A Cross-dressing Tanabata!

Finally, the last main chapter from volume 3 of Usotsuki Lily is out with chapter 20! All that's left are the bonus pages and afterword at the end of the volume, and then we'll start on volume 0 once we get it.

Usually it's Kuragehime that requires extra explanations here, but this time there's some things that need some explaining. The first thing is the difference between "soumen nagashi" and "nagashi soumen". The former, soumen nagashi, is where you take soumen noodles (which are thin, white noodles made of wheat flour) and put them in a special tub or container of water which circulates the water and the noodles around. People around the container pick out the noodles with chopsticks and usually dip them in soy sauce. This looks something like this. The latter, nagashi soumen, on the other hand, is where you take soumen noodles and you flow them down a long piece of bamboo with water. Same as the other kind, people use chopsticks to pick out the noodles. The difference is that the noodles in this case that reach the end are usually not eaten. So the circulating tub is used to simulate the action of the real experience of eating soumen flowed in bamboo. You can read about this kind here. So in this chapter, "soumen nagashi" is translated as "circulating noodles" and "nagashi soumen" is translated as "flowing noodles". There's also a difference in what it is called, and which process is done, depending on what part of Japan you're in. On the map seen here, the blue areas use "soumen nagashi" (circulating) and the green areas use "nagashi soumen" (flowing).

Also, there's references to the legend of Tanabata. You can read about the legend and the festival at Wikipedia.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 20: Mediafire, Megaupload

The Affair of the Jellyfish!

Alright, here's chapter 20 of Kuragehime. Even if you have already read the version from The Black Abyss, we would be pleased if you read our release as well, as there were several differences between our translation and theirs, some of them subtle, and others we consider to be negligent (as in on a couple of the pages, a few of the words were left out entirely, and others were left untranslated, such as on signs). We find this partly amusing, since they took the time to do all the sound effects, something we ourselves do not do. Anyway, we are happy to still be working on the manga and providing quality releases.

As was mentioned in a previous post, this is the point in the manga where it starts deviating from where the anime left off. The chapter title comes from the 2001 American film of the same name. You may notice that The Black Abyss translated it as "Marie Antoinette's Necklace", which is actually a direct translation from the Japanese (as that is the Japanese title of the film). As we've been doing since volume 1, some of the chapter titles (like this one) are not direct, but instead maintain the nuance of what piece of media is being referenced. We believe this to make more sense than a direct translation, specifically in the case of well-known media.

Kuragehime ch. 20: Mediafire, Megaupload

Usotsuki Brothers

Chapter 19 of Usotsuki Lily is out. Nothing much else to say about it, other than that it was a pretty nice chapter.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 19: Mediafire, Megaupload

Beautiful Jellyfish!

Here it is, the start of volume 4 with the long-awaited chapter 19 of Kuragehime, now with even more translation notes! (There were five notes this chapter, three of which appear on a single page.) I guess this wasn't that long-awaited, but ever since The Black Abyss created the gap in the chapters, we've wanted to close the gap as soon as possible.

As we said earlier, we will still be releasing chapters 20, 21 and 22 that TBA released, based mainly on a few translation and typesetting differences. Material from this chapter was used in episodes 9 and 10 of the anime. The chapter title probably comes from a 1999 Japanese TV drama of the same name. If not, it comes from the 2005 American film Nine Lives, which was called Beautiful Person (Utsukushii Hito) in Japan.

Kuragehime ch. 19: Mediafire, Megaupload

A Cross-dressing Two-parter!

This time we've got Usotsuki Lily chapter 18, and it's the series' first two-parter! The page count is pretty low, so these stories are short but sweet. The tiger that sits on senpai's shoulder is really cute in some of the panels. Now if only they'd make a plushie of it. There's still two more chapters, and the bonus extras for volume 3.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 18: Mediafire, Megaupload

Jellyfish Blues!

Kuragehime volume 3 is complete with the release of chapter 18! We're glad to be back to our regular release schedule, and are eager to finally get started on a new volume. This chapter comes to the end of episode 9 in the anime, though there's some splicing from later chapters in there too. The chapter title, as far as we can surmise, comes from the 1999 film Deep Blue Sea, which is known simply as "Deep Blue" in Japan. It's either that, or Higashimura took the name from the Deep Blue chess computer.

As with the end of the first two volumes, this release also features the conclusion to the "Jellyfish, Me, and Barcelona" true story from the author. Wish it could have been longer, but it's okay, because next volume there's a new bonus author story.

Kuragehime ch. 18: Mediafire, Megaupload

Cross-dressing Wages!

