March 2014 KLNs

 I have a confession: I can actually travel through time. Which is why I'm actually able to talk about three months' worth of KLNs in a single month. Here's the previews for KLNs that are to be released on March 2014!

 Also, no, translations are still happening. While we all appreciate that people are taking interest in what's being posted on this blog, please, the translation status is perfectly visible in our translation status sidebar. That's probably a faster way to get your answer than, say, asking one of the translators who may or may not show up on the blog that day.

Updated 08/3/2014

  Click on the images to see their respective teaser ads.

March 2014

New releases:

 

Title:소환학원의 암살자 (The Assassin of a Summoners Academy) Author: 성상현 (Sung Sang-Hyun) Artist: Cherrypin http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?id=206921 Publisher: Seed Novel Premise: A famous assassin is given the last mission in his job -- to kill a summoner who is destined to end the world according to a prophecy. To do this, he must attend a girls-only academy for summoners, with his only help being a talking doll rabbit who doesn't seem to want to help him at all. Pre-Read Thoughts: Breast sizes reaching Senran Kagura levels. Post-Read Thoughts: Oh, hell. In the review for the LN below, I talked about how badly written LNs tend to inflate page count by adding too many things that aren't critical to the plot-- and that's what exactly happened in this book. It felt like the main plot was less than a hundred pages, despite the novel being 300 pages, because the rest of the book was filled with either Mitsudomoe-style jokes that abuse misunderstanding normal activities as sexual situations, or horny girls lusting after the protagonist's D. I think my level of discomfort maximized around the time the school nurse masturbated to the thought of... acquiring a talking doll rabbit. No, the author didn't even bother making the descriptions subtle. It took only the last 50 pages of the book to resolve the main conflict in the first volume, and there was absolutely no build-up to it. I was ready to call it quits when the MC, a trigger-happy, merciless assassin, started crying for a blonde bimbo who did basically nothing memorable within the two in-story days' worth of their time being together. Post-Read Low-Quality B&W Image: That can't be healthy.

 

Sequels:

 

Title: 언매지컬 마법소녀 하춘식 2 (UnMagical-Girl Ha Chunsik Vol. 2) Author:온점 (Onjum) Artist: 모밍(Momin) https://twitter.com/nomalalien Publisher: Seed Novel Premise (for the series): The protagonist is the mid-boss of a once-legendary group of villains. Despite his good nature, he constantly gets beaten up by the local magical-girl who, curiously, doesn't transform to fight. The villains begin plotting a devious but harmless plan to stop her from beating everyone up. Pre-Read Thoughts: Yes, that name in the title is meant to be completely unfitting for a magicalgirl to have. No, the magicalgirl isn't the person in the very front of the cover-- in fact, that's a guy, and he's the protagonist. The magicalgirl is the person in the back, who arguably looks much manlier than the boy. Strangely, the cross-dressing shenanigans seem to be limited to the covers; the scene didn't last longer than two pages in the first volume, and I doubt it will be any more significant in this volume. If it is, though... Post-Read Thoughts: I'm pretty surprised at how much I enjoyed the story. It's actually a pretty great example of a well-written LN; the main conflict remained consistently important throughout which also resolved cleanly, every character remained important while sticking to their given roles, and all that was mentioned in the book felt necessary. The last one's important, because too many bad LNs pad out the page count by having elements (usually throwaway jokes) that don't expand the story or explain the characters more. The comedy is a bit same-y throughout, though. Half of the jokes have to do with the villains being too poor to do anything (e.g. the villains can't do a dramatic exit after a heated confrontation with the antagonist because they can't afford the ride back home) and the other half has something to do with the MC being a trap. Post-Read Low-Quality B&W Image: The trap is sprung.

 

Title: 숨덕부! 9 (Clotaku Club! Vol. 9) Author: 오버정우기 (Overjungwoogi) Artist: Anmi http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=212801 Publisher: Seed Novel Premise: See cover. Is anyone surprised? The volume deals with the endings of all heroines who were presented in the series; there will be a chapter involving Injin's life with Yerin when they're 30(?), with Sukyong when they're 20, and so on, for at least 5 different characters as far as the teaser can tell. For those who did not follow Volume 1, one of the people in wedding dresses in the linked teaser illustration is a boy. Yes. Final volume. Pre-Read Thoughts: Wh-ALREADY? Okay, not only is this the fastest set of releases by this author (he's had a fetishy H-game released recently on the side), this is quite an unexpected ending to the series. I was 99% sure that the series was going to be in for some huge trouble in the final volume, because harem series don't tend to end peacefully; authors end up splitting up the entire fanbase in half by choosing a single heroine (OREIMO: NEVER 4GET), or disappoint everyone with a cliffhanger, i.e. basically refuse to write a proper ending. I'll have to read it to know if this is a good way to deal with harem ends. Post-Read Thoughts: Highlights from each character's ending, without spoilers: 1. Forced outdoor sex with a sex maniac 2. Two pages worth of feet appreciation 3. Making babies for the good of the world 4. Doing questionable things under the office desk while there's a meeting 5. The Mistress of NTR ...And this is from the series that hardly ever had any sort of fanservice, other than some cleavage or buttshots here and there. Most of the endings were overly lovey-dovey without any purpose behind them. Endings are supposed to make you think afterwards, which is precisely why most romance-centric stories don't explain what happens after the protagonists find their true love after whatever hardship they suffered through in the main plot. Ending a story with an extended, 300-page version of "and they lived happily ever after" is not a good way to go. Leave that for the fanbase. Post-Read Low-Quality B&W Image: I'm not even gonna hide it: they had sex directly after the scene.

