Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei novels have been licensed by Yen Press

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Funny. I thought I was on Animesuki. Not on MAL.

Anyway, I've read quite a few things from Yen Press and they've got honorifics intact. Is it just an LN thing?

It may depend on the LN? I know honorifics in Spice and Wolf would make no sense, because....European-style society.

[Athena]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Anyway, I've read quite a few things from Yen Press and they've got honorifics intact. Is it just an LN thing?

Eh, I didn't see any Japanese original honorific.

[Sakuratsuki]

Originally Posted by MCAL

Funny. I thought I was on Animesuki. Not on MAL.

Anyway, I've read quite a few things from Yen Press and they've got honorifics intact. Is it just an LN thing?

Actually I bought Accel world and SAO recently (yen press) and I didn't find any honorifics in their translation. So I assume they don't use it at all.

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by Sakura_Tsuki

Actually I bought Accel world and SAO recently (yen press) and I didn't find any honorifics in their translation. So I assume they don't use it at all.

Could he mean honorifics in the manga, then?

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by RaymondSageClark

Oh, so I pay for the LN and you pay for shipping and stuff like that, deal?.

The Book Depository offers free shipping worldwide.

Seriously you think is easy spend a lot of money to buy the LN when for some people the cost is high?, think about it.

I'm not made of money either, but I support the authors I like, either by buying English editions when they become available (and I even petition publishers to pick up my favorite series), or by importing copies from Japan. If you're not willing to do one or the other, you're just leaching and have no business complaining when you get cut off.

[RaymondSageClark]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

The Book Depository offers free shipping worldwide.




I'm not made of money either, but I support the authors I like, either by buying English editions when they become available (and I even petition publishers to pick up my favorite series), or by importing copies from Japan. If you're not willing to do one or the other, you're just leaching and have no business complaining when you get cut off.

About the link, that only works for some random titles so is not a reference.

Also I spend more than $600 + other $100 (shipping) on Kawakami's works and that is why I said this is expensive even if I had a work and money to spend.

[Sakuratsuki]

Originally Posted by Rasen

Could he mean honorifics in the manga, then?

Sorry, my mistake he did mean the manga . So, probably it's indeed a light novel only thing like he said. A certain magical index, SAO, Accel world novels of Yen press don't have honorifics either but I heard reports about that the mangas of Yen Press do use honorifics. That's a pity I can't understand why they choose to do that? Especially because the use of honorifics are part of the Japanese culture and they tell you the relationship between some characters.

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by Sakura_Tsuki

Sorry, my mistake he did mean the manga . So, probably it's indeed a light novel only thing like he said. A certain magical index, SAO, Accel world don't use honorifics either but I heard reports about that the mangas of Yen Press do use the honorifics. That's a pity I can't understand why they choose to do that?

It's weird, but possibly due to the audiences.

People who read manga are already used to reading from right to left, probably are more tolerant and aware of Japanese culture and things like honorifics.

But light novels might be more of a toss-up? It reaches out to people who may initially dismiss manga as kiddie stuff, but are willing to try a book with the occasional art.

[LKK]

Originally Posted by Sakura_Tsuki

That's a pity I can't understand why they choose to do that? Especially because the use of honorifics are part of the Japanese culture and they tell you the relationship between some characters.

When Tokyopop was still in the business of publishing novels, they didn't include honorifics either. Their explanation at the time was that the mainstream book industry as a whole doesn't include honorifics and since TP was trying to break into mainstream book industry, they didn't want to do anything that would hurt their efforts. Yen Press probably feels the same way. I personally don't agree with the policy. I think book readers could learn honorifics just as we did.

I've often wanted to check out some of the Japanese novels that have been brought over to the US outside of the manga publishing industry to see if they have honorifics. I bet they don't. My guess is the general readership doesn't realize what they're missing by not having honorifics. We miss it because we've been educated as to the importance of honorifics in Japanese culture. But I doubt that knowledge extends very far.

[ProxyAccount]

Originally Posted by RaymondSageClark

About the link, that only works for some random titles so is not a reference.

Also I spend more than $600 + other $100 (shipping) on Kawakami's works and that is why I said this is expensive even if I had a work and money to spend.

You can buy all 15 MKnR novels + international shipping for under $100 at Amazon Japan. New. That's a good deal, even when compared to buying regular English novels at Amazon.

Let's be frank, fan-translation will continue until the publisher catches up. It might not have the level of exposure and support that the BT effors had, but it will continue. This will particularly be the case as soon as the anime is licensed in the US. When that happens, it will be to Yen Press's advantage to put translation efforts into overdrive. If not, they'll just lose sales as the anime's popularity fades away. At least until the next series is produced and licensed. [fingers crossed]

Originally Posted by LKK

When Tokyopop was still in the business of publishing novels, they didn't include honorifics either. Their explanation at the time was that the mainstream book industry as a whole doesn't include honorifics and since TP was trying to break into mainstream book industry, they didn't want to do anything that would hurt their efforts. Yen Press probably feels the same way. I personally don't agree with the policy. I think book readers could learn honorifics just as we did.

