First Future Project Poll

[Zero Blitz]

About the CLAMP novel, it's probably this anime: Clamp School Detectives. Very bad rating...

[onizuka-gto]

Hmm... Why is Seikai no Senki in the poll if the Seikai novels were licensed six months ago? The first volume release is Sept 12.

Thank you for the notice.
Unfortunately i will now have to remove this title from the poll, i had hope this would not happen but with the licence of the first novel it was not exactly unexpected.

[NewGuy]

Wasn't it stated early on by someone in the thread that only Seikai no Monshou (Crest of the Stars) was licenced by Tokyopop and that Seikai no Senki (Banner of the Stars) wasn't licenced YET? I thought that was the rationale behind starting the project in the middle of the series since these novels were not yet licenced?

[onizuka-gto]

That was what I was led to believe, but the announcement that i was pointed at, seems to suggest a blanket licence. Unless someone can point me to where it specificially mentioned that the licence only covers Seikai no Monshou, I will reinstate the candidate.

After all, those early did not give me evidence of such, and i trusted their words. However since i have seen this notice, on the Anime News Network which i happen to find reliable, i can no longer be certain. on second glance I realise the anonuncement is ambigous but until proven otherwise i have to assume the worse.

And besides even if i did put it back on the poll, all the votes have been lost anyway,

So I reacted alittle bit too quickly for my own good, well sue me. wait you can't. im not paid.

dammit.

[Zero Blitz]

If it does turn out that the license only covers Seikai no Monshou, then it isn't exactly a problem since you only need to remember that Seikai no Senki had 22 votes in regards to whether that novel gets translated.

Here's the exact quote so that people too lazy to click the link can see it. (it's hard to decide what it means...)

Tokyopop Licenses Seikai Novels
posted on 2006-01-09 15:35:17

Tokyopop has confirmed to ANN that they have licensed the Seikai novels on which Crest of the Stars and Banner of the Stars are based.

Also, would Harunako and the other translators mind telling us the novels they wish to do the most to give us a better idea of what to expect or how to appeal to you with other ideas?

I've given you my reasons why the likelihood of Zero no Tsukaima and all the others on the poll (except Seikai no Senki if it isn't licensed yet) being licensed is extremely low and so licensing issues shouldn't really be a problem when making a decision on what to translate next.

I really don't see how licensing issues can be a complaint when you decided to translate a novel like Suzumiya Haruhi which was in a similar position to how ZnT is now with the major difference being Haruhi's poularity of about 10x as much.

You say that people are basing their expectations on the anime too much and the novel may not be very good but over in the AnimeSuki forums, there were many people who decided to read it and give it very positive feedback, hoping that the anime would do it justice. Apparently, it starts off really well and just gets better as it goes on and some people somplain that the anime adds a bit too much comedy to the anime adaption and although there isn't that horrible 'fast paced' feeling, it's moving too quickly in comparison to the novel and missing some events out (apparantly quite a lot as someone said it should be around 24 eps if they're doing the three volumes). Above all, I don't feel that people will dissappointed with the novel based on their expectations from the anime. I'm also kind of dissapointed that the anime won't be covering much about the reason Louise makes things explode..

Could some of you translators get a couple of volumes of Zero no Tsukaima and so what you think about it? (if you PM me, I have them uploaded so I can send you the links for the raws). By the way, more of a plot is meant to form from volumes 4+ and a war is meant to start vol6 or 7.

[onizuka-gto]

Could some of you translators get a couple of volumes of Zero no Tsukaima and so what you think about it? (if you PM me, I have them uploaded so I can send you the links for the raws). By the way, more of a plot is meant to form from volumes 4+ and a war is meant to start vol6 or 7.

That sounds like a good idea, unfortunately, our Translators are a lazy lot, if you want some support it is best you contact them individually, and see if they will like to translate a teaser.

After all, if they got the time, they might be willing to translate a page or two.

[anomalous]

I'm also kind of dissapointed that the anime won't be covering much about the reason Louise makes things explode.. Sad

I'm willing to bet the anime will cover that.

