Scanlations - Cleaning and Typesetting

So I had so much fun doing KWMS Chapter 52 that I'm going to apply to be a cleaner/typesetter for Franky House. What is cleaning and typesetting, you say?

Cleaning is the process of taking the raws, or scanned pages of a manga, and cleaning it up so it is easy to read, sharp, and pretty. Many teams remove the Japanese sound effects as well, which can be very difficult since you have to reconstruct the art that was obscured by the sound effect text.  

Typesetting seems like it should be really easy. You put text in the appropriate places on the page (in the speech bubbles, etc). There are many challenges, however. You have to make horizontally read English fit into vertically read Japanese bubbles. Then there's choosing the right font. Some typesetters use slightly different fonts for each character. This makes it easier to tell which person is talking.

I have no idea why I enjoy doing it so much. Maybe because it's something that's close to creating art without having to do the original drawing, since I suck at it so much. I enjoy the art a lot to begin with, too.

Here are some examples of what I've done so far. The original page is on the left and my finished version is on the right.

Ch. 52 - Kaichou wa Maid-sama

Ch. 390 Title Page - Naruto
To be used for Franky House test

Why no posts?

Part laziness. Part Kaichou wa Maid-sama chapter 52. Review to follow.

Blood+

Blood+ was a recommendation from my sister. She was very excited about it, so I figured I'd give it a try. I'm sorry to say that I can't share in her enthusiasm. I started watching Blood+ on July 6th and I just finished the last episode. Considering the speed at which I usually watch anime, this is incredibly slow. In keeping with my recent laziness, I'm not going to write a synopsis since you can find all the info you want at Wikipedia.

Hagi was undoubtedly the best character, but his passiveness was a bit irritating. I was glad to see the allusion to his survival at the end of the series. Saya was freaking annoying. I wonder how many times she said the line "Diva." throughout the series. Dang. I find it incredibly freaky that Diva did it with Riku. I mean, he was just a kid. Ick. Kai was incredibly irritating with his "I'm going to protect you no matter what" attitude, followed by his complete lack of capability to do so. The ending was okay, but not incredibly satisfying. It would have been better if Hagi had returned to Saya before she went back into hibernation. The music for the series was incredible. However, I can't say that I enjoyed Diva's song, especially after all of the repetition.

So that's pretty much my take on it. Was it worth ~18 hours of my life? I don't know. I could have lived without it. I think I ended up finishing it just for completion's sake. It's not one I would consider buying, so I guess that's the answer right there. Overall, I think I'd give it a C.

Uraboku - Anime

This anime reminds me of X, pitting near-brothers against each other. It's very emo. It's a bishie festival. The characters have an inescapable tragic fate. Yet with all of this angst, I still like it.

Summary from Wikipedia: "Sakurai Yuki is a mysterious boy with a mysterious power. Right after he was born, his mother left him near an orphanage, and he was later found. Because of that event, Yuki strives for independence. He hates being a burden to anyone near him, but at the same time, he is afraid of being left alone. Moreover, ever since he can remember he had a strange ability where when he touches others, he can feel their emotion. Unable to control it, he often made insensitive blunders in the past. He later meets with a mysterious yet beautiful man who saves his life, but somehow he feels so nostalgic, like he's met him before. While death threats and his ability increasing, a man who claimed to be his older brother suddenly appears, so what will Yuki do when he learns the truth?"

At this point, I'm on episode 16. There are episode summaries here at Wikipedia. I've gotten pretty lazy lately, so I don't feel like writing a summary myself, just some notes.

I like it, even though it's moving slowly. The bishies (especially Luka) don't hurt, but I find the story quite interesting, particularly that the main character was a woman in all of his previous lives. If you didn't know this, you would think that there was a whole lot of gay stuff going on. Oddly enough, I find myself really wanting Yuki to hug Luka, but only that much. Any more than that would be gross. I'm looking forward to seeing how this will turn out. When the anime is over, I'm going to read the manga.

Occult Academy - Episode 4

I really don't feel like writing a summary for this episode, so you can find a good one here if you're really interested. My thoughts? Interesting episode. Uraboku is a very funny character and I'm looking forward to his one-sided romance with the VP. ^_^ Maya is a kick-butt chick. Definitely worth the 25 minutes.

