Witch Series of the Past: "Oz no Kakashi Tsukai" ("The Scarecrow of Oz") by Ichiharu Koma

We here at Omari's Sister are quite fond of cute witch stories.  This is one we finished nearly a year ago.  If you haven't read it, I encourage you to give it a try.  I promise that it will make you smile! Here are the links to the chapters:

"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.

"Scarecrow of Oz" and "Furou Kyoudai" Update

The "Scarecrow of Oz" compilation book is scheduled to go on sale on June 20th.  There's no listing yet, but since "Furou Kyoudai" came out after, then the compilation should go on sale sometime in July.  This means we can start "The Scarecrow of Oz" in July and then "Furou Kyoudai" will start in August.  I'm very happy about this!  It means we can deliver a high quality version of these short series with out killing ourselves.  When the books do come out, I will, of course, post links so you can purchase your own copies :).

Delaying "Furou Kyoudai" and "The Scarecrow of Oz" Short Series

I've decided to delay "Furou Kyoudai" and "The Scarecrow of Oz" short series until July to allow for time for the release of compilation of the series and one-shots into a book (Hopefully, the books will come out way before July.  If so, we'll start when the books come out instead of waiting.).  The magazine print quality of the short series portion is atrocious and will take a long time to clean and edit (It's making my eyes burn and tearing up my mousing-wrist -- hello carpal tunnel...).

Even if we do our best, we could probably only bring the quality up to barely medium (too much missing "data").  If there's no sign of a book compilation by July, then we'll go with the raw we've got and do what we can.  In the mean time, instead we'll start short series "Depend on a Kiss" and "Duet with a Demon" in May.

The Scarecrow of Oz Chapter 2

Here's the second "The Scarecrow of Oz" one-shot.  It truly is a follow-up to the first one-shot and ties up the lose end with the Tin Man.  In March we will release "The Scarecrow of Oz" serialization.  The serialization will only be three chapters long and is currently running in "Hana to Yume" magazine.  The serialization covers the third witch who chose the beast.  (The little lion beasty is adorable!).

The Scarecrow of Oz is being Serialized

AUGH!!!  A pleasant hole has been blown into my plans :).  "The Scarecrow of Oz" has been picked up as a series in "Hana to Yume" magazine.  It will begin serialization in Hana to Yume issue 5, which releases in two weeks!  I LOVE the two one-shots, so we will be picking up this series.  Unfortunately, for you "Pika Ichi" fans, this is the last nail in the coffin for that series.  I'm currently actively looking for a good translator/typesetter to take it over. Until I do find someone, we will put out chapters when we have time.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for "Furou Kyoudai"!  I would love for that to become a series too.

Anyhow, I will try to do my best to get the second "Scarecrow of Oz" one-shot out in February along with the first chapter (it really all depends on how jury duty goes).

One-shot Sequels!!!

W00t!  Well, color me happy!  Look what came with Hana to Yume Issue 24/2010!  A wonderful book with sequels to "The Scarecrow of Oz" and "Furou Kyoudai." *Hana to Akuma Spoilers Ahead*  Also in Hana to Yume issue 24 is the final chapter of "Hana to Akuma" which features (highlight white space to read) Hana and Vivi's wedding and off into the distant future -- half demon half human babies!!!  Unfortunately, Hana got old and died...but Vivi's happy happy with his kids.  Don't know what's going on with fandom, but I'm tempted to finish up the last three chapters... Update! It looks like translation of "Hana to Akuma" has resumed!  Hooray for Kokoro no Oasis!

Oh, and if you are wondering what the other two one-shots are, I don't know yet, but I'll find out and see if they are worth translating.

Anyhow, a bunch of unanticipated manga and vacations got thrown at me, so I have to re-prioritize and re-jigger the schedule for the next few months.  There's too much good stuff and not enough staff.  But, as a "manager" I cannot take on anymore staff...so I have re-jigger things.

Merit in "Ouran" and "The Scarecrow of Oz," Plus, Other Fun Stuff

Here's some bits from an e-mail discussion I had with Corgi about "Ouran" and "The Scarecrow of Oz."  This might, also, give you some insight into the thought that goes into translation.

Black Text = Corgi
Red Text = Kuroneko003

Please feel free to add to the conversation or make you own comments.  I really like "The Scarecrow of Oz" and found a lot of meaning in it.  Furthering the discussion about "Ouran" is welcomed too :).
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Page 6: 'Merit' - heh.  Reminds me of Haruhi's discussion with Kyoya during his fake assault.  I keep thinking there's implications to the word-as-translated that I'm missing ever so slightly.

Indeed, there is more packed into the words than can come through in English.   But I think the discrepancy is cultural and I feel bad that I can’t get it across in English without writing an essay.  In this case there seems to be two themes about merit – what’s useful to a person and what’s useful in the competition.  Silvy Rose in her choice of a familiar wanted a companion and in her experimentation to heal the humans.  Whereas, Lillian Berry is wholly focused on the competition to become the next chief witch.  Interestingly enough, Lillian is so conceited that she thinks Silvy too thinks of nothing but the competition.  This is classic wisdom vs. vanity ;p.  It seems that Lillian will always continue to lose to Silvy, even though Silvy isn’t actively competing.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS ASPECT OF THE STORY :)  This is why I think it a good story for children.  I wonder, though, about the other witch who sought power…maybe there will be a sequel???

Oh, it's not just here - it's how Haruhi uses it too.  It's clear, but it also seems deeper than just 'merit' suggests, if that makes sense.

"Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai" ("The Scarecrow of Oz") Chapter 1

 

Here it is!  "Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai" or "The Scarecrow of Oz"
Link to "Ozu no Kakashi Tsukai"

This is one of those stories that kinda sneaks up on you when you start to think of its deeper meanings.  I think the key themes in this story are what is merit and what does it mean to have merit.  Also, this story is rife with references to the "Wizard of Oz" and the themes within that story.  See how many of them you can catch :).

I had a very interesting e-mail conversation with one of my proofreaders, Corgi, about this story.  I will post this exchange in a day or two after enough people have had the chance to read the story.  I don't want to spoil the story or color your opinions of the story before you read it.  Anyhow, check back in a couple of days and give your own opinions if you want.