Absent but alive (Important notice)

Hey everyone. We are alive, but in a state of predicament unsure what to do.

Some of you may have noticed that Shuuten has started being released by the guys we were collaborating with on their own. Good on them for actually getting down and doing it with such speed, but it’s sad news for us.

They didn’t really contact us at all beforehand and decided to just drop us off completely, so we are a little bit sad since this is a project we have been invested in. I wouldn’t have minded that much since I had been very very busy with university as was unable to translate, but we cannot get any email back from trying to recontact them.

Romah and I were thinking even though they are releasing the chapters anyway, we still want to keep translating the manga as well, in our own words, since it’s a project that has become very dear to us. Even if everyone has already read the chapters by the other group I don’t mind since it’s something to help me with my Japanese as well.

However it’s a little discouraging, so we are trying to decide what to do.
A. Continue translating the chapter I was in the middle of and just keep going. (Even though the others have already translated it).
This option would result in us able to put those chapters on our blog, as well as the English continue to have a similar flow and feel. (If you liked my style of translating compared to the new ones, but the new guys are prob better than me at Japanese since they are doing it so fast XD)
B. Skip ahead by a volume and translate some that haven’t been translated at all yet. (Feels like less of a waste of time)
If we did this I’m not sure how people would react, but I would only post them here on the blog since we don’t want missing chapters on the manga readers until it gets caught up. I’d also have to summarize any chapters that have yet to be translated by any group so people can get a fill in, which would also take a bit of time. I could then come back to the missing chapters later.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Either way I won’t be able to start till after my exams which is a few weeks away.

Shuuten Unknown – Progress Update

Hello folks, this is just a quick update on the status of Shuuten Unknown. Now I hope you’ll forgive me in advance since I know this is what you folks refer to as a “decoy post”.

First just thank you for sticking around and yet again waiting so patiently for this manga to be updated. Chapter 17 is still in the works, I’ve finished with most of the cleaning and redrawing (save for some pesky bits here and there), but I’ll do my best to make time outside of work so I can wrap it up and send it off to C.

Poor C’s been swamped lately with exams and I’m sure some of you are too. Frankly I’d love to be able to ship off pillows and blankets and ice cream for you lot just to make sure you get some rest and relaxation. As it is I’m wishing everyone the best of luck getting through their papers and I hope you all make sure to eat, sleep, and stay hydrated!

To tide you over while you wait for the next chapter we’ve got a few more fanart pieces submitted by some lovely people so please feast your eyes on these:

 

Fanart by Schlussmedley

 

Sayatoki by carneval366

 

Shuuten Unknown Winter by carneval366

Crazy nice, right? They look so good drawn in everyone’s unique styles! It’ll be seriously awesome if more people get inspired by these pictures and send in their stuff. I told C that I’d draw something too so I promise that at some point I’ll contribute to the growing collection of fanart.

Anyhow, thank you everyone once again for waiting this out and stay tuned for the next chapter.

Shuuten Unknown Chapter 16 Released!

READ ONLINE HERE or DOWNLOAD (link pending)

Hello everyone! Chapter 16 is finally finished and released. Thank you so much for your patience!!! Hopefully you’ll find it worth the wait as the plot continues to ramp up.

C’s been kind enough to invite me to join Midnight Sun Scans so I’d like to say a quick and official hello to all you folks. I told C as well that self-introductions aren’t my strong suit so I hope you’ll be patient with me while I get acclimatized ^_^; Not much to say for myself other than that I’m a massive Sugiura Shiho fan and I look forward to enjoying Shuuten with all of you!

Now C entreated you folks to send some fanart this time around and some of you lovely people obliged!! Thank you, thank you so much for taking the time to submit your art! I hope looking at these pieces will tempt more of you to send your works. As a bonus, C submitted a masterpiece too.

Thanks again for all your patience everyone and I hope you enjoy this chapter, as well as the artwork below:

“Rachel and the Creepy Girl” a fanart by C

Yoruma fanart by carneval366

Saya and Yoruma fanart by Laika

Midnight Sun chapter 21

I decided it was time to release chapter 21. I really wanted Jackie to make the post but she’s just too busy. I got a quote from her to all of you in her place.

I’m sorry I haven’t been active for a while. I’m barely keeping afloat, but half a year left to go. Hope you’re all doing well. Love jackie

You can read chapter 21 online here right now.

Read HERE

The download link will come later… maybe. Don’t hold out for it though just yet. Might as well just read it right away.

Also, I’m not going to start translating Shuuten 16 until I get AT LEAST one fanart! So c’mon guys. (Or at least until I get bored enough)

Shuuten Unknown Chapter 15 Released

---

Read Now Online or download.

