Shin Sekai Yori - Novel Discussion Thread

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by gjgffgt

I have some questions for you (I would like to be spoiled) :P

Just watch the show, really. Maybe someone will answer these, but I personally see no point in it because at this rate I could just write a summary of the book and be done with it (that I won't do).

Some answers, though...

Originally Posted by gjgffgt

I heard there is a new cast of main characters when they are 26 that will replace Shun, Maria and Mamoru is that true?

I don't know where you heard that, but no, that's not true. Kiroumaru will have more screen time (he's sort of a main character, there's a reason why he is on the official group pic where Saki et al are 14 ys old), and the scope of the story will widen so some other characters will come into the picture who will play important roles. But they're not "replacements."

Spoiler for character death:

(Then again, Shun, Maria and Mamoru are kind of dead by then so... Btw Kiroumaru is pretty cool as far as mutant rat people go.)

Originally Posted by gjgffgt

Spoiler:

By the way... "last rays of the setting sun with a slim hope for a future"...
LOL! that doesn't sound like a happy ending, oh well

Spoiler for end:

Haha, well, as the story goes on one eventually realizes that this is not the kind of story that can be read with a "happy end" or "bad end" in mind.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

No, it isn't that the pacing or content is bad, it's just that apparently this is a two cour show? But having covered so much already, are they going to now suddenly stretch the third volume out over ten+ episodes?

There is a lot of material to cover so I think the pacing is pretty good so far. (The editing could be better but it's nothing disastrous.) The novel is altogether ~1000 pages long (around 950), Shun's death comes about halfway. Just as how we're almost halfway into the anime.

[NoemiChan]

@Kuromitsu

Spoiler for Nsfw:

Will Satoru and Saki have a hot scene since they had a baby?

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

There is a lot of material to cover so I think the pacing is pretty good so far. (The editing could be better but it's nothing disastrous.) The novel is altogether ~1000 pages long (around 950), Shun's death comes about halfway. Just as how we're almost halfway into the anime.

It's halfway? Isn't it towards the end of vol 2? That's like nearly 2/3 rds of the story no?

Unless the Kodansha format cut down the content?

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

It's halfway? Isn't it towards the end of vol 2? That's like nearly 2/3 rds of the story no?

Unless the Kodansha format cut down the content?

All versions are published by Kodansha, under different labels. Different editions are published in different formats. From wikipedia:

tankoubon: Kodansha
vol1、ISBN 978-4-06-214323-3
vol2、ISBN 978-4-06-214324-0

shinshohan: Kodansha Novels
ISBN 978-4-06-182660-1

bunko: Kodansha Bunko
vol1、ISBN 978-4-06-276853-5
vol2、ISBN 978-4-06-276854-2
vol3、ISBN 978-4-06-276855-9

I have the shinshohan edition which is, as you can see, the whole thing in one volume. In this, Shun's death happens around page 490 and the novel itself is altogether 950+ pages long (not counting afterword, etc). So yes, it's about halfway.

Originally Posted by gjgffgt

Okay, could you just answer on these questions then?

Spoiler for Novel:

So Satoru will know that Saki had feelings for Shun?


And will Satoru remember Shun and will he acknowledge that he died?


Will Saki tell him about the last time she saw Shun?


Will we ever see Saki and Satoru kiss? :X

In short:

Spoiler for Satoru:

-Today's episode will put this whole thing into perspective....
-We don't learn a lot about how Satoru processes the whole thing, but yes, he will remember Shun.
-I suppose she tells him eventually, but if she does it's off-screen...
-Perhaps? But it may not be very romantic.

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Spoiler for Nsfw:

Will Satoru and Saki have a hot scene since they had a baby?

Spoiler for nsfw :D;;:

You don't want to know. No, really.

[Cosmic Eagle]

I mean the Kodansha Bunko ver.

Vol 2 has the first arc with the Minoshiro and Squealer's first meeting with them ending around a fifth of the way in and the Shun's fall arc starting shortly after.

So yeah, it somehow seemed much quicker with the bunko format

[taichi-kun]

I'll leave some questions about the Event where they choose a partner( episode11)

is It celebrated every year or when they turned 14 years old? did the anime skipped some important information about It ?

And a random one: why is maria the most popular girl and not saki ?

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Spoiler for nsfw :D;;:

You don't want to know. No, really.

Why? C'mon .PM me!

Spoiler for Speculation:

Don't tell me they had a child without having sex?

[Shadow5YA]

Originally Posted by taichi-kun

And a random one: why is maria the most popular girl and not saki ?

Why would Saki be? Maria is far more sociable than she is.

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Why would Saki be? Maria is far more sociable than she is.

I know what yo meant by that....

[hgjfgh]

You know, Shun had such a tragic, painful, pathetic death.

First he had to get away from everyone he cared about, then he mistakenly killed his parents and the people of his village, then he had to run away and isolate himself and be all alone, then the girl he loves come after him and he probably realized he never kissed her and now he'll never will. His dog died, and then he had to kill himself to end his misery because he couldn't take it anymore.


I'm kind of glad that Shun had such a miserable death, after he was such a dick to Satoru and didn't even mentioned him ONCE before his death.

