New Purchases (Aria Tankoubon and Others): February 24 - March 8

They're here!

And they are quite nice! 

• Magnolia Volume 1 (Amazon JP -- Naked Ape) (Yes Asia $11.49 + $3.99 shipping)
• Chapters 1 - 4 and Lily Chapter 1
• Metallic Lettering on the cover jacket
• Color page
• Magnolia Archive!  Character sketches of Ayato, Lily, Hugo, and Nagi! Very nice!
• Junketsu + Vampire Volume 1(Amazon JP) (Yes Asia)
• Chapters 1 - 4
• Color Page
• 1-Page omake
• Pika Ichi Volume 1 (Amazon JP) (Yes Asia $10.49 + $3.99 shipping)
• Chapters 1 - 4
• Extra Comic (non-Pika Ichi)

Note:  If you purchase $40 or more of merchandise from Yes Asia, shipping is free!

Other Purchases:

• Toradora Volume 1 -- The anime is quite faithful to the first volume of the manga. This version, though, looks kinda ugly because the publisher decided to type the English directly over the sound effects. 4/5
• Oresama Teacher Volume 1 -- I'm sorta torn on this one because I sense yet another student/teacher romance, but, I like the main characters.  I'm not sure whether there's a story or whether there's gonna be a story, but I'm interested to read Volume 2.  3/5
• Butterflies and Flower Volume 6 -- Ends on sour note with Domoto's nasty ex-girlfriend.  I will be skipping over the ex-girlfriend chapters in Volume 7. 3/5
• Kamisama Kiss Volume 2 -- A very cute volume due to chibi Tomoe!  I'm eager for Volume 3! 5/5
• Library Wars: Love and War Volume 4 -- The conclusion of Iku and the commander's kidnapping arc and Iku's parents come to visit.  There's a nice omake at the end.  5/5

If you want to buy some of these books, please consider buying them from the Omari's Sister's Amazon Store.  Support your favorite manga series and put a nickel in my pocket.

March At Omari's Sister

Phew!  February was fast and furious!  I hope all of you had a great Valentine's Day filled with candy and fun.  I'd like to thank all of the Omari's Sister volunteers for a highly productive month and for all their hard work.  We've really stepped up our game and I'm proud that we've been able to produce some gorgeous releases :).  Cookies for everyone!

Onto March! I completed my jury duty service.  I wasn't selected for a jury, but still it was a worthwhile experience and I'm proud to do my service as a US citizen.

I received Aria 4 today and "Pika Ichi" continues to improve.  Something pretty neat pops up at the end of chapter 8, so I'm pumped up again about the series :).  Magnolia chapter 8 is WOW!!!  I haven't stopped internally squealing since I saw it this afternoon.  J+K Chapter 8 is filled with yummy Aki drawings and we get deeper into the matter of Kana's brother Masayuki.  There's lots of good stuff this month from Aria.  Aria also starts more new series this month and next month.  I wish we could do more...but, we are swamped.

I've decided to take a break from Orange Chocolate for a few months.  We will resume the series in June.   I'm sorry to all you OC fans out there, but the break is needed to refresh my perspective on the series so I can give you the best translation I can.  I can say, though, after the sports festival arc, the story does get back on track.  It's just that right now I can't handle the next two chapters of the sports festival arc.

Here's what we have planned for March:

• Magnolia Chp 8
• J+K Chp 8
• Pika Ichi Chp 6 and 7
• One Shot: Vahlia's Bridegroom (joint with The Zero Alliance)
• Akagami no Shirayukihime Chp 23
• Yukarism Chp 3
• One-Shot: World's End Garden

Aria 1

I have Aria 1/2011.  Here is a list of the what we will translate from this issue:

• Junketsu + Kareshi Chp 5
• Magnolia Chp 5
• Pika Ichi Chp 5
• Zoo Chp 2

We will be skipping the one-shot "Heart Stealer" because it looks lame.

Support Aria magazine to support your favorite series and mangakas!

Link to purchase Aria 1 from Amazon Japan
Link to purchase Aria 1 for Akadot

Aria 12

I have Aria 12!

The good news is that "Pika Ichi" diverges from the pattern I was detecting and quite possibly could be a short series. We will add it back to this month's schedule.

We will be doing:

• Junketsu + Vampire Chp 4 (Kana biting and a werewolf! W00t!!!)
• Magnolia Chp 4 (Dance Ayato, dance!)
• Pika Ichi Chp 4 (Friends!)
• One-Shot:  "Akuma Yashiki" (Horror Comedy Fun!)

Link to Purchase Aria 12 from Amazon Japan.
Link to Purchase Aria 12 from Akadot

New Series: "Junketsu + Kareshi" Chapter 1

"Junketsu + Kareshi" ("Pureblood + Boyfriend")  is another new series from "Aria" magazine.  I will definitely be translating the second chapter because I want to know what happens next and the chapter left me with lots of questions.  As with "Pika Ichi," I will decide whether to continue this series based on the second chapter.  As always, your feedback is appreciated and wanted.

Link to "Junketsu + Kareshi" Chp 1 (ZIP - high quality) (PDF - lower quality, but convenient) -- Retired

This is yet another vampire romance, however, this particular vampire does bite and he may not be a nice guy.  I have a lot of hope for this story because I'm tired of vampires who don't act like vampires.

I should be getting LalaDX 9 this afternoon, which means I can finally start on AnS and ZHD.  AnS 20 should be released in about a week.

Pika Ichi Chp 1

Update 8/9/2010:
Check out Sapphire Pyro's excellent write-up on Pika Ichi at Hyper-Parfait!

• Blog Entry #1
• Blog Entry #2 (I like the Tarou parody *grinz*)

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Here's the first chapter of the new series "Pika Ichi" from the new Shoujo manga magazine "Aria."
I like the art work and I like the two main characters and the supporting character, but I don't know where the story is heading based upon this first chapter.  Therefore, the decision of whether to take on this series will be made after reading the second chapter.  I would like to know what you all think about this first chapter, so please leave some feedback to help us with our decision.  If we do take this on, it will be a joint project with Hyper-Parfait and it will be released monthly after Ouran concludes at the end of September.

Link to Pika Ichi Chp 1　（Zip）
Link to Pika_Ichi_Chp 1 (PDF) 

Next up is "Seirei Produce" chapter 4.  It looks like we'll be able to sneak this one in before the release of Lala DX 9 on August 10th.  I want to get this done now so there isn't such a long gap between chapters.