Hello everyone,
I'm sure that many of you have moved on to other MTL websites or were at least aware that I have not been pushing out MTLS in the past half year.
What was intended to be a short break during the latter half of Arc 8 Phase 2 grew into much more of a longer break, and I'll explain why.
(TL;DR at the very end)
Initially, my reasoning for taking the first break back in July 2023 was due to me taking summer college classes and being out of town for that one weekend.
I expected to be back and catch up on the few chapters that were released during that time period, but I was also caught up with other stuff in my life that I ultimately skipped those chapters altogether and directed everyone to check out another website that is far superior in MTLs than Forbidden Library ever will be.
In October, I got back to releasing MTLs, picking up where the web novel left off. I managed to release 5 MTLs of Arc 8 before I went on another break. That point in time was the absolute busiest for me as I was working full-time and it was the busiest college semester I've ever had, so the workload for both work and school was super heavy and I did not have much time to set aside to translate new Re:Zero chapters.
Before I mention the final reason for "retiring" from doing MTLs, I do want to say that I honestly did not expect this website to blow up. What started as an anime music website, turned into a side project/hobby for me to translate latest Re:Zero chapters for my friends, and eventually gained traction and each chapter has amassed an average of at least 1k views per chapter, and some of the more popular ones got over 2-3k. It was great seeing many Re:Zero fans alike who also wanted to keep up-to-date as soon as possible as my friends and I do. And even though I've suggested from time to time to check out other MTL websites that do a way better job than I do, many still stuck around, probably because they like the fact that there's at least one person out there who strived to get translations out the same day as the raws.
However, I've experienced multiple burnouts and loss of motivation when translating chapters, as early as the second half of Arc 7. I find myself being distracted all the time, and I sometimes have to force myself to get this translation out the same day, and if not, sometimes the next day. The weight of these many visitors flooding the website waiting for a translation whenever Tappei releases a new chapter, and the burnout I experienced having to translate a new chapter every other day was too much at times. The break between volumes have been helpful, to reset myself and to get in a good place once chapter releases start back up again for the next volume. But with how busier I've been getting this past year, it's simply not the case anymore.
The process of my chapter translations typically go:
Tappei announces new chapter on Twitter -> I get prepped -> Chapter releases typically at noon -> I copy the contents into a DOCX, run it through DeepL -> Correct all typos, grammar, replace any wrong forms of character or place names with the actual form (e.g. "Chaos Frame", "Volakia", etc.) -> Proofread -> Upload to FL.
Shorter chapters typically take me an hour, but longer ones can take me at least 1.5-2 hours. The genderbend EX chapter took me up to 4 hours to do.
Now, I'm not that fluent in Japanese yet. I'm not N2 certified yet (but I'm getting there), so I sometimes don't catch all the slang and weird exceptions that got mistranslated along the way, but I do try my best. This is partially the reason why I recommend other places to check out translations, sure it might take a few days to a few weeks for a translation to come out from them, but a more accurate and higher-quality translation is worth waiting for than a lower-quality one that might misinterpret certain scenarios and conversations.
Furthermore, this is not really my full-time project, it simply started out as a side project for my friends, which eventually became a project that I did for hundreds to thousands of Re:Zero fans on the website. I did not have an obligation to keep going, but I did so anyway because like many of you, I love Re:Zero and I wanted to at least do something for the community.
And now, let's talk about my final reason for stopped MTLs altogether.
Last month, one of my close family members were hospitalized and they have been in the ICU for a few weeks. They passed away a little over two weeks ago, and it has been hard-hitting for me and our other family members. Dealing with the loss of a loved one is never easy, and it will definitely change your life in many ways. For me, I knew that my life would change forever. I've noticed that I have way more responsibilities now and that I need to actually do adult things for once, and I have to step up and play the role of an extra helping hand in our family. Adding on to the full-time job that I have, and me being a full-time college student, and so many things that are moving fast in my life, I realize now that I don't have as much free time to do the things I love anymore, and that I needed to step away from some things for a while.
