Haruhi Novels Finally Snagged by…Little, Brown?
Wait, what? ANN reports that the Haruhi novels are finally coming to the English world - officially, that is - via Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. I’m going to take a shot in the dark here, but I’m guessing they don’t handle translating super popular Japanese novels much. On the other hand, this is a joint acquisition with Yen Press, which is a bit better I guess, though the only thing I really know about Yen Press is that they’re publishing Hidamari Sketch this summer. Frankly I’m shocked someone like Tokyopop, Viz, or even Seven Seas didn’t get them. Though, with a more official publisher with more money behind them, maybe we won’t have to worry about insane wait times and shoddy post-modern covers. Still have to wait a year, though.
Not often, no. Little, Brown is home to publishers like Stephenie Meyer (of Twilight fame) and Alice Sebold (author of the Lovely Bones). Joint-publishing will probably get the books a far wider range of sales, as having a major publisher back you up makes retailers a lot more likely to order the books.
(glad my useless book retail knowledge can come in handy when it comes to something anime-related..)
Comment on April 17, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
Wait, what? It really seemed like Seven seas license material to me.
I agree 100% with the last part. I’m not a huge fan of Haruhi. But I hope they don’t screw up the cover art.
Comment on April 17, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
Both of them are under Hatchette Book Group USA, so I imagine they have a decent amount of cash compared to Tokyopop, Viz, et al. The prices aren’t as cheap as I would like, but I expect them to be as high quality as everything else I’ve picked up from Yen Press.
Comment on April 17, 2008 @ 11:32 pm
Wow, poor EL world.
Comment on April 17, 2008 @ 11:34 pm
This is interesting news. The Yen Press connection will get them shelf space in the manga aisles, but the Little, Brown name might get these books onto the shelves in other parts of the stores (SF or maybe even Literature).
I like the job that Baka-Tsuki has done considering they’ve been working with several translators and mixed Japanese and Chinese sources. But I think we’ll be seeing translation quality an order of magnitude higher from Little Brown Yen.
I hope they can keep the Noizi Ito art, but I guess we’ll see…
Comment on April 17, 2008 @ 11:47 pm
Actually, if you go with a major publishing house like Little, Brown, you’re probably more likely to get shoddy post-modern covers. I know I for one am eagerly awaiting an American’s reinvention of Haruhi in the Cubist style.
This news, however, is like Scholastic picking up the Moribito series, and sort of like Del Rey starting into the light novel market by licensing Zaregoto. I think it’s the result of the massive popularity of manga/anime. More traditional companies are noticing this and expanding upon it, but doing so within their own means. It’s hard to enter the manga market nowadays, I’d imagine, since it’s pretty much dominated by Tokyopop, Viz and Del Rey (although Seven Seas are trying their darnedest to break in), so they’re selecting oblique ways of breaking into the anime/manga fan market.
Maybe Moribito will win the Batchelder award like Brave Story did and then all 5 people who follow ALA awards that closely will read it and get everyone else to!
Comment on April 18, 2008 @ 12:58 am