New article: Does the Light Novel Translation Process Need AI?

1 week ago

I’m glad to finally share my new piece of reporting for Anime News Network, Does the Light Novel Translation Process Need AI?. This is one of the longer features I mentioned I had in the works in last month’s blog post.

It really says something about the AI debate that I began working on this article back in May. This topic is just as relevant as it was six months ago.

This is the central idea of the story:

One of the biggest buzzwords in light novel translation today is Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE). With MTPE, a machine translation tool generates a raw translation, which is then smoothed and localized by a human translator. As an insider at a major light novel publisher told Anime News Network, “Of course, we’re looking into MTPE, everyone is.” But is that true? More importantly, do AI translation tools really work?

I centered this article around just one light novel series, The Ascendance of a Bookworm, both because it’s a very good series and because the pieces fell perfectly into place. I spoke to the novel’s publisher, Sam Pinanski and Andrew Schubauer of J-Novel Club; its official translator, Quof; and Tristan “Arkada” Gallant, a Youtuber fan who read the novel both in AI translation and in the form of its official release. I also spoke to industry professional Katrina Leonoudakis who was not only a valuable source but an essential aid in my reporting process.

Going into this story, I expected that fans would support MTPE (the better to get light novels more quickly) while translators would be opposed to it. I was surprised when the biggest proponent in the story was Quof, the official translator.

A cursory glance at my Bluesky account will tell you where I personally stand on the issue, because I’ve liked and RT’d a lot of anti-AI sentiments. Like I’ve been saying since 2011 when I wrote the Otaku Journalist Manifesto, I think it’s important to acknowledge my biases directly in order to produce authentic journalism. I don’t think “objective reporting” ought to be a journalist’s highest aspiration. Instead, I used my own opinions on this topic to inspire my interview questions and fuel my curiosity about the story. The result is an article that allows readers to draw their own conclusions, or so I hope. You can let me know if I was successful.

Read it for yourself when you press the big ol’ button:

Read my article on ANN

Of The Manga I Read In Fall, These Were Some

Journalism, Writing

3 weeks ago

These days it feels like Halloween stretches out for an entire month. Between pumpkin patches, Trunk or Treat, and the neighborhood Halloween parade, I’ve spent the last four weeks escorting my kids in their costumes—and Halloween isn’t even here yet. What’s more, I have not been dressing up myself, which a few people who know I wrote a whole book on cosplay have remarked on as strange. Rather than esoterically remarking on the world of difference between “cosplay” and “costume,” I got a tiny witch hat to wear.

For me it’s not the costumes that have been my favorite part of the season, but the opportunity to paint many children’s faces. I loved to paint faces as a teenager, and now that I’m a parent I have a ton more opportunities to do it at birthday parties, fall festivals, and now Halloween. It’s allegedly volunteerwork, but I am just psyched they let me do it for free. The best part of face painting? Even when I do what I perceive to be a bad job, the kids are happy. This year I splurged on a set of split cakes (this one, if you must know), so I can rainbow stripe my way through any obstacles. Or if it looks really wonky, I can stick a gem on it.

In between all of this Halloween, I’ve stayed committed to my two main goals: hitting the gym and reading questionable manga and light novels. Now that the ANN Fall Manga Guide is out, I’m excited to share my impressions! I’m not going to pretend these are the best ones I read, but they’re all pretty interesting or at least bad in an unusual way. So without further fanfare: out of all the manga I read for the Fall Manga Guide, these were certainly some of them:

What Do You Call This Trash?

“Forget ‘manic pixie dream girl.’ This dumpster fire romance stars a girl who is just manic.” Read this one in public to signal to passersby that you support women’s wrongs.

Sun Tzu’s Art of War: The Manga Edition

On the one hand, this book was bad. On the other hand, it sent me down a Chinese military history research hole afterwards for about a week. So who can say.

The Princess I Loved in My Past Life is Now a Middle-Aged Dad

“It’s rare for me to read a book described as BL and want to recommend it to people who aren’t BL fans… This is a gag manga about a love that transcends age, gender, and even lifetimes.”

In the Twilight of Our Adolescence

This is my stand-out title this fall. “Romance takes a backseat to self discovery, but the bonds these characters develop as they work through this universal metamorphosis we call being a teen offer a unique layer of warmth.”

Kamudo

“It’s clearly inspired by The Legend of Zelda, but its inventive character designs and forthright heroic narrative make it a must-try for fantasy fans.” This high fantasy is sure to become an instant classic.

Phantom Busters

Not Ghostbusters, but a second legally-distinct thing. “[T]here’s really nothing new about Phantom Busters, and yet I found myself reading this fast-paced adventure all in one go.”

Hyping my own Otakon coverage

Anime, Journalism, Writing

1 month ago

I don’t write very much in summer anymore. Each June, I realize that the only way I was ever able to be productive was because somebody else was watching my kids.

This summer, I had the kids in summer camp for about 3 hours a day, time I’d use to hit the gym and run errands, rinse and repeat. However, that all changed when Otakon came around. I signed up for 10 hours of coverage at the convention for Anime News Network—and ended up writing an interview for Anime Herald as well!

I’m not sure if I’m out of practice or what, but as soon as I left Otakon on Sunday, I was bedridden with a high fever for two days! When I woke up, I wrote like the wind to get my write-ups done before our family vacation the following week. In those days I realized that with proper motivation, I could have been productive the whole summer, kids or no!

Here are most of the articles I wrote about Otakon 2025:

When’s The Best Time To Scream In Public? Catching Up With Ladybeard At Otakon 2025

There is nobody like Ladybeard, the most unique performer I have ever had the pleasure of meeting in two countries. Now that I’ve been covering his career for nine years, I framed this interview like a retrospective. And now that I’ve been weight training more, you know I had to ask him about his weekly splits.

