#i own the official translation of the manga so i compared it to the online scan

[saltydkdan]

Salty i wanna get into Baki which one do you recommend,the manga or the anime?

Oh you just woke up the fucking beast (I'm so sorry).

I LOVE this question, and as a recent Baki fan myself, I can tell you that getting into the series as a Western consumer can be rough if you don’t have a basic guide to know what you’re getting into…. so that’s what I’m gonna make this post (TEEHEE).

This series has gotta be one of the most insane shonen- actually no- one of the most INSANE PIECES OF FICTION I've ever experienced, and I NEED more people to check it out. Like, LOOK AT THIS SHIT DUDE.

Baki out of context somehow even puts Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to shame. The way I usually pitch it to people is that Baki is as insane as people THINK Jojo is before they read it. Shit is just... MAN LMAO. OBAMA IS FUCKING IN THIS.

Unlike more popular stuff like Dragon Ball and Hunter x Hunter, a lot of this series has just never been officially localized, so knowing where to start, and even how to support the series, is a hard task if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Thankfully THAT’S WHAT YOU HAVE ME FOR. This Tumblr post is gonna be your one stop shop for how to get into Baki as an English speaker (and it’ll give me some space to ramble about one of my latest favorite series).

But uh before we get into the nitty gritty, wanna put some trigger warnings for the series for those who may want to know. Listen, I know how some of these are gonna look to the average person, but this series just be like that sometimes, if you can’t take stuff like this trust me it’s insanely valid. You’ll understand if you choose to take the plunge.

SERIES TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Animated Blood/Violence, some animated gory imagery, Incest (???), Nudity, Urine stuff, Bigfoot/Animal Violence, Death, Uncomfortable looking muscles, and one instance of sexual violence (offscreen)

If you are comfortable with all that (and again, valid as fuck if you aren’t) then let’s talk BAKI!

First off, Manga or Anime?

You would think that either would be fine, but my personal recommendation for Baki as a beginner, is to watch the anime over reading the manga. Simply put: The anime is a lot more widely available and accessible in English speaking territories, and is fairly easy to support officially with its current iteration.

For whatever reason, the manga just never really took off in the West when compared to other series, so it was only ever officially released in English a handful of times, and they only ended up publishing the first few volumes. Theoretically, you can read the first few books to start, but the entire series all together is legit longer than One Piece at a whopping 1,203 chapters, so you are gonna run out of material real quick. The fraction of officially available manga barely scratches the surface of the series.

Even if you’re stubborn about reading the manga and want to try reading fan translations, they come with their own separate batch of issues. Plenty of fan scans you can find online range from wildly outdated, to generally being poor quality at best. There’s even some fan translations that just straight up make shit up and don’t even properly translate the original script. Adding in extra dialogue and slurs randomly to make the text seem way edgier than it actually is.

Full disclosure, I wanna cut through my bias here and say that there are indeed some great scans available on the internet if you look hard enough, especially for the more recent content! But they aren’t super easy to track down with how the series is formatted, and you may accidentally find yourself reading the story out of its proper order.

The watch/read order of Baki is a bit of a toughie for new people, but is actually pretty simple once it’s explained. The story of Baki is split up into multiple different series, kind of similar in format to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. Though instead of “Parts”, Baki is split up into completely different manga and TV series. This is why many fans get confused initially, especially with the watch order, because it isn’t laid out in an easy to understand way at first glance.

The most well known series are currently streaming on Netflix, but those aren’t the ones you wanna start with. Nope, the story of the Baki anime actually starts way back in 2001, in a TV show that isn’t streaming officially online. Now if you want to watch out of order, I’m not gonna stop you. You can do whatever you want, by all means, but you’re gonna be missing some VERY important story context, and some characters just won’t hold the same weight.

So if you DO want to watch in order, come with me my friend. Let me show you-

BAKI’S SUPER COOL AND NOT AT ALL CONFUSING WATCH ORDER:

Baki the Grappler (2001) (24 episodes)

This is the original 2001 anime adaptation, the very start of serialized Baki anime. You’re gonna wanna start here trust me.

This series isn’t streaming anywhere officially online, but you can find it… places. Seek it out, trust me, because otherwise you’re gonna pay way too much for out of print DVDs on Ebay. Thankfully though you have options! The series is both subbed and dubbed (as well as every series I discuss from this point forward.

This show is the very start of serialized Baki anime, the very beginning of Baki Hanma’s story. Although it’s not in the way you may think. Despite this being the earliest point in the Baki timeline, it’s actually an adaptation of a later story arc from the manga.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Didn’t you just say this is where I should start? Why is it adapting something from later in the story?”, and yeah it’s valid to be confused. While yes this is the first ever Baki anime, for some reason the staff behind it made the decision to move this later arc up a bit from the original manga. In my honest opinion, I feel like this is actually a great decision.

As you will see as you watch, this honestly FEELS like this should be where the story begins. The escalation of power and storytelling from this point onward feels very natural, and you won’t miss out on anything or spoil yourself whatsoever on later events.

This is the de facto best starting point.

Grappler Baki Maximum Tournament (2001) (24 episodes)

This is effectively the second season of Baki the Grappler. For whatever reason they decided to title it something else, and while this is the norm for the series later on, this name change is weird because it adapts an arc from the original manga just like the first season of anime I just talked about.

Whatever lol.

Anyway this series, much like the previous, isn’t officially available as of now. So your best option is to SEARCH for it. SEARCH on the INTERNET. Or y’know. The good ol’ expensive out of print DVD on Ebay route.

In my opinion, compared to the first season, this one feels a bit slower paced and a bit of a slog at points but HOLD STRONG TRUE BELIEVER. This season is the introduction to a lot of mainstay characters in the series. Many of which you will come to love, even if you don’t know it yet.

BAKI (2018) (39 episodes) (NETFLIX)

This is the modern adaptation of Baki. After the last series ended in 2001, the anime went on hiatus for 17 years before it was announced that it would be coming back with a modern coat of paint.

Contrary to what you may think, this isn’t a ground up reboot. It’s a continuation of the exact point they left off years ago, right after the Maximum tournament. The only thing that kind of sucks about this is that, at least for the English dub, they replaced most of the voice cast. Most of the new VAs do a great job, however you may need to get used to Yujiro Hanma having Shadow the Hedgehog’s modern VA from the games haha.

Thankfully, you can officially support this series easily via Netflix. Normally I’m pretty eh on Netflix as of late, but this being the only way you can support the show officially in the west, I personally recommend it.

Baki Hanma (2023) (39 episodes) (NETFLIX)

This is the most recent anime! It’s also on Netflix.

Me and my friends just got to this on our watchthrough together.

Anyway, this is my list! If after you catch up you wanna hop into the manga and read the fan scans, I’ve heard that you can start on Baki Hanma/Baki Son of Ogre (chapter 183).

Hope you enjoy the funny man punching show! Feel free to report back and tell me how you feel about it (positive OR negative)!

Like I said, I've been watching the series with friends on Discord every night or so when we're free and MAN. Baki is fucking AMAZING WITH FRIENDS. It just never slows down after a certain point, and it just gets stranger and crazier.

[sacchiri]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I'm so glad you enjoyed reading my haphazard notes!!

I was also surprised by a few things during my reread. (One of those things being how relatively often Alucard calls Integra by first name alone instead of "master" or with some kind of honorific, which I started keeping track of for the purposes of this post.) I also agree with you regarding Integra's development; it's really interesting to compare her hesitation in the Rio scene versus the level 0 scene where she's like "Kill them all; don't let a single one leave the island alive" lol. And maybe it's because she is defending her home turf in the latter scene (which is already thoroughly fucked tbf), but she really seems to have grown into her role during the relatively short timespan of the story.

I'm also glad you found that minor translation difference interesting!! I actually reread this post a week ago and thought to myself, "Most of these are such /minor/ things, I don't think anyone will care very much??". I do plan on continuing this, so expect future installments to be in a similar vein (i.e. kinda... boring and non-earth shattering lol)

I'm probably not the best person to speak on manga vs Ultimate differences since it's been so long since I've watched the anime proper, and I've only seen a fansubbed version and not the official english dub. I know there were some scenes were cut or moved around, and the differences could probably turn into a hefty post on their own. But here's one moment that I do recall being cut-

-and it's another rare instance where Integra shows apprehension about the coming war (the Major even calls her out on it). So you might be onto something about the anime having less of these moments.

woah, so I guess owners of the English volumes just get a bonus 2 millimeters of juicy Hirano art that was never released in Japan??(‼️) Lol. My first reaction was to assume it was a publishing mistake and some settings got messed up during the localization process, but who knows?

(I haven't seen any of the English volumes in person so I'm curious since you own both if there are any noticeable physical differences between the two. How do things like paper quality and print quality compare? Just where do they put those weird Hirano doodles that the JP volumes have underneath the jacket cover? Are the books even the same size etc..)

There's also the fact that there are at least two Dark Horse editions floating around (not counting the omnibus releases) since I've seen some images online that include the back-cover illustration from the Japanese volumes, and some that don't.

The newer edition (on the left) mentions "translation revisions" so I wonder what that entails exactly...

I recently bought the jp volumes of Hellsing along with the guidebook, and since I'm reading the series in its native language for the first time I might as well share some random things that stood out to me in no particular order.

This isn't meant to be an analysis of translation differences, I'm too lazy for that. Also it's been 12 years since I've watched the anime and read the low quality fan scans of the manga so some of these comments are just "Lol, forgot this was a thing"

Volume 1

... I really want to know who this guy is at the beginning, yelling at Alucard in overly familiar language to "Get your shit together!" and "You're the only one we can count on!!". We know from the style of speech that it's a dude, probably just some Hellsing rando, and maybe it's not all that strange since he has probably been working with the same soldiers for years--but it's still funny.

"I know, it's just so nice out :("

..The way "HELLSING Organization" is spelled out like this reminds me that apparently the name is supposed to be an acronym. No really.

...

God they're so silly.

Now that I think about it, the only thing Seras has done this chapter since being turned into a vampire is say "I'm sorry" over and over.... girl you got shot in the lung, why are you apologizing

Not a huge difference, but what Integra actually says here is "Leaving a corpse here for 20 years... You're a terrible person too, Father" and not "What were you thinking, Father?" as the Dark Horse translation suggests (note the lack of question mark in the raw version). I thought that might be of interest to some.

Something else I thought was interesting is the first line Alucard ever says to Integra, and how uncharacteristically polite he sounds.

O-kega wa gozaimasenka- That's two honorific 御's back to back! (He even said them in kanji, even Walter isn’t that straightlaced and he’s literally the butler.) This is also the only time Alucard uses this overly flowery gentlemanly language with her, and good thing too because it would be so annoying if he spent the whole manga ending his sentences with ~gozaimasu.

