Gintama 520

We want our lives to burn out while they are still pure white
Roaring at the days that just seem to pass by
We want to run across the pitch-dark road
Ah, we want to be madly engrossed and put our feelings across
So that we can live in the present called the status quo
And that is why
Even if we disappear
Surely, nothing will change
The bustling streets, people coming and going
The changing seasons, these things will keep repeating
Rikue Tsumi 16
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Hey, just a quick PSA. You can just scroll down past this to read the chapter, but please come back to read this once you finish. Or you can just read it first, whatever.

As a lot of you know, they aired an OVA of Gintama at the Jump Festa Anime Tour a couple weeks ago. It’s of the Lake Touya Hermit story in chapter 312 plus some anime-only stuff. Anyhow, everyone who went to that was given a pamphlet that had some quotes from the voice actors and also one from Sorachi-sensei:

That says:
“People forced me to write a final episode for the anime (the movie), so now I dunno how the hell they could be talking about something like reviving it, but if the manga volume sales revive now, too, I think we can forget all about that. I’m looking forward to it.”
There’s a lot of people online who post things like “When is the anime hiatus gonna end?” or “I’m waiting for the anime to come back so I’m not reading the manga” or “I can’t wait to see this Takasugi fight in the anime” that I’ve seen in the past few months, which all seems really weird to me given the “Final Chapter” in the title of the movie and the fact that the TV anime ended almost 2 years ago.
So, basically what I’m saying is if you want to support the return of an anime, what you’d have to do is buy the manga in Japanese, where they show up on the Oricon and the Japanese publishers take notice of it.
So in case anyone wants to do that, I figured I’d post it here. Amazon.co.jp has international shipping and it has English versions of its pages.
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/switch-language/product/4088801725/ref=dp_change_lang?ie=UTF8&language=en_JP
There are also English sites like Yes Asia:
http://www.yesasia.com/us/en/home.html
And Kinokuniya:
http://www.kinokuniya.com
I usually use honto.co.jp, which ship internationally and pretty fast/cheaply, but the site is all in Japanese:
http://honto.jp/netstore.html
This site has some good guides and recommendations for buying stuff in Japanese and how to get them shipped to you internationally (Including a guide to using honto.com if you want to do that, which he says is the cheapest/fastest):
http://kaizora.wordpress.com/where-to-buy-japanese-manga/
The title in Japanese is 銀魂 so you can do a search for that or some sites might have it in romaji.

Every week a company called Oricon publishes the top 50 best selling manga books of the past week:
https://mangahelpers.com/forum/showthread.php/50703-Weekly-Oricon-Comic-Rankings/page128
Usually Gintama only ranks for a few weeks when a new volume comes out. Though occasionally when a series gets really popular several volumes are on the top 50 at once, like Nanatsu no Taizai is now.
And Oricon also posts the best selling manga books by year and the best selling by series each year at the beginning of the new year.
To give you some perspective, this is how Gintama’s sales of total books as a series have gone in the past few years:
2009: 4,733,511
2010: 3,978,439
2011: 4,415,491
2012: 2,850,072
2013: 2,864,734
First half of 2014: 1,424,484

Sources:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-04/2009-top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-series
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2010-11-30/top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-series/2010
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=370525
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=526586
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-12-01/top-selling-manga-in-japan-by-series/2013
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1193297

So, if you want to support a new anime being made, the way you’d do it is buy purchasing the manga in Japanese where the publishers notice it and help bring those numbers up a bit more to where they were when anime seasons were starting. Even a little would help. If people pass this information around Twitter and tumblr and Usenet or whatever kids are using these days, it might make more of an impact. It would certainly make an impact if a lot of people who weren’t buying the manga at all suddenly started buying it. If your problem is it’s in Japanese, well there are plenty of translations available on here and Batoto and all that sorta thing. The artwork generally looks better on a physical volume page than it does when we were scanlating from scans of Shounen Jump magazine. And they have digital versions available, too, that you can view on PCs and that sorta thing (I dunno if the versions for mobile devices work on foreign devices, but I’ve personally downloaded digital versions you can read on PC). Personally I don’t mind if the anime comes back or not because I really like the manga, but I just felt as I translator I should point some of these things out. And I’ve bought the whole series plus doubles of a few to replace ones I debound and scanned. So maybe, if you can afford it, give a little back to the gorilla who’s given you sooo sooo much. So much material to write lewd fan fiction about.

