Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
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@bloodygaikotsu I don't think age has that much to do with it. I'll agree that the anime being older has some effect as to whether it's in the immediate spotlight, mostly because of publicity buzz, but a good book/anime has a lasting power to it. I watched Outbreak Company several years ago, but still wanted to read the books after joining here. The same holds true for any number of other titles. Even before becoming aware of impending anime there are several titles I began (and not usually happy with the anime results). Likewise, there are books that I've read and later realized they had anime which weren't well promoted.
Anime definitely has an effect, and can even kill a series, but a good story will remain a good story regardless. In the case of Maoyuu, I think a lot of the charm is in realizing the amount of thought that went into it. I don't want to use words like "plotting" or "scheming" because of negative connotations, but there was definitely a lot of "subversive planning" taking place in the story. It keeps it interesting.
I make no secret that I watch A LOT more anime than I read. However, this is just two sides of the same coin. In the end, it's just looking for an interesting story to get me away from reality for a little while. I suspect that most of the members are of a like mind on that, and on a book website (even though a lot of people may have seen the anime) I would expect that they're still looking for that interesting story regardless of the anime.
It would be easy for me to say that some of the recent anime titles destroyed aspects of a story. I have specific examples which annoyed me to no end when the anime would cut sections out which I thought to be some of the most interesting parts of the story. However, the reality is that the story didn't change. The anime just didn't represent the story well. A good book is still a good book.
I'm almost afraid to see what is going to happen to Arifureta when it airs in July. However, aside from criticism of the anime, I don't expect it will change my thoughts on the series much. It's still a good series, and I didn't even know it was getting an anime when I started reading it. I read it for the sake of the story, and not because of an anime.
There are a lot of books on the site which don't have an anime, and never will. However, it still doesn't change the value of their story. This one just happens to have an anime, and is lucky in that the anime managed a decent story.
Rokujouma anime aired well before JNC picked up the series. I honestly only halfway read this story because it feels like it's "all over the place", but the anime didn't really do the series justice. However, the anticipated number of volume releases this year was heavily discussed when members were figuring how many discounted credits to buy at the start of the holiday shopping season last year.
I could go on about other series, but it will continue to come to the same point of logic. A story which the reader finds interesting, is still going to be interesting regardless of whether they recently watched the anime. Honestly, I would personally recommend anyone to watch the anime of a series (if available) prior to beginning reading because the details in the book will normally make the anime feel lacking, or less satisfying, if read first. This one just happens to have aspects which the readers find interesting even after watching the anime.
Even to me, who never has less than 40 anime series I'm in the middle of, I actually find it quite surprising that the anime of this particular series has been brought up so much in the license suggestion thread. However, it seems that the "I'm human" speech had a lasting effect on several people that heard it.
At the same time, a lot of series are suggested which never had the advantage of anime advertising. Even with short-run completed stories, they still get attention. Often with the only available information in English being poorly done machine translations. The reason is still the same. It's a story which people want to read.
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@pleco_breeder said in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha:
I don't think age has that much to do with it. I'll agree that the anime being older has some effect as to whether it's in the immediate spotlight, mostly because of publicity buzz, but a good book/anime has a lasting power to it. I watched Outbreak Company several years ago, but still wanted to read the books after joining here. The same holds true for any number of other titles. Even before becoming aware of impending anime there are several titles I began (and not usually happy with the anime results). Likewise, there are books that I've read and later realized they had anime which weren't well promoted.
Anime definitely has an effect, and can even kill a series, but a good story will remain a good story regardless. In the case of Maoyuu, I think a lot of the charm is in realizing the amount of thought that went into it. I don't want to use words like "plotting" or "scheming" because of negative connotations, but there was definitely a lot of "subversive planning" taking place in the story. It keeps it interesting... ... ... ...I didn't really go there but more about JNC's general taste.
If you ask Sam, he will say older stuff like Outbreak Company, Orphen and any other series we think of ain't really doing that well.(A side note: I don't have a membership cuz I think it's useless since I don't have interest in majority of titles and Outbreak is kinda what brought me here.)
Back to the topic at hand, according to the numbers, older series, non-fantasy, and dark/tragic series ain't what JNC audience finds "interesting."