 

Title: 평범부 활동일지 3 (Normies Club's Daily Activities Vol. 3) Author: Tiz Artist: 슈엔 (Shuen) http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=110967 Publisher: Seed Novel Premise (for the series): The struggles of an Esper, a Succubus, a Magicalgirl, and a Spirit to try and become more normal and live a normal life. Final volume. Pre-Read Thoughts: It's an amazingly normal light novel series that had been neither particularly well-liked nor hated. How incredibly meta!

 

Title: 개와 공주 11 (The Dog and the Princess Vol. 11) Author:NZ Artist: Cu-Rim http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=101463 Publisher: Seed Novel Premise (for the series): In an alternate-history version of Korea where the North and South have never separated since the second World War, the land remains a kingdom as it had been since the olden times. In the country's largest and most prestigious high school, the protagonist saves a girl who was being chased by several people, and he finds out that she is the princess of the kingdom, the first in line to be the successor to the throne. Final volume. Pre-Read Thoughts: It's the end of the line for one of the longest-running series of KLNs. If I had to pick out the most Korean series out of all KLNs, this will always be the first thing that comes to my mind; it's about Korea as a nation (though a fantasy version), it has plenty of jokes and references that only those who know Korean culture would understand (holy jebus Boxer and Yellow are characters in the series, except in female form), and so on. I'm actually glad that it ended, though; the author had been introducing a new story-important character for every volume between volume 1~10, which tends to mean that the author was running out of ways to keep the story fresh and prevent the existing characters from falling out of the story. Hardly any of the older characters were relevant outside of the final two volumes, and that's one thing I absolutely hate about long-running series.

 

Title: 주먹다짐 스킨십 2 (Fistfight Skinships Vol. 2) Author:이가빈 (Lee Gabin) Artist: JUNA http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=66655 Publisher: Novel Engine Premise (for the series): After a traumatic mishap with his first crush, the protagonist developed a strange problem where he unintentionally becomes physically violent after any contact with the opposite sex. His life becomes a lot more complicated when he meets someone who is his exact opposite: a girl who's known to brutally beat up any boys who come close to her. Pre-Read Thoughts: This is truly a beacon of light in the world of light novels, where both males and females are treated perfectly equally; belonging to a certain gender doesn't exclude anyone from being at the receiving end of a bone-crunching punch. Amazing! #wow #gender-equality #safetytipsforladies

 

Teaser TBD

Title: 검술학교의 연애사정 4 (The Love Problems of a Swordsmanship School Vol. 4) Author: elle Artist: cocorip http://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=688570 Publisher: Novel Engine Premise (for the series): The world discovers the existence of a special metal that grants magical, superhuman powers to those who can use it. Users of the metal, called Sword Linkers, now police the world. A school is established to train and raise those with the talent, separated into five Houses that teach their students with their own set of ideals, culture, and fighting style. The protagonist, a seemingly average guy with no powers of his own, gets called to the school despite his great hatred for the Sword Linkers. Pre-Read Thoughts: It follows the generic LN formula: introduce a character, show off his power by beating up a really powerful enemy, then introduce even more powerful enemies. It's a formula that has some massive power creep issues like Dragonball Z did, and leaves little room for other type of character development without spending an entire volume where the antagonist is mostly nonexistent. You can only either love or hate this kind of story, and never anything in between. UPDATE: Release was delayed for April.

 

Title: 삼학연의 (The Romance of the Three Schools Vol. 3) Author: NEOTYPE Artist: Natora Publisher: Novel Engine Premise (for the series): In a school called Samhak (literally "Three Schools"), students are taught how to survive in the harsh world by personally experiencing the history of China's Three Kingdoms era. Students are assigned to become a particular person of the era and receive their strengths and powers; for example, a student who is assigned the name of Guan Yu is given a legendary ability to wield halberds. The different factions of the school must battle and emerge victorious to guarantee their success for the rest of their lives. Pre-Read Thoughts: The series feels too much like the other series from NEOTYPE; change 'historical figures from the Three Kingdoms era' to 'mythological beings', and you have the premise for Mons Panic instead. The battle scenes play out the exact same way because of that. Character dynamics are obviously different, especially because the protagonist is unexpectedly not Liu Bei; it's actually Emperor Xian of Han. Yes, the emperor who practically disappears off the history after he's forced to abdicate. And the heroine is Lu Bu. Screw history, I guess.