Blog Archives
I Translated Mari Okada’s Biography
Hi all!
I’m thrilled to announce that Mari Okada’s biography From Truant to Anime Screenwriter: My Path to “Anohana” and “The Anthem of the Heart” will be getting an English e-book release on May 4, published by J-Novel Club. You can read a free preview of the book’s prologue at J-Novel Club’s website, and you can pre-order the book from Amazon here.
If you’re a subscriber to J-Novel Club and you pre-order the premium ebook, you’ll enter the draw to win a shikishi signed by Mari Okada herself.
I’m biased – I’m keen on promoting this book because I translated it myself. Hopefully if this sort of book sells well, it could pave the way for more English translations of books about anime creators. So if this sort of thing interests you, please do buy the book!
The Important Takeaways from the J-Novel AMA on Reddit
On February 18th, Sam Pinansky of J-Novel Club hosted an AMA on r/LightNovels, where he answered user questions and announced J-Novel Club’s latest license: Arifureta: From Commonplace to World’s Strongest. I found this very interesting, given that I was one of the people who had requested Arifureta on the forums, and I had also predicted that it would get licensed last year.
Overall, there was nothing in the AMA that surprised me as someone who has been following J-Novel Club since its inception, but I thought it would be interesting to share some of the answers in the thread to my readers. I also thought it would be useful to archive this information in a more easily accessible form. Think of it as a status update for the company.
“My Little Sister Can Read Kanji” vs “I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse”
Light novels are known for their clickbait titles even though the majority of light novels do not actually have clickbait titles. But hey, I fell for it, because out of all the J-Novel Club titles released so far, the only ones I’ve read at the time of this writing are My Little Sister Can Read Kanji and I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse. I regret nothing.
This blog post is an evaluation of the two titles and their potential for fantastic memes.
My Predictions for J-Novel Club
Last month, a new English light novel distributor emerged on the scene. Called J-Novel Club, it promises to publish the latest light novels worldwide in digital format. You might have seen my interview with the site’s owner on Crunchyroll, which goes into more detail about what the site is all about and what sort of titles are available there already.
Needless to say, I’m a supporter of the website. It’s a risky and experimental venture, but I definitely want it to succeed. If J-Novel Club manages to take off, we could see more light novels available in English, including the more obscure titles without anime adaptations. I never thought the day would come when I’d be able to read an official English translation of My Little Sister Can Read Kanji, but now that it has arrived, I fall on my knees and thank God I’m alive.
So what’s next in the world of English light novels? While I have no way of seeing the future, I do have some tentative predictions about the prospects of J-Novel Club, which I’d like to share in this post.
