Novel pick-up requests

[Rahul Balaggan]

@mmkop we actually have no way of knowing if the deals they worked out for their Hentai Manga titles will also apply to any theoretical LN titles. It really depends on what the Japanese publisher wants and is willing to give it, other then that even though I dislike FAKKU management and I think they have some terrible business practices they still release grade A material.

I have every single physical FAKKU release to date and the quality (in both translation and presentation) is better then anything any other publish is doing in the US.

[Aruseus493]

@rahul-balaggan Okay, now I'm curious. What does Fakku do to make them all hated?

[Rahul Balaggan]

@aruseus493 okay let me start with a small statement,

Ever since FAKKU hired a former Vertical exec to be their new VP a lot of things have gotten better.

That aside their customer service (not counting shipping dept) is Terrible with a capital “T”.

In 2017 I submitted 12 support tickets between Feb and June, 8 were left with no response, these included small things involving technically problems on the site for specific situations, as well as things like I bought this doujin and the download link has a page fully scrambled and I can’t read it. (After I contacted the founder directly after 1.5 months it was resolved.)

Before let’s say Sept of last year they provided no details of when books would go up for sale just we licensed this it will come at some point ... random Thursday 8 months later it’s up for sale.

Even now they don’t really share what they have to release until a week before or with their most recent license the day of.

The most requested additions to the site they keep saying they are working on (like being able to blacklist tags, and sorting your virtual library) I have been a member of the site for 2 years and they have been saying that they are working on it for 2 years.

Some may argue that it takes time for QC and blah blah, but they did a major site UI change a year or so back and none of those features they have been “working” on were added, instead my iPad became almost completely unusable on their browser and their comic reader and even after posting to the forums and submitting tickets for support I still have great difficulty actually reading on the site.

There are other small stuff I won’t bore you with but I will say their shipping dept is 10/10 and I don’t say that lightly, every single time I have had any issue I have gotten a response within a day once within an hour, Crazy Ben in charge of shipping is a godsend. Also they do have a user named YQII who was in charge of books but now overseas the subscription, and he has always been helpful on the site in the past, I have distanced myself from their forums recently cause it’s just not worth pointing things out if no one is listening to fix it.

That’s just me most people hate them cause they “sold out”, and “made it so they can’t read for free anymore”, and they “ruined Hentai by legalizing it”, there was 1 user who said FAKKU owner was a monster for not working to legalize piracy...I face palmed so hard a year and a half ago the mark is still on my face.

[myskaros]

@rahul-balaggan said in Novel pick-up requests:

there was 1 user who said FAKKU owner was a monster for not working to legalize piracy...

Sounds like those crazies who come around here saying they hate JNC because of how they oppress freelance translators by not making them actually do anything and now they can't read the things they want for free anymore.

[MMKOP]

@rahul-balaggan @Aruseus493 You forgot to mention that their president is a douche with capital J for Jacob. As for their deals: you've done it once, you've done it twice, then why would it change? Their Illusion partnership is an "International Distribution Rights" thing. Why would you do that if you've got no real intention to publish said content to any other language but english? Monopolistic behavior. The light novel market is awful enough with YP in it. Why would you want two with exactly the same business practices?

@myskaros It's more like the guy used to be the owner of the piracy platform for normies so he knew most of the core translation community. After he made the wani deal, he goes after whoever dares to translate whatever he might have any intention to publish. If you search well enough through the archives you might find many translators who have posted the threatening messages Jacob have sent them.

[Rahul Balaggan]

@mmkop no but again I am saying it’s up to the Japanese publishers if they want to give FAKKU those rights, if FAKKU asks and they say no then that’s it either they take only English rights or they just don’t take anything and we all move on to not having it licensed again.

I also have nothing personal against Jacob he made it so I can legally read E-Musu Aki Hentai uncensored and HD.

Edit: are you only referring to their games?

