DeepL is also a strong contender. It often provides more natural - sounding translations compared to some other tools. For Chinese light novels, it can capture the context and meaning quite accurately in many cases. It has advanced algorithms that help in dealing with different language structures, which is useful for translating the sometimes complex sentences in light novels.
I think Google Translate is a great option. It's widely available and has been around for a long time, so it has a lot of data to draw from when translating Chinese light novels. It can quickly give you a general idea of what the text means.
One challenge is the cultural differences. Japanese and Chinese cultures have both similarities and differences. Translators need to accurately convey cultural - specific elements like Japanese festivals, honorifics, and unique social norms in a way that Chinese readers can understand. For example, Japanese honorifics can be very complex and it's difficult to find perfect equivalents in Chinese.