I loved the car-ride with Mizake.

And the encounter with the Mothman poop. LOL!

Giant Killing - Episode 17

Sera episode #3. It was only a minor sprain, but he's out of the game for a week. Sera is all defeated about this, but then he gets a lecture from Sakai. Natsuki gets put in during the next game. I find him rather annoying, but that's beside the point. The other team scores as soon as he is subbed in, but then he scores a goal right away. The game ends in a draw. This makes 3 wins and 2 draws for the last 5 games. Everyone's talking about things going well, but it doesn't look like Tatsumi is satisfied. I hope something interesting happens soon because I'm getting a bit bored with this anime.

Yumiero Patissiere - Episode 42

Team Ichigo is going with gelato for the next round of the competition.  They perfect pistacio, rum raisin, and some other flavor, but the gelato shop's owner's wife says that they will need a unique flavor if they are going to attract customers. So they decide on salt gelato with sakura. Ew. It's gotta be a Japanese thing. They end up winning, but only because Ichigo comes up with a marketing ploy, calling it the DaVinci Code Gelato and shaping it into a pyramid. Good morning, copyright infringement! Ah well. Now they're in the semi-finals.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - Anime

25 episodes of the manga. Pretty much that's all there is to it. I didn't notice anything that was added or removed. They didn't even add in a fake ending. The boys don't look as skinny in the anime. Yuki looks like an alien ... But this is definitely all about Sunako, so I can overlook that. Love the nosebleeds!

Overall, I think it was worth watching. Will I buy it? Probably not.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - Live Action

The live-action adaptation of the manga which is also known as Perfect Girl Evolution or Wallflower. (There are too many damn names for this thing.) There are a few big deviations from the original story. There's a new character, for example. He's the son of the landlady and, therefore, Sunako's cousin. He's a cute little guy who is a really great for breaking ideas out of the thought bubbles. Great plot accelerant, too. I'm definitely okay with this modification.

The second most obvious difference is that everyone is in college, not high school. Now, I can see some of the reasons why they would want to make the characters older. Ranmaru, for one, is dating older and married women. In the manga, he's 15. I don't see that one going over really well in prime time. The disadvantage of this change is that you lose all of the high school scenes. I really prefer the way Sunako cuts her bangs off in the manga to the live-action adaptation.

The lack of nosebleeds is also quite a difference. It wouldn't work in a live-action series, so they replaced it with a headbutt. It's okay, but the effect is quite lessened. Ah well.

Overall, I'm glad I watched it. There were 10 hour-long episodes, so it was actually quite short. I really have to go watch the rest of the anime now, dangit.

Kuroshitsuji 2 - Episode 3

We get a cute little scene where Sebastian just melts for a bunch of kittens. ^_^ Ah, Sebastian .... *sigh*

Um, anyway ... So. The most interesting part of this episode is that Ciel seems to have forgotten about Grell. Grell is obviously confused about this, but doesn't ask why Ciel doesn't remember him. Ciel also refers to Madam Red as if she were alive. I guess he has amnesia of some sort.

Other interesting items: The woman who was killing people in the episode mentioned that the person with the golden eyes told her it would make her happy. Claude has golden eyes. The order from the queen to solve the case also mentioned "the spider". Sebastian investigated and found out that it is referring to the Trancy family, who helped clean up evidence previously. Alois is now Earl Trancy. It looks like there's going to be a lot more of Alois and Claude in the series. I can't say that I'm really all that happy about it, but hopefully it will turn out to be interesting.

Occult Academy - Episode 3

There is a tengu demon abducting people in town. While he's supposed to be investigating, Uchida falls for well-endowed Mikaze. She shows him around town while Maya actually investigates. At the end of the episode, Maya apparently shoots the tengu with an arrow, but it still attacks her, although we don't explicitly see this. It was actually a cute episode because of the Uchida/Mikaze vibes.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge - Manga

Also known as The Wallflower or Perfect Girl Evolution. Yay. So many ways to be confused.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is about a girl who was called "ugly" by a boy, the first and only person to whom she confessed her love. This incident sparks a life change, and as a result Sunako shuns all forms of beauty, both in herself as well as in life. Concerned by her change for the worst, Sunako's aunt, the owner of a beautiful mansion where four very handsome students live, offers the guys free rent in her mansion if they can turn Sunako into a "perfect lady" (referred to in Japan as the titular Yamato Nadeshiko).

