Zero Updates

Just a small update: There's no Vinland Saga or Historie this month. Also, good news and bad news for Samura fans. I've decided not to do Sister Generator because I was recently informed that it had already been licensed and published by Dark Horse under the title Hiroaki Samura's Emerald and Other Stories only two months ago. So if you're a Samura fan, I'd suggest you go buy it.

Also, if you haven't heard, Gyanki-Hen is ending with its 9th volume (to be released May 17). Considering how many things there are to cover in the storyline, I'd assume this isn't the actual end yet and there will be a part 3. However, considering how Fukumoto plans to start Kaiji Part 5 this June, I'm not sure when he'll get back to Zero. Let's just hope the hiatus isn't as long as it was last time... In other news, I still don't see raws for either volume 7 or 8 for Zero. If anybody's willing to buy and scan the volumes themselves, please do let me know beforehand.

Oh and lastly, if there're any translators looking for some interesting projects to do, Happyscans is looking for someone to translate Sukeban Deka, Wolf Guy (the 90s version), and Azumi. Personally, I'm not much of a fan of the Wolf Guy franchise, but I think Sukeban Deka and Azumi are projects that should definitely be translated eventually. In any case, head over to Happyscans for more details, whether or not you're a translator, since they're picking up a lot of other interesting projects at the moment.

Treacherous Path to Shu

Sangokushi v33 is now done, hurray! Before I comment on it, here's a small status update:

I still can't find the vol 7 raws for Zero so there's nothing I can really do there, unless someone's kind enough to buy it and scan it themselves. If not, I'm sure it'll eventually show up a couple months down the road. I've also received Historie v7 cleans from a kind helper so I'm going to dedicate this week in finishing that. Next week, I'm going to get started on Sister Generator (1-volume oneshot collection by Samura), and once that's done, I'll come back to do more Sangokushi.

Now, going back to Sangokushi, there are two things I wanted to comment on, and they both take place in chapter 208 "The Two Suns." In the letter that Sun Quan sends to Cao Cao, the manga simply has Cao Cao inferring that Sun Quan's also beset by some trouble from his promise to not pursue Cao Cao if he retreats now. In the actual novel, Sun Quan's letter makes no such promise. Instead, he reminds Cao Cao how Wu is still under threat whether or not Cao Cao backs out on his disastrous campaign, which finally convinces Cao Cao to swallow his pride and withdraw.

The second, and more important, thing I wanted to comment on was Zhang Zhao's suggestion at the very end. His plan can be summarized in two main points: A) tie Liu Bei down in Shu by having Liu Zhang turn on him  B)combined forces of Zhang Lu and Sun Quan quickly overwhelm Jingzhou.

However, even after thinking about his plan for some time, I still don't think it makes any sense. Let's start with part A of his plan. There's no way Shu would ever turn on Liu Bei willingly. The first problem is whether Liu Zhang will even believe in Sun Quan's warning letter. If the vast majority of his retainers warning him against Liu Bei wasn't enough to convince him, why would he believe in a letter sent by the diplomatically distant Sun Quan? Secondly, it's quite unlikely that Shu would actually attack Liu Bei. If Shu's too weak to even handle Zhang Lu alone, which is why they invited Liu Bei in the first place, why on earth would Shu willingly fight Liu Bei? In the story (minor spoiler ahead), Shu is only forced to turn on Liu Bei when Liu Zhang reads Zhang Song's secret letter and realizes he has no choice but to fight. But there's no way in hell Zhang Zhao could have predicted this in advance. Also, Zhang Zhao is seriously underestimating Liu Bei if he thinks Liu Bei will just hesitate and fail to prioritize either front.

Now let's move to part B. Wu should know that Liu Bei still left a sizeable garrison in Jingzhou, under the capable hands of Zhuge Liang, Zhao Zilong, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. That's pretty much an all-star lineup there. Unless Zhang Zhao has a brilliant follow-up plan, I don't think they can overwhelm Jingzhou quickly enough before Cao Cao intervenes again. Sure, Wu's strong enough to fend off Cao Cao's massive army, but that's only because of Wu's naval superiority. Conquering Jingzhou's going to be a matter of numerous sieges and land battles. Remember when Sun Quan and Zhou Yu tried it just before the latter died?

In short, I'm not saying it's impossible for Wu to capture Jingzhou, but I just don't see them pulling it off before Cao Cao intervenes and Zhang Zhao's plan doesn't significantly increase Wu's chances of success. Well, that's enough analysing from me.

Feel free to tell me if you agrees or disagree with my opinion.

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Sangokushi v33 (last updated Apr. 20)

I was originally planning to work on the new volume of Zero right after finishing Alabaster, but I'm afraid I've yet to find raws for it. So in the meantime, I'll get started on Sangokushi again.

