Posted by Judging from the comments and views on the Shin Sekai Yori posts, I figured that a fair amount of you would be interested in an English translation of the novels, so I figured I’d bring to your attention a recent attempt to get an official translation.
The Details:
In early February, North American publisher Vertical Inc. (official website / Wikipedia) expressed interest in releasing a translated version of the Shin Sekai Yori novels. Due to the cost and time requirements for such an undertaking however, they are unwilling to do so unless enough people express interest in its purchase. This has since been specified to be 4500 people from the US, UK, and Canada, who would be willing to purchase (pre-order) the translated novel at a cost of $25.
If You’re Interested:
If you are interested in supporting this endeavor and/or know others that would be, please express interest by going to the original post and liking/noting/following the post. This will require a tumblr account and involves pressing the heart on the top right corner of the page. Once enough people have expressed interest they will contact you for confirmation in regards to a pre-order via your tumblr/tumblr listed email. Twitter/facebook/email are other ways to express interest — you’ll find these on the right side of the main menu bar — though the most effective way will be the tumblr method, as it will give them a solid number from which to base a decision on.
For Future Reference:
If any key developments happen in the coming months, I will likely update this post to include details, so check back every once in a while if you decide to support the translation.
Disclaimer: Please note that Random Curiosity is not affiliated in any way with Vertical Inc.
How about people fro mother parts of the world?
From what I’ve read, they don’t sell to the EU sadly. But from what I’m seeing here, every translated work they’ve published and listed on the main website has links to an equivalent book from Amazon, which does ship internationally. Most likely though, they would need 4500 supporters from US/Canada/UK to pre-order first, before that would happen however.
Shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not from the US, Canada or the UK but I still manage to get stuff from there. Just order it from Amazon and if it has worldwide shipping, you’re in luck. If it doesn’t, there are usually services from 3rd parties that allow you to ship your product from Amazon to their location in the US and then from there, to your country. I’d like to see From the New World do well in terms of novel sales especially since I’ve heard that the BluRay sale of the anime isn’t going well.
Sadly importing would be the best option outside of North America. Or maybe if it’s enough of a success once translated in English that would be enough to distribute it in other languages. Make a friend in another country, exchange formalities and ask for some help in the matter.
$25 USD sounds like a steal, considering everything in a Canadian Chapters or Indigo is batting a $30 – 40 average.
I’m from Singapore and I wanna buy it
$25 / £16.50 seems a bit steep. If it was a bit cheaper then yeah but I unfortunately don’t have money to spend on leasures that often so… I am, however, interested and I know others who would buy it. I just can’t pre-order so guess my support means nothing.
Well, yes… compared to an average book it is definitely more costly, but at the same time, the Shin Sekai novels are three thick volumes and they have to earn back the money they put in for TL and publishing costs eh.
That price would be more palatable if the books are hardcover. Do you know if that would be the case if they decide to publish it?
They seem to release typically in paperback format, though their novels have received hardcover versions. Will verify.
EDIT: Vertical Inc. has stated that it would be “at least $25 in paperback for the whole thing. It is 1000 pages long.”
$25 for a 1000 page book sounds fair to me. I’ve spent more on smaller books.
I’ve spent that much on books as well (in fact, I would gladly spend $50 or more for this), but I’m guessing casual readers who would do so aren’t all that common. Hopefully we can gather enough of the more hardcore fans across the spectrum, somehow.
The Spice & Wolf light novels are $12 each, and they’re barely 250 pages long. Total cost if released in that format would be almost $50, so $25 is a bargain. The Haruhi paperbacks were $9 for 200 pages (and I bought the hardbacks, which are $15 retail), so again up at about $45 for the equivalent material.
It’s only mildly expensive when compared to mass-produced paperbacks, where $8 paperbacks are usually around 450+ pages compared to the roughly 320 pages you’d get for $8 here.
Though I guess some might complain about not getting the retail discount on top of that, that you might get from Amazon or elsewhere. Regardless, this absolutely seems worth it.
I wish there was a way of getting likes on the page without requiring people to register an account.
Though I suppose that would have a potential for stuffing the ballot box.
…………………..Nah i’ll pass on supporting this
Thank you for posting this, Zephir! I am in full favor for getting this novel translated. Over 200 people have liked the original post since I gave it my support (a week ago) so there is a following of people that want to see the novel come to fruition. I feel that this series deserves our support.
More Yuri and Yaoi. YAY!
