Nov 26, 2013

"Baraou no Souretsu" Chapter 2

Real life is dominating this week, so instead of three releases, I think we'll only have this one.  I'm cooking a small Thanksgiving for three this year and baking some mini-pies to give to folks.  I'm also leaving the house to do fun things with my husband and friends... so whee! Manga will have to wait until next week when the Thanksgiving holiday is over.  Honestly, I was itching to get out Lip Smoke and our new Toyota Yuu series because they are so good.  I have a lot Lip Smoke feelings to express.

Anyhow, here's the second chapter of "Baraou no  Souretsu". I had the chance to watch the 1950's Sir Lauren Olivier version of "Richard III" on Netflix. The production was pretty bad, though Olivier was fun to watch. Anyhow, the events in the manga now take place before the events in the play. Just as the play is, a lot of this is fictionalized for dramatization -- obviously, since Richard is gender bent. But still there are some historical facts that underlie the events in this chapter.

And now onto the release!

Nov 19, 2013

"Kerberos in the Silver Rain" Chapter 2

And now, for a change of pace, we have the next chapter "Kerberos in the Silver Rain". This chapter has a brief adult moment, but I don't think it'll do any permanent damage given what's shown on US television these days.

In this chapter our highly skill commandos head into Forbidden Zone 03 to take on the infiltrators! This is one of the few action mangas that I can follow the action in the drawings. I love the drawing and sound effect style. Page 27 is especially nice :3.

A big thanks goes out to Ichigo Stars for beautifully completing the two page stitches.  They really make the chapters look special.

And now onto the release!

Nov 16, 2013

Time to Start thinking about Best of 2013 Lists

We're heading toward the end of the year, so it's about time to start the end of the year summaries.  I honestly don't have much time to read manga outside of what we translate for Crimson Flower and Omari's Sister, so I look to the readers for advice about what was good from 2013. So please take a little time to list in the comments section your favorite new manga series and oneshots from 2013.

My two favorite new series are "Kanojo ni Naru Hi" and "Baraou no Souretsu". Nothing stands out on the tip of my mind with respect to oneshots.  Most of them were very good, so it's hard to choose. I'll have to give it some more thought.

Anyhow... I'm eager to see what the readers recommend and to have the discussion about 2013. Personally, I think it was a very good year for shoujo and josei.

Nov 12, 2013

Short Oneshot: "Sayonara Kodomotachi" ("Farewell Children") by Satoshi Morie

Continuing on with our releases, here's a new oneshot from Satoshi Morie. I don't want to say much about it, other than I found it shocking and incredibly sweet at the same time.  I like Satoshi Morie's oneshots a lot, so look out for more of them in the future.  Hopefully we will release her latest oneshot toward the end of the month.

And now onto the release!

Nov 6, 2013

October 2013 Stats and November 2013 Activities

I have a lot to get through in the post, so hang in there with me to the end :).

October 2013 Stats

Top 10 Visiting Countries:
  1. USA (CA, NY, MA, MI, WA)
  2. Canada
  3. France
  4. Australia
  5. Indonesia
  6. Germany
  7. Malayasia
  8. Spain
  9. Philippines
  10. Italy

Top 5 Releases
  1. Attack on Titan -- The Birth of Levi Prologue
  2. Oneshot: Tasogare Renren
  3. "Magnolia" Chp 36
  4. "Magical Change" Chp 2
  5. Oneshot: Jinrou Chronicle
CF Subscription Information
Since we've been introducing some new series lately, I though I'd post a list of the magazines I subscribe to and their frequency.

Twice a month:
  • Hana to Yume

Monthly:
  • Lala
  • Princess (Baraou no Souretsu)
  • Avarus
  • Asuka
  • Princess Gold (Surprise series)
  • Betsuhana (Yukarism)
  • Aria (Magnolia)
  • Mystery Bonita
Bi-Monthy (Every two months)
  • Lala DX (Kanojo ni Naru Hi)
  • Wings
  • Princess Petite
  • Itan
  • Lala Special Editions
  • Zerosum Ward
 Quarterly
  • Ane Lala
  • Haruca (A Pair of Blue Wings)
  • The Hana to Yume (Lip Smoke)
November Announcements

Retranslation -- We are not accepting any new translation partners for a few months. I, Kuroneko003, am currently overwhelmed and cannot handle the flood of requests while continuing to manage and work on projects for CF. We will continue working with our regular Spanish, French, Italian, Vietnamese, and Portuguese partners, though.

Oneshots -- Our theme continues to be horror and psychological. There will be a few other surprises too!

