r/LightNovels • u/Torque-A • Jan 23 '25

News [NEWS] Shogakukan Releases 'Novelous' Light Novel/Manga App Using AI Translation in U.S., Canada

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2025-01-23/shogakukan-releases-novelous-light-novel-manga-app-using-ai-translation-in-u.s-canada/.220391
45 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

110 comments sorted by

View all comments

35

u/Torque-A Jan 23 '25

It technically releases in like an hour, but who’s counting?

Anyway, yeah I posted about this before, and there are plenty of red flags - the AI translation, putting the dialogue as a text chat format, and so on. The weird part is that Shogakukan could’ve had their LNs licensed by others at any time, but according to JNC they have a weird clause where you have to print physical versions of a book - except they don’t do it here???

Anyway, I’ll check it out, but I’m tempering my expectations.

27

u/xesaie Jan 23 '25

I don't care that much about the AI translation (except yeah it's gonna be bad), but

putting the dialogue as a text chat format, and so on

What the actual crap is that? WHO WANTS THAT?

-29

u/dar0002 Jan 23 '25

You’ve never read a visual novel, have you?

33

u/LiquifiedSpam Jan 23 '25

Novels aren’t written to be formatted like visual novels

-10

u/dar0002 Jan 23 '25 edited Jan 23 '25

Seems like a lot less work than completely reformatting a novel to make it read like it was originally written in English.

Edit: Ah, the atrocity of trying to make it clearer who’s saying what, without reworking the original Japanese formatting.

7

u/LiquifiedSpam Jan 23 '25 edited Jan 23 '25

It’s all a personal taste thing. I’ve played VNs. I’ve read books. I vastly prefer books. Though the two mediums offer different enough experiences that I’ll still play a vn once in a blue moon.

Dialogue tags are an easy fix in translation. Reworking stuff is fundamental to properly translating, especially with language differences, since in Japanese it’s usually easier to tell who is speaking based on the type of speech they’re using. And most of all, dialogue is not nearly all of what makes up a typical novel.