January 2023 Livestream!

Propagandist

Thanks for the stream. I'm excited to give these a read and don't feel "insulted" by the selection at all.

Ran

@Microdynames said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Daxar When the bean counters report that Quiet Blacksmith Life has swept the top of the sales rankings whereas Rebuild World is languishing with the loss-making rejects, one can't be surprised when licensing strategies are adjusted accordingly.

No no no. D: Really? But Rebuild World is amazing... x_x This is terrible. I need to leave amazon reviews or something.

piisfun

@DarKraD
Two very different cases.
The WOTC issue was a case where complaining could actually have an effect, and did.

The problem here is a case where complaining can't have any real effect, hence why I called it a waste of time.

I read quite a few web novels.
Japanese publishers typically start with web novels and turn them into light novels, so some statistics should work here:

Over half of all web novels never get enough chapters to even consider publishing.
Of the remaining ones, half are garbage.
Out of that, 30% are smut, pornography or other difficult to license material, none of which the English market will touch.
Most of what is left is probably getting tried out by the various Japanese publishers.

The "gems" you talk about... there is honestly only dozen or so of those per year. There are two major reasons the number has decreased:

The English market has heavily depleted the backlog of these "gems," meaning that they are now much harder to find.
Market competition is increasing. Slowly, yes, but significantly.

Finally, in a market where you vote with your wallet...
Our votes may count for the English publishers, *but they barely count for the Japanese publishers... the ones who control the actual supply of titles that JNC and others are trying to license.
That is to say, our votes have no effect on the supply, only on what the pipe brings from that supply. And when the problem is mostly the supply itself, that doesn't help very much.

With a system like that, and with multiple layers of corporate interactions required, there is only so much that can be done. Complaining, even complaining in mass, isn't going to move a system with so much inertia unless, like a certain issue mentioned above, it blows up in the media and threatens to take the company with it.

endoftheline

@DarKraD True, people may complain because they care, but those same people aren't necessarily worth listening to. And if it really is just a frustrated opinion, then it's likely something that people probably shouldn't even waste brain cells on. It should be acknowledged but forgotten, since the only reason they even bother giving their opinion is to validate their ego.

As for the gems you've mentioned...

My Sister Can Read Kanji

What's good about that one? To me it's just another sequence of 5 words. Nothing motivating me to look any further.

Kokoro [Connect?]

... I remember watching the anime, but I don't remember the anime being something to write home about.

Grimgar

I dumped the anime pretty early on. I just wasn't entertained by it. So how is it a gem?

Dendro

Ugh... that series was interesting in the beginning, but frankly, it just turned into a slog of words, pointless actions, and unhinged idealizing on what's-his-face-Ray's part. And if everything is just going to leave you with a bad taste, perhaps the problem is with your taste buds not what's going into your mouth.

And I'm guessing I just dumped on some of your favorites, so here's a sampling of mine so you can return the favor if you want: (Older) Invaders of the Rokujouma (bite me), Mixed Bathing, Me a Genius (Newer) Making Magic, Invincible Little Lady, Sometimes Even Reality Is a Lie.

FWIW, I've probably read about a solid third of what JNC has put out, online and offline. Most of it meets my expectations, but then, I'm also expecting 90% of everything being crud... Plus, everyone has different tastes so one person's treasure is another's trash...

As for what was announced this stream, other than the Lady Albert LN, there's a couple more that look interesting, but I'm likely going to wait awhile before looking at them. Weekly serialization sometimes does injustice to a story when they aren't written to be scrutinized in piecemeal. Monster Tamer and Trash Mapping Skill got killed for me because of that; I Surrendered My Sword would've likely been another victim if I hadn't read the Sol Press version and learned that the skill BS was called out as BS within the story itself.

jpwong

@DarKraD I mean, I liked that some of the older licensing streams had significantly more titles that I was interested in, but I also have to bow to the fact that what we think sells and what they actually see sells is apparently vastly different so I can't fault them for not giving a smogusboard of what would probably amount to being net negative series.

@Ran said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Microdynames said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Daxar When the bean counters report that Quiet Blacksmith Life has swept the top of the sales rankings whereas Rebuild World is languishing with the loss-making rejects, one can't be surprised when licensing strategies are adjusted accordingly.

No no no. D: Really? But Rebuild World is amazing... x_x This is terrible. I need to leave amazon reviews or something.

I think the problem is that it's just too outside the norm of what's popular. I would have thought that it's slightly more unique setting would be a draw, but I guess not.

piisfun

@jpwong said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Ran said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Microdynames said in January 2023 Livestream!:

Daxar When the bean counters report that Quiet Blacksmith Life has swept the top of the sales rankings whereas Rebuild World is languishing with the loss-making rejects, one can't be surprised when licensing strategies are adjusted accordingly.

No no no. D: Really? But Rebuild World is amazing... x_x This is terrible. I need to leave amazon reviews or something.

I think the problem is that it's just too outside the norm of what's popular. I would have thought that it's slightly more unique setting would be a draw, but I guess not.

Rebuild World is long, somewhat dark, and complex.
Furthermore, the first half of Volume 1 Part 1 can be rather hard to push through.
By comparison, Quiet Blacksmith Life is a lightweight series that starts relatively strong and gets weaker from there. It has romance and harem elements, and might as well be a wish fulfillment series...

Yeah, makes sense to me. Unfortunately.

Windsagio

I'm glad we don't have too many tryhard works myself, LN's are silly fun not seriousserious.

Some of the announcements look fun, and I'm about to dip into the ones that dropped Friday.

Don't let the bastards grind ya down!

jpwong

@piisfun I've seen people mention that bookworm's first volume is also a bit of a turn off, so I guess there's hope that it'll pick up a bit once more volumes are out. And yeah, I liked blacksmith vol 1, but it kinda stopped appealing to me after that.

