October Raws and Announcement

Big-boob Glasses-san got the food and is all ready to serve her boss-chan. Too bad M-sama needs a new toy.

Triage X c39 raw

It really doesn't look like this series will be picked up, so to continue reading I would suggest you go buy Volume 5 on Amazon. It may or may not ship early (official release is Jan. 2014).

Remember that time back in high school when you slept over at your young, hot teacher's apartment for private lessons and you accidentally saw her panties a lot and accidentally made her rather large breasts pop out? Me neither. Takeru, you lucky bastard...

Maken-Ki! c63 raw


I've been anticipating this for a while and have thus been hinting at it, but it's time to make the official announcement: I will no longer be getting Monthly Dragon Age each month. This means I will no longer be posting raws of Maken-Ki! and Triage X. I hope you will all understand. I'll still try to keep up with any relevant news and post it here, but it won't be quite the same when I don't have the original source. This was a necessary move for me, so please don't hold it against me.

Necro;Chronicle will hopefully be done soon.

HOTD and Triage X: Answering Questions

Over the last year or so I've been getting a lot of questions that have increased in frequency of late as to when/if I will continue the Triage X (and HOTD to an increasingly lesser extent) scanlations. I think my answers have been a little vague, but the truth is I wasn't really sure what I was going to do until recently. It's time to bring you some clarity.

First off, I've been saying this more or less for a while, but I guess I can make it official: I will no longer be involved in scanlating HOTD or providing related raw scans--that is, aside from illustrations and stuff that appear in Dragon Age. Now that Yen Press will be releasing chapters right away and even selling their versions of other material like the art book, there is no reason for me to continue. I'll continue to give you links to new chapters and of course updates on any news out of Japan, but I will not allow any link to free pirated versions of Yen Press' published material on this site.

That was an easy decision; Triage X, on the other hand, gave me a lot more trouble. As some of you know, I've been struggling to find a translator for the series for some time now with no luck. All the while Yen Press has been slowly catching up on their releases. Since YP releases a volume every 3 months or so and a new Japanese volume comes out every 5 months roughly, I think it's safe to assume the official translations will catch up to the Japanese at some point and simultaneous monthly chapters are a logical step after that. Because of this, my inability to find interested translators, and my general desire to move away from licensed series I have decided to officially drop Triage X. I will still give you monthly raws (for a while at least), but scanlation will not continue as far as I'm concerned.

So to make it clear: I will no longer be involved in scanlating HOTD or Triage X. I have officially dropped both series. I will continue to bring you news and announcements about both series, though.

I'm not closing shop just yet. I still have Necro;Chronicle and Maken-Ki! Kai!! and I have a few things that I may get to in the future (even one for HOTD fans). And of course, monthly Dragon Age updates will continue as long as I can afford it or enough donations come in. Really not much has changed except that I took a few links down and I can now give a definite answer to the questions I'm getting.

For good measure I've decided to start helping English-speaking fans find official material and support the series, so I'll be providing links to the products. Here are the latest releases for each series on Amazon:

Triage X Volume 3 (latest release)
Triage X Volume 5 (pre-order)

HOTD Act.30
HOTD Color Omnibus 2 (pre-order)

I know some of you will be disappointed, but please try to keep comments civil. I am a human being living in the real world, and I'm doing my best to balance this hobby from my college days with real life.

Possible Highschool of the Dead News

First of all, thank you to Hammiam for bringing this to my attention.

I just wanted to give you my opinion on this so it doesn't get misconstrued and I hopefully don't get bombarded with questions. Go ahead and read this if you haven't already and please read the rest of this post after:

http://tinyurl.com/q5vnvp3

I am not considering this real news. It certainly is NOT an official announcement of any kind. There are no official sources for some points (those about Daisuke Sato's health and the earthquake are true and appeared in his recent interview for the FCE volumes). To save time, I'm going to copy what I said in a comment in another post:

Some of the things on that list I knew from the Daisuke Sato interview in the new FCE volumes. Some of it is logical conclusion. A few points (namely the ones that talk about what they're doing to work towards a return), though, I simply can't accept as fact without viable sources. I want to believe it, but this has to fall in the likely-but-unverifiable category. I believe that this person did research and dug up some facts, but then connected them through his own inferences and speculation.

