Soba-Scans

With the Ides of March now past us, now’s as good a time as ever for an update. Chances are if you’ve come to the site you’re probably a fan of Manabe Joji and/or Harumi Chihiro, so I’ll fill you in on what they’ve been up to:

This is a promotional poster for the French license of Ring x Mama (called “Catch x Mama”) that Manabe Joji posted on his blog. The publisher did a pretty awesome job, if I do say so myself. Project-H’s English version of volume 1 will be out in July, but we haven’t had any involvement with it so I’m afraid I don’t know anything more than that.

After Ring x Mama finished, he started another series in the same magazine called “Kuikomi wo naoshiteiru hima wa nai!” which translates to “No time to fix my wedgie!” If you have a swimsuit fetish then it’ll knock your socks off, since it looks to be about a swim team that’s chock-a-block with buxom young ladies. I haven’t actually sat down and read it but from the few glimpses I’ve had, it appears to be about 90% sex scenes. If I recall correctly it’s going to conclude after two volumes.

At the same time, he’s been running another series in a more mainstream weekly magazine with the title of “Hibi Kore Koujitsu.” ANN recently reported that it’s now concluding in its fourth volume. I have the first two volumes here in print and I must say that the series is very different than what you might expect from him. It’s set in the extremely ritualized and tradition-steeped world of Japanese tea ceremonies. The artwork is quite lush and the only way I can think of to describe the story is dense. You can tell that it borrows from a broader cultural vocabulary that’s very unique to Japan and I think it would be a fascinating yet extremely challenging series to localize. Hopefully if Ring x Mama and Makunouchi Deluxe are successful then we’ll see more Manabe Joji licenses in the future.

With both of those series wrapping up at about the same time, he’s been talking on his blog about what he’s working on next. Obviously it’s still tentative but he says he’s thinking about going back to a “military”-type setting that a lot of his earlier work from the 80s and 90s featured.

Now, how about Harumi Chihiro? It’s been just about a year since Velvet Kiss finished its serialized run in Comic Vitaman, but she hasn’t started any new series since then. She continues to work on “Come Come Vanilla,” which now has two volumes in print, but like a lot of Velvet Kiss fans I’ve heard from, I haven’t even bothered to read it. It seems a little too fluffy and insubstantial for fans of her other series. Strangely enough, I recently stumbled across a figurine that someone made of the main character. I wonder if anyone’s ever made one of Kano…

At any rate, I think Harumi Chihiro has been taking a well-deserved break after Velvet Kiss finished and probably played some advisory role in the movie adaptation that I mentioned earlier. She’s put out a variety of one-shots in a couple different magazines over the last year. I’ve seen a couple of them and they’re fairly nice but not especially weighty. She ran a one-off in the same magazine that runs “Hibi Kore Koujitsu” which teased a longer series on the last page but it never materialized for whatever reason. Most recently she published in “Le Paradis,” a bimonthly romance manga magazine. They seem to have made rather a big deal that it’s her debut in the magazine, giving her very prominent billing on their web site. I’ve seen a fair deal of Japanese twitter buzz about it as well, so that may indicate that Velvet Kiss has made more of a splash than you might expect.

Speaking of Velvet Kiss, it looks like it’s been licensed in Italian now, although someone who speaks Italian will probably need to confirm that for me. It looks like France and Italy have been more active in licensing h-manga during that long dark period when US licensors weren’t touching it with a 12-inch marital aid, and they’re not slowing down. I think our French and Italian compatriots have been able to buy licensed versions of Yamatogawa tankoubons for years now, amongst other stuff. Hopefully these new series from both authors will get the high-quality treatment they deserve and go on to commercial success.

Right now we’re working on getting the last volumes of Velvet Kiss and Love on the Job finished. Velvet Kiss 4 will have two bonus pages at the end like the other volumes, and this will be the first time that they’ll be in English. It also looks like the mid-volume color spread which is usually reduced to black and white will be in color in the English version. It’ll actually be superior to the Japanese version in that respect! Those will be out later in the year, and we’ll try and keep you abreast (heh heh) of any other new developments in the meantime.

Now that’s a title I never thought I’d write. But sure enough, Velvet Kiss has been given a live-action movie treatment. It appears to have been produced through Velvet Kiss’ publisher, Takeshobo, and stars AV actress Kanae Ruka as Kanoko, with her trademark twin tails intact. It’s divided into two separate parts (the second being due out next month) and it looks like they’re each 70 minutes long.

Is it a faithful adaptation? Is it any good? I couldn’t tell you, since I haven’t seen it. I’m debating about whether I want to pick it up or not, especially since I don’t have a Region 2 DVD player. It’s not as weird of a move as you might think, though, since Takeshobo has done with same thing with a few of its other successful h-manga series (Glass no Megami, Virgin na Kankei, Hishoka Drop). They all seem to follow a formula of two parts released within a month of each other, and perhaps more curiously, an R-15 rating. This is in contrast to the R-18 rating that explicit pornography is usually granted. I would venture a guess that there are probably sex scenes but camera angles and brevity might mean that they’re not terribly graphic. Maybe about Skinemax level?

I wouldn’t suggest holding your breath for a licensed version outside of Japan, although I would have said the exact same thing about the manga series a couple years ago and look how that turned out. It’s probably a rather niche title even its home market, and hopefully it’s not hobbled by a low budget. I’ll try and write up some impressions if I get the chance to watch it.

The second English volume of Velvet Kiss is printed and ready! This time around the translation is mine, as opposed to me editing another translator’s work. Everything’s been re-done to a higher standard and this should be a much more definitive version than what was out before.

