| Kadokawa announced in the press release that they will launch a new publishing label "Kadokawa Tsubasa Bunko" on March 3rd. The new label targets at children between 9 - 13 years old. They re-edit the existing light novels into children's literature. The major titles to be released are as follows: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Slayers Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo *the original novel was published in 1967. The cover illustration of the new edition of "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" was drawn by Ito Noizi. New cover of "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" Voice actress Asano Masumi will make a debut as a novel writer from this label. The title of her first novel is "Hajimete no Magical Cookie". Source: Press Release (PDF file) |
dtshykJan 21, 2009 7:55 PM
| Neat. Interesting concept, though some of the concepts in Haruhi may be difficult to adapt for kids, and Slayers would probably need some of the violence removed. But still interesting all the same. |
| Something about the idea of retooling books to sit a younger demographic doesn't really sit well with me, mostly cause I don't think kids always need stuff "dumed down" for them, but either way, it's a nice idea and it will be interesting to see what else gets this treatment. Lovely cover for Tokikake too :3. |
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| i dont really get how kids are gonna understand the complexity of haruhi, other than that, it will be interesting on how they are gonna re-edit it |
GrumpyFeloJan 21, 2009 9:31 PM
    Sumeragi Kururu - Pledge Queen of Tool Toul To   |
| I'm really not sure if Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo won't be over their heads... But maybe I'm just hinking too much, who knows. |
    There is nothing in this world more ugly than imperfection |
| suzumiya might be hard to tone down, but Toki might be easy enough to some degree. i wont really be interested in such material though. |
| Weren't the first two shows targeted towards the 9-13 year old demographic to begin with? I'm confused. |
ShaolinRibiero said: Weren't the first two shows targeted towards the 9-13 year old demographic to begin with? I'm confused. Slayers was pretty much a kid's show, but SHnY is a fair bit deeper. True, the superficial plot is kiddish, but if you're just adapting the superficial plot,then you might as well not adapt it. Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo is pretty much a teenager's show. This should be.. interesting to see. |
| Peace through Superior Firepower! formosan said: Are you using some kind of advanced logic I don't know about? Have you decided to assign new meanings to English words? Are you just intentionally burning a straw man and knowing full well that you're changing the subject and misrepresenting a claim? |
| Well, just like everyone else, I doubt that Haruhi is suited for kids, and if they re-edit it, and take the "difficult stuff" out, than SHnY will become just an other funny but meaningless story about aliens an stuff. TBH if I were Tanigawa Nagaru, I wouldn't allow it. ... this kinda reminds me when I had a "fight" about age restriction. They claimed to understood Higurashi perfectly well (both seasons), and when I asked them what the plot is actually about, it was like they were talking about something completely different. But this kids book thing might work with Toki wa Kakeru Shoujo and Slayers. |
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turkeymeister said: Slayers was pretty much a kid's show, but SHnY is a fair bit deeper. True, the superficial plot is kiddish, but if you're just adapting the superficial plot,then you might as well not adapt it. I'm not talking about what you personally enjoyed about or saw in the series. I'm talking about who the primary audience is supposed to be from the point of view of the producers and animation studio. For example, I love HnK, but when the series came out in the mid 1980s, its primary audience was 8-16 year olds. I don't have a problem accepting this. And for Melancholy, the target demographic is precisely 9-13 year olds. It can be perfectly understood by anyone in that age range. It's exceedingly simple and straightforward, and trust me, everyone nowadays understands the concept of a "parody". |
ShaolinRibiero said: I'm not talking about what you personally enjoyed about or saw in the series. I'm talking about who the primary audience is supposed to be from the point of view of the producers and animation studio. For example, I love HnK, but when the series came out in the mid 1980s, its primary audience was 8-16 year olds. I don't have a problem accepting this. And for Melancholy, the target demographic is precisely 9-13 year olds. It can be perfectly understood by anyone in that age range. It's exceedingly simple and straightforward, and trust me, everyone nowadays understands the concept of a "parody". It's not an issue of enjoyment. It's just that to consider SHnY purely a simple love story with humourous homages is entirely missing the point. I didn't use that term loosely, it's superficial. |
| Peace through Superior Firepower! formosan said: Are you using some kind of advanced logic I don't know about? Have you decided to assign new meanings to English words? Are you just intentionally burning a straw man and knowing full well that you're changing the subject and misrepresenting a claim? |
