Let's Talk About Genshiken 86

So like I'm not hosting scanlations or anything anymore, and this is late as hell, but fuck it, let's ramble.

Needless to say a ton of spoilers below.

Spotted Flower 7

Mediafire Download

In which familiar faces are seen.

Thoughts under the cut. Just a short musing, nothing long.

Genshiken being continued, hell yeah

According to the page that came with this month's chapter of Genshiken, Genshiken volume 10 is being released on May 23rd. Not Genshiken Nidaime 1, Genshiken 10. Ahaha.

Hell yeah, motherfucker.

Also, the "short-term limited run" of Nidaime's been officially changed to a normal run. It's continuing!

As for the scanlation, well, I'll try to get it out as fast as I can. It's words words words and lots of stroked text, though, so it might take a while.

Nyaaargh

Halfway through and I'm this close to going mad.

Now I get why most people who scan artbooks don't really bother to do more than just scan them and upload as is. I could just be bad at this, but god damn this is insane.. Hahaha. If all goes according to schedule I should have this done in a week or so.

Sample under the cut, tell me what you think. This is the cover to THE SLASH, novels 6 and 7.

Guess what came in the mail today

Oh God marry me now

Pardon my horrendous scanning skills; I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I just shoved the damn thing in there and pressed the button.

Anyway. I haven't actually read it yet, but I've flipped shamelessly through it to look at the pictures (as an aside, I'm fairly certain this is how light novels are meant to be read--first you flip through and look at the pretty pictures, then you read). It's set after El Baile de la Muerte, by the way, and the name seems to be Ballad of the Sinful Wizard. Apologies on my translation of the name changing all the time, but I just noticed the furigana above 哀歌.

The book is short, about 2/3 the length of Shaitane Badi, and unlike Shaitane it's made of very short chapters, about 10 to 20 pages each. Each chapter is from the PoV of a different character, though some characters get more chapters than others. Obviously Eda and Rotton "A Certain Wizard" get the most, but we do get a respectable smattering from the rest of Roanapur, including Sawyer, Shenhua, Balalaika, Chang, Ms. Rebecca, and Dutch, just to name a few.

That's about all I can say without spoiling the book horrendously (and I haven't actually read it yet, either), but I must post just this one thing that I had to scan and show you.

Spoiler below the cut! And it'll only make sense if you've read Shaitane Badi:

Genshiken 60

I only skimmed the English scanlation that was put up, and out of respect for the scanlator who did that (there were some mistakes here and there, but at least s/he cared enough to take less than a month working on it, yeah?) I'll try not to harp on the errors. But if you spot something that doesn't jive with what you read, that might be it.

I don't know which part about this chapter I liked most, but I have to say that Hato as Aoki Ko was completely unexpected and hilarious. Cameos from Kugappi and Tanaka (and Kuchiki, but he doesn't matter) were also welcome in their own way.

Spoilers below the cut.

More Pimpin'

I am taking a break from sightseeing and getting fat(ter?) to tell those who may be interested that Shigurui (which I used to work on and regrettably ended up dropping) is finally finished at 15 volumes. I thought it was a pretty decent ending, though I suppose you may or might not agree. Anyway, if you were following the series or thought you might wanna give it a try (in which case the previous volumes from 1 to 11 are on my mediafire), go and take a look at Anonymous Stem's blog!

Pimpin'

There are, I am aware, some small number of people who come to this blog for Black Lagoon stuff, so I thought I'd plug something you might be interested in. The Book of Venom, Hiroe Rei's Black Lagoon compendium, has been scanned in its entirety. It features guest illustrations and comics from several mangaka including Sekiya Tetsuji, Bambino's mangaka, oh god he is so bad at drawing BL ahahaha, interviews with Hiroe and several others including Toyoguchi Megumi (Revy's voice actress), and various other tidbits. To be completely honest, unless you can read Japanese there's probably not much you'd be interested in, but there is an interview written entirely in very readable English near the end of the book. If you're interested, be sure to drop by Anonygoo's blog and give it a download.

oh yeah and there's the oppai chart, can't miss that, unf unf unf

Mistranslation: It Could Happen to You!