🙂
But I’m from SEAsia…… Will they sell it in Kinokuniya/MPH/
According to their “BUY” link on the other stuff they’ve released, it should be on sale on:
Random House
Alibris
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Book Passage
Books-a-Million
IndieBound
Powells
The Tattered Cover
Tower Books
Walmart
I have heard people buying from Kinokuniya as well.
Of course, that’s presuming it even gets translated, of course. 😛
GOOD FOR YOU GUYS!! GOOD FOR YOU!!
*Runs away crying*
Damn, thats too bad it’s US/Canada only, I live in the EU… Hopefully a fan translation will be released, or my Japanese level will improve (a lot) to be able to read them 😉
Just a question… In the opener you’re stating that there’s ‘interest in the novels.’ Then the company wants people to pre-order for ‘the novel’. Please clarify that. Are they looking for $25 pre-orders to have the entire novel translated or is this a piece meal effort of $25 for the first of ???? novels.
The basic thing is they need 4500 people to express interest in being willing to pay $25 apiece to pre-order it. Once they’ve received confirmation that the requirement’s been met (and confirmation that there are actually 4500 people pre-ordering), they will begin translations and release the work.
So the $25 would be paying for your order of the novel. They just want to make sure they’d at least break even on costs before they start.
As for the second part, it should be the entire novel, rather than piece meal. I will verify this in the coming days.
EDIT: Vertical Inc. has stated that it would be “at least $25 in paperback for the whole thing. It is 1000 pages long.”
Lucky for me I live in the UK…..unlucky for me I’d need parental permission to be able to pre-order the book , so I won’t be able to offer my support like that.
I can however share the link around ….because I really do want to read the novel!
I am interested so I supported it. I hope there will be hardcover versions. $25 is a bit expensive and I am sure there will be shipping and handling costs as well.
I have a feeling the novels would sell better than the anime.( not saying much since the sales on the anime are extremely low)
Once more information surfaces I will decide about pre-ordering ( granted this gets green light)
Too bad I can’t pre-order it from the EU, but I would defenitely buy it via Amazon if it gets translated!
no france in the list … orz
Please so I won’t have to pick the show back where I dropped it.
I really want to support it, but living in Europe I will not be able to preorder. I will order it day one once (and if) it is made available though. I have bought Kishi’s “The Crimson Labyrinth” to show there is an interest in the author anyway, hope it will help if only a tiny bit.
I actually would support this, but it’ll be after I watch the series and know what it’s about. plus, i’m more likely to buy the original Japanese version just to see the difference. I read some translated novels before, and the original touch kinda got lost.
Pre-ordering anything in general is not a good idea… Since you have no idea what the end result is going to be like. If they provided a preview script of the first couple of chapters, that would give you a indication of how good the translation is and may have convinced to support this.
At the end of the day, anyone that buys something without researching the product/producer/supplier and ends up with a bad product/service deserves what they got.
I don’t want to down vote you.
I pre-order Anime series (when I have the money – new Anime is expensive, but I digress) all of the time.
Maybe you’re thinking pre-pay, which is not what I understand this to be.
Typically, with pre-order, you commitment to pay for the order is executed only when it actually ships.
This is a pretty unique opportunity to be a part of something a completely fan-driven Anime product.
How often does that happen?
I think it’s well worth the price of admission (which will be around US$ 30.00 with shipping)…
My only concern (with all of the crazy IP stuff happening) is licensing – does a translation require
something like that from the original publisher?
At the moment I’m unsure if they’ll ask for a deposit, full cost immediately, or payment upon shipment for the first 4500, though it seems like it may be of the pre-payment type, or else there’s no way to guarantee that they will break even from the transaction.
Dizyab’s concerns are noted and of some merit, but there have been no notable complaints regarding any of Vertical’s previous works at this time (at least, not that I have seen). There’s also the fact that there’s going to be a possibility of this issue with everything you pre-order, except in this case, the alternative (unlike figures and other books) that results from not enough people supporting it is that we don’t get a translation at all. In addition, they’re also risking their own small company’s reputation and future on this, so if they don’t deliver quality translations, it won’t work out well for them either. It would figure that the fact they’re still running despite having released dozens of books, at least shows there’s some merit in their work.
In any case, it’s a calculated risk. The basic point of this post is just to inform people who would want to support it a venue to do so. If you don’t want to support, then that’s okay too. But there are others that will.
oh god, i need this novel so much
it was my favorite 2-core anime this season(besides Psycho Pass)
Day=Made… NOW TAKE MY MONEYY!
Good thing I’ll be getting anew job soon I can pre-order now xD
Awesome – I’ve wanted a translated copy of the novel since I started watching the anime so they can definitely count on my support. Hopefully they get the 4500 people they need!
