Pika Ichi Chapter 9

We finally got a translator for "Pika Ichi" so now we can continue the series on a monthly release schedule.  Hooray for Amrai!  Let's thank her for doing an excellent job on the translation.

Let's see...this is chapter 9...ah...and we begin with the WTH moment of Hanako is Dougen's arms.  That Dougen is a sly d***...There's something seriously wrong with that guy's brain and personally, when dealing with people like him I go by the words of an old song by Poe -- "Can't talk to a psycho like a normal human being".  If only dear Hanako understood that concept and stayed away from Dougen.  Nothing good can come of this...ah...but Hanako gets the good and bad she deserves in chapter 10.  Onto the link:

Link to "Pika Ichi" Chapter 9: (PDF)

Note to the dumb bunnies still out there:  Do what you're gonna do since you're that hard-up for the 2-cents you'll make off the ads for posting this this month, but please don't comment or e-mail me about your hatred of PDFs.  It's a waste of your time.  Your comments and e-mails go straight into the trash and I blacklist you from commenting.

Please, also, give "Billy Bocchan no Yuuutsu", the one-shot we released today, a read!  It's very cute :).

Next up is "The Ghost Apartment Manager" Chp 6.

And finally my comment about this chapter -- Hanako, could you please not get kidnapped again...?  Seriously...you draw misfortune.  You better go home and transfer schools before you get crushed under that signboard in chapter 12...seriously, just leave...the mangakas are conspiring to kill you...

"Pika Ichi" Chapter 8

 

"Pika Ichi" is back!  In this chapter we start to learn about Dougen's damaged life and brain.  Of course, his parents are an insane pair and his freedom is restricted.  Dougen is the anti-Tamaki.  Instead of making the best of his situation, he decides to go down the path of destruction.  Personally, I'd like to see him succeed.  But somehow I suspect this is a gonna be a story of redemption.  Anyhow...here are the links:

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 8: (Zip) (PDF -- this time it looks really nice on PCs, viewable on mobiles and tablets)

Spoiler Alert!  Spoilers Ahead!

My Thoughts on the Chapter:

Poor naive Hanako...she's good to a fault and it continues to get her into trouble.  The ease with which she falls into Dougen's pace is pretty sad.  I would love it if this story ends like real life and there is no redemption for the bad-boy Dougen and Hanako gets her heart broken and her faith in humanity broken -- well, not completely broken, but broken enough for her to learn to stay away from people like Dougen.  Seriously, why hang out with a guy who's ballsy enough to ask if he can use you? Dumb, silly, Hanako...

Next up!

Next up is "Kemono Kingdom: Zoo" chapter 5!

Happy Birthday Kuroneko003-san!

Our lovely K3-san celebrated her birthday yesterday. Here's a little present from our cleaner Suzume:


That Naoji!! Well, we hope you get to enjoy lots of delicious food.

誕生日おめでとう!

Image from Pika Ichi chapter 8.

"Pika Ichi" Chapter 7

Here is "Pika Ichi" chapter 7.  Things are settling into the mode of examining Dougen's personality and life situation and starts the anticipated Dougen x Hanako relationship.  This chapter is a little bit shorter than usual (chapter 8 is also a little shorter) which was nice for us in terms of work load.

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 7:  (Zip) (PDF)

Spoiler Alert! Spoilers Ahead!

My Thoughts on the Chapter:

Hanako is too saintly.  It seems to be a key feature of her personality though.  I'm actually kinda disappointed in this development.  It really disturbs me that Hanako so easily ran to the side of her abuser.  I hope this doesn't turn into Hanako thinking that she can reform Dougen or heal his mental wounds.  I also can't stand that Hanako is not attracted to Tarou.  She seems 100% in friend mode with him :(.  I imagine she'll be easily swayed by Dougen and Tarou will plead with her to see the truth that Dougen is just toying with her.  Meh!

Dougen -- meh...wounded boy rebelling against oppressive parents...meh...

Misono -- it's time for him to go into jealous mode ^^

"Pika Ichi" chapter 8 is currently scheduled for late April release.  We may have to move it to May because the cleaners are currently occupied with "World's End Garden" and "Nanairo no Mukou".

Next up are the extras from volume 4 of "Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen" and then "Yukarism" chapter 3.

"Pika Ichi" Chapter 6

"Pika Ichi" returns!  I'm glad I took a break from the series.  It allowed me to gain some perspective on the series and to see the next three chapters before deciding to continue the series.  Make no mistake, this series continues to defy logic.  Apparently adults do not exist in this story's world so it's basically like "Lord of the Flies".  By the way, I hated the book "Lord of the Flies".  For the most part senselessly violent children don't settle well with me.  Still, I like Tarou, Hanako, and Manaka and I'm curious about Dougen and Misono so I will continue this series to see the character study.

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 6: (Zip) (PDF)

Spoiler Alert! Spoilers Ahead!

My Thoughts on the Chapter--

In order to tolerate this series I've had to trick my brain into thinking that adults don't exist in this the world of this story.  If a child is witnessed being kidnapped, any sensible person would call the police and Manaka and Tarou should have contacted Hanako's parent's immediately.  With respect to Hanako's injuries, one of them should have called for an ambulance and reported an assault and attempted murder.  SERIOUSLY!  None of this makes any sense.  And what about Hanako's parents?  Surely they care that their daughter has been severely beaten by her classmates.

