New Manga Purchases: Week of January 24, 2010

• Black Butler Volume 1
• NG Life Volume 1
• Black Bird Volume 3
• Otomen Volume 5
• Pandora Hearts Volume 1

Reviews and Comments on other recent purchases:

• Butterflies and Flowers Volume 1:  It's a nice start to a series for women.  In this series, former rich girl Choko Kuze is employed at a real estate agency by her ex-servant Mr. Domoto ("with a heart").  Basically, he acts psycho, swinging between being a hard-driving sexual harassing boss and a sweet and loving servant.   It has some very funny moments.  I can't say I approve of the harassment, though.  3.5/5  Hopefully, it gets better.
• Happy Cafe Volume 1:  Adult Kuroneko003 found this first volume of this series very commonplace and predictable.  It was so predictable that there was no reason to finish the entire volume.  1/5 12-year Kuroneko003 who is just reading her first manga series thought it was very cute and related to the baby faced female protagonist and her budding crush on the much older cake making guy.  Oh, but then there's the hottie assistant, who's always falling asleep because he's hungry, to consider.  I wonder what will happen next?  Will she and the cake making guy kiss?  4/5

If you are interested in purchasing any of these manga, please check out my Amazon Associate Store and give me a nickle for my trouble ;p.

Link to Omari's Sister's Amazon Associate Store

Ouran High School Host Club Chapter 78 Final Version

There were a lot more errors in my translation than I expected :(.  Fortunately, though, Natirein did a complete translation too.  This final translation is a my original translation cleaned up using Natirein's translation as a reference.  All hail the greatness of Natirein!!!  I really am grateful she joined the team!  Anyhow...here's Ouran 78.

Link to Ouran High School Host Club Chp 78 Final Version (retired)

"Orange Chocolate" Chapter 1 is up next.  The Japanese in that series is no where near as complicated as Ouran fortunately, though, I did get some help with some of the slang :)  ETA Friday or Saturday.

"Orange Chocolate" is a GO!!!

I thought from the first chapter that "Orange Chocolate" was going to be a well done, but cliched series, until I read ahead to chapters 2 and 3.  Well, folks, there's a BIG twist that comes at the beginning of the second chapter.  From what I've read so far of this series, it has a good mix of humor, drama, and heart -- lots of heart actually.  This is a genuine "feel good" series, with gorgeous drawings and I'm so happy to be able to bring it into English :).

I expect the first chapter be be released on Friday and I hope to get in chapter 2 before the "February Lala DX Bonanza."  The chapters in this series are LONG at ~50-pages each.  There are 13 chapters out now, so in true Kuroneko003 style, I intend to churn the chapters out as best I can until we're are all caught up.  This series, though, does take a while because the chapters are so long and the images require a lot of cleaning and repair.

February Lala DX 3 Bonanza Poll

Lala DX Volume 3/2010 comes out on February 10th and it's crammed full of good stuff.  Please give me some feedback about which series you would like translated first.  The survey is in the upper corner of the right side menu.

Ouran Chp 78 Translation

Thanks to Natirein, page 26 is fixed!!!  Drastic changes were made and hopefully, this part of the chapter makes a lot more sense.  Beyond the changes made to page 26, I don't expect there to be any more "drastic" changes to the current translation.  Regardless, we are currently checking the rest of the translation and, hopefully, we will release the final edit early next week.

Because this is not the final edit, I ask that you refrain from uploaded this file to any of the manga aggregator sites.  I will upload the file myself, when I think I'm ready too.  I expect the final version of this translation to be ready early next week.  But until then:


Link to Ouran Chp 78 Version 0.6 (updated 01/24/2009) -- minor edits...we're almost there, ETA Wednesday 01/27/2010)


We're still working out the new translation quality check process ;p.  Hopefully, next time it will go more smoothly :).

And, for those of you tired of the drama, I feel your pain...