Soba-Scans

Big Velvet Kiss news – Official Volume 1!

LD — Wed, 16 May 2012 20:37:17 +0000

If you’re a fan of Velvet Kiss, you’ve probably already heard that the series has been officially licensed in English. We’re really excited to see it come out and to get it into everyone’s hands as soon as possible. Why? Because we worked on it!

That’s right, if you liked our scanlation and were hoping that whoever did the official print version would give the series the attention it deserved, then rest easy. The story of how it came to be is a little complicated. When we heard that it was going to be licensed through Digital Manga, Ziggy mentioned that she was familiar with them. They’re a company with a very interesting production model where they often bring in people who have shown that they enjoy localizing manga – namely, former scanlators. We figured it would be worth a shot to contact them to see if we could get involved with the series now that it was licensed.

Fortunately, after we got in touch with them, they were enthusiastic about the idea and we came to an agreement where we would create the official Velvet Kiss English version. By the time we’d gotten in contact with them they’d already hired a professional translator to produce the script, but I was able to edit the script and Ziggy was hired to typeset it. At first I was worried that another translator would give a very different voice to the dialog, but it turned out to be a good thing in the end. It was nice to see how an actual pro does things and overall I think the script is far stronger than our old scanlated version.

Working for print was a big change in terms of processes, and it was a massive amount of work to redo the entire volume to a much higher standard. But I can say with confidence that when you get this volume, you’ll see that we didn’t cut any corners and put our hearts and souls into it. You can buy this release with the assurance that the people who worked on it were truly fond of the material and wanted to make it the best product possible.

(note: the promo image is censored here because that’s Takeshobo’s policy for promotional images. The actual manga looks the same as it always did)

Our hope now is that through whatever goodwill we’ve built up over the last few years, we can try to make this venture as successful as possible. First and foremost in everyone’s minds should be that Harumi Chihiro deserves everyone’s support for being such a talented storyteller and artist. Part of the argument for the existence of scanlation is that it lets readers enjoy works that would ordinarily never be released in their language and helps promote the artists abroad. So now that Velvet Kiss is available in English, this is everyone’s chance to show your appreciation for her and make the worldwide recognition that she’s received official. And although we’re a few dozen spots lower on the list of reasons to get Volume 1, it would make us here at Soba feel really good as well!

The series will be released through Digital Manga’s new spin-off for h-manga called “Project H”. Their newly-launched home page is Projectecchi.com and they do a lot of social networking interaction so be sure and follow them on Twitter, where they should be on hand to answer any of your questions. The staff there is very friendly and hard-working, and they genuinely want this stuff to succeed. They’ve got a lot more manga than just Velvet Kiss coming up, so pop by their site and check out anything else you find interesting. It’s our hope to build this into a longer-term partnership where we can try to make this whole niche a little more legit and respectable.

This is already getting really long, so click through and we’ll try and answer some of the questions you might have.

When is Volume 1 coming out?

June 2012. Volume 2 will be out in October.

Is it going to be in digital or print form?

Print, at the moment. Licensing it digitally would be a separate rights negotiation, which would be aided a lot by the success of the print version. Hopefully we’ll see the day soon!

Where can I buy it when it comes out?

Here’s the current list of places you can buy it:

Fakku Store
Amazon (UK)
RightStuf
ProjectEcchi (coming soon)
Indigo
Barnes and Noble

Let us know if you find any more and we’ll try to pop them up here.

Will you keep going after Volume 1?

Yep. We’ve been working on Volume 2 for a while now and we’re essentially redoing the entire thing to a professional standard. Currently volumes 3 and 4 aren’t licensed, but if the first two are successful then we hope they’ll follow shortly and we’ll be happy to work on them. Ultimately it’s up to what Project H decides.

How will this affect the rest of your scanlations?