What I'm trying to get at is, after seeing this sentence in the Japanese version, I'm like 100% sure he actually heard her when she was mumbling to herself about hoping to find a knight in shining armor, and he was totally going the extra mile in playing into that role for their first encounter. Which is kind of sweet.

Lol they misspelled Alucard on the top left... or rather, they incorrectly spelled it right?

One would normally expect Alucard to be written アルカード, and indeed pixiv dict lists アーカード as a misspelling (the u sound is weak in Japanese, so it's easy to mishear arukādo as ākādo). Hirano was definitely aware of the correct spelling though, since he used it in the pilot chapter and in his old character sheets. It was only when the manga officially began that he switched to the アーカード spelling. I doubt it was because of copyright issues because there is already a long precedent of vampire characters named アルカード in various old manga, OVA, and games in Japan that have coexisted without issue (like this guy Hirano mentions in volume 1's afterword).

Most likely Hirano simply thought it looked better, or was a means of differentiating his character from the others somehow. It certainly makes life easier for Japanese fans searching for fanart since アーカード is only going to bring up Hellsing and not the Castlevania character.

Jan Valentine even pokes fun at the spelling discrepancy later in volume 2, but since there wasn't a good way of expressing this in English it was left untranslated.

(Speaking of spelling inconsistencies, there's a lot of minor details I'm noticing now, like half the time the furigana for 吸血鬼 is written バンパイア and the other half it's ヴァンパイア... anyway)

Um, just noticed literally everyone's wearing glasses What should I do

Hirano's habit of jotting random comments underneath his panels is one of the underrated perks of reading the manga

The Dark Horse translation almost makes it sound like she's looking forward to seeing this battle play out, while in the Japanese she simply sounds apprehensive. Almost as if she's worried about them? And she's going out on the field personally to make sure nothing bad happens? Aww

Ok this is a weird tangent, but I just noticed the scans of the Dark Horse version I've been looking at use a slightly larger image range than the Japanese version does. It was only noticeable when I got to this part:

The second image is what the Japanese version of the scan looks like and I can confirm that this is what it looks like in my physical volume as well. You shouldn't be seeing the messy borders of the inking on the bottom like that.

Manga manuscripts are set up so that there are a few millimeters of bleed border around each page. You're supposed to color and line all the way up to (4) while keeping in mind that printing and paper cutting may result in the image being trimmed up to (3).

Either Hirano didn't color his lines all the way to (4) (this man has been drawing manga for years but this is Hirano we're talking about so it's very possible), or Dark Horse didn't honor the original bleed borders of the manuscript. I'm kind of leaning towards the former since there was a Hellsing exhibit in Japan a few years back where you could look at Hirano's original manuscripts and there's one where you can clearly see that he spilled a mug of tea or coffee across the entire page

Anyway, it's weird, and I'm curious to see if someone that owns a physical copy in English can confirm whether theirs actually looks like that. It's volume 1, page 141.

[every-tome]

[spatio-rift]

 i remember i talked about this before i think i deleted the post though but with online translation especially with manga scanlation or stuff like fanbook translation u have to keep in mind that its often a race to see whoever posts that stuff first bc the first post is the one thatll get all the engagement. like i guess u dont HAVE to check with the original text if u cant understand it but at the very least keep in mind that some stuff is translated with speed in mind more than quality. and as with all translated content do also keep in mind that its going thru someone first ur reading someones interpretation of og text. if u cant check with the source do at least try to compare if u can with other translations

i have many feelings abt translation and i wouldnt even call myself a translator but small inaccuracies can have a huge influence on how a character is viewed by people who only have access to that inaccurate translation. like for example, that scene in the touou seirin rematch when hanamiya shows up to give some exposition on imayoshi and starts off by saying his personalitys the worst. seto then replies something like “i dont really know about that, but should YOU be saying this?” like hes calling hanamiya out on calling someone the worst when theres like. HES the worst weve just seen this in the previous match. the official fr translation however has him say something like “coming from you, thats scary” implying imayoshi is worse than hanamiya which is not only wrong but something that will completely change your impression of his character (and not for the better). like im so serious im not just saying this to fight for imayoshis honor but like especially if ur passionate about analyzing the text etc u cant use a translation as the exact, absolute wording. at the very least compare it with other translations to get a better idea of the general thing its trying to say and if thats possible check the source!! see directly how its worded!!

but um yes coming back to the fanbook issue its like. the fanbook comes out and every fan is dying to see whats inside and every translator is scrambling to post a piece of it to get those sweet likes and reblogs and stuff. and the thing is once a characters profiles been posted, everyones seen it, theres really no need to post another translation of it right. no ones gonna bother sharing it right. so that first translation becomes the only one with weight and thats dangerous bc if its wrong, well to everyone who only has access to it and not the source, it becomes the truth. and for minor characters whose entire personality is more in their fanbook profile than the manga thats a huge influence on how theyre gonna be perceived.

like my goal. well, maybe more like a wish. would be to translate every single character entry from the fanbooks, just because i love doing that and i love learning about that character by myself doing my own research and i like sharing that with people. and while its really easy with touou bc theyre my favorites i know them like the back of my hand with other characters im not as familiar with its a lot harder (thats actually why i havent been posting anything lol. i started doing CB shuutoku but got stuck on basketball technicalities, started procrastinating on it by doing CB kaijou, same thing happens, im procrastinating on that by doing nakamuras kurofes entry etc etc etc.). and like i could just do something quick just to have something to post but i wouldnt be sure of the quality and thats just not the energy i want for those fanbook tls. so i need to reread the entire manga properly first take notes on those teams im not as familiar with before i can confidently post abt them. etc etc. where was i? i dont even remember what i was saying before

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

You said on another one of your blogs that fan translation is looked down upon in the industry, why is that?

Fan translation is a complicated issue for the Japanese -> English media translation industries, because it unfortunately takes a rather large leap to enter the industry for most people (in that you need to be skilled enough to do the job well upon entry, but most ways to gain relevant experience are illegal), so some employers have different views on this. However, for those who think negatively of fan translation, it boils down to reasons like this:

At its core, most fan translation is based off piracy and as such is illegal. The media translation industries are unlikely to support their economic rivals, even through all the various controversies of piracy’s true economic impact (ie, the impact of exposure via piracy generating new consumers, not all who read pirated materials would have been paying customers anyway, etc).

Fan translators are subject to different standards than professional translators which can lead to forming bad habits. Fan translators also usually have less well-informed criticism or access to editing, leading to practice that violates grammatical rules, standard rules for good composition, and other writing guidelines.

Fan translators typically do not need to adhere to the strict deadlines of professional translators which may cause issues further down the road if applying to work in a company that relies heavily on crunch times (like a certain anime subbing company whose name also features “crunch”).

Fan translators usually only translate what they want to translate, which isn’t indicative of the industry as a whole. There is some concern that fan translators may not be interested in working as hard on other projects as those for series they already know and care about.

So if fan translation is illegal and potentially harmful to the fan translator, why do people even do it? Because most of the other alternatives are not fully satisfying.

One alternative is to translate whatever you want but never post anything online. While this is not a very satisfying solution simply in terms of receiving appreciation for hard work, it also strongly limits the translator by forcing them to view the finished product only through the lens of their own interpretation. Even if they share it with a handful of informed others, this issue still persists. A huge part of why I fan translate is to see candid reactions from a wide audience of both hardcore and casual readers, as that’s much more indicative of audience reactions at the professional level more than anything else. This lets me find places where I wrote text that was easy to misinterpret, gives me alternate interpretations I hadn’t considered, alerts me to when my writing has broken immersion, and provides me with information on what is popular to certain audiences and what doesn’t fly at all. This information is crucial to me, which is why I seek out people talking about the projects I work on. I can’t imagine translating fully in the dark with no one else to provide that input.

Another alternative is to translate public domain works or previously published works to then compare to officially translated copies. This works great for literary translation! However, the overwhelming majority of works in the public domain are not written in the same Japanese likely to be used in most entertainment media. A good translator should be able to translate a wide variety of things - and I do work on literary translation and technical translation when I can - but being able to translate literature is not remotely the same skill set as writing quick, snappy manga or video game dialogue.

Aspiring translators can try their hand at translation contests. This is good and a worthwhile pursuit (which I should look more into, whoops), but it is not remotely enough on its own to build necessary experience.

Some translators gain practice through school or tutoring. Here I still have concerns about the lack of a wide audience, but for the most part my biggest concern about this one is that this is very expensive. Some people (me) are poor. I’m also concerned that, unless it’s specifically a translation course, the majority of the feedback you’ll receive here would be comprehension based. Comprehension is only one aspect of translation, and focusing solely on it makes for poorly written and/or unenjoyable translations.

Etc.

Overall, the issue that fan translators who want to become professionals face is that there are many ways to gain handfuls of legitimate experience that are all not remotely indicative of the actual job experience. It’s frustrating, but outside of working hard and trying to be mindful of the economic impacts of what we do, there’s little we can do to magically solve this large problem.

[ruthlessnightsscans]

Ghost Hunt Novel Vol3 Ch5 part3

Hello,

Today I am back with a different kind of project. Some of you might not be interested at all, and it is not strictly something a scan group would do, but this one has a special place in my heart. To clear things up, I made translations for a novel. This is called Ghost Hunt or Akuryou Series.

This was one of the first things that I used to teach myself Japanese. I found the Japanese version of all the novels. Also the English translations online and printed out the Japanese, used Google to find the words and learn some grammar. (Not just Google Translate) Then I wrote down what I thought was written and compared to the English translation. With time, I learnt words and used the application called Duolingo to learn more and this is how my manga scanlator career started. With this novel. So... I was feeling nostalgic and looked up the translation just to realize that the third volume is still unfinished. It's been like this for years now. That is why I decided to finish it. Today, I worked on a part of it that I uploaded on my livejournal accout. I will leave a link here for those of you who are interested. A few days from now, I will try to upload it on baka-tsuki, where the entire series is available in English (except for these few chapters). I will leave the link for that as well. Let me know if you are interested in reading the rest as well. If not, then I will not share it here just on the other two platforms. But I hope you'll like it and won't mind it. :) Also, I would like to point out that this is not an official Ruthless Nights Scans project. I'm doing this alone for my own enjoyment. But if anyone from within our group would like to help with proofreading, then let me know and I will send over the doc. By the way, there is a manga and an anime made from this. You might like those though I've never read the manga. I wanted to read it after finishing the novels but since the third one was unfinished, I've never gotten around to it. Maybe now. :) And the anime is great too. Those who like the Pet Shop series might like this too. It's slightly horroristic. Anyway, enough rambling. :) The link to the live journal page: HERE

And the link where you can find the English version (baka-tsuki) and will soon find this too: HERE

Bye for now, Hermina. Ps: since I am on leave this week from work and the vacation plans were ruined thanks to Covid, I am working on translations full time now. Finishing the last of the Goraihou chapters, translating this, the third Hyouhaku volume and a new project as well. So if others in our group are as productive as me, then you will get some updates soon. :) No promises though...

