#japanese light novels

[noblesvacation]

Vote for J-Novel to translate the Gentle Noble novels!

Synopsis In the space of a blink, Prime Minister Lizel finds himself not in his office, but on a random street in an unfamiliar city. A look around quickly tells him that he is somewhere very far from home, and he’s going to need some assistance. Luckily, he runs into Gil, or “One Slash”, the strongest solo B-rank adventurer in the country, and they form a partnership that will last far longer than their initial one month contract. Gil guides Lizel on how to become an adventurer so that he can gain an ID and make a living in this new world while he waits for the people back home to find a way to get him back. Since there’s nothing Lizel himself can do, he decides to simply consider this a vacation and enjoy himself!

[asteriass]

The progression of the “Villainess” trope

Y'know, thinking about it, it's very ironic how a trope made to subvert one's expectations & give more depth to 1 dimensional villains in cliche novels by "humanizing" them more & providing their side of the story, eventually became oversaturated with cartoony villains & flat MCs. Thus, completely failing in its goal to "subvert expectations" as it too turned into mind numbing cliche, becoming the exact opposite of what the troupe initially aimed to achieved.

I am talking about "Villainess" series.

I remember seeing a twitter post a while back saying how a lot of the villainess stuff the authors & studios are putting out nowadays lack any sort of nuance when it comes to its characters. And how a lot authors simply switch the roles of the cast (Like: OG MC -> villain | OG villain -> MC) & call it a day. And I 100% agree with that.

This troupe kinda ended up becoming the dictionary definition of the saying, "You either die as a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain” lmao

What could've been an opportunity to write nuanced villains & morally ambiguous main characters, turned EXACTLY into the cliche it was pocking fun at.

In an attempt to reveal how the MCs of your typical cliche novels can also be in the wrong at times, flaws that the story & its (in-canon) fandom may purposefully ignore, the villainess stories ended up doing EXACT SAME thing EXECPT this time it's the "villains" doing it rather than the OG FL or OG ML of the “OG novel”. In an attempt to stop cliche villains from remaining cliche, while we did ended up getting slightly more nuance for the “OG villain” characters, in the process, the OG MCs turned exactly into those flat cliche villains.

Alot of villainess series poke fun at the troupes they themself use, but not in a satirical way.

So many villainess series poke fun at the OG novels for being problematic or stupid & the fandom of said novels basically ignoring its flaws & problems, only gushing over the OG FL. Which yea, is nice & all, but y'know... that's exactly what those villainess series do too. SO MANYY of them borderline have the FLs participating in literal slavery. & More often than not have a borderline colonizer ML. Not to mention the numerous which carry weird undertones of colorism, and many such other things. All the while, the fandom of these villainess series continue to ignore their glaring problems & flaws & instead just gush over the FL and ML.

And I'm not even saying this in a hating sort of way (well, aside from the series with issues of colorism, orientalism, etc). Moreover, this is all not to say that one can not enjoy such stories, because admittedly, there is indeed fun in just reading a simple and familiar story line. But this is all more me being intrigued by this trope’s almost ironic progression as companies rush their staff to produce something which they think will be able to ride the waves of the current trends, only for the vast majority to simply drown in a sea of mediocrity (with many even being canceled due to this)

[Though I mean, something as simple as villainess tropes won’t be the only one to go through this. Like a lot of Shakespearean works, a subversion of the classics & typical troupes back then, got turned into ones of those classics and by many are now considered cliche. And that's just scrapping the bottom of the barrel!]

[ahsokamaigranger]

They arrived!! They re-released the light novels and they look gorgeous! 😍

[eternal-echoes]

When you hyper fixate on a new fandom and you end up breaking your own bank.

[four-loose-screws]

FE2 Novelization Translation - Cover and Book Intro Pages

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

FE Game Script Translations - FE Novel Translations - Original FE Support Conversations

If you are interested in donating to support my work, please check out my Ko-fi here. Thank you!

———————————

New year, time for another new FE novelization translation!

2024's novel of focus is that of FE2, the original game Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia was a remake of. Enjoy reading this take on the same exact plot, ~25 years prior!

Cover

Fire Emblem Gaiden

The Zofian Liberation War

Book 1

STORY

The continent of Valentia is divided between the north and the south, as well as their beliefs in War Father Duma and Earth Mother Mila. While the Kingdom of Zofia is ruled with kindness and compassion, the Rigelian Empire believes in raising its citizens to be prepared for war. Their hostility towards each other has finally pulled them into a vicious war. Units from both sides spill each other’s blood, fighting for their god and loyalty to their homeland each and every day, with no end in sight…

The protagonists of this tale are Alm, Celica, and countless other young units. They all wish for Valentia to be unified, but differ in how they want that outcome to be reached. And so, a grand tale of love and hate is about to unfold!