While the four of them manage to make Sunako physically beautiful enough to become a lady, the problem lies with her attitude and interests (which Sunako has no intention of changing). Up until the most recent release in the story, they've managed to convince Sunako's aunt that her niece is indeed a lady befitting the mansion in which they live (and prevent the rent from skyrocketing to triple the required amount). However, in reality, Sunako has not changed considerably. - Wikipedia

I like Sunako a lot. She's a very funny character. ^_^ The art is not quite my thing, though. The boys are supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, but they are often skeletal or too out of proportion. However, the artist is very good at eyes. There is a lot of chibi going on, which is my thing, so it's all a trade-off. As much as I love the characters, the recent lack of progress in the main storyline is making the series more repetitive and dull.

The scanlators are releasing chapters from the tankobon, so the release schedule is rather irregular. Right now they're up to chapter 98. I'll still be reading this one. It's always amusing!

Giant Killing - Episode 16

Sera is afraid that his spot in the lineup is in jeopardy. He's made one goal in eight games. He resolves to score, but when he's given the best chance, he injures himself. The whole episode is basically Sera whining. Meh.

Yumiero Patissiere - Episode 41

Team Ichigo meets their opponents. They are quite the international group which includes Lemon and Rick, the Italian playboy. The theme for the first round is food wagon, which I'm guessing means something like roach coach (tee hee).

Ichigo tries to make breakfast in the oven and it blows up. In the process of cleaning up, they find out that the landlady used to run a gelato shop downstairs.
The team decides to make gelato for the competition. Ricks stops by and bets that if his team wins, ichigo will be his girlfriend. The sweets princes are obviously not happy with this.

The episode had the usual level of cuteness, if not a little less. Caramel is always super-cute though. ^_^ I wish that Kashino would be a bit more jealous. That will come with time, of course.

Kuroshitsuji 2 - Episode 2

Ah, the opening sequence is so much better with Sebastian and Ciel in it. Unfortunately, the Claude and Alois are in there as well. I really do not like Alois. I'm confused as to where these episodes will fit into the timeline. Did Sebastian stop short of eating Ciel's soul? Somehow I think they're going to throw a curve ball at us later in the season. Anyway ...

The episode starts out with Ciel waking up in a boat with Elizabeth and Sebastian. Maylene, Bard, and Finnian are in another boat close by.

Ciel has to dedicate a new floodgate and socialize with the elite for a while. He hates this, of course. Then Elizabeth says that she wants to go look for the mysterious phantom deer.

While they are searching, it starts to rain very hard. The river gets rough and it looks like there's going to be a flood. Elizabeth gets stranded on the boat. Ciel orders Sebastian to stop the flood while he goes to save Elizabeth. In the process, they almost drown.

When everyone has recovered, they climb to the top of a hill to see the white deer as a rock formation (I think). Elizabeth wanted to find it because the legend says that anyone who sees the phantom deer will have happiness in their lives. Good episode. Cute and funny, with a little bit of suspense.

The ending sequence is very simple, but the image of Ciel is nice and peaceful. Something he doesn't get very often.

Limited Lovers

Karin, a spoiled rich girl, falls down the stairs and becomes paralized from the waist down. While in the hospital, she falls in love with her doctor, Teppei. He refuses to give her his personal information when she leaves, so she investigates him herself. She ends up buying his house, but will let him continue staying there with her on one condition: he must spend 2 hours every day with her. She finds out soon enough that Teppei is engaged, but is only using the marriage as a stepping stone for his career. Eventually he falls in love with Karin and they get engaged, have some problems, break up, get back together, etc. Pretty average and predictable.

This one was a random short manga. Only 15 chapters. There was actually some potential in the story concept, but the writing was pretty terrible. I only read to the end because I knew it was so short and my sentimental side did want to see them together.

