Volume 3 second path in life.
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I'd given up on this one, looking forward to it!
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@Qeeh
It would be a bit rude for the new Japanese publisher to not license the last volume in a series to j novel club, within their rights, but still rude.
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@catstorm Why would it be rude?
Not trying to be dismissive here, but serious. When a new publisher picks up the reins on an existing series, there's a practical limit to how much they can do regarding the previous status quo. The prior publisher most likely has the rights to the existing volumes. The prior publisher's licensing agreements might be well handled - or they might be a hot mess. Their relationship with the author might be great - or it might be a hot mess.
The new publisher might want - even need - to make a clean break and start from scratch on re-publishing/re-licensing those titles. And when they're just picking up all these new series, they simply might not have the resources to reach out to all the secondary licensees for all the titles they picked up... at least not until after the dust settles from the acquisitions and everyone can take a deep breath.
And when it comes down to it, JNC has to reserve their negotiating leverage and clout for the titles that matter most. If they have to choose between pushing to continue the Der Werewolf license that has 10 current volumes, and the Second Path license with 2, which one do you think they should choose?
Ideally, everyone involved should be able to come to agreement on every title. But that's not always immediately possible.
At least the way I see it, it would only be 'rude' if the new publisher could immediately license the title - without any complications, competing issues, or other obstacles - and refuses to do so. The caveat is important, and it's something we as readers don't have any information on.
...Cats are the proof of a higher purpose to the universe.
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@Travis-Butler said in Volume 3 second path in life.:
At least the way I see it, it would only be 'rude' if the new publisher could immediately license the title - without any complications, competing issues, or other obstacles - and refuses to do so. The caveat is important, and it's something we as readers don't have any information on.
Also if Square Enix decides to give these light novels to their brand new English division. That would certainly sour relations.
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@Travis-Butler said in Volume 3 second path in life.:
The new publisher might want - even need - to make a clean break and start from scratch on re-publishing/re-licensing those titles. And when they're just picking up all these new series, they simply might not have the resources to reach out to all the secondary licensees for all the titles they picked up... at least not until after the dust settles from the acquisitions and everyone can take a deep breath.
It would be within their rights to do so, but unless they plan to either buy back the licensing rights, or sit on the titles until the English licenses expire it would probably be difficult to try to sell the license to another company. Not to mention assuming most companies operate like JNC and license on a per volume basis, it's seems more likely that the English publishers would be reaching out to SE to express interest in licensing the next volume rather than SE reaching out to them.
At the same time, if they want to do what LegitPancake has mentioned and maybe take control of the English releases of all these titles, they're going to need to contend with either picking up where the previous license holder left off, wait for the licenses to expire (or buy them back) and restart from scratch, or begin publishing from the first volume they control and come back to the existing licensed volumes later once the licenses expire which may not be practical from a monetary perspective. If anything, in this type of situation, I would think JNC has more leverage with a short title where it's probably the last volume over a longer ongoing series like Der Werewolf because it might not be worth SE's time to try to do essentially one book.
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Knowing legalities are why lawyers get paid so dang much money.
Anyways, the ball is clearly in SE's court, and as with any contract negotiation, we, the outsiders, won't find out anything until the ink is dry. Still, if I were to venture an uneducated guess, I would expect JNC to manage to license the remainder of Der Werwolf, get the final volume of Watafuta tossed in as a consolation prize, and then we will see where it goes from there.
After all, Kadokawa has an English publishing house, (Yen Press) but JNC still gets the occasional title from them.
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Rahul might not be able to comment but I can. We have already approached square enix about the general question of licensing light novels from their new label, and I do not anticipate there will be significant difficulties making sure we can continue to publish any ongoing series. However they are a publisher we have not signed a contract with yet so the initial negotiations may take a while.
Thanks for your patience. Also keep in mind they just started this label in Japan. The editorial department is new and likely has more important stuff to deal with right now than foriegn licensing like making sure the books get printed and distributed in japan!