turkeymeister said: It's not an issue of enjoyment. It's just that to consider SHnY purely a simple love story with humourous homages is entirely missing the point. I didn't use that term loosely, it's superficial. Anyone who thinks that Melancholy can't be fully understood by a 13 year-old strikes me as both hilarious and sad. At that age, I had read, and fully understood books like Steinbeck's "The Winter of Our Discontent", "In Dubious Battle", Balzac's "Cousin Bette", "Eugenie Grandet", etc. But you're telling me that after working through some of history's greatest literature, I was still too young to appreciate the complexity of a childrens' cartoon featuring a pre-pubescent girl raping a friend with slightly larger breasts as its go to comedy gag? Get out of here with that smug elitism. The "philosophical" elements of the show are extremely simple, and can be understood by any child. Enjoy the series if you like. But pretending it's anything other than a series for little kids or very young teenagers is simply lying to yourself. Edit- I'm actually interested about this. Certain anime fans become very defensive when one mentions that a favorite show is intended "for kids". I've had people tell me that Dragonball Z is this super-complex metaphor that can only be appreciate once one has started attending college. I laugh at this all the time. Personally, I've never had a problem admitting that many of the anime I enjoy can be fully appreciated by much younger kids. But why is this such a sore point for certain fans? |
ShaolinRibiero said: Anyone who thinks that Melancholy can't be fully understood by a 13 year-old strikes me as both hilarious and sad. At that age, I had read, and fully understood books like Steinbeck's "The Winter of Our Discontent", "In Dubious Battle", Balzac's "Cousin Bette", "Eugenie Grandet", etc. ... The "philosophical" elements of the show are extremely simple, and can be understood by any child. What fills the shelves of the "Young Adult" demographic in bookstores; what is marketed towards this demographic? Does it jive with your personal experience as a young adult? I'd probably say not. You're not normal. I'd say that there are a lot of people like you, but that's because there are a lot of people in the world, and even a minority of a lot of people is a lot. Most people are not like you. Most people are, in fact, as childish at 13 as the books in the Young Adult bookstore section would indicate. But you're telling me that after working through some of history's greatest literature, I was still too young to appreciate the complexity of a childrens' cartoon featuring a pre-pubescent girl raping a friend with slightly larger breasts as its go to comedy gag? The exaggeration does not go unnoticed. I do not disagree that *you* would have been capable of understanding SHnY at 13. Most people, however, would not be. There's no elitism in this attitude: I'm not suggesting that the opinions of people who aren't mature at 13 don't matter. I'm suggesting that most people are not as mature at 13 than you think. |
| Peace through Superior Firepower! formosan said: Are you using some kind of advanced logic I don't know about? Have you decided to assign new meanings to English words? Are you just intentionally burning a straw man and knowing full well that you're changing the subject and misrepresenting a claim? |
turkeymeister said: What fills the shelves of the "Young Adult" demographic in bookstores; what is marketed towards this demographic? Does it jive with your personal experience as a young adult? I'd probably say not. You're not normal. I'd say that there are a lot of people like you, but that's because there are a lot of people in the world, and even a minority of a lot of people is a lot. Most people are not like you. Most people are, in fact, as childish at 13 as the books in the Young Adult bookstore section would indicate. The exaggeration does not go unnoticed. I do not disagree that *you* would have been capable of understanding SHnY at 13. Most people, however, would not be. There's no elitism in this attitude: I'm not suggesting that the opinions of people who aren't mature at 13 don't matter. I'm suggesting that most people are not as mature at 13 than you think. In retrospect, arguing from personal anecdotes was a dumb move on my part, but nevertheless, the idea that a 13 year-old can't appreciate MHS still strikes me as an absurd form of self-justification. What age, according to you, does one need to "understand" a childish anime about the first year of high school? Even if we agree with your assertion that a 13 year-old is a drooling retard, what does lack of intelligence have to do with anything? Does it impair one's ability to appreciate the high art and sophistication of a cartoon? Come on, now. There are some anime series that do qualify as being more deep and mature, but I'd love to hear your reasons for Melancholy fitting this criteria. Hey, some people think Dragonball Z is really deep and intelligent, too! |
ShaolinRibiero said: What age, according to you, does one need to "understand" a childish anime about the first year of high school? SHnY is not just an anime about the first year of high school... Even if we agree with your assertion that a 13 year-old is a drooling retard, what does lack of intelligence have to do with anything? Does it impair one's ability to appreciate the high art and sophistication of a cartoon? Come on, now. ... There are some anime series that do qualify as being more deep and mature, but I'd love to hear your reasons for Melancholy fitting this criteria. Hey, some people think Dragonball Z is really deep and intelligent, too! Given that the SHnY anime barely scratches the surface of the light novel series, and in fact serves as a mere introduction, talking about the anime as a standalone is, as the chans put it, lulzworthy. The only thing that strikes me as especially hard to understand in the first volume is that characters tend not to follow conventional speech-act relationships, with locutionary speech-acts that very extremely widely from their intended meaning. And as to the perlocutions of those acts, the author never clarifies and leaves vague. The end result is that most young adults are unable to understand what's going on. As for plot (which, admittedly, is not addressed in the first volume)... Is it a good idea to strip an unstable figure of Godlike capability of her powers to pass on to a different organization who claims to be able to pass it to a more stable candidate who also happens to be your childhood friend? Would a young adult even understand such an event? Or rather, a series of events in a similar vein, each of them being as complicated as the last? |
