Whew, ok, we’ve made it to volume 8. As always, quite a lot happens in this volume, so it’s kind of hard to summarize anything without giving a lot away. But we continue our adventures in the record industry. Quite a lot of the status quo gets shaken up in this one. I hope you’re all ready.
This volume took a bit longer because we also had #DRCL midnight children volume 4 to do last month plus 3-Gatsu no Lion and Jojo and all that. Plus I had a lot of stuff at work requiring me to work late and so I couldn’t work on this every day. I have a couple ideas for some side projects I think I’d like to do now that we’re finished working on DRCL (More details about why we’re not continuing it in that post). Like I was thinking about redoing some older stuff I did years ago which I could now do in better quality that might not take TOO long because we found some ways to automate some cleaning steps. And of course we’ll be working on more Shima (We’ve got just 5 volumes left in Division Chief now, can you believe it?) and were in the middle of working on our volume-version of The JOJOLands volume 3. So a lot going on. I’m also trying to not overdo this and balance this hobby with the rest of my life, which is kind of always the case, so I need to set a reasonable pace for myself since I’m doing most of these projects myself besides usually some typesetting and cleaning and final checking. I hope you all check all this out.
Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 8 (Ch86-98)
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Weird to think that there’s really only a few volumes left in this series and then (if you do them) the next few series are actually fairly short running, combined, only two volumes longer than Section Chief. It’s not until President that you get something that matches the length of that first series.
Also man, a lot sure does happen in this volume. Nami quits and decides on a path that’ll give her the most fulfillment. Nancy’s debut does gangbusters but, well, I think we can see where Irene went wrong in keeping Nancy’s parentage from her because beneath all the talent and spunk, she’s a troubled girl acting out because of it. Then, of course, there’s Nakazawa’s unexpected passing leaving Shima without his biggest ally, his mentor and the closest thing he has to an idol in the business world leaving him vulnerable both personally and professionally.
I think that this series is definitely a good example of how a lot of times it’s the journey and not the destination that’s important. You go into the Shima series knowing that he’s going to eventually make it to the top but seeing how he gets there is what’s actually interesting.
Even with the three director arcs being longer in total volume count, I think they’re shorter in page count because after the Managing Director arc the volumes get shorter (Except the last volumes of each part which are long). So it kinda feels less long. Course they’re all really hard to translate but everything in this series is. A lot of it is discussion of the current sociology-economoic situation in China and its relationship to Japan.
Another great volume. Favorite series I’m currently reading, always pumped when I see an update.