I've been thinking, however, about the future of Forbidden Library. It's been dead for a few months, and I haven't really caught up with Arc 8 at all. New chapters have been releasing like crazy, and I never had the time to translate them all. I've always felt obliged to, even though I know that I didn't have to keep doing this, but again, I did it anyway to do something for the community. After some time and consideration, I think it's safe to say that this will be the end of Forbidden Library.
From this point on, I will not be doing translations for Arc 8 anymore, and for the foreseeable future. I simply do not have the time and motivation to continue on same-day translating chapters for you all, and I hope that you all understand my situation.
The website will remain as is, all the current translations will still be available for as long as I can afford to pay to keep the website up, and maybe I'll convert this into a little Re:Zero archive of some sort. I do have some ideas in mind, but I've never had the time to go through with it all.
And who knows? Maybe I'll come back to do translations for Arcs 9-12 if the future ahead is better than what's happening now.
And again, thanks to those who have stuck around, especially those who've been here since the early Arc 7 days. It means a lot to see many of you drop by every time a new chapter is released, and I am happy many of you were able to have a source to read the newest chapters as soon as possible.
For those not knowing where to go now for Re:Zero translations, may I suggest
Thanks everyone, and hopefully we'll see each other again.
- koneko
(I could've sworn there was one for Subaru or Emilia but I couldn't find it so I'll edit it in if I find it later but Megumin and Emilia share the same VA so just imagine this is Emilia)
TL;DR - Burnout and lack of motivation doing MTLs in the past year, having a full-time job, having the busiest semesters of my life, and a recent death in the family are all the main reasons why I am stopping Forbidden Library translations for the foreseeable future. Thank you for sticking around!
I'm sure that many of you have moved on to other MTL websites or were at least aware that I have not been pushing out MTLS in the past half year.
What was intended to be a short break during the latter half of Arc 8 Phase 2 grew into much more of a longer break, and I'll explain why.
(TL;DR at the very end)
Initially, my reasoning for taking the first break back in July 2023 was due to me taking summer college classes and being out of town for that one weekend.
I expected to be back and catch up on the few chapters that were released during that time period, but I was also caught up with other stuff in my life that I ultimately skipped those chapters altogether and directed everyone to check out another website that is far superior in MTLs than Forbidden Library ever will be.
In October, I got back to releasing MTLs, picking up where the web novel left off. I managed to release 5 MTLs of Arc 8 before I went on another break. That point in time was the absolute busiest for me as I was working full-time and it was the busiest college semester I've ever had, so the workload for both work and school was super heavy and I did not have much time to set aside to translate new Re:Zero chapters.
Before I mention the final reason for "retiring" from doing MTLs, I do want to say that I honestly did not expect this website to blow up. What started as an anime music website, turned into a side project/hobby for me to translate latest Re:Zero chapters for my friends, and eventually gained traction and each chapter has amassed an average of at least 1k views per chapter, and some of the more popular ones got over 2-3k. It was great seeing many Re:Zero fans alike who also wanted to keep up-to-date as soon as possible as my friends and I do. And even though I've suggested from time to time to check out other MTL websites that do a way better job than I do, many still stuck around, probably because they like the fact that there's at least one person out there who strived to get translations out the same day as the raws.
However, I've experienced multiple burnouts and loss of motivation when translating chapters, as early as the second half of Arc 7. I find myself being distracted all the time, and I sometimes have to force myself to get this translation out the same day, and if not, sometimes the next day. The weight of these many visitors flooding the website waiting for a translation whenever Tappei releases a new chapter, and the burnout I experienced having to translate a new chapter every other day was too much at times. The break between volumes have been helpful, to reset myself and to get in a good place once chapter releases start back up again for the next volume. But with how busier I've been getting this past year, it's simply not the case anymore.
