Chapter 55 Omake: Regular Price

Translator: Kriz

Editor: 5d100

First published on Ainushi

 

 

「Asakura-san, take a look. This is the latest MS Bunko title that’ll be released tomorrow…」

「Andou-kun, let’s see… Ueee! It’s 800 yen + tax!? That price!? If it’s MS Bunko then it’s going to be a pocket paperback size light novel, isn’t it?」

「Yea, it’s about 520 pages in total. Isn’t that much?」

「It’s as much as just who in their freaking mind came up with Blunt Weapon in the Middle of Nowhere…」

「It’s rare to see light novels the size of Blunt Weapon… Frankly, it’s because of its sheer size that the price jacks up, making it harder for buyers to buy into it.」

「I know what you mean. It’s true that new works can’t sell without a hype-fueled gimmick, but it can have the opposite effect if it directly impacts our wallets.」

「Absolutely, right! It’s 800 yen but once you add in the sales tax, it’ll roughly be 900 yen. That’s like a Noguchi in terms of the damage to the wallet.」

「Yeah. Plus, the new novels nowadays tend to be in the 600 yen range, so if you buy two or three books, it’s not surprising that it’s well over two Noguchis’.」

「Though if you think about it, a Noguchi for a volume isn’t too bad.」

「For the price of a standard Narou tankoubon, then it isn’t too bad; but it feels oddly expensive for a bunko sized light novel.」

「When you put it that way, then I agree… But『Narou』is like a drug for people like us. We don’t think about our wallets when we buy the books, but after purchasing them, don’t we look into our wallets and see that a lot more of our Noguchis’ have disappeared than we thought?」

「Yes, yes, yes! It happened to me a while back too… I’m certain I should have at least two to three more Noguchi—Eh, huh!? Why isn’t there a single bill left!? Oh… I bought『That Time I Reincarnated as a Plastic Model』aka『TenPura』… Something like that…」

「You bought the first and second volumes, huh… Fairly sure that’s a tankoubon size so it’ll have cost about 1200 yen.」

「Anyway, Andou-kun. About that new light novel that’s releasing tomorrow, does it look interesting?」

「Yeah, from the promotional pages, it looks like a dark fantasy, so I have a good feeling about it.」

「Which one was it? Ah, that does look good… But for 520 pages long, I do wish they had split it up into two volumes .」

「Hmm, maybe it’s difficult to split the story up? Besides, a new work has to have a certain level of popularity for the first volume, otherwise it’ll be discontinued immediately…」

「Oh, that’s true…『Narou』works has a lot of loyal readers, so there aren’t a lot of new titles that are discontinued after the first volume.」

「Lately, there has been an increase in a number of axed『Narou』novels though…」

「So, are you going to be getting that novel anyway, Andou-kun?」

「Hmm… I’m interested, but it’s too pricey.」

「I-In that case, as I’m also interested in the light novel… H-How about we split the cost between the both of us, and lend it to each other so we can both r-read it…?」

「Eh…」

「I-Is that a no?」

 

Ugh… What should I do? Was that too bold of me? B-B-But this shouldn’t seem out of place, given the direction the conversation was flowing. I-If Andou-kun agrees to this then… Uhehe~ we’ll be going on a date after school tomorrow to the bookstore… Just kidding!

 

　KYAAAA~~~!!! (Asakura)

 

「I can’t let you just come out with the money, Asakura-san! It’s alright. If you’re also interested in it, then tomorrow I’ll just purchase it with my own cash like usual.」

 

GAHHHHH! (Asakura)

 

「Oh… Y-You sure?」

「Ah! Of course, after I’ve bought it, I’ll be sure to also lend it to you. In fact, if you want to read it first, I’ll be happy to lend it to you.」

「N-No, that’s alright. I’m fine reading it later.」

 

And so… this means the two of us won’t be having a date tomorrow at the bookstoreeeeee! (Asakura)

Translation Note:

  1. Blunt Weapon in the Middle of Nowhere/Kyoukai Senjou no Donki: AAAAAAA!!!! Sorry, I’m a super hardcore fangirl of this series. It’s crazy but it’s jam packed with details albeit nout enough. A lot of folks hate the anime but I do love it for its ultra talking whackiness. Anyway, I digress.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon_in_the_Middle_of_Nowhere
  2. Noguchi: It took me forever to realize they’re referring to the 1000 yen note, which has the portrait of Hideyo Noguchi. Roughly $10 USD or 150 GBP.
  3. Tankoubon and Bunko:

    In Japan, there are various size or publication style books. Tankoubon and Bunko are two that gets thrown out a lot if you are into light novels or manga, and purchase them a lot from Japan. Here’s the actual size and breakdown per Wiki’s description:

    Tankoubon: The term also refers to the format itself—a comic collection in a trade paperback sized (roughly 13 cm × 18 cm, 5 in × 7 in) book (as opposed to the larger 18 cm × 25 cm, 7 in × 10 in format used by traditional American graphic novels). Although Japanese manga tankobon may be in various sizes, the most common are Japanese B6 (12.8 cm × 18.2 cm, 5.04 in × 7.17 in) and ISO A5 (14.8 cm × 21.0 cm, 5.83 in × 8.27 in). The tankōbon format has made inroads in the American comics market, with several major publishers opting to release some of their titles in this smaller format, which is sometimes also called “digest format” or “digest size”. In the United States, many manga are released in the so-called “Tokyopop trim” or “Tokyopop size” (approximately 13 cm × 19 cm, 5 in × 7.5 in).

    Bunkobon: In Japan, bunkobon (文庫本) are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and space saving. The great majority of bunkobon are A6 (105×148mm or 4.1″×5.8″) in size. They are sometimes illustrated and (like other Japanese paperbacks) usually have a dust wrapper over a plain cover. They are used for similar purposes as Western mass market paperbacks: generally for cheaper editions of books which have already been published as hardbacks. However, they are typically printed on durable paper and durably bound, and some works are initially published in bunkobon format.

  4. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Plastic Model: Parody of That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime aka TenSura. The reason I kept the short name as TenPura instead of translating it directly as Plastic Isekai is because there was an anime tie-in promotion that TenSura did a while back with Nissin. Guess what the tie-in title was? That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Hyoue Tempura Soba 😛 Check out the commercial on the site. It’s fucking hilarious!
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