Love Favors the Bold!

Today we have the long-awaited Ten x Taiyou BL one-shot by Ayumi Komura, first announced over two years ago at the very end of Usolily v17, but only recently released online a couple of weeks ago on the Margaret Bookstore. It's called Otoko no Ko no Koto (About a Boy) and is an epilogue to the Ten/Taiyou subplot from Usolily.

Otoko no Ko no Koto one-shot: Mediafire, Dropbox

...Must Come to an End

With the release of the last few pages of bonus content from Usotsuki Lily volume 17, the series now officially comes to a close. Included is the Usolily Tribute Manga to commemorate the release of chapter 100, Amber (with a couple of bonus pages associated with it), and the last Afterword Lily containing Komura's final comments for the series.

Usolily had a really good run, and lasted much longer than we originally thought it would when we started it. The series may not have been perfect, but it certainly was unique (and totally unlike anything in Margaret, including Full Dozer), so when series like this end, what is left to fill the void? Will there ever be another series like Usolily? Probably not, but in a way, maybe that's also a good thing, since there are plenty of shoujo manga that are similar, but there is only one Usolily.

Farewell Usolily! You will be missed!

Usotsuki Lily v17 extras: Mediafire, Dropbox

All Good Things...

What more can be said that hasn't been said already? Even before we learned earlier this year that Usotsuki Lily was nearing its end, we would sometimes wonder what we would say when we were about to release the final chapter. But now that we're finally here, there's strangely very little left to say.

The end of this series has left us wanting more Usolily, but I suppose if you feel that way after the end of a series you love, that just shows how much you're going to miss it. But then of course, although there may not be any more Usolily after this, the series will still live on, and will be around for new readers to discover it for years to come. Would we have loved an anime, or even just a one episode OVA? Well of course! But although that never happened for this series, we're still hopeful that someday Ayumi Komura will be honored with an anime of one of her series, something which she wholeheartedly deserves, we feel.

So, although it is sad to see it go, especially since we've been working on it since day one, we feel honored that we had a chance to work on it at just the right time. This leaves only about 25 pages left in the volume until we move it to our completed projects page. We hope that you'll look forward to reading Komura's next work Full Dozer which just started in Margaret yesterday. We also posted some preview art from it on our Twitter account.

And if you want, you can leave any thoughts you have about the series or its ending either in the comments here or on the Usotsuki Lily page. Enjoy!

Usotsuki Lily ch. 105: Mediafire, Dropbox

A Cross-dressing Serenade!

Finally, the time has come for us to work on the last volume of Usotsuki Lily. When we decided to form Hachimitsu Scans over four years ago because of this series, we had barely any experience scanlating, and our earlier releases definitely exemplify this compared to our standards of today, but I guess for even back then, we did a halfway decent job when we submitted the very first chapter for your reading pleasure. Now four years later, we're a little bit older, but a ton more experienced, and we're doing things today that we never would have been capable of doing back then. So if Usolily has taught us anything, it is practice makes perfect, and when you have four years and 18 volumes to work on, you tend to get a lot of practice.

We've never really gone into the various troubles and tribulations related to scanlating in general, simply because we think you, as the reader, shouldn't have to care about that. Being thankful for the work we do and showering us with such wonderful comments is one thing, but we don't believe the reader should really know all that goes into what we do since it's not really important. No, what you care about is the manga we scanlate, and that's just how it should be: complete focus on the manga itself. We always strive to bring as close an experience that the original readers in Japanese have to new readers in English, which is also part of the reason why our normal credits page (the honey jar and spoon) doesn't have any names and hasn't changed since we started scanlating. It's not that we don't think that credit shouldn't be given where credit is due, especially with this hobby, just that we never thought it necessary to do for our group.

Anyway, none of that's really important. What we're here for today is to release chapters 103 and 104 of Usotsuki Lily, meaning that there is only a single chapter left! And what's more, because the publisher also included Komura's Amber one-shot in this volume, we've already finished about half of volume 17. The 105th chapter is a whopping 65 pages to end the series, so it will take a little bit extra time to release it, but regardless, the moment you've all been waiting for, the end of Usolily, is finally right around the corner, and we couldn't be happier to have made it all this way as we approach the epic conclusion.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 103: Mediafire, Dropbox
Usotsuki Lily ch. 104: Mediafire, Dropbox

To Live the Life of a Cross-dresser!

