Soil v8 (complete)

Hopefully, my editor Kennit and I can finish this long-abandoned series before the end of the year, but no promises.

And volume 8 is now done!

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Soil v8:   Mega
Soil c64:   Mega

Some Politically Incorrect Thoughts on Religiously Incorrect Topics

Literally me as I write this post

For my follow up to books I've read in 2016 part 1, I'm going to focus on RELIGION of both the ancient and modern variety. As a citizen of the modern-West, I'm not alone if I were to confess that religion is boring. Sure, on surveys and polls, % of atheists is beaten by that of Christians, but there's a hell of lot of Christians who don't attend church regularly and even more who don't understand the principal theological beliefs that would set one sect apart from the other. My parents, too, were one of these "nominally" religious folks, and despite making me go to church and Buddhist temples in my childhood, they didn't care enough to prevent their son from becoming a dirty infidel in his teens. And because of the godless environment I grew up in, I'd gotten a foolish idea that religion doesn't really matter. "Who cares what papal primacy is? Who cares about the difference between Pure Land and Zen Buddhism? No, please not another school field trip to the Sikh temple with bad food!" While I'm exaggerating my ignorance here, there really does seem to be a tendency for a lot of us infidels to not understand how important religion is. When a religious person does something bad, we blame the individual, not the religion. We recognize that individuals get out of religion what they bring to it, but rarely vice versa, that religions have distinct perspectives to impart change upon the believer. In short, religion is a mere jacket, an external identity one can adopt with ease without fundamentally changing one's internal identity. Fundamental to my abandoning of such ideas was learning to read history as less the tales of great men and epoch-making moments, but more as the evolution of human society. All of a sudden, war matters, not because "ooh, shiny swords and armour" but because how it shaped human society. Economy matters, not because of some vague idea that more money = power, but how wealth is generated, accumulated, and distributed fundamentally alters human society. And last but not least, religion also matters because duh, it also shapes human society. Call it my "road to Damascus" moment, if you'd be so kind to let this dirty infidel culturally appropriate a religious term.

Full T R I G G E R   W A R N I N G S ahead to the religious and politically correct for the remainder of this post.

Legend of Giants

Yay, it's time for another Hoshino Yukinobu manga! I worked with illuminati-scans (click the link since they've got other releases) for this one, and it's a collection of 3 short stories drawn from his earlier career ('75, '77, '78) and that's intentional because I wanted to focus on Hoshino's earlier works now that there's a decent amount of his stuff scanlated compared to when I initially did Stardust Memories when 2001 Nights was the only other Hoshino manga available in English.

Icarus Asteroid (published in '75, the year of Hoshino's debut as a mangaka)

It's particularly interesting to note just how different the artstyle is for the second story (see above) compared to the other two, which is largely the same style Hoshino still draws with nearly four decades later. Given that there's only a 2 year gap between Icarus Asteroid and Legend of Giants, I would theorize that the artstyle shift is because Hoshino, like other skilled mangaka, knew how to draw in different styles but was initially restrained (whether by himself or those around him) to draw in a manner that would less alienate readers who had grown up on mainstream '60s and early '70s manga. I do plan on doing Distant Dawn with illuminati-scans as well in the near future, which is a collection of Hoshino's short stories from '75-78 including his debut work, Iron Queen. That one has a lot more stories from his formative years in '75 and '76 and it'll be interesting to note the subtle artstyle changes he was making as he shifted from his early to late styles. I'll probably do a longer write-up then to point out some of those changes. In any case, with regards to the first and longest story (Legend of Giants parts 1 and 2), I would encourage readers to not read it so quickly. Part 1 becomes more meaningful in hindsight when you read part 2. When I initially skimmed through it, I didn't think too much of it, but as I translated it, I was impressed by Hoshino's weaving of Western mythology. If you're a long-time reader of Hoshino, it's obvious that the guy is a major westaboo and loves to reference Western culture. But as far as this short story is concerned, it's not the kind of empty, self-congratulating namedropping. The Prometheus mythology serves quite well in connecting parts 1 and 2 to each other, and to their overarching theme. That's all I'll say for now. Enjoy!

Download:
Legend of Giants:   Mega

Some Thoughts on Books I read in 2016 - Part 1

Literally me as I write this post

With the year heading towards its final season, I think it's time for me to collect my thoughts on the books I've been reading this year so I don't completely forget what it is I actually learned from them. This will be part 1 of 4 (maybe 5?) series of posts about my thoughts on books of 2016. As these posts are getting longer and longer, I'm starting to think simply doing smaller chunks regular history/politics posts would be better.

Historie Update

Chapter 97 is out. Good chapter. Will be interesting to see how Eumenes' new determination will play out during and after Philip's approaching demise.

Important note by Iwaaki that he'll be taking a brief break to do his usual art fix-ups for v10 release. So we probably won't see the next chapter until either late this year, or start of next year. I will be putting out v10 once I see any tank scans for that pop up on the internet though.