$25 is a perfectly reasonable price.
I bought 1Q84 for like $35 and that book is almost 1000 pages long, and if i recall correctly SYY is also around 1000 pages. So it’s not that bad a price for a book of that size. (Also I prefer paperback rather than hardcover so it doesn’t even have to be hardcover.)
In the end this is a great opportunity since I’ve been wanting to read the book since I was introduced to the anime last Fall! (I later dropped because I didn’t want to put week long intervals between each episode) and we get a chance to directly contribute to the anime industry! Why not? The price is fine and the content WILL deliver.
Oh hey, I just went to see a speaker last week talking about translating Haruki Murakami’s works (1Q84 included) and it’s just been surprising how difficult it is translating long books like these.
Yes, we should be grateful that a legitimate company is even considering it! I thought IQ84 would be a pretty good example lol, both japanese authors, about same length, spread over 3 volumes but later condensed to one…
Essentially we’re getting 3 books in 1, so really 25/3, about $8 per book is below the average retail price for a book actually.
Can’t go wrong with this seeing as the anime is doing phenomenal nowadays. Even if there are people who wish to support this in other places, let everyone know anyways 🙂
they could consider doing something along the lines of kickstarter if breaking even is their biggest problem.
Too bad I don’t have a tumblr account.
Make one, simple.
If Vertical’s going about it in this way, maybe they should start a Kickstarter campaign for it??
A thousand pages of Shinsekai Yori!? Im in…but I dont have a tumbler account 🙁
Make one! All it takes is a few clicks! Geez.
Created a tumblr account just to support this. Thanks for the heads up.
In case you guys didn’t know, BT has already started translating the novel. They’ve already completed the part 1 of chapter 1 but, there’s only one translator so you can’t be sure of consistency of the translations
I wouldn’t usually pay that much for a novel but I would do it for this.
If the anime had only adapted a part of the novels, then I would be interested.
I am sorry what?!?!?!?
Not only they ask in advance to pay for a product that will probably never be delivered, but their reasoning is that they need the money for a service usually offered for free (the translation). These aside, they won’t sell that product to the majority of english speakers, but want to focus on the non-existent market of US/UK.
The product will be offered when the requirement of people are met. I don’t know what do you mean by “probably never delivered”. They have translated and released dozens of books already and will undertake the translation and release of Shin Sekai immediately after verification of its financial success. The only way this product will never be delivered is if they don’t get the support they’re looking for, in which then you won’t be paying at all.
And I don’t know what you mean by translations being free. Professional translations are never free and typically involve the hiring of people who know the language well. You pay for the time they spend providing high quality translations. The only free translations are fan ones, which are typically reliable, less consistent, and may take a multitude of years to ~maybe~ finish. And even then, you can argue they should be paid for all the time and effort they put in to it. In addition, you should note that the $25 is not only for the translation, but the publishing and distribution costs, and for a copy of the novel itself (1000 pages).
As for the last part, again, I don’t know what you mean. The United States is the #1 country by population of English speakers, followed by the UK at #6, and Canada at #11 (approximate statistics). These are at least half, if not the majority of English speakers in the world. In addition, they are based in North America, so it would reason they want to succeed in their base of operations first before branching out. Furthermore, as I’ve mentioned previously, the translated novels will be available on websites that WILL sell internationally.
1) As I wrote, when a company asks its customers to prepay a product should probably look into some other service, because obviously their buisness model is not very solid, to say the least.
2) I was considering the majority of translations, which are made by fans. Those $112500 would probably be better invested in those amateur who translate better and faster without resorting to a multitude of managers, lawyers, advertisers, and other leeching that bloat prices.
3) India, China, EU, etc. have a lot more english speakers than the countries this language is considered native.
They aren’t the ones asking though. They were asked by people who wanted the translation “what would it take for you to do a translation of From The New World?” Normally, they don’t even bother with long serialized novels like this, but they responded that if people wanted them to do it, this is what they’d need. It’s more of a “do this as a favor” kind of thing on top of what they normally do, which is not related to their business model at all. In addition, they’re not exactly a big/rich company that can afford to do something that no other company would be willing to do and take any losses that might come as a result. That’s why things like Kickstarter were created after all, and many positive developments have come from the funds garnered from similar movements. Arguably, you can say they’re smart for trying to ensure their company won’t lose anything before hand.