Finally, after working on Usolily volume 16 for almost the entire month of October, here's chapter 11 of Boy's Lily, along with the author's usual afterword. Thus brings to an end the second-to-last volume as we very much impatiently await the release of volume 17 in exactly one month from today. That means we'll be working on it in early December, so we'll finish up Usolily before the year is over.

As a small aside, it would be amazing if Shueisha ever released an Ayumi Komura artbook. She apparently drew over 130 color illustrations for Usolily alone, to say nothing of all the other art she's produced for her other series, so there's definitely enough content for at least one or two books, if not more.

Luckily, Komura will start her new series on December 5th, although we won't know what it's about or even its title until a month from now when a preview of it appears on Margaret's website. We already mentioned before that we plan on working on it no matter what it is, so for the foreseeable future, we'll be continuing to release more of what Komura has to offer.

And speaking of what Komura has to offer, we can finally start on those three 50-page one-shots she released a little while ago. As for our other ongoing projects, none of them are getting new volumes until early next year it seems (aside from Sweet Magic Syndrome v3 which comes out in late December), so we don't have much else to offer in terms of updates. Sadly, Shounen Oujo is still on hiatus, but might reappear soon in Sylph, though there's no way to know when. but as fate would have it, Utako Yukihiro just announced today that she'll be restarting the manga early next year!

And we also just recently passed 2.5 million views to the blog. Thanks for all your support!

Boy's Lily ch. 11: Mediafire, Dropbox

Let Your Imagination Run Wild!

The fourth batch of Usolily bonus content is for chapters 8, 9 and 10 of Boy's Lily, leaving one chapter left and the author's afterword at the end of the volume.

Boy's Lily ch. 8: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 9: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 10: Mediafire, Dropbox

Cross-dressing is Always in Style!

For our second release today, here's the third batch of bonus content from Usotsuki Lily v16, chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Boy's Lily. Chapters 5 and 7 are the normal 4-koma format, but chapter 6 is in a normal manga format (except for 1 page) and is twice as long as the others, so enjoy!

Boy's Lily ch. 5: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 6: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 7: Mediafire, Dropbox

You Love, You Learn, You Cross-dress!

For the next batch, we have chapters 2, 3 and 4 of Boy's Lily. Chapter 2 is shorter than the other two since it was published as a bonus chapter in Margaret, instead of its sister magazine The Margaret, which Boy's Lily normally ran in. This is also why En refers to chapter 3 as the "second serialized chapter" since it was the second chapter published in The Margaret.

Boy's Lily ch. 2: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 3: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 4: Mediafire, Dropbox

Cross-dressing Knows No Bounds!

For the first of many bonus releases this volume, today we have the one-shot Sisters Lily and chapter 1 of Boy's Lily, the 4-koma spin-off that was originally published two years ago. We've been dying to read Boy's Lily ever since we first knew about it, and we hope you'll enjoy this alternate reality version of Usolily, too. The Boy's Lily chapters are very short, but well worth it the wait.

We also tried altering the blog's layout to make it full-width, and moved a couple things onto the left sidebar now that there's room. This also meant we had to update the header image background.

Usotsuki Lily extra - Sisters Lily: Mediafire, Dropbox
Boy's Lily ch. 1: Mediafire, Dropbox

Be True to Yourself!

And now here are chapters 101 and 102 of Usotsuki Lily. As is often customary, after a really long post last time, that usually leaves very little to say in the next post, but there's still a little bit to say. This is it for the main chapters this volume, leaving about 100 pages of bonus content. That means a relatively short two month wait for the epic conclusion. (Note: Don't read too much into the use of "epic"; opinions will vary as to the epicness of the conclusion.)

Truth be told, we would have loved for this manga to continue for another 18 volumes, but we understand why Ayumi Komura would want to end it and move on to something else, and hopefully that something else to premiere in Margaret in December will be just as incredible as Usolily has been. There have obviously been many ups and downs with this manga, and it certainly isn't for everyone, but we also believe that with all the various elements and side-plots, there is probably a little something for everyone, which is one of the things we love most about it.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 101: Mediafire, Dropbox
Usotsuki Lily ch. 102: Mediafire, Dropbox

Life is What You Make of It!

Usotsuki Lily finally makes its return after about 4 and a half months, and to celebrate, we have for you chapters 99 and 100 at the start of volume 16! And there is also the added celebration that we have now been a scanlation group for 4 years! Yes, so long ago back in 2010, we discovered an unknown series called Usotsuki Lily that no one was scanlating and that at the time only had 2 volumes. What a perfect opportunity to start a scanlation group, we thought, and so back in October 2010, we released our first chapters of Usotsuki Lily.

