October + November 2014 KLNs

Sometimes, things get in the way of basic necessities of life. Maybe it's because your favourite translation blog ended a chapter on a terrible cliffhanger, or maybe your readers got so angry that you ended up staying up until 5am to do translations. Whatever the case, there's always time to sneak in some time to write and read about KLN releases! Right? ...Right?

September 2014 KLNs

I miss summer.

August 2014 KLNs

Releases are happening! I hope you haven't already given up on waiting for them. As long as you don't expect the release frequency to be on par with Dawnbringer Volume 1, I think we can all end up as winners on this one.

But until then, (late) KLN news!

July 2014 KLNs

Well...

...

No comment.

June 2014 KLNs

TEST TEST THIS SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSTED YET TESTY TEST TEST
IF THIS IS POSTED THEN NARANE MADE A HUEG MISTAKE SO PLEASE REPORT TO THE PROPER AUTHORITIES

...Uh, well, okay.

I guess now's the time to post...?

...Well, here they are! It's the new Dawnbringer and Four Lovers release! Probably not in the sense that most of you want it, but still!

May 2014 KLNs

Yes, the Release Translations button works! It was never a joke! You thought it was an April Fools joke? Well, I double-fooled you, because we had multiple April releases! How can it be a joke when the button did exactly as it promised? That's right!

...I was ALMOST getting depressed that I might have ended up being a liar! Whew, what a relief, huh? 

Now it's May, and that means there are more books being released. Will any of these get translated, when current projects already exist? Well, if we take the amount of activity we had in the last few weeks, and replicate it over the next 2 years, projected graph says we'll finish like 6 KLN series in about that time! So, maybe we will see more translated series! Exciting!

April 2014 KLNs

I know what you've been trying to ask: "Now that I reached 999,999,999 Imouto Power and bought the translation releases, can I see the new translations?" The answer is, of course, "yes!" Thanks to your efforts in the Imouto Petter, you now have the opportunity to read every single translation release that will be posted on April!

...When we have them.

But until then, here's something else to read! These are just as good, right? Right?

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

February 2014 KLNs

  Is there a better time to talk about February KLN releases than on... February?

  Okay, the books haven't been shipped to me yet and I didn't have the chance to read any of these, but is that stopping me from talking about them? No! C&Ds won't stop me from translating, so why should I let non-possession of the books stop me from judging them? Yeah, I thought so.

  Post-read reviews will probably get attached later, when I actually get to read them.

  If anyone is confused as to why I sometimes explain the "series premise" instead of the particular volume's premise, I do that if the particular series was never mentioned within this website, so it would be unhelpful to explain the latest volume only.

Updated 17/2/2014

January 2014 KLNs

To help you forget about the C&D shenanigans that are delaying our translations (and definitely not the fact that our translators are lazy bastards who couldn't make steady releases if they were held at gunpoint), here's something completely different from our standard reviews: even shorter reviews! Except there's a lot of them!

 Unlike the Japanese Light Novel scene, the LN market is pretty limited in Korea; there isn't a big enough audience, and so there aren't too many KLN writers to match the rate of new releases that you'll find in Japan. So, perhaps fortunately, it's fully possible to describe every KLN that gets released per month without writing an unreadable wall of text! But, are KLNs any better? Are they an exception to Sturgeon's Law? Are they so great that I'm compelled to pay massive shipping fees and skip out on meals for several days? Or is it just my OCD? Who knows?

[KLN Review] Queen's Knight Kael

I shall raise you into a man befitting of me!

[KLN Review] Miyal’s Chu-cheon (Series)

Basic information:

Korean title: 미얄의 추천

English title: Miyal's Chu-cheon

Author: Otsen (오트슨)

Illustrator: INO/RESS

Genre: Fantasy, Mystery, Horror

Publisher: D&C Media

Publication date: July 2007

Introduction:
Among the early rookie writers who made their name known through Seed Novel, Otsen was a special case; he was already a well-known Korean fantasy author long before his debut into the light novel genre. He was famous for his unique writing style and his ability to create deep, complex worlds where his stories take place, and Miyal’s Chu-cheon is a good demonstration.

The title is left as ‘Chu-cheon’, because the word is a frequent source of wordplay in the series, via Hanja/Kanji/Chinese. For example, the word first describes Miyal's ability to jump into dreams, then it changes its meaning to describe an 'ugly sky', and so on.

Art:
RESS/INO is a famous artist in Korea, mainly known for doing the early character designs for Elsword and Dungeon Fighter Online. For some reason, he decided to use the name 'INO' for the artwork in the Miyal series. Though, thanks to his unique way of art style, it wasn't too long before everyone realized that INO = RESS.

