Monday, March 26, 2012
Great SOPA Joke
I know it's a bit late to be posting this now, but I ran into it while looking through my old Facebook posts.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Update
I kind of dropped manga and anime for a while, except for Skip Beat. (I know. What a sin!) My new job really started to get stressful and I was just too tired to keep up, especially with a blog. One thing I did pick up is K-pop and K-dramas. I am seriously addicted. However, I am determined to revive my manga and anime addiction as well. I really miss it. It will take me a bit to catch up, but I'm sure I won't regret it. I have created a separate blog for my Korean obsessions called K-Pop / K-Drama Journal. Very creative, I know.
Anyway, I hope to be posting more here soon. Please look forward to it!
Anyway, I hope to be posting more here soon. Please look forward to it!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Alright, I'm not mad at Tite Kubo-san any more. (Bleach Ch. 460)
I'm glad I took a break from reading Bleach, because until the most recent chapter, it would have just kept pissing me off. Ichigo is a fighter. And even though he did fight in between the defeat of Aizen and chapter 160, it really wasn't right. He needs his zanpaktou. Seriously. And I really did miss my Shinigami. ^_^
Sunday, December 12, 2010
How it works - Scanlations
The process of scanlating is a mystery to many people. I honestly had no idea how much work is involved in the process before I jumped in head first! So I've decided to write out how things go, at least from my experience. Leave a comment and tell me how you've seen it work differently. Try to follow along :)
1. The raw provider, a very kind, awesome, and generous person, buys the magazine or tankobon. They scan said item, usually destroying or at least severely damaging the book in the process. There are many ways to do this, with varying results. Better raws makes things easier for everyone. No raws means no scanlation. Period.
2. The raws are passed to the translator and the editors. The translator, well ... translates. Usually the translation is written in a specialized format, so it's easy to tell what text belongs where. This is a difficult job, not only because you have to know both languages, but you have to be familiar enough with each so that the correct meaning will come across.
3. Once the translation is complete, it is passed along to a proofreader, who looks for spelling/grammar errors as well as parts where it just doesn't sound like normal English. This process can be done in conjunction with the translator or completely separate.
3. As the chapter is translated/proofed, the editors begin the job of cleaning the chapter. I've heard it referred to as mopping as well. Cleaning the pages involves removing the text, making the black portions actually black (as opposed to dark gray), and removing the dirt from the page so the white parts are white.
3. The translation and the cleans are then passed on to the typesetters. The typesetters do simply that: set the type on the page. Now, before you go thinking that this is an easy job, remember that Japanese reads top to bottom and English reads left to right. (Well, most of the time.) This means that the bubbles are the wrong shape for English. There's also font changes and last of all ... sound effects. Some groups just put "sfx:...." notes on the sides, some replace the japanese sound effect with the english equivalent, and some completely ignore them.
4. Finally, the typeset pages go to Quality Check. The QC'ers look for errors of any kind: spelling, grammar, natural speech, cleaning mishaps, wrong font, etc. Problems are sent back to the appropriate team members, they are fixed, and everything goes back to QC again.
5. When everything has been okay'ed by QC, the chapter is released. Most groups have a website of some sort where you can directly download their scans. Eventually, someone will submit the chapter to an online reader and it'll snowball from there. If you want the highest quality scan always get it directly from the scanlation group. When you download a chapter, take a moment to leave a note of thanks. It takes a lot of time to do this stuff.
These roles and steps can be combined or split up between many people. Speed scans generally have more people involved. As for my personal experience, I've had two different set-ups.
On KWMS, there's our raw provider, a translator who also does QC, and then there's me. So I take care of proofreading, cleaning, and typesetting. It takes about an hour per page to get the cleaning and typesetting done. So with 30 pages, that's 30 hours!! Since we try to get it done in 4 days, that's over 7 hours of work per day ... in addition to my normal job as a teacher.
On Skip Beat, I'm one of two editors. Sometimes I clean half the chapter, sometimes I clean all of the chapter, and sometimes I don't clean at all. That's the wonderful part of being in a larger group: more flexibility. There's still just one translator, but there are generally two or more typesetters. We can get the chapter done relatively quickly, but it's still a lot of time for each of us.