There is too much here that goes beyond any official word I have heard for me to treat this as real news. I'll keep my eyes and ears open, and hopefully we can start confirming some of these points. I think the real proof will come in an announcement when the next chapter is ready.

The part about buying new chapters is absolutely true and actually makes me suspect someone under Yen Press' payroll is behind this, in which case it would be absolutely true. We'll see!

I know this won't do much good, but PLEASE don't go around the internet touting this as absolute fact. This is interesting and very believable, but it's a lot like investigative journalism: When you take some disjointed facts and connect the dots in a logical way, people tend to believe it.

So there you have it. I will, at the very least, use this information as a sort of checklist when I look for official, source-supported info in the future. Until then, buy the manga to support the authors, be happy that someone somewhere is doing something, and keep checking back for more information.

Monthly Dragon Age - July (6/9/2013)

Nothing in this issue about new Highschool of the Dead. This isn't that surprising since Shouji Sato just kicked off a sequel to Fire Fire Fire at the end of May with a new chapter coming out in a couple weeks.

By the way, in case you missed it, here is Black Sword c1 (raw):

http://mangabroadcast.jp/preview.php?cid=08000000HMSMPL3153A5

Gringe of XLG gave a quick synopsis for those of us non-Japanese readers:

http://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?id=17406&action=view&t=comments

The series is published by the online magazine Garaku no Mori. There doesn't seem to be a good way to get raws right now, but hopefully XLG will climb out of the abyss and pick it up when it is collected in tankoubon form.

Two new series in this issue. Firstly, the latest iteration of the BlazBlue manga adaptations, Calamity Trigger. I'm not sure where in the BlazBlue universe this fits in, but I'm pretty sure this is directly related to the anime adaptation coming later this year. The other is Dolls Fall, a sort of gritty psychological horror in the vein of Higanbana or Bloody Maiden that I would love to see picked up sometime (I'm talking to you, Village Idiot!).

The new chapter of Necro;Chronicle took a new direction, to say the least. When you see it you'll either be a loyal fan or done for good with this series. Look for it sometime this month. Unfortunately, I won't be posting raws for Maken-Ki! and Triage X for a little over a week. I'm going on vacation, and there's simply no time.


Oh, and just so you know, the iron-fisted censors at Dragon Age were on break this month:

This is exactly what it looks like...

 

Monthly Dragon Age - June (5/9/2013)

No word in this issue about the status of Highschool of the Dead. It's as if last month was just some collective dream, teasing us all with a taste before slinking slyly back to the abyss of speculative hype. As of now, it there does not seem to be any plan to release Act.31 next month. That could change between now and then, but don't hold out too much hope.

In any case, it seems like Yen Press has officially announced they are locked in to simultaneous releases for all new HOTD chapters. The way they handled Act.30 left a lot of room for improvement, which is something I'm confident they will do as they get more settled into what I'm choosing to call "official scanlation."

Two new series premiered in this issue. One is a shounen trope-heavy, high school romance moe-fest featuring rabbit girls aptly titled "Inaba Rabbits." Nothing special there. The other is one I may be a little excited about. It's called "Necro Chronicle," and it's another post-apocalyptic zombie series (could it be the replacement for HOTD?). After glancing through it, it appears to use the zombie apocalypse to guide the plot rather than put focus on a societal and infrastructural collapse like HOTD. The characters are younger and it obviously integrates more supernatural elements. Of course the most glaring difference from HOTD is that it seems to be more classically shounen, whereas HOTD isn't limited by the conventions of the genre. Anyway, this looks like it has a good deal of intrigue and readability for a magazine like Dragon Age, and I would like to pick it up see it get picked up by some other group.

I honestly wasn't expecting to get this issue until Monday. As such I need to get some other things done (including a bit of a surprise for you Maken-Ki! fans) before I can get Triage X and Maken-Ki! raws scanned and posted. It could be two or three days. Stay close.

