Still working on Ouran 71, But what's going on so Far

I'm getting slowed down by a class project, sorry. I translated 2 more pages last night. The story is set around Mori and Hani's last host club day before they graduate. Basically Tamaki is taking Mori and Hani's graduation badly and is a blubbering crying mess. Haruhi isn't affected by their graduation because she knows she can still stay in connection with them. (Kyouya isn't showing any emotion either and coolly accepts that the club isn't going to make any $$$ this day.) Haruhi is, though, affected by Tamaki's tears and she tries to touch him to console him. So far her attempts have been unwittingly thwarted by various minor characters. After each attempt Haruhi looks at her hand like it's out of control.

More to come ...

Manga Releases -- End of May

"Monkey High!" (Saru Yama) volume 6, "Ouran" vol 12, and, and "Wild Ones" (Arakure) volume 7 are out! My copies arrived today from Amazon. Buy them too and support your favorite mangakas.

VB Rose ?

I got a comment from Zing Mei this morning requesting VB Rose translation. Volumes 1 -5 are out in English from Tokyo Pop. I checked for volume 6 on Amazon and it looks like the manga is being discontinued. Scanning the web quickly, it looks like Tokyo Pop is having some problems and has restructured and changed strategy, though, I'm not sure what to - their website, though "Flashy," is nearly unusable. Plus, they've even discontinued some of their top selling titles ("Karin" for instance -- and there is only one more volume left !!!???) Anyhow, back to V.B. Rose ... though "lovely", there's not much of a story beyond the 1st volume, so I don't think I can do a 9 volume grind through a dense manga that doesn't interest me that much. However, that said, perhaps a translation group will pick up of the manga now that the rights are in limbo. I do know how it ends, though, ...

7/31 pages of Ouran chp 71 translated last night ...

Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen to Ouran Comparisons

I been browsing the ZHD forums lately and I got a couple of comments about the ZHD Kiss fan art I did and apparently there are some that think ZHD is like "Ouran". I've felt this way too while translating the manga. Obviously, Yuda and Haruhi look almost identical and have very similar reactions to the realization of their feelings. In many ways I feel that Yuda and Haruhi are the same character, but cast in a different universe. With respect to the Johanne and Tamaki, they too share looks and they both have delusional thoughts about their desired women wearing a cute sundress and a hat. I think, though, that is as far as it goes. Johanne is straight forward with his feelings and is a shrewd, kick-ass battle hardened killer whereas Tamaki is 100% "lover" and 0% "fighter", as well as a buffoon (well ... given that kidnapping episode, it's possible that Tamaki could go ape-sh** crazy if anything were to happen to Haruhi or any of his friends (BTW: that would be AWESOME) -- still, it doesn't seem to take much to make Johanne tear through some baddies). Clearly, Johanne is more mature than Tamaki, but strangely, I think I like both Johanne and Tamaki about the same. They are both great characters and I care very much about what happens to them.

What do you all think? Leave a comment.