In regards to translations, a majority of translations are done by fans (and for free), but the quality of them vary greatly from group to group, as does the time needed to do so (note that even the most popular of things, such as Muv-Luv trilogy VN, didn’t end up translated until like 5+ years past its initial release). Also, despite the many fan-translated works out there, they’re still exceedingly small compared to the actual number of works out there, and many works will never get translated. Shin Sekai itself barely has 1 or 2 budding fan-translations that may not finish for years (if at all). As such, many people would prefer an official, professional translation over a fan-translation as a result — one that has known consistency, quality, and approximate release time — and would be willing to pay for it. This post is to tell those people there’s this option available.
As for the investment of the $112500 in amateurs, the point is moot because they don’t have the $112500 in the first place to spare at the moment. That’s why they’re asking for it. In addition, if they already had the $112500, why wouldn’t you just use it for a professional level translation over lower level amateur work?
And for arguments sake, let’s say they had money to invest in amateurs. The problem is that amateurs are amateurs for a reason. They typically do NOT translate better and faster. The value you get per hour from hiring them is much less worthwhile than that of a professional. And when you account for the publishing and distribution costs, you’re not going to have much savings anyway. What you will have is a faster, cheaper, but also lower quality work that might not be even worth whatever lowered price you could get it down to. Notably, at $25 for a 1000 page book, you’d likely be unable to lower the general cost much anyway. So again, why wouldn’t you invest the money in professional level translations if it only costs slightly more and people are willing to pay for it?
As for your last point, per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population, the US has 267 million English Speakers, the UK has 60 million, and Canada has 25 million. India has 125 million, China has 10 million, and the main EU countries under 50 million each. Add that up and the US/UK/Canada portion compared to the other countries you mentioned is virtually the same. Again, like I said, the 4500 people are the only people limited to US/UK/Canada. If this translation goes through, other countries will have the chance to purchase. And again, it makes sense for Vertical to publish first to US/UK/Canada because they are based in NA.
To add on, professional translations with all the licensing and stuff, makes it so the original author/company that published in Japan will earn something back. As nice as fan-translations are (when they’re available at all), this is something they don’t do. And when you can have the option to also give back, well, why not?
Favors don’t cost $112500 or I need a better dictionary!
… and sure the author will earn something back, as that other one did for Thermae Romana… what was it 1 per million from the profit. That’s the problem with copyright, it makes sure that the creator will earn the least possible, and his work will be owned until the end of the world by someone other then him/her to profit from.
As for Vertical, to my knowledge it is owned by Kodansha who also has the publishing rights for the original novel, so no additional licensing cost is required (though usually it’s another excuse to bloat the retail prices). The printing cost per book is nowhere near $25 for paperback, and electronic distribution (phone/tablet) will be closer to $25 per month for all client combined, if they decide to go overkill and dedicate a whole server.
Now about the english speakers, you better check the sources wikipedia uses, as usual with the site, it is very easy to mislead those who skip the definition used to get those hilarious numbers. Nonetheless financially speaking you should better check the sales of english language publications (original and translated) outside the so called native speakers’ countries.
Look guys, I understand that it is very hard to accept some facts alien to your culture, and many would rather support the status quo even if it only works against them out their fear of change. These don’t change the fact that Vertical is asking in advance a crazy amount of money and sells the story to its clients as a favor.
Finally, do you want me to bring out a list of fansubs that were better and faster translated then the professional counter-parts from CR? Or should we suffer the atrocities of localization per country… not to mention the massacre from editors, which thankfully is quite rare these past few years, but the norm in 80s and 90s.
Now you’re just taking my “favors” thing way too literally and using your 112500 sum too much as a stumping point. The basic thing is that $25 for a 1000 page novel has been seen as reasonable by many people here. Just because you won’t support it doesn’t mean others won’t. Stop imposing your views onto others in a post merely meant to give people that are interested a venue to support.
Regarding the speakers, yes, they’re not the best numbers, but compared to the hard to find and inconclusive numbers for sales of translated Japanese manga/novels in all the countries you mentioned, those are some of the only factual numbers available. If you have a source, then post it here. Also, stop ignoring the fact that as NA publishers, it makes more sense for Vertical to start distribution here first.
Moving to your next point, I don’t know why you’re suddenly generalizing everything as a “look guys, i know it’s hard to accept/fear of change” kind of thing. It was never about this and never is. They’re asking individuals for $25 and it’s not that much when you consider the effort they’d have to put in and the other amounts other similar Kickstarters have asked. Or do you not believe in Kickstarters either? Because as I mentioned before again, Kickstarters have led to many great things that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, and this is very similar.