Gintama 520
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Gintama 519

The other side of hope is as expected, emptiness.
Far too strong for me, the work I accept eats up all my time.
My malfunctioned head aches severely as the emptiness passes by.
It must not leave even a speck of ash behind.
The vertigo is so extreme, that dazzling world
Sharply runs through my chest.
Scattering about distracted, I cannot sleep tonight;
My chest is creating a stir.
As for trying to swim half in doubt,
It is not so bad, deep in all these lies.
No matter the place, I myself still never change.
Ordinarily happy, ordinarily living, but actually what is ordinary?
The vertigo is so extreme, that gilded world
We deceive each other becoming enemies; is that okay?
Scattering about distracted, I slipped away tonight
Throwing up all those complaints.
Wanting to cry, however, there is a reason not to;
It is not yet over inside my dream.
The vertigo is so intense, that broadened world
To seize it by all means, I stand right here.
Scattering about distracted, I dashed forth tonight
Do not decorate honesty
And, appearing just as you are, please live on.
Finally demanding, what is within your arms is good enough.
Oh distorted voice, become ashes.
Gin-Ior
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Ring Volume 1

Wha…?
Ring_v01_ch001_pg020

All right. So, I can now finally present Ring volume 1. Man, this is another thing that was a really long time coming.
So lemme introduce this, this series is called Ring. Not the horror movie. It’s written by Shimabukuro Mitsutoshi, author of Toriko. It’s a short series, only 3 volumes long, written in 2004-2005 in Super Jump (a biweekly seinen magazine) after the end of Shimabukuro’s first series, Seikimatsu Leader Den Takeshi which ran in Shounen Jump. Takeshi was a really huge, long series that was one of the most popular series in Jump during its heyday. So I’d like to maybe work on that series at some point after this one is done, because working on a series like the kind Shimabukuro-sensei does is tons of work (and we don’t have tons of people) plus this one is shorter so we’re doing this one first. I scanned this volume back in 2012, but haven’t been able to make much of any progress until the last few months because I was always busy with tons of other stuff. We’re gonna really try to get through the other two volumes in not too too long. But it’s just me and high8sky working on this, so it’ll depend on both of our schedules and I tend to severely overwork myself anyhow.

Uh, basically what it’s about. It’s a sports manga about a sport that Shimabukuro-sensei made up. It’s really good. The comedy’s really great, and a lot of the style from Takeshi really shines through here. I think a lot of stuff that was in this manga ended up being the basis for a lot Shimabukuro-sensei used in Toriko, too. So give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Ring Volume 1
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Gintama 517

Everything I carry on me, I will throw it all away. Yes, to blow it all off, to let fly all reason, wanting to lose my way, wanting to flounder, feeling nothing,
not needing a heart, wanting to be troubled, wanting to struggle.
Senseeee
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This stuff’s so awesome. I seriously don’t know what’s gonna happen now. But every chapter in this arc’s amazing. I seriously feel for these characters.

Apparently there was also an announcement this week that what’s seemingly an unaired anime episode of chapter 312 is going to be bundled with Gintama volume 58 which goes on sale April 3rd. And the Jump Super Anime Tour starts on Sunday which has that one-episode OVA which may get some other form of release at some point. We don’t know if these are the same thing but I don’t think they are.

Gintama 517
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Toriko 300

Monkeys and forks.
TorikoMegane
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Happy 300th Toriko everyone. For the most part scanlating went fine this week. There’s no daylight savings in Japan so for our group in the US our schedules have to shift a bit though because we’ll get the raws at a slightly different time.
And congrats to Naruto for finally ending.

I can’t wait to work on this Gintama chapter. Again…

Toriko 300
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