Ok here we are, chapter 203! This one’s pretty short but there’s another chapter next issue that comes out in two weeks.
Otherwise I’m not doing much besides working on Shima while I have time between non-translation stuff in my life. Anyhow enjoy!
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
3-Gatsu no Lion 203
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Aaand we’ve made it, here we are at Division Chief Shima Kōsaku Volume 3. This volume took a while because we had multiple individual chapters and entire volumes to scanlate between when we finished the last one and now. But at last, it’s all done. This is in fact our 20th finished volume of the Shima Kōsaku series at this point, so I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. This series is REALLY hard and takes a lot of effort to translate as well as all the other jobs.
I talked a bunch about what’s happening in the Division Chief arc in the volume 1 and volume 2 posts. This volume mainly continues the arc in the wine industry that was started in volume 2. That arc is pretty much over by the end of this volume but a bit more in that industry happens in the first half of volume 4. Then we’re off to the next one. I’ll be pretty happy once that’s done because all the French terms and technical discussion of the wine industry have been quite a slog to understand well enough to translate. Timeline-wise we’re in the middle of 1999 now.
Besides that, some pretty climactic events happen in this volume. You can kind of tell the beginning of Division Chief here is sort of course-correcting from the “happy end” we had at the end of Section Chief, where the series was originally going to end, maybe. So things can’t go THAT well, there have to be downs along with the ups. Also starting in this volume the story starts to pick back up on old plot lines that were introduced earlier on in the story, something that happens every once in a while as the story moves forward. Anyhow, uhh that’s all I can think to say about this one. Much shorter than the last two I guess. Enjoy, everyone!
If anyone would like to volunteer to help out with checking/editing/cleaning/typesetting any of that for this project, please feel free to email me at kewl0210@gmail.com about it. We could always use more help on this series because of how much gosh-darn stuff there is in every single volume.
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 3 (Ch21-33)
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Whew. Ok, and now at last, here’s this. 3-Gatsu no Lion volume 17. For those keeping track, this is the first volume since we released the last one in October 2021. As time has gone on these volumes have been spaced out father and farther. I figure that’s due to Umino-sensei getting older but also because of how much time she’s spending polishing the story. This volume has a good number of little changes from the magazine versions, including being much better resolution. (We made this one a bit higher resolution than volume 16 in exchange for it taking up a bit more space).
Like last time, Umino-sensei has combined some chapters together, likely so they don’t end so abruptly. Also the chapter numbers have shifted back a bit so the volume numbers don’t skip any numbers (Though there’s still no volume chapter 153).
Magazine chapter 184 is now volume chapter 194 (Shifted to the end of the volume.)
Magazine 185 and 186 are volume 180.
Magazine 187 is volume 181.
Magazine 188 is volume 182
Magazine 189 is volume 183.
Magazine 190 and 191 are volume 184.
Magazine 192 is volume 185.
Magazine 193 is volume 186.
Magazine 194 is volume 187.
Magazine 195 and 196 are volume 188.
Magazine 197 is volume 189.
Magazine 198 is volume 190.
Magazine 199 is volume 191.
Magazine 200 is volume 192.
Magazine 201 is volume 193.
So now as a result volume 18 will probably start with chapter 194. But as of now we’re just gonna leave the magazine releases as-is and we’ll replace them once the volume comes out. This is all in addition to a lot of little changes to some lines and some art. Nothing quite so intense as last volume where entire panels and pages were added, though in the last arc of the volume focusing around Shimada some art was heavily altered/replaced. Also we left in the color pages from the magazine and like the last volumes we stuck back in the splash pages that started a couple chapters that were removed because the chapters were combined. And as usual it has a bunch of essays about shogi from Senzaki Manabu 9-dan and a bunch of extras between chapters and at the end.
At the end of the extra pages at the end, Umino-sensei says that 3-Gatsu no Lion is “in the final stretch”. So possibly it may be done relatively soon. But given how slow this series comes out it may still be a couple years at least. As of now, we don’t know when the next chapter will come out as it’s not listed in the “next issue” page on the Young Animal website. So we’re just waiting till the next one.
