Black Knight Story

Well, I took about a whole week and a half longer than planned, but here's the full volume of Black Knight Story. I really apologize for the untranslated extra bits containing info on Tiger and M4 Sherman variations as well as sexy Nazi uniforms, but it really was far more work than I was willing to put into (I kept having to google every term to see what they were actually called in English so I said to hell with this). But honestly, if you're interested in that, you're far better off picking up an actual book on the subject than reading some poor translations of a guy who can't even distinguish between a Panther and a Tiger. In any case, I hope this is enough to satisfy that original guy who requested this project. Finally, I can start working on Yuki no Touge...

P.S. Page 125 (which technically should be p123 in my filename order) is missing from the raws. It's not that I forgot to include it.

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Black Knight Story:   Mega;   Sendspace
Black Knight Story c13-epilogue:   Sendspace

Clash Between Wei and Wu

Chapters 240-241 are done, bringing this volume to a close. Despite the volume's title, Cao Cao's invasion this time fizzled out rather anticlimactically, which is rather odd since the book listed his force at 400,000. Of course, the numbers are probably much exaggerated but even if they were half or even a quarter of that, the lack of will to push forward strongly seems rather odd. As I noted before, Cao Cao didn't even seem to make any plans on countering Wu's navy this time, which is their true strength and must be dealt with for any successful Southern invasion, something that the founder of the Sui dynasty understood very well. In any case, fans of war needn't be disappointed since Liu Bei's Hanzhong-campaign which starts next volume will be quite entertaining. On a side note, Jin Yi's ancestor Jin Midi, mentioned briefly in chapter 241 is a rather interesting character, as he was the son of a Xiongnu prince, who became a Han servant after his father was killed during the great Han-Xiongnu war. Despite his Xiongnu origins, he was fiercely loyal to the emperor, even killing his own son for flirting with one of the emperor's lady-in-waiting. Also interesting is that Jin Midi was claimed to be ancestor of the ruling Kim dynasty of Silla, a southeastern Korean kingdom. This link is controversial at best, though there definitely are linguistic and cultural similarities between early Mongolian/Tungusic and Koreans (not that any of these categories had distinct boundaries back then). Nonetheless, it is significant that the kings of Silla deliberately wanted themselves linked to Jin Midi, in the same way kings and emperors throughout history forged/faked dynastic links for legitimacy or some other political implication.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention, Sima Yi finally makes his entrance in the story! Hurray ...though he won't reappear for quite some time after this. Oh well, at least he got one line in, though unfortunately disregarded by Cao Cao.

Download:
Sangokushi v37:   Mediafire;   Mega;   Sendspace
Sangokushi c240-241:   Sendspace
All previous volumes:   Mediafire;   Mega

Die Schwarzen Ritter (last updated May 20)

Time to continue this where I left off at. I have to say, I quite like how this manga is told. Brief narrative that never explains more than what's absolutely necessary, quick plot progression, and an overall dry-approach to war that, despite having its thrills and tragedies, is never hung up on them. Kind of reminds me of the very technical approach of Miyazaki's Otto Carius that also focused less on sentimental human drama.

>my first time playing WoT

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Black Knight Story c1-9:   Sendspace
Black Knight Story c9:   Sendspace
Black Knight Story c10:   Sendspace
Black Knight Story c11:   Sendspace
Black Knight Story c12:   Sendspace

Sangokushi v37 (last updated May 23)

Balls of Steel. My apologies for the inaccurate translation of Gan Ning's line in p24. I just couldn't resist the opportunity. Also, the original book never explicitly mentioned Gan Ning was the first to scale the walls, and this may be another element of Japanese Sengoku-warfare showing up in Yokoyama's manga. The distinction of "first-to-scale-the-walls (ichiban-nori)" was an important honour that samurai fiercely competed over, though such distinctions weren't uncommon in other parts of the world.

Honestly, this line is so unnecessary, since we've seen such instances happen numerous times in this manga alone.

I made a mistake regarding c235's title in the table of contents at the start of the volume. It'll be fixed for the volume release.

A little bit unsure on the translation of this title. I think the simplified Chinese for "General who Oppresses the Enemy with Ferocity" is "Shechong Jiangjun (折冲将军), and Gan Ning was only awarded this title later on in the story. The original book nor SGZ never mentions Gan Ning gaining some other title after this raid with 100 soldiers. However, in this manga, he's given the title Heiryo Shogun (平慮將軍), which I suppose you could loosely translate to the former but it's not really the same thing. Agh, whatever. It doesn't really matter too much, I suppose.

