Omari's Sister's 2011 Stats

I've been having a heck of time pulling myself from "Rex Fabula" to get this post out.  Haha! There are a few interesting developments at the beginning of chapter 4 that got me hooked.  But if I don't do this post now, I'll be on the crazy January OS train and I won't do it at all.

There were a lot of surprises for me in the statistics for 2011.  You guys sure do like your one-shots!  I did not expect that.  Actually, I expected a backlash.  But...I'm cool with that.  I love one-shots now and I hope we get do many more in 2012.

Some milestones for 2012:

Zoo Chp 7 is Out!

Head on over to Bakeneko's Lair for "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" chapter 7.  This chapter's beast is the Shoebill!  Also, Zoo is now a monthly series!

"Seirei Produce" Chapter 8

Strangely enough, this chapter is very appropriate for Christmas because Amane's backstory is eerily similar to the story of another spirit that descended to Earth whose birth we celebrate this time of year.  Hmmm...It's an interesting twist on that story.  Hahaha!  I wonder if there will be any further parallels.

In this chapter we get a big dose of Amane's back story and the link between what happened to Shiina as a child when she died.  A lot of this links back the extra story that came out between chapters 5 and 6.  In case you haven't read it, here's the link (LINK).  It turns out that childhood flashback is crucial to the story (as well as adorable!).

"Seigi no Mikata" Chapter 2 is out on Bakeneko's Lair!

Head on over to "Bakeneko's Lair" for the latest release!  Link

2011 Round Up -- Your Input wanted!

I'm going to write up a 2011 retrospective and I would like your inputs as readers of this blog.  I would like to cover the year's stats for Omari's Sister (Can you guess what the most read release was?) and my thoughts on the year in manga.  I would like know your thoughts about manga in 2011.  What were some of your favorite series this year (licensed and unlicensed and in general -- not only from this group)?  What series do you most want to see licensed?  What series did you hate the most?  What one-shots did you like?  I also want to know what you would like to see from Omari's Sister in the future.  How would you change the current project mix?  Would you like to see more separate commentary about manga?  Would you like for us to give more attention to some of the news and announcements in the manga magazines?  Tell me anything :).  I'm listening.  I'll begin compiling the post/s after Christmas.  I'll look forward to your input.

Omari's Sister is Recruiting! Redraw Artists Needed!

We are in need of some help with redraws.  We have a backlog of releases that need redraws.    Specifically, we need help with:

• Ojousama no Untenshu
• Ore to Atashi no Kareshi-sama
• Fushigi no Maria-kun
• Furou Kyoudai

If you are an experienced redraw artist (clone stamping & line drawing) and would like to help -- temporary help is welcomed -- please contact me (Kuronek0003) via the "contact" link at the top of the right hand column.

Sakuraiya Blooming!!!

Ah, yes!  Sakuraiya is blooming again ladies.  I'm working on chapter 2 as I type.  This is "Seigi no Mikata", one of our series on "Bakeneko's Lair".  I'm sorry we couldn't bring this bishie to Omari's Sister.  Unfortunately, our hero, Mikata, has a habit of cussing like a sailor and I didn't want to water it down ;p.  Anyhow...this series needs some fangirl love, so if this piques your interest, head on over to Bakeneko's Lair to read the first chapter!

Link to Seigi no Mikata Chapter 1

Preliminary Plans for 2012

I'm now crafting plans for 2012.  We will be continuing:

• Magnolia & Lily
• Yukarism
• Seirei Produce
• Rex Fabula (Bakeneko's Lair)
• Kemono Kingdom (Bakeneko's Lair)
• Seigi no Mikata (Bakeneko's Lair)
• Akagami no Shirayukihime
• Ore to Atashi no Kareshi-sama
• The Ghost Apartment Manager
• Fushigi no Maria-kun (9 Chapters total)
• Kuro Lala
• Shiro Lala
• Servamp (Bakeneko's Lair)

We will not be taking on any new series of undetermined length unless something from Bisco Hatori or Akane Ogura comes out.  Instead, anything new we take on will be limited to 5 or less volumes (preferably one or two) or a one-shot.  This is to limit the length of our commitment to a series just in case I get a job or get bored with a series.  Here's a list of new series I have for 2012 (All are 1 or 2 volumes):

• Ojou-sama no Untenshu (We are soooo close to finishing the first chapter!!!  UGH!!!)
• Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushi (Shiina Dai)
• Arashi to Doctor (Shiina Dai)
• Akuma no Puzzle
• Gensou Kajin
• Furou Kyodai
• Hana-Kimi 2009 and 2011 Tributes
• Suzu Mousu
• The Purity Conjuration

One-Shot: "Seimei desu ga nani ka?" ("I'm Seimei. What of it?")

WAH-BAM!  It's another one-shot!  This one is a "Shounen for girls" type of one-shot.  I wanted to release this one over a year ago, but it kept getting kicked down the road.  I'm happy we finally finish this one.  Big thanks to Blotty Parchment for taking on the challenge of translating this one-shot.  There were a lot of exorcist terms she had to research.  On top of that, there are language differences between Shoujo and Shounen manga.  It can be a little tough for folks like us who aren't native Japanese speakers.  Also, thanks to Sapphire Pyro for the beautiful typesetting.

November 2011 Manga Purchases

I didn't purchase many books in November.  I guess it's because there wasn't a lot manga released.  Anyhow, here's a list of the manga I purchased this past November.

English Language

• "Princess Knight" part 1 by Osamu Tezuka -- Old.  This is nice as a historical artifact, but unless you have a young child to read this to or you're a manga scholar, I think you can skip it.

iPad 

• "Ai Ore" Volume 3 -- I'm done with this series.  It no longer holds my attention.

Japanese Language

• "Hana no Kishi" ("Knight of Flower") Volume 5 by Nishikata Mai -- I was hoping for some extras :(.
• "Boku to Kanojo no XXX" ("Your and My Secret") Volume 8 by Morinaga Ai -- the series ends very satisfyingly.

December will be a quite a different story.  Lots of manga was released in December in time for the holiday season.

Manga Review: "Dawn of Arcana" Volume 1

The Loving Spoonful:  The first volume of this series is AWESOME!  Nakaba is my girl and Loki is scrumptious.   There's a good mix of action, romance, and biting insults.  Oh, and the pacing is great!  It doesn't get bogged down in explanations or forced sentiments.  This series, so far, has everything I love. 5/5
---------------------
It's been a long time since I've written a manga review, so forgive me if this one turns out to be crappy.  I really don't know where to start on this one.  Let's just say when I bought it, I didn't know what to expect.  Red-haired Princess, obviously brings to mind AnS.   It was a comparison I was ready to make as I read "Dawn of Arcana".  I'd say about 5 or 6 pages into it, I realized that this was no clone or relative of AnS (Actually, it's more along the lines "Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen").  This is a truly strong red-haired princess, and her prince, though weak now, is no puss.  After that, AnS flew out of my mind and I was swept away with "Dawn of Arcana".

