Japanese Light Novel Book Club discussion
General Discussion
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He could say only "Konnichiha" (meaning Hello). Hollywood stars often say "Konnichiha" when they come to Japan to promote their movies. :)H. wrote: "In Secret Window, if I remember rightly, the character Mort changed from a softly spoken new england accent to a strong southern (Mississippi) accent. The reason for that being a major spoiler for the story ;-) "
That's right! You have a good memory.
Selena wrote: " For the US, we tend to translate Osakan characters to have a southern accent while other characters speak with a Midwestern accent (closest to Standard English)."
And I am interested in this. Not only Johnny Depp, It would sound funny to us that not Japanese characters spoke in Kansai dialect (Osaka dialect) or in Tohoku dialect etc, even if speaking were in dubbed movies (though people who speak in the dialect might not think so). If you contrast Standard with Dialect, you should dub a southern accent into Kansai dialect or other dialect like Selena says. But, in Secret Window, I suppose that since Japanese dialect would sound funny, the translator dubbed a southern accent into Standard Japanese but a rough way of speaking (or I wonder if a southern accent gives people rough or aggressive impression).
Yes, I can understand that a dub of non-Japanese people speaking in different Japanese accents would feel weird. The opposite would feel weird to me too. Perhaps I don't notice it in English dubs so much because they are all American accents which still feel appropriately different.Fanta wrote: "I wonder if a southern accent gives people rough or aggressive impression"
For me, the impression of an American southern accent is still dependent on class. There is the image of the suave gentleman or beautiful southern Belle. Then, there is a lower class image of the hillbilly which is certainly rough and aggressive. Perhaps, being the horror writer that he is, Stephen King was trying to give the character a 'Deliverance' feel.
Of course now we are getting into stereotypes....
From Another's thread, when I saw Selena's "heads cut off" editing, I thought big eyes might look like a LN's, manga's, or anime's character. Some says that Japanese draw big eyes and don't draw a nose in detail. I come to think so when I see Lisa Mantchev's covers that Selena told. Characters in her covers are more real than Japanese, though their hair colors could be like a fantasy.
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Smily Japan ^_^
Smily US: :)
Versus
Sad Japan: TT_TT
Sad US: :(
For US covers, the eyes aren't important, so they get cut off. There's actually a whole list devoted to covers where the head gets cut off called Dude, Where's My Forehead?. Interestingly enough, it seems to happen more with female models than male.
Very interesting. Doesn't everyone else think eyes are important too? In Japan, some women make their eyes big by cosmetic surgery, and also recently purikura makes people's eyes big (purikura is a machine that takes people's pictures and produce them as stickers, especially teenagers use). I think Japanese care about eyes.
Selena wrote: "For US covers, the eyes aren't important, so they get cut off. There's actually a whole list devoted to covers where the head gets cut off called Dude, Where's My Forehead?. Interestingly enough, it seems to happen more with female models than male. "Good, then they can't give me the evil eye while sitting on my table. /joking
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I wonder what started the headless trend in book covers? I know the "Black cover with one thing on it" was started by everything trying to look/be Twilight, but what caused the no eyes/face/head?
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They don't really say why these are trends, but it does show the ones that are trends right now.
http://www.stackedbooks.org/2014/12/2...
http://www.stackedbooks.org/2014/12/2...
Selena wrote: "Looked up book cover trends and came across this for 2015!They don't really say why these are trends, but it does show the ones that are trends right now.
http://www.stackedbooks.org/2014/12/201..."
Argh, a whole category of eyes, all staring...
If the cover is reflective of the content, then maybe it's also the themes that are trending.
I looked at summaries of three of the bird cover novels. The bird symbolism seems to be about freedom or escape in each case. The characters are all trapped by something (illness, curses, personal angst) then they break free, they find peace. That's just a guess. What do you think?
Evil eye ...(Though I mention an irrelevant thing, words of Evil eye sounds cool to me because of mangas, YuYu Hakusho and GetBackers. I think Evil eye is mysterious, horrible, and fascinated legends abroad.)
H. wrote: "I looked at summaries of three of the bird cover novels. The bird symbolism seems to be about freedom or escape in each case. The characters are all trapped by something (illness, curses, personal..."
I think so similarly. Especially when I see birds and large sky and a female on covers, I imagine she wants to escape from hardship and the story would be like it (protagonists are usually female, aren't they? And also we often say "tori kago no tori" or "kago no naka no tori" meaning "a bird in the cage"). I don't know whether the end would be happy or not, though...
When I saw "one's back to the reader" covers on the link, suddenly I wondered if the author wanted to make the reader feel as if she were the protagonist.
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I'm still convinced that part of it is that the publishers don't have to pay as much if you can't see the model's face.