And you really wanna bring out fansubs? I am part of a group. So believe me when I say that I know there are hideous official translations. But as atrocious as CR is (in select cases I might add, as some of their subs for some series have actually been considered decent), they are not representative of the novel translating community and nor is the ability to translate and get out a 20 minute episode avging 100-200 lines each equivalent to translating a 1000 page novel that likely uses archaic kanji that many amateurs and fansubbers would be hard pressed to translate properly. Furthermore, there are a load more terrible fansub groups than there are good ones. If you’re just going to pick the worst of the official ones and best of the fansub ones, I can do the same with the opposite case. And I say again, if Vertical was such a bad translation group, they wouldn’t be in business and we’d see people coming in here saying “I READ THIS FROM THEM AND IT’S TERRIBLE.” But we don’t see that.
In any case, the bottom line is this: There’s clearly no point to discuss this further because you seem to be against this no matter what. As such – if you don’t want to support it, fine. But don’t impose your views on others as a result of whatever misguided sense of moral superiority you seem to believe you have. The point of this post is for those that are interested and you should not be and have no right to say they’re wrong/incorrect/stupid to be interested, especially when they know what it is they’re signing up for. That is all.
I am against indeed, but unlike you the no matter what does not apply. For example, say a writer starts a kickstarter project to fund a programmer and a two-three of translators (say for mandarin, spanish and english), aiming at $1-2k, I would definitely support… but am not going to be played by two dozen suites figuring yet another way to milk out their products. Let me point out that they chose tumblr (to generate attention to their company), the timing is suspiciously close to their manga announcemnt, and the anime is close to its climax… all these in addition of asking a crazy amount of money, and sorry but it is $112500, that’s what they are gunning for, however the cost is distributed… even when they fail, they would have advertised through this the manga and anime (which their parent company also has the distribution rights), their american arm (Vertical) through the tumblr campaign, in addition to appear friendly to the fanbase, while in fact they are ripping them off big time. As for the author, I see that you also understand that he gets nothing out of this, as with most work done under the copyright or patent, our best bet is to get a few bucks when we sell out the rights of our work to distributors (that applies in all fields, not only entertainment).
Translating written text is way easier then just hearing. Also 1000 pages is not that much, Also at BT a couple of guys translated half the first season of Monogatari Series in 6 months. That was about 2000 pages (same format and difficulty in japanese) by amateurs for free… I am pretty sure that if you pay them and an editor you can get better results for a lot less then $112500, that some fans think that are lucky to probably get. Also I was also in a fansub group in early 2000s, translated myself half a dozen manga chapters, and did two pro transalation for technical texts (not from japanese though).
Now on the generalization, sorry, but I see this mentality every time some radical opinion is voiced, followed by dubious cite and cite-war challenges, leading to the “if I can not persuade you, there is no point discussing with you because you are stubborn and do not want to see that I am correct”. Don’t get me wrong, I am not applying all the above to you Zephyr, I hardly ever drop by this blog to know if you generally behave this way, but as you said is a generalization, hopefully applying only in this conversation 😉
hmmm, you two really went at this thing, eh?
I’d say. I was with you until your last post, Zephyr. I understand that you’re frustrated by somewhat hyperbolic ranting nature of Malkuth’s posts, but you lost your grip on that last one, man~~. Any time someone coughs off lines like “don’t impose your views on others” and “moral superiority”, it’s a turn-off. It sounds like a bitchslap more than anything. I’d also add that yes, not a thing in human society is a complete bed of roses, black/white thing, so this questioning nature should be appreciated -even if it pisses you off since it’s sticks out like a sore thumb in what is supposedly a merry go-around of enthusiastic fandoms.
Now, now, again, I’m more or less with Zephyr (except for the last post and how it’s handled in that particular post), so it’s not like I’m defending Malkuth all the way while trashing Zephyr. Au contraire! Even though Malkuth never does outright say participating this endeavor is stupid (implied, perhaps) and I see his points, he nevertheless fudges some facts and sprinkles in a bunch of nonsensical factoids for my liking in general, ha ha! And I am not completely convinced “this free for everything attitude” is always a good thing AND I am for this sort of “Long Tail” economic where niche products gets sold, even if it were to come from established corporations.