Winter and Christmas Themed Banners Needed!!!

We are quickly rushing into winter and the holiday season, so banners are needed to reflect the season and holiday spirit :).  The width needs to be 1200-pixel and the height can be no more than 350-pixels.  Please e-mail the banners to me (Kuroneko003) using the contact link at the top of the page.  PSD is preferred, but jpeg and png are fine too.

Ouran High School Host Club is Out from Viz

Ouran High School Host Club is out from Viz.  Please support the author and Viz by purchasing the official translated version.

Purchase from the Omari's Sister Amazon Store (Link)

December at Omari's Sister

I can't believe the year is almost over!  I suppose it's true that time flies when you're having fun :).

Before we get to December, let’s recap November.  We had a lot of success with the Kuro Lala and Shira Lala releases.  I'm very surprised by their success, so I'm glad we were able to share these one-shots.  Hopefully like me, you have become aware of some mangaka you've never heard of.  Toyota Yuu is definitely a new favorite.  I will be looking out for one-shots and series from her in the future.  We are about 1/3 done with the one-shot planned from those two publications.  We plan to finish up the rest of the one-shots through the rest of winter 2011 and 2012.

And now onto December.  Because of the Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala one-shot party, we've fallen grossly behind of some of our series.  I would like to spend December finishing up the half finished series chapters and one-shots that got put aside over the past 3 months so we can have a sorta fresh start in January. Here's was what's planned:

November Statistics

Here are some statistics for Omari's Sister for the month of November! Google Analytics recently underwent an update.  There's new more detailed information about mobile users.  It's interesting see what devices some of you are using.  There's also a new graph called "Visitor Flow" that lets me see how you all are making your way through the blog.

I'm very impressed and surprised with how well the Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala releases were received.  I'm glad you are enjoying them.

Top 5 Releases:

1. Akagami no Shirayukihime Chp 27
2. Kuro Lala One-Shot:  Kokoro Rental
3. Shiro Lala One-Shot:  Dinner in my Coffic
4. Shiro Lala One-Shot:  Ginsekai no Shoumei
5. Magnolia Chp 16

Shiro Lala One-shot: "The Wizard and the Love Potion"

This is a really sweet one-shot.  As of now this is tied with "Dinner in my Coffin" as my favorite Shiro Lala one-shot.  This one-shot had tough redraws on nearly every page, so I would like to thank Ichigo Stars and Kumiko for all the work they put in to make the release of this one-shot possible.  It's beautiful, you guys!  I really appreciate it.

This one-shot plays with fairytale troupes.  It feels very familiar, but I think this one-shot was well done, so I enjoyed the "remix".  If you haven't read Toyota Yuu's other one-shot "The Honeybee Earl and the Flower Dress", you may want to.  It's a nice companion to this one-shot.

Torn About AnS from the Magazine

Update: Thanks to everyone who thoughtfully responded right away.  Your love of AnS is clear and I hear it.  I think the majority of you understand the difficulty of working with a bad raw and that we as a group don't want to do mediocre releases if there's an alternative.  So...here's what we're going to do:

• Chapter 28 will be released as scheduled in December
• In place of releasing a mediocre Chapter 29 in January, we will release the extras from Volume 6.
• Chapter 29 will be done from the tankoubon as soon as we get it.  My hope is that it will be released sometime in February.
• Chapter 30 and beyond we will consider month to month.  Hopefully, at least chapters 30 and 31 will be printed in the nice section of Lala so there won't be much of a gap.  I will do the translation along with the Lala releases and post summaries for those who want to be spoiled. 

------------------------------------------------------------

"Seirei Produce" Chapter 7

Huzzah!  "Seirei Produce" is back!  Oh how I missed the Amane/Fuuta comedy pair.  A note on chapters 5 and 6, I had a rare type of brainfart and I only saw the kanjis and discarded the furiganas for the middle brother's name.  Instead of "Ookami the Black/Blue", he is "Sou the Wolf".  Personally, I like "Ookami the Black"...but that's not the name the mangaka intended.  So it's "Sou" from now on and I've gone back and updated chapters 5 and 6 (hopefully, I've caught all instances of it).

Shiro Lala One-Shot: "Dinner in My Coffin" by Nari Kusakawa

How could I resist a one-shot with a title page like this!?  It's soooo pretty!  This is actually a scan of the one of the post cards that comes with Shiro Lala.  The other post cards are a clean version of the Shiro Lala cover (Akiduki Sorata's drawing from her one-shot) and "Wild Wing".  But I digress...the idea of an all white vampire is cool.  I like the white bats too.  The concept is very nice and different.

I really liked this one-shot.  It felt very mature for what's usually in Lala, without being "adult".  I wish there were more one-shot like this. Ashleigh is definitely my new favorite vampire.

And now onto the links!

Shiro Lala is Here!

The Cover is sooooo cute!  It's from Akiduki Sorata's one-shot.  Anyhow...Shiro Lala is here!  We will be doing this in conjunction with the Kuro Lala one-shots.  This isn't all of the one-shots.  These are the ones that caught my eye and this list is in no particular order.  Here's what we have on deck.

Yukarism Chapter 9

"Yukarism" resumes with a beautiful color page.  The title says the chapter is 45 pages, but it's only 37 pages.  I guess the chapter is shorter than what was expected or negotiated.  It's kinda surprising considering that the series was on hiatus for three months.  Oh, well...

This chapter has a sad flashback to Yuumurasaki's and Kazuma's childhood and ends with a launch pad into what takes place in the past in Edo between Yuumurasaki, Kazuma, and Takamura.  There's an interesting little historical nugget added to the story (be sure to read the translator notes).  I wonder if this was put in to foreshadow the path of the story or whether it's another attempt to misdirect the reader.  There's a lot of worrying about Yuumurasaki getting ill.  In the present time, there's more of the Mahoro x Satomi hate comedy.  Somehow, I feel that their hatred is good natured -- like rivals who respect one another.  I guess we are still waiting to see the true nature of the characters' opposition in the past.

October 2011 Purchases

Here's the list of manga purchases I made during the month of October.

