Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24878656-20150412035418

Dear all,

Morgane here. HandgunOtonashi and a few other folks from chat has kindly suggested that I put the discussion here for everyone to look at.

Tl;dr: English summaries of the official light novels, Y/N?

Slightly longer version:

I've always been personally interested in the "lore" or stories behind the fandom. It just so happens that I've read and enjoyed some of the light novels, and thought that you guys might be interested in it as well.

I am well aware of the necessity of respecting copyright and intellectual property. As we lack a centralized "fandom" location for people to gather, I thought I would approach Wikia's community first to ask if it would be okay for me to:

1. Post summaries - in the same way as I've summarized Cranes I - somewhere here, in the same way as I've done so in a few other places. I figure I'd ask here because reception for them has been nonexistent in other places, and I was chided for wasting my time and effort.

So I thought I'd ask first. x)

I am primarily interested in bringing the Kagero LNs to light, as those keep on getting better and better. Seriously, I can't rave enough about this thing. Deliciously grimdark but with a sort of optimism found in the early 80s shonen works, the LN series is about a ragtag bunch of misfits that you'd never thought you would actually care about. The girls themselves are aware (in-universe) that they serve as little more than cannon fodder, but watching DesDiv14 solve things with little more than a hilariously large amount of hotbloodedness and the power of love and friendship is very, very rewarding.

I've attached a bit of a teaser (translation of vol. 3, first section of chapter 1) to whet everyone's appetites.

It‘s unfortunate that humanity is no longer master of the oceans.

''In a time long past, mankind freely sailed the seven seas. Ships carried people and produce, linking land to land, continent to continent. The waters freely shouldered the responsibility of creating a better life for everyone.''

''But this idyllic time is no more. Now, the oceans have a new master. From the depths, this new master begun a ceaseless campaign of death and destruction. The seas became the birthplace and homeland of nightmares. The name of this new master? ''

''The abyssal fleet. ''

''Nobody knows where the abyssals came from. What they did know was that it was an enemy of humanity. Some think they are machine, others think they are organic. Still others believe that they are from somewhere in the universe. These matters scholars debate endlessly.''

''Whatever their origins may be, there is one way to fight them. A small group of specialized human beings, carrying miniaturaized weapons, are able to bring the fight to the abyssal fleet. These, are the guardians of humanity - ship girls. Young women equipped with weapons found on warships. ''

''Sortiing out from the naval bases, the ship girls are locked in a relentless struggle against the abyssal fleet. Wherever the abyssals invade, the ship girls will fight back to retake the oceans for humanity. Sometimes they are victorious, othertimes, they are not.''

''All for the sake of peace. For the sake of restoring the oceans to what it once was.''

''And now, a ship girl belonging to Yokosuke naval base, is rapidly moving within a certain northern sector, somewhere in the oceans. ''

2. Link places (to be determined by the community - I'm thinking something like Amazon) where the novels can be purchased.

As an additional thought, I'd like to propose that we allow for ...

3. The direct translation of selected passages - I've posted examples of my own translations for the Kagero LNs here and here. I believe stuff like this falls under fair use, especially if it's in context of discussing the work as a whole.

Sorry to make this sound overly pedantic or academic. What do you guys think? Because I honestly believe fandom could use a place where we can talk about this stuff. x) 