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Historie c97:   Sendspace

Yakeppachi no Maria v1 (complete)

And this is the second (and probably last) Tezuka manga that Happyscans and I will do. Even among Tezuka's many works, this one stands out as one of his weirder works for its content. It was serialized in 1970 when people were discussing if sex-education in schools needed a reform and when delinquent/battle academy-centered shonen stories were very poular. But more importantly, it was also the time when Nagai Go's Harenchi Gakuen was also running and ruffling a ton of feathers. Adults across Japan were seriously debating if these crude, disposable piece of entertainment known as "manga" should really be allowed to depict sex and violence. There was a sizable movement calling for the banishment of books posing "harmful influence" for Japanese youths. Obviously, manga like Harenchi Gakuen were a prime target but even Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom(!) was labelled harmful by some of these people. It seems ridiculous to us today, but even the kissing scene in Tezuka's Apollo no Uta provoked criticism from the PTA, and some of Tezuka's manga were burned in public book burnings by this social-movement, many of whose members likely thought that all manga were better off eradicated.

In this chaotic time for the manga world under attack when many new artists deliberately sought to break even more taboos to smugly annoy the uptight conservatives, Tezuka, being the father of manga, probably felt trapped between two sides. As an artist, he too, likely wanted to explore new boundaries without being restrained, but as part of the older generation, he probably felt more hesitant about breaking them than the youngsters. Moreover, his Mushi Productions was veering towards bankruptcy and that certainly must have added additional stress. It was this "desperation" that he felt at this time that allowed him to channel that era's zeitgeist and draw "Yakeppachi no Maria," whose main character is literally nicknamed "desperation (Yakeppachi)." In the end, like Alabaster (which I also translated), Tezuka has come to regard this manga as a rubbish work. In my opinion, however, I think it's an enjoyable quirky work (only 2 volumes long), and given its historical context and what it represented to Tezuka's career, deserves to be translated.

Download:
Yakeppachi no Maria v01:   Mega
Yakeppachi no Maria c06:   Mega

Wombs v1 (complete)

Chapter 8 is done and with it, volume 1, as well. I made a ton of typos in a fair number of minor translation errors in the previous chapter releases, so I fixed them all for the batch volume release. I hope people are enjoying this unusual series. Shirai Yumiko does a good job at very gradual world-building, as opposed to heavy info dumps, so that readers will know just enough to understand the events of each chapter but still have enough questions so that they'll keep reading. If only she could improve her character art, she could become a mangaka to closely follow for many years to come.

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Wombs v1:   Mega (fixed tons of errors present in chapter releases)
Wombs c08:   Mega

Planet of Sutakola v1

KATOU SHINKICHI IS BACK! Actually, this is a belated remark, considering he spent the past 9 years working on Planet of Sutakola, which just wrapped up in 2015 with its 5th volume, but it's still worth celebrating since Katou Shinkichi is very sparse with his manga output. As a big fan of him, I've been waiting for ages to read this, so I'm doubly excited to start translating it, thanks to Habanero scans providing me with raws and Kennit with cleaning/typesetting. The first volume is merely the opening act to this SF-fantasy tale, so it brings up a lot of questions that'll only be answered in the subsequent volumes, which is when the plot will really begin to take shape. I'll release v2 sometime this winter.

But really, Katou's artwork is so superb that even if you can't follow the story, the manga's still a joy to look at. As a mangaka who started drawing manga in a simple and deformed artstyle, Katou's one of those few artists that knows when to be detailed and when to be simple, leading to an art style that's not trying to be some bland attempt at realism nor a cookie-cutter manga aesthetic.

In other news, I'll be starting up translations for Kaneko Atsushi's Soil this September for those of you who've been dying for years to see how that mystery wraps up. Finally the frogs won't be the only one who can read the ending.

Download:
Planet of Sutakola v01:   Mega

Don Quixote

Here's the full-release of Shiriagari Kotobuki's The Wandering Senior, Don Quixote! This is a project I've had my eye on for some time but it was indefinitely shelved due to lack of raws, so much thanks go out to Habanero scans for providing me with raws, as well as Kennit for editing. I was planning on doing a longer Some Thoughts post for this, considering Shiriagari's a rather unique mangaka whom fans of non-mainstream manga should definitely note, but I'm a little too busy right now for that (perhaps I'll save it for when I do another Shiriagari manga). I will say, however, that this particular manga showcases Shiragari's great use of surrealist art and storytelling, resulting in a social commentary which would have come out ham-handedly preachy in any lesser hands. So do give it a go, and tell me what you thought of it.

In other news, you can expect some Hoshino Yukinobu, Yasuhiko Yoshikazu, and motherfucking KATOU SHINKICHI amongst other things from me this summer.

Download:
The Wandering Senior, Don Quixote:   Mega

Historie 96

Poor Eumenes...

Also, I know I've been quiet for the whole month, but that doesn't mean I haven't been translating stuff. I should be releasing a 1-volume project... probably next week, as well as releasing something Tezuka-related. So check back next weekend.

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Historie c96:   Sendspace