@Arube - bonus content from epubs is here - https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/4902/premium-e-book-bonus-contents-list-updated-may-30-2024?page=1

I'm not JNC staff, but I believe the (direct from JNC) epubs will always have all content from the printed editions plus any bonus content, while the printed versions will be missing the bonus content just like it's missing from the ebooks from Amazon, Apple, etc.

That's because the bonus content is easier to license if it's only for a more limited "JNC members" epub.

@myskaros said in What country is JNC localizing for?:

For spelling and punctuation, American English standards. For word choice and phrases, depending on the series or setting or characters the localization team can request exceptions to use British English or other dialects.

Hellsing dub versions would have been all wrong with American accents :)

(Sylvester Stallone as Alucard?)

@KanjiTatsumiSoT

Hello,

Thank you for pointing this out. A new file has been sent to all stores. The new updated file has the missing text.

While the ePub sold on J-Novel Club is available now. All other stores will take several business days to update the files.

Please try checking again next week for the update.

Thank you, and we apologize for the inconvenience caused.

@Serah that's applicable in a limited number of cases, and if the series is ongoing, you have no guarantee that quality won't go up again later. Of course there are cases where the author screwed up so badly that the plot and the characters can be saved anymore...but then we are becoming even more restrictive in the criteria. And at that point, I don't think it would make a difference.
Then, again, there is the matter of tastes. I'm currently reading Pens down, swords up volume 3 and I find it a chore...which obviously doesn't mean the book is objectively bad, but a list of series that went downhill made by me, you or yhe JNC editors is not necessarily the same.

@HarmlessDave thank you for your honest response. Subjects such as these, while I don't fault others for liking or not being bothered by them, do bother me, so I do my best to stay away from them. I really appreciate the reply. Again, thank you.

I really wish book content was more readily labeled with these things, but it is what it is. I mean, how do you sell something with a sexual assault tag for its content outside of the xxx industry? I am just glad my prior experience guided me into asking before getting through a book or two. Apparently, I was recently told, there is a bunch of pronoun usage as well. That grammar would also make it difficult for me to read through and enjoy the story as well.

Anyway, thank you HarmlessDave.

@Canyoukillmenow Bullies who aren't Aoi never win, at least ;)

But yes, that series is neither serious in its treatment of class issues (either type) nor subtle in its wish-fulfilment.

I've been finding it entertaining enough (since I stopped taking it seriously), but I certainly wouldn't blame you for disliking it. I suspect most readers will either find it amusing or insufferable, with little in between.

@JamesWannan J-Novel Club don't mention much about release dates until they put it up on the series page on the website. Sometimes things take longer than normal. It'll come when it comes.

So I've recently worked through Reincarnated as a Sword, and overall rather enjoyed it.

But the author does one thing that really annoys me. Namely, dialogs involving lots of characters during action heavy scenes (think a multi party brawl, for example), where the dialog ends up looking like this...

...She used the momentum to launch a horizontal swing, knocking the Blue Cat towards the other combatants.
“Heavy Slash.”
“What?!”
“Urgh!”
“Hiyaaah!”
The swordsman Yuan and the lancer Yosh took the main brunt of the hit...

...With multiple back-to-back unlabeled dialog sentences consisting mostly of indistinguishable onomatopoeia. I have no idea who said what, and even if I did, I'm not imaginative enough to understand the practical difference between a "Urgh!" and a "Hiyaah!".

Light novels often depict scenes where multiple parties interact. And some handle it better than others. For example, by giving each character a speech quirk, it can be clear who's speaking without excessively adding "X said", "Y said" everywhere.

But Reincarnated as a Sword is maybe my least favorite example, where it's not only unclear who's speaking, but also the speech itself is just visual noise that does nothing but distract from the action.

@pebble123 said in A Question Regarding the Release for the Physical Edition of The Water Magician Light Novel Series:

I came to this site because it looked the most promising, having a wide selection of light novels.

Yes, JNC is the publisher of the English light novels and this is their official forums.

You probably already know this but many English translations (and an increasing number of Japanese releases) are digital-only now.

By the way, one advantage of digital is JNC will continue to add corrections to some editions over time. Another is that if you buy the title directly from the JNC website, some titles include the bonus stories that were only available for in-store purchases in Japan. Finally, the JNC store versions are DRM-free.

If you have a Kindle, you can send JNC books directly to it using Amazon's Send to Kindle page - https://www.amazon.com/sendtokindle

If you have a different reader or tablet, most of them have "epub" format support.

The Water Magician LNs are fun, I'd recommend starting with volume 1 and not letting the lack of print keep you from reading it.

Edit: it looks like volumes 1-2 include bonus stories if you buy the ebook directly from JNC (not Amazon, etc.), while 3-5 do not.

The Water Magician

Arc 1 Volume 1: A Bonus Short Story
Abel and the Smugglers Arc 1 Volume 2: A Bonus Short Story
The Magic Copper Ore in the Village of Russy

https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/4902/premium-e-book-bonus-contents-list-updated-may-30-2024/12?page=1

@Cataku yeah, me too. After one of the replies telling that the last update took 3ish month I canceled mine and will only subscribe again when the ué release begins again :/

@Serah said in A Question Concerning Tearmoon Empire and Reincarnation:

Technically it is a reincarnation - but in that case it is presumably combined with time travel. That is provided the timeline she lived before existed in some form, like in an alternate dimension/universe.
However, as I recall there is no certain confirmation of such, unlike in The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior where the where the protagonist was a different person and create a timeline/world which diverge from the world as it is supposed to be.
For all we know it could be as well a dream of Mia or a prophetic imagination like in the movie Next.

