Anybody have random questions for Sekai Project?

[Fred the Barber]

I'm at Sakura-Con this weekend, and there are 3 Sekai Project people manning a booth. They seem to get about 1 person walking by every 15 minutes, and mostly seem bored and chat amongst themselves, so I've been keeping them company / pestering them.

 

I learned two interesting things so far:

- They're planning to release the World End Economica OST, eventually, but can't yet because they're still waiting on the assets (unlike the VN release, where they're just behind on translation). It seems they're planning both physical media and a Steam release. When I asked where they'd sell the physical media, the response was (paraphrased): "Well, at Cons. And we're planning on making our own online store, eventually. Or maybe through Amazon." Clearly not a settled topic, but at least it's on their radar.

- They're very tentatively looking at getting into licensing and translating Light Novels.

 

They are very eager for feedback on what to do next, both regarding which VNs to license next, and whether there's sufficient interest in Light Novels to try going down that road (and, if so, which ones, presumably).

 

I honestly think light novels are the best area for potential expansion for a company like them. The potential market for LNs is waaaaay larger than the market for VNs, yet the only person playing in that market at all right now is Yen Press. While Yen Press does seem to be slowly expanding their licensing list, it doesn't seem like they're really trying to sell anything outside of the otaku niche, which I think is a huge lost opportunity. I don't think there's anything (except maybe ecchi content...) preventing light novels from really taking off in the US. Moreover, Sekai Project is now picking up the necessary connections to license this kind of stuff; as an example they cited, Isuna Hasekura is apparently working on a LN version of World End Economica. The Sekai Project guys are clearly thinking this would be a great opportunity for them to get into that market.

 

Anyway, the point is, if you're got suggestions, random questions, etc., for Sekai Project but didn't feel like going to them directly for any reason, I've got their ear right now and will happily play messenger.

[Yuuko]

I agree with you that light novels might be good idea.

Someone (for example Sekai project) really should start licensing light novels. It hurts my eyes when I'm reading light novels from baka-tsuki on my laptop. I would definitely buy a paper version if possible.

[Heizei_koukousei]

Ask them if they have enough funds to consider licensing Angel Beats any time in the near future

[Darklord Rooke]

Light novels have been licensed by companies before and not many people buy them. I honestly think it'd be a waste of time and resources.

[Fred the Barber]

Thanks, guys - I doubt they'll say anything other than "it's a possibility" on the Angel Beats! question, but I'll ask it.

 

 

Light novels have been licensed by companies before and not many people buy them. I honestly think it'd be a waste of time and resources.

[Fred the Barber]

Also: keep questions/comments/feedback coming, and I'll keep taking it to them. Sekai Project is also doing a panel presentation Saturday night, so I'll post it to Fuwa if they announce anything interesting there.

[solidbatman]

I'm curious as to how profitable things are for them after a kickstarter. My biggest worry with Grisaia and Clannad, is that all the people who wanted it, kickstarted it for a copy, and upon release, we won't see many sales. Is this a concern of theirs or what are their thoughts on this concern of mine?

[Deep Blue]

I have one:

 

What happened with the translation of the novel was? it's the release time and they haven't updated the kickstarter campaign since February -.-

[Fred the Barber]

Got answers for everything so far; keep suggestions and questions coming, and I'll keep relaying

 

I have one:

 

What happened with the translation of the novel was? it's the release time and they haven't updated the kickstarter campaign since February -.-

 

He hinted there will be some news about this at their Sakura-con panel tomorrow night, and promised that there will be a Kickstarter update very soon.

 

I'm curious as to how profitable things are for them after a kickstarter. My biggest worry with Grisaia and Clannad, is that all the people who wanted it, kickstarted it for a copy, and upon release, we won't see many sales. Is this a concern of theirs or what are their thoughts on this concern of mine?

 

Got a kind of boring, but understandable, answer: they don't know yet because none of their games that were initially funded through Kickstarter has yet been released (note that though there was a WEE Kickstarter, that was only episodes 2 and 3; 1 was funded through Steam Greenlight, IIRC).

 

 

Ask them if they have enough funds to consider licensing Angel Beats any time in the near future

 

This one got a very interesting response: "That's entirely up to Key". My interpretation was that they're already very interested and probably even already voiced their interest to Key, and the ball's in Key's court.

[Karakkan]

- They're very tentatively looking at getting into licensing and translating Light Novels.

 

If they can somehow obtain the rights to Fate/Apocrypha or Fate/Strange Fake, I will throw all of the money I can possibly get my hands on at them.