There's also the fact that the human eye is naturally drawn to faces, so maybe cover designers don't want to distract from the rest of the cover? Though, I've seen plenty of book covers that only show the person with no face and not much else on the cover, so I'm not sure.
I've also seen the explanation of "not forcing an image of your character onto your readers," but this one makes me go "then don't have a picture of your character on the cover!" rather than make me understand the idea of them chopping off the face/head.
Selena wrote: "Fanta wrote: "When I saw "one's back to the reader" covers on the link, suddenly I wondered if the author wanted to make the reader feel as if she were the protagonist."I'm still convinced that p..."
I agree that it's most likely cost related. So many things are.
I wonder how much it costs to create a photographic cover with the model. I guess it might be high because you have to pay the photographer and the model(s). Some authors could take a picture by themselves and ask their friends to be a model with no charge, though. By any chance, do they use free materials on the Internet?Selena wrote: "I've also seen the explanation of "not forcing an image of your character onto your readers," "
Is it because some people say, "It's not my image!"? But it would not be avoidable if the novel changed to a TV drama or a movie.
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I always liked the Osakan accent being translated into various New England accents myself.Fanta wrote: "Evil eye"
Eye is the coolest robot/demon/cursed body part, this is pretty much universally agreed upon not just because you watch anime/read manga.
At least most LN covers have the decency to get basic things about the characters right. I can name book after book that has the main character in an outfit they are never in...with a physical look that's wayyyy off from the description in the actual book. Or with spaceships that look nothing like what is described in the book(the ones on the cover look way cooler though).
As far as changing art styles I am saddened that the Overlord anime when it comes out will not have the same heavily stylized art style the light novel had just because I know that nobody would know how to animate it well.
I guess that the reason anime is not as heavy as a LN regarding art is that anime is unprofitable (I may misunderstand meaning of art styles). LNs' anime usually are broadcast late at night, so only a few audience watches them (in short, makers earn little money with advertisements). Plus, everyone doesn't buy DVDs and Blu-rays, I've heard.
Your talking about budget and while that comes into play I would almost look at some of the art work for overlord it's very not anime or even western it is it's own thing. So while that works fine in single pictures when you try to put it in motion it would require lots of experimentation with new animation techniques and it's questionable if it would even look good so it isn't going to happen.Basically every studio lately except Ufotable you can see cut corners everywhere on where they spend their budget. Some shows such as David Productions's Jojo's cut budget in a way that it actually enhances the style and feel of the show rather then taking away from it. Shaft and Trigger are probably the 2 most consistent studios of being very good on a tight budget.
You're quite familiar with Japanese anime companies, and when I wrote "Japanese anime companies", I remembered hearing that they asked other Asian countries to make part of anime (for example, China, Korea, Taiwan, etc). And then I thought about own anime in those countries, though I don't know if there are some. Not only anime, I wonder if there are own Light Novels except Japan. (I wonder if no company does business because the market is small.)
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Some books that have covers like LNs are on Fictionpress or Wattpad which everyone here has told me before. I guess the authors like LNs. Do publishers like LNs? If LNs sell well, they could like them, I guess.
Aaron wrote: "Your talking about budget and while that comes into play I would almost look at some of the art work for overlord it's very not anime or even western it is it's own thing. So while that works fine..."Fate/Stay Night UBW = Unlimited Budget Works.
And then there's this:
Guess who are the important characters? Yeah Ikuhara saving animation budget like a boss.
(anime: Mawaru Penguindrum, studio: Brain's Base)
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I feel like there's been a rise in novellas recently, especially ones related to already popular series, but I'm not sure about LNs. I haven't seen anything that particularly resembles LNs besides some of the self-published stuff.
I know that translating them is far more expensive than translating manga because there's much more text to translate, but Yen Press must find them successful since they keep bringing them over.
Parker wrote: "Aaron wrote: "Your talking about budget and while that comes into play I would almost look at some of the art work for overlord it's very not anime or even western it is it's own thing. So while t..."Then we have that Bakemonogatari episodes that had what 7? frames of original animation during the original TV release.
Aaron wrote: "Then we have that Bakemonogatari episodes that had what 7? frames of original animation during the original TV release. "SHAFT spent too much money on drawing all those black and white frames between scenes. lols
This brings me to one reason why I like anime movies. They usually have big budgets. The Nanoha and Madoka Magica movies come to mind. Every single frame in Rebellion was beautiful.
Speaking of anime movies, aren't STUDIO GHIBLI popular here? By any chance, aren't their works as famous as other anime movies?Selena wrote: "I know that translating them is far more expensive than translating manga because there's much more text to translate, "
I'm translating my novel from Japanese to English now, and I think translating is very hard. "How can I write these words or expression in English?" I think many many times, and spend much time to search on the Internet. I wish there were an easy way (though I know there is only a way: much reading and much writing). :)
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If ever you need help translating something, you're welcome to start a thread for it here and we could all try. :) I minored in Japanese, and I know there's another member who's even more fluent than I am.
