One Last Update

As many of you have probably figured out, Scans of the Dead is no longer an active group. For the sake of closure I wanted to get on here one last time and officially announce the end of this site and my involvement in scanlation.

This was a fun hobby to have while in college, and I enjoyed helping people discover Japanese culture. But the time came to move on. Life called and I answered, starting on the winding path into the unknowable future. I would be a fool to hang back and let the call go unheeded, lost in the ever-dulling banality of a twenty-something's idling.

Thank you all for reading and supporting through the years. I really did it all for you, faithful readers.

Now for a few final requests: Always buy your manga whenever possible, and if you must read online do so only from sites whose owners aren't getting rich off of someone else's copyrighted material. Also if you liked the content here, head on over to Oppai Scans where my friend UncleBob should keep you fairly satiated.

And finally, I owe a huge favor to a good friend. Since I'm still getting a decent amount of site traffic here, I promised I would help promote his stuff. If you're into cyberpunk or sci-fi in general, check out Part 1 of his novel Dreams in the Tower on Amazon.

I thought it was pretty good for a debut novel. Part 2 is also out with Part 3 coming soon. You can also go to his personal blog to read some of his interesting thoughts. I highly recommend it.

For what it's worth, I don't think Highschool of the Dead is ever returning. If it does, you won't hear it from me. Feels kind of weird saying that.

Well...

That's it. So long. Sayonara. Bai bai...

See ya!

-Turambar

Triage X Volume 6 Review

Yes, readers, I am alive. Since my last review got a good response, so here's my review of Triage X Volume 6.

First I want to take the time to commend Yen Press for bringing such an excellent product to English-speaking manga readers around the world. Their books have been getting better and better, and in my opinion the quality of their releases has far surpassed most other publishers and most scanlations and is at least on the same level as the best. This volume is no exception.

You can see all of the great manga Yen Press has to offer on Amazon.

First off, we get a lovely pullout color spread of Mikoto, holding a...er...mushroom. The reverse side of this is a bath scene illustration that's a couple years old now.

This volume begins right in the middle of the action, during the NEO TV terrorist crisis that started in Volume 5. Oriha is trying to deal with the terrorists from within while Mikoto and Arashi are on their way to help. The last volume was mostly slow-paced, giving the setup story for future chapters. This one, on the other hand, is all action from start to finish.

If you got into this series for the pure nonstop action, then you will enjoy this volume much more than the last one. I liked the plot progression we got in Volume 5, but this one is a return to Shouji Sato's developing style of giving plot amidst the action, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of the highly-acclaimed Akira. I think Shouji is improving as a storyteller, and we are finally going to see a richer story as a result, one that doesn't rely on meaningless violence and doesn't lull into half-baked back story.

In other words, there's plenty of action, but this is not just a mindless action manga anymore.

Of course this is Inazuma-sensei we're dealing with here, so there's no shortage of mindless fanservice. But even this ecchi-heavy scene has a purpose (unlike the famous HOTD bath scene) as it helps characterize one of the major antagonists going forward.

In fact, despite the high level of action I've mentioned, this volume does take time to move the plot and introduce this arc's major antagonists. It seems the new drug we got a glimpse of in the last arc is making a return, and this time the people controlling it may be more than our favorite assassins can handle. This volume ends on an uncertain note, so we'll have to wait a few months to find out just how dire the situation is. (If you kept up with my raws, you may already know how it goes, at least for another volume or two).

Some of you may still be asking, "Should I buy this volume?" Well...

I mentioned in my review of Volume 5 that there was an unusual lack of nudity. I think they made up for it with this bath scene. There is more to it that I'm not showing here.

Overall, I really enjoyed this volume. It's my favorite so far and seems to indicate that the series is going to keep getting better. I strongly recommend fans of the series buy Triage X Volume 6 at Amazon.



It seems a joke about televised media and its typical audience translates quite well into English, particularly for Americans (though I'm sure the message is quite universal among developed nations).

Triage X Volume 5 Review

So I just got my copy of Triage X Volume 5 from Amazon, and I figured I'd give anyone still keeping up with this site a review. By the way, if you want to read new chapters of Triage X you should buy this volume; I don't think there will ever be a scanlation now.

