Kappa Ball - Eva Link

Momoe from Oofuri Anime Eps. 6

As a follow up to the Kappa Balls post. The coach Momoe looks to be casted from the same mold as Misato-san.

Oofuri anime & Shion no Ou - impressions

The Oofuri anime [1] is close to the manga, but is nicely
paced and the animation is well done. There are bits
'n pieces that are nice additions like the Mihoshi
Academy boys paying homage to the Nishiura younger
manager. It does well in retaining the alternatingly
goofy and dramatic scenes of the manga. Like when Abe
went looking for Mihashi right before the practice
game, there was just enough super-deformed and tension
breaking lines to make that scene work.

The Shion manga [2] was well drawn and I liked the overall
feel. The anime [3] kept close to the original, but I felt like the
director sleep walked through the adaptation except
when he transformed Shion into a lollicon. The
manga had a clean presentation that was lost in the
animation, especially when it came to the color
palette. Shion herself was made more scruffy with her
hair and her unbuttoned navel button. Where the manga
had a more cool and eerie air to her character design,
these subtleties were entirely lost on the animator
who gave her reddish, doughy cheeks a la Kamichu. Ugh.

Shion manga, I give a read rating. To the Shion anime,
I would say skip except when bored.


[1] fansubbed by Entropy & Saizen (watched up to eps 4)
[2] "Shion no Ou" scanlated by Hanashi (Vol 1 & Vol 2 ch 7-9) and Xiphias (Vol 2 ch 10-11).
[3] "Shion no Ou" anime episode 1 fansubbed by Live Evil, who did a good job, but I just didn't like the source material.

Recommended Scanlations: Kappa Ball & an Inverted Aunt

Today, I have two recommendations from manga scanlations. The first is Higuchi Asa's "Ookiku Furikibatte" [1] or Oofuri. It's been made into an anime series already. The quickest description would be: what if Ikari Shinji played baseball? The main character's actual name is Mihashi Ren.

Ren loves baseball. He is caught looking in on the baseball team during practice and is dragged into the team meeting by the manager Momoe. Once Momoe learned that he was a pitcher in Jr. High, she tries to make him the ace. Strangely enough, he refuses. Ren confesses that his teammates hated him in middle school, because he was put into the position by his grandfather who owns Mihoshi Academy. They also lost every game with him at the helm.

The catcher tests Ren and finds out that he lacks power, but has incredible accuracy. The first roadblock to Koshien is Ren's insecurity stemming from his previous team's ostracizing him.

Ren (bottom) in action confronting his old junior high team.

Hisaguchi is effectively at creating and growing her characters, which takes Oofuri beyond just-another-baseball-manga. It's a human journey with lots of weird and quirky travelers. The artwork is effective, the action is well paced, and the writing is skillful, making Oofuri a standout work.

Ren in Kappa-deformed mode

The second recommendation is Unita Yumi's "Usagi Drop", which was scanlated by the relatively new group J-sis. J-sis, Josei Shoujo Independent Scans, specializes in older shoujo and josei, which is a welcome change of pace from the dominance of shoujo and shounen.

The story starts with 30 year old Daikichi who is attending his grandfather's funeral service. At the memorial, he runs into a quiet girl named Rin. He is shocked to find out that Rin is his grandpa's illegitimate and unwelcome daughter. Little Rin is actually his aunt.

After the memorial, all of his relatives want to pass off Rin and even talk sending her to government services. At that point, Daikichi becomes disgusted and rashly offers to take her in.

On the surface, "Usagi Drop" is reminiscent of "Baby and Me" [2], "Aishiteruze Baby" [3], or obliquely of "Asatte no Houkou" [4]. However, the snarky Daikichi and silent Rin gives it a very different atmosphere from these other works. Unita manages to connect the characters through the deceased grandfather with feeling, without resorting to sentimentality. The quiet main characters are also well served by Unita's clean dark lines.

Daikichi & Rin share a quiet moment.

Another well placed element is Reina. The other adults favor her energy. She also repeats and reflects the opinions of the adults, which are conventional and spiteful. Both of these aspects annoy Daikichi.

Daikichi spending a less quiet time with his niece Reina.

So far Daikichi comes across as a stand-up guy, who isn't popular because of his honesty. He is a sympathetic and realistic. "Usagi Drop" has a lot of potential, much of which depends on what Daikichi decides to do next.

The character designs are also fresh and well drawn. We can hope that more character driven works like Oofuri and "Usagi Drop" get brought over in the near future.

[1] Volume 1, most of 2, and parts of 3 scanlated by Entropy. The end of Vol 2 to 6 scanlated by Raep Time as of this entry.
[2] "Baby and Me" features a boy that takes care of his little brother in the absence of a mother. Featured in Shoujo Beat by Viz.
[3] "Aishiteruze Baby" has idiot, bishounen Kippei become a surrogate parent for his adorable cousin Yuzuyu. This one has a lot of heart. The anime is more focused than the manga. I count the lead female's unusual voice acting as a plus. The manga is available in the US an a takubon under the Shoujo Beat imprint.
[4] "Asatte no Houkou" starts with a man taking care of a young relation Karada. Karada makes a wish with her guardian's ex-lover and manages to switch ages with her. Things become awkward in a hurry.

English Adaptation/Proofing

I just finished proofreading my 2nd assignment for Ivy Scans. From what I've seen, scanlations are usually broken up into 4 roles: scan, translate, edit/typeset & proof/QC. Scanning is the transfer from paper to digital copy.

Translation is usually from Japanese or Chinese to English. The first one that I worked on Desert Storm Story 3 passed from Japanese to Chinese to English. The second "Hana Saita" is directly from Japanese to English.

Editing seems to focus on visually cleaning up the scan. I've seen the raw scans and realize how much work goes into a cleaned up version that you see on their website. Typesetting transfers the translation onto the digital image. In a one-otaku show like Janimes, one font fits all. The Ivy Scan team has its own standards, I was impressed when I first saw it. They're more organized than my workplace when it comes to presentation.

What is called proofreading by scanlators is known as English adaptation to professional translators. In theory, the translator should be able to skip this step. In reality, there are precipitous gaps between languages and a wide gulf between readable English and enjoyable English. An example of a gap between East Asian languages and English is the "identifier". I'm not a linguist, so my explanation may be off, but in Japanese and Chinese there are words that specify a round object or a machine or tool.

For example, we say "three sheets of paper". Sheets identifies the paper as a flat, thin object. The difference is that objects take on identifiers the majority of the time, also there are a bunch of identifiers. We don't say "six machines cars" or "three round-objects balls". A common Chinese joke is the kid that mixes up the identifier and object. Now imagine trying to translate that. In construction, we often say "it is what it is" when it comes to prices. The same tautology gives a reality check in languages.

As for the gulf between muddling through a story and liking it, I will paraphrase a business writing teacher and say "we work hard so the reader doesn't have to".

Quality control is the final check of the cleaned up and text set scan, ready for public consumption.

Anyway, I've always thought that Ivy Scans produced high quality scanlations, so I'm happy to be contributing and hope that I can keep up.

03/22/08 Addendum: Innocent Dragon Chapter 1a is out, it's the first work that I contributed to. I was excited.