NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024

Lex

@Silver-Sugar-Duchess I'll check the suggestion thread, thanks.

Regarding this round of announcements, sadly there is nothing that really catches my eyes, but I'm already reading a lot if JNC series so I'm not going to complain. I might try some of the new licenses if I have time before they expire.

Angelus

Lady Rozemyne Just Wants to Be a Commoner? Is that some sort of sequel or did I misread the title because I'm still half asleep? ;)

Seriously though, A Pale Moon Reverie looks interesting.

GeorgeMTO

@Angelus they've almost finished the LN for that one, and I hope you enjoy it. Pale Moon is really good.

Angelus

@GeorgeMTO, I just finished reading part 1 of the LN and I'm hooked. So take my money, JNC!

LurkingMcLurk

@dragon3010 said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

No hannelore spinoff still I see :'(

You should not expect an announcement before they've released Short Story Collection 2 .

If u/bigvinnysvu is to be believed then at Anime NYC last month Sam said that "catching up on Fanbooks will be a priority at the moment" which could take a completely unpredictable amount of time. If they went Fanbook X to Fanbook X+1 with no break they'd release Fanbook 8 (Part 4) on 2025-03-28 but if they went Fanbook X, break, Manga, break, Fanbook X+1 then releasing Fanbook 8 (Part 4) could take as long as 2026-01-16.

Plus while Short Story Collection 3 has yet to release in Japan it shouldn't contain any spoilers for the Spin-Off Sequel so J-Novel Club may want to get to get that out first too. It's also looking like the unreleased Fanbook 9 will be safe to read after Part 5 Volume 12 so that could be another thing J-Novel Club may want to translate before the Spin-Off Sequel.

TL;DR Don't go into J-Novel Club licensing events expecting them to announce the Spin-Off Sequel.

Zeteni

@Angelus said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

@GeorgeMTO, I just finished reading part 1 of the LN and I'm hooked. So take my money, JNC!

You're in for a wonderful ride! Pale Moon is one of my favorite series (I've written a ~2500 word review to gush about it, that's how much I adore it), something I never would've anticipated, and I'm thrilled that just as the LN concludes I get to re-experience it as a manga to keep that world alive a bit longer.

xdrfiredogx

A Pale Moon Reverie is STUPID good, and totally unlike any other series J-Novel puts out, that I've read at least. I'm certainly excited to read the manga, and I'll join the rest of my brethren and highly encourage anyone on fence to check it out.

@kuali said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

Ooh, we're getting the novel version of Lady Rose Just Wants To Be a Commoner! Fresh baked bread for everybody! 🥖

I didn't think I was interested in any of the new series (PMR manga aside) but maybe I am... is there actual dedication to the baking side of things, ala Dahlia/Lucia, or is that just a thin excuse for all the typical otome reverse harem romance?

kuali

@xdrfiredogx I can't say for sure what sort of depth the novels go into (we're still three character introduction scenes short of having met the full main cast), but going by the manga, the noble/romance shenanigans are definitely the primary plot here, not the baking.

myskaros

@xdrfiredogx said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

is there actual dedication to the baking side of things, ala Dahlia/Lucia, or is that just a thin excuse for all the typical otome reverse harem romance?

In addition to what kuali said, it's worth pointing out that:

spoiler

rkkn

Going by the manga, the baking itself isn't really featured at all. However, the product of the baking, the bread, has multiple key moments.

Geezer Weasalopes

@rkkn said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

However, the product of the baking, the bread, has multiple key moments.

Um, yeah.

xdrfiredogx

@rkkn said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

Going by the manga, the baking itself isn't really featured at all. However, the product of the baking, the bread, has multiple key moments.

Somehow both disappointing and yet intriguing... I think I'll have to check it out and see what's what...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

b.scot.morgan

@rkkn said in NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENTS - September 2024:

However, the product of the baking, the bread, has multiple key moments.

Yes, the bread is MVP.

pcj

@b-scot-morgan the bread can perform miracles and is the solution to all problems.

Silver Sugar Duchess

I have to say that I'm quite disappointed with the new licenses. Well, of course it's clear that they don't always license what you like, but I've had the feeling for a while now that they mainly license run-of-the-mill titles and largely ignore the wishes from the licensing forum.
I currently have 23 series in my library, 16 of which are light novels and 7 manga. And I've only wished for or actively supported 7 of them in the forum. That's not a lot in comparison.
And even though I've been able to enjoy series that I didn't know before and that I really liked in the end like this, I can‘t help but wonder. I mean A Cinderella Conspiracy?! which I want so much has 59 upvotes by now and Parallel World Pharmacy which has been floating around the forum for a long time already has over 100, to name just two examples.
Of course it depends on the publisher and what they want for the license and it also depends on the negotiations, not to mention a lot of little factors that we readers don't even know about, but I sometimes really have the feeling that writing threads in the licensing forum and upvoting what you like, doesn‘t do anything at all.

myskaros

@Silver-Sugar-Duchess
The licensing suggestion forum exists for people to have a place to bring attention to series, but it is ultimately for suggestions, and there are no guarantees. Even if you got 10,000 people to flood Starbucks with requests to sell beer and edibles at their stores, that doesn't mean it makes sense for them from a marketing standpoint, from a profitability standpoint, from a legal standpoint, etc.

We greatly appreciate the enthusiasm shown for so many unlicensed series. However, we are a business that has to pay people to translate, edit, and publish books. If we do not believe a series will be profitable, that makes it really hard to justify trying to license it. Look at our previous announcements and the overall trends in genres and tropes; if we're licensing more of something, that means books we already have of those genres/tropes are selling for us. If we don't license much or any of something, that means similar books we already publish are not selling well.

Furthermore, if your concern is about a specific title, there could be any number of reasons we don't or can't license it - it could be published at a company we have no connection to; it could have a legal complication that makes it hard to license; the author or illustrator may refuse to agree to the license request (maybe they don't want their work to be translated period, or only want to work with specific companies, or just don't want to deal with the legal hassle, or don't like JNC's online streaming), etc. We don't reveal specific roadblocks publicly, but please understand that the process of licensing is not like the supermarket, where you just throw items you want into a basket and you're done.

Long story short, if you want to see more series like "X" licensed, what you can do is get more people to read and buy "X." It may be trite, but money is really the answer.

rkkn

That does explain why it feels like offerings have gotten less variety. Though this is not very surprising.