From what is written in the Tearmoon Empire novel the timeline in which princess Mia was executed did exist. There is even evidence as Kuali pointed out with the diary princess Mia owns being stained in blood despite the rebellion not taking place yet.

Also from reading the synopsis of Most Heretical Last Boss Queen: From Villainess to Savior I don't think that would be a good comparison since it involves a protagonist that ends up being reincarnated into a video game character (it seems more reminiscent to My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!). Princess Mia meanwhile just gets sent back to when she was a child. Her situation is more reminiscent of what happens with the protagonist in the adventure shounen manga titled Tokyo Avengers in which he also gets sent back in time in which he was a minor after being killed (although he does go back and forth between the past and present).

By the way I have never seen the movie Next.

@HarmlessDave said in A Question Concerning Tearmoon Empire and Reincarnation:

one could argue it is a new body for older Mia, it just happens to be the body of a younger Mia. Possibly her own younger body, possibly the body of a different Mia in an alternate timeline.

Hm~ I could see that in a way although concerning the latter possibility I don't think it would be like that. From what I have observed of how some stories do time travel, for a timeline to split from its previous one it requires one to take a different action from what they did in the previous timeline. Theoretically princess Mia could have allowed things to play out as they did before thus her repeating everything that happened before and maintaining that timeline. Of course she doesn't do that and her actions are leading her to either changing the timeline or creating a different timeline (depending on which time line theory you describe to which I don't remember the names of those theories).

Her soul was transferred into a different body after she died, which is considered reincarnation in light novels, as opposed to summoning where a person is transferred in their own body.

I am familiar with the concept which is why I asked, because unlike other stories involving reincarnation in which the souls of protagonists end up in entirely different bodies, with the case of Princess Mia she does not end up in a different body but instead was sent back to a previous time of her life. However given what you said it could be plausible what happen to Princess Mia could count as reincarnation. I am reminded of an old science fiction show I used to watch titled Quantum Leap in which the protagonist ends up traveling to different periods of the 20th century and will find himself occupying the different bodies of people who lived during those periods (the show describe this as his consciousness but I guess that could be the equivalent of a soul). There was one episode where he even found himself in the body of himself when he was teenager. Thinking about what you said reminded me of that episode.

Well thank you you all for answering my question. 🙂

I can bearly wait! ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ

It's one of my favorite isekai because of the mix of wholesome slice-of-life, humor, and occasional adventure. It's more grown-up than the "cute" series with kid MCs but isn't edgy at all.

@b-scot-morgan said in Being Fed Up with a Trope:

I'm not sure if this qualifies as a trope, but I really dislike "food porn" in stories. I am not a foodie. Long, lovingly detailed descriptions of various (often imagery) cuisine bore me to tears, and I've dropped series that had too much of it.

This one is definitely on my list of ones I hate but am willing to make exceptions for (AoAB and Cooking with Wild Game both indulge in it, for instance, and I love both to death.).

I'm very tired of 'Harem Member of the Volume' structures for serial story-telling. How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom is probably the least egregious exemplar of the trope, but even then I still think it structurally suffers from it.

Also not a fan of first page "Got dumped by my fiance/got kicked out by my party" setups which are attempts at in media res but rob the story of emotional impact.

I have extremely little patience for lover tug of war shenanigans.

I think my absolutely highest hate at the moment is when a work gives too much word count to a character I just don't give a shit about or the author is clearly too enamored with some gimick (maid secret agents, tsundere otaku pairings, giving potions mouth to mouth, etc) that is just not my jam.

@Lex said in Localization dates for Now I'm a Demon Lord! Happily Ever After with Monster Girls in My Dungeon?:

The fact that you never dropped a series (outside of the couple of exceptions mentioned) and even rescued series when the original licensor went bankrupt is more than enough to compensate for any delay that might happen during the negotiations. Your work is greatly appreciated.

right? I bought the whole Chivalry of a Failed Knight series in JP because I thought it was never going to get fully localized. Pleasantly surprised when I found it on JNC one day.

https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3478/future-volume-release-schedule

@Project_Demise I might rather want more 異世界のんびり農家, also known as Farming Life in Another World. Flung into a New World? Time to Lift the 200-Year Curse! feels very similar to that, but both novels have quite the problem they become rather uninteresting after the 150th / 200th chapters.

They are still very light entertainment, so there is surely nothing wrong about them, it just hurts when they turn out so dissapointing after having supported them for so long.

@Musereader while it is not a Japanese one, I feel like Max Brooks' World War Z deserves a special recommendation. It is equally easy to read like a light novel. Just make no mistake to think of the movie, as the movie cannot be compared to the masterpiece of the novel.

It is basically a collection of reports regarding the world's efforts against a zombie outbreak which I consider most vivid / realistic writing which is also fun.

This just in case you are still looking for something worth your time reading in the form of diary/newspaper reports etc.