[afinepricklypear]

Compare and Contrast: K Project vs. Bungou Stray Dogs - Part 1

I found Bungou Stray Dogs (BSD) through the K Project fandom, because fans of both shows like to draw similarities between the two. I put off watching it for awhile, though, still coming down from my K Project feels after finishing Seven Stories. Recently, I bit the bullet and binge watched the whole thing and now I need to parse some thoughts out. This is going to be a series of posts, pitting these two anime against one another in an over-analysis of their stories, worldbuilding techniques, character development, and their most popular, uncannily similar ships - Sarumi vs. Soukoku. Because I found the two through one another, I wanted to examine how they both stood up against one another. These reviews will focus on the anime versions. There are spoilers ahead.

Overview:

Both K (referred to as K Project in the fandom) and BSD are supernatural action anime focused on various organizations of ability users as they struggle against one another or work together to protect their own interests. They each take place in alternative universe versions of Japan, and feature ensemble casts. While both stories are meant to take place in present time periods, K resembles modern aesthetics with a splash of near-future, whereas, BSD takes on a 1920s-1930s vibe with a bit of a steampunk undertone.

The animation and artwork for both is gorgeous, with extreme similarities in character design and motifs. For example, the characters tentatively referred to as “main protagonist" in K is Yashiro ‘Shiro’ Asano and in BSD is Nakajira Atsushi (overall, these are both ensemble shows, where other characters are explored and given spotlight), both feature a design thematic to the color white. Light features, white hair, Shiro is the Silver King in K and Atsushi has the ability to transform into a white tiger. They're both paired with a character that embodies the color black, Kuroh Yatagami in K (Shiro is Japanese for White and Kuro is Japanese for Black) and Akutagawa in BSD. Similarities in characters doesn't stop there, with Kunikida of BSD heavily resembling Kusanagi of K right down the glasses (although their personalities are drastically different) and the popular pairs of each series: tall, brooding, Fushimi Saruhiko (Blue) and short, fiesty, Yata Misaki (Red) of K Project against tall, suicidal, Dazai Osamu (Blue) and short, fiesty, Nakahara Chuuya (Red) of BSD have so many similarities beyond their appearance, including a shared seiyuu (Fushimi and Dazai are both voiced by the same person), a person might suspect that one pair influenced the other, but from what I can find, the manga for BSD came out about the same time as the anime for K (whose manga came after anime). Since Black&White and Red&Blue are popular motifs in eastern culture, the only thing maybe truly inexplicable here is actually just Kunikida and Kusanagi.

The storylines, as expected of seinen material, explores more complex, adult topics while attempting to maintain accessibility to a younger audience. This can leave older viewers with a sense that the story is too simplistic or immature, while younger viewers might feel that it's too drawn out. Young Adult viewers (between the ages of 15 to 22) I expect would have the highest likelihood of liking either title.  Also worth noting, K can be considered a complete title. There have been no announcements for new additions to the story, and its been awhile since the last new material was put out for it. That’s not to say that it may never have more material added, we are living in a time where we’ve recently gotten reboot anime for Sailor Moon and Fruits Basket, not to mention, a new series expanding on the story of Card Captor Sakura nearly 15 years after the original ended, manga and all, so it’s not impossible for K to be extended. For all intents and purposes, though, at the moment we can consider it over and done. Whereas, BSD is still ongoing, with the newest season and an official movie having been put out earlier this year (2019), and new chapter updates monthly for the manga.

Overall, I loved both series and have added them to my “regularly rewatch" anime list. I was also inspired to purchase every manga and light novel from BSD that was available in my location and hunt down online translations for the newer chapters. That being said, this will be a harsh review, I will say some negative things about both shows. If you do not want to read any criticism of your favorite anime, please ignore the rest of my analysis posts.

Read Part 2

[dlamp-dictator]

I’ll keep an eye on this anime. If anything, it definitely looks pretty, the fight scenes have been [done] well so far, and seeing Melida be cute in full color is great. If I just get a decent action series out of this anime, I’ll be happy.

                                                                            -Allen X, October 22 2019

 Well folks, Assassins Pride wrapped up last week and I can safely say I got what I wanted. In the end, I think this was a pretty fun and passable anime to watch weekly. Decent action, decent plot, and a decently written story. Nothing was too offensive or annoying save for one or two moments in the middle, and as much as I felt the show stumbled compared to the manga and possibly the light novel I have hope that this might just get an official translate and... well, you know, do the pacing thing better.

But since I had a habit of covering this thing after every arc I figured I’d give the show some closing thoughts and an overall opinion of the thing at the end. I hope I don’t spend a 1000+ words on this, but... well... I can get pretty wordy when I get a groove, so we’ll see. 

But anyway, let’s start with...

The Good

The Visuals

Let’s not mince words folks, this anime is pretty. It might be because I’m a sucker for night aesthetic, but the one disadvantage of the black-and-white manga is that were really never got to see just how dark the world of Flandor really was. To quote myself again:

(This is a) world trapped in perpetual night with warriors of light being the only thing keeping away further darkness, along with the last bastion of humanity being a literal chandelier city in case you missed the symbolism

And nothing makes you really feel that more than that first scene of Kufa walking through the quiet streets on his way to the Angel estate, seeing not only how dark the world is from the night sky above, but also how artificial the light within it really is. The dark aesthetic really helps a lot of the other characters pop out a lot more in terms of the actual color. Mana is literally a glowing, flaming aura that lights the darkness like a candle. The two main girls in this series are a bright blonde and white-haired girl that stand out against the black night sky like the sun and stars. 

Again, symbolism.

The list goes on, but you get the idea.

The Action

Not to say this is Trigger or Madhouse or Perriot, but it is pretty nice that we get a decent action scene every arc. Something I definitely appreciate is that they show contrast between Melida’s kind nature and friendly attitude with her brutal and dirty fighting style. 

See, Melida is a kind and gentle girl that would rather not use violence save for fighting demons, but if she has to fight she’ll use every dirty trick in the book. She’ll throw sand, she feint attacks, she go into brawling when close enough, she fake being injured to make her opponent let their guard down. It’s a nice little story detail that shows you this noblewoman was, in fact, trained by a ruthless assassin that taught her to actual fight for survival instead of like a nobleman. Her taking down stronger students by doing all but outright cheat is almost hilarious to watch sometimes.

The Overall Narrative

For as fast as the pacing was I feel like I got a good idea of Melida’s story and the trials she has to endure as the “Incompetent Talented Girl”. This story focused on Melida more than Kufa, which is something I’m very thankful for. It’s always tempting to switch over the OP male MC to overpower his way through things, but to my pleasant surprise this only happened in one arc, and it was an arc that had some justification for it, though I really didn’t care it myself. Save for the third arc everything was to show Melida’s growth from a shy and bullied girl to a competent swordswoman that can even hold her own against the other heirs of the three noble houses. 

But that’s enough of the good, so now we have to talk about... 

The Bad

The Pacing

There’s no getting around this. Even if I didn’t already read bits of the manga online ahead of time the pacing for this show is still insanely fast. Even taking out the fact that this is an adapted story we’re never given enough time to absorb certain scenes. And the worse is that a lot of the arcs have a focus on intrigue and mystery. Luna Lumiere Selection Tournament Arc had two major mysteries: who was the one that changed the plaque and who is Black Madia masquerading as? They especially took care to make Mule seem like a very suspicious party only to reveal it was a third party in the very same episode. The mystery of Black Madia was done better, though by necessity as she couldn’t reveal herself until the very last moment of the arc. This was fine in the anime, but it could had used an extra episode or two of build-up between scenes. The arc at Rosetti’s hometown was a huge mystery that had Kufa under believable suspicious, and was actually done pretty well by not revealing the true culprit until the last episode of it, it also helps that Kufa was under suspicion from the first episode of it. The Library Exam Arc was... done alright, but it could had used an extra episode or two to cook and add some more tension between the Angels and the other nobles, but it was done well. 

And that’s the main issue. Every arc could had used one or two extra episodes to really set the scene. Nothing was done poorly in terms of structure and narrative, but everything could had been better had things slowed down. Despite the action this show isn’t a shounen or action genre, it’s a political drama with a combat school setting. 

This might also be just the issue of this being a 12-episode anime adapting a novel. A  novel has the advantage of progressing its plots slowly with the knowledge the reader has the entire book to finish either that arc or at least most of it. If that reader skips around because they’re bored that says more about them than the author. With an anime or television show you don’t have that luxury, you only have a few episodes at best to keep a viewers attention, especially for something like the seasonal anime lineup where you have to keep audience retention every week and your competition is the other 50+ anime out there that might possibly be more interesting. I pity whatever decent anime has to contend with the newest My Hero Academia season along with everything else. 

I understand the need to want to just show off the cool bits to keep audience attention, but it came at the cost of the narrative. Even if this thing still holds together well it could hold together much better if they only focused on the first two arcs of this series instead of trying to shove in four, but alas... 

In any case...

Other Smaller Issues that Bugged Allen

Really, the pacing was the biggest issue in this anime, but I do have my fair share of gripes and nitpicks too. I’ll keep this in list form for the sake of simplicity.

Kufa having access to potions/medicines that can not only kick-start a mana-less person into having it, but one that can also turn half-Lyncrophyes back to humans opens up quite a few plotholes and issues. I’m sure the light novel and manga explain their existence better, probably something to the effect of them being extremely experimental and a deadly risk, but the anime doesn’t explain that and it can take you out of the story if you care about the world-building.

I feel like side characters like Nerva, Mule, and Salacha were suppose to get more screentime, or at least more development, but just didn’t due to the pacing and runtime. You get the basic idea of everyone, but it feels like the show wanted to do more with them, or at least that the source material probably did more with them.

The occasional moments fanservice don’t work too well in this series. It’s nothing to the level of Senran Kagura or Ikkitousen, but when your cast consist of mostly middle school aged girls the most fanservice that should be seen is a beach episode or a sleepover episode. And while this anime did have a sleepover episode it still also took time to put some of this girls in... compromising positions. My general rule of fanservice is that high school age characters doesn’t really count due to the wonky-ness of hormones act and how most media east and west tends to treat high school characters anyway, but middle school kids... yeah no. That’s just my morals, but it’s still a detractor from the anime.

