Thursday, November 30, 2017

You Won't Know Unless You Try!


The monthly Seito Kaichou is out with chapter 15.

Seito Kaichou ch. 15: Mediafire, Dropbox

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Building Bridges is Never Easy!


And now we come to Shimanami Tasogare chapter 13, more than halfway through the volume.

Shimanami Tasogare ch. 13: Mediafire, Dropbox

Sunday, November 26, 2017

The Age of Jellyfish Will Never End!


With the release of Kuragehime chapter 84, the series now comes to an end, which also includes Akiko Higashimura's final afterword with her last comments for the series. The chapter title may not be a reference to anything, since it's just the series' English title, but it could be a reference to the 2011 Japanese movie Princess Toyotomi, although there's no way to know for sure.

Seven years ago, when we picked up a little-known series called Kuragehime as one of our initial projects, we really didn't know much about scanlating, and our earliest releases back then certainly show our inexperience. For that reason, we're very thankful that Kodansha USA ultimately licensed the series and gave the series a proper release, which as of now is 3 volumes away from completion. At the time the manga was licensed in mid-2015, we had already completed 15 volumes, and since we knew at the time that the series was very close to ending anyway, we made the decision to continue it all the way to the end. However, we still would suggest buying the official volumes if you can, as they are much better quality than anything we did back then. In addition, the last volume slated for June 2018 will contain over 100 pages of additional content, so that is a must-buy for any Kuragehime fan.

Kuragehime is very much a modern classic that I feel will continue to be read and re-read for generations of manga fans, as it is a manga that is very relatable to a lot of people, even if you don't have a particular interest in the fashion industry or even gender bender manga. It's popularity in recent years is certainly a testament to that (which Higashimura even comments on in the afterword of this volume), and we hope that its staying power will continue for years to come.

Kuragehime wasn't always a particularly easy series to work on, but over time, it actually got easier as we got more experienced. There were a lot of things we loved about the series, and of course a few things that were kind of annoying, but the uniqueness of the characters, art and storytelling made it one of the best projects we worked on. Back when we picked it up, there were only 5 volumes out, with the sixth volume coming out only a month later while the anime was still airing. We really could never have imagined at the time that the series would eventually balloon to 17 volumes totaling 2,919 pages, but it was worth it buying all 17 volumes. So Kuragehime had a really good run, and even though we would have loved to have seen what happens after the final chapter, we're glad that we got a chance to see it all the way to the end.

Like Higashimura says at the end, Kuragehime went by in a flash, but it will always be a series we think back on, re-read, and overall feel grateful to Higashimura for creating it in the first place, and we hope you feel the same way. There may never be another series quite like Kuragehime, but we look forward to see what Higashimura does in the future, especially since she hasn't started a new manga in a couple of years, so we're thinking she'll probably do a new series next year now that Kuraghime (and her other manga Tokyo Tarareba Musume) is now finished.

Farewell Kuragehime! We'll never forget you!

Kuragehime ch. 84: Mediafire, Dropbox

Thursday, November 23, 2017

Steady as She Goes!


Shimanami Tasogare chapter 12 is out, partly aided by this chapter being easier to work on than the last one (although this series as a whole isn't too difficult for the most part).

Shimanami Tasogare ch. 12: Mediafire, Dropbox

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Put Your Trust in Jellyfish!


And now here's Kuragehime chapter 83, leaving just one more (lengthy) chapter in the series. It's been a wild ride, but it's hard to believe that we're almost at the finish line after more than 7 years. The chapter title comes from the 2016 movie Shin Godzilla, also known as Godzilla: Resurgence.

Kuragehime ch. 83: Mediafire, Dropbox

Monday, November 20, 2017

Expect the Unexpected!


It's been over a year since we last worked on this, but Shimanami Tasogare finally returns with chapter 11 at the start of volume 3. As of right now, this volume contains all of the released chapters, so once this volume is complete, we'll be all caught up with it until new chapters begin appearing again on the Manga One app, which is where it will be serialized now after Hibana ceased publication last August.

Shimanami Tasogare ch. 11: Mediafire, Dropbox

Edit: Typo on pg. 10 fixed and reuploaded.

Friday, November 17, 2017

The Jellyfish is in the Details!


After waiting for more than a year and a half, the time has finally come to start the 17th and final volume of Kuragehime with chapter 82, meaning there's only 2 chapters left to go because each of the last 3 chapters is about 50 pages long. The chapter title comes from the 2008 movie 27 Dresses.

Kuragehime means a lot to us, not only because it was one of the few series we originally began with as a scan group over 7 years ago, but because we've come to really love Akiko Higashimura's unique style of art and storytelling that really sets her apart from most other shoujo/josei authors. This was a series that we perhaps started at a time when we were a little too inexperienced to tackle a series like this for various reasons, but over the course of this series, we've grown by leaps and bounds, and now stand here after all this time on the verge of ending our longest ongoing project from when we picked it up right at the very beginning. So whether you've been reading it for as long as we have, or have just recently discovered this series, we're glad you're here to see the end of one of our most cherished projects.

Kuragehime ch. 82: Mediafire, Dropbox

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Home is Where the Heart is!


Finally, after a lot of work at the end of this volume, Moyashimon volume 10 ends with chapters 120, 121 and 122, which also includes a large amount of bonus content at the end. However, we have to take another break from this series for about a month while we work on a few of our other projects, so please look forward to volume 11 in December. And so, we have just three volumes and 37 chapters left, which is just about 1/4 of the series left to go.

In the meantime, Kuragehime's 17th and final volume was just released, and we will be working on that next, along with Shimanami Tasogare v03 which we will be working on the same time as Kuragehime. Once both of those volumes are done, we're going to work on Shiomi-chan v03, and then Moyashimon v11. The only other one of our projects that's getting another volume this year is Kamieko v03 at the end of December.

Moyashimon ch. 120: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 121: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 122: Mediafire, Dropbox

Friday, November 10, 2017

The Truth Lies Within Us All!


Ookami Shounen chapter 31 is done, and as you may have guessed from the recent developments, the next chapter to be released on December 8 is the final chapter, so we hope you enjoy this series all the way to the end.

Ookami Shounen ch. 31: Mediafire, Dropbox

Monday, November 6, 2017

A Little Taste of Home!


Here are Moyashimon chapters 117, 118 and 119, which marks more than 2,000 pages we've done for this series so far (there's around 2,700 pages in total).

Moyashimon ch. 117: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 118: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 119: Mediafire, Dropbox

Edit: A small correction was applied to ch. 117 and reuploaded.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!


Now we come to the middle of Moyashimon volume 10 with chapters 114, 115 and 116, the latter of which is longer than usual at 24 pages.

Moyashimon ch. 114: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 115: Mediafire, Dropbox
Moyashimon ch. 116: Mediafire, Dropbox