Acquisitions Speculation - General
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That's...not at all a reasonable stance, looking at how they've operated so far.
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When I think of J-Novel Club I think of diamond in the rough titles with quality translations made available at a faster then usual pace.
As such I don’t think they are putting their reputation on the line at all, there have been so many titles that I have never heard of before, that I probably never would have heard of if J-Novel Club didn’t take a risk and license them.
Also I wouldn't say they are ignoring their fan base, at the end of the day they are bringing over licenses that will (hopefully) do well going forward, just cause no one has heard of a particular title before doesn’t mean it is a bad LN, it just means it hasn’t gotten to the point of being a well beloved LN yet...
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@caramelwithoutthesalt I don't think it could backfire that much.
Sure some of us on the forum could get angry enough to stop using JNC if it turn out to be all bad unknown licenses, but most would stay for the series they like (I know I would).
And more importantly most of JNC readers likely buy their book off Amazon, google book, Bookwalker, ... and don't know about the forums and the suggestions.
Hell, most, likely don't care much about editord, and find new series not through announcement or editor site but by word of mouth and store recommendation.
The worst that could happen is that all thoose new series are bad and do terrible (which is unlikely) and since they're unknow title, the licenses costs are likely low anyways. -
I'm just hoping it isn't a bunch of completely new titles that just started publishing as I'm getting a bit sore with Japanese publishers that don't support their new series and they end up just stalling forever.
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@aruseus493 said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
"Actually it's all pretty much stuff none of you have heard of!"
ok everyone, don't panic
if Sam licensed a license that was blockbusters/highly sought after/on many folks' wish lists and a dozen that most of us had never head of (with at least a few turning out to be good) I think that would be GREAT.
so far the JNC team has done a great job of uncovering some hidden gems as well as landing some higher profile titles. Sam might be being coy, Sam might not want to reveal what he's cooking until it's ready (who knows what stage in negotiations whatever title is at?)
the question seems to be, WHY? why would JNC license relatively unknown works? I can speculate:
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the economics makes sense; some of these may be less expensive to license and Sam thinks that they have commercial potential in the JNC marketplace.
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artistic merit; a good quality work that was otherwise overlooked for whatever reason
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strategic engagement; winning over a particular publisher, demonstrating what JNC can do for one of their titles, test run whatever (or testing if a particular type of work does well in JNC's marketplace)
if you were hoping for chocolate ice cream and but the restaurant only served spumoni, would you be pleasantly surprised? upset? would you even know before you tasted it?
I read banned books
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I think it’s likely it’ll be a lot of newer titles that may or may not make it past volume 3.
Eventually I suspect English LN fans will start to divide into two groups.
- Those who don’t care if they get an ending to their stories or not and just read stuff irregardless of whether it will be satisfyingly completed
- Those who wait to see if a series goes a certain distance in Japan before starting a series.
I think there’s room in the market for both approaches, though those with the second approach will likely get burned a few times before solidifying their approach.
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@the-green-death that's where JNC system is really good, letting us easily try new series without feeling like we really loose something if it happens to be discontinued.
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I won't deny there's a number of light novels I really want to see licensed, but I'm not against series I've never heard of before. In fact, many of my favorite light novels are ones I didn't know about before reading them here. I love my membership for this reason as it doesn't cost me anything to try a new series. If I don't like it, no harm done. I still follow plenty of others that makes the membership worthwhile.
For me it's less an issue of whether or not I know a given series, but whether I can keep up with so many series, which I know is a better problem to have than the alternative.
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@terabyte said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
@aruseus493 said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
@legitpancake He also mentioned that "Actually it's all pretty much stuff none of you have heard of!"
If none of us have heard of it, it means it's not posted in the licensing suggestions forum. Too bad, I was hoping to see some LN I already know to be licensed.
He could easily be meaning it is not a well known title, not that literally nobody has heard of it. Many of the series in the license suggestions forum could be considered obscure simply because there is not an existing anime or well known translated manga. Some of the new LN licenses could be series suggested by users and indeed some could be from series that will have an anime adaptation but the anime has not been announced yet. Personally I prefer seriy where there is at least three existing volumes, but I recognise that LN companies also want to support newer series.
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Is it sad that I don’t know Sam’s name on discord
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@yoshken said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
Is it sad that I don’t know Sam’s name on discord
Quarkboy, which is also his Reddit handle.
Stay shiny, y'all.
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@jon-mitchell said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
@aruseus493 said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
"Actually it's all pretty much stuff none of you have heard of!"
ok everyone, don't panic
if Sam licensed a license that was blockbusters/highly sought after/on many folks' wish lists and a dozen that most of us had never head of (with at least a few turning out to be good) I think that would be GREAT.
so far the JNC team has done a great job of uncovering some hidden gems as well as landing some higher profile titles. Sam might be being coy, Sam might not want to reveal what he's cooking until it's ready (who knows what stage in negotiations whatever title is at?)
the question seems to be, WHY? why would JNC license relatively unknown works? I can speculate:
-
the economics makes sense; some of these may be less expensive to license and Sam thinks that they have commercial potential in the JNC marketplace.
-
artistic merit; a good quality work that was otherwise overlooked for whatever reason
-
strategic engagement; winning over a particular publisher, demonstrating what JNC can do for one of their titles, test run whatever (or testing if a particular type of work does well in JNC's marketplace)
Yeah, as long as they're well-written I'm happy to try unknown series. One of my favorites, Der Werwolf, had barely any activity on its topic and is still probably not well-known (although I bet that would very quickly change if it ever got an anime).
However, I do think it would be best to have at least one or two better-known, commonly-asked-for titles as well in the mix as well for various reasons, such as making fans feel like their voices are heard (even if their particular requests weren't picked up) and drawing more existing anime/manga/light-novel fans to try JNC (who will then hopefully go on to try some of their lesser-known works).
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@shiny said in Acquisitions Speculation - General [AnimeNYC Nov 15-17]:
Quarkboy, which is also his Reddit handle.
my following gripe is slightly off topic...
I'd like 'news' about/from JNC to be posted on the JNC site somehow. Not just on discord/reddit/twitter whatever
I mean we have this forum thing and a website/homepage with a 'news' section and everything...I understand that creating buzz on social media is good for business/promotion etc. but, I don't want to have to get my info that way.
I read banned books
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@jon-mitchell I would suggest making a post about that in the Suggestions & Feedback forum if you want to be heard, because burying it in another high-traffic topic is not ideal.
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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@jon-mitchell While I see your point, most of the stuff on the discord at least is just casual chatter and isn't meant to really be an announcement. It anything potentially significant is mentioned offhand it generally gets reposted by someone somewhere like this thread. It would be nice to see some of the twitter and curiouscat Q&A get reposted or consolidated on a dedicated thread here, though.
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@myskaros
thanks - I created a new topic -
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Is the date for the print edition?
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Huh. I remember seeing a suggestion topic for that one here. Anyone read the Japanese?
