Osen

One project ends, another one begins. At first sight, Osen is not a “typical” Kotonoha project. Not only is it the longest series we’ve ever picked up (11 volumes; over 100 chapters and still going strong), its topic (culinary arts) is not exactly a dime a dozen within the scanlating world either. Truth be told, I wasn’t considering this title until I asked boke what manga he’d like to translate, to which he answered “Osen.” And here we are.

Don’t let what I said above fool you, though. Osen is much more than a manga about cooking. Shôta Kikuchi has created what I’d like to describe as a fascinating love declaration to the traditional Japan and its mesmerizing beauties. Now, we know that any artist who seeks to capture the essence of a whole country has a hard row to hoe, but in my eyes Kikuchi has succeeded where many have failed before. With his refreshingly unique artwork, his extensive knowledge about cooking and fine arts paired with the insane love for detail, his classic sense of humor, this author presents us Japan as the rich and inspiring culture we fans have always imagined it would be.

The biggest attraction of this manga, however, is the main character, Osen, herself. Inspired by a legendary beauty of the Edo period, Osen Kasamori (i.e. a real-life personality), our heroine is the personification of all the beautiful things Kikuchi wants us to see (and feel). More than just a bijin, Osen surprises the readers again and again with her manifold talents. One of the biggest funs in reading this series is to see how she deals with all the problems thrown at her and the staff of Isho-an. In the end, it becomes clear that what makes Osen so irresistible isn’t so much her female charm but rather her razor-sharp wits.

Osen: a unique character and a unique manga.

P.S. We have a new poll. This time, we’d like to know how you discovered Kotonoha. I hope I have covered almost all possibilities. If you have a suggestion for another vote option, leave a note in this posting’s comment section. Thank you.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 18th, 2006 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Release(s), Site News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

36 Comments

  1. First off, you guys rocks for putting out Kilico and finishing it at an amazing pace. The new project, “Osen” seems very interesting and I’ll be checking it out because I think you guys have a good taste in what’s good and what’s bad.

    cgreedy June 18, 2006 @ 10:19 pm

  2. I just wanted to say “thank you” for working so hard to bring us manga that we might never have had the chance to read otherwise. It’s immensely satisfying to read the type of manga that you scanslate and I hope you never tire of it.

    danbeck June 18, 2006 @ 10:53 pm

  3. Well played, Kotonoha.

    some lamer June 18, 2006 @ 11:15 pm

  4. This was a joy to read. :D

    anonymous June 18, 2006 @ 11:27 pm

  5. Regarding the poll: my route for it was that I was reading some articles on Superflat, and one of them had an image from Milk Closet that made me go “Whoa, that’s weird and cool! Hey, wait, that style’s just like the one from Alien Nine. And that’s the same creator.” Intrigued, I did a Google search for Milk Closet and one of the results was Kotonoha. Milk Closet is my first love from this site, and I’m anticipating its final chapters.

    Also, given how rapidly you completed it, I can’t help but think you had a lot of fun scanlating Killico. Going to download it now. And Osen sounds like my kind of lady.

    Sarah Wolfie June 19, 2006 @ 12:53 am

  6. Torrent didn’t work for me…still, the covers on the project page are facinating to look at, and Morning ususally has pretty good stuff (on that subject, I thought evening was only one-shots?).

    Huff June 19, 2006 @ 1:25 am

  7. Please finish up project milk closet.

    saffron June 19, 2006 @ 3:10 am

  8. Saffron, they said in a comment on the previous post that they’re working on it right now. But Milk Closet seems to be typically slow in updates. I suspect there’re unique difficulties with translating it and/or staff free time issues.

    Sarah Wolfie June 19, 2006 @ 3:33 am

  9. Hmm, I added the option “Manga/Comic blogs.”

    @Huff: Torrent seems to work fine though. Maybe try again later? And Evening is definitely not 1-shots only. It’s got a few relatively well-known seinen series like “Shamo,” “Yugo - The Negotiator,” “Garôden,” the already finished “Koikaze” and “Satorare.” Like “Satorare,” “Osen” debuted in Morning, but eventually switched to the bi-weekly Evening where it’s still running.