Nov 5, 2013

What I Just Finished Reading: "Ayako" by Osamu Tezuka

Title: Ayako
Artist/Author: Osamu Tezuka
ISBN-10: 1935654780

First Impressions:
Holy crap! This book is thick! It's starts off as a super cool spy story with horrible artwork and then turns into some hillbilly incest train wreck of the likes of the worst reality television show. There is way too much incest in this manga... ugh... why????  The super spy story portion is quite enjoyable. The hillbilly incest story is ... well, if you like this sort of thing it's good. Personally, I don't like the subject matter, but it's told well. However mixing a super spy thriller with an hillbilly incest train wreck drama is like someone taking a crap in my ice cream.

Artwork -- B: I do not like Tezuka's drawing style, but I understand that was the style of the time. I found it confusing because it looks like old Popeye or Disney comics, but the drawings depict serious drama and include sexual situations. It also feels like the character designs are horribly racist.  But again, that's me imposing my modern sensibilities.  However, the backgrounds are detailed and the pages that narrate the historical context are lovely.

Presentation -- A:  It's a nice looking book even though it's a tome. The lettering is easy to read and the translation reads well, even though the simulated hillbilly speak was kinda hard to parse at times.  But if you've ever been to a town in the deep South, you'd know that it sounds like the townsfolk are speaking a foreign language (first hand experience).

The Story -- B:  This is kinda tough because I loved the spy portion of the story, but got tired of the incest hillbilly story. And then combining the two together was almost unbearable for me.  I understand how they tie in, but I think the country part of the story needed to be toned down or maybe less time should have been devoted to it. Either way, it was too much for me.

Overall -- B+:  Taking my preferences out of it, this was a nicely drawn expertly spun story. The pacing was good and there was never a time when I was bored.  I also learned a little something about Post War II Japan. Inserting my preferences, I loved the super-spy story and could have done with a lot of less of the stuff that happened in the country. I think it would have been far more interesting to have Ayako arrive in the story without us knowing a thing about her and then having the past events explained in short flashbacks.  Should you buy it?  If you wanna read some classic manga because you're curious, go for it!  If a spy thriller mixed in with a hillbilly incest drama sounds interesting to you, go for it! If you like your nice and safe shoujo bubble, skip this, put it out of your mind, and go back to your sparkling bishounens. Me? I've got one more Tezuka book on my shelf and after I read it, I'm done with Tezuka. I don't need to read anymore because so far I've found Tezuka's manga to be unpleasant.


Nov 3, 2013

New Series: "Baraou no Souretsu" ("The Rose King's Funeral Procession") by Aya Kanno

Update 11/3/2013:  Please download the latest version. There were a bunch of typos in the first version. We apologize for the errors.

I happened to see this advertised while browsing the Princess magazine website last month.  I thought to myself "my Dark Prince!", and then I read the short preview. That was when I knew we had to take this series on as a project!

This is Aya Kanno's latest series, and it's based on William Shakespeare's play "Richard III".  So if you want spoilers, go read the play or watch one of the many versions of the play on Netflix, Amazon, or what ever streaming service is available to you.  Many of you know of Aya Kanno from "Otomen".   Baraou is more like the other Kanno series, while "Otomen" is outlier -- albeit it a very successful outlier.  Personally, I prefer the darker works ("Blank Slate" is quite good.)

For those of you worried about the impending hole in your life that will be left by the premature ending of "Magnolia", fear not! This should fill all of your gender confusion and messed up family drama needs.  Needless to say, I'm looking forward to translating this series.

A big thanks goes out to Ichigo Stars for cleaning up the title page spread.  And a big thanks to Lucy for helping me clean and redraw this first chapter.

And now that I've rambled and rambled, let's get on with the release!

Nov 2, 2013

"Happiness Lawn -- Mastering Tricks"

As promised, here's our second Ojou-sama short.  We will be doing more regular releases of this now that Peonine and Silver Lunar are dedicated to the project.  The next two shorts will by about Sato's cat :3.  As usual, I'll just post the images here.


Nov 1, 2013

"Happiness Lawn -- Ojou-sama is in Danger"

Ojou-chan is back! Since these are gag shorts, I'll just post the images here instead of having files to download. There will be another short tomorrow, so look forward to it!


"Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o" Short Story Compilation by Nari Kusakawa (Batch Files)

By popular request, here's are batch files containing all the oneshots in the "Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o" compilation by Nari Kusakawa.

  • Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan o ("Dinner in my Coffin" or "Shall we have Dinner in my Coffin?")
  • Tasogare Renren
  • Hoshi wa Akatsuki no Kage
  • Shinobigoto
If you would like to purchase your own copy of "Boku no Hitsugi de Bansan wo", here are some links: Amazon JP / YesAsia ($6.99 at YesAsia! Shipping is $3.99 or remember, there's free shipping with purchases over $25!)