Acquisitions Speculation - General
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@doublemangekyo I am not familiar with Tokyopop, but I have heard people talk about them in a negative context. Did they licence a lot of light novels then not produce them?
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@malloc In the early 2000s, they were a major manga publisher that also extended into Light Novels. They weren't well liked though because of their extremely liberal translations which sometimes completely changed aspects of the stories. In addition, they weren't very good about fully publishing series and would often drop stuff that didn't meet their sales expectations. This resulted in a huge flooding of the manga market until the bubble burst and people didn't buy as much manga/LNs. Tokyopop ended up going under and all of their licenses were lost with Japanese publishers shying away from licensing a lot of stuff out after.
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@malloc They licenced quite a few lns and usually cancelled them after 3 volumes. They also had a bad reputation for loose translations, iirc Initial D and the Battle Royale manga were particularly bad. They made Battle Royale into a reality tv show in their translation which breaks the ending as it cannot work if there are cameras present.
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Whoa I've been waiting for FMP for a while! Looking at the message this increases my hopes for Kino no Tabi finally being rescued.
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Maybe people will stop whining about "isekai trash" too, as the Isekai is funding a few other works.
Who'm I kidding, the virtue signalling will continue. (Note: it's fine to not like isekai. I just get tired of the 'Isekai sucks and if you like it you have no taste' people. :)
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@dtta People saying they hate isekai's are the new isekai's :P
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@dtta Isekai is trash and so am I.
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I love isekai, gimme more isekai! Preferably without beta protagonist and with decent romantic subplot.
P.S. FMP stopped being relevant 10 years ago.
P.S.S. Fumoffu was the best FMP could ever aspire to become. -
So glad about FMP. I never thought I'd get a chance to fully read this series. Preordering the first premium volume ASAP.
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Out of these 4,
FMP, I have the old paperback release and will read the re-translation.
Magicmaster I like so far, so am planning on reading.
Campfire is better than Wild game so far (much less food stuff). Will try a few more chapters and see.
Bookworm's main character is more annoying than Potion Loli ( and I like FUNA's other stuff), so dropping it already. -
Yen Press announced 4 new light novels for October:
- A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga (Oda Nobunaga to Iu Nazo no Shokugyō ga Mahō Kenshi yori Cheat Datta node, Ōkoku o Tsukuru Koto ni Shimashita)
From the author of hit series of I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level comes A Mysterious Job Called Oda Nobunaga! In this world, on the day they reach adulthood, everyone visits the temple to receive their life's calling. Many will become warriors or magic users. But when Arsrod, the frail younger brother of a minor feudal lord, goes in for his career, he comes out with...Oda Nobunaga?! Not only has no one ever heard of the job, but not a single person can figure out what it's even supposed to mean. When this young man inherits the experience, tactics, and prowess in war of the great Sengoku strategist Nobunaga, though, his very destiny will change!
- Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town (Tatoeba Last Dungeon Mae no Mura no Shōnen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu Yōna Monogatari) Translated by @doceirias
Lloyd is a novice adventurer whose dream is to discover “true strength” in the capital he's always admired, despite growing up with neighbors who always considered him weak. The story starts with him departing his hometown, which just so happens to be located right next to…one of the most dangerous dungeons in the world?! Lloyd may think of himself as powerless, but when he goes to the city that serves as the starter town for adventurers, the difference between him and everyone else couldn't be starker!
- World's Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country & Dungeon Seekers (Sekai Saikyō no Kōei ~Meikyūkoku no Shinjin Tansakusha)
After living life as a corporate lapdog, Arihito is reborn in a fantasy world. Strangely, the class he's assigned is the very ambiguously titled “Rearguard.” It seems weird, but Arihito soon figures out that, though it isn't flashy, he's gained the ability to do just about everything in battle, from assisting attacking and defending to healing! As he begins his new life, he quickly gathers curious companions: his “senior” supervisor who's younger than he is, a mysterious demi- human mercenary girl, and a gorgeous high-level swordswoman. With this bevvy of interesting ladies in his party, his journey as the greatest supporter who's ever lived begins!
- The Greatest Mao Is Reborn to Get Friends (Shijō Saikyō no Ōmaō, Murabito A ni Tensei Suru)
The greatest demon lord in all of history, Varvatos, has reigned for several millennia as absolute ruler. Now, there's only one thing left for him to do...enjoy the life of an average commoner! When he's reincarnated as a villager in a non-descript town, everything seems to be going as he hoped, but there's just one slight problem—even when he holds back, Varvatos is still too strong! Soon, rumors about him spread, and he's approached by all sorts of men, women, and assailants! The quiet life he's always dreamed of seems far away indeed...
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@hyperion said in New Acquisitions Speculation General [9 NEW AQUISITIONS ANNOUNCED (5 MANGA, 4 LNs) 1 LN Unconfirmed!]:
Yen Press announced 4 new light novels for October:
Those all sound like they could be fun to read, and I've enjoyed Killing Slimes.
