Rant: Novel Planet

Before I start, I want everyone to know that I’ve at least got a paragraph in on the next chapter of LGDK. Now without further adieu, the rant:

A few months back while on KissManga, I discovered a new tab. It was for Novels. I’ve ignored it for a while, but now I’ve clicked on it. And was introduced to the horror known as Novel Planet.

What is Novel Planet you ask? It’s kinda like Baka-Tsuki, one of my favorite sites in the past. But… it’s not at the same time. It’s also like the Novel Updates site when it comes to searching. What it really is… is something I despise. It’s basically a site that re-posts fan translations done by translators. That’s right, it’s a host site.

Normally, I’m fine with these things. Hell, I like to haunt KissManga. However… what they’re doing is leeching off others sites. I know, KissManga does the same thing. The only difference is that some of the pages are done by the translators to recruit people and remind them that there’s such things as Patreon. Yeah, we will know if there’s a patreon for the translators of the novels… because the site blatantly copies everything.

For shits and giggles, I looked up the 35th chapter of Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai Douchuu… it’s the very first chapter that I edited for Reigokai. It even says that I’m the editor. I even checked for chapters of others that are on my Recommended Reads page, basically copy/pastes of the originals. All they do is copy and paste everything!

I will admit, the site has it’s good side as well. You can find all that’s currently translated of “The Devil is a Part-Timer” on there. I know because I’m subscribed to Mittens-220’s Live Journal so I know when it releases. I’ve had to personally email some people I met on KissManga (in an indirect way of letting them find my email address) the PDF files that I’ve downloaded from Mittens’ site so they could read ahead of the manga. Mainly because on KissManga I role-play as Maou Sadou. You know it’s me because I use the same avatar as I do on WordPress. Anyway, you can find the PDFs on there as well for other things, such as DanMachi.

Look, my rant is that this is pirating. I know, translating novels is also a form of piracy. But this is pirating from pirates. These guys are even pirating from Baka-Tsuki. This is stealing traffic from their sites, thus giving less support to the translators. If the translators don’t get the traffic from the readers, they will eventually think that no one really cares. I’ve never felt bad about this when on KissManga or KissAnime before. But… I don’t know how to feel anymore.

I know this was yet another useless rant. However… it’s a rant that I felt that I had to do. I’m sure that anyone who reads this rant has their own feelings on the matter. It’s just something that I couldn’t hold in anymore, that’s all. As for me, I will stick to reading from the translators’ sites as much as possible. Whether it be on WordPress or BlogSpot, I will try to keep reading from those sources.