The process of my chapter translations typically go:
Tappei announces new chapter on Twitter -> I get prepped -> Chapter releases typically at noon -> I copy the contents into a DOCX, run it through DeepL -> Correct all typos, grammar, replace any wrong forms of character or place names with the actual form (e.g. "Chaos Frame", "Volakia", etc.) -> Proofread -> Upload to FL.
Shorter chapters typically take me an hour, but longer ones can take me at least 1.5-2 hours. The genderbend EX chapter took me up to 4 hours to do.
Now, I'm not that fluent in Japanese yet. I'm not N2 certified yet (but I'm getting there), so I sometimes don't catch all the slang and weird exceptions that got mistranslated along the way, but I do try my best. This is partially the reason why I recommend other places to check out translations, sure it might take a few days to a few weeks for a translation to come out from them, but a more accurate and higher-quality translation is worth waiting for than a lower-quality one that might misinterpret certain scenarios and conversations.
Furthermore, this is not really my full-time project, it simply started out as a side project for my friends, which eventually became a project that I did for hundreds to thousands of Re:Zero fans on the website. I did not have an obligation to keep going, but I did so anyway because like many of you, I love Re:Zero and I wanted to at least do something for the community.
And now, let's talk about my final reason for stopped MTLs altogether.
Last month, one of my close family members were hospitalized and they have been in the ICU for a few weeks. They passed away a little over two weeks ago, and it has been hard-hitting for me and our other family members. Dealing with the loss of a loved one is never easy, and it will definitely change your life in many ways. For me, I knew that my life would change forever. I've noticed that I have way more responsibilities now and that I need to actually do adult things for once, and I have to step up and play the role of an extra helping hand in our family. Adding on to the full-time job that I have, and me being a full-time college student, and so many things that are moving fast in my life, I realize now that I don't have as much free time to do the things I love anymore, and that I needed to step away from some things for a while.
I've been thinking, however, about the future of Forbidden Library. It's been dead for a few months, and I haven't really caught up with Arc 8 at all. New chapters have been releasing like crazy, and I never had the time to translate them all. I've always felt obliged to, even though I know that I didn't have to keep doing this, but again, I did it anyway to do something for the community. After some time and consideration, I think it's safe to say that this will be the end of Forbidden Library.
From this point on, I will not be doing translations for Arc 8 anymore, and for the foreseeable future. I simply do not have the time and motivation to continue on same-day translating chapters for you all, and I hope that you all understand my situation.
The website will remain as is, all the current translations will still be available for as long as I can afford to pay to keep the website up, and maybe I'll convert this into a little Re:Zero archive of some sort. I do have some ideas in mind, but I've never had the time to go through with it all.
And who knows? Maybe I'll come back to do translations for Arcs 9-12 if the future ahead is better than what's happening now.
And again, thanks to those who have stuck around, especially those who've been here since the early Arc 7 days. It means a lot to see many of you drop by every time a new chapter is released, and I am happy many of you were able to have a source to read the newest chapters as soon as possible.
For those not knowing where to go now for Re:Zero translations, may I suggest
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. I am not affiliated with them, nor do they know of my existence (I think), but they are a thousand times way better than I am, and they have a whole team dedicated to pushing out English translations for the Re:Zero community. Forbidden Library was always a one-person project, and I knew early on that it would be hard to keep the pace up if I was the only one doing it. That's why I've always advocated to check out other websites for Re:Zero translations.Thanks everyone, and hopefully we'll see each other again.
- koneko
(I could've sworn there was one for Subaru or Emilia but I couldn't find it so I'll edit it in if I find it later but Megumin and Emilia share the same VA so just imagine this is Emilia)
TL;DR - Burnout and lack of motivation doing MTLs in the past year, having a full-time job, having the busiest semesters of my life, and a recent death in the family are all the main reasons why I am stopping Forbidden Library translations for the foreseeable future. Thank you for sticking around!
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