English Language:

• "Karakuri Odette" Volumes 1 - 6 -- A light and cute series about a robot who enters high school in order to learn to be human.  If you need to come up from a depressing series or just need to improve your mood in general, I highly recommend this series.  The romance is slow, but it's cute and ultimately ends satisfyingly.  This is a Tokyo Pop series, so copies, both new and used are selling out.  I was able to get the complete series through a combination of orders from Amazon and Right Stuf.  4/5

November at Omari's Sister

We need fall banners!  Send in your fall banners! The width is 1200-pixels and the height has to be less than 350-pixels.

October was a wild ride.  We had a big snag which caused us to have to re-clean 4 releases...ugh...Fortunately, the team was up to the challenge and we've almost made up the lost time.  October brought us some exciting news.  "Seirei Produce" is back from a year long hiatus and a treat of a series, "Ore to Atashi no Kareshi" popped up in Asuka magazine.  Hooray!

October 2011 Statistics

Here's a wrap up of the statistics for October 2011 at Omari's Sister.

Top 5 Releases

1. Akagami no Shirayukihime Chp 26
2. Magnolia Chp 15
3. Yukarism Chp 8
4. In the Mirror of Death
5. The Doll Rebirth Workshop

Top 10 Visiting Countries

Gentle Shoujo Halloween Manga Recommendations

I've been listening to podcasts and reading various manga critics' blogs and this week's popular theme is Halloween manga.  Unfortunately, most of the title mentioned are just sick, literary, or sick and literary.  Who the hell wants to read a bunch of highbrow manga with graphic violence perpetrated on humans and animals!? And since when has Halloween, other than the movies, been associated with serial killers!? 

Halloween One-Shot #1: "In the Mirror of Death"

Here is our big Halloween one-shot!  It's "In the Mirror of Death" by Fujiwara Hiro, the same artist who draws/writes "Kaichou wa Maid-sama".  This feels very different that KWMS which was a pleasant surprise. Oh!  And this one-shot debuts our newest Omari's Sister translator!  Let us welcome Jade!  She did a wonderful job on her first project.  Haha!  It was rather brutal of me to give her a 72-page one-shot as an introduction to this group.  I'm such a bad kitty!  I would also like to thank Holanio for typesetting.  This gave me time to catch up on some other projects that needed some attention.

And now onto the links!

We are Officially Dropping "Pika Ichi"

We are officially dropping "Pika Ichi".  Hopefully another group will pick it up quickly.  As of now I'm not interested in the rest of the story and there are other series that the group and I would like to work on.  I'm sorry to all the fans out there, but I promise we will bring you a new and fabulous series from Asuka that will make you forgive us 1000 times over.

HOLY CRAP!!! "Seirei Produce" is Back!!!!

I'm crying because I'm so happy.  I am so translating his as soon as I'm done with the October stuff!!!!  HELLZ YEAH!!!!!  *dies happy*

For those of you who have no idea of what I'm talking about, please bring yourself up to speed on this hilarious series:

Chp 1
Chp 2
Chp 3
Chp 4
Chp 5
Chp 5 Omake
Chp 6

Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala One-shot Party?

Update:

I've looked at the series we're doing and the resources and we will do half and half.  This means that we will be doing one-shots for Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala through-out the rest of the fall and winter :).  There will be no set schedule for the one-shot releases.  They'll get done as they get done!

----------------------------------------------

So far Omari's Sister's volunteers and a lot of the readers are enthusiastic about the Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala one-shots.  I'm now working on a schedule that will allow us to do most of the one-shots and maintain a decent pace on our series.  We will not interrupt Magnolia, Yukarism, and Akagami no Shirayukihime.  The other series, we will release as they get done in November and December.  In January, we will return to regular releases of series and 2 or 3 one-shots per month.  During this one-shot party, we will release the one-shot by our most beloved mangaka first and introduce you all to some little known mangaka as we finish the project in 2012.  We will also throw in some one-shots that are not from Kuro or Shiro Lala. These were planned and begun months ago, so I want to release them too.  Here's the beginning of the list of the stuff from Kuro Lala that will do (will add to the list as I get them into my computer).  If there's a particular one-shot on this list that you are burning to read, leave a comment.  This will help me figure out the priority of projects.:

More Shiro Lala Info and other Lala Related info!

Update!  Tell us what you like us to do in November and December.  Do you want us to translate most of Kuro Lala and Shiro Lala or space it out and focus on the series.  Please take the poll in the upper right hand column of this blog.

Here's some more information about Shiro Lala.  More mangaka have been announced and there are some teasers for the one-shots.  Sorry, I don't have time to completely translate the advertisement, but hopefully this is enough info and pictures to get you excited.  We will try to bring you most of these one-shots.  I'll present of the schedule of releases once I have the magazine in hand and decide which one-shots we will translate.  I'm totally psyched!  We still have so much to do from Kuro Lala.  Haha!  We'll get though both magazines eventually (Click on the images to see a larger version).

Fushigi no Maria-kun Chp 3

Tonight was anime night and I was wasn't sure whether I was going to be able to post this tonight at all, so I did a quick post earlier.  Now I have time to write a full post.

This is the third chapter for "Fushigi no Maria-kun" and this time we get to see matters from Maria's perspective.  My gosh is Maria sweet and huggable!  I liked translating this chapter a lot.  Maria's inner monologues are beautifully written in Japanese.  I hope I was able to translate some of that beauty into English.  Shiina Dai never ceases to amaze me with her simple but poignant dialog.

And now, here's the link:

Spooky One-Shots from the Past!

It's the haunting season and I like nothing more than supernatural and spooky stories for this time of the year. Here's a list with links to the spooky and ghostly one-shots we've translated in the past! (Click on the captions to go to the one-shot)

Shinobigoto

Buy My Lightly Used Manga

My shelves are sagging and overflowing again, so it's time to get rid of the old to make room for the new!  So please buy some of my manga.  Most of them have only been read once and are in nearly new condition.  I have books in English and Japanese.  The English books are $4 each unless otherwise specified and the Japanese books are $3 each unless otherwise specified.  I will give you a deal if you buy the whole set of books.  All transactions will be handled through Paypal.  Please check here for shipping cost information.  I will use Priority Mail flat rate shippers for purchases within the US (very reasonable). If you are interested, please send me an e-mail that includes:

• The books you want
• The e-mail address to send the Paypal invoice to
• What country I will sending the books to
• US: Priority Mail or Media Mail
• International:  Priority (Air), Air, or "the slow boat"

I will confirm the order and give you a shipping estimate before sending the invoice.


Here's what I've got!