-

Written by Katsuyuki Ozaki

Cover Illustration by Ichiro ?*

Cover Design by Kazuo Hiroi (WIDE)**

*T/N: I cannot find the Kanji character in this person’s last name anywhere to confirm its reading.

**T/N: First name could also be ‘Ichio’ or ‘Itsuo.’ I cannot find any record of this person online, so I cannot confirm the correct reading of their name. Their nickname is ‘WIDE’ because their last name, ‘hiroi,’ is the Japanese word for wide.

Published by Futabasha

Author’s Profile

Katsuyuki Ozaki

An up-and-coming author also working as a copywriter. His major works include “Valkyrie no Densetsu,” “F-Zero,” “Zelda II: The Adventure of Link,” and many more, all published by Futabasha. He has also written for other strategy guide series. His hobbies include golf, cars, and computer games. He is of course also passionate about Fire Emblem, and has completed all of the games so far. He poured all of his love for the series into writing these two books without rest!

Front:

Alm and Celica each set out on their own journey to forge!

This is the epic adventure of this young man and woman!!

The stage unfolds on a Valentia in chaos in this epic tale of love, blood, and war!

-

Back:

Ad for Book 2.

Ad for a Shin Megami Tensei novelization.

Color Art

A necrodragon was here. In Zofia. When she realized exactly what that meant, Celica was petrified in horror. Earth Mother Mila had lost all power over Zofia.

Title Page

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Deliverance

The Six Resurrection Pills

Alm’s Awakening

The Mysterious Girl Silque

Chapter 2: Mila’s Restoration Army

Celica Embarks on Her Journey

The Ruffian Saber

The Necrodragon’s Trial

Chapter 3: To Zofia Castle

Rescuing Clair

The Night Before Storming Zofia Castle

Cliff’s Gambit

Chapter 4: The Red Haired Woman

The Port Town Tavern

Differing Paths

Chapter 5: To Mila’s Shrine

The Sisters from Archanea

Blake, Wielder of the Shadow Sword

Royal Bloodline

Desert Army

Princess Anthiese

Chapter 6: The Newly Reborn Kingdom of Zofia

His name is Zeke

Cross-Shaped Birthmark

Collapse and Liberation

The Throne Bathed in Light

Epilogue

-

Illustrations: Ichiro ?* & Kazuo Hiroi (WIDE)**

*T/N: I cannot find the Kanji character in this person’s last name anywhere to confirm its reading.

**T/N: First name could also be ‘Ichio’ or ‘Itsuo.’ I cannot find any record of this person online, so I cannot confirm the correct reading of their name. Their nickname is ‘WIDE’ because their last name, ‘hiroi,’ is the Japanese word for wide.

Book design: Yusuke Matsuoka (NEXT)

Editing & printing: Rekkasha

Character Introductions

Alm’s Army

Robin: A Villager who grew up with Alm in Ram Village. He later transcends to become an Archer.

Silque / Shilk: A Cleric in service to the goddess Mila. She specializes in healing magic.

Cliff / Klihs: A Villager from Ram Village. He later transcends to become a Mage, specializing in long range combat magic.

Delthea: A female Mage who has fallen into Rigel’s hands by Tatarrah’s magic. She wields the Aura tome.

Luthier: He decides to join forces with Alm to lead his younger sister Delthea’s fate down a righteous path. A mage with a tragic past.

Mycen: A former unit of the Knights of Zofia, transcended to one of the highest level classes, Gold Knight.

Python: An Archer prodigy whose short-temper is as great as his skills with a bow.

Clair: A Pegasus Knight who was granted the ability to fly a pegasus by the two gods. Clive’s younger sister.

Forsyth: A soldier who’s greatest skill is his ability to calmly make decisions in the heat of battle.

Mathilda: An exceptionally talented female Cavalier. She possesses both a brave soul and bewitching beauty.

Tatiana: A Saint captured by Nuibaba. Zeke’s beloved.

Clive: A Cavalier and the leader of the young surviving units of the Knights of Zofia.

Zeke: A mysterious Gold Knight who has lost his memory. He serves Alm under Emperor Rudolf’s orders.

Lukas: A hot-blooded soldier who wields his lance like lightning.

Alm: A fighter raised by Zofia’s hero Mycen, and the protagonist of this story. He is a boy with a grand fate!

Gray: A Villager from Ram Village. He later transcends into a Cavalier.