I've often wanted to check out some of the Japanese novels that have been brought over to the US outside of the manga publishing industry to see if they have honorifics. I bet they don't. My guess is the general readership doesn't realize what they're missing by not having honorifics. We miss it because we've been educated as to the importance of honorifics in Japanese culture. But I doubt that knowledge extends very far.

And I understand it as well. However, anime has a subculture. There is such a thing as making too mainstream of a product. With the exception of a few product lines, much of anime will remain a mostly niche product (albeit a sizable niche). Removing too many elements that make it unique to the subculture might be counterproductive from a marketing standpoint.

[bietchie11]

Hey, good thing is that i have back up my mahouka stuffs.

Short story, only Leo, Myuki and Mayumi's one. Can be found on this forum. Can somebody find it?

[Echizen777]

Originally Posted by bietchie11

Hey, good thing is that i have back up my mahouka stuffs.

Short story, only Leo, Myuki and Mayumi's one. Can be found on this forum. Can somebody find it?

They are on the first page of this thread.

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by ProxyAccount

Let's be frank, fan-translation will continue until the publisher catches up. It might not have the level of exposure and support that the BT effors had, but it will continue. This will particularly be the case as soon as the anime is licensed in the US. When that happens, it will be to Yen Press's advantage to put translation efforts into overdrive. If not, they'll just lose sales as the anime's popularity fades away. At least until the next series is produced and licensed. [fingers crossed]

Mmmm, in this case, that's probably not as much of an issue as you say. Mahouka was licensed by Aniplex, the company who believes in Japanese pricing in an American market. (I'm still not sure what their strategy is: make things so expensive so that Japanese people can't get cheaper copies elsewhere, I suppose) Americans, who are used to buying entire tv seasons for $20 are much more reluctant to blow 60 on half a season of 30 minute episodes. So unfortunately, the DVD sales of the anime will never be that high.

[westmax]

for me its kinda weird to read a Japanese character calling his or her sibling "big brother or sister" its sounds like something a Chinese character would says
just try watch jutsu based combat in the English dubbed version....you might just die from embarrassment or hang yourself in frustration.

[bakato]

Originally Posted by bietchie11

Hey, good thing is that i have back up my mahouka stuffs.

Short story, only Leo, Myuki and Mayumi's one. Can be found on this forum. Can somebody find it?

Posted on the first or second page.

[Tormenk]

well I finally found the impetus to read the chinese t/l now. brb after bleeding my eyes out from reading kanji.

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by LKK

When Tokyopop was still in the business of publishing novels, they didn't include honorifics either. Their explanation at the time was that the mainstream book industry as a whole doesn't include honorifics and since TP was trying to break into mainstream book industry, they didn't want to do anything that would hurt their efforts. Yen Press probably feels the same way. I personally don't agree with the policy. I think book readers could learn honorifics just as we did.

I've often wanted to check out some of the Japanese novels that have been brought over to the US outside of the manga publishing industry to see if they have honorifics. I bet they don't. My guess is the general readership doesn't realize what they're missing by not having honorifics. We miss it because we've been educated as to the importance of honorifics in Japanese culture. But I doubt that knowledge extends very far.

Just looked through my copy of Kafka on the shore and Kokoro and they do not have honorifics despite being internationally recognized books.

Originally Posted by westmax

for me its kinda weird to read a Japanese character calling his or her sibling "big brother or sister" its sounds like something a Chinese character would says
just try watch jutsu based combat in the English dubbed version....you might just die from embarrassment or hang yourself in frustration.

Yea, japanese is just one of those languages that aren't very compatible with english. You can write something so chuuni in japanese and still be taken seriously but you sound like a retard once you translate it to english.

[DOmus]

At least I have the app of BT(dont know if its the official one) and all the volumes of MKnR are there. They have "deleted" them, but if you have downloaded them prior to that, they will still remain there to be read.

I feel this problem with the honorific will be a huge impact in the reminiscence arc, how Miyuki change they way she call hims will not sound that great if its done in the English way.

[Rasen]

Originally Posted by IceHism

Just looked through my copy of Kafka on the shore and Kokoro and they do not have honorifics despite being internationally recognized books.

What does being internationally recognized have to do with honorifics?

[IceHism]

Originally Posted by Rasen

What does being internationally recognized have to do with honorifics?

Because you would want to preserve the japanese-ness of the text as it's recognized as a big part of that country's literature?

We keep a lot of the original things about european texts for an example.