Saturday, November 24, 2012

The Renzokusei Update

This is an update for the group as a whole, not just projects. Everything can be found after the jump.

The Site
The most obvious change is that the site's look has changed. The logo was removed from the top of the site because it doesn't work at all on a white background. A new one is currently in the process of being made by a good friend of mine, Joey. He's a great graphics artist, and is one of the people that got me into anime and manga in the first place last year. I was never really too happy with the original logo in the first place, since it was just a red/black gradient placed over the Aperture Science (from Portal) logo, lol. I had been wanting to change the site's look for a bit anyway.

Recruitment
Along with these changes, we are now accepting applicants to the group again. I am aware that some people are going to scoff at this, and our history will turn off some people. But, as we are getting back into being a full on group and doing more projects, doing almost everything on every project takes a lot of time, and makes releases take longer than I'd really like. I had gotten a few people interested in helping out in the past month, but I turned them away as I hadn't considered the group really "back" yet. Every release from now on, will once again feature a recruitment page, similar to our past releases.

For those who have not already noticed, the Join Us page has been updated. Using a table like the projects page, it shows every project of ours whether ongoing or planned, and the status of all positions for the projects. This table will be updated as much as the projects status table is.

The 60 Day Limit
I have had some people express their concerns to me about what I talked about when I first started posting about the group coming back. So, I will state here what I told them.

My intention here is not simply to steal or snipe projects without care. I do not scanlate for myself. I do not scanlate for other groups. I scanlate solely for the readers. If that means making enemies along the way, then so be it. I have come to quite love what manga is, and wish to bring it to the readers. When I created this group back in April, I did it because as a manga reader myself I hated seeing so many manga sitting in scanlation hell. I still hate seeing that. As time went by as just a reader and eventually a scanlator, I noticed that many groups continue to label projects as active, even though work on said series had not progressed for some time, whether they had the means to continue it or not. Because of that, other groups were afraid of scanlation politics, and didn't want to step on people's toes to continue a series. I was like this at first creation of my group. But I quickly learned that trying to get by like that won't work well for a group like mine.

No matter how a group or person feels about Renzokusei, after 60 days have passed since the last release of a series, and we wish to or have the means to continue it, we will go to a group and talk to them about whatever project it is we wish to continue. What results from that talk will obviously depend on the group and the series.

So, why did I and why am I going after Sexual Hunter Riot, Kitsune no Akuma, and Kashiwagi? I've stated before that I am grateful to the respective groups who continued their scanlation. I still am, even while 2 of them continue to be done. The answer really, lies in that I have a considerable amount of time invested in these 3 series, and I now have money invested in scanlation. I spent up to several months just trying to get the scanlation for these series started. Not days or weeks, but months. I spent this time bugging and bugging countless people trying to find scans and translators to get them started. In the case of Kashiwagi, I had been doing so before I even became a scanlator. On top of that time invested before getting it started, I spent the time working on each of them after the scanlation started. They all became series that I am very, very attached to, and just can not go on without working on them.

Projects
As a final piece to what is seemingly a complete overhaul of the group, future releases will feature different credit pages than what we have been using. Every project of ours, both ongoing and planned is listed below, in alphabetical order.

Amagoi
This series has 2 problems in getting continued and finished. The manga is over and ends in volume 4. We lack a translator as Sjiveru is too busy to continue doing more than just one series, and the volume 4 scans, as there are no public scans for said volume.

Choi Hime
Choi Hime basically has the same issue. Though there are public scans existing for the whole series, the scan quality for chapters 3+ are considerably low, and are not something that I can conceivably work on.

Hagure Yuusha no Kichiku Bigaku
Kurosagi finally has the time to work on more translations for the series, and is doing such. Chapters 3 is translated. The cleans and redraws are done, so it will be released in the upcoming week at some point. Chapter 4 is all clean, just needs some redraws.

Harvest December
We lack a translator for this series. It ended in volume 2, but we've never really had any luck in finding a translator for it.