This month, Matome x Saito continues to deliver the deepest camel toes this side of the Sahara.

The story's heroine is seen here sporting the too-cute Shimapan Frontthong from the new CervixHugger line:

Monthly Dragon Age - May (4/9/2013)

As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Highschool of the Dead makes its long-awaited return in this issue. Chapter 30 is available for purchase now from Yen Press and will be scanlated by Renzokusei Scans probably within the next few days. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there will be a new chapter next month, and there isn't any clear indication as to when Chapter 31 will be released. The last page features the "To be continued" message in place of a date. Don't worry, though, because there is no reason to think the series will go on another hiatus. It likely just means they haven't decided when to release the next chapter yet.

Yen Press left out a page in their release that wasn't part of the chapter, and it just happened to be the page with the chapters title on it. For those of you wondering, the title is "Act.30 intellect, emotion, and DEAD". The page is below.

I'm planning on doing a post with my thoughts on the new chapter later. I'll include a few pages for those of you who are waiting for the scanlation.

As a huge fan of the works of H. P. Lovecraft, I was excited when I learned this month's new series, "D.Y.N. Freaks", is based on Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos (the stories focusing on cosmic horror and his invented pantheon of gods). Upon further investigation, it seems the series is actually based on a card game and interactive novel called Cthulhu Mythos that is loosely based on the works of Lovecraft. I was a bit disappointed, especially after seeing how it is not remotely reminiscent of anything I read in Lovecraft. Still, it could be a nice horror replacement for Higanbana, which ended a few months ago. Lots of blood and darkness. I'll be interested to see if it gets picked up.

After a 13-chapter run (an appropriate number for this next series), "Aimane - Akuma na Kanojo o Produce" ends this month. It was a good series for ecchi, but I guess there wasn't enough interest in the talent-agent-meets-devil-girl-and-helps-her-become-idol scenario to keep it going. If you're looking for a quick read with plenty of panty shots, Japanzai has been scanlating it.

This doesn't really relate to this issue, but I need to clarify a mistake I made last month. I told you the
Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi anime was starting March 31, but that was actually the date for the first trailer. These things happen when don't read Japanese and try to guess what thing say. The anime is really starting in July.

I probably won't have the raws for Triage X and Maken-Ki! up until tomorrow. I may have my thoughts on Act.30 later today, but it'll more likely be tomorrow.

Oh and here's that poster:

 

Yen Press Releases Act.30 (Updated)

UPDATE 4:

(The Google Play version doesn't seem to have an option for purchase yet, but I'll go ahead with this post since my Dragon Age update is coming soon.)

At last, the new chapter is available on Google Play. Now you can finally read it on your PC or non-Android device. It's also now available on Barnes & Noble, which means it is available in all retailers and everyone should be able to read it now. Google's version works on everything.

If you simply have to read it for free or live outside the US, I want to urge you to wait for the scanlation. There is no good reason to read an illegally shared chapter that is an exact copy of something easily accessible and relatively cheap. The scanlation will be an alternative for those who want one; piracy is not.

I ended up reading the Kindle version yesterday on my Android phone, and I would recommend not reading it on a phone if you have the option. Buy it from Google and read on your PC or at the very least a tablet. I must say, though, I'm overall pretty happy with the chapter. Yen Press has definitely improved vastly since the first few printed volumes, both in translations and editing quality. Of course, I won't be able to judge for sure until I see the original (later today).

The only real problem I have with Yen Press is how they handled the release. They seem to have gotten ahead of themselves by promising a simultaneous release because they apparently did so without a final agreement with the ebook retailers. Furthermore, they put their focus on Apple products, making sure that version went active first. I know a lot of people have an iphone, but most people don't own an Apple device. If they're going to focus on getting one retailer active first, it needs to be Google Play since they make the file available across platforms, even on Apple devices. Someone at YP must be an Apple fanboy because those are the people who tend to think everyone in the world is like them.