[zer0wlet]

A very not real light novel, coming to no stores near you!!!!!!!! Featuring @mostlikelyblex 's Judith <3

[fullscoreshenanigans]

Hello friend i am so happy to know that at least one (1) person is out there still talking about Promised Neverland because I just recently fall ass backwards back into it and I am going INSANE about the Everything!!!! I’ve managed to get my hands on physical copies of the first ten volumes. Do you have any physical copies of the manga?

Heyyooo welcome back 😎🤝😎 TPNtumblr is tiny but the tradeoff is it's usually pretty chill and cozy. |3

And I do! I own all twenty volumes plus Kaiu Shirai x Posuka Demizu: Beyond The Promised Neverland with the epilogue chapter in it, along with the art book twice. I also have the blu-rays, which for the first season I think are pretty nifty for the box art alone, in addition to the interview booklet that comes with it.

In regards to merch, my favorites are probably these little Ohiruneko figures of the trio and the exhibition trio plate, but I also adore the album art of the OST, the endings of the first season, and the ending for the second season (still genuinely cannot believe that last one is real), and as a trio enthusiast for aesthetic purposes I'm very happy to own copies of the first and fourth light novels. For unofficial stuff, my small smattering of doujinshi.

[noblesvacation]

TO Books' storage cases are almost here! The perfect size for storing postcards and the special short stories that come with almost everything you can buy on TO Books Online Store! Best of all, there's space to put a postcard in the top to display!

↗ They featured a Gentle Noble postcard!

Photos from TO Books' Instagram post.

[moonchildjelly]

twisted wonderland books list

Twst. - Fan Book (Vol.1 & 2)

Twst. Official Guide Book

Twst. Official Visual Art Book (Vol. 1 to 3)

Twst. - Design Note Art Book

Twst. - Art Gallery Book (Vol. 1 & 2)

Twst. Journal Booklet (vol. 1 & 2)

Twst. Dormitory Booklet

Twst. - Comic Anthology - Admission Guide Booklet

Twst. - Anthology Comic (Vol. 1 & 2) [manga just in jp]

Twst. - The Comic Episode of Heartslabyul (Vol. 1 to 4) [manga with the 2 first books translated to eng]

Twst. - The Comic Episode of Savanaclaw (Vol. 1) [current manga realize in jp]

Twist. - The Novel Episode 1

Twst. - The Novel Episode 2

[all images are from eBay]

[bomb0some0dodongos]

Started reading chapter 2 of the FE2 novelization book 2, and I am NOT okay.

Details are under the cut, if you want to avoid being spoiled about exactly how the FE2 novel depicts the game's events.

So this chapter starts, all gas no breaks, with the introduction of Luthier and Delthea.

Luthier meets Clive and Clair, and quickly becomes jealous of the close older brother / younger sister bond they have, because he is on Zofia's side, and Delthea is on Rigel's side, forcing them to be enemies.

Before I know it, the two are fighting 1-on-1 to the death. With Delthea's raw magic talent greater than Luthier's, it's almost no contest, and she quickly kills him.

Soon after, she snaps out of Tatarrah's control, only to see her brother's lifeless body in front of her. She vows to avenge him, and demands to know the name of his killer. No one in Alm's army has the heart to tell her the truth.

...I don't think Luthier knew Delthea was possessed. (I skimmed some chunks of the text a little too quickly, won't confirm this for sure until I translate these pages fully.)

Meanwhile, Clair is also having an existential crisis, wondering if she is a lucky one in a million to have a close bond with Clive. Thinking maybe siblings hating each other is the norm and not the exception. She also feels that she will feel guilty her entire life, for not being able to do more to stop Luthier and Delthea's fight before it ended in tragedy.

When Silque learns what happened, as one of the few people who knows Alm and Rudolf's true connection, she suffers in her own way that she must keep secret, knowing that this is not the last time she will witness two people of the same family fight to the death. This also conveys why Ozaki-sensei chose a tragic telling of Delthea and Luthier's story - it is a parallel of events to come.

...My heart can't take any more, and we aren't even anywhere near close to the climax... Ozaki-sensei is too good of a writer. He knew how to even further heighten the emotional impacts of this tragic story.

[amuletduelist]

Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Artist: Kazuki Takahashi Details: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters: Hikari no Pyramid [Pyramid of Light] Novel (Japanese) Publisher: Shueisha Year Published: 2004 Source: Scanned from personal collection Other notes: The novelization of the Japanese version of the Pyramid of Light Movie. ...Yes, there's was a Japanese 'version' that contained additional/rearranged scenes. Even though the movie itself was commissioned by 4KIDS. Don't ask me anything else, I don't know and I stopped trying to follow 4K's logics year ago. In any case, @theabcsofjustice has done a liveblog of it on their blog, if you're interested! The novel also goes into additional detail about the creation of the Pyramid of Light, which I haven't actually found yet because as you can see, I need Google Translate to figure out what's going on. That being said, if people want me to hunt it down and beg a friend to translate it... I may be amenable under the right circumstances. Also, please forgive the jankiness of some of the scans in this and upcoming sets. Y'all are great, but I'm not wrecking my (close to) pristine books for the sake of a scan. PLEASE DON'T DELETE ABOVE COMMENTARY!

