Cobalt Bunko

Cobalt Bunko is one of the light novel labels published by Shueisha. It mainly deals with novels for girls.

Contents [hide]

1 Overview

2 History

2.1 Cobalt Pinky

3 List of Main Works

3.1 A-

3.2 Ka-

3.3 Sa-

3.4 Ta-

3.5 Na-

3.6 Ha-

3.7 Ma-

3.8 Ya-

3.9 Ra-

3.10 Wa-

3.11 Cobalt Pinky

4 Related Articles

5 Article in Other Languagas

Overview

Cobalt Bunko (コバルト文庫) is one of the novel labels published by Shueisha. It represents Shueisha's Shōjo shōsetsu (少女小説, 'novels for girls') and is a pioneer in the field of so-called 'light novels for women'.

It is known as a long-established publishing label alongside Sneaker Bunko, Fujimi Fantasia Bunko and the former Sonorama Bunko, among others.

It produced many pioneers in the early days of light novels, including Motoko Arai, Saori Kumi and Saeko Himuro. Although it mainly deals with romance stories for girls, it also publishes a wide range of other genres, including fantasy, science fiction, mystery, yuri and BL.

Recently, the regular publication of paperbacks has ceased, and it has shifted its focus to e-books (and the physical publication under the Orange Bunko label of works first published on e-books) and websites, while shifting its activities to its sister label, Orange Bunko.

History

Cobalt Bunko was founded in 1976 as a label to publish works from the junior and senior high school novel magazine "Shosetsu Junior" (the predecessor of the magazine Cobalt, which was published until 2016) in Bunkobon (Japanese paperback) form. At the time, the concept of 'light novels' did not yet exist, and they were called 'Junior Novels', named after the magazines in which they appeared. In its early years, it was known for its writers such as Yumie Hiraiwa and Sōkun Kawakami.

The Cobalt Novel Award, organised by the label, has a long history, with Naoki Prize-winning authors Fumio Yamamoto, Kei Yuikawa and Mitsuyo Kakuta among its recipients.

Cobalt Pinky

In the 1990s, the branding of Cobalt Pinky (コバルト・ピンキー) was created as a tie-up brand with Shueisha shoujo manga magazines (RIBON, Margaret, etc.), and was distinguished within in the same Cobalt bunko. The development was later terminated before the beginning of the 2000s.

Basically, branded works similar to these were referred to as 'Cobalt Pinky + (magazine name)'. For example, if the work was originally serialised in RIBON, it was called Cobalt Pinky-RIBON. (Although Margaret is included in this series, in reality there are almost exclusively "Ribon" works.)

The content is a novelisation of an anime work based on a manga work serialised in these shōjo manga magazines, so the setting was also written on the premise of the anime version setting, rather than the original manga setting.