So the next time you think of complaining that chapter X of manga Y is late, think about everything that goes into producing those pages for you. I actually started scanlating because I was tired of waiting for a chapter, but I have resolved to never complain again. We're lucky that so many people have put so many hours into the thousands of scanlations out there.
1. The raw provider, a very kind, awesome, and generous person, buys the magazine or tankobon. They scan said item, usually destroying or at least severely damaging the book in the process. There are many ways to do this, with varying results. Better raws makes things easier for everyone. No raws means no scanlation. Period.
2. The raws are passed to the translator and the editors. The translator, well ... translates. Usually the translation is written in a specialized format, so it's easy to tell what text belongs where. This is a difficult job, not only because you have to know both languages, but you have to be familiar enough with each so that the correct meaning will come across.
3. Once the translation is complete, it is passed along to a proofreader, who looks for spelling/grammar errors as well as parts where it just doesn't sound like normal English. This process can be done in conjunction with the translator or completely separate.
3. As the chapter is translated/proofed, the editors begin the job of cleaning the chapter. I've heard it referred to as mopping as well. Cleaning the pages involves removing the text, making the black portions actually black (as opposed to dark gray), and removing the dirt from the page so the white parts are white.
3. The translation and the cleans are then passed on to the typesetters. The typesetters do simply that: set the type on the page. Now, before you go thinking that this is an easy job, remember that Japanese reads top to bottom and English reads left to right. (Well, most of the time.) This means that the bubbles are the wrong shape for English. There's also font changes and last of all ... sound effects. Some groups just put "sfx:...." notes on the sides, some replace the japanese sound effect with the english equivalent, and some completely ignore them.
4. Finally, the typeset pages go to Quality Check. The QC'ers look for errors of any kind: spelling, grammar, natural speech, cleaning mishaps, wrong font, etc. Problems are sent back to the appropriate team members, they are fixed, and everything goes back to QC again.
5. When everything has been okay'ed by QC, the chapter is released. Most groups have a website of some sort where you can directly download their scans. Eventually, someone will submit the chapter to an online reader and it'll snowball from there. If you want the highest quality scan always get it directly from the scanlation group. When you download a chapter, take a moment to leave a note of thanks. It takes a lot of time to do this stuff.
These roles and steps can be combined or split up between many people. Speed scans generally have more people involved. As for my personal experience, I've had two different set-ups.
On KWMS, there's our raw provider, a translator who also does QC, and then there's me. So I take care of proofreading, cleaning, and typesetting. It takes about an hour per page to get the cleaning and typesetting done. So with 30 pages, that's 30 hours!! Since we try to get it done in 4 days, that's over 7 hours of work per day ... in addition to my normal job as a teacher.
On Skip Beat, I'm one of two editors. Sometimes I clean half the chapter, sometimes I clean all of the chapter, and sometimes I don't clean at all. That's the wonderful part of being in a larger group: more flexibility. There's still just one translator, but there are generally two or more typesetters. We can get the chapter done relatively quickly, but it's still a lot of time for each of us.
So the next time you think of complaining that chapter X of manga Y is late, think about everything that goes into producing those pages for you. I actually started scanlating because I was tired of waiting for a chapter, but I have resolved to never complain again. We're lucky that so many people have put so many hours into the thousands of scanlations out there.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Occult Academy - Episodes 7 to 13 (End)
Alright .. time to wrap this one up!
The End!
Over all, a very entertaining anime. They packed a lot into 13 episodes. I think it would have been better if it was 26 episodes instead, with a bit more build-up, but I liked it just fine.
Episode 7
Maya runs into Ami's father. He wants to see her smile again, so he sets up a fake mystery circle and UFO for them to chase after. After it's discovered that he was fooling Maya and her friends, everybody fights.
Episode 8
Ami gets captured by a chupacabra. Everybody arms up to go rescue her. With JK finding the way with his dousing rods, they quickly find the chupacabras' lair. Butt kicking ensues and Ami is saved. Everyone makes up. Yay!
Episode 9
In a summoning class, the teacher summons and materializes the spirit of a little girl, Akari. She's awfully cute and just wants to go home. After some sleuthing, the gang finds her house. She sits next to the door and all hell breaks loose. Turns out she's a poltergeist. She froze to death sitting next to her door on Christmas Eve. After some searching, they find her father, who says that it's his fault that Akari died.