Anyhow, I wasn’t going to butt in since I thought Zephyr was handling this just fine, but then something just irked me; I hate hearing this “imposing one’s view on others” hyperbolic talk, which is always specially reserved lines for bible thumpers/religious freaks to attack vocal atheists -don’t get me started on how it’s always the other way around (or at best two way street with the clear majority winning largely) since that’s all these folks do on the societies. This so called telling/convincing/imposing their views on others is intrinsically human endeavor of any interest group, be it religious, political, anime-project related, in human history. Not at all related perhaps, but I dislike immensely reading it from anybody when he/she does to attempt to close off the conversations since it sounds like so boxed-in attitude to have, no matter how small or big the topic is, no matter the situations -except for the cases when someone or some group “literally” tries to impose their views by force.
Honestly, I think you make a few valid point (and a ton of terrible ones), but at the end of the day, I (and many others here) WANT to see this happen, and we’re willing to shell out the money to do so. If you don’t agree, then don’t. There’s no need to post a ton of crap to convince others that they shouldn’t pay for what they enjoy.
@deathtogeneric: Personally, I disagree, I agree completely with Zephyr. I think you’re taking the “imposing one’s views” way too seriously.
At the end of the day, Zephyr simply posted a method for fans to LEGITIMATELY support something they enjoy. At no point did he tell people they SHOULD support it. If you don’t want to, fair enough. Why don’t you just ignore it? But when you start slamming the whole project – you are the one trying to “force” your opinion on others. Fansubbers are great, but when given the opportunity to legitimately support a series – I personally think it’s a great opportunity.
“At no point did he tell people they SHOULD support it. If you don’t want to, fair enough. Why don’t you just ignore it? But when you start slamming the whole project – you are the one trying to “force” your opinion on others.”
You are correct on Zephyr’s nature of this blog. But NO. I disagree with this latter view completely. So just disagreeing/slamming your view is therefore “imposing/forcing” one’s opinion on others? No way, man. I could just easily say, “why don’t you just ignore it” for that other guy’s posts if it is so disagreeable and this is not the way this should go. I don’t really feel like defending the other guy and I am not really, but here goes:
Remember, you and I both are in Zephyr’s corner in this arguments and I’ve said as much that the other guy fudged some facts to fit his narratives in my view (you called it “ton of crap”, I think). HOWEVER, like I said, I violently disagree with this notion of “if you disagree, you need to shut up and leave me the heck alone with my wishful ideas -right or wrong, I stress again, RIGHT or WRONG- or you start challenging my view and disagreeing/trashing it, you’re, by default, imposing your ideas onto me” hyperbolic-talk. Frankly I think it’s a load of bollocks to hold this sort of boxed-in view. No idea is sacred, I firmly believe that nothing is above questioning, as long as it’s based on evidence. Even if it were based on nonsense, I STILL fail to see how that’s trying to impose ideas on that others when it’s just a conversation on free forum -well, if the others are some dumb, uneducated schmucks, then okay, I can see how some factoids could work to “impose” or “brainwash” views on them, but are you implying that you or anyone else here is so uneducated and therefore quite easily swayed? I think not~~! 🙂
If someone else trashes my views (it’s known to happen, ha ha!), no matter how silly the arguments are against mine, I in no way, see it as imposing their ideas onto me. Heck, if my views were so shaky that some nonsense jumbo-jumbo factoids can persuade me into changing, it’s not worth believing to begin with. We just disagree violently. I am not imposing my view onto you by disagreeing, am I? I state my view and it’s up to you or anybody else to take it or leave it. And why yes, perhaps I could be taking this too seriously. But it’s this boxed-in tendency that I combat (and will continue do so), not your or Zephyr’s view on this matter of SSY novel, which I’ve written that I agree.
So to sum up, no and I think it’s something that had to be pointed out. It was just a little tidbit, sure, but I see this tendency far often anywhere.
I agree with most of what deathtogeneric/formulaicshows says here, I too have seen too many instances people dance around the same cycle over and over again, to the point I’m inclined to think it’s something like a tunnel vision that comes with arguing on internet forums.But there’s also a another side to this when saying there’s no point in discussing this further because the other person is determined to be against your view – consider a scenario where person(A) is arguing seriously while person(B) doesn’t give any consideration at all to the points person(A) makes(whether they are right or wrong) and instead simply looks for reasons to disagree with him – in such a case this would be somewhat valid(after all if you try hard enough you can probably find reasons to disagree with almost any idea in this world).The whole imposing/forcing your views on others thing is unfair and hypocritical though – maybe saying something like”I still disagree with you but I’m going to stop arguing here” would be a better option?
shadowalker,
Why, I always write, “all I can say is, let’s agree to disagree” and I move on, man~~. I’d say that’s a good conversation ender in such cases, wouldn’t you say?