It’s gonna be a huge shift in how the group does things. If we want to try to keep going with this and help give licensed h-manga a shot at success in the West, we can’t really play both sides of the fence. Since we’re going to be (indirectly) working with these publishers, we can’t host a bunch of their stuff for free. The targeted takedown of our Mediafire account has sort of forced the issue, so the non-doujinshi projects won’t be coming back up. Hopefully we’ll be able to replace most of what we’ve done with licensed, authorized, professional-quality versions that will enable everyone to support the authors. A big part of this depends on the success of Velvet Kiss.

The site is going to be revised pretty heavily and we’re going to have to draw down distribution of anything that could potentially be licensed. If you’re a redistributor of our scanlations then we’d appreciate your aid in taking down what we take down. It’s the end of one era for the group but the beginning of an exciting new one, so it’s gonna involve some changes.

Ziggy burned the midnight oil to get Ring x Mama’s scanlation done before we made this announcement, but since it’s a potential future license and Takeshobo series, we’re gonna have to let it evaporate. Gaiakitan is a remoter license possibility but we’ll probably need to end it at chapter 6. Devil-chan is a bit uncertain but we may keep going on it for a little while longer. We still have quite a lot of doujinshi coming up, so keep an eye on the blog in the future for those.

If you’re licensing series then you should do ______!

In the end, it should be noted that we’re not actually employed by Project H and while we can make polite suggestions, we’re not the ones actually putting up the money and resources to license these series. But any feedback to them would really help them gauge public interest in what they decide to license next. We can tell you that LD is going to be translating Koi wo Suru/Love on the Job, though, so look forward to that as well. It’s gonna be a whole lot better than the scanlated version.

Anyway, we hope you’re as excited as we are! Keep checking back as the release draws nearer and we’ll keep you updated on where to get it and what we’re working on next.

edit: Please be polite when you leave your comments or we’re gonna delete ‘em.

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Ring x Mama – The Grand Finale!

LD — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:26:08 +0000

The day has arrived, at long last! We’ve finished the final chapter of Ring x Mama! It scarcely feels real at this point, but today we’ll bid farewell to our longest-running project.

[no longer available]

It’s been an adventure of adventures to weave our way through this long, excellent series. We’d mentioned this before but we really had no idea what we were getting into when we started this series almost three years ago. Just a little women’s wrestling, we thought. How hard could it be?

It was no small undertaking, as it turned out. We had to sort of grow up alongside the series, and for that reason it will always be special to us. It’s certainly taught us something about gumption and persistence. At some points the series almost felt insurmountable, but like with all things it had to be tackled one step at a time. Our sincere thanks to all who have lent their support over the years, as we wouldn’t be doing this without you!

We’ve had a string of series finishing recently, and a few people have asked us what we’re going to be up to next. We know we sound like a broken record, but hopefully the next item of Big Soba News will be coming shortly. Until then!

edit: Also, Ziggy deserves a special round of applause for getting four chapters edited in two weeks! No mean feat when you consider just how much dialog and redrawing this series had. Be sure and thank her!

Koimoku Chapter 13

LD — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:25:02 +0000

Chapter 13: JPEG | PDF

Okay, as you’ve probably heard by now, Koimoku is going bye-bye. Click through to read a little more of why, as well as a summary of chapter 14.

There was a longer explanation here before, but suffice to say, a frequently-strained working relationship broke down and like other groups before me, I’m not heartbroken at being freed from an obligation to work with FTH.

I appreciate those who have asked me to keep going on Koimoku, but it’s just not really feasible, unfortunately. It’s one thing to do a series, but to do it well requires a lot more effort. We have several potential sources of raws so that’s not an issue. But the editors I have longer-term working relationships with are pretty much all busy working on pre-existing projects. Despite some of the kind offers from new editors, I hope you’re not offended when I say that working with someone new is always a bit of a question mark and risky in a competitive situation. There’s also just been a lot of headaches surrounding this project from day one, which I don’t think anybody would be too surprised to hear. Soba has more than enough to work on at the moment, and we’d rather try to do a few projects very well than try to spread ourselves too thin like a lot of groups end up doing.

I’ll post my script for Koimoku 14 up since there’s little point in just letting it disappear or be “adapted” by some other translator. Obviously it’s rather confusing without actually seeing the pages, so I’ll summarize it here for the curious: (spoiler alert!)