Episode 10
They stake out Akari's father's apartment. He finally lets them in and tells them that Akari died waiting for Santa outside. He didn't believe she would do it and left her at home alone. When they found her, it was too late. So they have a Christmas party for her. Everyone has a great time and then the cue is given for Bunmei to come in dressed as Santa. Instead of Bunmei, Akari's father comes in. He apologizes for not coming that night and gives her a present. Akari starts glowing and says thank you to Santa and then to papa. Later, Maya and Bunmei are in her half-destroyed home. She recounts the story she recently remembered. When she was small, her father asked her what she wanted for Christmas, and she said that she wanted a school where all of the ESPers and aliens and ghosts could go and she could study with all of them. So her father basically built the occult academy for her. She cries for a bit, then Bunmei holds her hand. She calms down and then vows to find and destroy Nostradamus' key and the people who killed her father.
Episode 11
When Bunmei gets home from work, Mikaze is there, cooking him dinner. She ends up coming on to him very strong. And somehow takes him to a local gathering of people from the neighborhood in black hooded robes. They area all convinced that Maya is the cause of all the recent problems and that she will open the gates to hell. They want to kill her, but can't since she has some sort of protective talisman. Mikaze gets Bunmei to say that he'll find it.
The next day, Bunmei and Maya go to another town to check out an artifact. Maya notices that Bunmei is feeling off and keeps getting food for him. Eventually he breaks down and starts accusing her of being Nostradamus' key. She kicks him about two dozen times and runs off. When Maya arrives at the school, we see the Vice Principal move toward her menacingly. The next day, she's found dead at the school.
Everyone mourns. Bunmei is bawling in his apartment, when the Vice Principal shows up. He asks if she killed Maya and she nods. Then Maya shows up. The VP is actually a white mage who was asked by Maya's father to protect her. The body that was found was a fake. For proof that it's really Maya, Bunmei demands to see the book she always carries. When Maya hands it over to Bunmei, Mikaze appears, freezes Bunmei, and thanks him for taking Maya's protective talisman. Mikaze reveals herself (pun intented) to be a black mage. The VP stuns her and they run. During the fight, Mikaze tells them that she killed Maya's father.
Episode 12
Maya runs. The VP fights Mikaze and loses, but is able to free Bunmei from Mikaze's spell with her last ounce of strength. Maya leads Mikaze to the school, where Bunmei meets up with her and helps her destroy Mikaze. Bunmei reveals that Maya's father is still alive. His death was faked just like Maya's.
Episode 13
Even though Mikaze has been killed, the future hasn't changed. Maya has invited the kid version of Bunmei to come perform his spoon-bending at the closing ceremonies. Bunmei is Nostradamus' key. When he meets himself, the gates of hell open. He finally decides to take action on his own, regains his powers, and destroys the aliens along with himself. Before he's completely gone, he asks Maya to take care of the boy version of himself. The future changes back to normal and the child Bunmei is now living with Maya and her father.
The End!
Over all, a very entertaining anime. They packed a lot into 13 episodes. I think it would have been better if it was 26 episodes instead, with a bit more build-up, but I liked it just fine.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Uraboku - Episodes 21 to 24 (End)
First off ... whoever does Luka's voice is officially one of my favorites. *doki-doki*
Other than that, I must say that this anime has been a huge disappointment. There was so much build-up, but it never actually got anywhere. It seems that the manga it's based on is ongoing, so that makes sense, I guess. The ending reminds me of the end they gave Inu Yasha. Basically, "Yay! That battle's over. Thing's are peaceful for now. Let's do our best~!" =P
I had too many issues with Crunchyroll to get a good screenshot, so I guess this'll have to do:
Yumeiro Patissiere - Episodes 46 to 52 (End)
Okay... I'm going to start catching up here. I've missed this blog. I really let scanlating take over my life for a while there. I really enjoy it, and will continue, but in moderation.
We'll start with Yumeiro Patissiere. I went ahead and watched episodes 46 through 52 in one shot.