I also find it unfortunate that YP isn't making it available internationally. If you live in the U.K., Australia, or pretty much anywhere outside North America, you'll have to wait for the scanlation.

Hopefully Yen Press will learn from this release and improve in the future, that is, if they continue these releases, which according to this post is the plan. This was the first one, so it's obviously not going to be perfect. The best thing you can do to make sure they improve is to let them know how they can make the next one better.

UPDATE 3:

Those of you with a Kindle can now buy the chapter through Amazon. I imagine many people (myself included) will still be waiting patiently. I thing Google Play is the only one of the retailers that will sell a version you can read on your PC.

Actually, if you have an Android device and don't mind reading the chapter on your phone, you can get Amazon's free Kindle for Android app. Personally, I think I'll wait just a bit longer to read it on a bigger and better screen.

UPDATE 2: 

Yen Press said on Twitter that the chapter has been made available to Android markets as well as iOS markets, but they have not gone live with it yet. Markets waiting to release the chapter include Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Google Play. You can get the chapter if you have an iOS device at the link below.


UPDATE 1:

Yen Press released Highschool of the Dead Act.30 through iBooks. As of now, it looks like you either need an Apple device or iTunes with a computer running iBooks and iOS. This is extremely frustrating, but hopefully they will make it more widely available in time. They're ignoring a HUGE part of their market by favoring Apple users. I'll keep you updated periodically.

ORIGINAL POST:

Yen Press has issues with Act.30 Release

Are we surprised?

First off, I should tell you I don't think the new Highschool of the Dead chapter is being released in the Yen Plus online magazine. I wouldn't buy a subscription. Not that you could anyway, because it seems their payment system isn't working properly. What a surprise...

It seems the new chapter is actually being sold through the Yen Press parent company Hachette Book Group. The product page for the regular ebook is here. They list myriad retailers through which to buy the chapter, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere. It looks like the promise of a "simultaneous" release was a lie. They could have released it as early as 9 AM EST yesterday, when it was officially April 9 in Japan. Now it is April 10 in Japan and we have no chapter. Nice job Yen Press or Hachette or whoever is responsible for this feeble attempt at bringing the fans what they want.

So I'd like to know from people if/when they are able to buy the chapter. The good thing in all of this is that it will only cost $1.99 now, so you save a dollar and don't have to deal with a renewing subscription. I'll keep trying to access the chapter and update you if I get it.

HOTD Not Returning Next Month

A sentence I've grown tired of typing: there will be no new Highschool of the Dead next month.

As you can see in the image above, the new chapter ends with the ambiguous message that essentially means there is no chapter planned for next month's issue. According to Sankaku Complex, this chapter is a "special publication" and the full resumption of the series is "undetermined." Make of this what you will. It certainly does not guarantee another long hiatus, but it doesn't sound very hopeful either.

I wrote this post to inform you all, but I also wanted to stifle any outrage or despair before it starts. I've been getting Dragon Age for almost two years now, and sometimes when this message appears the series returns after a month off. It's not the worst thing you can see at the end of a chapter. I think a likely reason for this one-off is that Fujimi Shobo is perhaps using the fan response to this chapter to determine if they should bring it back monthly or bi-monthly. It could also tell Shouji Sato and Daisuke Sato if they should end after a few more chapters or stretch the story out for a ninth volume. We can't really be sure, but we can be sure this does not mean we should prepare for two more years of nothing.

I'll see if I can figure out anything else in the next day or two and pass on the info. Maybe Yen Press will say something in their release. Speaking of which, for those of you who want to wait for the scanlation, I'm thinking about doing a spoiler post with a few pages and a summary when I get my magazine. Would you be interested?

Yen Press to Release HOTD Act.30 (Updated)

In a series of tweets, Yen Press, publisher of the official English translations of HOTD and Triage X, announced today that they will release a digital version of Highschool of the Dead Act.30 on April 9, the date the chapter will be released in Japan. As far as I know, they haven't been clear yet as to the method of release. I'm not familiar with their online magazine, but I would guess it would be in that, or at least available to subscribers. They also have not made it clear whether they will release all future chapters like this or if this is a one-time thing.