The only bad thing is I'm spoiled by JNC's faster translations, so 4+ months between volumes feels like an eternity :)
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spoiled by JNC's faster translations
I used to feel this way too, but now it feels like there's just so many light novels constantly coming out that I'm okay with longer waits now.
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I'm fine with the 4 month ways, but when YP catches up to a series in Japan, it becomes hell. We're lucky if we get a new volume 10 months after the Japanese release date.
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@aruseus493 Since YP can't catch up, though, how could that be a problem?
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@someoldguy You clearly haven't been waiting for Sword Art Online Progressive.
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@aruseus493 SAO Progressive has to be looked at as an exception because it has taken a 2-3 year break in Japan twice. Most middle school kids with a dictionary app could translate it and catch up.
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As much as people like to joke about how slow Yen Press is, they only need to be faster than the author to eventually catch up. We're starting to see it more frequently with J-Novel Club with series like Arifureta, Infinite Dendrogram, Realist Hero, and so on. Isekai Smartphone is gonna be caught up within the year and there are plenty of series we're just hoping a new volume comes out in Japan. The turn-around between J-NC volumes after being caught up ends up being around 5 months depending on how long licenses take. (This is for ebook release, pre-pubs start after 2-3 months.)
On Yen Press though, we are going to start seeing more series "catch-up" at some point if we assume they maintain their 4-months schedule. This includes series like No Game No Life (you thought the delays were bad now, just wait until they have to fuck around waiting to license volume 11.), Defeating the Demon Lord's a Cinch (If You Have a Ringer), Overlord (within 2 years), Last Round Arthurs (within a year and a half), Combatants Will Be Dispatched! (Within 2 years), and the list goes on. Progressive isn't really an exception as we're seeing what happens when Yen Press catches up with a series with others. It's an interesting but sad phenomenon that caught up series will see twice the amount of slow down compared to having volumes already out in Japan.
Progressive Volume 5
- JP Release Date - Feb 10, 2018
- US Release Date - Nov 13, 2018
- 11 Months
Progressive Volume 6
- JP Release Date - May 10, 2018
- US Release Date - Jun 18, 2019
- 13 Months (7 Months after Volume 5)
Log Horizon Volume 11
- JP Release Date - Mar 20, 2018
- US Release Date - Jan 29, 2019
- 10 Months
Goblin Slayer Year One Volume 2
- JP Release Date - Nov 10, 2018
- US Release Date - Jul 23, 2019
- 8 Months (This might be their fastest turn-around yet for a caught up series.)
In the end, I'd much prefer Yen Press to license just completed series with J-NC getting all the longer series. (Seven Seas does Nintendo and does whatever the fuck they want. XD)
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@aruseus493 I think we're trying to make the same point. Japanese release dates are what slow down most of the releases on caught up series. You even mention No Game No Life. I gave up on that series LONG ago because of the Japanese release times (tried switching from the US release to Japanese release when I moved to Tokyo and even the bookstore clerks would look at me like I was some kind of sadist when I asked.)
I forget which series, but remember something constantly being asked for on the JNC forum throughout most of January because the Japanese release came out in December. In the case of JNC, we get pre-pubs, and most don't understand that translation isn't an automatic, and a license doesn't guarantee access to material before publication.
Having said all of that in defense of the publications, there's also the reverse side of the argument. Assuming that the material becomes available to Yen upon release in Japan (meaning same day) for long-running series which Yen would already have at least an anticipation of licensing the next volume, there's not really a reason for those 10-13 month spans. Typeset, print, and bind for a volume can be done in 4-6 months depending on whether it's being done in-house. I don't want to say that translation is more lax, but is dependent upon the quality of work expected. Straight translations are pretty much worthless and would drive even the calmest of editors to an early grave. However, they can be knocked out pretty quickly (this is based on a test I performed myself a couple of months ago, looked like crap, but could have been polished given time which I didn't have.) Basing on this, the 7-8 month numbers from your list are VERY reasonable timelines for print editions. However, those numbers are the exception, and not the rule.
That lag is where I see most complaints regarding Yen. There are always going to be those that want everything right then, but at least once the lag cuts down, they'll be in the same boat as the Japanese having to wait on the next volume. Can't really complain, although a lot do, about a translation not existing for a book which doesn't exist.
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@pleco_breeder said in New Acquisitions Speculation General [9 NEW AQUISITIONS ANNOUNCED (5 MANGA, 4 LNs) 1 LN Unconfirmed!]:
Japanese release dates are what slow down most of the releases on caught up series.
No, Aruseus is making a completely different point which I actually support. You can't do anything about the japanese releases so of course there'll be a couple of hiatuses on JNC too. But when they do finally release, other western publishers are trying to license and release the english version in a timely manner, while Yen Press for some weird reason postpone it for another additional year, even though it usually should be even easier for them (as a Kadokawa subsidiary) to license the new volumes faster than the competitors. Like imagine if the new volume of Isekai Mahou comes out in June 2019, but JNC will only start translating the first part in, say, March 2020 simply because they have already caught up with the series.
