Happiness Loan: Peaceful Old-Age Countermeasure & Pet Owner in Training

It's Ojou time!  This time we have a double feature from the August issue of The Hana to Yume magazine. There's no download. Just click on the images to see them larger.

Recruitment: J to E translator Needed for AnS!

Omari's Sister needs an experienced advanced Japanese to English translator for AnS, Aka Lala, and Shiro Lala (2012). If you are interested in volunteering, please contact me (Kuroneko003) using the contact link on the top right corner of the blog.

I'm Taking Aka Lala Piggy Back Orders

Aka Lala has just been listed on Amazon JP, so I'm taking piggyback orders if you want a copy of the magazine.  Here's list of some of the artists who will contribute one-shots to the special Lala magazine.

Aka Lala

• Yumi Kiiro
• Akane Ogura
• Kaoru Ichinose
• Keiko Ishihara
• Naru Kusakawa
• Tomo Matsumoto
• Nao Mashiba
• Yutaka Tachibana

It will be released in Japan on September 10th.  I will be sending them out on September 13th or 14th.   Here are the prices with shipping included!

• US $17 (Media Mail + Confirmation)
• Canada $22 (International First Class)
• International $32 (International First Class)

If you would like a copy of this special Lala, please send me an e-mail via the contact link at the top right of the blog.  Please include your country.  If you are purchasing multiple copies, let me know.  Shipping on multiple books is not linear.

Water Themed Banners Needed

We will begin releasing our August water-themed one-shots soon.  We need some water-themed blog banners to celebrate!  Here are the requirements:

Width: 1250-px
Heigh: 150 - 350-px
File Format:  PSD preferred, but JPEG and PNG are acceptable.

"Servamp" Chapter 3

I sincerely apologize for the slow pace at which we are releasing this series. Hopefully we'll be able to release chapters 4 and 5 before the end of the year.  We're really working hard now on finishing our shorter series and on the one-shots that have been stewing on my desk for months.  Regardless, the group loves this series, so sooner or later we'll accelerate the series and catch up (along with Rex Fabula and Ore to Atashi no Kareshi-sama).

Anyhow...we get more information about the new cackling Servamp that showed up at the end of chapter 2.  He's kind of a sad fellow, but I have the felling Mahiru will eventually win him over.

On to the release!

"Seigi no Mikata!" Chapter 4 (End)

It's time to say "goodbye" to our Cherry Blossom Hero.  Yep, this is the last chapter of "Seigi no Mikata!"  I wonder if we'll see more of Mikata and S in the future.  The ending felt more like the end of a pre-quel than the end of a series.  Oh well, still it was a fun series to translate.  I won't miss the typesetting though.

In this final chapter we are introduced to some of the other heroes in neighboring communities and a mysterious new "hero" shows up.  Heheh...ooh, yeah, it's beyond corny.  I so wanted Lily to be a woman.  That would have been too funny!

A few translation notes:

• To make it easier, I translated the other heroes' wards to their base flower names in English. I thought it would cleaner than having a bunch of translation notes on the pages as they were introduced.
• At the end, there's a bad pun because phonetically in Japanese the same sounding words can either mean getting hired onto a job or becoming a man's wife. We don't really have a single word like that in English, but I did my best to get that pun through in English without resorting to crudely saying, "from now on you're my bitch."

Okay, onto the release!

July 2012 Statistics

Here are some statistics from July.  We passed the 3 million views mark! That was pretty cool. Readership has dropped somewhat with the absence of "Akagami no Shirayukihime." It doesn't impact what we do, but it's interesting see what people come to the blog for and what people often check for on the blog. Most of those views lasted less than a second.  To be honest, I kinda enjoyed not having the AnS hanging over my shoulder for the last two months.

We didn't have as many releases as we had hoped in July.  "Detarame Mousouryoku Opera" killed the first 10 days of the month for me and Ichi.  I've started on the last chapter, but I was so mad at how much time it chewed up that I've put it aside until can forgive the series and finish it.

Okay, onto the stats!

Top 10 Visiting Countries

1. United State (CA, NY, TX, MA, VA -- hello to all of you in VA)
2. Canada
3. France
4. Philippines
5. Australia
6. Indonesia
7. Germany
8. Malaysia
9. UK
10. Singapore

Top 5 Releases

1. One-Shot:  "00 Day of Summer Holiday"
2. "Detarame Mousouryoku Opera" Chapter 2
3. One-Shot: "Taiyou no Yuki"
4. "Ojou-sama no Untenshu" Chapter3
5. "Lily" Chapter 4

Mobile usage is up 5% since the last time I looked at the data.  The top mobile devices used to access the blog are the iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch, and the Asus Transformer Prime.

Omari's Sister is Recruiting

Omari's Sister Needs You!

We are working towards our Halloween and Christmas one-shot parties.  The Christmas one-shot theme will be "fairy tales." Here's list of the volunteers we currently need as we work on these projects:

• Translator -- We need an experienced advanced level Japanese-to-English Translator to take over the translation of one of our very popular series (you find out which one when you inquire) and to work on one-shots.
  
• Translation QC -- Mid level Japanese knowledge is fine, though advanced level is preferred.  I need folks to check the translations to make sure they are accurate.
• Redraw Artist/Image Editors -- I need a couple of experienced redraw artists to work on one-shots and our series

No experience is needed for cleaners.  If you already have knowledge of Photoshop I (Kuroneko003) am willing to train you.  If you are interested in volunteering for Omari's Sister, please send me an e-mail via the "Contact" link at the top of this blog.

People who are new to cleaning, consult this tutorial first to make sure you are familiar enough with Photoshop:  http://senbonzakura.kageyoshi.net/beginners-start-here/ 

Just to Make it Crystal Clear -- I DO NOT PROVIDE RAW MANGA

I do not provide raw manga.  If you e-mail me asking for a raw, you will get a reply telling you to buy the raw from Amazon JP or Yes Asia.  So please save yourself and me some time and support your favorite mangaka by purchasing your own raws for your group.