Chapter 15 has been released and finished. I think this is a really great chapter and so does Romah it seems, here is a little word from here:

“Hello again everyone! With this chapter done I’m looking forward to see how all the readers react, the story and the tension keeps building up!”

Anyway, it’s that time of the several years again.

SEND US FANART

Yass. Please do. Romah and I were having a chat about it and we both would be so happy if you sent in your fanart! I really wanna see more of these guys. They are such good characters and fan art worthy. Especially regarding the fantastic modern-fantasy-mulch of a world the author has created, Romah said that it’s a great medium for fan-art.

If you are a midnight sun regular, you may remember last time I called for fan art of midnight sun, for every day/time that people DID not draw fanart, I would punish you by drawing hideous pictures of the old teacher and principal getting a little too close. Well this time I won’t be so mean… (And also there haven’t been any old creep enough characters in shuuten yet to do that with.)

SO INSTEAD I’LL REWARD YOU! If you send in fan art, I’ll send you the translators cut* of chapter 16. Read it before everyone else as soon as it’s translated! What could be better than feeling special, knowing you are the second person in the world to read it in English!

*disclaimer: translator cut means not typeset and proofread. But mainly the same.. more or less… early stuff can’t be perfect I’m sorry. BUT STILL.

And if that isn’t reward enough for you, and you are the brave type, fan art will also be put on the fan art page of this blog and in my posts and MAYBE also in the released version (If you want that is) so the whole world can see. And if you are shy or self conscious or anything like that, it can stay within the realm of the blog. And to make you feel better, I’ll submit some really really really dead awful bad art so you can feel confident to say “At least mines not the worst. That poor person doesn’t have any hands.

You can submit with a name or go by an anonymous title, up to you! To submit the art just use our form in the contact tab… or one of the tabs. It does ask for an email because we do like to reply to you to thank you and ask you for your permission to use things. But if you can’t get contacted by an email or don’t reply to your emails ever, please write in the original form about your permissions like “It’s okay for you to post this to your site” so we know and don’t doubt ourselves.

I WILL LOVE YOU IF YOU SEND IT.

Shuuten Chapter 14 + MAKEOVER

 

EDIT IN: I just gave the blog a makeover. I hope you like it. Tell me what you think. I also simplified some of the menus up the top. Now the downloads are on the first page when you click the Read button, and then read online is all the drop downs. I resurrected the progress bar and put it on the right. I also deleted some redundant pages. (Well they are in my storage so not gone forever)

 

Hey guys! I’ve just finished chapter 14 and it’s up and posted in the ONLINE READER, the download link isn’t quite live yet, but will be soon in the future.

Thank you so so so much Romah for being a really great cleaner and proofreader for me. Here is a little hello from her!

“Hello everyone. It’s my first time doing work as a cleaner but I’ve had an excellent time learning so far thanks to C being so kind and helpful, and same goes for Yecenia from Pink Cherry Blossom scans. I look forward to working on more chapters of Shuuten with everyone!” -Romah

I’m not going to comment on Jackie and the posting of midnight sun chapter 21 this time. Just whenever she’s ready I guess…

Don’t really have anything to say in the post this time, except typesetting takes way longer than you’d expect… Now I know why it took Jackie so long to translate the pages. it wasn’t translating, it was the stupid typesetting that gets you.

More decoy posts(for some)

Hey everyone,  Jackie is still busy, but I bet I need to poke her in order to make her post soon. On the other hand, I’ve finished translating another chapter of shuuten unknown, you can read chapter 13 right here.

It takes me a while, but I think I’m getting the hang on things. This is my second chapter of manga translated, and I was able to improve my English on this chapter. Compared to just lazily sticking in the literal order and translations of everything. Sometimes when I’m translating it makes me wallow in shame that my original language sounds worse XD It’s hard to explain… just when you are a noob at translating everything turns to mud. (But this chapter is waaaay better I promise).

I’ve also got a great new helper helping me out with the cleaning called Romah, she also did the proof-reading, and is very friendly and helpful, so thank you Romah!

Not the post we had planned but….

Hey everyone, it’s me again! (Everyone groans)

Our next post was planned to have been by Jackie with an extra surprise, but unfortunately she got really sick all of a sudden. (Let’s hope she’s feeling better).

I’ll spoil the surprise for you and say it was chapter 21 already finished. And it’s still finished. But I’m going to wait until Jackie is better so she can do one of her lovely announcement posts before we do post it.