First off, I'd like to talk about the Yen Press edition itself. This is the first Yen Press item I've purchased since HOTD Volume 3, and I have to say I'm impressed by the amount of improvement here. One thing I really like is that the color page is a pullout just like the Japanese version.

The quality is still cheaper than Japanese manga (most noticeable in the rough paper and lack of a dust jacket), but it's vastly better than the first HOTD volume. I also think the black and white levels can improve a little. As you can see below, the greys are pretty well intact, but I think a little bit of detail is still being lost (again, though, not nearly as bad as early HOTD volumes).

Overall I'm very happy with the work Yen press is doing. The translations were great, and I love the way they do SFX. This was a pleasurable reading experience.

Now onto Volume 5 itself.

I (like many of my readers) spoiled the story for myself a bit by looking at the raws when they originally came out in Japan. Maybe that was why I didn't feel like a lot happened in this volume. Then again I do remember the NEO TV crisis dragging out for quite a while.

These chapters are largely centered around setting up the new arc and introducing a new adversary for the Black Label group. The Hunting Party is an organization bent on exposing humans for the animals they are--namely those in the Black Label--and are led by Wild Hunt.

 

Even if it is all exposition, this chapter has everything you love in this series: action, comedy, and plenty of fanservice. And of course it has that certain grittiness Shouji Sato is so keen to weave into his series. Innocent people die and gloom hangs over each panel. One characteristic of Sato-sensei's work that is notably absent is nudity. There's only one nipple in the entire book.

Unfortunately, this lonely milk missile leads into a painfully absurd and somewhat contrived scene where all of the captive females fight over who gets to become the personal love toy of the bad guy. It's ridiculous in terms of the story, but I guess it's great if you're a big H fan.

Other than that little hitch in the story's flow, this was a decent volume. It's definitely far from my favorite, but I do look forward to what it sets up.



I noticed this otaku who looks suspiciously like Kohta from HOTD from behind. If you look closely, you'll notice that the figure on the left of his desk seems to be Saya.

A Certain Around 30's Delusions c1-2

Here's two chapters (or a two-part oneshot? I'm not really sure if there will be more or not) of an ecchi series by Kuon Makoto that were in Dragon Age over the summer. It was so refreshing seeing something in the magazine that didn't involve teenage girls accidentally showing their boobs and panties that I had to scanlate it.

Warning: Both chapters contain adult material (including borderline bestiality, sort of). I think the picture should speak for itself. Nothing too 18+, but I wouldn't read it with your mom/significant other in the room. Just picture if one of the girls in tentacle-rape hentai (oh come on, you know what I'm talking about) really liked the tentacles... Enjoy!

Chapter 1
DDL
Batoto

Chapter 2
DDL
Batoto

A special thanks to DEUS, the translator who was so kind as to lend me his skills for these. He will be helping me out now, so hopefully I'll be able to get releases out just a bit more frequently than before.

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.

Monthly Dragon Age - October (9/9/2013)

No HOTD news. Nope. Nothing. Not this time. (I'm running out of ways to say this.)

So straight on to other things: A staggering three different series ended this month. The first one, Full Metal Panic! Sigma isn't a big surprise since it has been rather sporadic lately. It ends it's long run (for a DA series) on its 88th chapter with color pages. Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai (So, I can't be H) also ended, which is also not too surprising considering series that rely heavily on ecchi and fanservice don't usually last too long.

A little more surprising is the third series to meet its end, Omamori Himari. The series got the honor of the front cover and the opening spot with color pages for its farewell to the manga world. I didn't expect this, but then again 75 chapters is a pretty good run for a monthly DA series. I actually stopped reading around c50, but it was a fun series with a nice balance of ecchi and action. The scanlation (by Vortex) is still about 10 chapters behind, so readers will have to wait a bit to see who Yuuto ends up with.

Vito asked me to scan this:

I'm not sure what series it's from, but there you go.

Necro;Chronicle c4 is coming, though I'm not sure when. I have everything done, just waiting on the translations. Chapter 5 was out this month, but the series is taking a one-month break; so c6 will be out in November. It'll probably be tomorrow before I get the monthly raws up.


Surprisingly enough, this issue was quite clean by Dragon Age standards. For your smut of the month, I just chose the picture with the most nude girls. I guess this also works as a farewell salute to Omamori Himari.

How all harem manga should end.

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.

