Anime & manga fans are about to meet another new company, so let’s take a look at who they are and what they’re releasing.
Around the end of April, a company called Tentai Books started updating their previously-silent social media accounts and website. But it wasn’t until May 1st that their presence really became known through various news sites and social media along with their first announcements. According to their site, Tentai Books is made up of a “small-sized group of professionals in the industry” who want to “offer the Light Novel experience to readers all around the world, one as close to the original Japanese release as possible”. If you take a look at their earliest Tweets, you might be in for a surprise: they’re in Spanish. Tentai Books is based in Madrid, Spain, so that shouldn’t be a surprise, right?
Well, Tentai Books is unique in that they are launching as a bilingual publisher, releasing both in Spanish and English. That means that they cover the second and third most spoken languages in the world by number of native speakers, and the number one most spoken language in the world. Native Spanish speakers who usually read English translations of light novels will actually have a choice. Or maybe those who are learning either of the two languages can pick up both and work on their comprehension and localization.
So that’s nice and all, but what is Tentai Books releasing? Their first two light novels are There’s no way a side character like me could be popular, right? (Un personaje secundario como yo nunca podría ser popular, ¿verdad?) and Welcome to the Diner of the Exiled! (¡Bienvenido al Diner de los Exiliados!). The first is a romcom harem, and the latter is a cooking story set in a fantasy world. Both series were serialized on Shousetsuka ni Narou website and later published by Overlap, home of titles like Arifureta – From Commonplace to World’s Strongest, Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, and How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom.
Welcome to the Diner of the Exiled! isn’t scheduled yet, but There’s no way a side character like me could be popular, right? is being released digitally on May 29th. While that release will have a physical version, Tentai will wait and see the response to that one before deciding whether Welcome to the Diner of the Exiled! will get a print version too. In fact, the publisher currently has a poll on their Facebook page asking what size and price point combination readers would prefer.
The ebook versions will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play Books, Kobo, and Tentai Books’ own store with a Book Walker release later. Physical copies will be sold on their webstore as well as Amazon and, later, Book Depository. According to the publisher, “Though we have plans for a physical release (and a very special one!) we are yet uncertain about when will we be able to offer the best shipping prices to everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic going on. Therefore, we will not put any physical versions on pre-order until we’re 100% sure that we can offer the best shipping choices to everyone who wants a copy.”
New volumes are expected every 2-3 months, but they may be able to release them faster in the future.
The website is mostly standard, but one thing that is really nice is that Tentai Books has a four chapter preview of There’s no way a side character like me could be popular, right? available. The site does not a web reader like the major publishers/webstores have; it’s a pdf file. Yes, chapters are rather short (as is typical of web novels), but that’s still 32 pages. For a lot of venues, the sample is pathetic with things like the copyright page sucking up the limited preview.
Unlike most translated light novels, There’s no way a side character like me could be popular, right? uses honorifics. Even rarer, Japanese name order (surname first). Perhaps Welcome to the Diner of the Exiled! could be different since it’s a fantasy series versus one set in Japan, but thanks to the preview, at least readers — whether for or against honorifics — know it’s a possibility they will be kept.
I did read through the preview. While the translation seemed good overall, I did think that it needs an editor. Some of their stylistic choices may be in-house decisions or perhaps based on Spanish language standards, but others were clearly errors. For example, at the bottom of page 16: “‘Well, I’m just gonna go to class now, and… aActually, scratch that.'” Other things I noticed:
- Somewhat odd language (mandude, endcut the conversation)
- Student Council was sometimes capitalized, sometimes not.
- Single quotes around around an internal thought, which is almost never recommended by grammar experts
- One space for a new paragraph instead of the usual tab.
None of these makes There’s no way a side character like me could be popular, right? unreadable, but with a new company debuting, I don’t think some extra polish would hurt.
Seven Seas and J-Novel Club have several series from Overlap already, and I’m curious as to Tentai Books’ future licenses. Will they concentrate on Overlap light novels, or will they be able to connect with other publishers? Will Tentai Books pursue mainly shounen-type works, or will they target other demographics?
Of course, their future depends on their first releases. And I’m sure it can’t be easy as a new company trying to make plans with COVID-19 still causing a lot of shakeups around the world even with a digital-first debut. Still, this is more evidence that the light novel boom is continuing, and with Japan providing plenty of content, I’m sure it won’t be long before another start-up publisher enters the scene.