[the_naming_game]

Just to add a little more water to the blanket ...
(Don't worry, happens to everyone, onizuka -- things like this are exactly why I've gotten freakishly careful about certain things.)

If you go to the Tokyopop website, you can see Crest of the Stars is available, but only the first volume of that series, much less any of the later series.

And again, on the tokyopop website, in this thread, dated 2006-03-15, you'll see it clearly stated by a member of the Tokyopop staff, that "TOKYOPOP has licensed Seikai: Crest of the Stars novels 1-4. If those do well, we will certainly consider Banner of the Stars 1-3 and Phrase of the Stars 1 to however many more there will be."

So that seems like a pretty definitive word on the subject.

Fun with phpBB2:
I just checked with a test installation of phpBB2, and you can't vote again even if your vote choice is deleted, since the database only records if you voted, not what you voted for. (a good thing, though, since secret ballot is assured. ) I seem to recall it was somewhere behind Shana in numbers, but if Zero Blitz says 22, I'm inclined to go with his estimate. My memory of the vote count isn't very good.

(Warning: a lot of SQL follows; skip to the next header unless you're in the mood to fix a poll.)
-- If you can get to the database, you can try doing this, so that the percentages match up.
-- If not, you could just register 22 dummy voters and do it the old fashioned way.
-- I believe phpBB2 has some vote stacking prevention features, so you may not be able to fix the vote count without changing ip addresses for each vote. A real pain.
-- Note that your table names may be different, but I believe these are the default names.

Code: Select all

update phpbb_vote_results
  set
    vote_result = vote_result + 22
  where
    vote_option_text = 'Seikai no Senki (22 point handicap -- see discussion)'
    and vote_id = (
      select vote_id
        from phpbb_vote_desc
        where topic_id = 129);

(afterthought...)
Just realized how to cleanly fix the poll. Again, you need to have direct database access, though.

-- note that you can replace the stuff in (parentheses) with the result of the following select.
-- I just did it this way to make the code trivially pastable into mysql.

Code: Select all

select vote_id
   from phpbb_vote_desc
   where topic_id = 129;

-- [Query1] this will return the total votes cast, including for Seikai no Senki

Code: Select all

select count(*)
  from phpbb_vote_voters
  where vote_id = (
    select vote_id
      from phpbb_vote_desc
      where topic_id = 129);

-- [Query2] this will return the total votes cast for the current set of poll choices.

Code: Select all

select sum(vote_result)
  from phpbb_vote_results
  where vote_id = (
    select vote_id
      from phpbb_vote_desc
      where topic_id = 129);

-- Calculating (Query1 - Query2) will give you how many votes Seikai no Senki got. Then plug that number into the UPDATE statement from before.

And while I'm here,
I might as well run through the licensing possibilities of the NHK and GOTH novels. GOTH is highly unlikely to be licensed. It's not even on the radar of the English speaking world, as far as I can tell. And its material is rather dark and twisted. Not the usual type of thing that appeals to the masses, and therefore, not the usual type of thing that gets licensed.

• Ok, just did some research, and one of his novels has been licensed for publishing sometime next year. Which most likely means that they're not going to license anything further until they see how the current novel does. That comes to slightly under a year as the soonest that GOTH might get licensed. And even then, the manga seems a more likely candidate for that than the novel. It's pretty hard to sell novels to an English speaking public, if there wasn't some kind of manga/anime to pique their attention first.

The NHK manga is licensed by Tokyopop, but only the first volume is out. The same reasoning applies as with "Seikai no Senki" and "GOTH" -- they're highly likely to see how things go with the current manga volume, and a few further volumes, before they decide to license anything further.

• I am personally cringing, just imagining what they might have done with the translation. I am reminded of Tokyopop's version of "Chobits", where they translate Hideki as having gas from eating too much beans. In the original he was trying to suppress an erection. I blame such travesties on the "comics are for kids" syndrome that runs rampant here.