Monthly Raws - September

The astute Star Wars fan will notice that Mikoto is wearing the famous Slave Leia outfit (sans loincloth). That must mean the tentacle monster she's being raped by is the Sarlacc?

Triage X c38 raw

Ouken's grandchildren are back, and they brought reinforcements. It's not exactly clear if this is the beginning of a new arc or a continuation of the last one. We'll see.

Maken-Ki! c62 raw

Monthly Dragon Age - September (8/9/2013)

It's so refreshing to see Shouji Sato art on the cover again. Too bad it's not for a different series... That's right, no news on HOTD this month. It definitely won't be back next month.

There was this ad, though, that was also kind of refreshing. If nothing else, it's the first proper mention of anything related to HOTD since April. Before you get excited, this is just an advertisement for the PS Vita adaptation of the new Highschool of the Dead pachi-slot game that has appearing in adult arcades across Japan. The Vita version will be out this October.

 

Dragon Age has been starting new series at an alarming rate over the last six months or so. I usually talk about those that look like they may be interesting enough to get picked up by a group someday. Well, I looked into some of these and discovered that Japanzai has recently started scanlating D.Y.N. Freaks and Inaba Rabbits, two series I've talked about. If you thought they sounded interesting, you can get them on their site, along with others I haven't mentioned (ex: The Day Haru-nee Did XX to Me). Now if only they will pick up Dolls Fall and Regards to Black Wife...

Just so you know, the dynamic of the Necro;Chronicle scanlation has changed a bit, which means it could take longer than usual to release c4 or it could take less time. The point is, I won't know how it's going to be until after we get this month's chapter done. Your monthly raws should be out by tomorrow.

Now that I've committed to the "monthly smut" I think it's time to explain it a bit. As many of you know, Japan's adult industry is more heavily regulated in some ways than in many Western countries. Namely, male and female sex organs must be subjected to varying degrees of censorship because they are considered obscene. I don't want to sound like I'm culturally narrow-minded, because I'm not, but I find it hilarious that in Japan you can't buy an adults-only movie without mosaics over the genitals but you can open up a manga magazine marketed towards teenagers and see an underage girl masturbating with a bidet. I understand the Western world has it's own brand of sexual hypocrisy rooted in orthodox Christianity, but this site is about Japanese manga, which is why I've committed to finding the lewdest, dirtiest scene (from an American perspective) in each issue and posting it. Think of it as my own private joke I'm sharing with all of you.

That being said, this month's winner (tentacle rape) will be in the new Triage X chapter, so I decided to go with the runner-up instead, even though it is relatively tame.

When you gotta go, you gotta go!

 

 

Donation Drive: SOTD Needs Your Help!

UPDATE: Thanks to some very generous contributors (Tuan in particular) I met my goal for this month and almost met it for next month as well. I will now encourage you not to donate any more for at least another month or so. I'm all set for now. Thanks again!


Regular readers here know I don't do this a lot, but sometimes money is tight. Due to unforeseen personal expenses coming up, I've decided to give in and ask you guys to help me out on the next issue of Dragon Age. Just go to the top right and click Donate if you would like to help. As you will notice at the very top of the right sidebar, I have $20 of the roughly $55 I need to cover the next issue. If I could get the $35 more I need, that would help me out a lot.

Going over this month's goal is totally okay, so feel free to contribute to next month after the goal is reached. Money is generally short right now for me even without extra expenses, so the more months I can count entirely on donations, the better.

Oh and what do your donations contribute to? I'm glad you asked:

• Raw scans of the latest Triage X and Maken-Ki! chapters and related materials.
• Any available news and announcements regarding HOTD (there may not be any).
• Ensures the next chapter of Necro;Chronicle is scanlated (by me and Madman) in a timely manner.
• And of course your monthly update of whatever I feel like is important enough to talk about.

All donations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
By the way, here's the second chapter of Black Sword, Shouji Sato's Fire Fire Fire sequel.

Necro;Chronicle c3

The new chapter is out faster than ever thanks to the cooperation of Madman Scans, as always. This chapter is a lot more like what I expected this series to be. Enjoy!

DDL
Batoto

So it turns out Emma the necromancer is only 13. Sort of makes me feel weird for having read the last chapter. In a series like this, though, she could very well be 200 years old and just taking the form of a young girl. Still...

