What are you reading at [enter fan site here]
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Finished!
...the last half was a bit more challenging to read than maybe it should have been, ha ha. But yeah, again, I get the general story.
On the romance front:
:two_hearts:
Do I recommend it? I mean, it's a fairly simple story. It's a very episodic book if that's the right word, chapters basically being their own little stories that do build on each other, but don't tell some epic, flowing narrative. The revelations are few, and not that enlightening or earthshattering for the reader. There's no big named baddie or antagonistic characters; this is basically Monster Hunter style questing against voiceless beasts.
The art is very fun, though the publisher (Novel 0) put most of it scanned on their Twitter if you want to spoil yourself / get a preview.
The magic, while sometimes the invocations didn't translate one to one for clarity, you got the gist of what they were (strengthening magic, magic orbs that map the dungeon, magic blocking). There were some unique elements, like "bands" from monsters that tried to ensnare our heroes, some magical device / object called an "elemental" that I couldn't get my head around.
The relationship stuff was definitely challenging sometimes, though the archetypes made it a bit easier (Boss is kind of a Kudere, very cold / quick to temper in the office, but has that cute first time dungeon quester side to her; there's a clingy "Oniichan" loving non-family related Immouto type; there's an older woman shopkeeper who takes a bit too much pleasure in measuring our female hero).
Here's a short video overview / preview I threw up on for the book on YouTube.
@hyferzftw said in What are you reading at [enter fan site here]:
Sometimes I’m too lazy to read
I'm definitely too lazy. That's why I have to have the JNC stuff read to me aloud. xD
Edit: Started Zoa Hunter. It's got some "romantic" content that I think would prevent it from arriving stateside (just one short scene for now).
By comparison, My Beautiful Boss, while it had some tropey stuff, it wasn't anything that would offend your average anime viewer (and certainly nothing uncommon for even mainstream localized light novels and manga).
Edit: Finished Zoa Hunter.
It was solid. Romance, action, government conspiracy, pseudoscience DNA manipulation. Just hit a lot of good notes.
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@terrence If I purchase a Japanese novel from Bookwalker, what is the best way to translate it? I seem to remember not being able to copy text from their browser the last time I used it, which would make putting it into Google translate most difficult.
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@legitpancake I’ve only ever copied short sections of text but it is fairly simple in the mobile apps; highlight the text and tap “search” then you can just copy the text out of the search box.
—edit—
Oh, and there’s also the option of screenshotting then google translating the images (Japanese OCR actually works really well in the Google Translate app, although it is oddly unavailable on the site). It would be a right faff to do a whole book this way though.
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@legitpancake said in What are you reading at [enter fan site here]:
@terrence If I purchase a Japanese novel from Bookwalker, what is the best way to translate it? I seem to remember not being able to copy text from their browser the last time I used it, which would make putting it into Google translate most difficult.
The easiest way I know is to pull Bookwalker books up in Browser view on your cellphone / Tablet (this is important; not in app view, but in browser view because the screen will be a bit more compact for the capture with the URL above it), then take screenshots of the screen, then open Google Translate and open the photos one by one with the camera tab there (it's like, the bottom left option or something?). I usually stick to 2-4 photos at a time, so I don't get confused (and it takes a long time to scroll down the screenshots tab).
It's best to use your thumb to highlight the translation line by line (because it doesn't catch all the periods, or certain singular characters). Occasionally you got to string certain lines together to make sense of things, and you may have to avoid those teeny tiny clarification boxes next to lines (I assume those are the simpler forms of names that are written in Kanji?).
@shiroi-hane said in What are you reading at [enter fan site here]:
It would be a right faff to do a whole book this way though.
Oh, I'm dat faff (is this a UK / European term?). =P
Unfortunately, Bookwalker doesn't let you highlight its text, so you gotta take screenshots. I don't know if any of the major book sites let you copy text on cell phones (maybe you can on Amazon on the computer?).
Relationship stuff and names are definitely the most challenging thing for me so far. I heard supernatural stuff would be difficult to get, but a lot of that stuff gets lengthy descriptions.