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I'm going to celebrate by petting my black cat. :)
I didn't even realized.I knew today was pi day though
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What's the title that makes you want to read its story by just looking at it?Mine are as follows.
Klein bottle: I knew Klein bottle, and this was the title of a mystery novel, so I was attracted.
And Then There Were None: Both the English title and the Japanese title are cool.
Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson: I've never read this, which isn't a novel. But the combination of Beelzebub and Grandson is interesting.
The Cold Equations: I've never read this too (though I had the spoiler), I want to read it someday.
This is all I can remember now. Maybe I am interested in a combination of words that are unrelated or contrary.
I'm aware that it was April Fool's day yesterday.Are there any characteristics of Japanese novels (not limited to Light Novels)? For example, the description is shorter or longer than western novels, the story moves slowly or quickly. I want to know them if there are.
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I wouldn't say there's anything in particular that separates Japanese novels from American ones... At least, none I can think of.
I know many of the Japanese novels I've read tend to have more poetic language, but that could just be the translation rather than original text. Japanese novels tend to have shorter paragraphs than American ones, too, in my experience, but again, it could just be the ones I read.
I guess the difference really stems from content rather than writing. Japanese novels tend to use different tropes and archetypes than American novels. For example, light novels focusing on students actually have them at school for chunks of the book and have things happen at school.
If Another were written in the US, there'd probably be 75% less time spent in school.
You really seem to enjoy your April Fool's Day. XDSelena wrote: "For example, light novels focusing on students actually have them at school for chunks of the book and have things happen at school.
If Another were written in the US, there'd probably be 75% less time spent in school. "
When you read such a Japanese novel, do you wonder, "Why does this book write things in school so much?"
Most light novels are written/edited serially. This produces a different flow. It also produces more variety in quality.
As you say, it may be characteristics of light novels. Generally each story of other Japanese novels ends in the book, though they were written serially too when they were in magazines. Serially publishing of light novels look like manga's way.
I know that you write in italics, in bold types or in capitals when you want to emphasize words (for example, example, example, EXAMPLE). Are they different? Do they give each impression?
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All capitals isn't used much, though, since it gives the impression of shouting, especially in the age of the internet.
I'd have to look up what the difference is... I'll look it up later.
Thank you.Selena wrote: "it gives the impression of shouting, especially in the age of the internet."
I often see capitals at terms of service, so I think the part is most important. Also Goodreads' terms have capital parts.
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Selena wrote: "it gives the impression of shouting, especially in the age of the internet."
I often see capitals at terms of service, so I think the part is most important. Also Goodre..."
That's because legal documents often use them to separate sections as well.
It's complicated.
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Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8b68vt2ldy... (PC) or here https://www.dropbox.com/s/8q6nxuud3oz... (Mac)
And please fill out this questionare: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1_r9h...
Hope you guys enjoy it. :D
Selena wrote: "Could you guys do me a favor? We need play testers for a game we created for a class.Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8b68vt2ldy... (PC) or here https://www..."
I'll be happy to play this game and fill out the questionnaire tomorrow. It's my dad's birthday today, so I'm not gonna get home until really late. Hope that's okay.
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I played it a little, but I died so early that I can't answer the questionnaire. Please let me know:How can I kill normal adversaries?
Though I shoot them, they wouldn't die and just I die.
Can't I choose other weapons except Standard Gun and Speed Gun?
Though I chose Long Gun, etc at the Menu, but I have Standard and Speed when the game start.
Are these because of my environment?
Selena wrote: "Could you guys do me a favor? We need play testers for a game we created for a class.Download it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8b68vt2ldy... (PC) or here https://www..."
Wow! I'm impressed. Bullets seem to go everywhere though, inherent some side velocity from you. dunno if that was intentional or not. Also, make it so I know when I'm actually damaging enemies.
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@Parker: I'll let my group mate who made the guns shoot about the side velocity. Did you fill out the questionnaire with your comments about knowing when you damage enemies?
I got it. Once I start the game, the settings of guns and difficulty that I chose at first remain till I close the game. This time I killed the boss at the hardest difficulty. I feared enemies with long gun than boss. XD I'll answer the questionnaire.By the way, where are the first settings of window size, windowed or not, etc saved? I deleted the unzipped file on my computer, and then unzipped the file again and started the game, the first settings of window size, etc remained. Are they saved somewhere on local computer?
Just finished the questionnaire. I'm not much of a gamer these days, but I hope I was able to help a bit.
Japanese Light Novel Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
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I can't imagine Johnny Depp speaking Japanese. I'd love..."
Well, dubbed anyway.