In addition, Project-H has announced that they now have the rights to digitally distribute releases from Takeshobo, which includes Velvet Kiss, Ring x Mama, Makunouchi Deluxe, and Love on the Job. Here are the details, as we know them: They’ll be available primarily through Digital Manga’s site, emanga, which will be re-launching in November. Other platforms may be in the works but they have to deal with stuff like vendors such as Amazon and Apple being squeamish about carrying adult content. Releases will be downloadable and readable on “most popular devices.” That’s all the information we’ve been given, though, so I don’t have answers when it comes to pricing, file formats, DRM, or anything else like that. But if you’ve been holding back on purchasing the official version because you’d rather have it in digital rather than physical format, you should be able to have the chance pretty soon.

Currently it’s before the official release date, but it sounds like you can buy it already if you get it through Akadot or Project-H. Similar to last time, it looks like other online merchants are selling it with some sort of two-week delay. Couldn’t tell you why that is, I’m afraid, but pick whichever store you like best:

• Akadot
• Project-H
• Amazon (UK)
• RightStuf
• Indigo
• Barnes and Noble

We’re also about a month away from the first volume of Love on the Job (aka Koi wo Suru), so we’ll let you know when that’s available!

Looks like our favorite Harumi Chihiro series is going to be officially available in another language. I found the news on this blog post that the publisher Soleil Manga is going to translate and release Velvet Kiss in France. Whoever does their covers seems to do a really good job, and I like what they did with this one as well. My understanding is that France has a really big market for licensed manga, so perhaps this was only a matter of time.

I feel like all these recent h-manga licenses go a long way towards taking the wind out of the sails of the argument that scanlation is justified because the mean ol’ creators and publishers won’t let it escape Japan. Clearly artists like Harumi Chihiro are happy to have their works enjoyed outside of its country of origin, but there has to be a licensor and an audience willing to support them.

Having been out of the game for several months now, I look back at all the time and energy I spent on scanlation, and if it wasn’t effort wasted then it was certainly effort misdirected. Sometimes it feels like all I did was just line the pockets of whoever owns those ad-choked manga aggregator sites. I bet if half the effort spent on scanlation were spent supporting legitimate efforts to localize manga, you’d see a lot more h-manga available for legitimate purchase today, and it would be of much higher quality.

Obviously, the issue’s a little more complex than this, but I look at all the rip-off artists and unhealthy bickering surrounding scanlation nowadays and I wonder why anybody bothers sticking with it. I feel like if it’s worth spending effort on anything, it’s to help improve the system that has the support of the people who actually make the manga. They’re happy for you to read what they make, if you help support the system that helps them.

Velvet Kiss Volume 2 should be out in about a month now, so we’ll let you know how you can get it pretty soon. Ciao!

More good news on the licensed h-manga front: among many other titles, Ring x Mama is going to receive an official English version courtesy of Project-H. I’m very happy to hear that English-speaking Manabe Joji fans will have a chance to support him. To be honest, I can’t even read the early chapters of our scanlated version – there were far too many newbie mistakes. It’ll be good to see it redone in the hands of someone more experienced.

That said, it doesn’t look like we’ll be the ones performing the work on it. Having already committed ourselves to 6 volumes of Harumi Chihiro’s two series, adding another 5-volume series on top of that seems like it might be unwise. I’d rather we know that we have our workload under control than accidentally over-commit ourselves into paralysis, which is a classic scanlation mistake. I’ll try and see if I can act in any sort of an advisory role with whoever is doing the localization, but it’s up to Project-H’s discretion. In any case, we’ll be providing more information as the volumes become available in print.

Other licenses in this round of announcements were Velvet Kiss Volume 4, completing the series, and the Mizuki Asamori series “Goddess of the Glass.” That’s another series from my distant scanlating past that I’m glad will be given the attention it needs by someone who has a better idea of what they’re doing. As for Velvet Kiss, we’re not confirmed to be working on the last volume quite yet, but it’s probably a safe bet.

I know that there are probably plenty of people out there who are a little disappointed that when we switched to working on licensed material, it’s been stuff that they’ve already read before in scanlation. We understand and share the concern, believe me. Our primary reason for getting involved with licensed releases was so we could ensure that they weren’t bungled. We have these two Harumi Chihiro series, Velvet Kiss and Love on the Job, that we want to make sure are as good as possible in English. Beyond that, it’ll be new stuff.

One series that we still see people express interest in is Manabe Joji’s Kanojo de Ippai. It’s an absolutely hilarious series that I, more than probably anyone else, want to see in English. But it’s gotta be done correctly. Unlike a few years ago, there really is a possibility of an official English license now, and if you respect Manabe Joji like I do, then you’ll want to support him through the channel of his choosing. I’ve been trying to twist Project-H’s arm for months, but I’m only one schmuck. What you might not realize is that your voice matters a whole lot more than you might realize. Project-H licenses a lot of stuff based on fan feedback since they know that artists who are popular in scanlation are likely to have more fans that are excited to support an official version once it becomes available. The most effective form of lobbying them is to talk to them on twitter. It helps them build the brand up as an internet-savvy new licensor, and it probably helps them make the case to Japanese publishers that there’s a real interest in this material. You don’t have to use your real twitter account if you don’t want Aunt May to see what you’re up to. I’ll be here to pounce on any new Manabe Joji or Harumi Chihiro work that gets licensed and give it my best, but in the meantime, that’s the best way I know of to get the ball rolling. It doesn’t even have to be authors that we’ve worked on in the past, any artist you’re a fan of would be a good suggestion to Project-H if you want to be able to support them officially.

In order to keep the front page fresh, I’m gonna try and write up some more posts on the general manga and h-manga industry in the not-too-distant future. I’ll see if we can’t make a little use of Project-H’s contacts within the industry to try and explain some of the stuff that’s really opaque to people outside of Japan. See you then!