It's interesting to note how Cao Cao didn't even try (or at least, the book makes no mention of it) to build a navy of his own for his Wu campaign this time.

The wonders of taoist sexual practices.

As weird as this incident is, Zuo Ci isn't a fictional character as he's also noted to be an eccentric taoist master in other historical sources. It's interesting to speculate what the real-life Zuo Ci might have actually done.

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Sangokushi c233:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c234:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c235:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c236:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c237:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c238:   Sendspace
Sangokushi c239:   Sendspace

Historie and Plans for the Summer

I know it's been a long wait, what with me being pre-occupied with Joe for so long, but here's two chapters of Historie, bringing us back up to the latest release. Next chapter comes out in July (ugh). Still, fellow Iwaaki have something else to look forwards to, since I'll be releasing the tankoban version of v8 this summer and collaborating with illuminati-manga on Yuki no Touge, Tsurugi no Mai.

Stand aside, Koihime Musou

But for the immediate future, as in next week, I'll be starting up Sangokushi as well as finishing Black Knight Story, alternating releases for them. After I've gone through 2 volumes of Sangokushi, I'll finally be starting up some new projects now that I'm done with Joe, hurray! Though then again, working on Joe hasn't exactly stopped me from taking on new projects to the disappointment of many Joe-fans, I'm sure. Still, I've been holding back quite a bit. So from now on, expect me to alternate between 2 volumes of Sangokushi and a new project (1-3 volumes long). It'll be a while before I pick up another long series (by that I mean, ~20 volumes). Probably not until I finish Sangokushi. Not that that's a problem, since many excellent manga with tight stories are short.

On an unrelated note, I finally got around to reading Habibi. If you haven't read it yet, go do so. It's worth it for the art alone (love the panelling), whether or not you like the story.

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Historie c84-85:   Sendspace

Many Thoughts on Good Manga 10 (Tomorrow's Joe Complete)

At last. Despite being available in French, Italian, Chinese, Korean, and several other languages for a long time, the unofficial English version of arguably one of the greatest and influential manga series is finally done. I say done, but that’s not quite so accurate since Happyscans and I’ll be re-doing the first 6 volumes as well as fixing all the typos and mistranslations I’ve made (the updated versions will be labeled as v2 in my mega folder). Now I’ve been meaning to do a some-thoughts-post on Tomorrow’s Joe for a while now, and I believe now’s the best time for that. So if you don’t want to get spoiled or don’t care about my opinions, the download links are right below.

Download:

Tomorrow’s Joe v20:   Mega; Sendspace

All previous volumes:   Mega

By the way, I'm surprised to realize that this is the longest post thing I've ever written. Much longer than the longest history term-papers I've written. My sleep-deprivation is making it hard for me to tell if what I've written sounds like really stupidly obvious stuff or far-fetched theories so I would appreciate hearing back from you guys. If you don't feel like slogging through my post, then ignore them and just share some comments, no matter how brief or long, on what you personally thought of Tomorrow's Joe.

Tomorrow's Joe v19

Last volume will be out on 27th. Maybe a little earlier but we'll see. Won't say much now since I'm saving my thoughts for the final release.

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Tomorrow's Joe v19:   Sendspace;   Mega

Tomorrow's Joe v18

Just 2 more volumes to go! A lot of you won't be so thrilled about the coming fight with Harimau because his fighting style seems a little out of line within the realm of realism established so far in the manga, but just enjoy it for what it is and the whole purpose of the arc. If all goes well, v19 will be out next week.

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Tomorrow's Joe v18:   Mega;   Sendspace
My Mega link for almost everything I've done, including previous Joe volumes: Click here

Tomorrow's Joe v17

Sorry it took so long to get v17 out. The delay's all my fault, really. I got sidetracked for about a week with other things, but in any case, only 3 more volumes to go! An April finish should be likely.

Hope you enjoyed the volume. There's a lot of fun character interactions in v17, rather than the usual training and fighting.

Download:
Tomorrow's Joe v17:   Mega;   Sendspace
My Mega link for almost everything I've done, including previous Joe volumes: Click here

Tomorrow's Joe v16

Tomorrow's Joe v16 is out, bringing the fight with Kim to a thrilling conclusion and setting things up for the next arc. You may notice that Rivera and Jose are called "Libera" and "Hose" in the manga on page 232. But considering the manga has stuff like gimnasium for gymnasium, I'm just gonna ignore it and go with my gut instinct. Though concerning the name Pinang Sarawak, I've got no clue and I'm just reaching blindly. Next volume won't be out for at least 2 weeks, most likely.

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Tomorrow's Joe v16:   Mega;   Sendspace