Manga eBook World Tour

I got an Android tablet recently, so I've been exploring the various manga eBook options in a bit more depth. Before that, I did play with the various PC eBook apps, but now I can say for certain that the reading experience on a desktop or laptop is inferior to that on a tablet. Since I've dipped my toes into various eBook systems on both sides of the Pacific, I'm going to get up on my soapbox to say a little about each one.

But first, I'll talk about the general state of things. The biggest problem with eBooks for manga is image quality. Tone moire is a huge downer, and most of the stuff I've bought exhibits moire to some degree. Some are just plain bad scans though, and it's the lack of attention to detail that keeps me from enthusiastically going digital.

The second issue is DRM. The failure of JManga shows that the DRM zealots are absolutely right: you have little control over the content you've purchased. If the store goes belly-up or the licensing server goes down, you're SOL. So you have to ask yourself, is this store/service going to be around in five years? With the bigger players, there's less of a risk (you would hope), but some of the little guys might be questionable in that regard.

A few years ago I wouldn't have even considered eBooks, but after moving house a couple of times, I'm starting to come around. Books are light individually, but heavy in aggregate. And since manga tends to multiply like rabbits, it's a particularly painful situation. While I'm not really sure what I'm going to do in the long run, I'm exploring my options. This eBook tour is part of it.

New project: Natsunokumo

My new(-ish) project is Rokurou Shinofusa's Natsunokumo, a joint effort with Second Hand Scans (note NSFW). This will not come as news to those of you who follow scanlations, but here's the blurb anyway.

Natsunokumo is a manga set in an online world. Generally when I hear the words "online world", I reach for my gun, so to speak, but in this case the setup's a little different. So let's start over. Natsunokumo is a manga about psychological counseling in an online world. Now that's a whole different kettle of fish, and one much more to my taste. The MMO aspects serve as a framework for presenting a very much character-driven plot.

Those of you in the know will recognize this as an old MangaScreener project, and indeed I would probably never have read it if that wasn't the case. I wasn't too enamored with it at first, to be honest, but once it got going I was pretty impressed. So I'd like to see it through to the end. I'm no Stephen Paul, alas, but I'll do my best.

We've finished up volume 4 and are starting volume 5. Like always, don't expect rapid releases — as Aesop taught us, slow and steady wins the race, so long as your opponents are sleeping on the job.

P.S. What does the title mean? "Summer Spider" is one interpretation, given that the subtitle is "Spinning Web". A homonym, and perhaps a more prosaic reading, would be "Summer Clouds": I'm thinking the ones that roll in on short notice and unleash thunderstorms.

YKK Re-scan Project

Readers of this blog (whoever you are) might be interested to hear that a YKK Re-scan Project has just started up. The intent is to use scans of the recent YKK reprint and translations from Neil and the Gnomes. They're looking for people to help out, so go take a look if it sounds interesting to you.

September Update: The effort seems to be dead. To be sure, high-quality scanlation is a lot more effort than it seems from the outside, so I don't blame them one bit. By the way, anyone feel like mortgaging their house to buy the YKK rights?

KnI chapter 20 and announcement

Isaki makes it to Kouzu, but he (and co.) still have a ways to go before they reach Mt. Fuji. They're about halfway there.

This is the end of volume 3; Kabu no Isaki has ended in Japan at 6 volumes, so this also marks a halfway point in the series as a whole. When I started this project, I had no idea how far I would take it. Progress has been slow at times (okay, all the time) so I'm somewhat surprised that I've made it this far.

But enough navel-gazing. I'd like to announce that I'm dropping the project. With the exception of revisions to volumes 1 and 2, I don't expect to do any more work on this series. But before you despair, let me add that Roselia Scanlations will be taking up the reins. What's more, I expect them to release quite a bit faster than I ever would.

As for the overall status of [dou], various loose ends are being worked on. This year may end up being even more slowbro than ever, but we will see how it goes.

Kabu no Isaki chapter 19

Welp, here we go again. Almost done with volume 3.

Kabu no Isaki chapter 18

View Larger Map

I tried to find a pine forest in modern-day Chigasaki but I was not successful. By the way, zoom out on the Satellite imagery and gawk at how large the Tokyo metro area is.

Kabu no Isaki chapter 17

What's this? Less than a month between releases? I bet it's just a dream, no way that could happen.