Announcement

A Question About “Is It Tough Being a Friend”

Alright, I made a bunch of announcements in the past couple of days, so one more wouldn’t hurt. As you know, I’m going to continue “The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs”. You may have also noticed that “Is It Tough Being a Friend” has been relabeled as “Status Unknown” in the process. So, it’s time to address this topic.

It has already been a couple of months since I last worked on “Is It Tough Being a Friend,” and in that time frame, “The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs” has grown immensely popular (like seriously, how am I getting 80+ comments per post?). So that begs the question of what to do with this novel. One possibility is to work on it after catching up with the “The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs”, since as of this writing, there are only two volumes. However, that would involve a lot of waiting on your guys’ end. It also assumes that I would be able to finish volume 2 before volume 3 comes out. Another method is to work on them simultaneously, but that would essentially halve the update rate of both, since I’m splitting my time for two novels rather than focusing my effort onto one. The other possibility is to leave it to someone else to pick it up, though that may not be so favorable after considering your guys’ reactions to that one time in the very recent past where I almost dropped a certain novel.

What do you guys think?

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48 thoughts on “A Question About “Is It Tough Being a Friend””

    1. So? This is something that you needed to talk about. Heck, it could be called “the Elephant in the room” at this point, so it needed addressed.

  1. I would prefer you finish translate one volume after another, so after you finished Vol 2 of Otome Game you could do the rest of Is it Tough to be a Friend then if Vol 3 of Otome game is out you could do it

    1. I second this. I’d rather finish my own plate before getting another one. Still, thank you very much for translating TL-sama.

    2. I also support this opinion. Plus, as a former translator, I too know how hard it can be when translating a novel alone. It’s better to do things one at a time rather than to attempt to juggle your translating. Plus, I imagine that there will be times when your brain can fry itself with all the information of both novels jumbling through your head. Therefore, it’s better to not “bite more than you can chew”.

  2. I’ve come here since you last Translated “Is It Tough Being a Friend.” I honestly didn’t know you were translating it, and after reading the description, I’m not sure I care.

  3. Your call. TBH in the past you have said your self, you get burned out by doing the same novel too much. With the fact that you are pensive with the more political side of things, you might want to just have to take a break mid production. So if you feel you need a break now take it, if you want to try taking it slow, do both at the same time, and see how that feels. Or just powerthru and do the other book.

    you are your own master.

  4. Shock me between EV training…

    Well for me i don’t mind waiting because if you really continue until the end of that otome story im just gonna wait as long i alive… im really want to know “how deep the rabbit hole that i have committed to jump down”.

  5. As much as a like “The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs” I understand you don’t like the more political side of the history. If you would like to alternate between each chapter of the two or translate one volume of each novel i wouldn’t complain. I’m more worried about you getting burned out in the long run so you taking a break every so often wouldn’t be so bad either, a week or two aren’t so bad every so often.

    Good luck in whatever you choose!

  6. Is it though being a friend’s Illustrator is Benio-sensei?
    The artwork looks the same with Slime taoshite (haven’t read the novel yet)

  7. Well… it’s about time you addressed the elephant in the room. Personally, I’d love it if you ever got back to it. Or you could be like most TL’s and try to tackle an update of one and then an update of the other, but I don’t think your confidence is ready for that. But hey, I’m willing to wait a bit. I like both stories, both Main Characters are trying to stay out of the spotlight and their attempts only cause the spotlight to shine even more on them. So yeah, you can get on to it after you catch up on Otome.

    On a side note… there’s actually more than two more volumes on Syosetu right now for Otome. I’m not saying anymore because that will be a spoiler. Which begs the question, are you doing the actual Light Novel or the Web version on Syosetu?

      1. Thanks for answering. I’m kinda glad you’re not doing the web version. I force myself to read it via Google Translate, but I look forward to the differences between the two.

  8. If you’re aiming to satisfy the greatest number of people, focus mainly on Otome game and just leave tough being a friend until you finish volume 2. Honestly I think most people will end up re reading it when you do post a new chapter, so it would be best to do it when you can purely focus on it. However, even if you don’t announce you’ve dropped it, after 3 months of not posting a novel it seems to be considered open season for other translators to pick it up without remorse, so just be prepared for the event of someone picking it up.