Even if I find Kokoro Connect, and Outbreak Company are interesting and Smartphone ain't much, majority of JNC ain't agreeing.
Interesting is relative concept, so while you are talking about ain't a thing but that doesn't change how sales here are.Kokoro Connect and Rokujouma have other factors attached to them aside from their age like KC is drama (another reason why I scratch my head over why Seishun is high in the list when it's the same niche subgenre as KC) and Rokujouma has huge number of volumes that made it quite the commitment (time or money-wise), especially since the were pumped in quite the frightening rate that many people couldn't keep up.
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@bloodygaikotsu said in Maoyuu Maou Yuusha:
I didn't really go there but more about JNC's general taste.
If you ask Sam, he will say older stuff like Outbreak Company, Orphen and any other series we think of ain't really doing that well.
Back to the topic at hand, according to the numbers, older series, non-fantasy, and dark/tragic series ain't what JNC audience finds "interesting."
Even if I find Kokoro Connect, and Outbreak Company are interesting and Smartphone ain't much, majority of JNC ain't agreeing.
Interesting is relative concept, so while you are talking about ain't a thing but that doesn't change how sales here are.We can agree that interesting is relative, but the question becomes what is being declared as old. Technically, all the series on the site are new to English readers as they're released. It could be assumed that fanlations of a series may impact this since a lot of series have previously been translated in that way. However, if that is discounted, they're all new. If it is assumed that the presence of a fanlation makes the series "old", then the presence of such should be an immediate deterrent from licensing if looked at from a business perspective. Personally, the couple of fanlations I've looked at seemed to be poorly edited machine translations, so I have no interest, but have seen enough mention of them on the forum here (especially in license recommendation threads) to realize that I'm probably in the minority in that regard.
I will agree that isekai/fantasy is the predominant market on the site, but that in itself is a plus for this particular title. However, comparing titles simply because they're in the same niche is a slippery slope. Some titles just don't have a mass appeal, or have aspects of their story which just aren't compatible with a mass audience. To assume that genre or intended audience should guarantee success is like making an assumption that horror B-movies should be reaching the same audience scale/popularity as a major Hollywood release. The story is going to be the deciding factor in success.
Even for non-members, interest in the story should be possible to generate with the first "preview" of a title. If an impression isn't made with that, it's not likely they'll return for the next. In a sense, I guess this could be an unanticipated advantage for a series with an older anime. Anyone wanting to continue the story, assuming they enjoy reading, would be drawn to the title. By the same caveat, anyone that found the anime lacking would be repelled. All the more reason to dislike some of the poor adaptations recently.
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I would love to read a licensed translation of Maoyu. I first watched the anime back when it was released and for me it was amazing how the Demon King and Hero join forces to try save the world from their own destruction because of the war.
I recently re-watched the TV series and I still like it quite a lot.I'm currently purchasing the manga licensed series but I'm afraid I will get stuck on volume 16/18 and the last time it was released was on 2016.
This series is short in amount of volumes so hopefully it wouldn't be an issue in comparison to other 10+ volume series.
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@javahat Vols. 17 and 18 were fan translated some time ago, so you'rein better luck than back in 2016 when they just stopped the official translation. And apparently the manga fully covered the whole story.
I'd still really like to read the LN tho. Such an interesting story.
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- まおゆう魔王勇者
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha | Maoyū Maō Yūsha
Archenemy and Hero - LN 5 volumes + 3 additional; complete; since this topic was started a digital release has become available.
- Manga (18 volumes, 16 released in English so far via a BookWalker exclusive)
- Author: 橙乃 ままれ | Mamare Touno
- Illustrator: toi8
- Additional Character Design: 水玉 螢之丞 | Keinojou Mizutama
- Publisher: Enterbrain
- Franchise official site
- BW
- Wikipedia: Japanese English
- MAL
- ANN
I wanna read this!
- まおゆう魔王勇者
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I would really love to see Maouyuu Maou Yuusha get licensed. I really enjoyed watching the anime, and if I get to relive that enjoyment through the novels, then so be it. Considering how much I liked Log Horizon's LN, I have no doubt I'll enjoy this one too.
People says it has its similarities to Spice and Wolf (which is true), but it also offers something unique to it.
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myskaros -
Referenced by
DoubleMangekyo