[thecottagecorebisexuals]

There's something missing in Nicol's Character Profile

Can you guess what it is?

[dg3zero]

[four-loose-screws]

Blog Update 2024.3.13

I started my new job last week, and they are being super nice, training me up nice and slowly. I'm currently using the time to catch up on FE2 - I got a week behind when I finished up my last job.

I'm also reorienting myself on my exact FE novelization translation schedule through 2024 - 2025, as well as my basic schedule for 2026-2030.

I thought I might as well share my thoughts so far!

Here's the long-term plan, as detailed as I currently have it:

2nd half 2024 - September 2025: Alternating FE2 Book 2 and FE6.

September 2025 - December 2025: A secret non-FE novel translation project!

1st half 2026: FE1 (1 book.)

2nd half 2026, all of 2027, 1st half 2028: FE3. (4 books)

2nd half 2028 - all of 2029: Tearring Saga (3 books)

2030: Berwick Saga (2 books)

The 2nd novelizations of the games that have them, as well as the game books (choose-your-own-adventures), have yet to be scheduled. But will be 2031 and beyond, as is easy to deduce!

As I have mentioned previously, I am alternating FE2 Book 2 and FE6, because FE2 was written at a higher, denser reading level than the other FE novelizations I have tackled so far; whereas FE6 is at an easier reading level for me. This system allows me to take much-needed breaks from FE2, without slowing down my overall translations output. The upload schedule will be chapter-by-chapter. (1 chapter of FE6, then 1 chapter of FE2, then 1 chapter of FE6, etc.)

I'm taking a break from FE in the last quarter of 2025 because FE6 is very awkward in length. At 381 pages, it is far too long to squish into 6 months, but also too short to drag out over 1 year. I also don't have any other FE books that are short enough to be reasonably translated in 3-4 months. And I would hate to break this "always start a new book in January and July" momentum that I have going.

So, I decided to pull something short and sweet from the other video game franchises I have on my novelization shelf. It was written for children, at a 3-4th grade reading level to be exact, so even at its 200 page length, it should be easily doable in 3 1/2 months.

I do have other video game franchises near and dear to my heart other than FE (shocking, I know), so I do want to show at least one of them some love sometime. And this seemed like a good opportunity to do so, without taking too long of a break from FE!

-

As for getting caught up on asks, and starting to reconsider non-novel translations, I'm going to put thought into that after I get caught up on the missed week of FE2.

Thanks for sticking with me through the IRL crazy!!

[calvincell]

As a fan of SMT & its star artist Kazuma Kaneko, I was bound to stumble upon his other works of art including those done in collaboration with Kouhei Kadono of Boogiepop Phantom fame for an LN series I’d never heard of until a handful of years ago called the Jiken Mystery Series. It’s a meld of gritty Weird Fantasy with the Detective Fiction of Agatha Christie & hit right on my personal sweet spot not just due to loving unique fantasy settings like those of FromSoftware, SMT & Berserk but the likes of Hercule Poirot & Sherlock Holmes slotted into the MC role. 

The Jiken Mystery Series sadly never even reached the niche cult status of its sister series Boogiepop Phantom so I’d abandoned hope of ever getting to read it beyond learning Japanese & scouring eBay for untranslated copies. However surprisingly, an LN fan happened across seemingly one of the few existing copies of the Del Rey Books English Translation of the 1st volume: The Case Of The Dragon Slayer: A Jiken Mystery from nearly 2 decades ago, an official publishing project that was soon after abandoned. That same fan also went through the effort of scanning the work & thanks to the magic of the Internet, an archivist went ahead & uploaded to the scans to the Internet Archive. 

Despite the crude scans which don’t end up being flattering to Kaneko’s artwork, the story itself is still completely readable & enough so that a motivated fanbase could retype the entire thing & pair it with the existing higher quality versions of the novel’s artwork which have been floating around for a few years to create a digital restoration of at least this first book. It’s quite a wonder that this series, which was inching towards being complete lost media doomed to obscurity, has been able to persist at least a bit thanks to the random luck of a Kouhei Kadono reader & the efforts of online archivists.

[a-few-of-my-favorite-mangas]

Honzuki no Gekokujou / Ascendance of a Bookworm

Light Novel Part 5, Volume 9 Illustrations

Japanese Version, will update when the English Version is available.