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:

Happy Birthday Kuroneko003-san!

Our lovely K3-san celebrated her birthday yesterday. Here's a little present from our cleaner Suzume:


That Naoji!! Well, we hope you get to enjoy lots of delicious food.

誕生日おめでとう!

Image from Pika Ichi chapter 8.

"Pika Ichi" Chapter 6

"Pika Ichi" returns!  I'm glad I took a break from the series.  It allowed me to gain some perspective on the series and to see the next three chapters before deciding to continue the series.  Make no mistake, this series continues to defy logic.  Apparently adults do not exist in this story's world so it's basically like "Lord of the Flies".  By the way, I hated the book "Lord of the Flies".  For the most part senselessly violent children don't settle well with me.  Still, I like Tarou, Hanako, and Manaka and I'm curious about Dougen and Misono so I will continue this series to see the character study.

Pika Ichi Chapter 5 -- A lot Better than chapters 3 and 4

Pika Ichi is always such a long slog!  Fortunately, this chapter is much better than chapters 3 and 4, except for idol chick.  She really needs to go away.  Anyhow... in this chapter Dougen finally enters the scene and he may be as some of you expected.  I think most of us are hoping for a Tarou-Hanako-Dougen love triangle.  That could be interesting, but Tarou's heart is fragile and I would hate to see him suffer.

Pika Ichi Chapter 4 -- Love, Hate, and General Frustration...

Here is "Pika Ichi" chapter 4.  I continue to like the main characters, Tarou and Hanako, and the side characters; Manaka, Dr. Murase, and Ibuki (introduced in this chapter), but the general story suffers from poor execution.  I was ready to throw up my hands and quit the series after about 10-pages into translating this chapter, until after banging my head on my desk a few times and then breaking into hysterical laughter, it all became clear.  I'm taking the bullying aspect of this story way too seriously and I'm probably ultra-sensitive because at the time I started the translation, the bullying induced suicides were all over the news in the US.  So I adjusted my point of view and began to think of the bullying as a "McGuffin" and the student mob as a mob of brainless zombies.  As a story about a handful of students and a brave doctor facing the zombie apocalypse, things made sense to me and I could focus on the aspects of the story I like, which would be the character development and the lovely artwork.  The second hurdle was doing something about some of the flat or just plain bad dialog.  So I will inform you now, for the most part I translated the chapter faithfully, but I did punch up some of the dialog to bring it up to high school level and to speed up and maintain the pacing.

I will continue onto chapter 5 because I want to know more about the characters.  How did they get this way?  What's motivating them? And how will they change?  But...it will be a chapter by chapter commitment and, so, I'll face the question of whether to continue after looking at chapter 5.  I really wish, though, that the chapters weren't so freaking long!!!  UGH!!!  I'd much rather have fat "Magnolia" chapters!  Magnolia!!!!  UGH, the pain of waiting is almost too much!!!

Here are the links!

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 4:  (Zip) (PDF)

Anyhow, give the chapter a read and let me know what you think about it.  If a lot of you want to try something new, I will gladly oblige.  There are 4 replacement series on my mind that I would love to give a try and one is already in preparation :).  And, oh, by the way, take the survey in the upper right corner of this blog!