Volume 3 of Usotsuki Lily continues with chapter 17! It seems like every time we release a chapter of Usotsuki Lily, there's less and less to write about on the blog, except for the occasional update on when new volumes come out, as in the last post. Oh well, I guess less is better for now. We hope you enjoy the latest release.

And now for some interesting news regarding Kuragehime. We got a curious email yesterday from The Black Abyss, where they said they reconsidered what they did, and decided to drop the project because they felt guilty. Whatever the reason, we are happy to announce that we will continue the scanlation of Kuragehime unabated, and we will also be releasing the 3 chapters TBA already released, ch. 20-22.

As for the new project we had lined up, we were actually going to announce it once we were all caught up with Usotsuki Lily, so it'll still be a little while until that project comes to light, as we want to focus on releasing more chapters of Kuragehime and Usotsuki Lily as our first priority.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 17: Mediafire, Megaupload

A Jellyfish to Remember!

Getting closer to our end of Kuragehime, here's chapter 17! One chapter is left in volume 3, and then we'll do the first chapter of volume 4, and we'll release them as quick as we can. The chapter title is a little strange. It comes form a 2004 Korean film of the same name, but the original title in Korean and Japanese translates as "Eraser in My Head". We decided to keep the title as it was translated into English so as to keep the nuance of the reference for anyone who had seen or heard of the film.

And now for something unrelated to Kuragehime. It has come to our attention that next week Shueisha will be releasing a volume 0 of Usotsuki Lily, which will contain some one-shots related to the series. As those who follow that series are aware, Usotsuki Lily was originally a one-shot before it got serialized. What you may not have realized is that the first chapter we released of Usotsuki Lily is not the original one-shot; she re-wrote the chapter when the serialization began. Volume 0 will contain the original one-shot, plus other stories, one of which will most likely be the one-shot on how the twin couples got together, which was mentioned in a previous chapter's author's comments. We expect Komura will also include new one-shots for the volume release (because we only know of the two one-shots mentioned). We'll start releasing chapters of volume 0 after we finish volume 3, which will work out great since volume 4 shouldn't be out until a few weeks later anyway.

Kuragehime ch. 17: Mediafire, Megaupload

Another Cross-dressing Triple Feature!

As we had said sometime ago, these three releases mark the end of our hiatus, and we plan to get right back on track with our normal release schedule. First we would like to wish all of our readers a happy St. Patrick's Day and we are happy to present Usotsuki Lily chapter 16, and our two series from Waai: Sazanami Cherry chapter 4 (with two color pages) and chapter 3 of Past Future. As usual, the Waai series are joint releases with WOW!scans.

We would also like to thank all of our readers for the supportive comments you've given us following the announcement of what happened with Kuragehime. We are grateful that you enjoy our releases.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 16: Mediafire, Megaupload
Sazanami Cherry ch. 4: Mediafire, Megaupload
Past Future ch. 3: Mediafire, Megaupload

A Cross-dressing Surprise!

We know this may come as a surprise, but we found some free time and just decided to release these three all at the same time. We aren't officially off of our hiatus, though, so our usual two chapters a week schedule won't fully return until after St. Patrick's Day most likely. With that said, we have Usotsuki Lily chapter 15, Kuragehime chapter 16, and Otomegokoro no Jiyuugata chapter 2!

As you probably already know, another scanlation group, The Black Abyss, picked up Kuragehime from chapter 20, where the manga begins deviating from where the anime left off, and have also released chapter 21 thus far. What happened is that they didn't want to wait for us to release the later chapters that the anime didn't adapt, and since we couldn't stop them, there was nothing we could do. As such, while we never originally intended to hand Kuragehime over to another group, as we still love the manga and working on it too, there is not much point in releasing chapters that have already been translated. And anyway, our reason for scanlating the manga was to bring this wonderful manga to many more people. As long as the scanlation continues in some form, that's what counts. If, for whatever reason, The Black Abyss drops the manga, we'll continue the scanlation. So, for at least three more chapters, we'll be doing Kuragehime. When we release Kuragehime chapter 19, we will announce what new manga we'll begin scanlating in its place.

And now for some last bits. For Kuragehime chapter 16, it comes to the end of episode 8 in the anime, and the chapter title's origin should be obvious. The fourth volume of Waai came out, so we hope to soon release the latest chapters of Sazanami Cherry and Past Future as soon as we can. Sazanami Cherry even has two color pages this time, so please look forward to it! The next Oto Nyan volume won't be released until late April.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 15: Mediafire, Megaupload
Kuragehime ch. 16: Mediafire, Megaupload
Otomegokoro no Jiyuugata ch. 2: Mediafire, Megaupload