And now Satoru will get to keep living and most likely be with Saki, the girl Shun loved. So he will get to kiss her and have sex with her, the girl that Shun loved and never got to do any of that with her. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Anyway, Satoru - Wins.
Shun - Loses!




And Shun was also never really a part of the war against the rats or changing their society. Now Satoru will probably get to fight and do all this amazing things and with Saki they'll change everything. Shun never did and will never do any of that.


Also, can't wait for Satoru to be back to the position of the main male protagonist.
So far in the second arc his role was pretty small but soon he'll be as important as Saki again like he was during the war against the rats.

[iCK]

Spoiler for nsfw :D;;:

You don't want to know. No, really.

[/QUOTE]

I'd like to know as well.

[Makers_F]

Any news on this?

Originally Posted by Xiammes

Yeah we won't be getting a translation anytime soon, I know one group is translating the first few chapters but won't be doing the entire novel.

Can you link the site of the group, please?

Isn't it possible to use a site of crow founding(something like kickstarter) for helpig a group finish the translation? I would be wiling to pay at last the price of the book since i would get the pdf translated and wouldn't need to pay for it.
Do you thik there is enough hype about this novel?

[kuromitsu]

Well... the novel is close to 1000 pages, it would take a very dedicated fan translator to do the whole thing, especially as this show doesn't have the kind of large and dedicated fandom that would provide the number of readers and amount of feedback to make it worth the effort. But if someone decides it's worth it for them, more power to them.

I'm pretty sure Kickstarter/etc. would be illegal, though? I mean copyright and all that.

And as someone who happens to translate on the side, the price of the book (~1500 yen) is nowhere near the amount for which I would even consider touching something like this. More like, 150-200+ people paying that amount. Maybe. (I mean, if we're talking about money, taxes and all that...) Anything less is the translator letting themselves be exploited. (Which is no problem if someone is OK with that, but...)

[Makers_F]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

And as someone who happens to translate on the side, the price of the book (~1500 yen) is nowhere near the amount for which I would even consider touching something like this. More like, 150-200+ people paying that amount. Maybe. (I mean, if we're talking about money, taxes and all that...) Anything less is the translator letting themselves be exploited. (Which is no problem if someone is OK with that, but...)

Yeah, i imagined it(and actually i though that it would need far more than 200 people baking the project), that's why crow founding come to mind(i think no one can invest the money to hire a translator for a big novel only for him/her alone). I intended it more like a donation sprint like it happens sometimes in open sources software projects, where a bit of money are raised to help a volunteer developer (or team) to dedicate more time to the development of a feature and finish it.(it is never as high as needed to pay a full time developer/team, since you are helping someone that otherwise would do it on his/her free time. You are "just" paying to speed up the process)

That would just be 300yen/page, i would expect it to cost much more.

I thought about the copyright problems too, but hey, i just proposed a way to make you understand what i meant, that doesn't have to be specifically that way!

Well, that's too bad! This is the first time an anime make me want to read the its paper parent.. But it took me several years to learn English as i now it now, i don't think i can learn Japanese well enough to read a 1000 pages novel in less time.. Moreover it also has a different alphabet :/
I really hope an editor will put a bet on this work. If i'm not mistaking, Amazon already sell a translated work from this author, so maybe it will decide to translate it and sell it too. Who knows, hope dies last!

[kuromitsu]

Maybe if the anime generates enough interest (it's really not the huge, fan-favorite type show, but maybe it can garner enough fan attention and positive opinion) a publisher will decide it would be worth gettting it translated and published?

Viz has its Haikasoru division which publishes Japanese hard SF/grittier type fantasy/suchlike in English (they released Yukikaze & Good Luck Yukikaze by Kambayashi Chouhei, and Ubume no natsu & Loups-Garous by Kyougoku Natsuhiko, among others), and Shinsekai yori might just be up their street... I don't know how active they are, but I think it's worth bringing it to their attention.

[Xiammes]

Hey guys, just to let you know, publisher Vertical is interested in tackling SSY novel, but they need to know if the fans are interested in it.

http://vertical-inc.tumblr.com/post/...ld-translation

[kuromitsu]

"Oh and one more thing. US, UK and Canada only. We don’t sell novels to the EU."

Wait, do they know something we don't know yet?

Anyway, boo, as someone from continental Europe, this totally excludes me. Still, good luck!

[Vito]

Viz would be very unlikely to pickup a novel by Kodansha, considering they are owned by Shueisha and Shogakukan, their competitor.

As for UK/US thing, it's probably just a licensing restriction, you'd still be able to buy the book on Amazon, Bookdepository, etc. Same as any other manga Vertical publishes. Should probably ask Ed on twitter what he meant by this.

[kuromitsu]

Interestingly the tumblr post seemed to emphasize that they don't sell novels to the EU... I do wonder what they meant. I'm looking at Bookdepository and they don't seem to have any restrictions on novels published by Verizon, so...

Maybe they just don't expect that there would be a significant non-North American market for the novel since it's in English, and such don't want votes from those territories to skew the results?

Anyway, it's just funny that they don't sell novels to the EU only to the "US, UK and Canada." Last time I looked, the UK was still a member of the EU... (And what about Australia/etc? )

[Xiammes]

They could mean they aren't going to sell the novel to non english, speaking countries of the Eu. Non the less, they obviously have a reason, but there shouldn't be a problem if you buy through amazon.