shiny_monkey will be given a wad of yen and a list of obscure titles to be looking for when she goes back to Japan. And I shall interlard my kirin reading with more Konron no Tama, just because. Mh well, just because to date the 12K novels have added nothing to the anime.
There's an article waiting to be written about how anime is to manga & shousetsu as dramatizations are to novels ie people don't *really* start writing a work until they hear it speak and see it move. Then suddenly anyone can do it- and does. The characters in text get a visible body; the characters in manga acquire colour and voices. Half the writer's work is done for you. Is why it's a lot easier to write LotR stories after the films and FMA yaoi after the anime. In fact some day I shall natter at
tanbi about how manga-based FMA yaoi barely seems possible. (Ed and Roy *don't* look cute together there and the women are too interesting to be ignored as prospective partners.) 