NanoDesu Light Novel Translations

I just wanted to give everyone a status update on our translation group in general.

- In terms of our current projects, everything is going as planned. For many of our staff still in school, final exams season is approaching, and so there has been a rather inevitable lull in our output in these few months. But come summer, you should expect our translation output to significantly increase.

- A new translator for Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? has been recruited, and she will also begin to work after her final exams. We are very happy to welcome her into our translation group, and I hope everyone will give her lots of support when she begins her work.

- We have a new translation project that’s slotted to go public in mid-June. I am currently working with the translator to get everything in order. I won’t reveal the project yet, but suffice to say that it is a very long-running slice-of-life/comedy series with multiple anime adaptations.

Thanks to everyone for their support as usual! Please continue to read our work and look forward to what we have in store!

I’m pleased to announce that we are opening a blog site for our translation group, affectionately named The Nano Channel. The blog will be written by members of our staff (translators, editors, administrators, and all other staff members), but commenting will be open to everyone. This is my answer to the few occasions when some people have asked me to consider making a forum; I never liked the idea of a forum, since I want us to remain strictly a translation group and not stray into becoming a broad community, but at least in this way, our group members have a way to share their thoughts and unwind, and readers/group members can interact with each other in a more casual environment, and not just on the translation sites.

It’s still relatively empty, but I hope that our staff will be using it to post their thoughts whenever they feel up for it. Please do check it out:

Thought I would start posting on the main site when entire volumes of any of our projects are completed.

Oreimo V4 is now fully completed and ready for your reading pleasure: http://oreimothetranslation.wordpress.com/. The PDF will be released after the editing process is fully completed.

Many people have probably already heard, but I will be stepping down as the Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? translator after completion of Volume 2. This won’t be for a while, but I wanted to start looking for someone to take over as soon as possible.

Anyone who would like to continue KoreZombie from Volume 3 as a member of our team is strongly encouraged to apply for a translator’s position. And remember – we place more emphasis on English proficiency than Japanese proficiency, so this is also a great chance for anyone who wants to hone their Japanese!

Of course, one of the benefits of continuing a project rather than starting a new one is that you also inherit an already established reader base, so this is a good opportunity for anyone who would like to continue working on an already-mature project. Please check our application process in the Join the Team tab and send us an email!

Don’t let Yuu down.

I’m pleased to announce we are starting a new novel translation, Sugar Dark! Zero Ender will be the head translator, and we all wish him Godspeed. Note that this project will need editors as well, so please apply if you are interested!

Summary: The 14th annual Sneaker’s Literary Grand Prize Winner!!

Due to a false accusation, the boy Muoru was arrested and sent to a remote public cemetery where he must dig grave holes every day. Yet, on that night he meets Meria, a girl who calls herself the grave keeper. Muoru finds himself drawn to this girl. However, a mysterious child named Karasu soon tells him that “mankind’s natural enemies, the undying monsters known as The Dark are supposed to be buried within the graves he is digging.” Muoru was confused, but what was worse, did he just witness Meria get killed by the dark?

LINK TO THE TRANSLATION

I wanted to just mention that Sugar Dark was the first novel in six years that managed to win the grand prize in the Sneaker Bunko LN Competition. The last one to win this prize before Sugar Dark you might have heard of: Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. So it might not be a novel that’s very heard of in the West, but it’s definitely something that’s already making waves in literary circles in Japan, so please do check it out!

Hey all,

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support over these few months. Our group has expanded and developed at an incredible rate which I was not expecting at all, and I probably wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that we are now one of the largest Japanese-English light novel translation groups on the web. Of course, this is all due to the wonderful new staff who have joined us, and I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them, especially the ones who have joined us recently.

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NanoDesu Translations Staff (as of 2/13/13)

* Joined in the last month.
^ Joined in the last two months.

Admin/Translator – NanoDesu
Translator – florza
* Translator – hayashi
Translator – Knightfall

^ Admin. Assistant and Editor – WildKaiser
Veteran Editor and Tech. Supervisor – Meh
* Trans. Supervisor – Kira0802
* Typesetter – victorrama

^ Editor – bestnumber?8721
* Editor – koa
* Editor – stellarroze
Editor – KH.hayate
^ Editor – Swordbane
^ Editor – Kirato
* Editor – Saki
Editor – Whitesora

–

If you see any of our new staff around (or any of our staff), please say hello and show them your appreciation for the hard work they’re putting in.

I also want to give special thanks to WildKaiser and Kira0802, who are working as our administrative assistant and translation supervisor, respectively. They will be oiling many of the cogs that keep this group alive, especially while I am busy with real life and my own translation projects. They may be working mostly behind the scenes, but they are invaluable members of our team, so please thank them should you see them.

Once again, thanks for all the love and support everyone! I hope you will continue to support us as we continue to grow – I can tell you already that we have some exciting new projects that are in the works, so look forward to them!

—

NOTE: We also have a new editor opening for Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. Knightfall has said that she prefers someone who is truly a grammar nazi.

The next NanoDesu project launch for 2013 has been decided! Hayashi will be joining us as the translator of Kikou Shoujo wa Kizutsukanai (also known as Unbreakable Machine Doll). We’re looking forward to what he can do!

Novel Summary (taken from Mangafox): During the early 20th century, along with technological advancements, scientists were able to develop sophisticated magic. The combination of science and sorcery was Makinot, circuits made from spells that were put into objects to bring them to life and even gain a personality. It was developed as a military weapon and has now spread throughout the world.

Akabane Raishin is now attending the Royal Academy to become the best in the world. Accompanied by the lovely teenage girl Yaya, who is actually Raishin’s puppet weapon, he plans on rocketing to the top of the class. However, his test scores come nearly dead last although his combat skills and determination are second to none. Raishin has to compete with the deadliest of classmates if he wants to come out as the king.

THE TRANSLATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

We are looking for one editor for this project (there is already one editor but we are looking for another). Please check the Join the Team section and email us if interested!