Never would we have thought at the time that Usolily would grow to the almost impossible length of 18 volumes (including volume 0), and that so much of our time spent scanlating manga would be with this one series. Over the past 4 years, we've released somewhere between 650-700 chapters or so on almost 550 posts, which collectively have over 5,200 comments. This blog has also been viewed over 2.4 million times. In that time, Usolily has become our longest-scanlated series, and it probably will remain our longest series for a very long time, if not forever. None of our current series seem like they'd ever overtake Usolily.

In retrospect, Usolily probably was one of the worst choices for a brand new scanlation group to start on, since it is generally very time consuming, and then you add on to that a rapid release schedule for the volumes, and the massive amount of bonus content in every volume. For that reason, it would have been better had we had more experience at the time, since our early releases were generally very simplistic, and riddled with odd phrases and a bunch of mistakes we didn't catch at the time. But all we can do is continue to move forward towards the upcoming finale of Usolily later this year once the 17th and final volume comes out.

And so that brings us back to volume 16. There are actually only 4 main chapters in this volume, making up about half of its content. The other half is all bonus content, most of which being the Boy's Lily 4-koma spin-off that we've been waiting 2 whole years to finally read. That leaves the final 3 main chapters (and probably a ton of bonus content) to be released in volume 17, which should be released right before Ayumi Komura starts her new serialization in Margaret.

After working on Usolily for so long, and since the very beginning, we would never pass up the opportunity to do her next series, even if nothing could truly replace Usolily, not even another manga by the same author. But one thing we do know is that with Ayumi Komura's style of storytelling, whether it be in her ridiculous comedic antics, or in her much more serious aspects, that we will definitely enjoy whatever Ayumi Komura comes up with next. In the meantime, please enjoy Usolily as we move ever closer to its finale.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 99: Mediafire, Dropbox
Usotsuki Lily ch. 100: Mediafire, Dropbox

Edit: Mediafire link fixed.

Can't See the Forest for the Trees!

So with this, volume 15 of Usotsuki Lily is finished. Included is a short bonus chapter about En's parents, and unlike most of the other volumes, there is only a single page for the author's afterword this time. As for the rest of the series, as we have mentioned before, the series ended serialization earlier this month at chapter 105, meaning 7 main chapters left (and at least one other bonus chapter that we know of).

Although we originally thought they would just put the last 7 chapters into one more volume, Komura says that Usolily is going to actually end with volume 17. What this means, as far as we can tell, is that volume 16 should contain most of the rest of the chapters, up to chapter 103 or 104, and volume 17 will contain the rest in addition to all the Boy's Lily chapters that were serialized in The Margaret over the past year and a half.

So, volume 16 is planned to come out in late August, meaning the earliest we'll get a chance to work on it will be September. On top of that, the volume for Kenjutsu Komachi is also planned to come out in August, so we'll be releasing any bonus content Komura is bound to include in it. As for volume 17 of Usolily, it will probably be released later on this year in November or December. So, we hope the wait isn't going to be too painful, and that you'll find the conclusion of Usolily later on this year well worth the wait.

As for what's upcoming, we may not release anything for the rest of May. We've actually been working pretty much non-stop for the past 5 months or so doing all this:

• 3 volumes of Usotsuki Lily (and the Usolily Out! one-shot)
• 2 volumes of Bokura no Hentai
• 1 volume of Kuragehime
• 1 volume of Kakukaku Shikajika
• 1 volume of Sweet Magic Syndrome
• 2 issues of Waai!
• 1 issue of Waai! Mahalo
• And a bunch of single releases for Himegoto and Kenjutsu Komachi

Not bad for about 150 days. So, we just need a small 7 to 10 days to breathe before we get back to some more. Our next release will probably be the next Himegoto from Comic Rex after we get the raws for it right at the end of the month. For our other ongoing series, the next Bokura no Hentai volume should probably be out in July, the next Kakukaku Shikajika volume should probably be out in August, and the next Kuragehime volume should probably be out in September. Shounen Oujo is still MIA in Sylph, so we don't know what's going on with that.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 98.5: Mediafire, Dropbox

The Love of Another!

