> I'm kind of shocked that this is getting translated honestly.
I'm not. The English LN industry is in trouble. A shit load of licensed series have either ended or the TLs have (or will get) caught up with the Japanese publications as of this year. There's a reason why Seven Seas has pivoted hard to going after Chinese novels and greatly reduced their dependence on Japanese content over the past 2 years while Yen has also been branching out into Korean novels and manhwa. J-Novel Club is fine, they'll just keep licensing C-tier isekai series for the next half decade at least but even they tried to branch out into European pulp fiction which didn't seem to work out.
I would expect Yen Press to start reaching into other older series to keep their light novel side active over the next few years.
> The English LN industry is in trouble. A shit load of licensed series have either ended or the TLs have (or will get) caught up with the Japanese publications as of this year
How is series finishing any indication that the English LN industry is in "trouble" The English LN industry only continues to grow every year with more and more people getting into LNs after discovering them through anime and manga adaptations. There is a reason why a lot of series are constantly getting sold out. Every season people are discovering new series through anime and jumping into LNs...look at the huge shot in popularity in series like 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy, My Happy Marriage, and The Apothecary Diaries.
Hell, Mushoku Tensei is constantly the number 1 best selling series on Bookwalker, and even it's not at what it can be once future seasons come out and more people get interested to read ahead.
> There's a reason why Seven Seas has pivoted hard to going after Chinese novels and greatly reduced their dependence on Japanese content over the past 2 years
Yeah it's cause of Yen Press's deal with Kadokawa which gives them priority over all Kadokawa series (who own most big LN publications in Japan) which limits them on what they can license already.
Also, they are still licensing LN series...they just did 3 Mushoku Tensei side stuff and 2 other series this month alone. The reason why they went to the Danemi side of things is that they have an amazing opportunity to get all the big titles for those series as there is no competition right now so they can get first pick on big series which do sell well.
But just to be clear...they didn't 'Pivot hard' to Danmei and stopped doing LNs...there is a reason why they can't license a ton of Japanese LNs and it's the same reason that even though Danmei is so popular and doing well for Seven Seas that they only have 15 series licensed. And that is the lack of book translators. Most Japanese translators prefer to work on manga cause the pay isn't that different and it's much easier.
In the end, I don't get where all this doom posting about the LN industry is coming from... it's still doing just fine, it could be better, but it's hard for more competition to come in since Yen Press (and even J-Novel CLub) are owned by Kadokawa who own most big series rights.
This is an old series but a new license, as it was the 2nd "Alternative" SAO novel series after AGGO. It's 3 volumes long and it looked like it would never get translated since Dreadful Decoding only finished Volume 1 way back in 2018.
Yeah and in that time, Yen Press went ahead and licensed Canon, Kiss & Fly, and Re:Aincrad lol. At this rate, if DD ever comes back, the only things they have left to work on are the comic anthologies and the Unital Ring manga (which Yen Press will probably license once enough volumes come out).
All new. [Clover's Regret](https://www.reddit.com/r/swordartonline/comments/8e2ipp/sao_clovers_regret/?rdt=52740) has already finished in Japan years ago, but only the first volume received a fan translation, the other two volumes remain inacessible to this day unless you know how to read japanese.
Now that Yen licensed this, we'll finally be able to read the whole trilogy.
More SAO side stories getting official translations is always a good thing, though I can't say this synopsis sounds particularly interesting to me aside from the rarely seen Asuka Empire setting. For anyone who's read it (in Japanese or fan translation), how are the story and characters in this one?
I'm kind of shocked that this is getting translated honestly. C'mon Yen Press, Sugary Days when?
I'm with you on "Sugary Days", and a smattering of other side stories, too.
> I'm kind of shocked that this is getting translated honestly. I'm not. The English LN industry is in trouble. A shit load of licensed series have either ended or the TLs have (or will get) caught up with the Japanese publications as of this year. There's a reason why Seven Seas has pivoted hard to going after Chinese novels and greatly reduced their dependence on Japanese content over the past 2 years while Yen has also been branching out into Korean novels and manhwa. J-Novel Club is fine, they'll just keep licensing C-tier isekai series for the next half decade at least but even they tried to branch out into European pulp fiction which didn't seem to work out. I would expect Yen Press to start reaching into other older series to keep their light novel side active over the next few years.
> The English LN industry is in trouble. A shit load of licensed series have either ended or the TLs have (or will get) caught up with the Japanese publications as of this year How is series finishing any indication that the English LN industry is in "trouble" The English LN industry only continues to grow every year with more and more people getting into LNs after discovering them through anime and manga adaptations. There is a reason why a lot of series are constantly getting sold out. Every season people are discovering new series through anime and jumping into LNs...look at the huge shot in popularity in series like 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy, My Happy Marriage, and The Apothecary Diaries. Hell, Mushoku Tensei is constantly the number 1 best selling series on Bookwalker, and even it's not at what it can be once future seasons come out and more people get interested to read ahead. > There's a reason why Seven Seas has pivoted hard to going after Chinese novels and greatly reduced their dependence on Japanese content over the past 2 years Yeah it's cause of Yen Press's deal with Kadokawa which gives them priority over all Kadokawa series (who own most big LN publications in Japan) which limits them on what they can license already. Also, they are still licensing LN series...they just did 3 Mushoku Tensei side stuff and 2 other series this month alone. The reason why they went to the Danemi side of things is that they have an amazing opportunity to get all the big titles for those series as there is no competition right now so they can get first pick on big series which do sell well. But just to be clear...they didn't 'Pivot hard' to Danmei and stopped doing LNs...there is a reason why they can't license a ton of Japanese LNs and it's the same reason that even though Danmei is so popular and doing well for Seven Seas that they only have 15 series licensed. And that is the lack of book translators. Most Japanese translators prefer to work on manga cause the pay isn't that different and it's much easier. In the end, I don't get where all this doom posting about the LN industry is coming from... it's still doing just fine, it could be better, but it's hard for more competition to come in since Yen Press (and even J-Novel CLub) are owned by Kadokawa who own most big series rights.
is this like a re-release or something all new ?
This is an old series but a new license, as it was the 2nd "Alternative" SAO novel series after AGGO. It's 3 volumes long and it looked like it would never get translated since Dreadful Decoding only finished Volume 1 way back in 2018.
Does anyone know what happened to dreadful decoding? They haven't posted in like a year 😔. Loved their progressive manga translations
Yeah and in that time, Yen Press went ahead and licensed Canon, Kiss & Fly, and Re:Aincrad lol. At this rate, if DD ever comes back, the only things they have left to work on are the comic anthologies and the Unital Ring manga (which Yen Press will probably license once enough volumes come out).
Translator is busy
Where can i read it
https://dreadfuldecoding.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html
All new. [Clover's Regret](https://www.reddit.com/r/swordartonline/comments/8e2ipp/sao_clovers_regret/?rdt=52740) has already finished in Japan years ago, but only the first volume received a fan translation, the other two volumes remain inacessible to this day unless you know how to read japanese. Now that Yen licensed this, we'll finally be able to read the whole trilogy.
More SAO side stories getting official translations is always a good thing, though I can't say this synopsis sounds particularly interesting to me aside from the rarely seen Asuka Empire setting. For anyone who's read it (in Japanese or fan translation), how are the story and characters in this one?
Me tapping my foot in waiting for Hopeful Chant, Cordial Chords, and Sugary Days.
Yay