Episode 46
Ichigo's grandmother's strawberry tart isn't in her book because the best recipes are taken to the sweet's kingdom and stored in the museum. So Ichigo goes to the sweets kingdom and breaks into the museum with the help of the sweets spirits. The end up finding out that the former curator of the museum is the same old fairy that gave Ichigo the spoon that opens her grandmother's book. She was also Ichigo's grandmother's sweet spirit. They retrieve the recipe and return it to the book, but it is written in the language of the sweets spirits. Ichigo decides not to read it because she wants to create her own sweets and not just copy from others.
I really don't like the Sweets Kingdom episodes. I mean .. the sweets spirits are a fantastical idea, but it really goes past any suspension of disbelief when she goes chibi and flies through an oven to go to a kingdom full of midgets.
Episode 47
Ichigo is practicing making her own strawberry tart, but she can't get it quite right. The strawberries just don't taste the same as her grandmother's. After journeying far and wide, all with the help of the heiress, she finds out that the strawberries her grandmother was using were fraises de bois, found in Europe. The dimwit had already seen them, but didn't try one because they weren't pretty. At the end they find out that Team Tennouji lost in the semi-finals.
In the end, another irritating episode. I wish the heiress would just go away. Characters like her are much more amusing in the manga, since you can't hear their shrill voices. It is kinda amusing to see Kashino sweat, though.
Episode 48
Everyone's shocked about Team Tennouji's loss. After watching the DVD of the competition, it's obvious that they lost because Tennouji-san was distracted. Ichigo goes with the heiress to find out why. Tennouji has locked herself in her room, but opens the door after the heiress yells at her. Tennouji then tells them that she was upset because she saw Henri-sensei with the head of the french team, being all lovey-dovey and telling her that she's the best student he's every taught. Henri-sensei shows up and mocks Tennouji for losing her composure, saying that a patissiere doesn't need romance. He's even mean to Ichigo. The heiress and Ichigo both argue that love is needed (who saw that one coming..) and Ichigo vows to win the finals. Back at the kitchen, they try the competition's best recipe and are shocked at how great it is.
Booo. Evil Henri-sensei? Something's up.
Episode 49
The finals begin. It starts out with a little amusing part about Kashino being tricked into a making a racy commercial with the heiress. He doesn't know that it's racy until he sees it, though. ^_^ I'm taking the rest of my summary from wikipedia. "The finals of the World Cake Grand Prix has finally came and Team Ichigo and François clash in a three hour team battle with two subjects and themes; an entremet made of chocolate and plated desserts which combines hot and cold sensation. Finally, the match turns out to be a tie. The judges decides to make another match at the same day using batter as the subject and this time it will be an individual match. Andou clashes with Katie, Hanabusa matches against Isabella, Kashino battles against Dominique and the team leaders battles each other. "
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Episode 50
The rematch ends in a tie, with Ichigo losing her battle in spectacular fashion, of course. The final re-match is a battle between one representative from each team. So it's Francois versus Ichigo. Francois makes her specialty, and Ichigo goes for a strawberry tart (surprise, surprise). Ichigo decides to make her own unique tart, using rhubarb, brown sugar, and ... corn meal, of all things. Ichigo wins by only a point. Henri-sensei tells them that he gave her a higher score because she made something new and that she customized it to each judge's tastes. Ichigo finds out that Henri was playing the bad guy so Ichigo would surpass her grandmother. He reveals that his grandfather taught her grandmother and Henri-sensei wants to do the same while she's in Paris. Two years later, we see Ichigo and Kashino standing by a river at night, holding hands, saying that they won't declare their feelings for each other yet, since they still have so much to learn.
Cute ending! The next series has started, called Yumeiro Patissiere Professional. Of course, they're only in high school, but whatever. I'll be watching it, too.
We'll start with Yumeiro Patissiere. I went ahead and watched episodes 46 through 52 in one shot.
Episode 46
Ichigo's grandmother's strawberry tart isn't in her book because the best recipes are taken to the sweet's kingdom and stored in the museum. So Ichigo goes to the sweets kingdom and breaks into the museum with the help of the sweets spirits. The end up finding out that the former curator of the museum is the same old fairy that gave Ichigo the spoon that opens her grandmother's book. She was also Ichigo's grandmother's sweet spirit. They retrieve the recipe and return it to the book, but it is written in the language of the sweets spirits. Ichigo decides not to read it because she wants to create her own sweets and not just copy from others.
