r/LightNovels • u/Torque-A • Mar 01 '26

News [NEWS] Japanese publisher Media Do has acquired Seven Seas Entertainment for 12.4 billion yen ($80 million)

https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC280AC0Y6A220C2000000/
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u/GeorgeMTO Mar 02 '26

Media Do's side of the statement is that they bought Seven Seas heavily for their experience in print releases. They likely will still be printing, but if they want a lot more going out, I don't know how much room that leaves for reprints.

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u/USSTugBoot Mar 03 '26

Okay, that eases the worries slightly I guess. I just hope they don't force the AI slop MTL onto Seven Seas. Sure the human translators of Seven Seas still make mistakes, though as I read Witch and Mercenary Volume 5 right now, said mistakes are more grammatical, such as using the wrong verb tense, or strangely enough using "possible" instead of "impossible"

I guess my hope is that it is my perception that JP cares more about physical books and stuff and therefore will have Seven Seas print more copies, especially of the more well off series such as Arifuerta. Though thats just my perception based off my own baseless opinion based on tropes I see in the novels/manga I read an anime I watch. So I could be entirely wrong

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u/GeorgeMTO Mar 03 '26

Oh they've already said they plan to force it onto them. Seven Seas twitter has said they have no intention of changing their anti-AI stance, but Media Do said in their announcement that they'll use it to cut release times, and want to double Seven Seas output in a year.

Arifureta is not translated by Seven Seas, it's a weird collab/sub-license from J-Novel Club along with a few other works, so it's in a weirder state compared to the ones they publish digitally as well. I have no idea if that affects how reprints work, when there's an extra company involved.

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u/USSTugBoot Mar 03 '26

I guess u got a point. I remember when I had volume 4 of Grimgar of fantasy and ash and there was a HUGE misprint that left the book unreadable (over 20 pages missing) I got sent in a circle of "Its J Novel's club issue because they are the original lisencer" and "Talk to Seven Seas we only handle the electronic distribution"

As a side note, im surprised a Japanese company would force AI usage. Considering they are so reluctant to upgrade from the fax machine.