Monthly Raws - August

The thing we were all expecting to happen didn't happen after all, and something none of us thought would happen happened. Nice job, Inazuma!

http://www.mediafire.com/?i4i067hzz3tyqal

Takeda-sensei overdosed on boner pills. This is what came from it.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/t6b3la41cic3wl9/Maken-Ki!_c61.5_raw.rar

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 - August (7/9/2013)

I actually got this issue the same day it came out in Japan for the first time ever, but I was out of town until today. Sort of funny, in a way.

Anyway, there's no news about HOTD. The next issue, however, is set to feature Triage X front and center. That could be a good time for some news or something. Or it could be that Volume 7 will be announced. We'll see in a month.

I'm tired from traveling all day, so I won't say much else in this post. This was an unusually thick issue, but there's really no particularly exciting news or new series. Monthly raws of Maken-ki! and Triage X will be coming sometime in the next few days. Chapter 3 of Necro;Chronicle will come a bit later. That's all for now.



Oh and since I committed to this two months ago, here's your monthly smut/stinger. It was a hard decision this month. (There was bestiality in this issue.)

The funny thing is it actually looks dirtier when her panties are intact.

 

Monthly Raws (July 2013)

I apologize for the lateness. Because of how late they already are and because I have other things to do, I did absolute minimal editing. These are as fresh off the scanner as anything you will ever see from me. I might actually do it this way from now on to save time.

How many months is this fight going to drag on for!?

TriageX c36 raw

I knew they should have killed big-boob glasses-lady!

Maken-Ki! c61 raw

Necro;Chronicle Chapter 2

Here is the second chapter of my new joint project with Madman Scans. Like I said before, this series took a quick turn this month that left me a bit surprised that I was reading it in a mainstream magazine. Then again, Dragon Age is the magazine that published Inari Aibration. My guess is a few of you will be done with this series after this one.

DDL
Batoto

Let's just say Emma-chan finds an...interesting...use for the bidet. Here's hoping for some plot next month!

Raws for Triage X and Maken-Ki! are coming within the next day or two. Stay close.

Maken-Ki! Kai!! c2-3

Stuff really piled up while I was on vacation, so I need to get caught up. Here's a double release as a result of that. As with the first chapter, this is a joint with Madman Scans. I apologize for the low image quality, but these were only available in online magazine format, which you really can't do much with. Enjoy!

Chapter 2:
DDL
Batoto

Chapter 3:
DDL
Batoto

We have now scanlated all available chapters of this series. Now if only the scanlation of the main series could catch up as well...

Anyway, I'm working on getting you your monthly raws, but it will have to wait a bit longer. I want to get Necro:Chronicle c2 out first. Look for that in (hopefully) a few days. See you then!

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...

 

Necro;Chronicle Chapter 1

I mentioned this series in my last Dragon Age update, and Madman Scans, with whom I'm working on Maken-Ki! Kai!!, approached me about it right away. We decided to work together on this one, though they did a lot more than me on this particular chapter. Anyway, here's the brand new series, Necro;Chronicle:

DDL
Batoto

I'm not sure if an actual zombie apocalypse will play out in future chapters, but some foreshadowing seems to hint at something of the sort. For now it seems more like Korewa Zombie Desuka than HOTD, though the mood is more like the latter. It will be interesting to see where this series goes in the future.

We should have the next chapter out sometime this month.

Credits:
Turambar - raws, QC
Reiko - translation
Madman Freak - cleaning, typesetting, proofreading

Maken-Ki! Kai!!

Here's a surprise for you Maken-Ki! fans. It's the first (only?) chapter of the prequel to the main series, taking place when Minori, Aki, and the other teachers were students at Tenbi.

This is a joint with Madman Scans. I was sitting on it for about a year waiting for someone to translate, so a special thanks to them for helping to finally get this released.

DDL
Batoto

I'm not really sure if there were any more Kai chapters released. There definitely haven't been any in Dragon Age, but I'm not sure about Age Premium. If anyone knows, let me know so we can hopefully scanlate the others.

By the way, since most of the groups I do joints with use Batoto, I've decided to give in and start officially using it. Maybe I can prevent some of those stupid kids from ravaging my work and uploading to other readers, or maybe not. In any case, it gives people another way to read the chapters I release that I can be happy with.