I've looked at chapter 7 and 8, and what follows with Dougen makes no sense.  There is no forgiveness or association with somebody who leaves anybody to be severely beaten after finding out that offense for which the beating was ordered did not happen.  As far as I'm concerned, since Dougen didn't call off the other students at that moment, there is no redemption for his character. SERIOUSLY!  The same goes for that pop-tart Ibuki.  She's deserving of a bitch-slap at the very least.

Okay...all of this said, I'm still interested the main characters and I want to understand an inconsistency that comes up in Dougen's past in chapter 8.  The rest of the stuff in the story senseless garbage and the only way any of this would make sense is if Dougen is somehow the Devil's spawn -- I mean this literally supernatural powers and all -- and he's trying to opposed his evil destiny using Hanako as his saviour.  If Dougen were the Devil's spawn, then that would be AWESOME and all would be forgiven.

Next up is "Pika Ichi" Chapter 7 followed by the extras from the 4th volume of "Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen".

With respect to on-going series that we have been releasing soon after the Japanese release, I have no news yet on how the earthquake will impact them.  What I do know is that national-wide, Japan is suffering from a power storage and manufacturing in general has been limited because there isn't enough power.  Also there is major infrastructure damage in the Kanto region.  I don't know whether printing is impacted or whether printing can be done in Southern Japan for the time being.  Anyhow...my feeling is there will be delays in the magazine shipments, so please don't expect "Magnolia", "J+K", or "Zoo" to be release early in April.  I will let you all know for sure what's going on when I find out for myself.  If the magazines are indeed delayed, then I will back fill with chapters of the new series, catch up on neglected series, and release one-shots until the magazines arrive. My first indication of a possible delay will be if Hana to Yume Issue 8 doesn't arrive on March 18th or 19th.

Pika Ichi Chapter 5 -- A lot Better than chapters 3 and 4

Pika Ichi is always such a long slog!  Fortunately, this chapter is much better than chapters 3 and 4, except for idol chick.  She really needs to go away.  Anyhow... in this chapter Dougen finally enters the scene and he may be as some of you expected.  I think most of us are hoping for a Tarou-Hanako-Dougen love triangle.  That could be interesting, but Tarou's heart is fragile and I would hate to see him suffer.

Links to Piki Ichi chapter 5: (Zip) (PDF)

Spoilers Ahead!!!
The question for me after reading this chapter is what to do with Ibuki.  In a way I see this kinda heading towards a suicide attempt and then redemption.  But what will Hanako do?  Will she turn Ibuki in or cover for her?  Will Dougen do anything to Ibuki?  And then there's the question of Dougen.  If there is going to be a love triangle, then will Hanako have split feelings between Tarou and Dougen or will Dougen's feeling be one-way.  What will happen to make us the reader like Dougen?  I'm also still curious about Misono.  Is he just Dougen's yes-man and friend, or he the one who's truly behind the order to bully students?  There's a weird kinda of royalty vibe going on there with respect to Dougen.  Misono acts as though it will somehow sully Dougen to be seen.  Is it a royalty thing or is Misono trying to hide Dougen or hide something from Dougen?  Certainly, that Sakahashi guy is gunning for power, but I have to ask myself why.  What good is bullying the other students?  It seems to me that people like that are just plain antisocial.  Sakahashi sucks.  He gets the boo-boo face from me.

Enough of my rambling...next up is "Zoo"!  Chapter 2 feature a dormouse and a rabbit.  I've begun the translation and so far it cute and funny.  If you like chapter 1, then you won't be disappointed with chapter 2 :).

Pika Ichi Chapter 4 -- Love, Hate, and General Frustration...

Here is "Pika Ichi" chapter 4.  I continue to like the main characters, Tarou and Hanako, and the side characters; Manaka, Dr. Murase, and Ibuki (introduced in this chapter), but the general story suffers from poor execution.  I was ready to throw up my hands and quit the series after about 10-pages into translating this chapter, until after banging my head on my desk a few times and then breaking into hysterical laughter, it all became clear.  I'm taking the bullying aspect of this story way too seriously and I'm probably ultra-sensitive because at the time I started the translation, the bullying induced suicides were all over the news in the US.  So I adjusted my point of view and began to think of the bullying as a "McGuffin" and the student mob as a mob of brainless zombies.  As a story about a handful of students and a brave doctor facing the zombie apocalypse, things made sense to me and I could focus on the aspects of the story I like, which would be the character development and the lovely artwork.  The second hurdle was doing something about some of the flat or just plain bad dialog.  So I will inform you now, for the most part I translated the chapter faithfully, but I did punch up some of the dialog to bring it up to high school level and to speed up and maintain the pacing.

I will continue onto chapter 5 because I want to know more about the characters.  How did they get this way?  What's motivating them? And how will they change?  But...it will be a chapter by chapter commitment and, so, I'll face the question of whether to continue after looking at chapter 5.  I really wish, though, that the chapters weren't so freaking long!!!  UGH!!!  I'd much rather have fat "Magnolia" chapters!  Magnolia!!!!  UGH, the pain of waiting is almost too much!!!

Here are the links!

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 4:  (Zip) (PDF)

Anyhow, give the chapter a read and let me know what you think about it.  If a lot of you want to try something new, I will gladly oblige.  There are 4 replacement series on my mind that I would love to give a try and one is already in preparation :).  And, oh, by the way, take the survey in the upper right corner of this blog!