

A story about a young merchant who meets an ancient wolf goddess (in the form of a girl with wolf ears of course) on his travels, who agrees to gift him her cunning and luck? YES, I’ll take seven full length novels please.

12. Fullmetal Alchemist

Oh FMA. FMA is one of my all-time favourite mangas, and the Brotherhood anime series that was released in 2011 is one of the best adaptations I’ve ever come across. It follows Edward Elric and his brother Alphonse as they try to get their original bodies back after a terrible accident. Edward is an alchemy prodigy and has a metal arm, hence the nick name (and title) Fullmetal Alchemist. I’m so game for more new material, as the manga and the anime both concluded in 2011 and it’s been a while since we’ve had anything. 2017 FMA fantasy series anyone?

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and feel free to check out the companion post I wrote about 12 novels I’d love to see become manga! Let me know if there are any manga you would add to this list, or if any of these are your favourites!