| Peace through Superior Firepower! formosan said: Are you using some kind of advanced logic I don't know about? Have you decided to assign new meanings to English words? Are you just intentionally burning a straw man and knowing full well that you're changing the subject and misrepresenting a claim? |
| Ara ara. This should be interesting. (Should try and find Tokikake novel) |
| "Mommy, why is Haruhi nibbling on Mikuru's ear?" &etc. |
脱ぎません！_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .  |
HoaRy said: I kinda failed at Haruhi with my Japanese, or let's say it consumes too much time to look up Kanji :/ No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. |
|
| As for TMoHS: Knowing that Haruhi is god, I already knew the origins of Mikuru, Nagato and Itsuki five episodes in. It's so hard to understand that story... Oh yeah, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo *the original novel was published in 1967. Oh boy, it shows... (And the new cover ruins it even more, Nozi Ito should have been kept away from this. Far away.) |
SunyiNyufi said: No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. This is where I just cannot help but insert that the phrase "lost in translation" is not just a title of a movie but in fact truth when it comes to translating something from one language to next. If you do not know the original language that the work is written in, then of course your best option would be to find a darn good translated version, but if you later learned the source language, then of course you'd want to check out the work out in original language ^_^ |
ShaolinRibiero said: And for Melancholy, the target demographic is precisely 9-13 year olds. Uh, you do know Haruhi is a seinen title, right? It's "targeted" at 18-30yos (the common seinen demographic). It was published in a seinen magazine. The manga was dumbed down slightly for shounen audiences, but the novels are being discussed here, not the manga or anime. |
| Slayers? A Kid's novel? That takes some of the fun out of it D: |
| This is truly a great idea, I'd love to get these books. |
 Waratte Oemashou Sore ha Chiisana Inori |
StarSidereal said: SunyiNyufi said: No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. This is where I just cannot help but insert that the phrase "lost in translation" is not just a title of a movie but in fact truth when it comes to translating something from one language to next. If you do not know the original language that the work is written in, then of course your best option would be to find a darn good translated version, but if you later learned the source language, then of course you'd want to check out the work out in original language ^_^ I know it pretty well, cos I'm studying translation studies :) I'm quiet aware that a lot of things get lost in translation especially when translated form Japanese to basically any western language, cos the lexicology and the syntac is really different, but I assume most people don't learn Japanese, and even if they do, they don't necessarly learn kanji. I myself can talk, well not properly but they wouldn't be able to sell me to some yakuza guy without me knowing what's happening, but I didn't try to learn kanji, cos I just don't have the time for it. So I do agree that original is most of the time better, but if everyone would read books in original language, I probably won't be able to get a job later on :D And well Baka-Tsuki's translation is darn good :) |
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SunyiNyufi said: StarSidereal said: SunyiNyufi said: No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. This is where I just cannot help but insert that the phrase "lost in translation" is not just a title of a movie but in fact truth when it comes to translating something from one language to next. If you do not know the original language that the work is written in, then of course your best option would be to find a darn good translated version, but if you later learned the source language, then of course you'd want to check out the work out in original language ^_^ I know it pretty well, cos I'm studying translation studies :) I'm quiet aware that a lot of things get lost in translation especially when translated form Japanese to basically any western language, cos the lexicology and the syntac is really different, but I assume most people don't learn Japanese, and even if they do, they don't necessarly learn kanji. I myself can talk, well not properly but they wouldn't be able to sell me to some yakuza guy without me knowing what's happening, but I didn't try to learn kanji, cos I just don't have the time for it. So I do agree that original is most of the time better, but if everyone would read books in original language, I probably won't be able to get a job later on :D And well Baka-Tsuki's translation is darn good :) Oh come on, if that was true, how could you enjoy anything that was not made in your country? Besides, these are fans we are talking about. I imagine they are doing as good a job as any professional, dedicated translator. Besides, sometimes translation can add to the quality of something. |
| I wonder what little kids will think of Haruhi.... 12 year old boy : "Damn, she is hot!" 12 year old girl : "OMG! I want to be just like her!! <3" |
| Hello! |
| Always happy to see more Slayers. |
