Hi guys!
First off, as
Tiannu said, if the series is picked up and translated into English, whether it be just a translation or a scanlation, it is no longer viable as a material for me to translate because my professors won't know which translation came first, especially since I'm not allowed to post my own translation online in any way until my dissertation is finished. Should it be picked up, I would have to choose another material to translate, and since I must translate 6,000 words of English by the start of September, choosing another material would set me back so far that I would be unable to finish my dissertation in time.
I understand that while not all scanlation groups and translators use this site, it is frequently checked by people to see whether or not a series has been scanlated or licensed, and the title of the series will also appear on web searches, including the ones my professors will run to check that my work is my own. I figured that I would post this here in hopes that, should someone see it hasn't been translated, that they would see my post/comment and hopefully wait to publish their translation until after January 2016.
I am not trying to claim a series, per se. Other groups/people are completely free to translate/scanlate the series in any way they wish. I'm simply asking that for those that do, to hold off posting their translations online until my work is done.
StaticHD, you are quite correct. If it were mainstream and appealing to many people, there would be an extremely high chance of this being picked up. Which is exactly why I've avoided such series. I originally intended to translate older series by Moto Hagio, ones that have gone untranslated for several years, but eventually decided on this one because, as a female otaku myself, the subject matter appealed to me. Considering I have to write a total of 10,000 words on the subject, I wanted to work with something I'd enjoy.
As
mysstris mentioned, it is a very new series, however the copy I have is already part of the third reprint (from June 5, 2015), with the initial volume release only a month prior (May 5, 2015) proving that, while it may not be popular to English readers, it is certainly gaining a readership in Japan. I considered it a risky move to choose this series, as there was a higher chance than my other options that it would be picked up, but decided to go with it anyway, and hope that no one does. And while it is true,
smatster, that there's always a possibility of trolls posting translations, one can always hope, right?
Sorry for the massive wall of text, and thank you all for the good luck wishes!