Heyas folks,
today I was contacted by J-Novel Club that they licensed Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de.
Here a little extract:
You may have noticed on the news, but we have now licensed Nidome no Jinsei from Hobby Japan, and have begun releasing the series officially.
As is our usual procedure, I’m emailing you to request that you remove your translations of the portion of the web novel that correspond to volume 1 from your website, and when we begin to translate volume 2, please remove those chapters as well etc…
I took some time to consider the options and also discussed it with the team and we decided to stop the translation at this point in time.
Some may ask “Why?” as it clearly states above that the content that isn’t released by J-Novel doesn’t have to be removed. But as translator I don’t feel like starting to play a game of cat and mouse. And unless I up my release speed, which I naturally don’t intend to do as that would affect my other projects, J-Novel would catch up in about 2 years or less with my progress (going by their release speed of other series’). By that time most of the series would be an empty husk with most of the content being removed from this blog. So yea, no point in that as I’m usually going for the long run and not short term.
I have two chapters in stock of which one will be released in a while and the other one regularly in two weeks time.
I’m sorry towards all those who supported this series being translated on this blog up until now, but just like with Yomigaeri no Maou and Black Summoner, I see no point in trying to struggle against an official licensing and thus chose to make a clear cut at this place.
On the bright side, it also offers you the chance to legally support the author by buying the English books online.
According to their demand, volume 1 has been removed from this blog. The rest will follow in a few weeks time, so if you want to salvage anything, do it before you have to later search through the dozens of aggregator sites and e-pub blogs.
So what will happen next? A new series will come, naturally. I’m not into changing release speeds of currently running projects or hashing up old projects that are dormant due to me lacking motivation/reason to do them. I need my dose of alternating stories and styles after all.
One potential candidate will be posted later today, so look forward to that. 🙂
Many greetings,
Shasu
Had to become licensed right in the middle of the arc. Well, you had a good run with it.
Any untranslated or dropped novels you have been eying for you to pick up?
Well, chapter 82 is actually a good point to stop as it’s right before the arc really starts going… as twisted as it may sound, though I won’t deny that I feel a bit sad about it as the series has grown on me.
As for the future, released one candidate just now, and there are two other totally new works I scooped up today on Syousetsu that might be fun. Gotta see in the coming days what I will do, I guess. 🙂
I’m not happy with j-novel, they always ban the translation of WN issued by j-novel.
Whereas in japan, we can freely read WN.
Banning LN does not matter, but why WN?
I’m glad they brought out LN Japan, but their disposition forbids WN to make me dislike them …
Thanks for the information.
And thank you very much for your hard work in translating Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de. (:D)
Sorry for bad eng…
I assume the WN is a legal grey area as it is separate given how edited and changed up lns are compared to the wn they are separate things per as you said in japan wns still available. The US how ever is a little different legal wise its likely still ok but id assume their lawyers are better then a single non rich person can afford and will argue to high heaven that its the same and end up just costing a lot of money. In the end a lot of what we can do as people legally is trumped by the cost of fighting it in court ie money generally always comes out on top even if you win your still stuck with legal bills you cant realistically afford to pay.
we don’t know for sure if the WN is a legal grey area or not, for example the Japanese publisher when they gave the author a publishing deal may also have purchased control of WN distribution so it’s only “free” in the sense that the publisher is allowing Japanese people to read it for free as advertising. often even in Japan the WN gets taken down to make way for a LN publication (like Konosuba and GATE and Overlord and SAO did), other times the publisher leaves it there to not piss off WN readers (like Re Zero).
They don’t ban the translation, otherwise why is smartphone and other projects still being translated? If shasu really wanted he could just keep translating, this is just an excuse to drop it
*shrug* Not really an excuse or anything. It’s simply a logical observation. Either increase the release speed significantly or get caught up by them sooner or later. Also, unlike Smartphone, I don’t have a buffer of 200+ chapters or such so that one could say “I will be out of range of the released LN content anyway.” 😉
They always ban the translation of WN issued by j-novel.
