Curling is a joke of a sport for Americans. No disrespect is meant by that statement; I probably would enjoy watching it if the opportunity arises and to me it’s as valid of a sport as any other, but that’s just my observation.
The other day at NYCC I stopped by a Japanese publisher’s booth, complete with a translated sample of a light novel pitch. The curling aspect of the proposed light novel was not the only surprise; that there was a booth about light novels was the bigger surprise. I think it’s kind of a thing at big cons like NYCC to see at least one Japanese media company going around without a very good idea what is out there in the marketplace in the US. Their pitch was to see if someone would publish their new “LANOVE” which took me a second to get. Yeah, it’s that bad.
The good thing about these guys is that they kind of know what’s going on and that’s partly why they’re trying to hit it up. It’s a light novel pitch because it isn’t even published (in Japan) yet. I took a leaflet and didn’t read it until well after the con, so I didn’t even know it’s about curling at the time, and it’s called “Skip.”
It’s not usual to see a light novel with one word title, so I guess there’s hope. Too bad the whole thing feels like a giant rickroll. You can find out more about these guys at their website.
PS. While these guys win the “most clueless Japanese exhibitor at NYCC 2013” award, the most gawking one would probably be 1st Place’s booth, which is actually very awesome except, like, man, pearl before swine kind of a deal. Any vocaloid enthusiasts attended their events?
October 21st, 2013 at 4:44 pm
I went to the 1st Place booth on Sunday because of a colleague that knew the booth people working there. I got to play a lame music rhythm game and saw one of their booth people take a picture with my friend’s daughter who dressed like Ika Musume.
Yup, that’s how I will remember 1st Place at NYCC.
October 25th, 2013 at 4:44 am
As sports settings go, curling is easy low-hanging fruit, given that you have competitions with titles like “Tournament of Hearts” (one of the major women’s curling competitions in Canada). There’s lots of potential even if you just wanted to do a “cute girls doing cute things” sort of storyline.
October 27th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Instantly reminded me of a curling eroge (NSFW) that I was linked to by a friend of mine after I had a little aside on wanting an “extreme curling anime” on a post about adaptations. That was some silly times there.