I've gotta side with Huang Quan here. You think that with all the natural barriers that Zhang Song's been going on about, they'd be able to fend off an invasion from Zhang Lu if they really tried. The soldiers might be inexperienced, but as later chapters show, they've got some good capable generals to lead them.

Interesting how Liu Bei's leaving Kongming behind for this campaign. I somewhat expect that may have to do in part with Pang Tong's desire to prove himself to his new lord, an significant aspect which will later resurface in the story...

In the manga's original dialogue, the reference to Hongmen Banquet was omitted. I, however, added it back in since it's quite fitting and more people in the West could stand to learn about the Chu-Han contention. Oh, how I wish I could begin translating Yokoyama's manga adaptation right now but I still have 27 volumes of Sangokushi to take care of first...

Even a warlord isn't safe from the wrath of his own mother.]

Funny how Cao Cao's words always come back to bite him on the ass.

Considering that a huge ball of gas and fire was about to fall on top of you, I'd say that's a bad dream.

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Alabaster Volume 2

Took a little longer than I originally promised but Alabaster is finally done, much thanks to Happyscans! Tezuka's comment in the afterword was originally what sparked my interest in translating this manga so do read that as well. It's a shame Tezuka had so little confidence in this story, since I think the only real flaw was that the short 2-volume length didn't give enough time for both the plot and characters to develop at an appropriate pace. Feel free to let me know what you thought of the story and if you're in the mood for more Tezuka, head over to Happyscans who've done some more Tezuka stuff, including the seminal Treasure Island.

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Tomorrow's Joe v12 (last updated May 1)

Time for us and Joe to get right back into it, after all the events of the last volume! Here's the first of many exciting chapters this volume.

Sorry for the long break between the chapters. First, I was preoccupied with other things for about 3 weeks and then my editor also was busy the past 2 weeks but I think we can get things rolling again. Chapter 3 should come hopefully later this week.

Short chapter but I hope you like it.

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Alabaster Volume 1

Here it is folks, volume 1 of Alabaster! I hope the rather long delay between releases hasn't caused you to forget about this one, as Happyscans and I hope to wrap this series up with its 2nd volume before the end of the month. Speaking of Tezuka and Happyscans, you should check out their site as they recently released New Treasure Island, a monumental work not only to Tezuka's career but to manga as we now know it today.

*Update: Next volume of Zero is set to come out in Japan on Mar 15 but I'm going to spend most of my efforts this month on getting the last volume of Alabaster done before I move onto that (so think late March).

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Joe's Slump

Sorry for some delays but v11 is finally complete at last! Even though there might not have been all that much boxing this volume, it was by no means a boring volume. I really hope you'll enjoy Joe's slump and return as much as me, my typesetter Arles, and Happyscans did. That's it for now. Look forward to v12 chapters coming soon.

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Decisive Battle Along the Wei River

And v32 is finally complete! I hope you enjoyed the conclusion to Ma Chao's conflict with Cao Cao. If you're a fan of Ma Chao (like me), look forward to him making another grand entrance in just a few volumes. Now as entertaining as Jia Xu's scheme was, I'd still nominate Zhang Song for the most memorable moment award in this volume with his TACTFUL DIPLOMATIC SKILLS.

One other thing I wanted to point out was that this line on p166, "One was not human if not of Cao Cao's faction," which is not a part of the original novel's narration. For those of you familiar with the Genpei War or Tales of the Heike, you'll realize that it's a clear-cut reference to Taira no Kiyomori's famous quote, "One was not human if not a Taira (平家にあらずんば人にあらず)." So it's yet another example of how Japanese cultural elements still manage to peep out from this particular adaptation of a Chinese classic.

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Some Thoughts About Good Manga 6

Anybody know who this is? The answer is Morohoshi Daijirou. If you've never heard of him, that’s because not a single work of his has been translated to English officially or unofficially to my knowledge.* His obscurity in the West belies his importance however, considering his influence extended to big-weights like Miyazaki Hayao or Hideaki Anno. In fact, an interesting piece of trivia even I didn’t know before writing this post was that Morohoshi Ataru, the main character of Takahashi Rumiko’s Urusei Yatsura, owes the first half of his name to this mangaka. So what about this guy makes him special? To give an analogy, Morohoshi is to dark fantasy as Hoshino Yukinobu is to hard sci-fi manga. Incidentally, the two are long-time friends.