Summary:
The story starts with Min-oh, who is an ordinary, 20-year-old university student. Initially, the only thing extraordinary about him seems to be that he is absolutely unable to do withstand anything that he feels is ‘wrong’ without getting unnaturally disturbed; otherwise, he had been leading a normal life. This changes when, one day, he has recurring nightmares where he inevitably ends up pushing a woman off a cliff. In one of these nightmares, a girl named Miyal appears and stops the dream from continuing. She tells Min-oh that every time a woman is pushed off a cliff in his dreams, a girl in real life suffers the same fate. She then instructs him to meet her in real life so that he may find a way to prevent his nightmares from happening.

Min-oh cannot not defy her; he cannot not shake off the feeling that he would be permitting ‘wrongness’ by not stopping his own nightmares. To his surprise, he finds that Miyal is indeed a real girl. She agrees to give him priceless drugs that prevent dreams, and in return, Min-oh becomes her slave.

The rest of the series revolves around a mysterious item known as the Amahn-parts (roughly meaning 'parts of juvenile dreams'). Initially, it is not perfectly clear what the Amahn-parts are; all Miyal can say is that they are physical representations of people's childhood dreams. As an example of what it does, the first known Amahn-part was discovered by a scientist who found a 'perfectly environmentally safe fuel'. The 'fuel' turned out to be plain water. However, when poured into a car, the entire car changed its structure to become a 'car that runs on water'. 

Min-oh feels that such an item should not be available to humans, because it denies the efforts of hard-working adults and it rewards those who do not grow up mentally. He feels that, without a doubt, it is 'wrong' to let those items exist. By Miyal’s side, he gets pulled into a journey to destroy the Amahn-parts, thus a journey to deny people's hopes and dreams.

Characters:

Min-oh

The summary above describes everything (non-spoilerific) about Min-oh.

It’s very easy to dismiss Min-oh as a generic ‘average man’ character who exists solely for the readers to connect to him. However, it quickly becomes apparent that he isn’t quite normal; in fact (as a small spoiler), he becomes the reason behind most of the problems in the series. This quality in a protagonist is surprisingly rare in light novels; quite often, the side characters are the source of all events in the story, and the protagonist is merely someone who tags along for the ride. Though that is precisely how Min-oh starts his journey, he most definitely does not continue being a tag-along. He is undoubtedly a great example of a developing character.

Miyal

On the outside, she is a 15-year old girl in middle school. Considering how she makes her appearance in the story, however, no one -- the readers and the characters -- believes that she is even close to being an ordinary girl. It’s not of any help that Miyal doesn’t act like one, either; every single thing she does in the series is a far cry from ‘normal’, so that it’s probably easier to count the times when she isn’t doing something extraordinary. How many 15-year-old girls out there are capable of freely entering other people’s dreams, anyway?

For her personality, she is best described as sharp-tongued. She is prone to say things that are completely unfitting for a little girl; she deliberately talks in a way that can only be regarded by everyone as impolite. She makes tasteless jokes, for example, saying that the dream-killing drug is cheaper than her virginity. Even the times when she says something nice, she does it to make someone else angry. To name the most similar character found in this blog, imagine Yeonji from Clotaku Club, except that it is very clear that she has no positive feelings towards the protagonist. If that doesn't explain enough, it would suffice to say that she's an ass.

Review:
The complexity behind the storyline of Miyal’s Chu-cheon is its biggest strength. Every book is a buildup on top of everything that had happened in the previous books. There isn’t a single detail that goes wasted in the series; every seemingly little thing makes a return in a massive turn of events later on. A mention of a 'witch'? Expect that to return frequently in later books. What about that stopwatch in her pocket? It’s an important item in book four. How about the fact that Miyal is a middle school student? It's not even funny how much of the story hangs on that fact. Nothing in the story happens without reason, and so no events feel like they had been forced into the story for the sake of continuing the story. As a result, the author gives the readers the clues necessary to raise and answer questions about the story.

Incidentally, the negative part about the series originates from the same reasons as the good. Because every book relies on the previous events, the readers need to pay attention and remember what happened thus far. Moreover, that also means the very first book can be pretty dull; the book is the starting point in the series, so a huge number of new concepts and terms are thrown at the readers, all of which play a big role in explaining the world of Miyal’s Chu-cheon. Thus, the first book is quite far from a ‘light’ read. It is no surprise that there are people who give up on reading the Miyal series from book one, but it is unheard of that people give up in the later books.

Perhaps the most defining quality of Miyal’s Chu-cheon, which may drive readers away or pull them in, is that the story is dark and tragic throughout. There is never a happy end; at the end of each story arc, though Min-oh may avoid any immediate danger, he always ends up with more things to worry about than before.

If you enjoy fantasy light novels with a complex world with original characters, especially one where everything goes to hell, you will definitely enjoy Miyal’s Chu-cheon.

—Reviewed by Narane.

[KLN Review] Clotaku Club! v01

Please do not try the following at school.

[KLN Review] Petty Revenge Office -vol. 1-

No, this isn't the advertisement for yet another new CoD series.

[KLN Review] Dawnbringer: The Story of the Machine God v01

Hey look! A white-winged loli with ample breasts!