    My ideal situation would be for you to finish mob volume 2 and then to friend. I would say it’s up to you, but given the difference in readership sizes between the two a lot of people would be disappointed if you chose friend rather than spending two or three months just focusing on mob kun. I’m curious as to what the results would be if you asked the question in the form of a poll.

    Thanks for the update~

    1. Seconded..if u really want to know which one between mob or friend more liked by your reader..you can start a poll

  9. I’d prefer if you finished Is it Tough being a friend before starting book 2 of Otome Game.

    Or alternate, if you so desire.

    But I miss the good old snarker.

    Hope you are well,
    FelixisSparky

  10. I would focus on finishing Otome game since there’s only 2 volumes. Given your speed you should be able to finish Vol 2 before Vol 3 comes out, and during that gap you can work on the other novel. Of course I’m biased cause I want more Otome Game 😛

  11. I don’t know the rate of how fast you translate each chapter but I’d say do Like a few chapters of each, and just release it at an equal or a bit slower pace and have a back log of already translated chapters so you can do either LN slowly.

    TLDR: translate as much as you can and don’t do instant releases of the chapters so you can have a backlog to fall back on and take necessary breaks.

    I do appreciate you translating Is it tough being a friend, it’s one of my fav. Ln rn.

  12. Although I would personally prefer is it tough being friend, I think you should first focus on mob volume 2, then whether the volume 3 is released or not, go back to friend, giving some time for the auther to think about volume 4. Or you can do it the ither way around. Post friend first until mob volume 3 is release, then released. You need to post mob slowly because sometimes fever runs down and people lost interest in a novel waiting for the next volume, especially people who are used to reading lots of volumes continuously. This happened to me sometimes so no matter what choice you choose, you need to post mob slowly to give the auther some time.
    Well, I will be rooting for you no matter what.

  13. Thank you for the consideration, aniki.
    In my opinion, reading “The World of Otome Games” first before continuing “It’s Hard Being a Friend” will be a better choice… but the decision is up to you.

    Whatever you decide, I will follow aniki.

  14. Lets see, I assume “otome” are much more popular than “friend”, but “friend” have much more released books (6 books) compare to “otome” with only 2 volume out, my suggestion is to work on both novel however with priority on “otome”, after finished translating “otome” (volume 2), switch priority to ‘friend” novel. Of course, in the end its your decision, do whatever you want its your life. (except stop translating, you are our e-slave, lol just joking …… Or am I?). And my suggestion is a bit biased, cos i only read “otome”, but i gonna start reading “friend” after work

  15. Well, my opinions is to caught up to Otome World as much as you can first, to either volume 2 or 3. Then go back to Tough Friend

    1. I agree to this. I also love both and want to see you continue translating these light novels but I don’t want to make it a burden to translate 2 light novels.

  16. Finish “Otome” first than pick up the “Its Tough” after you catched up. No need to stress yourself trying to work on both and somehow ended up overloaded with work and not getting anything put out. Only do what you can please never push/stress yourself. Take care 😀

  17. I prefer if you finish ths world otome first

    And is from syosetsu bad?

    I see it almost same and you can update latter if the light novel out

  18. Should stick with Otome for now. After finishing vol2 can try a couple chs for Friend while waiting for vol3. Personally prefer Otome over Friend and some of the commenters don’t seem like they’d be able to handle longer delays.

  19. I’d honestly prefer that you just translate whatever you want to translate. Can completely understand how you may get bored by translating one series alone, so it’s always good to either just take a break or do something new for a change.

  20. Hi. First time poster, moderately timed lurker. Personally, I really wish you finish “Is It Tough Being a Friend” before doing volume 2 of “The World of Otome Games is Tough For Mobs”. I’d be fine if you went back and forth between a couple of series. I think keeping it to about 3 you rotate through (unless caught up to raws) would work great, keep you from being bored with the same series and keep the rotation small enough where people arren’t waiting a year+ for the next volume.

    And… please if you’re going on a hiatus of series, wait till the end of volume? Thank you

  21. Take your time to do only one…. just do it after you finish “the world of otome game”….. it can be tiring to work on 2 projects when you (assuming) don’t have a lot of manpower and it wouldn’t be fun for you either if you had too much schedule to work on your translation

  22. I like both novels and would like you to work on both. Though I prefer you working on them one at a time. However, I don’t care which order you translate them in. In short so long as you plan to translate both of them eventually I’m happy.

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