December 31, 2016

New Twelve Kingdoms novel (still not yet)

On December 28, Shinchosha published an update on its Twelve Kingdoms website (and also to Fuyumi Ono's Twitter feed). Last year, Shinchosha announced that Fuyumi Ono was working on the next installment in the Twelve Kingdoms series, due out the summer of 2016.

That deadline came and went. Now at the end of 2016, Shinchosha has apologized that they had "nothing new to announce this year." But don't worry. A Twelve Kingdoms novel is still in works. However, "Ono Sensei's spell of ill health has dragged on a bit longer" than expected.

Shinchosha regrets not providing any concrete details and implores Ono Sensei's readers to bear with them a little while longer. They will continue to press forward, grateful for everyone's continuing support in the New Year.

Here is my translation of the recent update.

There are only four days left in 2016. Alas, having not made any new announcements this year, we have caused you a good deal of anxiety.

Ono Sensei is hard at work on her new novel. However, her spell of ill health has lingered a little while longer. In the face of your high expectations, we apologize for not being able to provide a firm publication date.

We are most grateful for your understanding and ask you to grant us a bit more time.

The film adaptation of Zan'e (『残穢』) was released in 2016. We hope to provide fresh details about The Twelve Kingdoms in 2017. Once we have a better grasp of the situation, we will first let you know on this website.

The staff of Shinchosha is pressing forward as one in order to make 2017 as wonderful as possible. We humbly request and appreciate your continuing support, and wish you all the best in the coming New Year.

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Comments
# posted by Blogger Zedta
1/03/2017 5:46 PM   
Some how I feel like the new novel will even exceed the previous '>1000 pages' estimate considerably.
# posted by Anonymous Lims
1/04/2017 11:11 AM   
I have the same feeling, especially since I remember reading somewhere before that I is planned to be 2-novels format. Hopefully, this year will bring more positive news on whether it will be scheduled for publication or not.
# posted by Blogger gkatar
1/04/2017 5:11 PM   
Thankyou very much for letting us know :)
# posted by Blogger HarpyGirl
1/09/2017 7:52 PM   
Eugene, I just wanted to say thanks for keeping all of us English speaking fans informed. Seriously, thank you. And I no there are quite a few people out there who would not have had the chance to read the novels if it wasn't for you, myself included.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous
1/12/2017 1:39 AM   
Thanks so much for the update. I also very much appreciate all the translations. Looking forward to Taiki's story conclusion... and prolly a little bit of Ryuu kingdom. :)
# posted by Blogger Unknown
1/14/2017 8:00 AM   
Hi, this question might sound a bit random but do you know when you completed your translation of the first volume (the first chapter would be good as well)? I'm trying to figure out when some of the earliest fan-translations of light and web novels were done. From the looks of it 12 kingdoms might be the oldest of the japanese fan-translations so a more exact date would be helpful. The best date I can guess is January 7, 2004.

If you need it my email for PM purposes it's yascob09@gmail.com.

Here's my reddit post on the topic: https://www.reddit.com/r/LightNovels/comments/5nwpds/question_when_were_the_first_weblight_novel_fan/?st=ixx3ivbp&sh=1e330091
# posted by Blogger Eugene
1/14/2017 12:53 PM   
Searching through my archives, I found a draft of the introduction I wrote for Shadow of the Moon that dates to May 2004. And some emails in October from readers responding to the chapters I'd posted online. None of the timestamps precede the February 2004 archive, so I'll take that evidence as definitive.

However, using the Wayback Machine, I see that as early as October 2003 I had a link on my site to Mashed Potatoes of a Girl's Heart (which I titled "Kendo Girl") by Youko Kurahashi (Kodansha Paperbacks). I'd worked on a couple of manga before then, but I believe that was my first (light) novel translation.
# posted by Blogger Vannie
4/22/2017 5:31 PM   
A big thanks for the announcement's translation... I wouldn't have know about this without your blog...
# posted by Anonymous Bernard
11/05/2020 6:03 PM   
What happened to your translation of Mashed Potatoes of a Girl's Heart ("Kendo Girl") by Youko Kurahashi? I know I've read it online back then and wanted to reread it but i can't find it anymore on your site, neither did i find an other english version of it.
# posted by Blogger Eugene
11/07/2020 8:30 AM   
Thanks for reminding me! I found a backup of the Kendo Girl files in my archives. I'll post the translation as soon as I can get around to editing and updating the manuscript.