iTom said: I wonder what little kids will think of Haruhi.... 12 year old boy : "Damn, she is hot!" 12 year old girl : "OMG! I want to be just like her!! <3" The horror... Asako said: If Haruhi is seinen, I worry for the genre.Uh, you do know Haruhi is a seinen title, right? It's "targeted" at 18-30yos (the common seinen demographic). It was published in a seinen magazine. The manga was dumbed down slightly for shounen audiences, but the novels are being discussed here, not the manga or anime. |
Dozer said: SunyiNyufi said: StarSidereal said: SunyiNyufi said: No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. This is where I just cannot help but insert that the phrase "lost in translation" is not just a title of a movie but in fact truth when it comes to translating something from one language to next. If you do not know the original language that the work is written in, then of course your best option would be to find a darn good translated version, but if you later learned the source language, then of course you'd want to check out the work out in original language ^_^ I know it pretty well, cos I'm studying translation studies :) I'm quiet aware that a lot of things get lost in translation especially when translated form Japanese to basically any western language, cos the lexicology and the syntac is really different, but I assume most people don't learn Japanese, and even if they do, they don't necessarly learn kanji. I myself can talk, well not properly but they wouldn't be able to sell me to some yakuza guy without me knowing what's happening, but I didn't try to learn kanji, cos I just don't have the time for it. So I do agree that original is most of the time better, but if everyone would read books in original language, I probably won't be able to get a job later on :D And well Baka-Tsuki's translation is darn good :) Oh come on, if that was true, how could you enjoy anything that was not made in your country? Besides, these are fans we are talking about. I imagine they are doing as good a job as any professional, dedicated translator. Besides, sometimes translation can add to the quality of something. Uhm... didn't I just say that I'm fine with translations, especially I'll become a traslator in the future myself? :) I can enjoy things even if the quality is lower by a tiny bit, cos it's actually pretty rare that a translator adds to the quality of a novel, cos the principle is not to add or take away to much :) |
|
| Oh, this is getting very very interesting. |
    |
SunyiNyufi said: Dozer said: SunyiNyufi said: StarSidereal said: SunyiNyufi said: No need to read it in Japanese, cos the nice people at Baka-Tsuki made a damn good English traslation of it. This is where I just cannot help but insert that the phrase "lost in translation" is not just a title of a movie but in fact truth when it comes to translating something from one language to next. If you do not know the original language that the work is written in, then of course your best option would be to find a darn good translated version, but if you later learned the source language, then of course you'd want to check out the work out in original language ^_^ I know it pretty well, cos I'm studying translation studies :) I'm quiet aware that a lot of things get lost in translation especially when translated form Japanese to basically any western language, cos the lexicology and the syntac is really different, but I assume most people don't learn Japanese, and even if they do, they don't necessarly learn kanji. I myself can talk, well not properly but they wouldn't be able to sell me to some yakuza guy without me knowing what's happening, but I didn't try to learn kanji, cos I just don't have the time for it. So I do agree that original is most of the time better, but if everyone would read books in original language, I probably won't be able to get a job later on :D And well Baka-Tsuki's translation is darn good :) Oh come on, if that was true, how could you enjoy anything that was not made in your country? Besides, these are fans we are talking about. I imagine they are doing as good a job as any professional, dedicated translator. Besides, sometimes translation can add to the quality of something. Uhm... didn't I just say that I'm fine with translations, especially I'll become a traslator in the future myself? :) I can enjoy things even if the quality is lower by a tiny bit, cos it's actually pretty rare that a translator adds to the quality of a novel, cos the principle is not to add or take away to much :) I agree with both points. I HAVE done translation as odd job before. It's fun but really it doesn't pay the bills for me with just that alone lol. However it really depends on what's your translation objective and your translation field. In any case I am also not saying translation is bad. It's fun to read the translation if anything. But translations are translations... are you sure you won't like to read the original sometimes if it is within your ability? That's my point XD And it is another type of fun when comparing all the translation version to what you yourself personally read from the original ^_^ |
StarSidereal said: And it is another type of fun when comparing all the translation version to what you yourself personally read from the original ^_^ Done that before... I loled at how someone actually got payed for such bad translations. |
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SunyiNyufi said: StarSidereal said: And it is another type of fun when comparing all the translation version to what you yourself personally read from the original ^_^ Done that before... I loled at how someone actually got payed for such bad translations. Saw a few of those as well... some were so off the mark that you cannot even guess what the source work is XD But still, it was fun to read them XD |
ShaolinRibiero said: Weren't the first two shows targeted towards the 9-13 year old demographic to begin with? I'm confused. Well, they obviously weren't if they're re-releasing them. |
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