Well, it seems that the next thing after traditional anime and manga to come from Japan is: light novels.
The name is a pretty good description of the books themselves. They’re smaller stories, often split across volumes, in handy-sized forms. Both the Full Metal Panic (Wikipedia) series and Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (Wikipedia) are actually based around light novels by the same names.
So, at A Book For All Seasons (A Book For All Seasons) in Leavenworth, WA, I grabbed up the first volume of a light novelization for Pita Ten (Wikipedia). The book itself was a about 20% thinner than some ‘young readers’ books, and about 3/4 as tall. For being a light novelization based on the manga by Koge-Donbo, it was remarkably good. What it primarily covered, however, was things that came up before the original series, which seemed like an excellent fit. Plus, the light art was excellent, too.
Now, seeing as how this was printed in March 2008, the second volume will likely be available by March 2009.
I read the first 2/3 of the book this morning. It felt good to be reading something anime/manga-related again.