In the meantime, I’ve spent the last like… several months doing volume versions of stuff and I ended up having to do the vast majority of them myself in addition to scanning and transferring text and finding changes and such. So I’m really glad this is finally done and I can take a bit of a break. But also I can finally get back to volume 3 of Division Chief Shima Kōsaku which I keep getting pulled away from. There’s no Jojo next month, Ikoku Nikki is done, and there’s no more 3-Gatsu for a bit at least, so I hope I’ll be able to get more of that done soon.
Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
3-Gatsu no Lion Volume 17 (Ch180-194)
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Aaand here is chapter 8! This was a very Jojo-y week, with now this right after finishing volume 1. I really liked this chapter, it had some great character moments. There’s no new The JOJOLands chapter next issue of Ultra Jump, so the next chapter won’t be until the following month, and it set to come out November 17th Japan time. So after all that at once we’ll get a nice break and I can work on some other things and get normal human amounts of sleep hopefully.
Uhhh everything else is still at about the same stage as it was on Thursday. We’re working on 3-Gatsu no Lion volume 17 and Division Chief Shima Kōsaku volume 3. Also the next 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter comes out soon on September 22nd Japan time, so pretty soon. Anyhow, enjoy!
We have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
The JOJOLands Ch. 8
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Whew, ok well we finally have made it to a fully completed volume of The JOJOLands. This took a whole ton of effort to get everything as good as it could be and I am now totally exhausted.
For those that are unfamiliar, volumes of Jojo typically come out several months after their chapters come out. Usually around 2 or 3 volumes a year, generally containing 4 or 5 chapters. For all of our releases we’re scanning the physical raws which are the highest quality and resolution raw source, which takes a while to manually clean and redraw compared to the digital ones. That’s in addition to the fact that it has to be scanned and it’s about 200 pages all at once. Typically these volumes have more image data on the tops and bottoms of the pages and a little bit cut from the sides of the pages relative to the magazine version and also include any changes Araki-sensei decided to make after the release of the magazine versions. They also include the cover and extra pages between the chapters with little drawings. They’re generally considered the “definitive” or “archival” versions of the manga. At least until some sort of kanzenban/collector’s edition comes out. They also look slightly different from the digital versions due to how Shuueisha compresses their images. For some reason they tend to sorta blur them in a weird specific way that makes white dots on dark fields look sorta “more prominent” (It’s sorta hard to explain just through text). For these we’re using larger pixel dimensions for The JOJOLands than we did with JoJolion. These are 2560 pixels tall, whereas our JoJolion ones were 1400 pixel tall. So they’re a higher resolution than those were with the tradeoff of having a bit larger file size (Regardless both versions are way way higher res than the digital versions).
The next The JOJOLands chapter is slated to come out on the 19th Japan time, so only a few days from now. There’s also a new 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter coming out next week and we’re working on scanlating 3-Gatsu no Lion volume 17 as well. I’m also working on Division Chief Shima Kōsaku volume 3 and I’m somewhere a little past the half way point in translating that right now. Between Jojo, 3-Gatsu, and DRCL volumes all coming out around the same time it’s taken up a lot of my time so Shima is taking a bit longer. Also a lot of these Shima chapters are really hard because of all the discussion about the wine industry. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy, everyone.
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
The JOJOLands Volume 1 (Ch. 1-4)
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
And we’re back! Here’s another 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter. There haven’t been too many this year. Umino-sensei has been busy with finalizing Volume 17 and drawing various Oberons.
We’ll do a volume 17 scanlation though it’ll take a while because we’re currently working on a The JOJOLands volume 1 scanlation and also 3-Gatsu no Lion tends to have a lot of changes in addition to having to buy, scan, clean, and redraw the whole volume. That’s probably gonna include combining chapters, changing up lines, adding panels, adding pages, plus extras between chapters and the omake at the end. It comes out on August 29th, so we’ll release it… some time after that.