Occult Academy - Episode 2

We start with the naked dude descending from the sky in a beam of light. Maya, horrified by the full-frontal view, takes off running. (Don't worry, it's never shown on screen.) Naked dude runs afterward, trying his best to hide his manhood during the chase. She loses him after he falls into a pit.

Maya decides that she is going to take over as Principal. One of the first things she gets to do is welcome the new history teacher, Uchida, aka naked dude. She proceeds to throw things at him. (It seems that this will be a common occurrence.) He explains to her that he's actually from the year 2012 and he's come back to 1999 to keep the prophecies of Nostradamus coming true. He has to find the King's Key and destroy it.

After Maya is nearly killed by a mysterious shadow creature, she finds her father's research diary. It says that he was actually killed and tells Maya to leave and forget what she has seen. Maya decides to find out who killed her father and teams up with Uchida to do so. This episode was rather amusing, so this series is still on my watch list.

Faster Than A Kiss - Chapter 31

The conclusion of the Maeda-sensei story. Maeda-sensei was kidnapped by Kazuma's rival, Retsu, from another school. Kazuma goes to rescue him by himself, but a lot of other students follow him because they care about Maeda-sensei so much. When they get there, they see that Maeda-sensei had actually already made friends with Retsu. Kazuma is about to fight Retsu one-on-one when Maeda-sensei warns him that he's about to be ambushed. The thing is, the warning was in English, so it was a real accomplishment that Kazuma understood.

After this, Maeda collapses and has to be taken to the hospital. He has to quit being a teacher at Kazuma's high school, but he promises Kazuma that he'll keep teaching.

Fumino gets a call from Ryu saying that Maeda-sensei is in critical condition, so Fumino makes Kazuma rush to the hospital so he can talk to Maeda before it's too late. When they show up, they see that Maeda-sensei is just fine. He made Ryu call Fumino with the fake story so Kazuma would show up. Kazuma expresses his thanks to Maeda-sensei and introduces Fumino to him. Apparently he already knows their little secret and is just fine with it. ^_^

Giant Killing - Episode 15

Sera misses a goal in the game at the beginning of the episode. They win anyway, but he's upset since forwards are supposed to score goals. He wants to do backflips after a goal with sparkles around him. ^_^

Natsuki is a forward who had to back out during the last season due to injury. He's very happy to be back and he's very obviously a danger to Sera's spot in the lineup. 

There were a few rather amusing scenes in this episode. Something that impresses me about this series is the level of detail on the wide shots. I wouldn't expect them to spend so much effort worrying about the fans in the stands and such. Sometimes the switch between the incredibly detailed shots and the more plain shots is jarring, though.

Glass Mask - Anime

I just finished the 2005 version of Glass Mask. Fifty-one episodes in about 2 days. Heh. There's been another TV anime, 3 OVAs and 2 live action films as well. These are all based on a manga that has been running since January of 1976. Summary from Anime News Network:

Kitajima Maya, a 13-year old girl with a talent for acting, was discovered by the reclusive actress Tsukikage. The story follows Maya's growing up, intense training, overcoming challenges, and evolving into the foremost actress of her generation (she is about 20 so far). Maya's greatest rival is Himekawa Ayumi, the beautiful daughter of a famous movie couple. They ultimately vied for the most sought-after role - the "Crimson Goddess". An equally important subplot Maya's relationship with the handsome and ruthless entertainment mogul Hayami Masumi, who secretly became her number one fan, but misunderstandings and bad-timing obstructed their romance.....

This show has a compilation of so much that I like about shojo manga/anime. Strong female lead, worthy rival, several love interests, one destined love, challenges, and triumph. There's something about Masumi that makes you want to root for him, even though he's been such an amazing jerk sometimes. It's nice to see Maya grow and change. The anime was undoubtedly much much faster than the manga. I wonder how much they cut out.

It took me a few episodes to get into this one, but dagnabit, I love the story. I found myself cheering for Maya, crying when her Mom died, and feeling downright anxious about her relationship with Masumi.  I feel like I have to hunt down the manga now. I don't know if I want to start reading it from the beginning or .... *sigh* I'm going to read it from the beginning.