"Yukarism" Chapter 8

First of all, I would like to acknowledge the effort the team of Omari's Sister translators put into page 6.  There was a lot of :/, but after a couple of days of e-mail exchanges, I think we got a decent translation.
----------------------
It's been a while since we've had a chapter of "Yukarism".  Hopefully, this chapter is worth the wait and hopefully the way the chapter ends will help you understand why I held onto it until now.  In this chapter we, along with Yukari, learn a lot about Mahoro.  We also start getting glimpses of what happened between Yuumurasaki, Takamura, and Kazuma in the past and those glimpses give us some insight into Yukari's detached personality.  These are only just glimpses, though, leaving us with many unanswered questions about the past and Yukari.  And now onto the links:

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" Chapter 26

At last we come to the end of the Tanburn arc.  I'm kinda surprised this chapter didn't begin with some color pages.  Oh well, this is still nice.

October at Omari's Sister! Spooky Banners are Needed!

We've entered the spooky month! Muwhohahahaha!  But first, a little bit about September.  We got a lot done considering my home server crash and the folks who are students in this group getting into stride at school.  Good job everyone!

September 2011 Stats!

Here are some stats for Sept 2011.

Top 5 Releases:

1. Ouran High School Host Club August 2011 Special Chapter
2. One-Shot: Kamisama no Sonata

September 2011 Manga Purchases

Here's the list of the manga purchases I made this month.

English Language Books:

• Skip Beat, Volume 25 -- This volume covers the bulk of the Valentine's Day arc.  Both Sho and Ren sorta do battle in the wake of Kyoko giving Reino Valentine's Day hate chocolates.  I noticed a little bit of sloppiness in the image editing and the English adaptation (the script needed more massaging), but overall it was clearer than what's available in scanlation.  I really liked this volume a lot!  5/5
• Kamisama Kiss, Volume 5 -- I've only read the first half.  So far it's very cute.  

Kuro Lala One-Shot: "Girl on a Platter" by Meca Tanaka

This one-shot is in line with "World End Garden" and "Ryuu no Moriuta".  It's shorter than either one-shot, but I feel that this one-shot is better than "Ryuu no Moriuta" because the main female character, Tsubame, is much more likable.  ("World End Garden remains my favorite one-shot.) I sorta wonder how the story would have been different if "Ryuu no Moriuta" has a stoic female character like Tsubame.  In terms of Meca Tanaka works, this one-shot feels very different to me.  It's much more mature and has a little more bite in the underlying message than the other works I've read.  I love it!  I hope to see more works like this from Meca Tanaka in the future.  I also hope she does more one-shots because this one is really good.  Thank you Tanaka-sensei :).

Onto the links!

Fall Supernatural One-Shot: "Kamisama no Sonata"

This one-shot is so beautiful, that I stopped everything to get it out immediately.  This one-shot kind of feels like a marriage of "La Corda Oro" and "Seigi no Mikata".  I love stories with poor, tough, prideful boys.  It's always so cute when a girl breaks through the boy's shell, without actually breaking the boy.  Please enjoy the artwork.  Like most of the works from Ichinose-sensei, this one-shot has lush artwork.  And now onto the links!

Hana Kimi After Stories: Kayashima and Nakatsu

I must say, Kayashima looks rather nice all grown up and Nakatsu is as adorable as ever.  Here is the continuation of the Hana Kimi After Stories.

Kuro Lala and Fall Spooky One-Shots Announcements!

Kuro Lala has arrived! It mostly contains supernatural one-shots.  There are also some starts to a series or two.  Needless to say, there's a lot of good content inside.  In light of our fall spooky theme, we will try to share as many of the one-shots I enjoyed as we can over the next 3 months.  Do do this special we will put some of our less popular series on hold.  "Magnolia", "Yukarism", "Fushigi no Maria-kun", and "The Ghost Apartment Manager" will not be affected.  The other series will be released every 6 - 8 weeks and we'll release multiple chapters at a time to catch up on the series.

Here's what we have planned:

"Ouran High School Host Club" August 2011 Special Chapter

This special chapter isn't what I expected from the preview teaser, but it does fit in perfectly with our "Spooky One-shots" Fall theme.  This little ghost story is a nice transition from summer to fall, so all is forgiven, though, I really wanted TamaxHaru happy married love-love short.  Can you imagine how "stoopid" a pregnant Haruhi chapter could be?  You'd have craziness from Tamaki, Renka, and nutty Tamaki's Dad to deal with on that.  Anyhow...on to the links:

"Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" Volume 1 is Available for Purchase

"Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" Volume 1 is available for purchase.  Volume 1 includes chapters 1 - 6, "Hadaka Muffler", extra 4-coma (4 column comics), and very short omake.  I got my copy through Amazon JP.

Links to purchase:

• Amazon JP
• Yes Asia
• HMV Japan

"Magnolia" Chapter 14

It's been such a long day!  At least I was productive, though,  feel like I'm dragging my sorry butt over the finish line and directly into bed.  I was sooooo hoping that this chapter would be longer than 30 pages, but, alas, "Magnolia" chapters keep getting shorter and shorter T_T.  This time there are only 23 pages and two of those pages are a title spread and one is repeat from chapter 13.  I guess the color pages took a long time to paint???  Okay, I'll admit the color pages are lovely and I am grateful for them.

Anyhow...there's been some flip-flopping on my part about the name of the country in this series.  Originally I had it as "Anastasia", but I ended up following the katakana directly and I'm now calling it "Anestachia".  I'm slowly going through the chapters and updating them with this correction.  I also made a small correction (more like an inclusion) to chapter one.  On page 15, Nagi states that Ayato is next in line for the throne after King Albert's little brother, who I assume is Vincent.  Yes...the plot thickens.  Though, after Ayato and Sui were born, wouldn't Vincent be third in line to the throne?  Hmm... maybe this is all wrapped up in the importance of Ayato's debut.

And now onto the link:

September at Omari's Sister

Wow!  What a month August was!  We completed a whopping 11 releases between Omari's Sister and Bakeneko's Lair.  Some highlights of August include the debut of "Fushigi no Maria" on OS, the debuts of "Rex Fabula" and "Servamp" on Bakeneko's Lair, and Silver Lunar's debut as a typesetter on "Akagami no Shirayukihime"!  "Fushigi no Maria" was well received and had high readership.  "Rex Fabula" and "Servamp" not so much.  So if you are seeking something other than shoujo love-love manga to read and want to experience some thrills and a bit of comedy, head on over to Bakeneko's Lair to check out the new series.  I highly recommend "Rex Fabula".

