Yes, I plan on continuing.

As you may have heard, Elysion has decided to drop the series and you might be wondering if I plan to continue. Well, the answer is in the title 😛

As I mentioned when I first started, I picked this up to ensure that readers had a free way to read this series in what is hopefully an acceptable level of quality. Nothing about that changes simply because he’s dropped the series.

Now that the question that is weighing most heavily on your minds has been answered, allow me to address two other points that have been brought up more than a few times in the days since I first started. Hit the jump if you’re interested.

Q: Why don’t you just cooperate?

A: As I explained when I first picked up Isekai Mahou, entirely putting aside my issues with the way he handled donations, I have serious concerns about translation quality. I strive to ensure that translations I release are of a quality that I can be proud of. His translations do not meet that standard in my mind.

This is for three reasons: 1) Elysion has a habit of removing entire sections of the source text from his translations, 2) there are a number of translation inaccuracies within his work which would require me to double-check everything, and 3) as is entirely understandable since he is not a native English-speaker, his ability to phrase things in English does not meet the standard I expect from my translations. To further hammer the second point home, as anyone who has translated before can tell you, double-checking a translation with numerous inaccuracies is more time consuming than simply translating the text from scratch. Contrary to what you might expect, twice the people does not necessarily even approximate twice the speed – in this specific instance, it would probably reduce translation speed to less than what I could achieve working alone.

Q: Why did you “steal” this series without even consulting him first?

A: I had, prior to taking any other action, commented on his blog with examples of numerous inaccuracies in his translation, and that I was shocked he would charge such amounts for work of such a level. My comment was instantly deleted followed by a post from Elysion saying that he regretted ever allowing open commenting. All comments on his blog of this nature made since have been treated similarly. Criticism is not only not welcome, it is strictly disallowed.

I will be quite frank, as I was in my first post on the topic: I do not believe it either ethically or legally appropriate to charge any amount for translations without anything going to the creator, let alone such large amounts. At this point, I knew two things: 1) I wanted translations for this series to be available in acceptable quality and for free and 2) Elysion was not open to any suggestions whatsoever that his methodology might possibly be incorrect. I thus came to the conclusion that if I wanted the situation to change, I’d have to do it myself… and so I did, and so I will continue to do. If that makes me a thief, then I guess a thief I am. You are under no obligation to read my translations; if you find my work morally repugnant and my style distasteful, then by all means, do not force yourself. No one will blame you.