Yumiero Patissiere - Episode 40

Ichigo forgets her passport and misses the flight to Paris! Oh wait, that was a dream. She's really there. And she's living with the boys. Alooone. O_O When they take a little tour around Paris all Ichigo wants to do is eat, of course.

She gets lost in Paris and is saved by an Italian boy. Since she got lost, there was no sight-seeing. The princes are not very pleased with Ichigo, but they are even less pleased with the Italian kid. His familiarity with Ichigo and his farewell kiss on the cheek really irritate them. He and Satsuki proceed to have a bishie sparkle battle.

They have to go to a pre-competition party, where they find out that the Italian boy is on a rival team. At the party we find out that everyone has a Sweets Spirit. The Spirits have to compete for their places in the tournament. There's really no point in this competition since it ends up being a lottery anyway.

The tournament draw is such that Team Ichigo will go up against Lemon-chan's team. (She competed against Lemon-chan a while back.) Italian dude is on Lemon's team. Once again, he's all over Ichigo, angering the princes. The Heiress shows up, apparently joining a team from another campus using her father's influence. Geez.

Faster Than A Kiss - Chapter 30

So here we get a glimpse of Kazuma's past. He was quite a delinquent in high school. One day, Maeda-sensei showed up and became his homeroom teacher. Maeda-sensei concentrated particularly on Kazuma, trying to get him to reform. He figured that if he took down the most delinquent student in the school that many others would follow. He even started an English exchange diary with Kazuma, who used the opportunity to try out using vulgar language in English. Other people started to notice that Kazuma was starting to calm down a bit and was refusing to fight. The boss of another high school was particularly upset about this, so he kidnapped Maeda-sensei and will only return him if Kazuma fights him. And so the chapter ends in a cliffhanger.

I really enjoyed the change of pace. We still got a bit of the weird but cute relationship between Fumino and Kazuma, but we also get to learn about Kazuma's past. During the chapter we also learn that Kazuma was disowned by his family during high school and he was living by himself. Good chapter. I'm looking forward to the next chapter, but the cliffhanger isn't so bad that I'm going to be in despair until I read it.

Sebastian Michaelis Figure

This is so freaking adorable, I can't stand it!! I want! This figure is a Nendoroid. They have one for L and Light too. ^_^  I may be trolling eBay for it later on.

Kuroshitsuji - Manga

As soon as I finished watching the anime, I started on the manga. I was actually quite surprised at the limited overlap of the anime and manga. The manga has very little about Ciel's past or his goals in humiliating his enemy. There is a lot less material, even though there are currently 46 chapters. It is released in a monthly magazine, so I can see how it will go much slower. Chapters 23 and on contain material that was not used in the anime, so maybe they will throw those stories in for season 2 of the anime. I particularly liked the circus arc. Don't know how they'd do that, though...

Random Note: Apparently Sebastian was voted 9th in a survey of anime guys that fangirls would want to marry. Gintama had 3 characters in the top 10, though (Gintoki, Sougo, and Hijikata). Apparently Gintama is the hottie anime.

Tono no Issho - Episode 1

Crunchyroll decided to simulcast. About 2 minutes long, taken directly from the OVA. Not funny, waste of time. Full sentences, images not needed.

Mitsudomoe

First episode and I'm already done with it. It's just basically a bunch of sex jokes. Not into that. Not even gonna bother getting an image for this post. That's it.

Occult Academy - Episode 1

Well, this was different ... Maya is the daughter of the late principal of an academy dedicated to the study of the occult. She goes to the academy for her father's funeral with the sole purpose of destroying the school that took her father away from her. The principal had left a taped message for the students which, when played back, summoned an evil spirit. Maya ends up defeating it, but she has to cut off her father's head to do so. He's already dead, so that's ok, right?

Anyway, at the end this naked guy descends from the sky in a beam of light right in front of Maya. She's just a bit surprised at the full-frontal view she's been given. Dunno how long I'm going to keep following this one, but it was okay. The weirdest thing was probably that the ending was images of real people. Haven't ever seen that one.