Concluding thoughts:

• The NHK novel probably isn't going to be licensed for awhile, if at all. As far as I can tell, the manga is every bit as good as the novel probably is. (It helps that the author is writing the manga as well.) And considering that manga sells better than novels, (educated guess; I see Tokyopop manga in bookstores. I don't see any Tokyopop novels. Though to be fair, I wasn't really looking for them.) they're probably just going to milk their current license for awhile to see how it does. (It's only been out since late May 2006, after all.) Of course, if NHK blows up as large as Evangelion, I have no doubt that everything they can get their hands on, will get licensed. Who knows.
  
  The GOTH novel inspired a manga that was painfully short (Only one volume!), but good. That was in 2003. From that, I can only assume it had a small but rabid following, but not enough to justify any further volumes. This is really the kind of work that people either like a lot or absolutely hate. As Zero Blitz mentioned previously, novels tend to get licensed as part of a wave of licensing of some popular franchise. By that criteria, GOTH is not even close to having that sort of hype. The only way it's likely to get licensed is if a similar novel/manga/anime starts getting very popular, and you have a company wanting to get in on the bandwagon.

Harunako, your opinion on ZnT
makes me curious as to what you think of the Harry Potter series. I say this not just because of the obvious comparison, but also because at current, I put the potential quality of the ZnT story to be about Harry Potter level, and the probable quality to be slightly under. Worst case quality seems to be somewhere around "generic."

(Though if I throw my objectivity hat out the window, I'd have to admit that I'm enjoying this more, mostly because Harry Potter has pretty much been a brat throughout the entire series, though I'll admit he's gotten a bit better. And Saito -- aka, the main guy character in ZnT -- has done quite a bit already to establish himself as the anti-Yuuji and anti-Potter. What's not to like?)

Yes, Harry Potter has death and dark powers at work, vs ecchi and shenanigans on the other side, (and to be fair, we don't know how involved ZnT's story will get later.) but death alone does not make a work any better, nor does ecchi destroy a work's intrinsic quality. (For me, the real test has always been the characters first and the plot/gimmick second, which may explain my attitude.)

[anonymoussomebody]

Yes, Harry Potter has death and dark powers at work, vs ecchi and shenanigans on the other side, (and to be fair, we don't know how involved ZnT's story will get later.) but death alone does not make a work any better, nor does ecchi destroy a work's intrinsic quality. (For me, the real test has always been the characters first and the plot/gimmick second, which may explain my attitude.)

ZnT does include fighting and death later on.
In fact, volume 4 includes some fairly gory scenes, if thats your bag.

Analogies between it and harry potter start to fail after volume 1 of ZnT, imo, as the storyline shifts away from the school.

[the_naming_game]

ZnT
Well, I'm not really much of a gore and death person, but I do appreciate some emotional range in what I read. (As in Evangelion, you don't really appreciate those quiet, joyful, and yes, even boring moments unless you've experienced some amount of trauma and loss in your life.) It's nice to know the story isn't constrained to what I initially envisioned it as. I still haven't voted in this poll. (not that it'd make a difference.) and I'm getting more undecided than ever, as I find out more about each of the novels.

I'm kind of glad that it moves away from Potter-ism later, as ... well, no need to alienate anybody. Let's just say a clone would be entertaining enough to watch. But if it were to branch out, it'd get much more enthusiasm from me. It's really too bad that it's only 13 episodes. (That's what I got from animenewsnetwork, but then again, they screwed us on the Seikai no Senki novel licensing news. Zero Blitz, how reliable is your source that said 24 eps?)

poll afterthought:
Onizuka, eventually you'll probably have to make a new poll anyway, since the poll isn't strictly representative when a lot of people voted before all of the choices were up. I noticed a lot of posters wishing they could have changed their votes.

[velocity7]

Multiple choice is probably also a good idea, maybe?