So finally, here's chapter 98 of Usotsuki Lily, the last main chapter in the volume, and thus the last main chapter for a while (September at the earliest). The rest of the volume is just the bonus content at the end to be released soon.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 98: Mediafire, Dropbox

The Tongue Never Forgets!

Luckily this was a rather quick chapter, so here's chapter 97 of Usotsuki Lily. As you might guess from the cover image, this chapter was originally published last December a few days before Christmas. And so, there is one more main chapter left in the volume, followed by the bonus one-shot mentioned earlier in the volume (and viewable on the table on contents). In fact, because of how this volume is laid out, the Whatever Lily for that one-shot is the second page of this chapter, so if you don't want to read it yet, skip over page 2 and go right to page 3 for now. Albeit, there is very little on that page, so reading it wouldn't really tell you anything about the one-shot other than who it focuses on, but I thought I should at least mention it.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 97: Mediafire, Dropbox

Food Will Always Bring Us Together!

Moving right along, here's Usotsuki Lily chapter 96. Things are able to move so fast when we're only focusing on a single series this time around, even if Usolily is somewhat time intensive.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 96: Mediafire, Dropbox

When Push Comes to Shove!

Usotsuki Lily chapter 95 is done, meaning that there are only 10 chapters left! Although for now, we're halfway through volume 15, with still a few main chapters left to go for the time being.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 95: Mediafire, Dropbox

The Fruits of One's Labor!

And now for chapter 94 of Usotsuki Lily. It's just occurring to us now, but this arc has somewhat coincided with the approach of Mother's Day this Sunday, so enjoy!

Usotsuki Lily ch. 94: Mediafire, Dropbox

If At First You Don't Succeed!

Here's chapter 93 of Usotsuki Lily. Not much else to say, other than that there's a lot more to come.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 93: Mediafire, Dropbox

When In Doubt, Cross-dress!

Although it feels like it was yesterday since we last worked on Usotsuki Lily (in truth, it was 35 days ago), here we are at the start of volume 15 with chapter 92. This release comes with the added realization that Usolily just ended its serialization in Margaret on May 2nd, so the end is really starting to feel real. Volume 16 should contain the final chapters, and Boy's Lily's volume will most likely come out around the same time (which also seems to have just ended its serialization in The Margaret), so there is still a lot left to work on for the time being. As a note for chapter 92, there is something mentioned on the last page of the chapter about volume 1, which has to do with the last page of chapter 3.

And as a very special, and far too overdue release today, we are happy to present a short one-shot titled Usolily Out! that Ayumi Komura created in collaboration with Sakura Kenjou, author of Sold Out!. You may also remember Kenjou from drawing En on the bonus page of chapter 2. Anyway, Usolily Out! was released in a charity book to raise money for the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Chronologically, the one-shot would have been released around the same time chapter 40 was serialized in Margaret.

Now, before you ask us why it took us over 2 and a half years to release this 8-page one-shot, the fact is that we did not have access to it until now. We had hoped that it would have been released as a bonus at the end of an Usolily volume, but now that it seems like that's never going to happen, we somehow managed to get a copy (although this was not easy, since it had been sold out of most retailers long ago). Suffice it to say, this is a very rare book, and the one-shots in it were not re-published anywhere else to our knowledge (or at least that was the case for Usolily Out!). So with that, please enjoy the releases as we continue working on Usolily volume 15.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 92: Mediafire, Dropbox
Usolily Out! (one-shot): Mediafire, Dropbox

To the Ends of the Earth!

Finally, here's chapter 91 of Usotsuki Lily with the end of volume 14, including Komura's very wordy afterword. With this, we have officially completed 15 volumes of Usolily! And although the manga is ending soon, there are still 14 main chapters left in (we assume) two more volumes, in addition to another volume for Boy's Lily. How can this manga end in only two more volumes? It feels like there's still so much more to go into, especially now that we've entered this arc. As for volume 15, it will be out in April, and we might get to it in May, but if not, probably June; we'll see.

As a side note, there is an interesting figure that appears in the afterword. Komura mentions that Usolily volumes have an initial printing below 1/10 of Kimi ni Todoke. This is actually fairly accurate, going by recent sales figures which show that Kimi ni Todoke outsold Usolily by almost a factor of 13:1 in October (Usolily is 33rd on that list).

Coming up next: the rest of Sweet Magic Syndrome volume 2, and also, Comic Rex just came out, so we'll be doing a new chapter of Himegoto soon, too.

Usotsuki Lily ch. 91: Mediafire, Dropbox