If it’s obvious a troll attempt to get his/her ups by saying most obnoxious vile things and reading reactions off them, I don’t see much reason even to respond. But Malkuth here cares too much to be “simply” trolling, look at that lengths of his posts, my gawd~~! That’s no trolling; stubbornness coupled with some wild “factoids”, perhaps, against almost equally stubborn blogger with opposing view and therefore the conversation going nowhere after a while. But no siree bob! I refuse to believe trolls would have to work so hard, just to get some reactions, ah ha ha!!
I’m not sure my description would be limited to a troll(people sometimes really are wrapped up completely in their own views to even consider the possibility they might be wrong), but I was posting a generalized opinion, not directed specifically at anyone here.I don’t think Malkuth is a troll either but as trolls go there are ones who go to great lengths just to troll – for me the common denominator in troll posts are they are written directly or indirectly in a provocative manner – length of the post, not so much(again, generalized opinion on trolls not directed at anyone here).
And yeah that is a good conversation ender.
@amSnipyro:
Ignoring something that you disagree with is a proper reaction? Dunno, I prefer discussing it, either I will be persuaded by the other side’s arguments, vice versa, or at least both of us will come out more knowledgeable… definitely all those who are listening/reading will… as long they don’t just don’t indulge themselves in the “who is right/wrong contest” which is very unfortunate for them and their intellect.
@pmdeathtogeneric/formulaicshows & pmshadowalker:
I guess to most it should be obvious that I am not trolling, and it’s rather unfortunate that accusing others of trolling is another easy way to avoid discussing. Anyway, I am glad that at least two persons share my ideas in how discussions should be conducted, despite disagreeing with me on the topic of the discussion itself.
Anyway on topic, I rather still refrain from calling fanboys/girls stupid, instead I prefer to argue why in this case they are played for fools. Stupid wouldn’t even accurately describe the reactions I read here… naive and inexperienced would better :p
Now joking aside, I am curious about why exactly you guys disagree, say:
1) Do you think that Kodansha through Vertical (their child company in NYC) lacks the resources to publish the novel in the US/UK?
2) Do you think that the current distribution system doesn’t limit distribution (compared to electronic one)?
3) Do you believe that copyright is benefiting the authors more then the lack of it did before the 19th century?
4) Apply the above to the readers too, since there is a significant absence of derivative works in the past 50 years. Mythos for example flourished being copyright free, same for Alice in Wonderland and other classic tales that Disney didn’t steal and register. Anime and manga also benefit a lot from letting derivative work flourish domestically, and most artist have benefited from this too.
5) Do you think that there are more “native” english speakers then people using english as a foreign language?
6) Would you like it to be a widespread practice from companies having access to resources not investing them in project, but asking for consumers to invest in the company in order to fund their project? Because it all comes down to this, I am supporting kickstarter schemes, but for people that are outside corporations, and therefore do not have access to funds. Corporations do and by using kickstarter schemes all they do is:
a) Eliminate competition
b) Make even more money (their suites, not the creators)
I am looking forward to your counterarguments 😉
There is no need for anyone to counter your argument.
With your reply, you’ve pretty much just confirmed what I said in my previous comment. You believe yourself more experienced, less naive, more intellectual, and generally superior to those here. And as even you yourself would likely agree, there is no point discussing any topic in general with someone who possesses such a biased viewpoint.
Listen. I respect your prior work and knowledge regarding this field and acknowledge that a few of your points have some merit. But at the same time, do not misconstrue that the experiences you’ve garnered as automatically making yourself superior to others. The people in this topic are smarter than you seem to think and some of them may have even more knowledge and recent experience than you do. Furthermore, they have been given all the facts they need to make an informed decision and no matter how against it you are, you have no right to contradict it, call them out for it, or insult them for it.
Please refrain from imposing your biased views on what would otherwise be a neutral post. What you’ve turned this topic to is your own private argument room, when all you needed to do was either accept that people are free to do what they want, or just leave one post indicating your qualms and why you feel that way. If your points were so solid, you could have then just let that post sit and stand for itself. But rather than do that, you started off with an incredulous “WTF IS THIS” comment as your first reply and proceeded to act all high and mighty, which is not the way to go. I was civilized with my initial replies, but you did not return the favor with the attitude you’ve shown.
As such, I would like to request that no additional replies be put to this comment chain. We are already sidetracked much further than the original intent of this topic — which was to inform viewers of something they may be interested in. There is a time and place for discussions such as the one above, but this topic — which was intended to be a neutral “if you support, feel free, but if you don’t want to, then you don’t have to” one — is not the place to do it.