The third arc kind of felt pointless since it tried to focus on Kufa’s relationship with Rosetti. I didn’t really need to know about Kufa’s past, and connecting it to Rosetti just... doesn’t feel right given how he dismissive treated her in the first arc. Making Rose a half-vampire was also pretty pointless to me. It feels like they were trying to give Kufa a harem when this show is mostly focused on Melida, and the most interesting part about his past is a mix of his life in the dark zone of the world and his past as an assassin, not his relationships with his apparent adoptive sister. It just felt... really focused and a waste of time. They could had cut out this arc, gave each other arc an extra episode to build up some things and be none the weaker for it.

The Dub

The nice thing about VRV is that I can see the HiDive dubcast along with the show. I only watched a handful of episodes, but here are my general throughts for those curious. Overall, the dub is fine, but like most HiDive Dubcasts it feels... off. Not bad, but it feels like they needed to be 4 or 6 weeks off the original release instead of 2 or 3 to get the director in the right place. I feel like most of the issues with this dub come from the direction and scripting rather than the actual voice-acting. But just to keep this short.

Kufa sounds too flat. This was a pretty common dubbing issue back in the early 2000s when trying to translate/localize a stoic, serious character. The director is probably trying to make the actor emulate the original Japanese voice acting and Kufa just sounds too flat and bored at times because of it. Most character like this tend to be given a more deadpan and sarcastic edge to them in English to make the have a little more emotion. In Japanese that flat tone is meant imply stoicism, resolve, and masculinity. In English... that’s just sounding flat and bored. Again, most characters like this are usually given a different kind of tone to keep them from sounding bored. For Kufa I’d say a more strict and stern tone of voice would help given he’s an instructor, almost like a even-toned drill sergeant issuing orders. He does sound like that from time to time when actually instructing, but I wish he kept that persona. Though that’s just my take.

Nerva and Rosetti... just don’t hit it for me. I don’t mind the difference in tone, but the script doesn’t lend itself to it. Rosetti’s actor makes her sounds much more like an adult in English, but her actual lines are still childish, which makes her come off as a little... cringe. Same with Nerva, but I’m willing to overlook it since she’s more of a side character anyway. Mule actually sounds pretty good in this regard. Her tone sounds less like a middle schooler and more like a young college woman, but since a lot of her actual lines has an air of condescending smugness it works out, though her actor sounds like she’s reading the script and not acting from it.

The scripting in general seemed to really want to follow the subbed version and it falls flat because of it. When I read the subtitles that take the world, systems, and general wackiness of this subpar anime so seriously it’s fine. But to actually hear it in  a language I understand... it kinda’ shows how lacking the series is. I’m not saying they should had added jokes or anything, but it feels like they could had made the dialogue a bit more casual than it was in the subs so that the lines flowed a little better. HiDive dubs, their dubcasts especially, tend to feel like a product of the early 2000s rather than something current.

Thoughts and Recommendations

Overall I do recommend this series as a decent action show with some nice colors to it and a killer OP and ED, but there's a lot better I could recommend too that does everything this anime does but better. 

So... here are a recommendations I have if Assassins Pride didn’t really click with you as much as you hoped.

A bit of an odd recommendation, but I’ll stick up Goblin Slayer first. This anime is actually a lot like Assassins Pride, being a character-focused story with decent side characters and does a lot of its world-building in the background. However,  it does its arcs far better than Assassins Pride since they aren’t intrigue-based and the cast is solving much simpler problems in the grand scheme of things. It’s also an anime based off a light novel just to add to the similarities, and said anime also has four arcs to it. I will say this is a series that’s not for the faint of heart, and I almost recommend skipping episode 1 if you’re of a weaker constitution if you plan on watching this one.

Next up would be Chivalry of a Failed Knight. It does the combat school aspect of Assassins Pride much better, taking some strides to show that each of its students are, in fact, warriors capable of harming and killing others and going to a school to hone those skills. And if you that Melida was a ruthless fighter Ikki probably takes it a step further. And this is also another light novel adaptation, though the manga did technically finish its updates online if you’re curious. A side recommendation to this one would be Armed Girl's Machiavellism.

My last recommendation will be Katana Maidens. This is another combat school anime that I feel is honestly average, but it’s an anime-original series that has 24 episodes behind it, and quite a few decent action scenes. I recommend this one more to action junkies as I feel the story really starts to drag in the second half, but an overall decent series that does do itself world-building a little better than Assassins Pride, or at least I’m not asking as many questions at the end of it.

And those are my thoughts on Assassins Pride. Now I have a Rambling on video games to work on, so I’ll see you all later.

[marshmallowgoop]

Kill la Kill Books!

Got a small haul of Kill la Kill books the other day!

SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL has been a glaring omission from my collection, so when I saw a listing of the book for 3,600 yen—which usually goes for 10,000+ these days—I bought it right away.

And I figured I might as well pick up a few more things while I was at it, right? To make the shipping more cost effective?

That’s definitely the only reason.

But anyway, my growing mass of Kill la Kill books and magazines has now reached 36 items.

And I’ve talked about some of this merch before; you can find my post about the Febri volume 21 issue here, my post about Fractal 10 here, my post about the Talking About Composite books, The Complete Script Book, and The Art of KLK Vol. 3 here (and I have a whole tag for the script book, #klk-script-book), and I yammer on about the nine Blu-ray key art collection and artboard books here. I also have several essays discussing the official manga adaptation: 

Kill la Kill Manga Chapter 7

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3, Chapters 8-17: Thoughts and Impressions

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3: Translation Notes, Anime Differences

Kill la Kill Manga Volume 3: Worth it?

Manga Differences

And now, I wanna briefly (lol) yap about the six new additions to my collection.

Because I have a lot of love in my heart for this ridiculous, ridiculous anime.

SUSHIO CLUB LOVE LOVE KLKL

So, I got this book for cheap because it was allegedly in poor shape and “not suitable for collection.”

(My reaction to “not suitable for collection” is always, “It’s suitable for my garbage collection! I’ll give your ‘ugly’ copies a loving home!”)

But, like? There are a couple of dents and folded corners, but the condition is really not bad at all. The art is completely intact and beautiful.

Sushio—who is the character designer for Kill la Kill—has shared much of this book on his Twitter, and I would definitely recommend fans of the series to scroll through his photos and have a look. There’s such a cute, sweet charm to Sushio’s work, and along with the polished, colored pages from LOVE LOVE that he shares online, he also shares sketches of his own fanart for the series, too.

(Okay, maybe this isn’t exactly the best demonstration of Sushio’s absolutely precious artwork, but. It’s one of my favorites from the book. Ryuko resorting to such wild extremes to be with Senketsu again is just. My heart. Kill la Kill is actually adorable.)

In any case, I don’t think any of the content in LOVE LOVE was new to me, but there’s just really something about having the book in my hands. I know there’s such a strong desire for digital media these days, but call me old-fashioned—there’s nothing quite like holding this art and really seeing every stroke and line in person.

Being able to physically flip through the pages also makes me notice things I didn’t before. For instance, I found myself charmed by the little detail of Barazo, Mako’s father, loving and adoring Sukuyo, Mako’s mother.

I mean, aw? It’s stuff like this that really makes me wish Kill la Kill were a kids’ show (as Sushio himself seemed to want!) Barazo is so much more likeable when there aren’t any signs of his less-than-pleasant behavior and he’s a loving, supportive husband and father.

Seriously!

Another thing I notice from having the book now is the order in which the pages are organized. Like, I couldn’t help but be amused about how Ryuko gets her own page here...

(Smiling for her Starketsu in the sky, right? Just like he asks her to in “Till I Die”?)

...and then the next pages have Satsuki beside Nonon and Mako (and Mataro) beside Ira...

...which strikes me as a bit funny because this isn’t exactly how Sushio organized his Tweets of these images. There, Satsuki was next to Ryuko, Nonon was next to no one, Mako and Mataro were next to Ira, and Uzu was next to Houka:

So, in LOVE LOVE, is Sushio deliberately trying to say something with the changed placement? Especially when it comes to the direction of the ladies’ eyes? 

Yeah???

I kid, I kid.

(But really, it looks much better to give Ryuko her own page and not have Nonon standing next to nobody.)

Also, one of the first things that popped out to me about LOVE LOVE is how Senketsu’s pages are right next to Ryuko’s pages. As they should be.

They belong together, okay?!

And speaking of Senketsu and Ryuko, I remember a comment years back that said you could probably find pics of your OTP with matching expressions in this book.

But, uh. Just compare Senketsu posing to Ryuko posing...

They’re kind of different types of people, lol.

But hey, they do both make cute sneezy faces.

As a final note about my copy of LOVE LOVE, I will say that my only disappointment is that I received the version with print errors. As such, this page of Nui...

...was accidentally printed twice, and I miss out on this page of Nui as a result:

There are also some minor goofs, like Mako’s arm getting cut off by the background here:

But considering I got this beautiful thing for only 3,600 yen, I really can’t complain!

Now I just need Sushiotan 2 to complete my Sushio Kill la Kill doujin collection....

Takepro

This charming little volume is a collection of animator fanart for the show (and other shows). The book includes a short profile for each featured artist, and their big Kill la Kill pieces are—like all titles in Kill la Kill—named after classic Japanese pop songs. You can read and see more about Takepro here.

It’s hard to pick favorites from this doujin because there is so much adorable and wonderful artwork, but I especially love Naoki Takeda’s “ここに幸あり,” or “Here is My Happiness,” named after the song by Yoshitsu Ootsu.

The picture features Ryuko, Mako, and Satsuki sitting together, all having a good time, and there’s just something so sweet about seeing happy Satsuki.

I also found an English translation of the song’s lyrics, courtesy of beast-senior 810:

The storm breaks and the rain falls Thorny as the women's path might be I would still keep on living with you And my happiness is here in the blue sky 

I could not tell anybody of my scars A bird of love that resided in my chest If only I wander about crying and evading A sorrowful night wind will blow through the streets 

I call out your name from the bottom of my heart Who will be awaiting me at the end of the echoes? Snuggle up to you and cheerfully look up to your face And my happiness is here in the white clouds 

Aw. This song is so Satsuki.

And speaking of Satsuki, I can’t get over how cute she and Ryuko look on the cover of this book. Like??

Aw! 

I also am quite fond of a small piece by Syuichi Iseki, which is in a super-deformed style and features Satsuki comforting Nonon after her uniform is destroyed during the Naturals Election. Nonon cries, and Satsuki pats her head. In the background, Ira looks distressed at the display, Houka seems to be deciphering it, and Mako smiles. It’s really, really cute.

Yoshie Endo’s “僕笑っちゃいます,” or “I’m Laughing,” named for the song by Shingo Kazami, is also real cute. It depicts Mataro holding up Guts, who licks his face. It’s another one of those, “I-so-wish-Kill-la-Kill-were-a-kids’-show” kinda pieces....

Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Doujin

Admittedly, I don’t actually know the title of this one, but it’s a very small doujin by Kill la Kill director Hiroyuki Imaishi. There isn’t too much Kill la Kill content, but there are two pages of Ryuko and Satsuki in their respective Kamui, accompanied by some text.

I thought the text might be something about the show, but it seems like it’s actually about Imaishi’s experience working on the show. And... it’s rather sad? He talks about how he’s able to accomplish more now, but he also has to consider a lot more as well, and he doesn’t have the time and energy that he used to. It’s a lot about aging and growing old.

At least, I think that’s what’s being communicated. Here’s a transcription, though:

なんだろう。

初会社役員とか。

昔よりやれることは増えたが考えなきゃいけないことも増えて時間と体力は足りなくなっていく。

年相応とも言える。

だけどいつまでも大人気なく生きていきたいものだ。

One last interesting thing about this doujin is the material it’s made from; it’s different than any other book in my collection. I’m not an artist, so forgive me if I sound totally ignorant here, but the paper reminds me watercolor paper. It definitely took me by surprise!

SL Sketch 3

SL Sketch 3 is a small fan doujin by Buzin. You can find most of the art in this book on their Tumblr!

Sketch 3 is a really fun collection of sketches, and I especially love the cover. I’m so desperate for art where Senketsu is acknowledged as an actual person that I’m just all heart eyes over Ryuko smiling at him here.

March 2014 Newtype

Okay, so this one’s really a magazine, not a book, but wow. I was taken aback by what’s inside!

I’ll definitely have to look at this issue in more depth because there are a bunch of Kill la Kill goodies in here that I didn’t even expect. And I don’t think most of it has been translated at all!

I also realized that I’ve been mixing up my Newtypes and will have to fix my resources page. But on the bright side, there is so much to love about this issue.

Like, the Elite Four Light Novel got reprinted in the Kamui Bansho, but it’s way better here because it has pictures!

I also love how Nonon, out of all the Elite Four, is the only one who stands beside Satsuki in these illustrations.

And I don’t even know what this is (VR or something with Ami Koshimizu, Ryuko’s VA?), but it’s cute and got me smiling:

And Ryo Akizuki, the mangaka for the official Kill la Kill manga, made a small comic about his experience working on the project. I like the little title panel with Ryuko, Senketsu, and Mako a lot:

Plus, there’s a shiny ad for the manga’s second volume, too:

One of the things that most caught my interest, though, is an article about the second opening song for Kill la Kill, GARNiDELiA’s “ambiguous”:

I got so curious about this bit because I’ve heard varying, conflicting information regarding the meaning behind the song’s lyrics. On the one hand, I’ve heard that half of the song is from Ryuko to Senketsu, and the other half is from Satsuki to Ryuko. On the other hand, I’ve heard that the whole song is from Satsuki to Ryuko. But I’ve never found any concrete sources for either of these claims!

So, I was hoping the Newtype article would help, but it’ll take a lot more digging into. Still, briefly looking over the page, I did find this bit: 

そんな私の思いと歌詞が一致しました。 『キルラキル』でいう流子ちゃんと神衣・鮮血の関係に近いかもしれませんね。 

Roughly, it says, “As such, my thoughts about the song agreed with its lyrics. You might say it’s like the relationship between Ryuko and Kamui Senketsu in Kill la Kill.”

I’m not totally sure about the context here—and I admittedly don’t even know the author’s involvement in the making of "ambiguous”—but this article might explain where the Ryuko-and-Senketsu reading of the song came from. It’s definitely something I’d like to delve into more.

Because I really love the Ryuko-and-Senketsu reading of the song, okay, and I’d love some actually official backup for it!

Finally, another favorite part of the Newtype is simply all the art. Takafumi Hori’s spread is particularly great:

(You can find a cleaner image here.)

Just... dang. I wish I got a little poster of this instead of the ones actually included in the Newtype! The artwork is just stunning.

And one of the cutest things about the Newtype is all the fanart from its readers! I particularly love the little Valentine’s Day special; there’s an illustration of Ryuko giving Senketsu chocolate, and there’s also a Ryumako piece, too!

Kill la Kill Storyboard Ep. 01

Finally, one of my favorites from this haul is the Kill la Kill Storyboard Ep. 01. The book was included as a shop bonus for the original Japanese Blu-ray/DVD release, though I was able to win it by itself in an auction. I do think I overpaid a bit, but gosh, it’s a lovely addition to my collection. It’s just really neat to see the production process of an anime in action. I wish there were storyboard books for every episode in the show!

Hiroyuki Imaishi’s storyboards are also just super amusing. Here is a small sampling of some of my faves (because there is so much gold in here, my goodness):

And that’s all for now!

...I guess this really wasn’t so brief at all, huh?

Shocker.

[redglassesgirl-maruma]

Kyo Kara Maoh is streaming legally again on Crunchyroll. Just the first 2 seasons though. So finally I can watch it. How does it compare to the manga/anime? What order do you suggest experiencing the series? Like anime first or manga etc.? Thanx for any help you can give.

Hi! Oh that’s good news, being able to get access to official stuff is always good and it’s nice to see an old anime adaptation get attention.

We have 3 main canons: the original novel canon, the manga canon and the anime canon. There’s also the musical canon, the most recent.

My personal experience with this series started with the anime back in 2008, but at that time there wasn’t much material available to begin with. By the 3rd season I was unhappy with the plot and characters so I started searching for the source, I thought it was the manga, but I ended up discovering the novels and became a hardcore fan of them. I finished the anime anyways, for the sake of completion.

In my opinion the anime adaptation fails to reflect the true nature of the novels, and it also develop it’s own plot, that’s why it stands as the most different canon. They try of course, they have a mix of comedy and drama which is fun, but I felt it was not enough, specially because the darkness we get in the novels is deeper. They also got rid of all the parodies and pop culture references, which are not Gintama-level but they’re a huge part of the story, honestly, I love Yuuri casually talking about David Bowie and costumes of Alien and Predator haha. When I was watching it, at some point I noticed the characters lacked development and they ended roll-backing to repeat basic gags of their first appearances. That’s bothered me and my interest dropped, but I felt the potential was amazing, so I went to the source. Besides my one-time experience, I must say the anime has tons of fans who love it and enjoyed it a lot, it’s what made this series so well known. Please don’t get discouraged to watch it, it’s not my intention at all. The first adventures are supper funny too, and pretty much the same as the first volumes of the originan story plotwise.

The manga does better as an adaptation, but Caloria´s arc blends with the following Seisakoku arc and starts developing other new canon. It already ended and you can find it online in any known website or app that hosts manga. Even with it’s changes, I consider it a better adaptation than the anime and it’s quite enjoyable with the cute art and all. The characters reflects more their novel self too, but some of them are not exactly the same (they’re nicer ahaha, I’m looking at you Saralegui).

Then the novels, best story and characters, and you have a huge amount of material to read and enjoy. They mix comedy, parody, drama, fantasy and adventures. They’ll give you a lot of feelings, one moment you’re laughing and the next you get slapped by darkness and sad, it’s kind of a roller coaster sometimes haha. Also, it’s an isekai series where the MC doesn’t drop his original world but coexist with it, which is pretty interesting. You can find everything translated here. There’s also drama cds adaptations with extra content or special stories, some of these are part of the novel canon, some others are part of the anime canon.

Now, an order... mm, I think that’s too personal for me to tell you what to do! That’s why I tried to give you some information about the 3 different options and my personal experiences and opinions about it. But your experience will be different, like every other fan experience with the series, so please remain open minded to your possibilities. Maybe you like better watching anime (I don’t actually watch much, I’m more of a manga person haha) and that’ll be a good start, or you may prefer mangas, I don’t know. You can also decide if going in order of adaptation from the less complete to the most complete (anime-manga-novel) or vise versa. But what I can truly recommend is to cover everything available sooner or later, specially the original novel.

But welcome to the series! No matter where you start, I’m glad more people is getting interested in the maruma world. Please don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of material and just enjoy. My inbox and chat are also available if you want to send questions.

[animecentralinfo]

Fullmetal Alchemist Gift Ideas With 26+ Merch

Are you looking for gift ideas related to the Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood series?Here we have a few tips and tutorials on how to choose them properly.Some of them I bought, some others were bought by my friends.That's why I fully know which one is good, and which one is a no-no.This gift idea is also divided into several categories so you don't get lost along the way, including:- Manga - Blu Ray - Action Figure - Other Collections and MerchandiseSo, without further ado, let's dive right in!

Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Guide

Before buying the Fullmetal Alchemist manga, make sure that the person you're gifting doesn't have it.Even if someone likes the series, they don't necessarily feel happy when given a gift they already have - unless you buy a collector's edition.In some online stores, there are 2 options that you can choose, per volume or box set.I watched the anime (the Brotherhood version) and fell in love with the plot that was presented.Hence, I without hesitation bought a box set containing all the volumes to enjoy on the weekends.For this reason, first, make sure you (or he/she) like it after watching anime but don't have any manga to collect.If he/she already has several volumes, look for other volumes that he/she doesn't have yet.First thing first, let's take a look at my Fullmetal Alchemist box set I bought! Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Box Set

Ah... it's so beautiful!I remember that I almost cry in bliss when this box come to my apartment.That's why I tell you that he or she may show the same expression as me!I bought it in Japan, but I give a recommended online shop instead.Just click the button below!! Read Them Now!!! I may earn a little penny for that purchase, but without weighing the additional cost to you.I saw Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood for the first time in 2019 (I know I'm late for the party!). I've watched a lot of anime before that, but none have forced me to own a manga and want to read it as much as this story. This is one of the most amazing stories I have encountered in all kinds of media. 