    @saffron&Sarah: Basically, all projects where I do everything myself (MC, Yûnagi no machi, Soil, Mice, Coo) are progressing at a slow/very slow pace. Since I can’t work on all of them at the same time, I have to put a few in queue which results in long wait between volumes/chapters.

    Excuses aside, I will try to wrap some of them up during the summer and then expand our editing department a bit so we’re better prepared for the “seinen offensive” in fall. ;)

    Nomad Soul June 19, 2006 @ 6:30 am

  10. Are you guys gonna put up HTTP downloads on your recent releases? I DL stuff to a school computer that I can’t put bit torrent on.

    Yui-ha June 19, 2006 @ 12:30 pm

  11. Thanks for Kilico. The ending was confusing.
    Why don’t you have an IRC channel? It’s a better way to provide the manga for other. Bittorrent is good for downloading, but with IRC we can at least talk about your projects.

    Please work on GirlFriend. Osen is not very good. It talks about this girl/woman, who is “very” good with cooking. That is just given. It has no backbone to the story. It sucks.

    animeaddicted June 19, 2006 @ 5:03 pm

  12. @ animeaddicted: You do realize that “Girlfriend” and “Osen” have the same translator, right? Dissing boke’s pet project in such an injudicious and inappropriate way after reading merely one chapter won’t likely earn you any brownie points. Keep in mind that projects like “Chokotto Sister” and “Girlfriend” are fun side-projects only. Our priority lies clearly somewhere else.

    Nomad Soul June 19, 2006 @ 6:14 pm

  13. I see. I’m sorry. I will look forward how the story goes.

    animeaddicted June 19, 2006 @ 6:30 pm

  14. Dear animeaddicted:

    Please remove your head from your ass. There is plenty of H-manga out there for you to leech without you having to resort to being a complete fuckwit about projects that people here at Kotonoha have the good nature to put into your selfish, grubby, ignornant little hands.

    I for one enjoyed the hell out of Osen.

    danbeck June 19, 2006 @ 9:28 pm

  15. Oh my god. I made a MISTAKE and I already apologized for it. You are the mother lover who has your head INSIDE your ass. That’s right you’re shit.

    animeaddicted June 19, 2006 @ 10:22 pm

  16. U tell him animeaddicted

    Inuyashax04 June 19, 2006 @ 10:32 pm

  17. Also wats so interesting about a woman that is a good cook; Lots of women r good cooks. If u ask me that is not a great way to try and hook the reader

    NE way he apologized

    Inuyashax04 June 19, 2006 @ 10:43 pm

  18. Inuyashax04: It has very little to do with Osen being a good cook.

    danbeck June 20, 2006 @ 1:53 am

  19. This is one reason why not everyone feel like setting up irc channels, forums etc. Not all opinions are worth of being publicly stated. They just cause needless bickering.
    I skimmed a bit through Osen, didn’t read it yet though and I will wait for atleast a volume worth of reading before forming any kind of opinion of it. Atleast it has a lot of words to read so I suppose the literacy challenged people with attention defects will not find it to their taste. Anyways good luck with it.

    Jinchi June 20, 2006 @ 3:29 am

  20. Well anyway, I’m definitely looking forward to the seinen offensive. Since I’ve been rampaging through Jirô Matsumoto’s works, I just can’t get enough. :)

    Wada June 20, 2006 @ 7:15 am

  21. Thank you Kotonoha for taking the time and effort of picking unconventional, fascinating titles. I follow almost all of your titles without delay and after reading the first chapter of Osen, I know I will enjoy it inmensely already.

    BTW, what are your thoughts on ‘Tetsuwan Girl’ by Tsutomu Takahashi? (I’m not asking for you to translate it, though that would be incredible, just wondering if you would happen to be interested in it…)

    Thanks again for all your hard work, I wonder if you broke some kind of record with your releases of Kilico.

    (Can you say ‘ego stroke’? ^_~)

    NoName June 20, 2006 @ 9:06 am

  22. I think someone noticed zzled put that title on his site under manga. :D

    Wada June 20, 2006 @ 9:46 am

  23. Regarding Tetsuwan Girl: omanga.monkey-pirate.com/index.php?topic=2448.msg45513#msg45513
    Seems that zzled got back alive from his trip to Kilimanjaro.

