Baka & Gogh & Updates

I've said it before and I'll say it again. When it comes to art style in manga, Katou Shinkichi is my absolute favourite. Unfortunately, as is the case for guys like Toyoda Tetsuya and Matsunaga Toyokazu, Katou too falls into the category of highly unproflic mangaka. Of course, that's less their fault and more the fact that non-mainstream works rarely, if ever, sell well. Nevertheless, we should all be thankful that guys like them still continue to work in the manga industry instead of straight-up quitting due to depression or committing suicide. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I found out he started a new series recently (Planet of Sutakola, ongoing in Japan at 3 volumes). In any case, Happy Scans and I are happy to announce that his Baka & Gogh is fully scanlated at last! Mangascreener had previously scanlated all but the last 3 chapters, which drove me nuts until they blessed me with me the opportunity to finish this project up. My translations, I admit, are notably inferior compared to Stephen Paul's fantastic work, but I hope it's adequate enough to deliver a satisfying conclusion to this wonderful tale of personal growth, love, and friendship.

Now, time for some status updates. Minus apparently had the bright idea to disable uploading archive files so I've no choice but to ditch the site. I'm gonna give mediafire another try (3rd try's the charm, right?) but not upload any Biomega, Bokurano, and Vinland Saga chapters due to licensing reasons. If you need those manga, just try bakabt, as they have a handy torrent for the whole thing. THE NEW MEDIAFIRE SITE IS: http://www.mediafire.com/hox-no-box. I'll add more files to it in the coming weeks.

*Update: Apparently the first volume mediafire link is blocked already. [sarcasm]Man, I'm seriously considering on just uploading all my shit on exhentai.com right now. That place comes with online readers, torrents, archives, and everything.[/sarcasm]

As for my "break", it'll go on for 6 more weeks, and I'll officially come out of it by releasing Punpun v10 in early December. That being said, I will use some of my free time until then to finish translating Alabaster as well as blogging about my thoughts on some manga I recently bought.

Download:
Baka & Gogh v1:   Mediafire;   Sendspace
Baka & Gogh v2:   Mediafire;   Sendspace

The Sea of Fallen Beasts

Illuminati-manga and I are happy to add another manga to the list of Hoshino Yukinobu's works translated in English! Come to think of it, I think this is the 2nd Hoshino Yukinobu work for both of us, as I had done Stardust Memories previously and they've started doing Inherit the Stars (adaptation of James P. Hogan's short story by the same name) some months ago.

For those of you who don't know who Hoshino Yukinobu is, he's pretty much the mangaka when it comes to hard sci-fi manga. His representative works are probably 2001 Ya Monogatari and the Munakata Kyoju Denkikou series, and it's a shame the latter has yet to see the light of day in English. If only there were other interested translators who didn't have their hands full with a 60-volume long manga...

In any case, The Sea of Fallen Beasts (Horobishi Kemonotachi no Umi), despite the plesiosaur on the cover, doesn't really have anything to do with dinosaurs (to my slight disappointment). And unlike Hoshino's usual futuristic settings, the self-contained short stories in this 1-volume long collection all take place in the 20th century. I won't say any further as to not spoil anything, but I will say that my favourite story was Legend of the Demon Whale.

P.S. I'm still on break. This is something that I had finished translating before going on my break.

P. P. S. I recently learned that Hoshino Yukinobu influenced Tsuruta Kenji of all people to become a mangaka (never would've guessed that, considering their art and story-telling style are quite different). In fact, Tsuruta liked Hoshino's 2001 Ya Monogatari enough to publish a parody of it!

Damn, he got Hoshino's art down pat.

Download:
The Sea of Fallen Beasts:   Sendspace