September is still in the works and I imagine it will mostly be a fly by the seat of my pants kind of month.  I will be having a couple of last minute hastily planned mini-vacations thrown in during the month, so the dates listed on the release schedule are dubious.  Here's what I can guarentee is coming out this month:

• Magnolia Chp 14
• The Ouran August 2011 Special Chapter
• The Hana-kimi After Stories Special Short Chapters
• Fushigi no Maria Chp 2
• Akagami no Shirayukihime Chp 26
• Rex Fabula Chp 2 (on Bakeneko's Lair)

The rest of the stuff listed is being worked on but I'm not sure whether we'll be able to finish them this month.  I'm crossing my finger, though.

For the latest release schedule updates, please see the Release Schedule page (link)


A reminder: Follow our releases on Twitter @OmarissisterRel

Also catch the debuts "Rex Fabula" and "Servamp" at Bakeneko's Lair!

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" Chapter 25

At last!  I'm so sorry for the delay!  As you know things happens and plans fall through.  Anyhow, we got it done and chapter 26 is well on it's way to getting done.  I don't know what's going to happen when AnS moves to Lala magazine.  I suspect chapter 27 will be printed with high quality and then after that the image quality will be inconsistent and we'll have the same problem that we have with "The Ghost Apartment Manager".  If the print quality is really poor, then we will have no choice but to wait for the tankoubon.  We've taken so much care so far that it would be a shame to put out crappy looking releases because we are in a hurry.  We'll do our best and I'll will definitely announce the image quality of chapters.

This is the second to last chapter in the Tanburn arc.  It has lots of action and is in general "kick ass".  The Sorata "Japanese word salad" was worse than usual in this chapter, so I apologize now for any translation errors I've made.  Also, I'd like to announce that this is Silver Lunar's debut as a typesetter.  Good job, Silver Lunar!  And I'd also like to thank Tin for helping me pinpoint some translation errors.  Anyhow, here are the links!

August 2011 Statistics

Here are some statistics for Omari's Sister in August

Top 5 Releases:

1. The "Ouran High School Host Club" July 2011 Special Chapter
2. "Magnolia" Chp 13/ "Lily" Chp 2
3. "Billy Boucchan no Yuuutsu"
4. "Pika Ichi Chp 9"
5. "Hana-Kimi After Stories -- Nanba"

Top Ten Visiting Countries:

1. US (CA, NY, TX, WA, FL)
2. Canada
3. France
4. Philippines
5. Malayasia
6. Germany
7. Indonesia
8. Australia
9. Singapore
10. UK

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" Transfer Cancelled and Announcements

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" is returning to Omari's Sister.  The transfer to The Zero Alliance fell through and we have a translator and typesetter for the series, so we can continue it.  It's not clear whether we will be releasing along side the Lala magazine releases.  It depends on the print quality of the chapters in the magazine.  If it's really bad, then we will wait for the tankoubon.  Hopefully, this series will not go on indefinitely.

Anyhow...as a consequence, though, it will impact our schedule on some other series.  Considering the successful debut of "Fushigi no Maria-kun", I'm hesitant to slow it down.  I decided to be selfish and bump "Pika Ichi" down to a low priority project, meaning, we'll put out a chapter whenever we can fit it into the schedule, unless some other group wants to pick it up.  Sorry Pika fans, but Hanako getting kidnapped over and over is not a compelling story...

I've updated the ongoing projects to reflect what we are working on and currently releasing.  We haven't dropped any projects now missing.  All of these projects have been started, but it's doubtful we will be able to release any of them until 2012.  Please check the release schedule to see what we have coming up in the near and distant future.

A reminder: Follow our releases on Twitter @OmarissisterRel

Retiring "Junketsu + Kareshi"

Update:  "Barajou no Kisu" has just been added to JManga's directory. Link

Aya Shouto has written on her blog that she thinks her works could get licensed and published in English if all overseas scanlation stops.  It is never my intention to harm the original author, so per Aya Shouto's wishes, I will remove "Junketsu + Kareshi" from this blog.

Fushigi no Maria-Kun Preview!

Here's a preview of our newest series, "Fushigi no Maria-kun"!  This is a 9 chapter series by Shiina Dai, the same artist who brought us "World End Garden", which is my favorite one-shot of all time!  Like "World End Garden" is series has a good range of emotions (though it doesn't reach the gloomy depths of WEG) and a richly complex relationship between to the two main characters.  I'm really looking forward to releasing the first chapter.  So, to get you ready for what's in store, here's a preview of the first chapter! (Please forgive any errors you may find.  This has not been QC'ed or proofread yet.)

JManga is Open!

JManga is open to North America!  Head on over and check it out!

My observations:

1. Pricing -- Chapters range from ~$1 - $3 each or ~$9 per volume.  They use a point system to purchase material.  The base level is 1000 points per month for $10.  Of the materials I looked at the prices were 120 - 290-pts per chapter or 865 points for the entire volume.  You can purchase as many points as you need after to sign up for the $10 subscription.
2. Most of the titles listed are not actually available yet.
3. There were many titles that weren't even translated into English
4. The sound effects of the titles I looked at were not translated.  The typesetting was also done poorly, and one of them was translated by a person with a poor grasp of English :(.  But these are limited to a small number of the titles that were never published in English.
• See "My Sadistic Boyfriend" and "A Kiss on Tearful Cheeks" (this one is a crying shame since they decided to leave the Japanese instead of having someone do the redrawing.)
5. The "free" material consider of 5-pages or the first chapter, which includes the title pages and the table of contents. 

"Hana Kimi After Stories" -- Nanba

 

Like "Ouran", to commemorate their television drama, Hana Kimi is also releasing special chapters.  This set of special chapters is call "Hana Kimi After Stories" and it's currently running in Hana to Yume magazine.  Each chapter will focus of the after graduation stories of the popular characters from Hana Kimi.   I don't know how many chapters there will be, but I imagine the stories will be very short like this one.

This first story covers Nanba and I liken who he ends up with to the surprise of Mei and Kasanoda ending up together.  It's surprising, but ultimately makes sense :).  On to the link!

Deb Aoki's JManga Panel at Comic Con Write up

I'm very excited about JManga!  If you haven't heard about JManga or want to know the latest about JManga, please read the excellent blog posts by Deb Aoki from the About Manga Blog.  Here are the links from Deb Aoki's Twitterfeed:

"alrighty, as promised: here's Part 1 of my look at Jmanga.com, the new website for JP manga in English: bit.ly/mPY3CN

Here's part 2 of my JManga articles with my interview with reps from Shogakukan, Futabasha, Kadokawa and Kodansha bit.ly/nUk3kU"

I'm working hard on our next release so I don't have time to form and write down my thoughts about JManga.  But, please let our community know how you feel about JManga by writing a comment.  Once I get out of deadline panic, I'll share my thoughts.  Sufficed to say, I'm cautiously optimistic and I would love to have Omari's Sister participate in JManga if and when they do enlist the help of scanlation groups.