Zephyr, you do realize that you are acting high and mighty too, right? As anyone would when he talks based on personal opinion and experience, unless he intentionally tries to belittle himself in order to be more appealing and accessible to his audience.
Anyway, you don’t want us to discuss here, that’s another story… I understand that you want to promote this corporate scheme through your blog, and discussing possible negative sides usually ruins such advertisement :p
What I’m doing is merely putting my foot down and saying that I won’t outwardly accept people who actively insult people and claim themselves superior to those who read this blog just because their views are different.
Like I said, you are free to point out your discontent and contrary views. But you do not do so in the manner you’re doing it in. You are basically looking down on the people you’re discussing this with, which is not acceptable. And contrary to your views, talking based on personal opinion and experience does not mean you need to act high and mighty. You seem to believe it comes with the territory and not doing so means belittling oneself to be more appealing/accessible, but that is not true. I would say stop associating unrelated things with one another, but you seem content to do so.
And really, “promote this corporate scheme?” Yet another relation that has been stretched from the truth. This is not and has never been a promotion. If it were any other legitimate translation I thought others would be interested in, I would be posting it too. Again, this post is for informing those who were interested and was made because I knew people would be interested in it.
Promotion involves bias and intentionally pushing people toward supporting this. I have not done so here. All I have done is respond to qualms with whatever information I have and let people decide with the knowledge given. You don’t see me shooting down people because they have issues or expressed discontent. And none of my comments have said, YES YES YOU SHOULD SUPPORT THIS or anything of the sort. So please, don’t give me that nonsense.
You would have been free to continue had you not pretty much said things that can be construed as “WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS” and then proceeded to associate viewers here with negative, unrelated connotations. But you did not do so. So I am stopping the conversation here as a result so you cannot insult anyone else and so others will not need to use their time responding to your provocations.
Good Day.
These guys should seriously consider using Kickstarter.
I would LOVE a SSY novel in English, but there’s no way in
hell I’m registering on tumblr for that.
There, I’ve thrown my like on tumblr, now to wait patiently…
Also, I would totally buy the anime if I could.
How are their translations? I think I’d rather pay $25 for nothing than get a poor translation.
I’d reblogged it on tumblr~ hope this goes ahead but it’s a pity I can’t preorder being in the oceania region =.= *waits extra long*
I would support but they don’t want me 🙁
Although I laughed at the part “Oh and one more thing. US, UK and Canada only. We don’t sell novels to the EU.”
Last time I checked UK was part of EU LOL….
Comic relief <3
Yeah Vertical are a bit weird. I liked e post and tweeted about it, only to have the Vertical Twitter account laugh at me and tell me my UK efforts were in vain – even though they were wrong!
https://twitter.com/ayasawada/status/306550498713010176
Makes me have a little less faith in the company….
If they really wanted to turn in some profit through a translation of a novel, they would do the monogatari series. That would be a definite buy for me l0l
Sounds like a big project. I’d be interesting in helping if they’d like.
where do we preorder this? it seems like it’s a ploy to just make us buy the other novel…
Liking the post is expressing your interest in pre-ordering it. There won’t be any actual pre-orders until the 4500 pre-req is met though.
If this gets published, I would gladly pay 25 dollars for it. I would do anything for it. Please let this happen. I sound desperate but I really want this, it would be absolutely amazing.
I just checked amazon and barns and noble and they are going to publish Shin Sekai Yori on November 12, 2013. They are selling the novel for preorder for 10 dollars.
Hmm that may just be the manga version (http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/03/02/vertical-licenses-racy-from-the-new-world-manga), rather than the novel translation.
Will update if I see any confirmation.
I checked the authors’ names and it’s the first volume the manga version of the novel that is being published in Nov ’13. Although, I do really wish that it was the novel being published in English instead.
I would caution everyone that the manga in question is rather… liberal in the way it changes the story.
@Guardian Enzo: It might be rather ‘liberal’ in the way it changes the story at least from the anime, but at the same time it may be more faithful to the way the original novel was. Unless the novel gets translated we’ll never know (unless you can read Japanese well enough to read it on your own, which I can’t yet).
Truthfully I liked the two volumes of manga that I have read so far, and will buy the official versions of the manga when released, as well as preorder the novel and express my interest for translations of it. I thought the manga made the character’s relationships a lot clearer and showed their closeness better in the manga, which was just hinted at and glossed over in the anime. I understand it was a design choice of the producers of the anime, but it was so overtly there, but never even clearly stated/vocalized anywhere in the anime. It kind of felt like that aspect of their relationships was handle with kid gloves.
To each their own I guess.