Travis Butler

@jpwong said in January 2023 Livestream!:

@Ran said in January 2023 Livestream!:

No no no. D: Really? But Rebuild World is amazing... x_x This is terrible. I need to leave amazon reviews or something.

I think the problem is that it's just too outside the norm of what's popular. I would have thought that it's slightly more unique setting would be a draw, but I guess not.

I strongly suspect that post-apocalyptic settings are a considerably harder sell to begin with; the End of Everything As We Know It is inherently depressing, and depressing generally doesn't sell well. I know it was a factor for me; it generally takes really strong writing and a good hook to get me into a post-apocalyptic story. Rebuild World's didn't work for me.

HarmlessDave

@Travis-Butler - for me, there's enough grimdark in reality as well as much of American media, so it's not what I'm usually looking to read from JNC after a day at work.

I didn't get into Rebuild World, and I avoided Grimgar after reading bits about how much it messes with the characters after the events in the anime. Some people enjoy the Saw movies too, but vicarious torment isn't my cup of tea.

Blacksmith is not great, but it's relaxing to read at lunch or the end of the day.

In short, lowbrow harmless fun sells to me when some "better" works do not.

akashicwiki

Logically, this is a stream announcement. Compared to JNC's convention appearances, where the big guns are actually announced, it makes sense to see a lot more less known titles than what exist over at License Suggestions.

If a big title is announced, it's more feasible to announce it at a convention panel than say, a stream attended by 2 digit audiences.

ie, expecting anything big outside of conventions is like developing psychic powers to 'predict what goes on behind the scenes'.

Chill.

piisfun

@akashicwiki said in January 2023 Livestream!:

2 digit audiences.

3 digit... but the point stands.
(All-time peak is now 350!)

akashicwiki

@piisfun Ooh, now that's poggers

Wellwisher

@piisfun When I watched VOD of the stream not long ago (it was 3am when it aired, and I like to sleep), it was sitting at 1,1k views, so make it 4 digits.

pcj

I actually saw a few in the stream that sounded interesting to me. Unfortunately I'm forcing myself not to pick them up because I already can't keep up with what I'm already reading from JNC. The bookshelf in my reader is so full of unread JNC parts right now.

Lily Garden

@HarmlessDave I agree, grimdark is not at all fun or relaxing to me; if I want to read about people being horrible to each other I can turn on the news, and if I’m really being a glutton for punishment, reality TV. Give me fluffy romcoms, wacky shenanigans, and/or court intrigue in ancient not-China and I can settle in for a good read.

Also, to add my two cents to the trash LN thread, I have two thoughts:

On axed series— I don’t think it’s appropriate to say just because a series was axed in Japan means it is not worth bringing to an English speaking audience; one of my favorite things I have ever read on JNC is Deathbound Duke’s Daughter which went on indefinite hiatus after the 2nd volume.

On trash LNs—light novels are not “Great Literature” that is why they are called light novels; they are not Shakespeare (except for Tearmoon Empire, which is Shakespeare), but they are not supposed to be. They are intended to be, for lack of a better term, disposal literature and as for as I know most LN authors do not have lofty literary aspirations, they are just trying to write a story that a lot of people will enjoy

Crimson Wise

@Lily-Garden Replace Deathbound with She's the Cutest and I'd say the same as you, almost word by word.

kuali

@Lily-Garden said in January 2023 Livestream!:

On trash LNs—light novels are not “Great Literature” that is why they are called light novels; they are not Shakespeare (except for Tearmoon Empire, which is Shakespeare), but they are not supposed to be. They are intended to be, for lack of a better term, disposal literature and as for as I know most LN authors do not have lofty literary aspirations, they are just try to write a story that a lot of people will enjoy

For that matter, Shakespeare himself was writing his era's equivalent of light entertainment. He was just really, really good at it, so he's the one we still remember centuries later.

Or Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Sherlock Holmes is primarily a series of short stories written for a cheap monthly magazine over a century ago. How many people haven't heard of him?

That a series is written to be light and popular to the mass public of today doesn't preclude it also having staying power and cultural relevance. True, most of them won't, but people shouldn't write entire genres off so easily.

Lily Garden

@kuali indeed, and as someone who dabbles occasionally in media studies I believe more can be learn from light entertainment about people and society since light entertainment tends to be more imbedded in the cultural frameworks of society writ large

Also, I would like to clarify what I meant when I said Tearmoon Empire is Shakespeare, I meant both figuratively and literally; Tearmoon has all the makings of a Shakespearean plot:

Comic misunderstandings
young love
plots of intrigue and portent
dramatic irony
members of the nobility doing silly things
creative turns of phrase & wordsmithing to the nth degree

If Shakespeare were writing a light novel today, I believe he would write something like Tearmoon Empire

lilitu93

It’s funny that people are complaining about generic licenses this time when I was really happy to see a bunch of J-Novel Heart licenses as a fan of female-demographic works, even if they’re probably relatively generic ones. Also, more Bookworm is always welcome.

I’m also glad to see Lady Albert’s novel getting licensed as I loved the first volume of the manga, though I was surprised to see the manga is under J-Novel Heart, but the novel isn’t. I’m hoping the LN for Lady Rose gets licensed too, as I also liked that manga.

It’s always disappointing that lots of older more obscure things don’t get licensed - I’ve got my own wish list of those - or quirkier things that are more unique, but if no one else is licensing them, then it’s probably for reasons beyond J-Novel Club’s control. And they have license-rescued some older titles like Slayers, so they are at least not opposed to doing so when they can. I also miss the weird things that JNC used to license like Ao Oni, Last and Future Idol and JK Haru, but I realise that I was probably one of the few buying and reading them, and there just aren’t that many of those kinds of titles to begin with.