If so I don’t think it would roll over to other places for manga and hentai, I already know that a polish publisher licensed Renai Sample for release from Wani so obviously FAKKU didn’t have exclusive rights for that, plus French publishers get a lot all not in English.

[myskaros]

@mmkop I'm not making any judgments on Fakku since I have zero experience with them as a business or their products, I was simply commenting that the specific situation Rahul cited sounds very similarly entitled to the occasional idiot who makes a new JNC account just to whine about their favorite source of copyright infringement voluntarily choosing to take down their translations.

[Terrence]

"Attacking the Dungeons With My Beautiful Boss Is Overtime Work?" has a volume 3 now.

https://bookwalker.jp/de9697cdbc-dcbf-431f-8985-a8b43a4317c0/?acode=WpfPW3yk

I bought the first two, and "read" the first volume with Google translate. It was a fun work, with sort of a Konosuba or even "Walking My Second Path in Life" structure to it where we follow our principle characters but in kind of a segmented, short story fashion with a slightly overarching plot. Dungeons basically pop up all over Japan about 30 years prior to the start of the story. Our heroes are a young, dark-haired boss (I want to say she's 25) and her older, dungeon hunting saavy subordinate (I want to say he's 28). During the day, they work in an office, but on one day of the week they go out to a dungeon portal in the city to hunt (I think for extra money they get from dungeon rewards; it's like a Monster Hunter type scenario where the stuff you get from monster drops is usable by craftsmen and cooks).

Unfortunately, it's Novel Zero, a Kadokawa label. But hey, we just got Mommy Isekai from Yen Press. Maybe if that sells well, they'll want some more older, female cover star stuff like this?

[Xftg123]

@terrence I agree. Also, it actually took me a second to realize that YP has now licensed both of Pochi's works: "Do You Like Your Mom?" and the non-H version of "Ane Naru Mono"

[Xftg123]

Also, in terms of translations/fan translations, I'm glad that JNC and all are having fan translators do official translations for LNs.

But it also kind of makes me wish that Yen Press could hire fan translators to do translations for each of their LN series as well.

For example, Nanodesu wanted to collaborate with Yen Press on the “Oregairu” translations. But, unfortunately, as Frog-kun stated in the article: “They would only have agreed to a collaboration if our group took down every translation, even the series not licensed by any English-speaking distribution company”

Another controversial issue was with Yen Press looking for translators. As stated in their article: *“*Yen Press is currently looking for passionate and motivated freelance Japanese-to-English translators who can’t put their light novels (and manga) down! We want to work with the finest talent to create the best translations possible for our English speaking readers and fans.”

Which is a good thing for YP’s LN imprint considering they have some small flaws to it.

If Yen Press did get some translators for NGNL, then we wouldn't have the series be delayed all the time by a year. :3

Just putting it out there

[myskaros]

@xftg123 said in Novel pick-up requests:

"They would only have agreed to a collaboration if our group took down every translation, even the series not licensed by any English-speaking distribution company”

I don't really see anything particularly wrong with that request. "Not wanting your employees to do questionably legal things" seems fair to me.

[paulnamida]

While FAKKU might have horrible business practices, merits where it's due, they have high quality translations which make their products worth their price.

[Chi C]

@rahul-balaggan Wait what's this about a pruge now? Amazon has a ton of erotica available on their website.

[Rahul Balaggan]

@chi-c here is the link go a tweet RE: The Beginning of the Purge.

There is also this

[Paul Nebeling]

@rahul-balaggan Wow. Government censorship is forbidden in the U.S., but corporate censorship is perfectly fine.

[Terrence]

Dark Horse picked up Eromanga Sensei...

spoiler

^ Not a real spoiler.

[Paul Nebeling]

@terrence I believe they are still producing the manga. The novel appears to be complete at 9 volumes.

[BloodyGaikotsu]

Well, to steer the thread back to its original purpose:

I'll share the only titles I want from the companies that JNC worked with (but for Bungeishunjū which I already mentioned some of the novels I want from there)
Here: https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/14/novel-pick-up-requests/1399?page=70

From Hobby Japan
Yuusha to Maou no Battle wa Living de
Who doesn't want a SOL romance based around Yuusha and Maou
You tell me!