In Bura!
Chapter 8's translation is done. However, we will not be using the public scans for the series anymore, so work will not continue on this chapter until we obtain our HQ scans for the series. We will be releasing v2s of chapters 6 and 7 as well once we get the HQ scans. The script has been proofread by a new member of ours, though.

Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joou
Chapter 3 is clean and redrawn, just waiting on Kuma to find the motivation to do the chapter for us, and once we get the translation, the release will follow soon after.

Kitsune no Akuma to Kuroi Madousho
Our continuation of Kitsune will likely be a little ways off. Originally I had worked out with schthaxe, the project leader for Kitsune at Simple to work on the series for him there. However, their leader does not want me working on the series for them. As I was under the assumption I would be working on it elsewhere, I spent my money on getting scans for other series. We will be continuing this series at some point, but when, I do not know right now. So for the moment, Simple will be the only group doing it.

Meteor-san Strike desu!
Chapter 9 is all clean, and is being typeset. Will be out this week. Eru13 is currently in the process of translating the remaining chapters. Counting the currently unreleased chapter 9, there are 4 chapters left unscanlated, and a 2 page 4koma which is at the end of the volume.

Mondaijitachi ga Isekai kara Kuru sou desu yo?
This is a new series that I'm interested in doing. I found this one after a spin-off for the manga had some scans for it posted on jcafe. Originally I was going to go for the spin-off, but by pure luck someone who idles in my room had HQ scans for the original, and is letting us use them should we be able to get a translator for it. This is getting an anime adaptation which will start airing in January of next year.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu
Chapter 17 doesn't seem to want to find its way out. But rest assured it will be, and soon. The chapter is clean, and 1/3rd is typeset. Like In Bura chapter 7, the script needed reworking so it took some time to get a finalized version for the typeset. After chapter 17, we have no translator, but I will be trying to get one as the manga adaptation of this series ends at chapter 23.

Omae wo OTAKU ni shiteyaru kara, Ore wo RIAJU ni shite kure!
I've somewhat been considering leaving this series solely to iManga. As much as I'm still irked by their attitude towards the group back then and the series itself, after working on series and chapters that are equally as redraw heavy as the beginning chapters for the series are, it somewhat demotivates me to try and continue it. Though I do not have a translator for it currently, I do have an HQ raw source, but right now I'm rather undecided on whether I wish to go for it.

Oniichan dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne
People have a serious thing with imoutos. I don't quite get it myself. Anyway, like some other series of ours, we have an HQ scan provider for it, but lack a translator.

Ore to Ichino no Game Doukoukai Katsudou Nisshi
I find the popularity for this series very... odd. I do like the series myself, but judging by a lot of the comments I had read on it, seemed like more people were confused, and didn't really like it. Yet I've had numerous people ask me about the future status on it. Unfortunately I have no news as far as it goes. We have HQ scans for the series, and an HQ scan provider, but no translator.

Pajama na Kanojo
Chapter 23 is translated, and the script has been proofread. It is currently being cleaned by a friend of ours, Kiss. The chapter will be released sometime this week as well.

Perowan! - Hayashinasai! Goshujinsama
I asked Kurosagi about translating Perowan alongside Hagure, but while he has time to translate now, he's going with only Hagure. So for the time being, the series unfortunately is stuck. For those that do not already know, it appears that the manga has also ended. Both MAL and MU list the series as complete, but neither list how many chapters it ended at. I am assuming it ended at chapter 17, but that's just a guess.

Puchi Houndo
Like Harvest December, we've had no luck at all in finding a translator for the series. The latest volume is 7, don't know how many chapters are left unscanlated at the moment, but it's quite a few.

Seven Sisters!
Chapter 5 was almost done, but I haven't had any contact with Ethan for almost 2 weeks now, so I'm rather unsure on the status of chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 5 is all clean and redrawn, and 6 is half there. Once we do actually get the translation for it, the releases will be out pretty quickly, especially since the series has some of the shortest chapters ever for a monthly series.