Announcement: We're Gonna Finish Akagami no Shirayukihime Chp 25 & 26

I got LalaDX yesterday and AnS chapter 26 is the end of the "Tanburn Arc" of the story.  After that the series will move to Lala magazine, which means the series will potentially be a monthly series beginning with chpater 27.  I talked matters over with TZA and it seems to us that it would be best to let Omari's Sister finish out the Tanburn Arc and then transition the project entirely over to TZA and Neteru Mouse when it moves to Lala.

We'll work on chapters 25 and 26 concurrently with our other projects.  We will release chapter 25 before the end of August.  All of us are sorry for the extreme delay, and we'll do our best to get AnS out without wrecking the rest of the schedule.

Also a reminder: Follow our releases on Twitter @OmarissisterRel

Omari's Sister Releases Twitterfeed

I have made a Twitter Feed only for Omari's Sister's Releases so you won't have to wade through my inane Twitter rants and the chit-chat I have with various Twitter denizens.  If you only want information about the latest Omari's Sister's release then follow @OmarissisterRel

Pika Ichi Chapter 9

We finally got a translator for "Pika Ichi" so now we can continue the series on a monthly release schedule.  Hooray for Amrai!  Let's thank her for doing an excellent job on the translation.

Let's see...this is chapter 9...ah...and we begin with the WTH moment of Hanako is Dougen's arms.  That Dougen is a sly d***...There's something seriously wrong with that guy's brain and personally, when dealing with people like him I go by the words of an old song by Poe -- "Can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being".  If only dear Hanako understood that concept and stayed away from Dougen.  Nothing good can come of this...ah...but Hanako gets the good and bad she deserves in chapter 10.  Onto the link:

Magnolia Volume 2 is for Sale

"Magnolia" volume 2 is available for sale!  Please purchase through Naked Ape's Amazon storefront for give them extra money (Link).

If you live in the US or Canada and the initial Amazon shipping fee is too daunting, I can facilitate the purchase by piggybacking your order onto my next order from Amazon JP.  At the current dollar to yen exchange rate the book will cost $8.25 + $1 (for OS) + $3 shipping from Japan + ~$3 - 4 shipping within the US and Canada ($15 - $16 total vs. $38.25).  If you are willing to wait and I get enough requests, I can order the books from Yes Asia and take advantage of the free shipping.  If you are interested in getting a copy of Magnolia Volume 1 or 2, please send me e-mail via the contact link at the top of this blog.  All transactions will be handled through Paypal.

Magnolia Chapter 13

 

Hmm...I wonder what happened between Lily and Arthur in the hall...I guess we won't know until late December T_T.  Anyhow, here's "Magnolia" chapter 14.  Finally! Another day!  I wonder how many chapters this day is going to last...heheheh... well at least this isn't as bad as "Skip Beat."  Anyhow...Nagi's suffering continues and Ayato is being forced to grow up.  Now I'm suffering as I wait for chapter 14. It sounds like chapter 14 may actually have more than 23 pages (PLEASE!!!  We need a nice 50-pages  PLEASE!!!).  Onto the link!

August 2011 at Omari's Sister

July was quite a month for Omari's Sister.  Three surprised projects came up ("Liselotte and Witch's Forest", "The Hands the Demon Adored", and the "Ouran" July 2011 Special Chapter.)  As a consequence, some of the projects we had planned to start were moved back.  We also debuted our spin-off blog "Bakeneko's Lair" with the one-shot "Seigi no Mikata."  New members to the team in July:

Noir:  Cleaner
Amrai:  Translator ("Pika Ichi" & "Ojou-sama no Untenshu")
Mari:  Translator (one-shots)
Lakshmi:  Proofreader
Cone93: Proofreader
Yuyeon: Cleaner

Please welcome these new members of Omari's Sister!

And now onto August activities!  Here's what we have planned

• "Magnolia" Chp 13 -- Done!
• "Pika Ichi" Chp 9
• "The Ghost Apartment Manager" Chp 7
• "Fushigi no Maria-kun" Chp 1
• "Ouran High Host Club" August 2011 Special Chapter
• One-shot: ”Billy-Bouchan" by Yumi Kiiro (Joint with The Zero Alliance)

At Bakeneko's Lair

• "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" Chp 6
• One-shot:  "Neko Hiroimashita"

For up to date release information, please refer the release schedule pages.

July 2011 Statistics

Here are some Omari's Sister's stats from the month of July.

Top 5 Releases:

1. "Ouran High School Host Club" July 2011 Special Chapter
2. "Lily" Chp 2 and "Magnolia" Chp 12 (huge growth in readership!)
3. "Yukarism" Chp 7
4. One-shot:  "The Hands the Demon Adored"
5. "Ouran High School Host Club" Volume 18 extras (despite no available files)

Top 10 Visiting Countries

1. US (CA, NY, TX, FL, IL -- Hello everyone from Illinois!!!)
2. Canada
3. France
4. Philippines
5. Indonesia
6. Autralia
7. Germany
8. Malaysia
9. Singapore
10. UK

Kemono Kingdom: Zoo has Moved to Bakeneko's Lair

"Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" has a new home!  It has been moved over to Bakeneko's Lair where, hopefully, there will be a more receptive audience.  I've decided to purify Omari's Sister "PG" and "PG-13" shoujo and to post everything else to Bakeneko's Lair.  I'd have to say that "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" is definitely not shoujo manga.  Hahaha!  If you've never read "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo", I encourage you to give the first 2 chapters a try.  It's one of my favorite series to translate and I'm so sad that it's readership is so pathetically low.  I realize "Zoo" isn't for everyone, and, I hope moving it out of a shoujo heavy blog will raise readership to the level the series deserves.

"Kemono Kingdom: Zoo"  Chapters 1 - 5 have been collected into one post on Bakeneko's Lair (Link)  Chapter 6 will release within the next two weeks there!  Please, look forward to it!

Check out "Seigi no Mikata" on Bakeneko's Lair!

Bakeneko's Lair's debut project is out!  Go check out the raucous romantic comedy "Seigi no Mikata" on Bakeneko's Lair!