Actually, this latest book I'm reading with all this religious stuff is really challenging. It involves some crazies in the real world using altars for evil dieties they worship, and they mentioned a famous real world American cult there that led to a heinous crime. Shinto religion, false wandering gods and stuff get a lot of mention. Also, the names are really bizarre and similar to creature names (Kitsune = Fox? Mizugahara = water chicken? Tsukuyomi = Moonlight?), so that leads to issues in the early going...
That's good old Water Chicken on the cover there!
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@terrence
You can highlight text in the BookWalker mobile apps and, while there is no copy command, if you select search then you can then just copy the text out of the search box. I don’t know what the limit on how much text you can copy this way, as I’ve only ever done a few lines. -
@terrence that last one you mentioned sounds pretty awesome. I'm such a sucker for mythological references and such.
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@paulnamida said in What are you reading at [enter fan site here]:
@terrence that last one you mentioned sounds pretty awesome. I'm such a sucker for mythological references and such.
I think it turns into a death game novel. I just got to the moment where the narrative turns about 1/3 in, where that elephant arrives in Kichijoji on December 24th...
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@terrence well crap, I'm even more interested now. I just hope someone picks it up, I've done my fair share of novel google translations and it's really friggin' time consuming... time I don't have now T_T
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@paulnamida said in What are you reading at [enter fan site here]:
@terrence well crap, I'm even more interested now. I just hope someone picks it up, I've done my fair share of novel google translations and it's really friggin' time consuming... time I don't have now T_T
I absolutely don't recommend Google Translate for this one. The other two I read (Zoa Hunter and Dungeon Attack With Beautiful Boss) made a bit more sense, especially the boss one (outside of some joke scenes and some romantic stuff).
I'm hoping we get some of the dark death game / survival novels. I'll list a few of those in the Novel Pick Up Requests at some point. You gotta be careful with these single volume ones, because some light novels get cancelled, and you're just left hanging with the mysteries.
Edit: There's a few good novels on sale on Bookwalker. I think I'll pick these up for Science (ie; to see if they're worth requesting).
Fremd Torturchan
Time travel romance?
Snake Monster Gal
Edit: These are all Kadokawa books. Which doesn't take PayPal. Nooo!
I did the coin up thing anyway to grab some of these.
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Tomorrow, I may try to read Hero No Segare.
I bought the first three of the Japanese language volumes off Bookwalker. Kind of want to see if it's worth recommending for license.
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Please. Let’s not talk about the Arifureta anime... disappointments abound there.
Lol. I’ve tried to read off that translation site, found it difficult to say the least. Again probably me. Then again using a tablet I prefer an app that accesses it in book format... don’t think one exists.
At least JNC has enough to keep me occupied... lol.
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@thomask said in High School DxD:
Lol. I’ve tried to read off that translation site, found it difficult to say the least. Again probably me. Then again using a tablet I prefer an app that accesses it in book format... don’t think one exists
I have seen a way to convert that site into ePub, but I have only go to that site when I’m really, really desperate. I have to find the converter each time, and I’m not always successful. I do most of my rwading on my tablet away from any ‘net connection, so I prefer/need offline reading.
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@farmerdad I had managed to turn all the ones that were on baka-tsuki into epubs a few weeks before they were pulled off there. Was quite lucky.
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@timmaaah As I’ve read more and more fan translated, and then official releases, I’ve gotten less and less tolerant of “Engrish”. Because of that, I was bad at visiting that site and missed the window before the take down for many works. Luckily, there are many official works coming out. I can only hope that someone licenses the works I want some day.
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Yeah I'm the same, I can't really stand fan translations anymore to be honest. I only downloaded them just in case I wanted to finish the series some time in the future.
I really do hope that it does eventually get licenced. It's one of my favourite series, and would love to own official volumes. Although I hope that YP and SS gets it since I want the physical volumes.
Honestly, I haven't read a fan translation in years since I have a back log of about 150 licenced volumes at the moment, and would rather finish that before reading any more fan translations. -
Wow... I’ve got a hearty load too but I don’t think I’ve got that many... I’ve got current reads, then short and long lists of stuff I want to get through. Most of it stuff that I’ve read the manga, watched an anime, or it sounds like something I’d like but know it’ll start to damn slow...