But I have very different news for you today, and that is to say that I am attempting to translate another manga on my own, (with scans from collaborating with another group). It’s a manga that Jackie had recommended to me when I met up with her, and I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately the scanlators stopped after volume 2, so I thought I’d have a go picking it up (There are currently 5 or 6 volumes and it’s ongoing.) I’ve made a sub-tab for it right here, so please check it out if you have some time! I think if you like midnight sun, then you will probably like this manga too.

I tried my best with the translation, it was very hard, a lot harder than midnight sun actually, because there is no furigana on the kanji, and every page has about 5x as much text on it. Jackie HAS NOT cross checked it for me, so I’m ready to have all my mistakes pointed out to me. We are also looking for people to help with cleaning it.

Roll the drums and Fan the fanfare

FAN THE TRUMPETS (What?)

ROLL THE DRUMS (Not like a barrel)

 

CALL THE NECROMANCERS

(Credits to whoever drew this, love from google images)

FOR WE HAVE BEEN RAISED FROM THE DEAD! AND!!!

AND!!!

We don’t come empty handed!

IN FACT! CHAPTER 20 Has been released for half a day already!

READ ALL ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW RIGHT HERE Chapter 20

I’m really sorry for that, I just got excited. Jackie and I just went on a scanlating marathon yesterday and today. I’m slaughtered, but excited because we actually did something productive with our lives. (Well me at least, Jackie is always busy doing something)

Jackie was supposed to make this post, but she is so busy, but don’t worry, I’ll force her to emerge soon! I know you all miss her, and I know she’s the favourite child, (crying softly to myself)

Another reason I’m excited is because I’m starting to help translate! I did half of chapter 20, and most of the next chapter. (I still have to ask Jackie her worldy advice when I get stuck though.) See if you can tell which pages are mine and which are Jackies, it should be really really easy because my translations are  the rubbish ones.

I hope that translating will help improve my Japanese more! I’ve finished my university studies of Japanese now (3 years), and have just come back from another trip to Japan.(This time to Kumamoto, which is really close to where Jackie lives, but alas, we were unable to meet this time). I hope that translating will give me another outlet to keep practicing.

ALSO

ALSO.

We know you will love chapter 20. (Since we neglected it for so long) But we may have another little present coming for you in the very near future, you know, with Christmas and all.

Nice to be back, and Jackie hopes to see you soon with a post.

 

On a side note:

Now that I am slightly more adept in translating, if there is anyone out there who would like to help up with CLEANING (especially redrawing), then we will welcome you with open arms. NO KNOWLEDGE OF JAPANESE NECESSARY. Basic experience with digital image editing or drawing required. If you are quite skilled at it, even better. If you are interested please shoot an email to midnightsunscans@gmail.com (Yes I know I haven’t been the best at checking the email, but I am going to try harder this time I promise.) Then we will get in contact with you about it. (Maybe there will be a tiny little test, but don’t stress about it, we will love to hear from you anyway!)

Guess who’s not dead? – And the long awaited Chapter 19

Hi everyone!

So, I’m alive. I’m sure some of you probably suspected that Cae was just covering up the fact that I died in a ditch somewhere and that was the reason why Chapter 19 wasn’t coming out even though it was almost finished.

Truth be told, my motivation totally fell. Don’t ask me why. I have no good explanation to give you. The only reason why I could get myself back to doing this was Cae’s constant checking in on me, so… you know who to give your thanks to xD.

Interestingly enough, exactly a year from the day I-almost-killed-myself-with-the-yam, the huge earthquakes happened in Kumamoto. This was two days ago. I’m not sure how many of you saw the news.

I’m actually really close to Kumamoto. The earthquakes were big enough that things shook and fell over. I was going to make a funny post pointing out the fact that April 15th seems like an unlucky day for me in Japan so far, but truth be told, it was scary (not terrifying but still scary) to the point where I don’t know how to make it funny. xD

Originally, we had planned to release Chapter 19 (which Cae babysat me into finishing last week) on Friday, but the Earthquakes (because there have been more than 100 of them I hear… and that doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been feeling them constantly over the past 3 days. It’s gotten to the point where it’s amusing and annoying rather than scary now), happened. So here is the chapter, days (months) late. Sorry…

xD. I’ll try and be better next time. I think I’ll be okay to translate as long as I don’t do it before Cae cleans the pages… >.<

Anywho. It’s been a while, but because of the leecher problem we had last year, Cae and I have decided that we’ll release Ch 19 in the password-protected pages of this website for now. 24 hours later, we’ll release it onto manga aggregate sites as well as our unlocked online reader.

Hope you enjoy and sincerely sorry for the long wait. It was all my fault.

Jackie

Here’s the password-protected page

Download link: here

Online reader link: Chapter 19