Discussion “Overlord” Light Novel Author Expresses Thoughts on Fan Translation

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by pr337k4m4197, May 26, 2019.

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  1. Syahmuda

    Syahmuda Well-Known Member

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    This is a sarcasm. The author probably delighted to know that he has a fans outside japan.
     
  2. xTachibana

    xTachibana Wincest King

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    There are only a select few companies that I would agree with you on that. But most of them merely saw the growth of anime, manga and novels in the pirate scene and made an educated guess. Namely companies like Viz (which is a subsidiary of a Japanese company), Shounen Jump, Gold Key Comics and Dark Horse Comics.

    The rest imo are no different than Qidian, they see the scene growing and make a calculated wager that even if only a small subset of people pay, in the long run they will make money.

    @Syahmuda how are you sure that it's sarcasm? I've seen both sides from creators in Japan. But typically the ones that are happy to have western fans typically just outright say it.
     
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  3. Lewisking50

    Lewisking50 Voidseeker, King of literally nothing

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    I honestly can't take this too seriously. While he probably doesn't support the fan translations, at least openly, in favor of official translations, him saying he wants to go back being an office worker sounds rather sarcastic. Him being rather burned and wanting to finish the story could be quite real tho.
     
  4. ChickenSoup

    ChickenSoup Well-Known Member

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    Well it sounds like he's making an excuse to just end the novel. But we can't really see clearly if there's any deeper meaning to what he's saying because of language barrier. Some nuances are usually lost in translation, not to mention just texting in general. So we can't really tell if it's sarcasm, joke, or else.

    He's making it sound like fan translation is cutting tons of his profit while not acknowledging that fan translation are a big part of why many LN and manga got popular outside of Japan in the first place. It's a tricky situation, fan translation is technically piracy but it also promotes mangas and LNs outside of Japan. Without fan translation, a lot of novels won't make it out of Japan unless they got big and got an anime adaptation. Some of the fan translation readers even buy the official version to support the author. Anyway, the fan that told the author of the fan translation feels a lot like the kid who reminded the teacher in school about homework, if not worse. Just my 2 cents.
     
  5. kenar

    kenar ヽ(`・ω・´)ゝ

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    oh no:notlikeblob:
     
  6. Kuro_0ni

    Kuro_0ni Cocooned in a Life transition

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    Well I guess we may see Overlord Templates being a strew if the Author decides to discontinue.

    Besides what he's built, I guess fan fictions will rise or stories similar to his will flow, if the crowd seeks more.

    ---------> With 13 volumes I'm pretty sure the Author could be hitting a writer's block. Trying to create something original is quite hard with the amount of information flowing in this age.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2019
  7. GDLiZy

    GDLiZy Wise Deepsea Mermaid

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    Pretty sure he is getting bored or running out of idea for Overlord and saw this as an opportunity to sink the ship.

    The series had been going all over the place lately that I started to feel bored by it.
     
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  8. Mount Tai Unleashed

    Mount Tai Unleashed This one has tai but can't see mount eyes

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    Ye scallywags! hear me voice!

    PIRATES ASSEMBLE!
     
  9. Junweizhu

    Junweizhu Well-Known Member

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    17th volume, that's like 4 more volumes. How many volumes did he actually want to make at first though?
     
  10. Sabruness

    Sabruness Cultured Yuri Connoisseur

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    Sounds like an excuse to end a series that, from previous posts, seems to be going downhill.
     
  11. sunnyboy

    sunnyboy Well-Known Member

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    If a fan translation is enough for a novel author to decide to end his story.. well I probably don't want to read it anyway. A pathetic excuse. I doubt he wasn't aware of a fan translation.
     
  12. NovelReaderAnonymous

    NovelReaderAnonymous Well-Known Member

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    Ya make no sense really, like its not taking away any of his readers since without the fan translation there literally won't be any english readers. The english copies probably sell way more because so many people read the fan translation and decided to support the author by buying an official copy.

    If there was no fan translation and all there was was the animes most anime viewer won't bother buying the books because the books come out so damn slow as it is. They just move on and watch another anime, mostly the novel readers who already ready so much are dedicated enough fans to be willing to spend buying the official english copies.
     
  13. Silverasterisk

    Silverasterisk [Wallflower] [Drive by poster]

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    I suspect that official companies follow the fan translations to see what's popular where.
     
  14. SenjiQ

    SenjiQ [Wise, for a Bird]

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    The internet was barely a thing in the early 2000s as far as companies were concerned. It seems more likely that they, like fan translators, looked at what was popular in Japan
     
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  15. Sephi-chama

    Sephi-chama Well-Known Member

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  16. Kuro_0ni

    Kuro_0ni Cocooned in a Life transition

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  17. Silverasterisk

    Silverasterisk [Wallflower] [Drive by poster]

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    I'm talking about now.
     
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  18. Cryarc

    Cryarc 『Procrascinating Illustrator』

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    I'm appaled at how people nowadays getting so entitled over pirated things, it's like they're believing that piracy is their right that they started shaming creators who stated their disappointment against it. They even tried to justify it like they're the messiah who saved the world and the creators have to feel gratitude towards them for pirating their works It's kind of disgusting. Have we gone this far towards the rabbit hole?

    It's not the author's fault for the lack of overseas releases, it's never their responsibility to cater for it. If you guys wanted it so much go pesters overseas publishers, not the authors. You're complaining towards the wrong person.
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2019
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  19. kenar

    kenar ヽ(`・ω・´)ゝ

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    I do agree that some people can be so entitled to pirated/free things on the internet. Though it seems that the author is more upset at the fan translation of the limited edition side story about evil eye that comes out with BD sales cmiiw. Honestly though, I don't even know that there's that story since I never visits reddit in the first place. My first reaction is "oh no! what have we done!" and genuinely afraid that author disappointed because of the translation posted on NovelUpdates (Maybe because of this too) :blobsad:
     
  20. Cryarc

    Cryarc 『Procrascinating Illustrator』

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    I honestly more upset about how the people reacting to this debacle rather than Maruyama's actual tweet though, by trying to paint themself as the savior and should be given gratitude. Should we feel proud pirating things? I think a lot of people here have been fogetting that it's actually a crime. It seems piracy for western goods also exist but at least they don't act proud of it and coming out upfront challenging the creators like our eastern counterpart. At least they are aware and acknowledged that they're in the wrong, that they can get into legal trouble by it so they're lying as low as possible. I didn't expect to stop the piracy, it's impossible; but please at least acknowledge that we're not doing a charity work and being entitled to be praised for it.
     
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