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Forum - View topicNEWS: Yen Press & Little, Brown Books Interviewed on Haruhi
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mulrich
Posts: 139 Location: Denmark |
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Looks like I gotta get me one of those hardbacks. The paperback will not feature the original cover art.
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gokuthamonkeyking
Posts: 53 |
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i feel like i should be offended by little brown books comments. aiming this series to pre-teen girls? wtf? as for their marketing schemes.. they fawking suck at it. plus it feels like theyre ripping us off by releasing two different versions of the light novels.. methinks theyre scamming us for the hardcover editions if we truly want the close to the original edition.
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mulrich
Posts: 139 Location: Denmark |
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Yeah. They feel it's a novel series for girls. I wonder what kind of people work there. It's for young adults of both genders (heck, the words "gang-banged" appear in the first novel, I guess that'll be gone), but IMO, it's more for guys than gals.
Personally, I don't mind forking out a little extra for a hardback edition, but if the content is significantly different from the fan translation and the anime (which actually stick pretty close to the novels), then I'll feel like I've been ripped off. |
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Ghstmtrx
 Posts: 178 |
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In japan was this series both Hardcover and Paperback?
Anyway, I will have to buy the Hardcover for the original cover art. Although I hope it is not to damn bulky and I hope it is not a dust jacket. If it is to bulky it will be awkward to displayed and carry around with me. And if it is a dust jacket cover then the poor thing will get messed up simply because, that happens to me with my books. (if that is the case I...I dont even want to think about it. lol) I am disappointed that the paperback will not have original artwork because, well. I just want something that is easy to carry and be the actual novel, maybe so I could avoid messing up this "dust jacket" that may or may not exist on the hardcover. Considering this novel is getting targeted to little girls I dont think I would want to show it off to people. This could change the way Haruhi is seen in the United states and the Otaku who once wore their Brigade Chief armbands proudly will be forced into the shadows of their basement once more. So in conclusion. No original cover on paperback. Bad idea. Targetting little girls. Bad Idea, it can really be said that just about any audiance under 30 has the potential to enjoy this book. (I chose my words carefully because not everyone is a Haruhi fan obviously). However I do apperciate them trying to mainstream Haruhi. I just think they are going about it wrong. We can only hope that this target audiance does not cause ANY censoring in translation. That alone would turn me away from this series and I would not purchase it. I would just wait until I get proficient in Japanese and read the original novels. (Like I will have to do for Shakugan no Shana). That may seem a little immature but I want to read the original content with no censoring. |
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ValkyrieZeroZeroOne
 Posts: 434 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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*Sigh*. Can anyone say "train wreck"? Because if this is Little Brown Books' actual plan for the novels, it's going to be Shakugan no Shana novels all over again. Appealing to preteen girls? Trying to send mainstream?
More incentive to start those Japanese classes and get the original Japanese novels in. No point in worrying about Haruhi manga since it's woeful anyway, but at least Yen Press are targeting the right market. |
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2094 |
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If you're referring to the fact that the Shana novels stopped being released after the second book (I assume to poor sales), I'm going to venture a guess and say that Haruhi's fanbase MIGHT be slightly bigger than Shana's.  Not that Shana isn't a great series as well, but it doesn't come even close to Haruhi in terms of mainstream-awareness. So I'm pretty confident all the novels will be released.
If you were referring to the way they were translated (by Viz, wasn't it?), then my bad. I've yet to read the Shana novels (only seen the anime), so I can't comment there. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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Yesh, guys, why not go and change the names to more english friendly deals too...
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fuuma_monou
 Posts: 1855 Location: Quezon City, Philippines |
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Once upon a time online, someone actually tried to argue that Devil Hunter Yohko was aimed at girls. The only way that works is if you believe that having a female main/title character is all you need. I also remember old VHS releases of yaoi aimed at gay men.
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mulrich
Posts: 139 Location: Denmark |
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Isn't there somewhere we can collectively tell them how wrong they are?
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Mappy
 Posts: 17 |
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I feel a deep sense of trepidation about this announcement. It just seems, to me, that the publishers haven't a clue about what it is they've licenced and are traveling headlong down a road called "Fail" in ignorance. I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong about this if things do work out, but the moment they mentioned they were going to market this towards "tween girls", I facepalmed hard enough to give myself concussion.
I foresee another SnS event, only bigger. |
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ConanSan
Posts: 1818 |
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This has the chances to kill everything dead as bad as the NarUK incident.
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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What are you people exactly complaining about? You're whining about a company trying to market light novels so that they actually sell!? You somehow get what you want, yet still aren't satisfied just because a company is trying to expand the base of a series?
Yeah, they just licensed a light novel with the largest fandom, and the licensee has only been licensing otaku-friendly titles for over a year now. And they're actually marketing it instead of falling back on "word of mouth" advertising, which has evidently failed to work. Yep, they sure don't know what they're doing. 
I swear to God some anime fans just don't WANT anime to become popular at all. |
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Richard J.
 Posts: 3367 Location: Sic Semper Tyrannis. |
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In this situation, I think people are worried that the marketing will mean changes in the content. They fear it will be "American-ized" or something. Which would be a more logical fear if not for the fact they've already commented on keeping things like the term moe in there. Also, I think everyone's a bit concerned that the perception of Haruhi will change if it become associated with young girls. Of course, the way I see it, a real man/woman doesn't let such crap affect them, especially since the prevailing society views all of us a immature because we watch animated shows and read graphic novels. On the other hand, reading books is highly associated with intellectualism, regardless of the type of book. It's also much more acceptable for adults to read children's books, men to read women's books, etc. I'm in favor of this approach and hope it works as light novels likely have no future otherwise as the vast majority have failed because there aren't enough otaku buyers. |
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Flaed
 Posts: 54 |
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I think the publisher has picked up on something kind of important here, actually: there is an American equivalent to a light novel, and it's primarily read by young girls. Light, fluffy series fiction (think Nancy Drew) is the same as a light novel in certain stylistic ways, or close enough that a preteen girl who reads a lot of series fiction isn't going to have any trouble with Haruhi - whereas an older reader may get hung up on the writing style or the illustrations or, well, any number of other things.
Anyway, the only difference is the cover art, which is a completely irrelevant part of a release anyway and only really matters in terms of marketing. The illustrations will be kept, terms like "moe" will be kept. . .I mean, seriously, this is actually a great idea and points toward a possible future for light novels over here. They need to find an audience as books, not as manga 2.0. |
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HellKorn
Posts: 1669 Location: Columbus, OH |
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As opposed to male otaku hugging their Mikuru body pillows? I don't really see how perception of a title should really affect how one feels about the content itself: if a person thinks more or less strongly because of that, then they have their own issues to work out. If this marketing succeeds, and not only the success of Haruhi expands but light novels, as well, then I see no reason to not celebrate. Purists are still getting their own content, free from any edits (hey, I plan on picking up the hardcovers myself), and awareness of the franchise grows. No one's getting shafted here. Or, in other words:
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