Morohoshi debuted in '70 with his oneshot Junko Kyoukatsu published in COM (Tezuka's famous response to Garo). At first noted only among the manga subculture crowd, he then went on to achieve more widespread recognition with his series Youkai Hunter and Saiyu Youenden (loose adaptation of Journey to the West), the latter of which was awarded in the Grand Prize category of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. His works are primarily noted for their unique sense of dread or wonder when myths or the occult cross the realms of reality and meet fantasy. For instance, in Ankoku Shinwa (Dark Myths), Morohoshi weaves myths of Buddhism and early Jomon and Yamato cultures to tell the tale of one boy's divine awakening. Fans of H.P. Lovecraft will no doubt feel right at home with Morohoshi's works. Just the fact that he disliked the title Youkai Hunter (a terribly generic name suggested by his editor) and later changed it to From the Field Notes of Hieda Reijirou, which is more reminiscent of the academic journal-style retelling prominent in stories like At the Mountains of Madness, should make his Lovecraftian influences clear. Having said all that, I don't want to hem him inside only within the borders of Lovecraftian horror, as he's also quite adept at doing surreal or fairy-tale-esque fantasy with no grim or eerie elements.

His relatively recent oneshot collections are excellent examples of Morohoshi's non-Lovecraftian fantasy. Their titles are Personal Illustrated Reference of Fish (Shikaban Gyorui-Zufu) and Personal Illustrated Reference of Birds (Shikaban Chourui-Zufu). As the title implies, the stories center around either fish or birds, but each story feels quite different from the next. Some are set in the ancient past steeped with divinity, some are set in the modern-day tinged with magical realism, while some are set in the post-apocalyptic futures where fish and birds are things of the past. Other stories mirror creation myths, Aesop's fables, or fairy-tales. And still others are explorations of dreams, psyches, or even just short gag comedies. A very impressive range of stories indeed. It's always a pleasure to see even established authors like Morohoshi trying new and different avenues.

What touched me most in these two collections was Morohoshi's unique take on Hans Christian Anderson's famous fairy-tale, The Little Mermaid. Just a warning, minor spoilers ahead. Morohoshi's version has mermaids living near the bottom of the ocean, where there is almost no oxygen and no light (curiously enough from an evolutionary standpoint, the mermaids have normal human-shaped eyes, however). Furthermore, these mermaids do not live prosperously in an underwater kingdom but rather a frugal existence with their population in very few numbers and scattered sparsely. Whereas in the original tale, the mermaid is motivated by love to seek a life above waters, Morohoshi adeptly uses these aforementioned elements of setting to have his mermaid be motivated instead by loneliness tinged with curiosity. I, being admittedly a rather aloof and unromantic person, quite like this change as I find it makes the little mermaid more sympathetic. This theme of loneliness continues onto the second part (her life on land), where the story changes to more of a realist drama about lost love and nostalgia for the past. This change might sound sudden and jarring but I assure you it's not. For one, the two parts of the story are split into two chapters and they are respectively placed as the first and last chapters in Personal Illustrated Reference of Fish. Also, the second half actually starts from another character's perspective so we don't initially realize that this is a continuation, and thus we also don't expect the fantastical elements present in the first half. It's only much later that we the reader comes to the slow realization that we're reading a continuation. This little split might not seem like much, but it's actually quite ingenious in getting a reader to follow a set path of expectations. It's these little things in a story's execution that can make all the difference. I won't spoil how Morohoshi's Little Mermaid ends but it's quite fitting and neither overly sappy (like Disney's version) nor overly cruel (like the original). Now maybe it's because I haven't read a fairy-tale since I was a kid but I found myself absolutely enchanted by this story, and Morohoshi's unique alterations really changed my perspective of a tale I once didn't think anything more than "Under the seaaaaaa~"

Well, that's it for now. For those who're wondering, yes, Happyscans and I are making progress on Alabaster right now. And no, there is no set release date for Gyanki-Hen v7 but I believe it'll come out in Japan sometime this spring.

*Correction: Actually, a very short oneshot called On the Way Home (Kaeri Michi) was scanlated years ago. Not really what I'd call ideal in introducing someone to Morohoshi, but better something than nothing, I suppose. I can't find a download link, so if you want to read, you can read it here at mangafox.

Sangokushi v32 (last updated Feb 16)

I wonder if a Native American can just keep his regular name if he becomes a taoist?

A quick word about the duel's conclusion. In the manga, you might think that the Xiliang forces were cheap and ignoring proper dueling conduct but in the original novel, they only come charging out because they feel threatened by Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong, who were coming out to stop the duel. Of course, in the actual Records of the Three Kingdoms, there is no mention of a duel between Xu Chu and Ma Chao, though it does say Xu Chu did glare Ma Chao down until the latter retreated.

Jia Xu is one of the most underrated strategists in the novel in my opinion. The few times he appears, he shows Zhuge Liang-levels of prescience and wisdom. It's a shame he only shows up very rarely once defecting to Cao Cao. I wonder why that is? Maybe he was historically not that talented and couldn't accomplish much. Or maybe his lords never appreciated his advice all that much.

Absolutely brilliant plan.

Not to be confused with the imperial seal that Sun Jian found earlier on in the story (I think).

China's distinctive cliff-mountains really are breathtaking.

Don't you just hate it when UPS does this?

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