Sexual Hunter Riot
Chapter 7 is done, and just awaits final QC from roankun for release. roankun doesn't translate a chapter until the previous one is released, so chapter 8's translation won't be started on until then. Hopefully I'll be able to get more pages cleaned/redrawn before he finishes it.

Sora no Manimani
This series is likely the most I am upset about losing a permanent translator for. It seems it's rather cursed. As much as I appreciate Katsudon doing the 4 chapters that he did for us, we were essentially getting 1 chapter released a month. At the rate we were going, it would have taken us near 4 years to finish it. I will make sure that it does get completed, whether it's through RZK or another group.

Tonari no Kashiwagi-san
After a few months away from releasing new chapters for the series, we will be starting new chapters starting from 39. We have a translator for chapter 39 in place, but I can't say for sure when the chapter will be released by us. v2s like usual are not a top priority so they haven't been worked on much, but they will find their way out there.

tl;dr - We're missing translators on a lot of series and a lot of work is ahead of me, but one way or another releases for every series listed above will find their way out. That, I can guarantee.

7 comments:

  1. I can understand your attachment to a certain series. It was the same for me with Smash!.
    But if you don't have the capabilities to work on it on your own (meaning, having your personal translator, in your case), then it's a very bad idea to step on other's toes.
    Being an asshole is fine. I'm one myself.
    But now you're stuck with a bunch of projects without translators.
    Ask yourself, was it really worth all that?
    Well, you certainly entertained me, so it's not a complete loss :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't have the capabilities right now, I'm aware of this. But I've only been back in scanlation for a little over a month. I'm not going to line up new translators for everything that quickly after what happened. But it's as I said in the post, I am going to make sure that every series I listed gets releases out. Whether that's with RZK or not, I do not know. But I will.

      Delete
  2. "I do not scanlate for myself."

    I apologize for bringing this up, but I have a slight issue with this. If you really aren't scanlating for yourself, then you cannot use your attachment to a particular series as justification. I'm aware that you put in a considerable amount of resources into bringing us (the readers) these projects. However, from my perspective, your actions seem self-gratifying. It's like saying, "I worked so hard on this, so why shouldn't it be mine?". This is just something to take note of.

    Also, as PROzess mentioned, you lack translators for the large number of projects you have. Save for the three that you seem to favor, why are you undertaking this many? At this rate, you'll stall their releases and end up similar to the groups that you chided previously for labeling certain projects as "active". I do not wish to see RZK end up in the same boat.

    Please be honest with me and let me know why. If you really are scanlating for readers, then, as a reader, I'll just say that you should focus on a select number of projects that you can release regularly. Regularity is much more important.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe it's as you say. But I've never once thought or seen it that way.

      I do lack translators on many series currently, yes. But slowly but surely, I am getting more translator(s) for more series. Because of this post alone I'm going to be able to continue another series.

      I did post that it has become time consuming to work on several of these series myself, but my workload for RZK has already dropped by a nice amount thanks to just 2 new members that joined a few days ago. And as much as mine and RZK's names may be tainted, there are people who will join the group. Probably not many, but there will be some. Even just a few people decreases the workload by a lot for others in a group. It's pretty cool.

      Part of the reason that RZK will be doing so many series is because it's for the readers. In the past we weren't able to be as regular with releases as I would've liked, but that was because of my living situation then. That's no longer an issue. Regardless, whenever we get a permanent translator on a series, it will see regular releases. We will not become one of those groups that I've chided so much.

      Delete
  3. i hope you find the translators for those series
    (especially for ichino & puchi) x,x

    ReplyDelete
  4. the way that i see picking a lot of projects while you dont have a permanent translator it's just arrogant and ambitious., scanlation is not a career kid., do u have anything else to do besides scanlating?? do you have real life friends? i pity you.,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dude, going around insulting people who are just trying to do what they can to support their community without even having the guts to say who you are is just cowardly and small. It may be ambitious but at the end of the day, if it doesn't get done, nothing is lost and if it does, were all better off for it. Stop being condescending and get some real friends and an education. I mean come on, you're spending your days on the internet insulting people for trying to do some good, get a life.

      Delete