Mangadex is down for most people at the moment so you may want to use the other links until it’s back up. Ok it’s back up now.
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
3-Gatsu no Lion 202
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Here we are at chapter 7! The jungle warfare continues!
Volume 1 of The JOJOLands came out a day before this posted. As we did with JoJolion we’re gonna do physical scans and better-ized versions of the digital magazine versions with the much-better-quality physical volume raws. Though it’ll take some time as we need to scan and clean all 200-ish pages. But we’ll try to finish it in not TOO long.
The next 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter comes out in the next issue of Young Animal which comes out on August 25th Japan time. And then on the 29th, volume 17 of 3-Gatsu no Lion comes out. So we’ll be busy doing volume versions for both of these series. And as usual I’m working on Shima Kōsaku when I’ve got time. Still only at the beginning of volume 3 right now. Anyhow that’s it at the moment! Enjoy, everyone.
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
The JOJOLands Ch. 7
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Well folks, here it is. With this, we have completed Ikoku Nikki in its entirety. All 11 volumes. This volume contains the last four chapters and they’re pretty much exactly the same as the magazine versions. There’s a few screentones added and text got slightly bigger in one or two places but besides that they’re the same, so this wasn’t really a big effort to scanlate. The biggest differences are the cover and a couple nice bonus drawings right at the end.
We’ve worked on this series for about 3 4 years and it’s been a delight the whole time. It’s been a VERY difficult series to translate to make sure we understood everything properly and convey all the complicated speech patterns and character quirks in English. I really appreciate Yamashita-sensei for all her hard work bringing us this series. All the emotional complexity and all the complicated relationships between the characters alive and dead felt so authentic. If anyone was holding out till the end to read through the whole series, you’re in for a ride.
We’ll see what she does next and I’ll maybe think about working on it depending on what it is and what else is going on in my life at the time. Enjoy, everyone!
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
Ikoku Nikki Volume 11 (Ch. 51-54)
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Hoo boy here it is, Division Chief Shima Kōsaku Volume 2. This volume was EXTREMELY difficult and hugely mentally exhausting to work on and I’m so glad it’s done. I remember when I first read through the Division Chief series and I got to this part and thought “oh shit when I get to this it’s going to be murder once we get to it”. And it was! Year-and-a-half-ago me was pretty on the ball.
So I gave an overview of the Division Chief arc here when we released volume 1. But Division Chief starts out as a series of one-shots similar to how the beginning of Section Chief started. The difference being that there’s actually way less, averaging around one chapter every 6 months. The first two chapters of this volume are that same sort of thing. But then after that it starts to become a weekly series again. Also the number of pages goes down to 16-ish per chapter rather than fluctuating from 18 to 32 pages per chapter before then. So the volumes starting next volume are about 13 chapters per volume. Also starting in chapter 18 the chapters no longer have the prefix “Series #” and then a roman numeral after the title, they go back to just being called “Step #”. And it starts at Step 18 because it’s the 18th chapter of Division Chief. This continues for the whole rest of the series.
So now in just a couple short volumes, we’ve made it to the golden age of 1999. Remember 1999? I hope you do if you’re reading this manga about a 50 year old salaryman. Anyhow for those unaware, Japan’s economy was in a massive bubble in the late 80’s and then had a huge recession. This is typically called the bursting of the economic bubble. And that is now what’s examined at this point in the story starting this volume. In fact the Nikkei, the Tokyo Stock Exchange index, has only JUST NOW NEARLY gotten back to the all time high from 1989.
The period after the economic bubble bursting was called the “lost decade” or “lost decades” plural depending on who you ask. The way the Shima Kōsaku series works is it somewhat reflects current events in the real world Japan. So while the Section Chief arc took place during the bubble economy with Japan businesses doing great, Division Chief starts right as its bursting and now we’re at the point in history where there’s been a recession going for years. So anyhow, I hope you’re up for that. When you put it that way it sounds kind of depressing, doesn’t it? It’s really not a depressing story, but the macro-scale real world events are always percolating in the background as Shima goes about his daily life and carrying out whatever role he’s currently serving.