Kuroshitsuji 2 - Episode 1

What a fantastic fake-out! I totally thought that they were going to dump the main characters from the last series and start with a new set. The trailers didn't show anything with Sebastian and Ciel, nor were they mentioned anywhere in the summaries. If Claude and the brat Alois were to be the main characters, I would dump it for sure.

Ah, but then the squee-worthy moment arrives when Sebastian reveals himself. During the flight from Alois' mansion, Sebastian starts to say his "I'm a hell of a butler" line, but stops short, saying that it's too soon.

At the very end, Sebastian puts the blue diamond ring on Ciel's hand and tells him that it's time to wake up. The best part is the acknowledgement of the feint during the next episode's preview.

You know you love a character when you shout for joy when they appear on the screen. Can't wait for the next episode!

Kuroshitsuji - Black Butler

Kuroshitsuji means black butler, which is an understatement for Sebastian. Darker than black, he's "one hell of a butler". His master is 12 year old Earl Ciel Phantomhive, who has lost his home, parents, and dignity. He exists only to find the person who caused all of that pain and drag them down to hell with him. To that end, he entered into a contract with Sebastian, a demon. Sebastian will obey Ciel's every command in exchange for his soul.

This anime is freaking awesome. I was hooked after the first episode. The action is engaging, especially when Sebastian defeats a house full of mafia men with the silverware. I couldn't help but think that it would be hell to polish it all again. The plot can be very simple for a few episodes, then throws you for a loop or four in the next episode. The supporting cast is great, too. Ciel is an intriguing main character with a very dark past. We only get a bit of what went on in the past, though.

The anime was only 24 episodes. The manga it is based on, however, started in 2006 and is still being serialized. I will be reading the manga. Oh yes. I will. There's a second season of the anime, but it has different characters. I'll take a look at that one too. I am very pleased with this discovery.

Giant Killing

The East Tokyo United football team was a raging success, until the star player, Takeshi Tatsumi, took a job overseas and left. The top players in the club left one after another and, before long, the team was relegated to the 2nd division. With a lot of struggle, ETU managed to make it back into the 1st division, but are in danger of falling back down. Ten years after he left, Tatsumi is brought back to ETU as its coach. He was able to bring a team of amateurs in England to the point where they were winning matches against pros. Can he do the same thing with East Tokyo United?

Okay, enough with the summary. I watched the first episode on a whim. The fansub group I get Kaichou wa Maid-sama from also subs Giant Killing. I saw that it was also on Crunchyroll, so I thought I'd check it out. It's a bit slow sometimes, the art isn't really my style (huge honkers!), and it's about soccer.  Somehow I still like it. ^_^

Yumiero Patissiere - Anime

It's so cute, I can barely stand it. ^_^

Amano Ichigo has only Champion Cake Eater and extreme klutz in her list of accomplishments. Then one day she eats a cake at a department store event made by Henri Lucas. She talks with him about the dessert and, very impressed by her palate, he recommends that she transfer to St. Marie Academy so she an study to become a patissiere.

Upon her arrival, she is mistakenly put in the highest-level group in her class with the legendary Sweets Princes and begins messing up immediately. She gradually improves with the help of her sweets spirit, Vanilla, and the princes. There are a lot of sweets spirits, so you never know who's going to pop up with one next.

The sweets spirits are absolutely adorable, especially Caramel. The princes are cute. Ichigo is cute and funny! The plot lines and budding romances are very sweet. Adorable. Funny. Cute. Sweet. KAWAII!!!

Thirty-nine episodes so far and it's still going. I'll be following the anime and finding out some more about the manga.

Edit: I just realized what this show reminds me of. It's like a cross between Shugo Chara and Gakuen Alice with a sprinkling of shojo cliches. Doesn't matter, though. I still like it.

Faster Than A Kiss - Chapter 29

The new school year has started and Fumino is now in her third year of high school. The year begins with the "future aspirations form", basically having to choose what she wants to do after high school. Fumino realizes that she doesn't have any aspirations because she was only trying to figure out how to simply survive until recently. There is a forced 3-day separation from living with Kazuma to try to help her figure out what she wants to do without being influenced by their marriage. After discovering that she can now understand conversational English, she realizes that she really likes English now. She decides that she wants to study English and maybe be a teacher.