11 January 2014

Black Museum Springald

As I hinted in my previous post, the new 1-volume project between Happyscans and me is done, and it's called Black Museum Springald. If you're French or Italian and am disappointed that I've translated yet another manga already available in your native language, then fuck you, go translate some shit for us Anglophones. In any case, it's a Fujita Kazuhiro (Ushio & Tora, Karakuri Circus)  manga about Spring-Heeled Jack. I am a fan of Fujita and I've been meaning to translate something by him for quite a while now. Moonlight Act was ruled out since it was too long and still an ongoing series while I didn't care for the way Karakauri Circus' story developed, so I originally planned to do Wicked Eyes Fly to the Full Moon, but just a week before I started, Evil Genius beat me to the punch. Fortunately, a kind anonymous linked me to the raws for Springald shortly after, which I had been then unaware of, all the way back when I still had my fluffypress site for releases. It's just taken me many years to actually get around to translating it. 
Now, I quite like Fujita's art for mainly two reasons. The deliciously insane expressions and his rough linework in key "impact scenes," which gives a great raw feeling. Very stylish. It's similar to why I like Hirano Kouta's art, though he has smoother linework and makes more use of high-contrast shading. Now I mention Hirano because there is one panel in Springald (shown below) where Fujita's art very much resembles his. 
Oh, what I would give for Fujita to do more scenes in that high-contrast style with thick, bold lines. But oh well, I still enjoy his stuff even without it. Enjoy the manga, folks!

As for Punpun, the poll seems to be pretty clear. Full volume on January 31. Don't bother me until then about it.

Download:
Black Museum Springald:   Mega;   Sendspace

32 comments:

  1. Thank you very much. I loved U&T.

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  2. Thanks Hox, all hail from Brazil!

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  3. You're a God amongst man, Hox.

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  4. Nice , just in time for the Chinese new year .

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  5. Man that was good i agree with the author i hope he gets an opportunity to revisit the museum.

    Thanks for the release.

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  6. This is available in French? Online? That come as a surprise to me. The scantrad scene in France is quite a bit behind the english one from what I know.

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    1. He probably means legitimate publishers.

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  7. thanks for the translation.
    Good to know that there are Fujita's fans outthere.

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  8. I think if you took away Fujita's scratchiness his art would lose something very important. that aspect of his art embodies pre-00s shounen scrappiness and vigor. nowadays many shounen manga outside of one piece have very "clean" smooth, girl-friendly art like Bleach, naruto, reborn, PoT, d.grayman....
    Obviously black museum springald was probably published in a seinen magazine but overall his spirit is with shounen sunday. Which is interesting since according to even a monkey can draw manga, shounen sunday had/has a reputation of having more anime-ish art than magazine or jump

    I'm very glad he hasn't gone high-contrast and doesn't fill in every space he can with black..
    It would be almost cynical.

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    1. I understand what you mean, but as you can see in the image posted above, even when Fujita does high-contrast stuff, his linework is still very "haphazard"-looking and the very opposite of "clean" art. So even if he were to do more of it, I don't think Fujita's art would necessarily lose that feeling of unrestrained vigour of the earlier days of shounen.

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    2. yeah, I've read Black museum springald now and the last few pages of mother goose in particular show that it still looks charming and not sterile.

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    3. Also, if you like Kazuhiro Fujita's art, you'll probably like Ogino Makoto's art in manga like Chairudo. Although if you go and check chairudo on mangaupdates, I guarantee that the picture they have for it is not representative.

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  9. Could, once you post Punpun, disable the comments for that entry?

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  10. What about Ashita no Joe? When will be seeing a new volume?

    Thanks for the hard work, Hox!

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    1. I asked my typesetter and he says he needs another week and a half to finish off the volume. I think I might need to recruit one more typesetter if I want to finish off Joe this year as planned.

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    2. Thanks for the update, Hox.

      Another typesetter certainly wouldn't hurt. Especially if you hope to finish the series this year, which coincidentally Saizen Fansubs intends to do with their fansubs of the first Ashita no Joe anime series.

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    3. If I can't find help, I'll probably just help typeset the thing myself. I don't intend to back off from my promise to finish off Joe this year.

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    4. If you need a cleaner, I may give a hand. My abilities are rusty but if you ever ask for help, I won't hesitate on helping.

      I've never done typesetting, but I could always give it a shot as well.

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    5. No, it's fine then. The cleans are not a problem. It's typesetters that I really need. I can busy myself in the meantime finishing up the scripts for the remaining 7 volumes.

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  11. Hey, I'm Italian and I also speak some French, but I think I'll go for your version and if I like it (not a big fan of U&T...) I'll go buy it.
    Thanks for this.

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  12. IT'S NOT LIKE I CARE IF YOU FANCY ME OR NOT, I DON'T.

    Man, Mother Goose was the perfect "feel good" conclusion to the main story which was well meant but bittersweet. Gotta love when the Japanese glorify the British.

    Awesome little manga you translated for us, Hox.

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  13. Thanks for your translations, Hox! You are the best!
    Btw, are you planning to translate Morohoshi's work «グリムのような物語 トゥルーデおばさん ⁄ Grimm no Yō na Monogatari: Turūde Obasan»? Because it's from the same series as Snow White.

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    1. Probably if some other group doesn't beat me to it first. I don't think I'll have time to get to it this year, however.

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  14. Monthlies coming soon, maybe? Saw the VS raw online, so was just wondering :)

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  15. VS-cravings kicking in real badly now! :p

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  16. Hello mister Hox, first of all, thank you for all of your really wonderful work !
    Moving on to the less fun part, i was wondering if you were going to translate this month's chapter of Vinland Saga since no other team seems to be on it ? : o

    (Sorry for the mistakes, still working on my english.)

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  17. Hi Hox

    please, could you translate this month's Vinland Saga ?
    Thorfinn long-awaited reunion with his family is truly taking place now

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  18. For all of you asking about a certain manga where Kurt Cobain travels back into time to become a viking, I don't "work" on that series so please don't ask about it on this blog.

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  19. I'm kinda saddened that you skipped over Karakuri, though I can relate on how some parts of the story's progression is kinda.. weak.

    It would've at least been great to have the Desert Arc and the various flashbacks scanlated.

    The story does get pretty messy, with its share of plotholes at times, but I loved the emotion that Fujita puts into his art and stories.

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  20. Hox, please translate Moonlight Act, the manga ended this month, and probably will have 29/30 volumes, not that big. Fujita fans needs you.

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    1. >29/30 volumes
      >not that bag

      All right, buddy.

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