Gate - Thus the JSDF Fought There

[Mystes]

I don't think that it's illegal if the version is written in .doc, or.txt.

[wellis]

I was able to find what appears to be the original web novel thanks to someone on another forum I frequent: http://www.mediafire.com/?eppz4n1m126abmc (Character encoding is Shift-JIS.)

Is this freely distributed by the publisher/author? Or is this a copy of a purchased version? If it's the latter you need to take the link off the forum.

It's not a copy of a purchased version, but is a copy of the original web novel. The author first wrote this story on a forum. I guess this was "original fiction" before he decided to publish it. In fact the published version is a little smaller, since some content had to be taken out for it to be published. If this is still a problem, I'll remove the link.

This is from the person who sent me the web copy:

It's the text copied from the website where the novel was originally posted. It was still floating round the internet. I guess it isn't approved by the author or publisher, since the author removed it from the web in the first place. The situation is a bit strange. If you want to be safe, it might be better to remove the link from the post. If you find a translator, maybe you can send it to them in a private way. I'm not sure how things work there.

[Mystes]

Oh...OK.

[TheGiftedMonkey]

It's not a copy of a purchased version, but is a copy of the original web novel. The author first wrote this story on a forum. I guess this was "original fiction" before he decided to publish it. In fact the published version is a little smaller, since some content had to be taken out for it to be published. If this is still a problem, I'll remove the link.

This is from the person who sent me the web copy:

It's the text copied from the website where the novel was originally posted. It was still floating round the internet. I guess it isn't approved by the author or publisher, since the author removed it from the web in the first place. The situation is a bit strange. If you want to be safe, it might be better to remove the link from the post. If you find a translator, maybe you can send it to them in a private way. I'm not sure how things work there.

It'd be best to remove the link then. Good to avoid grey areas when we can.

There are always more Personal Means to distribute it if someone requests it.

[wellis]

It'd be best to remove the link then. Good to avoid grey areas when we can.

There are always more Personal Means to distribute it if someone requests it.

What people are interested? I don't know any translators.

[Doraneko]

First off, Doraneko and Wellis, welcome to Baka-Tsuki

Thanks and glad to meet you. You seem to have quite a heavy presence in this community.

Oh...what? The JDSF has military robots? Robots that are inside the human body?

Laws are forward-looking and many of them have a lifespan much longer than their drafters. Excluding military robots doesn't necessarily mean as of today there are already military robots in Japan (though such existence is certainly possible and no fiction). As for the significance of the exclusion, you have to think about it yourself.

I have to wonder though, considering it's the size of a normal novel, would that create less of an incentive for translation since it's larger than most light novels?

Certainly yes. The epic length of over 1.6 million Japanese characters calls for true dedication. But then the whole of the Haruhi series is not much shorter than this and people happily worked on it. The greater problem lies on the fact that no one in the English-speaking world has even heard of it. The only few series that can easily find translators are those with good anime adaptations or big name authors. Gate has neither.

At the end of the day you may have to personally find a translator and entice him into working on it.

The ideal scenario is of course a godly translator with shiny wings suddenly descending upon us and gracing us with the perfect translation completed in seven days. But from a more practical point of view, it may be a good idea to try every means to coerce/blackmail one of your Japanese-speaking friends into translating at least one chapter and put it on B-T. Then do your best to promote it by word-of-mouth. If your effort pays off there may be one or two volunteers willing to help with the translation and editing work.

It'd be best to remove the link then. Good to avoid grey areas when we can.

There are always more Personal Means to distribute it if someone requests it.

If your asking me to buy it, well I doubt I can do that. Also I don't know nearly any Japanese. I know Doraneko has bought the first novel in the series.

Personal Means. PM. Does it ring a bell?

No one is going to happily fork out 1700yen x 4 + shipping cost + one month waiting time for something they don't even have an idea of, at least not anyone as stupid as me.

[Mystes]

What people are interested? I don't know any translators.

BTW, do you know anyone who'd be happy to do this?

[wellis]

What people are interested? I don't know any translators.

BTW, do you know anyone who'd be happy to do this?

No unfortunately. I'll see if I can get anyone from Spacebattles though.

[Mystes]

Spacebattles though.

...Spacebattles?

