Wow, fourth week in a row? I don’t think even the old Kotonoha was ever this consistent. Of course, given our usual luck it probably means that I’m going to get hit by a truck within the next 48 hours. In any case, today we have a new chapter of Happy-Go-Lucky Days and two of Soil (does this qualify as fast-tracking yet?) Things are really beginning to unravel in Soil as the town’s dirty secrets are being exposed one after another. Yet the most pressing question still remains: What the hell happened to the Suzushiros? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer for the (epic) answer. At least I can assure you that Soil is not one of those series where the author just keeps making shit up as he goes along.

For more information check out this cool interview with Atsushi Kaneko conducted by du9 in 2007. In it he revealed that he had the whole plot of Soil mapped out. The series is still ongoing but I have a feeling the conclusion is due any day now.

P.S. Make sure to check back next week since we will have one or two nice surprises for you. That is, unless that truck finds me first.

I know what you are thinking. Soil? Didn’t Kotonoha pick up this series like, back in the 60s? Seriously though, I’m the first one to admit that we have badly neglected this gem, but not anymore! Armed with a new translator (thank you, Meriken!) and new determination, we are ready to fast-track this baby. And by “fast-track” I of course mean more than one chapter per month. So now you don’t have any more excuses not to download the first volume and delve yourself into the intriguing world of Soil (note: the panel below is not representative, though I still thought it was hilarious and worth displaying).

P.S. Oh yeah, we have the last chapter of Hallucination from the Womb as well. That’s one monkey less on our back, people.

Attention! We interrupt our regular program to bring you a special eye-candy tonight. Undertrain is an experimental manga drawn by Studio 4°C’s Tatsuyuki Tanaka (Boiling Head) exclusively for Comickers. Those of you who are familiar with Tanaka’s works will recognize his style instantly. Even though there’s not much story in it, Undertrain manages to create a fascinating world filled with vivid details in only 16 pages. It’s as though you’re not looking at a manga, but a storyboard for an animated movie. If you know someone who thinks all manga looks the same, all you need to do to prove him or her wrong is to show that person Undertrain.

I’m happy to report that the core parts of Kotonoha are up and running smoothly. Of course, there’s still a gazillion things that need attending to and our staff has been practically decimated (all my fault, really), but I’m working to fix that. In the meantime, I hope we are strong enough to maintain a weekly release schedule. I know, it sounds crazy. However, as I said in my previous post, steadiness will be our game.

Let’s take a look at today’s releases:

• Happy-Go-Lucky Days V2 Ch8-9
  We launch into the second and last volume of Takako Shimura’s stirring anthology with a sweet yuri story that we all missed in the first volume. The second story is a bit subtler, but its emotional impact can surprise you once you realize the situation the main character goes through. All in all, it’s everything you’d expect from Shimura.
• Hallucination from the Womb Ch6
  No, I can’t believe how long it’s taking us to finish this damn series, either. At least it will be over soon. I curse you, Mohiro Kitoh!

It’s been more than a year since Kotonoha’s last release. Most people have already written us off as history and I certainly can’t fault them. I myself wasn’t sure if I should get back into the scanlation business at all. You see, the problem with being gone for so long is that you can’t just sit down and pick up where you left off 12 months ago. The drive just isn’t there anymore. Adding the chronic shortage of time and you have a quite powerful incentive for letting it all go. Nevertheless, I for one dislike an unfinished job as much as anybody else, and it seems Kotonoha has quite a few of those, so here we are, back on our feet and ready to give it another try.

To kick off our “legacy tour,” we give you the final two chapters of the first volume of Takako Shimura’s stimulating compilation Happy-Go-Lucky Days and two brand-new short stories by old master Katsuhiro Otomo.

I realize some of you are wondering about the status of Kotonoha’s projects, so let me address this issue here as well as I can. Due to my hectic schedule these days I can only work on 1-2 projects at a time. Logic dictates that I focus on finishing our shorter projects first, the ones that are 1-2 volumes long, so don’t be surprised if our output seems heavily weighted toward certain series for a while. That said, what we lack in diversity we’ll make up for it in steadiness (I hope).

As for our longer series I’m afraid we’ll have to put them on the back-burner for now. You might still see a new chapter for Kiichi!! every once in a while, but I certainly can’t promise anything.

Finally, these are the projects that we’ll have to drop:

• Sweet Blue Flowers (Starting from the 4th volume, this series will be scanlated by Lililicious alone. We wish them all the best with it and thank them for their awesome work and past cooperation.)
• Shigurui
• Hyougemono
• Hanashippanashi
• Osen