This came as a major surprise to me. It makes me rather nervous as a scanlator, especially after what happened to Mangastream after Viz decided to start releasing weekly Shounen Jump chapters. I've decided not to take part in scanlating this chapter. As unhappy as I've been with Yen Press, and as sure as I am they are trying to exploit manga fans and force subscriptions on innocent readers, I have to keep in mind that some of the money goes to the author and artist, and that's a good thing. (Then there's the legal ramifications I want to avoid at all cost). Sorry for the inconvenience, but the most you will have to pay is $2.99 for a one-month subscription, and you get to read it a few days earlier.

If I am right and they don't do any more chapters after 30, I will resume the scanlation, so don't worry. I know plenty of you will be groaning and complaining about not getting a free version, but you'll get over it. Remember, by spending the $3 you're supporting the author and artist and maybe keeping this series alive a little longer.

I'll still have my regular Dragon Age update and monthly raws. Plus I'll scan any of the extra stuff (covers, maybe the poster) that Yen Press doesn't include. See you soon.

UPDATE:
I've spoken with Renzokusei, and it looks like they will continue with the scanlation. Scans of the Dead will have no association with the chapter, but I fully support what they're doing. That being said, if you do choose to pay for the Yen Press version, you will get to read the chapter at least a few days earlier. Those of you who read the bigger shounen series know how this works. You can read the speedlation for a quick fix or you can wait a few days for higher quality. The important thing is you have a choice.

Monthly Dragon Age - April (3/9/2013)

Nearly two years of these monthly updates, over $1000 spent importing the magazines, numerous false leads and hopeful speculating, months of darkness where not even a single ray of light broke through the despair, all leading to this moment in time, this long-awaited instant when I can type these beautiful words for all of your eyes to drink up and savor in sweet anticipation: there will be a new Highschool of the Dead chapter next month.

I announced the news before, but it's so much more exciting now that I've seen it with my own eyes. HOTD Act. 30, the next chapter in the thrilling horror manga that has become an international sensation, will appear in the May issue of Monthly Dragon Age, available April 9. There's not too much more information than that right now. The official announcement, of which I have included a much better version below, has some text that I was curious about, but it appears to just say something about it making its return after a two year hiatus. Nothing we didn't already know.

Something I find a little interesting is that HOTD is not listed in next month's lineup. It's not necessarily worrying; Triage X isn't listed either and this month's chapter clearly says the next chapter will be out next month. It makes me wonder if the two series will be presented in a special way next month, like maybe in an extra booklet or as part of the Dragon Age 10th anniversary next month. I guess we'll have to wait until the release is a bit closer to see. One thing we can be almost sure of is that HOTD will finally have a place on the cover again next month. The last time that happened was May 2011 (not including ads/announcements).

Two new anime adaptations of Dragon Age series were just announced, though this may not be news to a lot of people. Both were originally light novel series and both will air during the spring 2013 anime season. The first is Date A Live (the monthly serialized version is Date Ast Like). I've never read it, but it looks decent from the raws. It will begin airing April 5. The other is Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi, which I am excited about. I really like the manga, though the scanlation is way behind. I will definitely be watching this one, which is saying a lot because I rarely watch anime anymore. It begins airing on March 31.

That's about it as far as this issue goes. There are no remarkable new series beginning, nothing is ending, and there are no incredibly lewd oneshots to talk about. I'll try to have raws of Maken-Ki! and Triage X out later today.  

Highschool of the Dead Returning Next Month

As you can see in the image above, HOTD is scheduled to return in the May issue of Monthly Dragon Age on April 9. I'll have more information for you on Monday when I get my own copy of this month's issue. See you then.

The Future of Maken-Ki!

I thought you guys deserved to know what's going on right now since the scanlation of this series has been plagued with a lack of information in the past. Imperial Scans, a group that is in the process of shutting down, had been apparently working on Maken-Ki! chapters up to Chapter 53. Kiss Scans decided to let them use their translations and take over the scanlation of the series until they release all chapters they have been working on.