[wellis]

Spacebattles though.

...Spacebattles?

A forum I'm a member of.

[Mystes]

So you know people interested there?

[wellis]

So you know people interested there?

One guy is studying Japanese, but he admits he isn't really good at reading it.

Also are these links (Book 1: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 042448.pdf, Book 2: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 042743.pdf, and Book 3: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 002773.pdf) broken for you guys?

[Mystes]

Sadly, I do not know Japanese.

[wellis]

Alright I was able to get non-broken links: http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 042448.pdf
http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 042743.pdf
http://www.alphapolis.co.jp/dreambookcl ... 002773.pdf

These are all 60 page samples from each book.

[Doraneko]

Brief character introduction at the request of Wellis:


Japan

• ITAMI Youji (the lead character)
  33 years old. First Lieutenant of the Ground Self-Defense Force. Team leader of the Third Recon Team. An otaku who loves to read doujinshi and online novels. Work is nothing more than something that provides an income source for his interest.
  　
• KURATA
  21 years old. Staff Sergeant of the Ground Self-Defence Force. Member of the Third Recon Team. The driver of Itami's military vehicle. An otaku who has a moe fetish over Nekomimi (Cat ears) and Kemono (monsters in general). On otaku topics he can chat happily with Itami, his superior.
  　
• KUROKAWA
  23 years old. Sergeant First Class of the Ground Self-Defence Force. One of the female members of the Third Recon Team. Having a height of 190cm and being a nurse, she mostly talks calmly like a lady, but occasionally gives people a tongue-lashing.
  　
• KURIBAYASHI Shino
  24 years old. Sergeant First Class of the Ground Self-Defence Force. One of the female members of the Third Recon Team. Having a petite frame but with relatively large busts for her body, she also has a martial arts emblem.
  　
• TOMITA Akira
  27 years old. Sergeant First Class of the Ground Self-Defence Force. Member of the Third Recon Team. He studied astronomy through university distance learning courses and has both the ranger and airborne emblem.
  　
• MOTOI (Parody of KOIZUMI Junichiro)
  Prime minister of Japan. Worrying about how to repel the internal and external interventions in regard of the interests of the "Special Region", he has lots of stress.
  　
• KANOU Tarou (Parody of ASO Tarou)
  Defence Minister of Japan. Responsible Minister for the issue of "Special Region". His otaku interests are well known among the Japanese public. He was also an otaku acquaintance of Itami in the past.
  　
• Risa
  The ex-wife of Itami and an artist of doujinshi catered to females.

USA

• DIRREL (Parody of Bush)
  President of the United States. In order to secure more interests in the "Special Region", he involves himself in a number of conspiracies.

China

• TAI De-chou
  President of the People's Republic of China. He plans to secure interests in the "Special Region" by sending Chinese migrants to the area.

Russia

• ZYUGANOV (Parody of Zyuganov?)
  President of the Russian Federation. Worrying that the abundant resources in the "Special Region" would dilute Russia's influence, he involves himself in a number of plots.

The Other World / The Special Region

• Duka Luna Marceau
  165 years old, with an appearance of a 16/17-year-old. She is from a superior race of elves, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and had been living with her father in the village of Kowan. The whole village was destroyed by the attack of an ancient dragon and she was the only survivor.
  　
• Lelei la Lalena
  15 years old. A sage and sorceress of the human race. The second disciple of Cato the elder sage. Although being a knowledgeable person with outstanding talents, she is lack of emotions. Due to her petite frame she looks younger than she actually is.
  　
• Rory Mercury (Loli Mercury )
  961 years old, with an appearance of a 13-year-old. Demigoddess and the apostle of Emroy the god. Despite of her delicate frame, she is widely known as Rory the Reaper, who will smash her enemies with her gigantic halberd with no mercy. Her gothic lolita dress is an outfit for priestesses.
  　
• Molto Sol Augustus
  The Emperor of the Empire. In order to strengthen his power and influence he even attempted to conquer Japan through the Gate.
  　
• Piña Co Lada
  19 years old. The beautiful daughter of the Emperor. Realizing at a early stage the gap of strength between the Empire and Japan, she has been busy struggling to protect her home country. After knowing Itami, she was exposed to the otaku subculture and was strongly influenced.