Rivera vs. Joe

Finally, the match we've all been waiting for is underway! It's been quite an eventful volume, hasn't it? It feels like every Joe volume is jam-packed with new developments. I'd ideally like to keep on rolling by moving immediately to volume 13 but expect Alexandros and Punpun to interfere with that. So don't expect v13 until both of these are scanlated.

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Tomorrow's Joe v12:   Sendspace
Tomorrow's Joe v12 Part 6:   Sendspace

Status Update

Sorry to break the news, but it's another month without Historie... I really thought there'd be a chapter this June but I guess them's the breaks. Maybe next month... But for those who're looking to have their fix of manga set in the Classical era, you'll be excited to know that my next project is Alexandros ~Dream for World Conquest~. It's a condensed biography of Alexander the Great and I quite like it for its depictions of the Diadochi at the beginning and the end. If only there were more manga that focused on them... This manga's only 1-volume long, and I intend on releasing it in one go, but I thought I might as well release the first few pages as a preview since there's no Historie this month. Expect the whole volume to be out sometime in July.

I've been wanting to work on this for quite some time now, primarily because it's by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu. In case you don't know who that is, he's the original character designer for the iconic Mobile Suit Gundam. Although he's mostly known for his works as a character designer for anime, it's Yasuhiko-the-mangaka that I so adore and admire for two main reasons. For one, unlike in anime where Yasuhiko's lovely character designs are usually compromised due to the lack of budget, his designs shine brilliantly in manga. Definitely one of my top 10 mangaka when it comes to artwork, especially character designs. The second reason is that he makes exactly the type of historical manga that I love. He's much more dramatic than Yokoyama of course, but he still strikes a nice balance that never feels too "hollywood," for a lack of a better term. I definitely intend on doing most of his historical stuff over the years, especially Ten no Kechimyaku (oh man, do I ever have a hard-on for that one's setting).

Anyways, regarding status updates, I'm sure the #1 question on everyone's mind is WHEN'S THE NEW PUNPUN COMING!? Well, it's coming out in Japan on June 28th, so taking into the amount of time it takes for my raw provider to get it delivered and then scan it, I'd say a late-July release is most likely. I'll give a more definite release date once I actually get the raws. And yes, I'll do the live-typesetting threads like I did with the previous volumes. That's becoming sort of a Punpun tradition now. As for Zero, I still haven't found/gotten any more raws yet, so let's all try to be patient. I'm sure I'll be able to resume that following Punpun. That's it for now, feel free to ask any other question regarding my other projects.

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Alexandros Preview:   Sendspace

Valley of the Fallen Phoenix

And here we are, v34 complete! Back when I was first exposed to the story of Rot3K, I was quite surprised to see Pang Tong make such an early exit. Here's a guy who's been hyped up as Kongming's equal ever since Liu Bei first met Shui Jing (Water Mirror) and he comes to such an anticlimactic end, which always fuels the "what-ifs" among fans. What if Cao Cao hadn't lost Guo Jia before Red Cliffs? What if Sun Quan didn't lose Zhou Yu so early? What if Liu Bei hadn't lost Pang Tong? I personally think if we were to talk history and not the novel, Pang Tong surviving wouldn't have changed the grand scheme of things. In fact, if he did survive, it might have very well stirred conflicts between Zhuge Liang and him. The minor character Peng Yang who appeared in this volume is sometimes cited as an example of a genius marginalized for provoking Kongming's ire.

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Sangokushi c218:   Sendspace
Sangokushi v34:   Sendspace

Sangokushi v34 (last updated June 18)

Sangokushi foreshadowing is similar to that of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. That is to say, it's as blunt as a hammer. But don't be too bummed out, it's how the events play out that matters and makes reading this tale worthwhile, not the outcome.

I don't know, Wei Yan... You're talking to a geezer that could even take on Guan Yu.

A lot of people seem to rate Liu Bei too lowly because it always seems like Pang Tong or Zhuge Liang is doing all the work. But as the incident in this chapter shows, he's still quite capable himself.

In ancient China, wisdom is often inversely proportional to politeness and consideration.

This horse that Liu Bei gives to Pang Tong is Dilu (hex-marked horse). If you'll recall, it's the supposedly "unlucky" horse that saved Liu Bei's life all the way back when Cai Mao tried to assassinate Liu Bei back in volume... 20. Back then, Yokoyama drew it as a brown-horse, but it's supposed to be white, I think.

These two should just fuck already.

Hey, look. It's Huang Zhong v2.0

If it weren't for Zhang Fei's temper, he'd easily be Liu Bei's best general.

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Sangokushi c210:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Sangokushi c211:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Sangokushi c212:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Sangokushi c213:   Sendspace

Sangokushi c214:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c215:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c216:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c217:   Sendspace

Joe v12 Cont'd (last updated June 16)

And we're back from another one of our mini-delays. Sorry for all the Joe-fans out there who keep having to deal with our frequent breaks. But as I mentioned before in the post about Zero, we had a legitimate reason for the hiatus this time.