I don't know why but I just love to show them off to my blog reader! lol It has a wonderfully written character, an interesting and complex story, and a great message about what it means to be human. There are many philosophical and moral ideas and themes, such as science and religion, science and humans, war, slaughter, militarism, and political corruption, to name a few. Without ruining the ending, it must be said that this is one of the most satisfying endings I've ever encountered, solidifying Edward Elric as one of my favorite protagonists. This story contains a little bit of everything. Any manga fan will find something they enjoy about it.The quality of the manga itself is excellent. Although it is bound with paper, it is convenient because the thorns are less likely to wrinkle. I think there are some minor contradictions in the translation, but it's easy to miss them in the grand planning of the story. The poster is a beautiful and nice size as a bonus.Hiromu Arakawa is a great mangaka and she praises writing this story. This is something I carry with me for the rest of my life.Well, I know it little pricey, that's why I give you another option - it's to buy per volume!Here's the example of Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 1... Fullmetal Alchemist Manga Volumes

Again, this volume 1 of Fullmetal Alchemist manga is in the Japanese language.But you can buy officially translated manga on Amazon.Just click the button below! Read It Now!!! Fullmetal Alchemist's anime (television) adaptations (there are two) are excellent, but not comparable to the manga plot or story depth. A plot that revolves around moral good and evil, family love, and the length we go to save them, if you are an anime fan (or even if you aren't), and if you're looking for the manga volume 1, it's for you. I highly recommend this purchase as part of the gift ideas. I hope you read this series, as well. When looking for something different on Netflix, take a look at the anime in 2013 (not animated in 2019).The manga is published by Square Enix.Fullmetal Alchemist, serialized from 2001 to 2010, has been internationally critical and commercially successful with 27 volumes of stories, won both the Shogakukan Manga Award and the Seiun Award, and has 70 million copies worldwide. Manga vs Anime

Just like I mentioned above the Fullmetal Alchemist manga has been adapted into 2 anime series - the 2003 version and the Brotherhood version in 2009.The differences?Brotherhood is a close adaptation of the manga, but the first few volumes are a bit shiny and, to be honest, a lot of them are omitted. That said, nothing left behind is explained, and everything left behind is featured in the 2003 show. The 2003 show is unsightly to diverge halfway, but filler episodes intended to set the original plot of the anime appear here and there in the first half.It's a good idea to look at both Brotherhood and 2003. Both have really good stories that are almost unique to the others. If you like the series enough, the manga is worth reading later.So, let's talk about the Fullmetal Alchemist anime, in case you want to collect its Blu-ray!

How to Watch Fullmetal Alchemist in Order

Many people are confused about the two series from Fullmetal Alchemist, the 2003 version, and Brotherhood (2009).Many people also think that Brotherhood is a sequel from 2003 so it is considered a 2nd season.But it is not!Both are separated serial adaptations!Even so, it is still recommended to watch the Brotherhood version first, then follow up with the 2003 version if you want to get a more detailed storyline in the first half, and get a different ending in the second half.After that, it was followed by several other releases starting from films to specials.Here is the list!- Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - TV Series (2009) - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos - Movie (2011) - Fullmetal Alchemist - TV Series (2003) - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa - Movie (2005) - Fullmetal Alchemist: Reflections - Special (2005) - Fullmetal Alchemist: Premium Collection - OVA (2006) - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 4-Koma Theater - Special (2009) - Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Specials - Special (2010) - Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Specials - ONA (2011)To see the connection between each other, you can see the following image:

Fullmetal Alchemist continues today as one of the best anime series ever made. Not only does this collector edition deliver show justice, but it's also arguably one of the best Blu-ray releases Funimation has ever created.Moreover, it's a considered safe for younger audiences (9+)But overall, it's a series about two brothers who made a mistake and are trying to fix it. Since they are young, I think children over the age of 9 will benefit a lot from the story. But it's also a story that adults enjoy! So, you can make the Blu-ray as part of a gift for your children, as well!Watch it with your child and enjoy the ride quality.It's Worth Watching!!!Overall, it's an incredible series. This is recommended for anime fans, fantasy, and sci-fi fans (unless you can't stand Japanese manga).Fullmetal Alchemist is arguably one of the best TV series.An adrenaline-fueled action scene with exhilarating matches and creative use of special skills.Fight to protect your loved ones, even in desperate times. We also have data about how exciting the series is according to the average viewers and its fans!

Data Based on the Anime Community in MAL It's also good for newcomers, in case you want to spread the weeb virus to your friends!Many of them, as newcomers, can be difficult to navigate to find out what might be in your alley.But today I'm here to tell you — Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is the perfect beginner anime in every respect.So, let's talk a look at the Blu-ray list below! 2003 Blu-ray: The Complete Series

This was not only the first Blu-ray release of the original FMA anime but also the first to be released in one complete package.  Let's Watch It! The show itself was great. It's usually people's opinion about which series is better. This or the Brotherhood. I look at this first sensation and say that this version focuses on many characters and you are becoming more fond of them. Next, take a look at Brotherhood. And the package itself was very clean and nice. My corner was a bit rough as it came with another item. It is provided in 6 discs and is about the same thickness as the volume of the compatriots. I think it's a great edition of the Blu-ray Anime collection. Recommended!! Brotherhood Blu-ray Funimation

Great animations, great voice acting, great characters, great plots.  Let's Watch it! This is top-notch for the people here. If you've never seen the original, you're following the manga more faithfully, so take a look. If you've seen the original, see this too. At first, it doesn't have the same emotional moments as the original anime but understands that they're trying to get past the old ones as soon as possible so they can reach that part. The Conqueror of Shamballa Blu-ray

First of all, if you're a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist, this is a must. That said... Let's Watch it! This was a great ending to the series. Fans who watched episode 51 before this seemed a little disappointed at the end of the series itself. It was fairly open-ended and had little effect on the actual character resolution. But the movie is fixing this. It's a great ride from start to finish that will satisfy you when the end credits start rolling. It's a good idea to watch the FMA at least enough to get to know the character, without giving anything, but ideally, you should have watched the entire series before watching the movie.When it comes to video/audio, movies look great on Blu-ray. The colors are vibrant, the audio is crisp and clear... There are a few issues with line consistency, all of which are significantly improved over DVDs. Premium Collection (OVA) DVD

If you like the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist, this is good for you. Well, if you like the series even a little, it's a good one to get again. So get it. Did you take it? good. Let's Watch it! It has four OVAs. It has been given a brief review of certain issues that are important to the world of Amestris and opposes alchemists in all states of the Homunculus (2003 series version).It's not interactive.  Instead, the viewer is addressed by different characters during the story, as if you were attending. This is followed by three short OVAs. The "Chibi Wrap Party" is set up as if the characters were gathering after the film "The Conqueror of Shambhala" was filmed. This is a live-action feature that shows that Al is looking for Ed in real-life Japan (models can be seen in various places in the live-action), and finally, Ed, Al, and Winry roam the modern city trying to meet someone for a special birthday. Read the full article

[rechiblogs108]

Wow, that’s awful and not to mention really dumb. They hate fan translators so much they’re willing to boycott it when those people finally worked on something legally? I don’t get what’s the point of ruining a good thing. Didn’t they want people to consume things legally?

I actually think it’s cool if fans were the ones to translate stuff legally cause from what I’ve seen, a lot of fans love something a lot that they’d give their best when working on them even for free. At least you know the fans are already familiar with the series they’d be translating.

Also, I kinda hate some of the ones I came across, too. I do feel guilty not being able to support authors and creators legally but it’s hard to do so because of the lack of money. Plus since the country I’m living in isn’t the US, anime/manga/legal stuff have to be shipped here and they’d have additional fees cause of that plus the money conversion meant that the thing is already too expensive on it’s own.

It sucks more when they say that us being unable to afford the legal stuff meant it’s not for us and we shouldn’t consume it at all.

I do try to support when I could though. I bought copies of the official translation of some of the manga I liked when I had money for them and I was gifted an official copy of an artbook I wanted which other fans had already posted online but I still wanted a physical copy. And there are lots of legal anime streaming channels on youtube now that I rarely watch anime in illegal sites unless the one I really wanted to watch isn’t available for free on youtube. (I also own a blu ray DVD collection of a certain anime I got from a giveaway but sadly, we don’t even own a bluray player cause we’re poor lol).

That said, manga had gotten more expensive over the years to the point I can’t buy them anymore. The ones that are cheaply sold are titles that aren’t really known. The popular ones are sold here for 600php+ and that’s if we’re lucky. Ones that aren’t being sold by bookstores here have to be bought through specialty shops that would order them abroad which meant additional shipping fees that could make the price 1000php+. That’s a huge amount for one copy of a book. To compare, our electric bill gets as high as 2000php+ every month and we don’t even own/use that many electronics so that price would be equal to 2 or 3 manga volumes. I’d hate to see how much anime DVDs cost.

I'm gonna say it. I fucking hate "legal readers" with all my fucking heart, soul and body. All of them can step on legos thrice a row and cry about it.

You see, sometimes consuming whatever entertainment media in Spanish is a fucking pain in the ass, because foreign corporations take their really long time to bring to us, Spanish speakers (specially LATAM ones, fuck Europe), that entertainment media we want to read/watch/listen to. So we of fucking course have to go with the method that all gringuitos in Twitter hate and moan and cry about: piracy. I'll be more specific: fan traslations of manhua. Sorry "legal readers" (I'm totally fucking using this way to call 'em as derogatory), but we read that shit illegally. But I'll be fair, they're aren't always gringos. Sometimes they're latinoamericanes too with really USA-poisoned brain.

You see, a month ago or so BiliBili made a public recruitment for Eng to Esp translators. When we saw this, we teared up with fucking joy. Finally! We can read in our language, in the App/Website! We can support our fave authors and illustrators! But most importantly, we won't depend of shitty business as Seven Seas! We, fans, can and will do the job we love to do because we love manhua! Joy, pure fucking joy.

That, until BiliBili just yesterday (or two days ago) realesed the Spanish version. Legal readers apparently were stupid enough to ignore the fact that since the beginning BiliBili was hiring fan traslators and fans in general for the job and when they saw that a lot of people and groups (like GreyHands, they made a great fucking job translating MDZS to Spanish, I'll be forever grateful) that did those illegal translations were NOW doing it LEGAL, they started a war.

"How DARE BiliBili to NORMALIZE illegal translations??? How DARE BiliBili to give job to those horrible bad BAD people who MAKE authors SUFFER when they translate illegally???? How DARE they to make the illegal legal????". They wanted to boycott BiliBili Comics for THIS. They started doxxing and harassing the people that now are working to translate manhua to Spanish (specially one specific person who said that they translation will be also uploaded to TMO [the MangaDex for Spanish speakers] besides BiliBili). But y'all want to know the best part? Those damn legal readers fuckers went to KOREAN authors and cried over this. Why? I think that even God doesn't know the answer, but the Korean authors also started the dumb as fuck discourse about this saying as well "how DARE BiliBili do this????".

Like. My good pendejos imbéciles, can y'all hide better your classism? Please? As a nice suggestion.

Piracy is the only option when corporations ignore your fucking existence until you start being loud enough for 'em to care. And sometimes is the only option when the corporations now know your existence but are absolute GARBAGE and want to abuse and do a really poor job. We LATAM, as a whole continent, are very poor. Things that bring us joy are expensive, we have to fucking survive but we still have the DAMN RIGHT to enjoy WHATEVER we want. And this includes manhua, donghua and danmei novels. And is also true for whatever people in whatever country that is poor. But those legal readers just HATE the fact that we can still ENJOY things. They hate that we can enjoy manhua in our very own language for free. I don't care what you pay, good for you that you can do that and you'll still have money to eat and pay rent and do other things, that's your problem. Good for you, truly. But this isn't everyones life. Why y'all legal readers hate the fact that FANS are working free for FANS to bring 'em joy? If I had enough money to survive AND buy things legally (implying that corporations treat the authors good and they don't steal absolutely anything from 'em) I'd do it in a heartbeat. Without doubt. But I can't, because I don't have that money but I have the right to be happy for a few minutes/hours. (And please don't fucking start the "Local Library Discourse" in the notes because I'll throw legos at y'all who do because gringos love every damn time to bring this up even tho you could be talking about a total different and unrelated subject.)