Whereas in japan, we can freely read WN.
Banning LN does not matter, but why WN?
I’m glad they brought out LN Japan, but their disposition forbids WN to make me dislike them …
Thanks for the information.
And thank you very much for your hard work in translating Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de.
J-novel strikes again. Their translations aren’t even good.
Thanks for all the work up til now.
Yeah, I would never want to read an “official” translation anyway, because they over-localize everything. Honorifics? Gone. Commonly understood Japanese words? Replaced. References to things in Japanese culture? Substituted. I’ve spent a good number of hours learning everything I need to properly enjoy Japanese LNs and WNs, and that means I don’t want read a translation where everything is dumbed down , broken, and bowdlerized so that 9-year-old Johnny American can read it safely. I’d rather read a straight Google translation than the “official” version.
Yea, the many little, nice nuances of the Japanese language that translators keep alive and which are brutally localized by official publishers. I’m with you on that. Localization is nice and all but it kills the flair of a foreign works more often than not.
That is not entirely true when it comes to J-Novel Club’s translations though. A lot of their translations (depends on the translator himself) have honorifics. They, of course, also have the references to Japanese culture. It is not rare to see words like Isekai, youkai, moe etc. in their translations.
Are you perhaps confusing LN translations with Nintendo videogame localizations or 4kids dubs? Can you name a single LN the translation of which was bowdlerized for 9-year-old Johnny American to read?
You read Mahouka “official translation” by YP..? It’s not by J-Novel but you see how they butcher everything in there.
So they strike the WN translation even though it is there to everyone to read in japanese ? makes no sense at all…
No, it doesn’t. But it’s a business for them as most English readers can’t read Japanese and Online Translators like Google aren’t that far along the road to sensibly translate everything, especially if the writing style of the author, like in Nidoume, is needlessly complicated.
Problem for an individual translator is that it’s still copyright infringement, even if it is published on a site where everyone can read it for free, as you aren’t actually allowed to “copy” it for anything beyond fair use. That makes the standing of a translation team very feeble, even in case of WN’s *sigh*
no its not still copyrighted unless they have a branch in the us that did it. Copyrights are a mess in general but as it stands you have to fight for them in every country hence teh fight apple had in china over the iphone patent. So legally you could still translate. The issue is can you as a single person even if legally right fight a company in court where most of the legal system as it is set you can not even if proven right demand your legal fees be paid by the original party hence companies even when they know for a fact their wrong will litigate against people just to bankrupt them and make them no longer a threat.
Uh, no. Copyright in one country applies internationally. Look up the Berne convention. Otherwise what would be the point of licenses?
I read the laws and comments by lawyers about this topic back when I had to scratch Yomigaeri no Maou and Black Summoner. Legally, going by an international treaty, which has been signed by more than 3/4 of the world’s countries, copying content that is spiritually not your property – aka you are not the creator of it – is against copyright law. Only exception to that would be fair use where you can cite a few parts for educational reasons or for pointing towards that creation.
The case with Apple and China you mention here is a different matter as Chinese companies simply copied what Apple built. But you would need to prove that it’s really “copied or”stolen” from Apple itself which is often not easy with electronic products. Adding to that such companies in China are usually backed by their state which makes it even more difficult to actually legally sue them.
so Janovel is something like tha japanese qidian? xD
but wh are offical sites always this slow ~,~ 2 years until they are at the same point as you now? thats like, not even 2 chapters a week, for a commerical online translation? they are worse than quidian.
Nah, it won’t take 2 years. The fan-translation is at chapter 81 which corresponds to the beginning of volume 5 of the light novel, and J-Novel Club should be at the same place by September/October 2018.
^Pretty much. They finished 7/8 voljmes of NeeChu in about a year
Thanks for your hardwork :'(
Well that sucks I really liked this story
WTF! Man, ANOTHER story I won’t be able to finish because of their BS
Good for you, and good luck with future endeavors.