Follow Bakeneko's Lair on Twitter for links and information about the latest releases.  Link @Bakenekos_Lair

"Yukarism" is going on Hiatus until the End of October

Update:  I'll do a compromise.  We'll release chapter 8 in early September.

I just got "Yukarism" chapter 8 and it is not the last chapter.  Rather, the series is going on hiatus for three months after chapter 8 and will resume with chapter 9 on October 26th.  I did have the chance to quickly read through chapter 8 and it's packed with details about Mahoro's childhood, Mahoro's dreaming activities, and a revelation about the true nature of Yuumurasaki's and Shouma's relationship...heheheheh...(anyone wanna guess?).  In light of the hiatus and the fact that chapter 7 left us in a good place to rest, I'm gonna hold off of releasing chapter 8 until early October to prevent cliffhanger agony.

Ouran High School Host Club July 2011 Special Chapter

 

This is the first of two planned Ouran short stories appearing in Lala magazine to commemorate the OHSHC live action drama.  This one-shot centers around Mei and Kasanoda who were revealed to an item in the extras from Volume 18.  It's a cute one-shot. 

Introducing Bakeneko's Lair -- The Darker Side of Omari's Sister

After much wheel spinning and gut churning, I decided we needed a spin-off blog and group for the series and one-shots from Comic Gene and some of the other series and one-shots we couldn't give consideration to because they went outside the PG-ish constraints of Omari's Sister.  The blog is called "Bakeneko's Lair".  Karent79 came up with this brilliant name :).  A "Bakeneko" is a mythological monster cat and I thought, what better than that to represent "the dark side of Omari's Sister".

New Ouran High School Host Club Special Chapters are Coming!! Kuro Lala!! and More!!

I just got Lala 9 today and there's an Ouran special chapter in it!  There I will postpone the last two releases scheduled this month to get that out ASAP.

"The Scarecrow of Oz" Chapter 3

I was planning to do a double release of chapters 3 and 4, but there was too much dialog and cuteness packed into this chapter that I got "Scarecrow of Oz" burn out.  Therefore, chapter 4 has been moved back to August and will be a low priority release, meaning that I'll finish it if I have time after all the other releases.

Liselotte and Witch's Forest Chapter 1

 

This was an impromptu joint project between Weekend Betsuender and Omari's Sister.  Head on over to the Weekend Betsuender to read the release (Link).  Just a note, we at Omari's Sister have no intention of taking this series on as a project.  Like I said, this was an impromptu project and I committed only to cleaning the first chapter.

One-shot: "The Hands the Demon Adored"

We were planning this one-shot to kick off our fall spooky tales, but I suppose this isn't all that spooky even though the main male character is a demon.  In hindsight, this is more of a late winter/early spring kinda one-shot given the theme of rebirth.  Anyhow...we're doing it now...so yay!

Oh, in case you were wondering, the title's direct translation is "Affectionate Hands for a Demon".  I thought that was kind of wonky sounding, so I went with something more direct that expressed an adjacent idea.　I offer my humble apology to translation purists.

I think (perhaps someone can confirm this) that Takagi-sensei is just coming off a break.  I was very surprised to see a work from her in Aria because her series and one-shots have always been in Lala and Lala DX.  It would be nice if she switched publishers and will now appear in Aria and Itan.  I think both of these publications would allow her to have more flexibility and maturity in her story telling.

Anyhow...on to the links:

"The Ghost Apartment Manager" Chapter 6

 

This chapter closes out Kyariko's story arc.  I like they way this student teacher relationship is closed our, even though it's bitter sweet.  For those folks who were bugged by Kyariko, she'll only appear now in the flashback.  I'm currently mulling over chapter 7.  Volume 2 of this series isn't scheduled to be released until mid-September.  The image quality of chapter 7 and chapter 8 from my copies of Princess magazine is dramatically lower than the other chapters from the books and the previous magazines.  However chapters 9 - 11 have high quality.  Should we wait for the tankoubon and put out chapter 7 in October or should we keep going and use what we've got?

Sharing Real Life: Ichi's Watercolor Paintings

I thought I'd share these with the community because it's nice to see what members of the group do outside of manga.  Here's are some lovely watercolor paintings that our amazing redraw artist Ichi did in her class.

Summer and Fall Banners! Make Some, Please!

My banner has been highjacked by birdies AGAIN!  Yikes!  I've almost exhausted all of the excellent banners you guys made for Spring. Now it's time for some new banners and I'm turning to the community again for your creativity :). Please make us some wonderful banners for Summer and Fall. Remember that Fall will feature spooky short series and one-shots, so some spooky banners would be nice. The dimensions are 1050 pixels wide by 200 pixels high. Leave a 470 x 50 pixel area in the lower left for the menu bar. If you can, please send the image as a PSD so I can alter them if I need to. If you can't send a PSD, they you can send a JPEG or a PNG. You can send them to me via e-mail through the contact link in the main menu, or you can link to the image file via a comment to this post. If you need a piece of material to make your banner from me, just ask :). I look forward to seeing what you all come up with :).

"Yukarism" Chapter 7 -- This Chapter Has it All!

Hahaha!  In a way those stars in the background look perfect for a 4th of July release.  It's a nice coincidence :).

Chapter 7...this is a very nice chapter indeed.  I don't want to say much about it, because I would hate to spoil it.  Onto the link!  I couldn't bear putting out this chapter with horrible watermarks all over it, so instead I decided to only release a PDF version. It will look great on mobiles and tablets.  For PC users, I recommend viewing at 70 - 75% magnification to get rid of the artifacts.

July 2011 at Omari's Sister

Whee!  It's summer! BBQ!!!
Okayz~ Onto the meats of July!  Here's what we have on the grill:

• Yukarism Chp 7 -- Another great chapter!  A great range of emotion from "Yeeks" to "Daww"~
•  Magnolia Chp 12 + Lily Chp 2 -- Magnolia is extra short, so we'll combine the releases. Magnolia teases the dangerous twins scenario and ends with a Nagi embrace :3.
• The Ghost Apartment Manager Chp 6 -- The end of Kyariko's arc.
• The Scarecrow of Oz Chp 3 and 4 -- So cute! Plus an evil witch!
• Fushigi no Maria-kun Chp 1 -- Heheheh! A hyper high school and her awesome vampire childhood friend.  Good stuff from Shiina Dai, the mangaka of "World End Garden".
• Ojou-sama no Untenshu Chp 1 -- Haughty Ojou and her handsome driver ;p
• The Big Summer One-shot:  "Seigi no Mikata -- a super hero story for the summer for those of you unimpressed with the summer blockbusters -- mainly me...so...sad...no popcorn for me so far :(
• One-shot: ”Billy-Bouchan" by Yumi Kiiro (Joint with The Zero Alliance) -- this is another one-shot that's along the lines of "The Honeybee Earl"

June 2011 Statistics

Wow!  I can believe June went by so quickly!  Here are some facts about Omari's Sister in June!