I'd hate to hate the fact that other people can enjoy things and be happy and find a job when they're poor or when they just want to be nice to poor fans.

--

People are quite dumb about piracy. They believe corporations' crying about how every illegal watch/listen is a lost sale, but it never is, even in rich countries.

[tigerlover16-uk]

What do you think of the argument from Super's detractors going around lately that Dragon Ball should have gone the route of Yu Yu Hakusho, and not have had any continuation series or other new stories made of it after Z (or at least GT) ended?

I can understand why they would think that. But I would hate it if that were the case

I get why people would think that, the Dragon Ball manga is a classic and a great work of fiction. I can understand people wanting to keep it “Sacred” or whatever. Some series really do need to end at a certain point, and some franchises can go on forever, and it can be a problem when a company tries to take a series from the former category and make it into the latter, only to drive it into the ground. I’ve seen that happen with shows I’ve loved, so I get the concern people have.

I also don’t care in this particular case.

It’s not a case like Naruto, where the story devolved into garbage long before it could reach a satisfying conclusion. Dragon Ball has what is essentially a complete story from the start of the manga to Goku going off to train Uub at the end.

No matter what the franchise does afterwards, we’ll always have this great, classic story. I believe the only real way for it to be tarnished is for fans to let Dragon Ball be ruined FOR them. It’s the same reason I’m not so worked up over how SpongeBob’s quality went down after the first movie, because the first 3 seasons and the movie will always be great no matter what and fans are free to ignore what came after if they don’t enjoy it.

And the fact is… I WANT more content. I want more Dragon Ball shows. I want to see a series set after EoZ starring Uub and Pan. I want spin-offs. I want more movies and specials, side manga, video games, I want lots and lots of new stories!

I want to see more stories featuring all of Dragon Balls great characters. I want to see Android 17′s family, and some interaction between them and Krillin’s family. I want to see Tien being a martial arts instructor at his dojo. Toriyama said he’d like to do a gag manga starring Mr Satan and Majin Buu, and I’d like to see that. I want to see Marron fleshed out into a more interesting character, maybe have her become an accomplished fighter.

I want to see the new characters introduced in Super better fleshed out and given more stories to feature in. Give me a Pride Troopers anime. Give Jaco an ongoing series following on from his own short manga. Give us an OVA about the Kamikaze Fireballs or Katopesla or the Trio De Dangers. Give us a story where Vegeta and Goku get to visit plant Sadala in universe 6 already. Give Kale a backstory and flesh out her character better, fix some of the issues her writing had in the current saga. Give us a movie about Hit.

I want Dragon Ball to go on forever. I want to explore every character, every corner of the multiverse, every last bit of interesting story potential there is to offer. I want more lore, more development for a lot of characters, more slice of life stories and cute shippy moments like we’ve been getting in Super. I want more epic fights that make me throw my fist up into the air and go “WHOO!”

I want… I just want more.

Call me selfish. Call me greedy and inconsiderate or that I don’t have the series best interests in mind. (I do, for the record, I want this content to be GOOD and I am capable of being critical of stuff). But I don’t care.

I love Dragon Ball. It means more to me than any other series. The kind of joy and fulfillment it filled me with as a kid was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced from any other series I’ve watched or read since. And it’s always felt like a part of my soul has been missing in the time since i finished watching all three of the old anime as a kid, and it only came back when Battle of Gods and then Super itself became a thing.

I know Super is flawed, that it’s screwed some things up. but it’s also been the biggest source of comfort in my life for the last two years I’ve been keeping up with it.

Because i never really thought Dragon Ball would come back. Sure, before Battle of Gods we did get the occasional new content. The Yo! Son Goku and his Friends Return special for example (Which i always found underwhelming anyway), and some less than stellar ovas like Episode of Bardock and Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans. Dragon Ball SD was fun, I could never find most of the video games that came out last decade, especially since i didn’t have the means to buy things online until about Christmas 2013. And Kai was a thing, but that was just Dragon Ball Z minus the filler and with a much better dub. And for some stupid reason the Dragon Ball Heroes content still hasn’t made it’s way Westward.

But none of this stuff really satisfied me. I was still desperate for more. When i heard Battle of Gods was a thing it felt like a Godsend, even if it was frustrating to wait for the dvd to come out. But even then I didn’t expect we’d get an actual new series, with Resurrection F on the horizon I thought the occasional movie and special would be the best it was going to get. I can’t even tell you how happy I was when Super was announced.

So, I can’t relate to people who want Dragon ball to have just ended completely with Z. Because as much as I love the series and revisiting it, I’ve never been satisfied with the relative drought of content since i finished watching it. I don’t want Dragon ball to end, to go away, or be relegated to the occasional side media. I want to be drowned in new Dragon Ball content every year of my life.

I love other shows, games, movies, comics and manga, etc. There’s a lot of franchises that fill me with joy and make my troublesome mess of a life feel bearable and worthwhile. But none of them compare to Dragon Ball. My life would be a lot worse off if Super wasn’t a thing, if Dragon ball had just largely been left alone after Z or GT ended. heck, the main reason i hated GT so much is BECAUSE it tried to be a definitive end for the series while not telling any really worthwhile stories to me. And I don’t ever want to go back to waiting years at a time for scraps of content.

And luckily it doesn’t look like I’ll have to. We’ve been getting a lot more video games that I’ve really loved, like the Xenoverse Series, Fusions and FighterZ. We have a new movie to look forward to this year, and even with Super supposedly ending, that recent interview that Herms translated all but confirms that there WILL be a new Dragon Ball series coming up relatively soon, and that Toriyama has more plans for where he wants to take the story.

And the Dragon Ball Room is a thing now, showing that Toei is committed to producing as much new fun Dragon Ball content as possible into the foreseeable future, they’ve already given us Dragon Ball Fusions and that Reborn as Yamcha manga, both of which were enjoyable.

So, I’m very happy with how things are looking. Yeah, there are problems, but that’s to be expected. EVERY major franchise is going to have bad content from time to time, that’s to be expected. but it’s not the end of the world as long as we do continue to get good stuff, and honestly I’m actually pretty hopeful that Toei is going to take this brief hiatus with Super and learn from the mistakes they‘ve made to give the next Dragon Ball series a longer, better planned out production schedule so that the next series turns out as good as it can.

And if some people don’t like the recent content? They still have Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. Those series and the manga are never going anywhere, they’re still as great as they’ve ever been. Sorry if those people can’t enjoy the recent stuff, i feel for them, but that some people inevitably won’t be satisfied is not going to stop me from being optimistic and looking forward to future content, because I’ve waited half my life for Dragon Ball to officially be back and I am going to make the most of it.

Argue all you want that I’m self-centred or that I’m wrong, but I don’t care. This is how I feel, I want Toei to make as much new Dragon Ball content as possible. So far I’m mostly happy with how things are going, and I don’t want things to slow down anytime soon. 

[icharchivist]

Where can I read hxh?

Heyo Nonny! 

Oh my so there’s no real easy answer to that so i’ll try to make it as easy as possible.

Note: The manga is amazing, i’ll die defending it. If you are a newcomer, welcome. If you watched the 2011 anime, I hereby recommand you to read the manga from the start because a few scenes had been missing from the manga. If you really want to just jump where the anime stopped, know the 2011 anime stopped at chapter 339. 

Don’t forget to check out the bonus chapters though (chapter 340.5 and 340.6 are extremely important and can be read once you read chapter 18 imo, since it gives more insight for future arc. Believe me.)But really you should start from the start of the manga. 

(If you come because you watched 1999, you need to read the manga from the start since 1999 is not really accurate to the events of the manga, while with 2011 it’s a question of (albeit important) missing scenes. So read from the start.)

Most translations online aren’t all that good, there’s multiple things to take into consideration, so i’ll give the best links I know of. If you find a translation odd in the versions you decide to read, I definitly recommand you to check another source to see if it would make more sense. 

tl;dr: Imo, read the manga on Managaseeonline, stop at chapter 339 on it. Read chapter 340 on another source (Maybe mangapanda). And from that point on, read everything there is on Mangastream. (and you can read chapter 340.5 and 340.6 after chapter 18 for a better experience.)

In detail:

Managaseeonline has the full American Viz version of the manga in HD 

Pros: -It’s in high quality, -this is the official translation. -Togashi redrew a lot of his chapters between the magazine publication and the manga publication when his health was very low, so reading the official volumes is probably for the better to have the full work. From about chapter 340 I think though those are the magazine chapters versions.-It has the Hisoka’s backstory chapter written by Ishida, Tokyo Ghoul’s author. It was a gift for Togashi and it’s not canon at all, but it’s nice to know about. Most website don’t have it in the hxh page and it can be hard to find so you can read it on chapter 356.5.-The website allows you to read the chapter page by page or show the full chapter in one page so you just have to scroll without flipping pages. 

Cons: -Some translations in the early volumes (up to volume 4 I think) had been regularly wrong. Some scenes had been “No homo”ied a little sometimes. Some major translation flaws can happen sometimes. In doubt, check other websites. If you watched the anime and find a line to be really off from the translation you ahd, try to check other sources just in case. (especially since the anime has its own mistranslations.)-Censure. HxH’s manga is far more bloody than the anime, but that is kept in the American version. What isn’t though, is the whole genital stuff. There’s actually quite a few of those that had been censured in this version. If you’re curious and think something is phallic, you can check uncensured versions online.-Chapter 340, 340.5 and 340.6 had been deleted and they are extremely important chapter. Try to find them on another sources before carrying on with the story. (tbh I’d even recommand reading chapters 340.5 and 340.6 before the York New Arc if you can, trust me.)

Mangastream. They are the official fan-translator of hxh. 

-Pros: -HD versions of the scans-Generally the most accurate translations-They are basically the one doing the translations you see everywhere-They correct their mistakes with translations. They sometimes do some mistakes in translations, but try to fix it right away. I bring it up because a lot of website steals the first version of the chapter and not the corrected version of the chapter. As a result you can find major mistranslation on other sources that you won’t see on Mangastream. (a huge one came out in chapter 361 and was spread around and only Mangastream corrected it, so I beg you to read the latest chapters on MS.)-They have chapter 340.5 and 340.6 (Kurapika’s Reminiscences)-When the manga comes out, they translate everything pretty fast.-It’s uncensored. 

Cons: -They only keep on their website the latest chapters out. They have from chapter 341 and onward. So you’ll still need to find chapter 340.-No “read the full chapter on one page” option-That’s it that’s the only flaw.