Mangastream's recent translations of Genshiken have been bugging me and though I'll refrain from bitching about their version (I could go on and on--honestly, "the guy with the chonmage"? Seriously?), I thought I'd take a moment to show how a few mistranslated lines can completely change the atmosphere of an entire work.

Slight spoilers for the latest chapter along with the rambling.

Genshiken 59

Oh God Keiko you are the awesomest little sis ever.

I shall say no more.

Except...

(spoilers)

Genshiken 58

I love them all already.

Yes! Raws!

For the record, no, I'm not going to scanlate this yet. Mangastream's cleaners could probably kick my arse five ways to Friday, and their translations aren't unreadable. I guess. I suck at translating things that other people are already doing, anyway. Zero motivation. So yeah, this is just gonna be ranting and raving and rambling from me. Spoilers below the cut.

KIO SHIMOKU! YOUR HEAD BELONGS TO ME

Totally not Madarame Harunobu

Are you serious I mean what the hell totally not cool man teasing on this level should be illegal in 300 countries

By the by, "madara" (斑 as in Madarame Harunobu) means "spotted," and "saki" (咲 as in Kasukabe Saki) means "to bloom." The rage, it is unfathomable.

I have work up to me arse and this still has made me stop for a good half hour just to read up on it.

Genshiken 2

...I just wish I had a raw to read instead of mangastream's translations. But hey, I'm in no position to complain.

Other than that. So. Good.

I don't care what some people are saying about how Kio is milking his cash cow or somesuch. I loved this manga so much, and it hasn't changed a bit. Maybe my nostalgia glasses are blinding me. I can't bring myself to care.

I laughed out loud so many times. Goddammit, Kuchiki. I'll say it for you.

こんな可愛い子が女の子のはずがないッ!!!

Aimless speculation about Brother Chang

More ranting/speculation on stuff I don't really have the will to search for right now.

Lots and lots of rambling, baseless pondering, and very very minor spoilers for Shaitane Badi below the cut.

So about Balalaika.

Where the hell does her real name being "Vladilena" come from? Is it in the anime or something? I'm seeing it all over the English web and I cannot find a source for this thing, especially when her real name (which is decidedly different from Vladigoddamnlena) is explicitly stated in the light novel. Seriously, it's [citation needed] here.

Just something that's been bothering me on and off for months.

P.S. Baccano chapter incoming tonight. Probably.

edit: Thanks. Vladilena N. Vasilinov, eh? Okay, that's even dumber than I first surmised, because dropping your real name in front of the authorities after engaging in a completely avoidable firefight which you initiated, just to get out of a minor pinch, would defeat the whole purpose of having a code name in the first place. Balalaika is not that stupid. God damn.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFffffffffffuuuuuuuuuUuuuuuuuuuuuUUuuuuuuuccccck YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

Genshiken manga getting continued? This is hands down the best news I've read all year. ALL. YEAR.

Looking Back on Jotaro's Bizarre Adventure With Pathetic Memory

Go, Blaziken! Magician's Fire!

うろ覚えで振り返る 承太郎の奇妙な冒険 (requires a Nicodou ID)

...I have to say, unless you've read and enjoyed JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 3, this probably won't make much sense. No, scratch that. Any sense.

This is basically one guy drawing the Stardust Crusaders part of JoJo's as he remembers it, complete with stunning (?) voice overs and astounding (??) sound effects. Enjoyment factor of this probably hinges more on knowledge of Stardust Crusaders' story than actual Japanese knowledge, though of course the more you understand, the more injokes and conversation you'll get.

As the title says, the humor comes from the artist's hilariously patchwork memory, sometimes mixing and matching events, often reinterpreting them completely. Also cameos from Dio that I coulda sworn weren't in the original.

How did he fit in there? Now there's some fridge logic for you.

What's pretty impressive is that this guy's kept updating for over a year (started in January 2009; last update was March 7th 2010) with over 30 installments. And... well... I can't really describe it. You just have to see for yourself.

Haha, oh wow.

Isaac and Miria cameo in this week's episode of DRRR!!

Pretty awesome, even though they didn't show up in the book. Shoulda had Elmer, Denkuro and Nile somewhere in there too.

Even though I still don't quite know what to think about Shinra and Celty... I guess I'll keep watching the anime for neta like this. ( ･д･);