[solidbatman]

Let me clarify my question then. Obviously, I know they won't give a doom and gloom answer, but what sort of expectations do they have for those two releases in particular (Grisaia and Clannad) and do they feel the majority of people who wanted them already funded it for a copy? What would they consider a successful release?

[Darklord Rooke]

 

I tend to think of Light Novels as the Japanese equivalent of Young Adult fiction. There are things which make them not completely parallel, of course (wide prevalence of ecchi content in LNs being the big one that comes to mind), but I think they're mostly very similar. And Young Adult fiction is a huge market, at least in the US - consider 

 

While they are the equivalent of US young adult fiction, that in no way means it should be as popular. There's many reasons for this.

 

Plenty of older adults read young adult fiction, mainly because the speculative fiction genre has become a bit serious and the young adult genre offers more opportunities for pure, escapist entertainment. They won't read LNs because of the next point.

 

The writing techniques in light novels are fairly different to the writing techniques in most young adult. They have more emphasis on telling, and contain far more modifying words. In fact, the techniques in a lot of Japanese LNs and VNs are associated with "bad technique" in the western world. The older a person gets the more discerning they are, so there's very little chance of light novels selling to older people like young adult novels do, and the normal reader base shrinks enormously because of this. I've got Harry Potter in front of me and am comparing them to some LN's, and Rowling's books read a lot more naturally. In fact, I've got translated Russian books which read far more naturally than some of the LN's I have.

 

I don't think it's a case of poor marketing, the anime and manga fanbase is actually quite large. Yet despite the size of the anime and manga fanbase the LN industry is pretty tiny I believe. For genre fiction writing style is important, and most LNs read very unnaturally in english.

[Deep Blue]

Thanks fred for asking

[Fred the Barber]

 

 

 

While they are the equivalent of US young adult fiction, that in no way means it should be as popular. There's many reasons for this.

 

Plenty of older adults read young adult fiction, mainly because the speculative fiction genre has become a bit serious and the young adult genre offers more opportunities for pure, escapist entertainment. They won't read LNs because of the next point.

 

The writing techniques in light novels are fairly different to the writing techniques in most young adult. They have more emphasis on telling, and contain far more modifying words. In fact, the techniques in a lot of Japanese LNs and VNs are associated with "bad technique" in the western world. The older a person gets the more discerning they are, so there's very little chance of light novels selling to older people like young adult novels do, and the normal reader base shrinks enormously because of this. I've got Harry Potter in front of me and am comparing them to some LN's, and Rowling's books read a lot more naturally. In fact, I've got translated Russian books which read far more naturally than some of the LN's I have.

 

I don't think it's a case of poor marketing, the anime and manga fanbase is actually quite large. Yet despite the size of the anime and manga fanbase the LN industry is pretty tiny I believe. For genre fiction writing style is important, and most LNs read very unnaturally in english.

 

 

Harry Potter was a bad example on my part, being actually pretty well-written. However, there are ample examples of ridiculously high-selling but objectively not well-written Young Adult books that can be pointed at in its place. I haven't read any of these myself (so, yes, this is unfair; but I'm not a book critic, and my time is precious to me...), so I'm obviously just quoting others' opinion, but: Twilight. The Hunger Games. More recently, Divergence. From all the accounts I've heard, these are not well-written, not deep, not meaningful. And, by the way, that's fine - they're still enjoyable for a whole lot of people.

 

I simply think it's doubtful that everything on this list is so far better-written than hypothetical translations of everything on this list that those hypothetical translations wouldn't even be monetarily viable in the US. If I'm right, there's probably a great deal of money to be made by translating the latter into English and by doing the necessary work to pitch them to the same market that's consuming young adult fiction, rather than to the pathetically small light novel market.

[miria]

 

not know why but i hate sekai project  reason is slow   translations  for pro  translations  its not  tolerated !!!

fuking noobs!!!!!!!

 

[Yuuko]

 

 

not know why but i hate sekai project  reason is slow   translations  for pro  translations  its not  tolerated !!!

fuking noobs!!!!!!!

 

Okay then bro. If I were you I would appreciate their work so you can read VNs in English

[astro]

I'm at Sakura-Con this weekend, and there are 3 Sekai Project people manning a booth. They seem to get about 1 person walking by every 15 minutes, and mostly seem bored and chat amongst themselves, so I've been keeping them company / pestering them.

 

Oh, I didn't see this until now. You probably saw me then. Lol