Top 10 Visiting Countries

1. USA (CA, NY, TX, PL, GA) -- first appearance for GA, guess the college students went home ;p
2. France
3. Canada
4. Philippines
5. Australia (Wow!  Big Jump!  Go Australia!)
6. Germany
7. Indonesia
8. UK
9. Singapore
10. Malaysia

Omari's Sister Needs You!

I've added a recruitment page to this blog.  We are in constant need of help, so if you would like to volunteer to be a part of Omari's Sister, please consult the recruitment page listed at the top of the near right column on this blog and then contact me using the Contact link in the main menu at the top of this blog.

Here's a list of the voluntary positions we have that need filling in order for us to maintain our schedule of releases:

Project:  Pika Ichi (URGENT NEED)

Needed:  Translator/Typesetter (works out better if you can do both)

Poll: The Future of "Pika Ichi"?

Update 6/22/2011:  Pika Ichi will continue at least through Chp 11.  We'll do another assessment at Chp 14.

Update:  We need a Translator/Typesetter to help keep Pika Ichi alive!  Until we find one, Pika Ichi will not be on a regular release schedule. If you are interested in helping with Pika Ichi, please contact me via the "Contact" link in the main menu at the top of this blog.

I could take or leave "Pika Ichi" so I want to know how you as the readers feel about the series.  Should we continue it or would you rather have us do as series or two from Comic Gene?  Take the survey at the top right corner of the blog.  You can also leave comments to this post if you want to discuss the matter.

We have a good amount of chapter 9 finished, so we will release that regardless, but I would like to know whether we should continue after chapter 9.

Treasure....

 Treasure...get your own...

Pika Ichi Chapter 8 Preview! And AnS Announcement...

Update:  The new translator for AnS is Nati-chan (I'm very grateful to her for taking over because chapter 25 was like Japanese chopped word-salad to me -- devoid of grammatical structure and too many obscure word usages for me to grasp...ugh...page after page of WTF???).  AnS will now be a joint project between NeteruMouse and The Zero Alliance.  We will make Zip and PDF versions of AnS available here on Omari's Sister for those of you who can't open RAR files, those of you who are afraid of MediaFire, and for those of you who prefer to read releases on mobiles and tablets.  We will all try our best to get the remaining chapters out to you in a timely manner, so please be patient and refrain from pestering the folks from NM and TZA about release dates.
-----------------------
Yes! "Pika Ichi" is returning but as a low priority project.  This means that releases will not be on a regular schedule.  I'm sorry about the delay we took, but I wanted to get a few more chapters in to see where the story was going into order to decide whether to continue the series or drop it.  During that time, I came to understand and appreciate the ridiculousness of "Pika Ichi", so I can now say I like the series and I'm eager to continue it (for the meantime, barring no stupid plot twists.)

Here's a preview of chapter 8 to get you ready for the series' resumption!

One-shot: "The Honeybee Earl and the Flower Dress"

 

I readily admit that this one-shot is a beyond cliched Cinderella story (the title page pretty much tells the entire story), but it's done extremely well so all is forgiven.  Actually, I enjoyed this one-shot A LOT.  It filled the hole for a good summer romance comedy (damn you, Hollywood, make us some good summer movies!).  Anyhow, there are no surprises here and it all ends with the lovely little bow, as it should.  Yes, it's perfect for the June wedding season :).

Ouran Volume 16 is Available from Viz!

 

I meant to announce this weeks ago.  Sorry :(.  Anyhow, "Ouran High School Host Club" volume 16 is available now from Viz.  I recommend this translation over anything available in scanlation.  It is superior :).  The book is available now through the special Ouran section I set up in the Omari's Sister Amazon Store.   Click here to buy and support Ouran, Hatori-sensei, and Omari's Sister with your purchase :).

One-Shot: "Blue Rhapsodia"

It feels like it's been forever since a release!  UGH!!  Lala DX arrived 2-days later than expected, so I spent the time waiting working on other projects.  This means we will have a bunch of releases coming in rapid succession.

Anyhow...here is the latest adventure from Ogura Akane!  It's about pirates so I'm quite pleased and had a lot of fun with the translation.  It sounds like this may be Ogura-sensei's next series -- or so I hope :).  

Recruitment: Two Experienced Image Editors Needed for New and Fall Projects

I need two experienced image editors for "Fushigi no Maria" and "Ojou-sama no Untenshu".  All raws will be pre-cleaned and cleaned.  All the new editors will be required to do are cloning and redrawing.  If you are interested, please send me some e-mail via the contact link on the top menu of this blog.

Announcements: New Short Series and Fall Plans!

I've been going through some gyrations the past couple of weeks.  I didn't like the direction of some of our projects were going and went seeking some series and one-shot with greater emotional depth and range.   I dropped a bunch of one-shots, transferred a couple of series to other groups, and went on a search for some new stuff.  For now, I've decided not to take on series of undetermined length because it's a risky proposition (boredom, story failure, hiatuses, and the possibility of me returning to the workforce...).  So for now, any new series we take on will be known to be complete in less than 4 volumes.  With this in mind, the new series we will be taking one for the rest of 2011 and the Beginning of 2012 are:

• "Fushigi no Maria-Kun" ("Wonderous Maria-Kun") by Shiina Dai

 

• "Ojou-sama no Untenshu" ("The Young Lady's Driver") by Ishihara Keiko -- Moved to 2012.  We also offer this project to another group if they want to do it.

• "Suzu Musou" by Mizuno Tooko
• "Otome Knight Princess Prince" by Ikemi Runa
• "Vampire Hunter" by Ikemi Runa
• "The Scarecrow of Oz"
• "Furou Kyoudai"
• "Hatsukoi Succubus" -- That series will be done by Shoujo Crusade

Fall 2011 One-shots! (Sept, Oct, Nov)
The theme for this fall's one-shots is spooky/horror...okay not too much horror since I'm a wimp.  I'm developing the selection now.  Please check the release schedule for the latest updates.  We'll also leave some flexibility in the schedule in case anything pops up that we want to do right away.  I'll make a formal announcement of the one-shots once I've nailed them down.

As for Winter 2012 -- my current thoughts on the one-shot theme is "Sci-fi" ;p, but of course we'll also have to mix in some selections for various holidays :).