Other sources to compare to if you need - most of them have the same pros and cons so i’ll lurp them together.

-Mangapanda/Mangareader/Mangafox/Kissmanga/Mangatown

Pros:-They all have chapter 340 which is the one chapter neither of the two website i highly recommand have.-On some later arcs, the translations on their websites are from Mangastream so it’s usually good translations-The translations on the earlier arcs are usually English translations from the French translation. Which is therefore, a different translation.-In both case: If things bothers you with the others translations, try and check on there.-The chapters are usually uncensored. -Usually the chapters are either from the French Volumes (so volume redraws) or from the Magazine parution (so before Togashi redrew them)

Cons:-The Magazine parution’s drawings can be really sketchy so it can turn off some people. I know some people had a hard time reading them, I personally don’t mind. But I do think it’s maybe better to read the final versions Togashi worked on.-The scans from the early volumes are seriously from a low quality, it is really distracting.-I know it’s translated from the french because I remember seeing untranslated french sentences here and there. Also the French translation, while good (I own it) still has a lot of flaws, and I think translations from Japanese -> French -> English can be really confusing.-The scans on the latest arcs are rather good, but for after chapter 341 it’s really better to check on Mangastream to not have mistranslation.

Also at last, check out hunterxhell’s meta if you can, since they often comes back on common mistranslation. They are full of spoilers though but really important.

I think that’s the best I can say, sorry I rambled again but I really want to help for the best experience possible.

At best really, do what i said on the tl;dr.

I hope it’ll help enough ;;;

Take care nonny!!!

[spaceghetti-queen]

GinSherry Translation (official German manga version)

I already said that the official German translation of Gin and Sherry’s encounter in manga vol. 24 is quite different from the English one... So I decided to translate the German version (in a super professional manner btw), which I personally prefer to the English one ! The English one sounds rather matter of factly, while the German translation actually uses very lyrical and inimate langue.  Disclaimer:  I translated from the official German Manga and compared it to the unofficial English version I found online. I chose to only translate the pages where Gin mentions Sherry or when they’re talking to each other.  scans by @noitaflamequeen translation by me and noita, any typos are my own

long post ahead! Just keep reading :D 

*original word: “Die Kleine” (in this case: used by (usually older) men referring to younger girls. Could be compared to “the chick” or “babe” but since both words sound ridiculous we translated it to “The girl”. Note: German-speaking girls tend to dislike this term since it’s putting you in a lower position than the speaker. “klein”= small) 

*please mind Gin The Poet™

*in the English version, Gin tells Sherry that he wanted her to die more “beautiful” but in the German one he actually says he wants her to die with dignity. I found this to be quite a huge difference. If you want someone to die with dignity you respect that person in some way or another... just saying.

*the option thing. In the English trans. there’s no mention of any “options”. But if you read it like this in German, it sounds like “If you talk, I might have the option of letting you live.”. Again, huge difference.

Vermouth uses the term “die Kleine” as well, she’s belittling Sherry.  *original: “Also die hat es dir aber ganz schön angetan...” means that Sherry has an effect on Gin. In German, you use this phrase to tease someone who’s highly interested in/ fond of someone/something (affectionate way). 

[simonaott904-blog]

20 Resources That'll Make You Better at digimon world dawn

Digitize PSP Cheats And Methods ~ Cheathunter

Following a success of Disney's 1937 film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Japanese domestic anime market confronted severe pressure from international filmmakers. Nelson Chitty can be a Venezuelan expat residing in Argentina. He's a writer and translator passionate about background and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is definitely spent between leisurely games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon. Not only was it a switch of pace when it comes to the Digimon themselves, however the human heroes also get a lot more tale than most seasons. There are some actual heart-tugging occasions and hints throughout of impending tale beats that produce rewatching a lot of fun.

Honestly, there is little reason to play this title today. Regularity with the parameters established initially by the series redeems Digimon Globe to a certain extent, emboldened in the eye of fans who appreciate simulation type games; however, that is easily one of the worst titles to try and grab today. Online. A players shuffled deck is placed face down right here. Cards drawn into the player's hand are extracted from the Online pile. I love the Assassin's creed series along with both Dead Space games. In modern times, butterflies are extremely common in Japanese anime and manga. Most often, butterflies represent a character's fleeting thoughts or dreams.

Digimon Globe for the PS1 is a great game if you enjoy Tamagotchi style gameplay. You need to raise and train them carefully in fact it is better to follow a information so that you can train the correct stats to make sure your Digimon digivolves into the particular monster you want. Once you have them digivolved you possess a certain amount of gametime before they will die and then you have to retrain the hatched Digimon. The main storyline revolves around you exploring to find a specific Digimon and recruit it back again to the village.

The English dub cast is fantastic and they are the reason I blind bought this anime without seeing it on legal streaming in Japanese. In the movie, Digimon Adventure which was a prelude to the Digimon series, no one knew the way the gateway between the Digital World and real life was activated. All they saw was just a moment when Digimon could travel from one to the other. Pokémon fans will immediately recognise the gameplay method of Best Fiends and can enjoy what it has to offer. When you begin out, you'll have the option between three different starter creatures (audio familiar?), and from there, you will http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=digimon start your journey to be the best.

Digimon Globe: Data Squad exists predominately as a tie-in for the recent Digimon: Data Squad anime series, so it shouldn't be too astonishing that the overall game spends short amount of time on character introductions and cuts straight to the flimsy plot. There's a great evil in the digital globe that's causing Digimon to do something all crazy, threatening to break through to the real world, and it's really up to the spiky-haired, androgynous Data Squad to investigate. Making things personal, younger sister of one of the associates of the info Squad, along with a bunch of additional young girls, has gone missing, plus they believe there's a connection. Characters will occasionally pop-up to shout some awkward dialogue, but once all the parts are set, the rest of the game is mostly simply a long, tiresome dungeon crawl.

It's hard to just go through the game at start state and realize the scope of what it was doing, the way that it had been forcing the industry to rethink several long-held assumptions about grouping and leveling. Certainly it wasn't noticeable to the devs at Blizzard, who (if memory serves) implemented the solo-friendly leveling framework because they wished to allow players in to the raiding endgame quicker and more efficiently. It had been only later that they realized just how much people recommended a more accessible framework and what that actually meant for the game's development.

I've only performed the first Digimon Globe, so I have no idea how it prices alongside the others. But I could say it's lots of fun. You teach up your Digimon, travel the island discovering new Digimon to provide to the town which grows the more people join. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary Content material in this edit is normally translated from the existing Russian Wikipedia article at :ru:Digimon Adventure; see its history for attribution.

On the Android side, Google's fiercest competition originates from - who else? - Samsung. The Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus had been released at the start of the year, and they utilize the same Snapdragon human brain as both of the PIxel 2s. Beyond that, their expansive Infinity Displays are almost beyond reproach and conveniently outshine the panels Google used this year. Both likewise have excellent cameras, even though I prefer what Google has achieved with the Pixels, the S8s have hook edge in low-light photography. Honestly, the decision boils down to software program: The S8s still run a version of Android 7.0 Nougat painted over with Samsung's custom interface. It's swimming in Samsung apps too, including the lackluster Bixby virtual assistant. Google's cleaner approach, coupled with the guarantee of software updates for three years, can make the Pixels more attractive to some.

I by no means claim this is a blacks versus whites issue. Multiculturalism could be applauded by blacks, since they get black background month, etc etc etc. Nonetheless it was created, promulgated, trained, and defended by whites who are ashamed of their own competition; ashamed by their very own country; and who would like everything America has stood for to become turned upside down-deconstructed. If you feel "popular 'old college' samurai anime," you imagine Rurouni Kenshin. The anime adaptation was manufactured in 1996, and was directed by Furuhashi Kazuhiro. Originally a manga (Japanese comic) series, Rurouni Kenshin follows the tale of Himura Kenshin, a wandering samurai through the Meiji period who utilized to be a skilled assassin working for the Bakumatsu government.

Digimon Globe Championship on the Nintendo DS is sort of like an upgraded type of the original Digimon games that were virtual-pets. You feed and care for your Digimon, and help them digivolve into more powerful forms. Championship is also very, very, VERY dull. There is very little gameplay in this game; your Digimon pals do all your work for you. All you have to to do is be sure that they are taken care of, which isn't exciting whatsoever. Championship looks wonderful for a game on the DS, and it does provide good nostalgia for individuals who grew up with the original Digimon virtual pet playthings. Notwithstanding that, Championship is certainly virtually Digimon for babies.

Stingmon is one of the more recognizable Digimon to anyone who was raised viewing the anime. Stingmon 1st showed up in the anime in Digimon Adventure 2 where he served as an antagonist for the 1st part of the time of year. Although Stingmon seems to be a Digimon with a cool head that's ready to battle at any time, his rookie type Wormmon is certainly a wimp and may never state what's on its mind. One of the major factors that produce Stingmon so cool is the drastic transformation in personality after digivolving. Stingmon's character is a key factor down the road when Stingmon becomes an excellent man and pairs up with his former rival Veemon creating an ideal balance between the two. Stingmon may not become the coolest Digimon on appearance alone, but he is certainly one of the coolest in the Digimon Universe all together.

What does inspire though, may be the video game that accompanies the cartoon. You play it in real life pretty much exactly as you see it performed by the individuals on the TV. Minus the huge battling monsters. The game includes magnetic transforming Bakugan monsters that start out as spheres, but when they encounter the magnetic Gate cards they unfold to reveal the creature inside. If you want to discover ways to play Bakugan, you can try the official website. There are all types of trick shots and in depth strategies you can devise when playing this video game. It's so popular Toys R Us provides been hosting tournaments around the US.

The anime is based on a Capcom video game group of the same name, and takes place during the digimon world 4 agumon digivolutions Sengoku, or the Warring States Period, in Japan. Two young warlords from rivaling regions form an alliance to bring down Oda Nobunaga, the Devil King. A Chinese manhua was written and drawn by Yuen Wong Yu (余 遠鍠 Yu Yuen-wong), who based its storyline on the television series. This adaptation addresses Digimon Experience in five volumes, Digimon Adventure 02 in two, Digimon Tamers in four, and Digimon Frontier in three. The original stories are seriously abridged, though on rare occasions events play out differently compared to the anime.

In Japan, nine Digimon anime movies have been released. Seven of these are related to their anime series. Of the nine all but two have been released worldwide. Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode and X-Evolution are the two that have not really been released internationally. Minato Sahashi is an intelligent son, but because of his inability to deal with pressure he's unemployed and failed university exams twice. One day he meets a girl named Musubi, who actually falls from the sky. Minato learns that she is a Sekirei who chose him as her Ashikabi: a human which allows a Sekirei to bring out her full powers and participate in life-threatening battles.