Whew, ok! This time we finished in less than a month and a half so I’m pretty happy about that. This series is hard folks, I hope ya’ll are enjoying it. For this volume we head straight now into the next (and last) major arc of the Division Chief series, which is Shima’s time as Senior Managing Director at the Hatsushiba Sales Center in Hakata, Fukuoka. It’s got all sorts of stuff about working at a sales center and what life is like in Fukuoka around 2001. It’s got a lot of great stuff, I hope ya’ll enjoy it.

Believe it or not we’re now nearing the end of the Division Chief arc. We started on Division Chief in April of 2023 so it’s been about a year and a half to get 11 volumes done which is pretty good, imho, given we’re doing this and a bunch of other projects and also I don’t get paid for this shit. Also it has tons of text, different fields of subject matter, and every volume is over 220 pages long. But man it feels good to have gotten this far. I really do love this series. We’re 28 volumes into the overall series now, I think. We got the first volume out in September of 2021 so now this project is over 3 years old. Time sure flies, huh? Anyhow I’m gonna keep going as long as I feel like I can spare the time to work on it.

The last two volumes of Division Chief are pretty great ones where all the many plotlines across Division Chief, which came out over the course of nearly a decade. Well, except for the stuff that gets resolved in later parts of the manga. But quite a lot is concluded in those two final volumes and they’re some of the best in the series, so look forward to them! There’s been no Jojo or 3-Gatsu no Lion this month, and the next Jojo chapter is in late November on the 19th Japan time, so we should be doing that around then. The next 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter is sometime in the future, no idea when. And I’m in the middle of working on Kokou no Hito volume 9 now. We’re getting through that series pretty fast but that’s mainly because I’m only editing the translation rather than redoing it from scratch. I’m hoping I can finish that series sometime in the beginning of 2025. Anyhow, see ya later!

Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF

Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 11 (Ch125-137)
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Ok, here we are, volume 10. This one took about two months because I’ve had a lot of things going on in life besides scanlating and couldn’t really focus much on this volume until the past two and a half weeks. But anyhow, this one’s a great one and it has so much going on in it. With this volume we finally, finally reach the end of the record industry arc which started way back in volume 4. It also finishes up a whole bunch of other stuff. It’s a volume where a lot changes and we head into the final arc of the Division Chief series. We’ve got just 3 volumes left now. It feels kinda crazy we’ve come this far. But man these volumes are hard. There’s just so much in each of them.

Besides that, we have The JOJOLands this week and I’m working on Kokou no Hito volume 6. Kokou no Hito is cleaned and I’m working on typesetting it and fixing up the translation now. And then I’ll be starting up on Division Chief volume 11. As usual I’m constantly trying to figure out what is a good balance between not feeling like I’m “falling behind” on these projects and not overloading myself since I’m doing most of the work on all of these.

Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF

Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 10 (Ch112-124)
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Whew, here we are, volume 9. It’s been a bit since the last one. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff since then both IRL and in other projects so I hope you all understand. This volume is sort of a more transitionary one, I guess you’d say? Mainly the status quo stays the same a lot here and it’s made up of a lot of vignettes. The plot starts progressing a lot next volume. We’ve now got just 4 volumes of Division Chief left, so we’re making great progress, but man this series is a lot of work. It can be kind of exhausting and I need to balance it with everything else in my life.

Uh so besides that, 3-Gatsu no Lion hasn’t had any new chapters. There was another occurrence of it being listed as appearing “next issue” in the previous issue’s next-issue-preview page, but then it didn’t, seemingly due to Umino-sensei’s health. It’s not next issue either so we’re just waiting and seeing. I’m most of the way through Kokou no Hito volume 3, but these early volumes have a lot of text and they take a while. And the next Jojo chapter comes out next week. I have a bunch of personal things going on right now that’s taking up a lot of my time and energy so I don’t know for sure if that will be late or not but we’ll be trying to get the chapter out as soon as it comes out in Japan as usual.

Also, we have a Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF

Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 9 (Ch99-111)
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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)
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The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

Folks, we’ve made it past the half-way point of the Division Chief arc. Holy shit. We’ve come such a long way. Oh also this is the first one we’ve done were we used the scanned zenshuu raws for ALL of the black and white pages. Previously we only did it for pages that looked kind of awful in the digital raws. Not sure if we’ll keep that up or not (and at a point the digital raws stop being over-leveled and look normal and are at good resolution) but we’ll probably keep doing it for a bit.

Ssssso there was no 3-Gatsu no Lion in the last issue of Young Animal despite the preceding issue’s next-issue-preview page saying there would be. Supposedly there’s one in the next issue, but I dunno what’s going on over there because this has happened multiple times now. And there’s a new Jojo next week and we’re still working on #DRCL midnight children volume 4. That’s about it. I hope you enjoy this folks, this volume’s one of the great ones (They’re all great but maybe this one is particularly great?).

Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF

Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 7 (Ch73-85)
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Uuuuuuuhh we did it! We made it to volume 6! There’s really so much in these volumes man, there’s a lot happening. Well anyhow after the devastating end of Volume 5 I hope you all learned a valuable lesson. In a manga that runs for 40 years and everyone ages in real time, everybody dies. They’re all just doomed. Most of them. Some of them. A lot of them.

Anyhow, on that note, this volume has like a sort of epilogue to the Yatsuhashi Shinko arc, then a bunch more corporate intrigue and on to the next part of the record industry arc. The record industry arc as a whole is quite long (I think the last bit of it ends around volume 10). And there’s a bunch of emotionally devastating stuff in this volume so be advised. And it’s only going to get more devastating.

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.

Uh, there’s been no new 3-Gatsu no Lion chapters in any of the Young Animals that’ve come out recently. Next possible one would be the one that comes out on February 22nd Japan time. And the next The JOJOLands is set to come out on February 19th Japan time. Also volume 4 of DRCL midnight children is coming out later this month, and I think that’s gonna be the last one we work on because it’s licensed. And it’ll take a while to do after it’s out anyhow to get the volume, scan it, and clean the whole thing. For now, I need a bit of a break because I’ve been working on this every day for like… a while now. Enjoy, everyone!

Also, we have a new Discord! Come hang out and talk about manga. https://discord.gg/Nw45rfJYZF

Division Chief Shima Kо̄saku Volume 6 (Ch60-72)
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Oooookay, here we ware, we’ve made it to volume 5! God this manga is so exhausting. Uhhh I think I’ve said that in every post but it’s true. A lot of very in-depth business stuff in this volume. Though the end is a bit more action-oriented and is a bit less difficult to translate.

So this volume concludes what you might call “Part 1 of the Record Industry Arc”. Which continues for a while past here. This also is the volume where we finish what came out in the 90’s. The last chapter of this volume, which Shima was on the cover of Morning magazine, was the last chapter that came out in 1999 (Though just for the magazine, the actual volume came out in 2000). Next volume starts with the first chapter that came out in 2000. But also quite fittingly, this story is about events that happen in December and then New Year’s Eve and the first few days of January, which is just about where we’re releasing it now! I thought that was kinda cool how we coincided like that. So we’re now translating what came out exactly 24 years ago.

Anyway, these volumes are a lot of work, this one is 223 pages long plus the extra pages from the bunkobans, zenshuus, and magazines. You might’ve noticed that there’s more chapters-per-volume recently, that’s because the length of each chapter went down from like 20-35 pages to being always 18 pages when Shima became a regular weekly series and not an irregular one. But also I recently noticed that after a certain point the number of pages per volume goes down. The ones we’re doing now are all around 220-ish pages long but after the end of the Managing Director arc, which is about 16 volumes from now, the length of the volumes goes down to like 185 pages. So you could maybe figure for that into any mental math you’re doing if you’re wondering how long it would take us to do the whole rest of the series. Though for now I’m just sorta playing it by ear and trying to just focus on one volume at a time and I may stop at some point if it doesn’t feel worth it for me to continue for any reason.

Otherwise, this should probably be our last release of the year, I hope you all enjoyed what we got out this year and you’re all enjoying yourselves in the holidays. We’re working on The JOJOLands volume 2 scanlation now, that should be done… at some point. There was no new 3-Gatsu no Lion chapter in last week’s Young Animal issue after all and there’s none in the next issue either so we’re waiting to see if there’ll be one in the FOLLOWING issue which comes out January 25th Japan time. And the next The JOJOLands chapter is set to come out on January 18th Japan time. Until then, see ya!

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 5 (Ch47-59)
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Wheeew, we made it, here is Division Chief volume 4! Seriously, this manga is a lot of work, like you wouldn’t believe. It’s so exhausting and the last few days getting everything typeset and double-checked and finalized is the worst.

So, a few chapters into this volume and we finally reach the end of the wine industry arc. I gotta say that arc was even harder than usual for this series. There was so much terminology and so many French words I had to figure out on top of the usual industry-specific business jargon it made it a real slog to get through, so I’m pretty happy it’s now finally finished.

This arc also begins the Sunlight Records/Record Industry arc! This one is pretty exciting and I hope you all enjoy it. It has different parts to it so it sort of has sub-arcs. The first of which goes from here in volumes 4 to the end of 5. Then there’s uh, more. I won’t spoil it here. But the record industry arc makes up a good chunk of Division Chief. So I hope you’re all looking forward to it. As before, I’m trying to sort of figure out how much time I want to spend on this project and I need to balance it with other stuff I have going on in my life, so I dunno how long each of these will end up taking. But I hope you stick with us, a lot of really great stuff is coming up.

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 4 (Ch34-46)
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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)
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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)
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