I really don't like the Sweets Kingdom episodes. I mean .. the sweets spirits are a fantastical idea, but it really goes past any suspension of disbelief when she goes chibi and flies through an oven to go to a kingdom full of midgets.
Episode 47
Ichigo is practicing making her own strawberry tart, but she can't get it quite right. The strawberries just don't taste the same as her grandmother's. After journeying far and wide, all with the help of the heiress, she finds out that the strawberries her grandmother was using were fraises de bois, found in Europe. The dimwit had already seen them, but didn't try one because they weren't pretty. At the end they find out that Team Tennouji lost in the semi-finals.
In the end, another irritating episode. I wish the heiress would just go away. Characters like her are much more amusing in the manga, since you can't hear their shrill voices. It is kinda amusing to see Kashino sweat, though.
Episode 48
Everyone's shocked about Team Tennouji's loss. After watching the DVD of the competition, it's obvious that they lost because Tennouji-san was distracted. Ichigo goes with the heiress to find out why. Tennouji has locked herself in her room, but opens the door after the heiress yells at her. Tennouji then tells them that she was upset because she saw Henri-sensei with the head of the french team, being all lovey-dovey and telling her that she's the best student he's every taught. Henri-sensei shows up and mocks Tennouji for losing her composure, saying that a patissiere doesn't need romance. He's even mean to Ichigo. The heiress and Ichigo both argue that love is needed (who saw that one coming..) and Ichigo vows to win the finals. Back at the kitchen, they try the competition's best recipe and are shocked at how great it is.
Booo. Evil Henri-sensei? Something's up.
Episode 49
The finals begin. It starts out with a little amusing part about Kashino being tricked into a making a racy commercial with the heiress. He doesn't know that it's racy until he sees it, though. ^_^ I'm taking the rest of my summary from wikipedia. "The finals of the World Cake Grand Prix has finally came and Team Ichigo and François clash in a three hour team battle with two subjects and themes; an entremet made of chocolate and plated desserts which combines hot and cold sensation. Finally, the match turns out to be a tie. The judges decides to make another match at the same day using batter as the subject and this time it will be an individual match. Andou clashes with Katie, Hanabusa matches against Isabella, Kashino battles against Dominique and the team leaders battles each other. "
Nothing out of the ordinary here.
Episode 50
The rematch ends in a tie, with Ichigo losing her battle in spectacular fashion, of course. The final re-match is a battle between one representative from each team. So it's Francois versus Ichigo. Francois makes her specialty, and Ichigo goes for a strawberry tart (surprise, surprise). Ichigo decides to make her own unique tart, using rhubarb, brown sugar, and ... corn meal, of all things. Ichigo wins by only a point. Henri-sensei tells them that he gave her a higher score because she made something new and that she customized it to each judge's tastes. Ichigo finds out that Henri was playing the bad guy so Ichigo would surpass her grandmother. He reveals that his grandfather taught her grandmother and Henri-sensei wants to do the same while she's in Paris. Two years later, we see Ichigo and Kashino standing by a river at night, holding hands, saying that they won't declare their feelings for each other yet, since they still have so much to learn.
Cute ending! The next series has started, called Yumeiro Patissiere Professional. Of course, they're only in high school, but whatever. I'll be watching it, too.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Depressed by a Manga?
Bleach is just depressing right now. I have been keeping up with the manga, just not blogging about it. It's on chapter 424 right now. There are a few things bugging me and I just need to vent. If you haven't read up to the current chapter, be warned that the rest of this post will be full of spoilers for you.
First, the Deicide arc was freaking annoying. It took forever for anything to happen, and most of it was just Aizen leveling up. He turned into a freaking butterfly, for goodness sake. That wasn't exactly intimidating. The whole "yay we killed Aizen ... oh wait, we didn't" routine had gotten really old. I was looking forward to the guy finally kicking the bucket. But nooooo. I'm not allowed that satisfaction. Even Ichigo's final getsuga tenshou doesn't do it. No dying, just sealing. It's like playing an incredibly long and difficult video game, battling the final boss for ages, and then, just when he's down to 10 hp, someone comes along and says, "alright, we're done here". It makes the last 400 chapters seem like a futile endeavor.