[Zero Blitz]

anomolous: People who have read most of the novels have commented on how we won't get to find out much about it as that information comes as part of the story in the later volumes which won't be represented by the anime.

the_naming_game: It's good (I think...) to know that Seikai no Senki isn't licensed along with the others and, although there's a possibility it will be in the future depending on the popularity of the others, I'd doubt it would happen for at least a year if it was to happen (more like 2-3). Also, yes, it was at 22 votes last I saw (max of 2 days ago), everytime I saw Senki's vote was higher than Shana's I was saddened. ;P (It's difficult to see what's meant to be so good about senki as something about different races in space doesn't really interest me and I was hoping for Shana too be translated before that...)

Sorry that you got the wrong idea from my post:

Apparently, it starts off really well and just gets better as it goes on and some people somplain that the anime adds a bit too much comedy to the anime adaption and although there isn't that horrible 'fast paced' feeling, it's moving too quickly in comparison to the novel and missing some events out (apparantly quite a lot as someone said it should be around 24 eps if they're doing the three volumes).

It is 13 episodes as far as I know. What I meant was that someone who had read most/all of the novels had commented on 13 episodes being too short for the 3 volumes that are adaped to the anime and although the changes are done really well, they are/will be missing out quite a few events and 24 episodes would be a better amount to get everything from the novels to the anime.

I'll take a look at that GOTH manga and if it's good, I hope to see the novel added to the (next?) poll along with Welcome to the NHK which is a brilliant (although insane) manga. It's annoying that I can't suggest the manga to my friends since they'd probably think I'm weird due to the semi-nudity that appears sometimes and some of the totally screwed up things Satou does (attempt at creating an eroge with this other guy who was his junior in high school, becomes a lolicon for a day, taking photos and everything and accidentally joins a suicide-off meeting, among others. Oh yeah, he's a hikikomori too). It is interesting, though.

I'd just like to say this again: the chances of licensing for all (except Seikai no Senki) of the novels in the poll is around 5-15% (in say.. the next 3-4 years unless the marketing of translated Japanese light novels dramatically increases) so licensing isn't that big of a deal when it comes to deciding which project to do.

About 17 and a half chapters (plus 6 prologues, 2 epilogues and things like A/Ns, coming to around 3 and a half volumes) of Haruhi have been translated in under four months to a quality that can rival (and better some) official translations. This speed is already far superior than companies like TokyoPop produce at. I'm pretty sure that with more than one project on the go, translator's will be more willing to join Baka-Tsuki as they have more choice and it may even speed up more.

You could even go to some forums/websites/blogs where there's quite a few English speakers that have learnt Japanese and vice-versa, make threads suggesting the idea of Baka-Tsuki and give them a list of several different novels which aren't likely to be licensed any time soon and ask for possible translators to reply with all the projects they're interested in. If someone is only interested in one project and doesn't mind doing it solo/with another person because it isn't that popular then allow them to. It would be really nice to see the Baka-Tsuki project still running in about 5 years time with about 5-10 projects on the go. ;P

Also, if it is still running in a couple of years I may be able to help a bit as I've started learning Japanese a short while ago and am pretty determined to learn it well. I haven't been able to find anything efficient when it comes to learning kana or kanji so I plan on ordering some books (anyone here kow any good ones? I only know about the Adventures in Japanese workbooks, 4 levels although seems to be hard to get) but I have got a decent program for learning Romaji which has a lot of words/phrases for free although the deluxe ver. has about 4x the amount.

[onizuka-gto]

Thanks for clearing that up, I will put SnS backup, and GOTH as well.

Unfortunately, i don't think I can access the database, and if i can, i don't even know where to look for it.

[wa-totem]

hmm... if seikai is not in the running (september 12 you say? yay! where do i preorder?), i'd love to re-cast my vote. Iriya no Sora gets it, for sure ^__^v

[Zero Blitz]

hmm... if seikai is not in the running (september 12 you say? yay! where do i preorder?), i'd love to re-cast my vote. Iriya no Sora gets it, for sure ^__^v

Nope, it seems that the four books before(?) Seikai no Senki are the ones that have been licensed. The first volume of Seikai: Crest of the stars can be pre-ordered from RightStuf.

You'll need to read a couple of posts back to see the mistake.