For those worried about slow TL speed from Jnovel don’t, they release roughly a volume every 9 weeks and they already released 4 parts of the first volume.
Heck I think they’ve already outpaced or about to outpace the smartphone fan TL.
There business model is delivering the fastest and best digital translations so expect that.
Shasu,
J-Novel Club licensed LN or WN version of “Nidoume no Jinsei wo Isekai de”?
LN version, but they claim WN, too.
so this novel will drop??
never up again??
At least not by me. Either you wait for J-Novel to buy the LNs from them or you hope for someone else to pick it up which is very unlikely though.
At least not on this blog.
thanks for translating :3
such a shame we can’t read it till the end of this volume -_-
Gracias por tu trabajo amigo . no se me da muy bien el ingles , pero algo entiendo jaja te estoy siguiendo desde hace años y espero buenos proyectos futuros
Curious though. Wouldn’t this be a non-issue if you asked the author’s permission to translate the WN since the LN publisher doesn’t have rights to it?
As a matter of fact I did back then when I was around chapter 15? Never got an answer though.
Also legally the publisher has the rights to the story, so they can even ask the author to take down the WN (as happened with Mahouka for example). Most Japanese publishers don’t particularly care though as they usually decide on releasing a LN after the WN has advanced quite a bit down the road already and thus probably don’t see any point in taking it down, I guess? Also, many LN authors use the WN as playground to try out different things with their story while treading a more professional path for their LN (influenced by the publisher I suppose).
I suspect that Japanese publishers simply have a different attitude in contrary to English publishers.
The LN publisher has the rights to the story itself. That includes the WN. Though it’s their decision whether they tell the author to stop releasing a WN. Most publishers don’t as they earn money by highlighting a story that would usually drown in the dark back alleys of the net. Also, a LN version offers illustrations, better grammar and additional content. 😉
Shasu, thanks for your work in Nidoume
I want to ask if you are accepting suggestions for translating novels?
Not at the current time, sorry. 🙂
Currently not, sorry. 🙂
I see, thanks
thanks for the translation it was nice to read.
But they are translating the Light novel not the web novel. I do t see why you would have to play against them. The web novel can be read by anyone for free, you are just translating the free version.
Free is relative. It’s free for those who can read Japanese like me. For you, who relies on a translation, it’s not free because there are Copyright laws. 🙂
are you saying that translators aren’t just really good versions of google translate?
*shrug* If you like what google translate delivers, no matter how correct or readable it is, then you should use it. In that case the discussion here wouldn’t matter to you though, would it? 😉
that was the joke. 🙂 I’ve tried to TL a few really short chapters of a story before and it was super slow and pretty difficult too.
Only hope for a continued translation would appear to get direct permission from the original author to continue the WN translation. Not sure if they actual understand whats going on here with J-Novel club, or if they actually sold over all their rights to both translated works. Would be worth a shot, but I guess it depends on how enthusiastic you are about translating the WN.
I mailed the author about permission to translate the WN version back when the issue with Yomigaeri no Maou came up but never received a reply. If I mailed them now once again, I would at best receive a negative answer because they sold the rights for their story to HobbyJapan which sold it to J-Club next.
It’s not about enthusiasm, of which I have enough, but about money. If I offered more than J-Club for the license, HobbyJapan would probably give me a license as well. But, do you think I’m that rich as private person? xD
I guess only hope left would be translators who don’t care about copyright like with Overlord. Maybe if an anime is made out of this something will happen.
Again those guys with their shitty slow website
Please ask the author for authorization because j novel club is S### with uploads
And I want to read more since couldn’t afford it ?????
Thank you very much for all the work you put into this project, man.
Also, I’ve always wanted to ask, but who in the hell licensed Yomigari no Maou? Because I haven’t seen anything regarding this novel anywhere.
No one licensed it, we simply got an order to refrain by the Japanese publisher.
Well, that’s a bummer. Anyway, keep up the good work, man.