Just one more chapter left in the volume.

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Tomorrow's Joe v12-4:   Sendspace
Tomorrow's Joe v12-5:   Sendspace

Monthlies (or the lack of, rather)

So first off, I just realized that in the last page of the most recent Historie chapter, it said it'd resume on 6/25, which means another break this month. FUCK. As for the other monthly Afternoon manga, a certain authority has prohibited me from releasing it on this blog. A search into the usual places might help alleviate your fixes however. So yeah, no releases at all in this "release-post." Sorry folks.

But in other news, get ready to see a whole volume of exciting ass-kicking adventures at Shu in Sangokushi v34!

Gyanki-Hen v7 Complete

Sorry for taking much longer than I usually do with this volume, last week was quite the busy week for me. Now let's just hope the same generous anonymous can get v8 &9 soon for us.

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Gyanki-Hen v07:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c60-61:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles

Gyanki-Hen v7 (last updated May 22)

Finally, we can get started on Zero once more! Thanks again to the anonymous who sent me scans.

*Also, regarding Tomorrow's Joe, there's been some unexpected delays due to Arles (typesetter) having to deal with a family member's passing.  I hope you all can understand that and send him your best regards.

I really hope the way I translated Kijurou's final message doesn't come back to bite me on the ass.

Double-release of chapter 55 and 56!

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Gyanki-Hen c53:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c54:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c55-56:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c57:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c58:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles
Gyanki-Hen c59:   Sendspace;   Depositfiles

Some Thoughts About Good Manga 7

My apologies to those who look forward to these segments, but it took me almost 4 months to get in the right mood of doing another Some Thoughts post, thanks to in no small part to the above-pictured Italian cartoonist Manuele Fior. In 2010, he released a comic that's since won quite a few awards and the approval of another comics-blogger I like, so I decided to give it a go as well.

The work I'm talking about is Cinquemila Chilometri al Secondo (5000km per second), a story about a love that's not meant to be and told through minimalistic dialogue and a few timeskips to show how each partner has moved on or not. For any anime fan, both that title and synopsis should sound familiar to you, because just about everybody gushed about Shinkai Makoto's 5cm per second back when it came out in 2007. And there's a reason behind that because Fior's work was apparently inspired by it (don't quote me on this though, as I haven't been able to find a concrete source for it). Now I'm not ashamed to admit that I HATED that movie and I'll regret seeing it until the day I die. I certainly understand why others liked it and I know what Shinkai tried to do with that movie. It's just that it failed to arouse any emotions out of me outside of disappointment. However, after reading 5000km per second, I'm a little less angry about 5cm per second because Fior showed me what the same concept would be like with prettier, more mature, and just plain better execution.

Before I can talk about why I think 5000km per second is better, let me first concisely state why I disliked Shinkai's movie first. The least interesting element (the romance) is given priority and carried by dull characters while the most interesting element (learning to move on) is given little focus and poorly wrapped-up with a half-assed montage. It's no wonder then I liked 5000km per second because it does the exact opposite of this. The actual romance isn't told at all! In fact, it's only through snippets of conversation taken place after the lovers have broken up that we the reader even realize that they had hooked up in the past. The vast majority of the story actually focuses on the challenge of moving on from the perspective of both partners, as opposed to 5cm/second's singular perspective. [Spoilers ahead]At first, the characters try to abandon their emotional history behind and move to different countries, one going North to Norway while the other goes South to Egypt. As time passes, they meet new people and start families of their own. But no matter how many years pass by, neither can really forget the moments they've shared and they realize that to leave is easy. To return is difficult. Manuele Fior skillfully tells us that we and the human experience aren't discrete, and to make a clean break is a futile endeavour. Our identities and relationships are continuous, and to deny it will lead to emotional unfulfillment in life... Or at least, that's my interpretation of 5000km/second.

As for the art, it's all-around gorgeous. Suffused with distinct ambience of each locale, these watercolour paintings are lovely to look at and their slightly amorphous outlines, the lack of clear black-boundaries unlike so many comics, complement the theme beautifully. In any case, I'd highly recommend this comic whether or not you liked 5cm per second. Although it's not currently available in English, Fantagraphics Books is scheduled to release the English version early January of next year (according to amazon).

Historie Volume 7

Took  a lot longer than I thought it would but at last, here's Historie Volume 7, from the tankobon (volume) scans. Much thanks go out to You Say for providing me with cleans to work with. In case you don't know, much of the art is touched up for the tankobon versions. A lot of this is usually focused on the background art, but there're some other minor changes like extra pages or details pictured below.

One other thing to note is that some of the shorter chapters get combined into one for the tankoban version, which is why the chapter numbers don't match up to the ones you see in the magazine. So it says in the table of contents page that volume 7 covers chapters 58-65 and this corresponds to chapters 60-70.

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Historie v07:   Mediafire;   Sendspace