That seal is not going to last for 20,000 years. Come on, people. Don't you remember that the guy hypnotized everyone in Soul Society? There's no way he's gonna stay locked up for that long. Besides ... why only 20,000 years?? Why not forever? Or even better ... figure out a way to kill him, dammit!
It just pisses me off that Ichigo loses his shinigami powers and doesn't even accomplish his goal. Well, I guess Karakura town is safe, but I don't see that as the final goal. As long as Aizen is alive, no one is safe. Even if he is sealed.
So now, Ichigo has no powers at all. Normal human teenager. Well, he's strong, but I don't see that as incredibly unusual. But he can't see any of the friends he made from Soul Society and he doesn't really have a purpose or any direction in life. Things continue on around him like they did before he got his powers. No one needs Ichigo.
Then there's the mountain of unanswered questions. Do Orihime and Chad still have their powers? What happened to the Visoreds? Ichigo would probably be able to see them since they're in gigais, right? I'm not gonna write them all out... suffice it to say that I'm not satisfied. It also doesn't help that I don't have any friends who keep up with Bleach, so I can't vent with them about all of this crap. (That would be why I'm writing this post.)
So when I start thinking about all of this, it brings my mood down. I had a particularly frustrating day today and ended up falling asleep in front of my computer. When I woke up from my involuntary nap, I started thinking about Bleach and got downright depressed. I'm sure that there are other factors involved here, including my incredibly high stress level as of late. I probably shouldn't be surprised that I'm affected so much by a manga. I'm always very affected by books and movies in general. Much more so when I find them engaging. Since I've spent so much time reading and watching Bleach, I guess it should be expected.
Still. It's just a manga. I should just get over it. Right?
First, the Deicide arc was freaking annoying. It took forever for anything to happen, and most of it was just Aizen leveling up. He turned into a freaking butterfly, for goodness sake. That wasn't exactly intimidating. The whole "yay we killed Aizen ... oh wait, we didn't" routine had gotten really old. I was looking forward to the guy finally kicking the bucket. But nooooo. I'm not allowed that satisfaction. Even Ichigo's final getsuga tenshou doesn't do it. No dying, just sealing. It's like playing an incredibly long and difficult video game, battling the final boss for ages, and then, just when he's down to 10 hp, someone comes along and says, "alright, we're done here". It makes the last 400 chapters seem like a futile endeavor.
That seal is not going to last for 20,000 years. Come on, people. Don't you remember that the guy hypnotized everyone in Soul Society? There's no way he's gonna stay locked up for that long. Besides ... why only 20,000 years?? Why not forever? Or even better ... figure out a way to kill him, dammit!
It just pisses me off that Ichigo loses his shinigami powers and doesn't even accomplish his goal. Well, I guess Karakura town is safe, but I don't see that as the final goal. As long as Aizen is alive, no one is safe. Even if he is sealed.
So now, Ichigo has no powers at all. Normal human teenager. Well, he's strong, but I don't see that as incredibly unusual. But he can't see any of the friends he made from Soul Society and he doesn't really have a purpose or any direction in life. Things continue on around him like they did before he got his powers. No one needs Ichigo.
Then there's the mountain of unanswered questions. Do Orihime and Chad still have their powers? What happened to the Visoreds? Ichigo would probably be able to see them since they're in gigais, right? I'm not gonna write them all out... suffice it to say that I'm not satisfied. It also doesn't help that I don't have any friends who keep up with Bleach, so I can't vent with them about all of this crap. (That would be why I'm writing this post.)
So when I start thinking about all of this, it brings my mood down. I had a particularly frustrating day today and ended up falling asleep in front of my computer. When I woke up from my involuntary nap, I started thinking about Bleach and got downright depressed. I'm sure that there are other factors involved here, including my incredibly high stress level as of late. I probably shouldn't be surprised that I'm affected so much by a manga. I'm always very affected by books and movies in general. Much more so when I find them engaging. Since I've spent so much time reading and watching Bleach, I guess it should be expected.
Still. It's just a manga. I should just get over it. Right?
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