We are Officially Dropping "Pika Ichi"

We are officially dropping "Pika Ichi".  Hopefully another group will pick it up quickly.  As of now I'm not interested in the rest of the story and there are other series that the group and I would like to work on.  I'm sorry to all the fans out there, but I promise we will bring you a new and fabulous series from Asuka that will make you forgive us 1000 times over.

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" Transfer Cancelled and Announcements

"Akagami no Shirayukihime" is returning to Omari's Sister.  The transfer to The Zero Alliance fell through and we have a translator and typesetter for the series, so we can continue it.  It's not clear whether we will be releasing along side the Lala magazine releases.  It depends on the print quality of the chapters in the magazine.  If it's really bad, then we will wait for the tankoubon.  Hopefully, this series will not go on indefinitely.

Anyhow...as a consequence, though, it will impact our schedule on some other series.  Considering the successful debut of "Fushigi no Maria-kun", I'm hesitant to slow it down.  I decided to be selfish and bump "Pika Ichi" down to a low priority project, meaning, we'll put out a chapter whenever we can fit it into the schedule, unless some other group wants to pick it up.  Sorry Pika fans, but Hanako getting kidnapped over and over is not a compelling story...

I've updated the ongoing projects to reflect what we are working on and currently releasing.  We haven't dropped any projects now missing.  All of these projects have been started, but it's doubtful we will be able to release any of them until 2012.  Please check the release schedule to see what we have coming up in the near and distant future.

A reminder: Follow our releases on Twitter @OmarissisterRel

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...

Poll: The Future of "Pika Ichi"?

Update 6/22/2011:  Pika Ichi will continue at least through Chp 11.  We'll do another assessment at Chp 14.

Update:  We need a Translator/Typesetter to help keep Pika Ichi alive!  Until we find one, Pika Ichi will not be on a regular release schedule. If you are interested in helping with Pika Ichi, please contact me via the "Contact" link in the main menu at the top of this blog.

I could take or leave "Pika Ichi" so I want to know how you as the readers feel about the series.  Should we continue it or would you rather have us do as series or two from Comic Gene?  Take the survey at the top right corner of the blog.  You can also leave comments to this post if you want to discuss the matter.

We have a good amount of chapter 9 finished, so we will release that regardless, but I would like to know whether we should continue after chapter 9.

"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!

Pika Ichi Chapter 8 Preview! And AnS Announcement...

Update:  The new translator for AnS is Nati-chan (I'm very grateful to her for taking over because chapter 25 was like Japanese chopped word-salad to me -- devoid of grammatical structure and too many obscure word usages for me to grasp...ugh...page after page of WTF???).  AnS will now be a joint project between NeteruMouse and The Zero Alliance.  We will make Zip and PDF versions of AnS available here on Omari's Sister for those of you who can't open RAR files, those of you who are afraid of MediaFire, and for those of you who prefer to read releases on mobiles and tablets.  We will all try our best to get the remaining chapters out to you in a timely manner, so please be patient and refrain from pestering the folks from NM and TZA about release dates.
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Yes! "Pika Ichi" is returning but as a low priority project.  This means that releases will not be on a regular schedule.  I'm sorry about the delay we took, but I wanted to get a few more chapters in to see where the story was going into order to decide whether to continue the series or drop it.  During that time, I came to understand and appreciate the ridiculousness of "Pika Ichi", so I can now say I like the series and I'm eager to continue it (for the meantime, barring no stupid plot twists.)

Here's a preview of chapter 8 to get you ready for the series' resumption!

"Pika Ichi" chapter 8 should be ready for release in less than a week.

On to the AnS news!  "Akagami no Shirayukihime" is being transferred to The Zero Alliance.  I will continue on as the image editor for the series and we will PDF releases available here, but TZA will be managing AnS schedule and releases.  I'll post more information on the transfer once things become clearer.  Hooray for AnS's new home!

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 Update!

I have "Pika Ichi" chapter 10 and based on the content, we will resume the series!  Chapter 8 has been sent to the cleaners.  May is already set, so the resumption of series will happen sometime after May.  I will have to look at the schedule and reassess the priority of releases.  This is really hard, because there are a lot of one-shots I'm very in love with.  We'll figure it out though.

"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.

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.

Aria Magazine Comic Pre-Order Links

Here are some links to facilitate of the purchase of your favorite manga series from Aria magazine.

 Junketsu + Kareshi Volume 1

Magnolia Volume 1 (Through Naked Ape's Amazon referral so they get extra money ;p)

Pika Ichi

I will post links through Yes Asia when and if they list these comics.  These books all release on March 7th. 

Recruitment: "Pika Ichi" Translator Needed

I'm tired of translating "Pika Ichi", however, we do have volunteers that are dedicated to cleaning and doing the image editing for the series.  Basically, we could continue the series on a regular monthly basis if we get a good Japanese-to-English translator (and typesetter) to take it on.  If you are interested in translating (and typesetting) this series, please contact me via e-mail using the "Contact" link on the top menu.

If we don't get a "Pika Ichi" translator, then I will translate it when I get to it.  It will be a low priority project.

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!

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

Favorite New Series Poll Results and "Pika Ichi"

Here are the results of the poll about what your favorite new series is:

Magnolia 28% (87 votes)
Pika Ichi 26% (80 votes)
Junketsu + Vampire 46% (145 votes)

I'm not surprised that "J+K" won by a wide margin. However, I am surprised at how closely "Magnolia" and "Pika Ichi" are.  The main reason I put out this poll was to gauge "Pika Ichi."  I felt the first two chapters were great, but I was greatly let down by the third chapter and I see a very mediocre and predicable path ahead for the series.  My mentality always seeks what's optimum, so if it's not working for me and the other group members, and, I see a better opportunity, I'm inclined to go for for new opportunity.  And so the question for me is whether to continue along with "Pika Ichi" or take a chance on another series?  I do have another series in mind and it's one with more action and intrigue.  At the same time, though, I hate to subject the readers of this blog to my whims.  The ideal solution would be for us to pass "Pika Ichi" off to another group who feels passionately about the series.  If you belong to or know of another group that would like take over "Pika Ichi" please contact me via the "Contact" link at the top of this blog.  In the mean time, we will continue "Pika Ichi," but the release schedule will not be as regular.

Pika Ichi Chapter 3

Here's "Pika Ichi" chapter 3. Hopefully, this series is not settling into a pattern. Hopefully, things will get shaken up a bit in chapter 4. I would like to see some deep meaning to Dougen's actions other than he's just mean and controlling. Question to you all: Is the girl at the end sincere or a "honey trap?"

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 3 (Zip) (PDF)

Next up is "Akagami no Shirayukihime" chapter 21 followed by the first chapter of "Zoo: Kemono Kingdom."  Aria 12 is on order and should be arriving in my hot little hands on November 1.  I'm also looking forward a batch of new one-shot possibilities from "The Hana to Yume" magazine which will be arriving with Aria 12.

Pika Ichi Chapter 2

Finally! Here's "Pika Ichi" chapter 2! I really like this series so we will be taking it on as a project. Tarou is awesome!

Links to "Pika Ichi" chapter 2: (Zip)(PDF)

Take Hyper Parfait's Bully Poll!  Link
Also head over to Hyper Parfait for more Pika Ichi discussion: Link

I'm still in the depths of PC woes, I'm pushing back Seirei Produce chapter 5 to give me time to resolve my problems.  A cautionary tale to everyone:  not all scanlators are nice.  Some are baiting you with manga to do very bad things to your computers.   Please run "no script" through whatever browser you're using.

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.