Chapter 14

Inamine and crew wake up in their lodgings, bleary-eyed but not too worse for the wear. They find that Juumonji has already left, but in her haste she’s forgotten her phone. Sawanoguchi gets an idea and asks Miki if she can borrow the pictures that Miki snapped last night. Juumonji drives home in white-knuckled terror, hoping against hope that last night didn’t turn out like she imagines it might have.

We then go to OZMA’s office, where one of their veteran mangakas, Tachikawa, is brought in to do a little tweaking on Aikawa’s project. Back at the boarding house, Sawanoguchi says that despite the improved quality of Inamine’s latest manuscript, the nature of the OZMA system means this is hardly a fair fight. OZMA has a big stable of established mangaka who help the newbies out. She estimates that an OZMA novice has the equivalent of ten years of industry experience when they come onto the scene. How are Inamine’s compatriots ever going to find a veteran like that to even the playing field?!

The ever-resourceful Sawanoguchi hatches another plan. She sends Juumonji’s phone back via courier and gives her a call at the office. Juumonji is rather upset to be reminded of the previous night, of which she still has no memory. She hangs up on Sawanoguchi just as the courier arrives and hastens to check her cell phone’s contents. To her horror, she finds a lot of racy (yet non-sexually explicit) photos of her and Inamine waiting for her, and the chapter ends.

As to where the series will go from here, my suspicion is that given the rather risqué yet chaste nature of Im Dal-Young’s characters in his other series, everyone probably passed out before any coitus could occur. But who knows, as this whole event was a bit of a curveball in and of itself.

Perhaps it’s petty, but I sort of cringe at the idea of another translator working with these characters. The dense dialog needs a little stylization to keep it from being confusing or boring, and people who are good at that rarely work for free. Kind of the nature of a system without business sanction, I suppose. Anybody could come in and work on this, and there sure aren’t any writing tests in scanlation. Hopefully this stuff can get a commercial adaptation some day.

Ring x Mama Round 44

LD — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:00:14 +0000

We arrive at last at the penultimate chapter of Ring x Mama! “Penultimate,” of course, means “I used to think this meant ‘last’ but then I went and looked it up.”

[no longer available]

Ryoma’s really found himself in the doghouse this time. He’s weathered a few storms before, but his long history of extracurricular activities may have caught up with him at last. Will he rise to the occasion as Gigamax weathers its darkest hour? What fortune awaits our heroes and heroines at the final battle? We’ll find out next time in Ring x Mama’s explosive conclusion! Don’t miss it!

Ririchiyo-sama to Denki Anmaki~

Ziggy — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:20:04 +0000

Another Inu x Boku SS doujinshi to share with you translated by Yumeko-chan! I have to admit you’re going to see more of these – I had a hard time keeping my inner fangirl contained with the adorableness from all the characters. The problem with this anime is the fact every single female is so hnngh worthy as well as the male characters. Typically I only favor one or two characters, but man – I’m still seeking out a Nobara doujin! ;3 Thus we’re going to see a good handful of doujins of this series because all the characters just speak to Yumeko and I (we’re suckers, sorry!)

Downloads: JPG | PDF

This doujin centers around Ririchiyo-sama wanting to ease her strain in her legs with her new massager. Lucky for her that Miketsukami is a professional at using massagers and lets her rest at ease while he tends to her needs~

Also, just as a heads up – we’re going to be removing Velvet Kiss from distribution in the next few days in further preparation for the official release. Our big announcement about a couple new projects is going to need to wait a little longer, unfortunately. It involves some external stuff that we can’t control, so it may be a few more weeks. Keep checking back, though!

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Ring x Mama Round 42 and 43!