So you’ll notice a difference in the story as it jumps from one-off stories to more of a continuous story again. Some major characters that will be around for a long time are introduced in this volume. Also this volume starts a story arc that lasts until the middle of volume 4 which is about the wine importing industry. As a result this volume was exceedingly mind-numbingly difficult and laborious to translate at times. There’s tons of stuff about the technicalities of winemaking, the wine business, how the grapes are grown, and different roles different people in the business play. All of which is difficult to understand at the best of times and I had to make sure I had all the terminology correct so it would sound familiar to an English speaker. That’s in addition to needing to figure out all the French words. I hope that comes through in the translation, because goddamn is there a lot of research required to make sure I understood and conveyed everything properly.
Anyhow, enjoy, everyone. This volume was a huge undertaking and it’s not gonna get too much easier from here. Until next time.
Oh also if anyone would like to volunteer to help out with checking/editing/cleaning/typesetting any of that for this project, please feel free to email me at kewl0210@gmail.com about it. We could always use more help on this series because of how much gosh-darn stuff there is in every single volume.
Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 2 (Ch11-20)
Catbox.moe
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)
Here we are, we made it to DRCL volume 3! As usual we’re really focusing on making these the highest quality possible with the physical volume scans and we’re including an uncompressed version of this which is from the scan at 1200dpi.
So this one, much like the last one was a huge hassle to do. I did pretty much every job this time besides typesetting one chapter and doing final checks at the end. This volume contains chapters 15 to 21 and sort of the end of the first “arc” you could maybe call it, though this series doesn’t REALLY have traditional arcs, this volume has some pretty climactic moments. Part of what makes this series difficult is that it at some point started having a sort of “painterly” look where there’s a sort of texture with little white dots in the art. So you need to clean off all the noise from the texture of the page but if you go too far, you lose those dots which are part of the artwork. That’s in addition to tons of double page spreads which need to be joined and lots of redrawing and such.
I was debating whether or not to continue this series because DRCL midnight children has been licensed by Viz, so it may not be worth continuing at this point. Though they’re likely going to do what they do with most series which is release it 2+ years after it comes out in Japan. Volume 1 is set to come out September 19th of this year and I encourage you all to buy it regardless to support the author. I ultimately decided to do this volume at least to finish out the “arc”, but given how much work and how much of my time doing this took up I’m not sure if it’s worth continuing to work on. Let me know what you all think regarding continuing with this series or not. Otherwise I’ll probably just be focusing my time more on translating Shima Kōsaku.
Either way, next volume is scheduled for simply “2024”. So likely it’ll come out in January-March next year. As of now the newest chapter released in the magazine, Grand Jump, is chapter 34. Though keep in mind that from chapters 1 to 21 the chapters were only appearing in every other issue of the magazine, which meant chapters were coming out once per month since Grand Jump is a bi-weekly magazine. But from chapter 22 onward the series started running once every issue but at half length. So the chapters went from being around 28 pages per chapter down to around 13 to 15 pages per chapter. Which means volume 3 is likely to have up to around chapter 33-35-ish. I figure that’s worth mentioning if we choose to keep going.
Meanwhile I’m still working on Division Chief Shima Kōsaku volume 2 which is really hard because it’s full of stuff about the wine industry which takes time to research and understand properly. Though that’s most of the way done now. Next month the last volume of Ikoku Nikki comes out and there’s also going to be a new volume of The JOJOlands and 3-Gatsu no Lion which we’re going to be working on so we’ve got our work cut out for us. Anyhow, enjoy the new volume, everyone!
Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF
Edit: Apparently a big percentage of the uncompressed pages exported… brokenly. I re-exported it with different color settings and it should be all correct now. Apologies.
#DRCL midnight children Volume 3 (Ch. 15-21)
Mega
Online Reader (Mangadex)