Ryoko Shiraishi Goes Camping

Ryoko Shiraishi is best known as the voice actor for the titular Hayate the Combat Butler, but she also has some great campfire food and drink recs. For Otakon’s 2025 Camping theme, Shiraishi taught us all her take on the American s’more (a toasted marshmallow dipped in crunchy cereal) and wondered whether it’s still called a “hot dog” without the bun.

Apothecaries and Assassins: Q&A with Minoji Kurata

Otakon needed to do a better job vetting questions for Minoji Kurata, one of the two manga artists currently creating comics inspired by the Apothecary Diaries novels. I gasped when somebody asked about the other artist’s tax evasion scandal (Kurata declined to answer). Didn’t put any of that in this writeup but I thought you should know!

This Monster Wants to Eat Me Spins a Deadly Fairy Tale

Move over, Monster Boy Summer! Monster Girl Fall is here with this fantastic yuri horror. I adored the premiere and I’m happy there’s a show to fill The Summer Hikaru Died-shaped hole in my heart. I love when yuri is edgier than it is sweet, and this definitely fits the bill.

Welcome Back to the Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- is a reminder to never give up hope that your favorite one-season anime could get a revival, even years later. This is the rare otome show to receive such a boon, which makes it special even though I think the content is fairly generic. Can we do Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun next, please?

I am pretty sure I completed at least one more write-up but it’s lost to either Anime News Network’s dodgy search function or my poor, long-suffering editors’ mile-long backlog. In its stead you can check out my pieces for the Fall Anime Preview Guide or my submission to our most recent editorial group column: Anime Dubs As Good As Cowboy Bebop. And I know this doesn’t hold much weight from somebody who writes a blog post every 5 months, but I just completed two longform features that I’m vibrating with excitement to share. Hopefully soon!

My 10 Best and Worst of the Spring Manga Guide

Anime, Writing

6 months ago

Beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic, I began recording a list of books I read each year to mark the passage of time and remind myself that I was still making progress in my life. Now that it’s May, my tally of books for this year so far is… 56. That’s over 10 books a month!

I’ve become a voracious reader ever since I began contributing to the Anime News Network Spring and Fall Manga, Manhwa, and Light Novel Guides. (Yes, I’m counting manga as books.) I’ve had so much fun getting paid to essentially write mini book reports.

For the Spring 2025 Manga, Manhwa, and Light Novel guides, I wrote a total of 51 reviews. If you think I write a lot, you should see my editor, Rebecca: she wrote 78! Here are the 10 books that left the biggest impressions on me, for better or worse:

1) Fluffy-Eared Realm Restoration: Taking It Slow with My Cool Big Brother LN

“If you got a do-over at life, what’s the first thing you’d redo? If you answered “my brother,” have I got the book for you.” This is without a doubt the best opening zinger I wrote all season.

2) Miri Lives in the Cat’s Eyes LN

“It combines supernatural powers, romance, murder, the world’s most dramatic drama club (and I realize there is tough competition for that title), on top of the sometimes stifling reality of what life was like in 2020.” A riveting murder mystery set in COVID-19 era Japan.

3) Super Ball Girls

“A bone-chilling science fiction thriller that combines sex appeal and body horror, it felt like a hot girl version of Parasyte and left me both unsettled and ready for more.” NOT what I was expecting as the sophomore follow-up from the Blue Lock creator, but I’m not complaining!

4) Momfluencer

“The story is unpleasant and unflinching—the exact opposite of the bland fantasies that Momfluencers aspire to sell, which makes it fascinating. The whole thing is deliciously messy. Everyone is awful, and I can’t wait for their bad behavior to blow up in their faces.”

5) Tamaki & Amane

My only 5-star review of the season. “A literary fiction about the chance tender connections between multiple people who all happen to be named Tamaki or Amane, this manga’s gentle art, ear for dialogue, and focus on the ordinary dramas of daily life ruthlessly left me for dead.”

6) Pink Candy Kiss

I think this is going to be the next Run Away With Me Girl. “Pink Candy Kiss is novel not only because it’s one of the rare yuri titles that focuses on adult women. It also merits praise for flipping the tired old myth about lesbianism being an acceptable phase solely for teenage girls.”

7) Dinghai Fusheng Records LN

This one reminded me that it’s important to read the entire light novel before writing my review. At 60% complete, I’d written a positive review about its comic premise. At 70% complete, they killed off the MC’s dog! “It felt like a comedy and a tragedy mashed together, and I never could tell when it was going to switch from one to the other.”

8) Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary

“I was delighted and not at all surprised to learn that the author used to be a kindergarten teacher. Anyone who spends a lot of time around young kids can tell you how good they are at scaring adults.” It was very hard for me not to bring up my daughter’s terrifying imaginary friend while I was writing this review.

9) JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 7: Steel Ball Run

This volume was my most anticipated. “I thought to myself, I will be prepared for anything [this] can throw at me. Readers, I was a fool. Immediately starting with its opening salvo, this manga is explosively weird (one might even say bizarre) with a style that is certainly typical of previous JoJo arcs, but with an inventive streak that separates it from anything that came before.”

10) The Summer Hikaru Died LN

This was my favorite light novel that I read, even after reading the manga first. I’m so excited for the anime adaptation this summer. “This light novel is not simply a blow-by-blow synopsis of the manga, but a haunting and immersive experience on its own.”

You can check out the entire Spring 2025 Manga, Manhwa, and Light Novel guides on Anime News Network. I spent the better part of three months working on them, so I’d appreciate a click.