Imperial released the next new chapter, Chapter 48, yesterday. You can read it on their site.

I can't really say I fully approve of this. Imperial doesn't give the option to download [apparently I need to get my vision checked], and their site and online reader are full of ads. Not to mention their releases are sized to fit a reader, meaning the quality is low. Another thing that makes me nervous is the time between releases. There were nearly two months between their last two releases. Yes, the last one was a double release, but they pretty much had to do that since we had already released Chapter 47. If they are about to disband, what motivation do they have to get through all the chapters at all? Let alone getting them done in a timely manner.

I'm going to continue my collaboration with Oppai Scans to release high quality volume scanlations. DeathsUncleBob actually bought and scanned Volume 9 himself, so the quality will be much much higher than any of his previous releases or Imperial's releases. At the very least, we will put chapters out a short time after Imperial, giving readers a high quality option. If Imperial lags and the translations are made available to us, we may just release before them. As much as I would hate to "steal" another group's project, I think you guys deserve to read new chapters as often as possible. After all, there is a long way to go still to catch up to the Japanese releases.

For now, we'll wait and see if Imperial Scans is really serious.

Monthly Dragon Age - March (2/9/2013)

There really isn't much to report that we don't already know about the return of Highschool of the Dead. The long Daisuke Sato interview, which is printed in its entirety in the booklet that came with this issue and in two parts in the two new Full Color Editions (if that is the same interview), could contain some nuggets of information, but I don't believe there is any specific date. If there was, I'm sure it would appear on the announcement page we already saw that simply says it will return this spring.

By the way, here is a better scan of that page:

There is at least some news for HOTD in this issue. Full Color Edition Volume 7 will be out next month on the 9th. The announcement is in the extra booklet, which, other than the interview, has a recap of the story (a good sign that the story will pick up where it left off) and Chapter 29 in full color. I probably won't bother scanning it. If I really wanted to, I might as well wait until next month when I can use higher quality scans. Anyway, I was disappointed to find that there were no new illustrations in the booklet or the FCEs (other than cover art). So there's really nothing worth scanning for you at the moment.

Other than that, this was an uneventful issue. I'm actually considering not doing these monthly updates anymore since there will soon be no hiatus to keep you updated on. After all, the hiatus is what prompted these monthly updates; they only turned into more general news when HOTD info ran dry. I'll leave it up to you. If you want me to continue these monthly updates of whatever I find interesting and scans of the covers, let me know in the comments below. Otherwise, I may just post whenever there is big news about one of the series we are directly involved with here.

I'll try to have your monthly raws later today.

More on the Return of the Dead

I hate to post a new update for every little bit of new information that comes out, but I have been limited to speculation for the past two years. It's exciting to finally have something to report on.

As you will see in this picture, Highschool of the Dead is set to return from hiatus in the spring of 2013.

A specific date would be more comforting considering how soon this is. I guess we can be sure it won't return next month since there is no date. I think we can probably expect it to return in April or May, with an official announcement coming next month. If they delayed it until June, though, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. Perhaps I will have more information when I get this month's Dragon Age, which is on it's way to me. It should be here on Monday.

Highschool of the Dead Returning

I had planned to wait until I had more information to post about this, but I guess I might as well deliver the news since everyone else is.

It seems Highschool of the Dead is finally returning from its hiatus, which began in March 2011 after the release of Chapter 29. Both the cover of the Full Color Edition Volume 5 (below) and this month's Monthly Dragon Age announce a "restart" or "reboot" of the series. No date has been made apparent yet, so we will have to wait until the FCEs and magazines are released on the 9th to see if there is a date given.

Here is the FCE cover:

What makes me a bit nervous is the three large kanji on the band. HOTDcups tells me they translate to something like "reboot," and Google says they mean "restart." In either case, there seems to be a possibility that the series is not returning by continuing the main story, but rather with a new story or a retelling of the original. This would be a major disappointment considering where the story left off.

I personally think the series will make a full return to the original story, but we'll have to wait for more information to be certain. Hopefully I'll have something definite for you within the next few days. Stay close!