    Jinchi June 20, 2006 @ 10:03 am

  24. Just in case you wonder, we have nothing to do with “Tetsuwan Girl.” It’s an Omanga-only project. ^^

    Nomad Soul June 20, 2006 @ 11:15 am

  25. Putting aside the retard slapfest that happened a few posts back, Osen was interesting, if only for the great art. It doesn’t look like anything special, but I won’t judge it until about a volume worth of material has been translated.

    Huff June 20, 2006 @ 3:49 pm

  26. So far Osen seems like a dud, but I too will hold my final opinion until I read at least 2 more chapters. However, I did enjoy Kilico very much and am sorry to have it end the way it did. It was just too rushed at the end and what the heck is up with Kilico shooting Akira!?!?

    Apep June 20, 2006 @ 11:08 pm

  27. Thank you very much for finishing “Kilico” (at an amazing pace) and already starting a new project, “Osen”! Usually, I don’t read manga like the aforementioned, but I can’t help but try all your new projects because of your elaborate and attractive introductions. n_n;; Although I didn’t fully understand “Kilico”s story (would anyone mind explaining it to me? ._.;;), I’m excited to start reading “Osen.”

    Great job on everything, and thank you to the staff for all of their hard work!! ^_^ We really appreciate it!

    badtzmaru June 21, 2006 @ 9:58 am

  28. I expected to see many people alienate from Osen. Well, first of all the art style using is closer to that of European comics, namely French comics. For me there is no problem with that. The only thing that kinda let me down is that Osen’s narration in the first chapter could have done a better job. But who I am to say anything, we need to wait and see how the story unfold.

    k11 June 22, 2006 @ 9:01 am

  29. Hi everyone. This is my first post here.

    I must said that the first thing I must do is thank all the team for the great work that are doing. I began to know you thanks to Kiliko and every night I was enjoying myself with your scans. Thanks for so many good hours.

    Is really sad that there are not a good forum to diseurs such a great manga.

    And about the ending, what happened is quite clear (but sad). Kiliko could not abandon her live as an assassin and she wanted to clear all the things that she left behind. To do so; she must kill Rozarki (also, protecting her remaining family) and Akira.
    Only at last; afters shooting him, she understood that she loved him.
    And Akira… well… even if he knows that he is goanna die, it doesn’t matter to him since it’s her; after seeing that he can’t take her from that life.

    Osen seems quite nice; I will try it now. ^_^

    Fithoslusec June 22, 2006 @ 6:08 pm

  30. Hello, this is my first post here. I’ve accidently stumbled to this website, and I have to say that people that work on these Manga really have great taste. Thank you for all your great work.

    As for me, I at the risk of sounding like a suck-up, I enjoyed the first chapter of Osen quite a lot. It might have something to do with my family running a Japanese restaurant, but I have to say that story and characters are interesting already in the first chapter. I say give it few more chapters and more chance for correct pacing of the story (as I do think Mangaka was quite pressed to do a lot in the first chapter) then maybe we can understand why Boke chose to do this project.

    Anyways, keep up the great work! Thank you!

    Chadohfax June 30, 2006 @ 3:17 pm

  31. Thanks for your work on Kilico. It was a fun ride while it lasted! Please enjoy my donations and I hope you folks will get some more manga w/it.

    Osen is different but still enjoyable. ^-^

    Dvo July 5, 2006 @ 11:00 pm

  32. jousei being devoured with ferocity, lighting Kilico, awaiting Osen with bated breath

    Daniel Beckham July 6, 2006 @ 9:20 pm

  33. Mmmmm… more Mohiro Kitoh is always welcome, thanks.

    Jinchi August 1, 2006 @ 12:26 pm

  34. @Jinchi: You’re welcome. ^^ We/I actually planned to do this book of his at the beginning of the year, but then things just kept piling up. But better late than never, eh?

    Now if only I could find enough time to write up a new posting for this. ^^;

    Nomad Soul August 1, 2006 @ 4:33 pm

  35. I like Osen very much, indeed. Cooking in itself is an art, and it is very vibrant in this chapter.

    I am very much looking forward to checking out more mangas on this site. You seem to have great taste, I like your style ^_^

    Silen August 30, 2006 @ 2:44 pm

  36. i found these comics on eBay in case you guys want to bid on them. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320085454936

    Mark February 21, 2007 @ 11:56 pm

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