LD — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 01:16:05 +0000

Big thanks to Ziggy for putting nose to the grindstone and getting not one, but two Ring x Mama chapters ready! It’s a dark time for Gigamax, as old enemies and discord from within threaten to tear our beloved team apart…

[no longer available]

I know we’ve been teasing a big announcement recently, but unfortunately it’s been delayed based on some external factors we don’t have any control over. Hopefully it’ll be next week. Also, yes, we’re well aware that most of the download links on our posts no longer work, since as we mentioned earlier our Mediafire account was suspended. It’s a pretty daunting and thankless task to try and address that, since it involves an enormous amount of uploading and link maintenance. We prefer to focus on production before distribution, and annoying though it might be, we just don’t have the luxury of time to do much besides get the actual releases finished. We’ll have more on this in our announcement, so we’ll see you then!

Gaiakitan Chapter 4

LD — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:55:38 +0000

We’re back at last with Gaiakitan! Sorry for the delay on this one, as we had to bring it in-house after a lengthy delay in editing. Big thanks to voo, whose usual stellar editing skills enabled us to get this release out the door at last.

Chapter 4: Direct Download | PDF

I’m starting to regret that bit in the foreword where I said historical knowledge wouldn’t be necessary for this series. A reader without knowledge of the setting is likely to miss a lot of important background info. Take today’s history lesson:

Hōkō-ji is a temple in Kyoto that dates back to this particular era of Japanese history, the Warring States period. One of our competing warlords, Toyotomi, sponsored the casting of a great bell at the temple. Four years later, the bell is completed, with countless Buddhist sutras engraved into its surface. Two particular spots stood out, though. First, “国家安康”, “Peace and Prosperity to the Nation”, contains the kanji for Tokuagawa Ieyasu’s name (家康), but with a kanji in between them which was taken as an aggressive slight. The other, “君臣豊楽” contained Toyotomi’s name, but unbroken. Whether this was an intentional dig or just coincidence seems unclear. But Tokugawa Ieyasu, no pacifist himself, seemed happy to use it as an excuse to try and smash Toyotomi once and for all.

I try not to clutter up the pages with translation notes for stuff like this, but for this series especially I feel like there’s a lot of context missing once you take it outside of Japan. Between the setting research, the generally old language, and phrasing challenges, this is by far the most time-consuming project I work on. We’ll see you next time!

Ring x Mama Round 41

LD — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 00:17:26 +0000

Back in the ring! In this chapter we’re privy to a particular conversation that could only arise in a series like this. Poor Tomoe hasn’t been a very happy camper in this volume.

[no longer available]

We also see an infrequent companion of Ryoma’s return this chapter. Sort of an odd arrangement there…

Until Strawberry Sherbert – Inu x Boku SS!

Ziggy — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:35:46 +0000

We’ve got our hands on a handful of Inu x Boku SS doujinshi if you’ve been following our Facebook feed lately – and Yumeko-chan instantly has started to translate them.

So our first release is a very adorable pairing of Watanuki and Karuta! Karuta decides to wear tanuki ears for Watanuki so he would like her – needless to say she doesn’t have to try hard to get him speechless as it is – now he’s forced to deal with the moeness of her wearing tanuki ears!

Downloads: Direct Download | PDF

Thanks to Loserbait for scanning the handful of doujinshi! I’m a big fan of this series (albeit it ended way too soon!) so I hope you all enjoy the future releases as much as I enjoy them!

Hana no Iro – Series complete!

LD — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:03:36 +0000

It’s long overdue, but here we are at last with the final chapter of Hana no Iro, along with a bonus! The extra chapter is a shorter magazine chapter to promote the release of the volume. Thanks go to Nikon for being able to step in and get the bonus chapter edited so we could get the full volume ready.

Chapter 10: Direct Download | PDF
Bonus Chapter: Direct Download | PDF
Complete Volume: Direct Download | PDF

Thanks to anyone who stuck around through the whole thing. I wanted to have this out a lot sooner but there were some issues behind the scenes that kept hanging it up. In any case, there aren’t any sequels so it’s now complete. The series as a whole has sort of a light-hearted tone that seemed a bit unusual given the artist’s other works. I get the impression it was a bit of a departure from their usual efforts. We hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse into the world of the Film Club and we’ll see you all next time!

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