Happy New Year from Your Favorite Lala and Lala DX Mangakas!

Here are some New Year's messages from some of the artist featured in Lala and Lala DX magazine.  I didn't have time to translate the messages and I don't know if I will find time soon.   Anyhow, if you can't read Japanese, then look at the pretty pictures and imagine that each one of them says "Happy New Year" + "Let's do our best in the New Year", because that pretty much sums them up (although a few are a little more personal and describe a major event for them in the 2010.)

Anyhow...click on the images to see a larger version.

And, Happy New Year to everyone from the folks at Omari's Sister!  We look forward to another great year of bringing you lots of manga and anime fun.

Lala 2 2011

I have Lala 2!  Yuki from "Vampire Knight" is on the cover this time.  The freebie is a Nyanko-sensei pouch.

It's very cute.  I kinda wish it was an oven mitt.

Here's what we'll be translating from Lala 2:

• "Kimi ni XOXO" chapter 5 -- it's the final chapter so we will go ahead and release it back-to-back with chapter 4 so we can complete that series now.
• Special four-panel comic shorts
• Ouran one-shot previews!
• One-Shot:  "Nejimaki Mano-san" (will be translated later in the year)
• One-Shot:  "Kashikomi Mousu!" (will be translated later in the year)

So, You Want to Order Lala Magazine from Amazon Japan...

Are you excited about the last chapters of "Ouran?"  Do you want to get some of that Ouran loot?  Well, here's some helpful hints on how to get some!

Direct links to Lala 8 and Lala 9 (pre-order):

Lala 8: http://tinyurl.com/23lpg6j
Lala 9:  http://tinyurl.com/2cqk68z

Here’s a link to the “English” version of their website.

Link:  http://www.amazon.co.jp/In-English/b?ie=UTF8&node=1094656

There’s still A LOT of Japanese, but it's manageable (the links and buttons are the same configuration as the Amazon US website, so if needed, just refer to the Amazon site in your country to figure out what the buttons and links are.).

Hints:
The little shopping cart icon is, indeed, your shopping cart.

April at Omari's Sister!

Wow!  It's April!  The release schedule and release archive have been updated!  This month Lala DX 5 comes out with ZHD Chp 16!  Supposedly it covers the beginning of Johanne and Yuda's wedding celebration!  We're very excited about this chapter!  Later on this month in Lala 6 is the next chapter of Ouran.  We'll will also try to deliver "Orange Chocolate" chapter 8 and 9.  Look forward to it!

Lala Wallpaper, Part 1

I found some calendar postcards from a 2009 issue of Lala magazine.  I'm making 13 wallpapers total, but here are the first 6 tonight.  Hopefully I can finish this up this weekend.  I will also bundle up the raw images so you can make your own creations!  Click on the image to see the full size image and download.

 

Kuma-Chan Headband!!!

Check out this cute piece of Lala loot!  If you want you own Kuma-Chan headband buy a copy of Lala 4/2010.  It's available from Amazon Japan now, or you can wait a 2 - 3-weeks and buy a copy of Lala 4/2010 from Akadot.

 

It's so ADORABLE!  It even has a tail.  I'm thinking of making it my new "thinking cap" (my current thinking cap being a princess crown of flowers with flowing ribbons -- Oh, you wish I was kidding ;p).

Lala Jan 2010 Issue Calendar

 

One of the great things about getting Japanese manga magazine are the enclosed freebies.  In Lala 01/2010, the freebie was a beautiful set of 2010 calendar post cards.  I've turned them in 1920-pixel width wallpaper for your laptop or PC desktop.  

Wallpaper

If you want your own set of cards, but live outside of Japan, you can buy the Jan 2010 issue of Lala online at Amazon Japan, Sanseido Books (inside of the Mitsuwa Marketplace), and Akadot (it should be available there in 2 - 4-weeks).

I don't why the Japanese publishers doesn't concurrently publish the magazines in English in paper or electronically.  They're leaving money on the table ...

Ouran 73 Coming Soon

I just got Lala 9 this afternoon. It will take me ~about a week to get the scanlation out. This means I will stop ZHD 11 immediately and translate Ouran. I will get back to ZHD when I finish Ouran. It's not a flashback :). Here's a tease:

Manga Review: Eensy Weensy Monster

I read "Eensy Weensy Monster" in Japaneses from "Lala" magazine. This is a very cute 12 chapter story that I actually wish went on a little longer because I enjoyed the characters so much. The story is about how Nanoha and Hazuki fall in love and become a couple. Hazuki is a prince type character who every girl drools after and Nanoha is a very plain and small girl. Due to some past conflict between them, Nanoha harbors some resentment towards Hazuki and has formed a little angry mental monster that occasionally makes Nanoha say some nasty things to Hazuki. Hazuki finds Nanoha and her little temper tantrums irresistible and sets out to make her his, despite the other girls practically throwing themselves at him. (I really resonated with Nanoha and her description of the little monster that lives inside her, because I have a similar little demon within my own personality. It was really fun seeing the little demon personified and I understood, completely, how difficult it can be to confine and pacify the little devil within.)

I hope this short manga series gets translated into English (it would be no more than two volumes -- very nice!) so lots of people in the US can enjoy it. This series was written by the same mangaka, Tsuda Masami, who wrote "His and Her Circumstances" and like that series, "Eensy Weensy Monster" is told from both Nanoha's and Hazuki's perspective. I give this 5/5 for an excellent little story of high school love and the little monsters that some guys come to love. :).

LaLa DX vs LaLa Magazine

I've recently found an online store that sells manga magazines from Japan for a decent shipping rate. The store is called Akadot. Anyhow, so I bought bought LaLa and LaLa DX not knowing the difference (apparently the sellers I contacted didn't know either). Anyhow, so here's the difference that I can detect (without having translated anything): LaLa DX is a compilation of one-off stand-alone stories and special stories from running or completed series and LaLa is mostly a compilation of manga series, although, there is the occasion one-off stand alone story.