So, A demon girl appeared from another world and decided to live with the hero's descendant a.k.a the MC.
Aside from the fact that the first volume was shaky start and the following volumes were received better, I know nothing~

Ore to Kanojo no Love Comedy ga Zenryoku de Kuro Rekishi

It's one-shot romcom and one of the few romcom you can find under HJ

Ore to Kanojo no Zettai Ryouiki

Our protagonist, who goes almost unnamed, except when he’s called “Ka-bou” by his childhood friend, finally meets the girl of his dreams, Kanda Asuka, and confesses to her the very next moment. Oddly enough, she warns him that nothing but despair will fall upon him, but he doesn't care about this fact. Amazed by the protagonist’s confidence, Asuka accepts his confession, but under one condition: To change the inevitable future that she’s able to foretell. With rumors that she is the Lapis Witch, Asuka has the Pandora Box ability to foretell the dark future. To change the future, will our protagonist be able to accomplish this tall hurdle? Will he even take a step closer to finding romance with his new “girlfriend”?

Ore no Real to Netgame ga Love Come ni Shinshokusare Hajimete Yabai

Sagimiya Keita is a heavy gamer of MMORPG without experience with girls. In his favorite game, he controls a female character, like most of the members of his guild. But when it comes to offline meetings, Keita plays the role of the "The Knight Lord", the only male character of the guild. He became famous in real life as in virtual life! The romantic comedy between the real world and the virtual one begins!

I think I mentioned this one before...I ain't sure...

Well, from Kodansha LIGHTNOVEL:
I think I mentioned
Kamisuki Tooru no Kegare Naki Sekai
Sosogi Sayoko no Yomigaeru Sekai
Kanojo ga Flag wo Oraretara
& Seitokai Tantei Kirika
Before so,

Riajuu ni Narenai Ore wa Kakumeika no Doushi ni Narimashita

Hinagiku Kokoro no Break Time
See~
I am TRASH!
I see such a cute girl on the cover, I gotta want it

Seriously tho, it is about this girl who started a counseling room and it's Honorable mention on Kodansha Lightnovel award

Jisatsu Suru ni wa Mukanai Kisetsu
From the title alone, you can tell it's about suicide and it's also about time travel and you can all it The butterfly effect the ranobe or smth
Well we lack of those drama novels and it won a grand prize

I.R:I.S

It seems like a basic superpower battle but I like the art so we are good~

Well, for the last one and the only OVERLAP title I want:
Kiniro Quartet!
It was on Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! 2015
#12 overall
#4 among New Works

If you can't guess it, yeah, it's musical and yeah, it's brass instrumental.
@Terrence, do you think this will alleviate your wait till next the Hibike! Euphonium novel?

[Terrence]

@bloodygaikotsu said in Novel pick-up requests:

Kiniro Quartet!
If you can't guess it, yeah, it's musical and yeah, it's brass instrumental.
@Terrence, do you think this will alleviate your wait till next the Hibike! Euphonium novel?

Doubtful. No character can match the maddening personality and development of Kumiko. =[

But it is a good idea for "series like another series", and I would definitely take it. Also, a lot of Overlap stuff is on sale on Bookwalker, so I at least eyed that, but I figure I'll steer clear of buying anything we could get and focus on finished series... Which unfortunately, Overlap has very few of (I guess they're only 5 years old? But still...).

I'm thinking of reading that one where the guy gets reincarnated as a Goblin on the Syosetu site.

[BloodyGaikotsu]

@terrence said in Novel pick-up requests:

focus on finished series

It's finished with 3 volumes BTW

@terrence said in Novel pick-up requests:

Which unfortunately, Overlap has very few of (I guess they're only 5 years old? But still...).

Well, that explains why their catalog is full of Isekais....