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@Qeeh Yeah, the whole 'Buy this thing with the one you want or no dice' deals that japanese media companies decide to force is the reason for the hilariously bad 4 Kids Entertainment version of 'One Piece' in english.
I believe that it was mentioned once that there are a few books that got their start with J Novel that way. Or that could be me wearing my arse for a hat again.
Edit:Thinking on it some more I think that Sam had said that he got offered several other titles as optional add-ons or test runs with a publisher as a lead up to a larger series. -
@jampodevral I don‘t think such deals aren‘t that bad. This way we can read titles, we would otherwise never have a chance to. Not every title we get as an add-on is great, sure, but sometimes there is the one occasional gem mixed in.
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@jampodevral said in Volume 3 second path in life.:
Yeah, the whole 'Buy this thing with the one you want or no dice' deals that japanese media companies decide to force is the reason for the hilariously bad 4 Kids Entertainment version of 'One Piece' in english.
US companies do them all the time too. Want the latest US hit then you have to show this pos that will be cancelled before the end of the season.
Usually those series end up in graveyard slots at 2am.
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I've known about this volume 3 for a while now.
And I've read the Narou Post (@LurkingMcLurk has posted).The post is telling this:
Volume 3 is the final volume.
The publisher planned Watafuta to end in 3 volumes, actually dropping it.
And all of it is newly written (kakioroshi).
The author struggled with it for 4 years, repeatedly getting the author's block and losing motivation.
The author promises to include these 3 conclusions of this story:The author writes that the NOVEL version diverges from the WEB version in book 2.
As for the WEB version, the author plans to write a bit more, and if they don't conclude it, they plan to upload book 2 and 3 contents after about 4 years.
And the reason why only volume 3 will be published under SQ Novel is that the author chased their editor to their new workplace....And that's the digest version of the author's long rant.
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@Liber-Monstrorum It just doesn't make much sense to me. Five sales are better than none, I guess?
@sniper_samurai Never knew that. I also stopped watching tv 15 years ago and barely watched tv before that so not much chance to realize it.
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@jampodevral said in Volume 3 second path in life.:
@Qeeh Yeah, the whole 'Buy this thing with the one you want or no dice' deals that japanese media companies decide to force is the reason for the hilariously bad 4 Kids Entertainment version of 'One Piece' in english.
I believe that it was mentioned once that there are a few books that got their start with J Novel that way. Or that could be me wearing my arse for a hat again.
Edit:Thinking on it some more I think that Sam had said that he got offered several other titles as optional add-ons or test runs with a publisher as a lead up to a larger series.Wasn't Greatest Magicmaster one of those bundled titles? I think it was mentioned in the volume 1 topic but I'm too lazy to look :)
I wandered away from it after the first couple of volumes but some people have said it gets better. Maybe I'll try again next time it's on catch-up.
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@HarmlessDave said in Volume 3 second path in life.:
Wasn't Greatest Magicmaster one of those bundled titles? I think it was mentioned in the volume 1 topic but I'm too lazy to look :)
I wandered away from it after the first couple of volumes but some people have said it gets better. Maybe I'll try again next time it's on catch-up.
Pretty sure it was, and it definitely gets better.
Glad to see this one is back, hopefully the author ties it up neatly and it doesn't feel too abrupt.
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Saw this up on Bookwalker today. Considered "complete". Looks like Earth Star is ending a few series (most at 3 volumes).
These other two just ended:
https://bookwalker.jp/deecc6f170-5caf-4215-97ed-1e6044818ecc/
https://bookwalker.jp/de53d3cea0-9cd3-4517-b60e-a07eac76406a/
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Is their any update on how the negotiation is going for this title?
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@legitpancake Well, it is a niche title and makes no sense to start with volume 3 so I can see them giving it to JNC
On the other hand, they can adapt the "why bother" attitude and just sit on it. -
This was if I remember correctly the first LN that I ever bought.
Hopefully we'll see Volume 3 translated.
Fingers crossed. -
I really hope we get the third one too. This was one of the first series I read on this site and I really enjoyed it!
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Is there any kind of update you could give us on this, It has been basically 12 months now with no word on the third volume.
