Gosick GOSICK -ゴシック

[SirWence]

Hate to rain on the parade but... http://www.tokyopop.com/product/2130/GOSICK/1 Last time I was there, they had a special "Print of Demand" (http://shop.tokyopop.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=gosick) where they'll print a copy when you order it since it did not sell well.

They have not actually printed translated or even sought to renew the license which to my knowledge may even be simply for Novel 1 and 2 -_- So its not really raining on any parade as they openly state despite any new anime interest they only have 1 and 2 .. maybe they may renew their efforts I honestly doubt it though. Tokyopop and SevenS, are where light novels go to be forgotten.

Gosick is even more complicated—it’s also terrific, but we did books 1 & 2 long before the anime was released, so it had almost zero fan awareness, and performed accordingly. It’s getting a lot of buzz now, so it seems like a great time for a relaunch, but unfortunately the way book retail works, if you don’t do well the first time, you don’t often get second chance.

http://www.tokyopop.com/TPHenshu/tp_art ... 70053.html ~ source ~took them from apr 2008 to late march 2010 to get 2 out with no intentions at 3. That buzz they speak of; are the e-mails people like myself have sent in asking. (Though I have sent many for many novels over many years. Been nagging them since dec. 2008 on GoSick) And I do own them both.

Hence why I came to plead lol v_v

Here is half of the prologue. The other half is a bit hard to understand.

Since I just started translating, these kind of novels are hard to convert it in English. It's better to ask a fluent japanese translator.

Spoiler! :

Prologue
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor door, but near the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.'

--《Rapunzel》, brothers Grimm.

“That” coherence is in a very little body.

That is for a long time, the country’s people didn’t notice “that” existence.

“That” looked like a petite girl.

That’s why no one noticed.

Beside the lotus leafs, with luxurious dreams in the overlapping layers, deep, deep, deep—

The bizarre darkness is sleeping.

Labyrinth.

Becoming the first step of the Dark Age, a brain that amazed people—

There was a petite girl by the name of Victorique, breathing lightly.

Nicely done, imo.
--------
Side note:

Accel World is on my to read list despite the possible flaws.. And I haven't had a chance to Glance at Gods notepad so no knowledge of it~ And I have heard good things for Mushi-uta also on my to read list.

[DragoZERO]

But... it's licensed. Licensed is licensed.

[SirWence]

ZNT was perhaps still is licensed .. Licenses are nice. But reading novels is even better. Like I said Tokyopop and seavenseas buy up licenses and more or less always fail to follow through. Where good novels go to be forgotten /end strong view point

[Darklor]

So do they have the license for the whole series or only for the first two volumes?

[Mystes]

ZNT was perhaps still is licensed .. Licenses are nice. But reading novels is even better. Like I said Tokyopop and seavenseas buy up licenses and more or less always fail to follow through. Where good novels go to be forgotten /end strong view point

ZnT was licenced, but was then put on hiatus...

[larethian]

So do they have the license for the whole series or only for the first two volumes?

Gosick was only licensed for first 2 volumes. Sir Wence had posted an email from Tokyopop somewhere.

[SirWence]

Thanks for your question!

I don’t believe we currently have plans to continue the series, given both the cost of doing novels and the poor sales performance of the first two volumes. It’s a shame, since now with the anime series coming out, it seems like sales might pick up, but that’s the kind of problem you run into in publishing sometimes. Your interest has been noted, though, and I’ll be keeping an eye on other requests to see if at least doing a reprint of the existing material would make sense, and then maybe based on the performance of the reprint, we could consider moving forward, but to be honest, that’s fairly unlikely at this stage of the game.

However, we only tend to license a couple volumes at a time, so there isn’t really anything stopping another company from continuing the series if they choose to do so. The likelihood of that is also fairly slim, but you never know, I suppose!

Anyway, thanks for your interest and support, and I’m sorry that I don’t have better news for you!

Sincerely,

~Lillian

the most recent Letter I received~

I think this was what larethian was referring too ^w^

[MugiMugi]

Tokyopop just went R.I.P by the way, worth to take mention about that fact. Tokyopop was the publisher of the gosick in the US after a.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/20 ... g-division

I would personally love to see this one being translated, been waiting so long for Vol 3 but now since the news about tokyopop it will never come out for sure ><.

[Matt122004]

Agreed. With Tokyopop now shut down, and no chance of future volumes coming from them, this series is open terrain for translators.

I personally love this book series and easily rate it in my top 10 favorite novels right alongside "Full Metal Panic!", "Spice and Wolf", and "Toradora". Excellent series with great characters, intriguing premise, and interesting mysteries.

The anime has been a disappointment, and in truth only waters the appetite to want to read the real stories, unedited and un-watered down.

I for one whole heartedly desire a translation of books 3 and onward. Luckily, since each volume is for the most part, stand alone, readers will be able to enjoy any of the books mostly, even without reading the earlier ones. That's not to say we can't translate books 1 and 2 since they'll soon be out of print, but I'd rather we start with book 3, since that is what most fans are waiting to read right now (since the first two books are still barely in print)

So yes, please, I plead, translate this great series.

PS. Hey guys, I came back. :p

[Darklor]

Hm isnt only the american branch shutting down? Wont the the licenses go to the european branch?

PS. Hey guys, I came back. :p

To celebrate the anniversary?

[Matt122004]

Of course! B-T has done a tremendous job at keeping the LN community alive.

Tokyopop is shutting down their entire English Publishing division. Only the GERMAN department will remain, and they have different licensing agreements over there.

So no, you will never see another English published manga/novel from TP ever again.

In other words, all their series are up for grabs unless another publisher announces they have rescued the license, which in the case of LN's, is a quite rare thing indeed.

[MadJustin7]

I'll throw my 2 cents in and say I would love to see the series fan translated. Maybe volume 3 and up, since volumes 1 and 2 were released. Even if Tokyopop wasn't shutting down its light novel division in the U.S. we would still be in the clear legally. They only ever licensed volumes 1 and 2.

[DragoZERO]

RIP Tokyopop.

So, I wouldn't mind this series being translated. I have the first two volumes on my bookshelf now, as well, lol.

[Doraneko]

This is an extremely rare novel series where the afterwords are much more enjoyable than the main content.

Don't get me wrong, I love Victorica and her moeness. But in terms of entertainment value the afterwords win hands down.

The Gosick afterwords are nothing conventional. It is surprisingly long by the standard of afterwords. In fact it is essentially a mini series. The genre is slice-of-life, with the writer herself being the protagonist, along with a fun-loving cast that runs into all kinds of troubles and weird situations . Frankly, if the writer expands her afterwords into a novel. I'll gladly buy it. And no I don't have a fever.

For whatever reason (plans to expand on them in the future?), the original lengthy afterwords are not included in the Tokyopop releases. It is truly a pity, as they have effectively removed the highlight of Gosick. But then this is clear evidence that the afterwords are not part of the license to Tokyopop, regardless of whether it is still effective or not.

FYI the writer has a solid background in conventional literature, being the award-winner of the reputable Naoki award and has written quite a number of best-sellers. Her writing shines when she stops stressing herself on how to manually insert light novel elements, and lets the story to naturally unfold itself.

I wonder if I can pledge for the translation of the Gosick afterwords ? If I have time I certainly don't mind to do all the translation by myself. But before that I still need to clear the formalities here.

[larethian]

I've always known in my heart that someday, you will be turned. Though I'm shocked that you post at such a timing.