Volume 15 is now out! Hope you'll enjoy the volume, as did I. Kajiwara and Chiba did well in making Kim Yong-bi, a throwaway character in essence, into an intimidating foe that doesn't feel so "throwaway." Definitely the most significant opponent outside of the 3 major guys (Rikiishi, Rivera, Mendoza). On an interesting trivia-note, the Korean edition changed Kim into a Thai boxer by the name of King Cobra (seriously now?) due to localization decisions.
If things go well, v16 will come out next week.
Download:
Tomorrow's Joe v15: Sendspace; Mega
So how many volumes are left?
ReplyDelete5 volumes. 20 is the last volume.
DeleteAwesome! The rate at which you're releasing is pretty good, no complaints here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great work.
The gruelling weight loss regimen Joe purposely went through in this volume really made it great. Joe has grown up to be an enigmatic yet very relatable character.
ReplyDeleteHis relationship towards boxing truly commands respect.
Hox, I'm willing to start reading Ashita no Joe and Oyasumi Punpun, but you don't tag your posts and you don't have a mediafire folder or a mega folder. And the search engine on your blog didn't help. Could you upload your releases to a single folder or anything to make it easier to download your releases in a single place?
ReplyDeleteActually, I do have a mega folder, and I've mentioned it continously for the past 3 entries on the front page, not to mention it being listed on my projects page. But fine, I'll mention it again. https://mega.co.nz/#F!119QSBhS!bCe22AtmY6puabi3XL5b1A
ReplyDeleteThat actually does not have 100% of what I've translated, such as the monthlies. I've purposely left them out for a reason.
Wonderful work! Knowing Joe has a 20-volume story makes each fight so weighty. I'm glad you're going so insanely fast in translating this.
ReplyDeleteWait, doesn't Kim being changed to a Thai boxer fuck with his backstory? How'd they overcome that?
ReplyDeleteThey changed it so that the setting was in wartorn Thailand of WW2, which would be about a decade before the Korean war. It doesn't really change too much since Kim's age was never explicitly mentioned in the manga. Even in the Japanese anime, I think they made Kim about 10 or so years older than in the manga.
DeleteI suppose they redrew that map of Korea in that one panel then, right?
DeleteA little curious on the "why" aspect on Kim's nationality being changed. Was the Korean war too sensitive of a subject?
Short Answer:
DeleteNo. The Korean War's not the sensitive subject, it's Korea-Japanese relations.
Long Answer:
After the end of WW2, Korea passed a law banning Japanese cultural products in a reactionary attempt to salvage its native culture, which had come under severe repression during Japanese colonial rule. This, however, didn't stop people from circumventing the law by selling pirated-versions of many Japanese manga in which the characters and settings were changed to Korea (some even went through changes in art styles, and there are rumors that some pirated-versions actually influenced the original Japanese mangaka when they saw them!).
I've never seen the pirated-version for Ashita no Joe, but it apparently had some drastic changes beyond making the characters Korean, such as changing the iconic ending. In any case, much much later on when the law was repealed, an official localized version was made which was faithful to the original except for the few Korean boxers becoming Thai boxers. Now as for why such a change was made, I can think of two theories. One, is that most Koreans would've known Ashita no Joe by either the earlier pirated-manga or dubbed anime, both of which made most characters Korean. In an attempt to to not confuse this expected customer-base but trying to be somewhat faithful to the original, they made this change.
The second and far likelier theory is that Korean-Japanese relations were still too tense such that the company in charge of the localization feared a possible hit to expected sales if readers felt conflicted about who to root for in a fight where a Japanese protagonist fights a Korean enemy.
Wow, 5 more volumes. The only one I haven't read is no 16 so the next release is gonna make me so happy :)
ReplyDeleteHey Hox, since you will soon finish Joe and Toei announced a new anime.... what about a potential Notari Matsutarou scanlation project?
ReplyDeleteNah, I'm good.
DeleteOk, thanks for the answer. I am already excited about your return to Vinland Saga after Joe, though.
DeleteHi Hox
ReplyDeleteany news on Historie next chapter ?
many thanx for all your work
cant wait for vol 16!
ReplyDelete