Created by none other than Takako Shimura of Hourou Musuko and Sweet Blue Flowers fame, Happy-Go-Lucky Days demonstrates that the author can deliver more than just cute love stories involving adolescents. A collection of short stories originally published in Manga Erotics F, Happy-Go-Lucky Days takes a refreshing and humorous look at relationships between young people in Japan. Yes, it’s got sex and nudity in it, but those scenes are handled quite tastefully. The stories themselves are quirky and interesting, although some of them can be a bit weird. Nevertheless, fans of Takako Shimura who are interested in reading her more mature stories should definitely give this manga a try. You won’t be disappointed. Consider it our follow-up to Please God.

For those of you who like their manga with a bit more testosterone, I give you two exciting new chapters of Historie which bring us close to the end of the Paphlagonia arc (and with it the looong flashback sequence).

After years of understaffing and overworking Kotonoha is now ready to bring in some new blood. Despite our uncertain future we are determined to work on all our projects the best way we can, so I hope you won’t let the little “announcement” further below deter you from applying. Who knows, maybe you will be the one to help us avert our impending doom.

Interested? Please read on.

French-English Translator(s) [Closed]
Who needs moon speakers if you could have them cool traducteurs français? We don’t! However, you’d better be damn good (and hardcore) because translating a translation is not for the faint-hearted!

Here’s what we need: one or two capable French-English translators for two long-term seinen projects (5+ volumes; the genre is modern-day drama and historical action respectively.) The translator should be fluent in both French and English (bilingual and English native speakers are preferred), have a strong sense of commitment and good communication skills. Scans of the books will be provided by us. You are, however, welcome to buy/use your own copies if you want to.

Detailed information about the manga and a translation test will be provided upon application.

Editors/Letterers
The main reason why we are so slow is because we lack editors. Take a look at our staff page if you don’t believe me. So, in order to increase our productivity, we need a few more of those Photoshop wizards to help us with our existing projects. Unfortunately, we can only accept applicants with sufficient experience at the moment.

These are the projects that currently need an editor:

• Hourou Musuko
• Hyougemono
• Girlfriend

Our standard editor’s test can be downloaded here.

Proofreaders/Copy Editors
As a proofreader/copy editor you are not only required to fix grammar and spelling mistakes, but also to rewrite awkward sentences and point out ambiguous or inappropriately worded parts of the dialogs. Basically, we need you to make our translation look good. Although English native speakers with college education are preferred, if you can prove to us you know your English you’re good to go.

At the moment the following projects are available:

• Kiichi
• What a Wonderful World
• Hyougemono
• Shigurui
• Hallucination from the Womb

If you are interested in one of the positions above, please send your application to kotonoha (at) gmx (dot) net with the following information:

• Your online name
• Your contact information (E-mail, IM, IRC etc.)
• Desired position (translator, editor, proofreader)
• Desired project(s)
• Previous scanlation experience (if available)
• Reason why you want to join us

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Anyway, the good news is we’re not dead yet! Which means you can still expect a few more releases from us, such as these:

• Chokotto Sister Vol 6 Ch 49
• Happiness Ch 5
• Hourou Musuko Vol 4 Ch 30
• Hyougemono Vol 1 Ch 3
• Shigurui Vol 1 Ch 5
• The Hour of the Mice Vol 2 Ch 15

Nominated for the prestigious Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize and voted the second best manga series in 2007 by Japanese readers, Yoshihiro Yamada’s Hyougemono (lit. odd or funny things) is one of those manga whose covers alone radiate style and class. And that’s exactly what you get… plus much more. Set in Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku (Warring States) period, Hyougemono tells the story of Sasuke Furuta, a Sadō (tea ceremony) addict who also happens to be a messenger in Nobunaga Oda’s army. A bon vivant and art connoisseur, Furuta is more interested in collecting tea ceremony utensils than fighting, a behavior that causes him much trouble and makes for a lot of hilarious situations throughout the series. Don’t get me wrong, Hyougemono is far from being a laugh fest. There are enough epic battles, sword fights and intense drama in this series to satisfy any action fan, but thanks to Furuta and his antics the story never becomes too serious and can be enjoyed even if you’re not interested in the period in question or the subject matter (tea ceremony, famous utensils). Though it does help if you are familiar with the background of real-life personalities such as Nobunaga Oda and Hideyoshi Hashiba (aka Hideyoshi Toyotomi) as well as the basics of Sadō.

To make it short, Hyougemono offers everything you could expect from a great manga: fascinating and memorable characters, an astonishing artwork whose beautiful richness is a treat for the eyes, an elegant story filled with action, humor, drama and pathos that’s simply a blast to read. And read it you should.

Many thanks to richvh who lent us his translation skills for this difficult project and boke who took some time off his busy schedule to make sure the script is up to snuff. Now if only he could give us more Osen to go along with Hyougemono (I would like to think of them as sister projects)!

But I guess that’s life. We can’t get everything we want, though sometimes we get what we need: like new chapters of Historie (today’s batch concludes the 3rd volume), The Hour of the Mice (the tension is mounting) and Seizon - LifE (we’re close to wrapping up the 2nd volume)!

What? A volume-worth of new reading material is not enough to satisfy your manga hunger? It’s a good thing then that we have prepared a few more chapters of our other projects for your consumption. Check out chapter 17-19 of Historie which conclude the second volume, chapter 47 of Chokotto Sister, chapter 28 of Hourou Musuko and chapter 11 of The Hour of the Mice.

Happy reading and see you next week!

Today we’re releasing the first two in the collection. The first is called “Teased and Stepped On, What Blooms is a Passionate Flower,” and it is about a relationship between a girl and her teacher. It may seem straightforward enough, but there’s a lot of deeper things to think about that it displays very well.

The second story is “Lolita #7,” and it is also about a relationship. This one between two cousins. An older male and a younger girl. They both go to the same school, except one is an actual teacher there, while the other is a student. When the elder doesn’t come to class for a few days, the younger is sent over to his place to find out what’s going on. It’s humorous and thoughtful at the same time, something Furuya does so well.

That’s all for today, but hopefully we will have four more of these one shots out for you guys soon. Enjoy.

———–

Nomad Soul: It would seem we have saved all our good projects for the final quarter of the year. In addition to Happiness, we bring you Historie, the breathtaking historical epic by Hitoshi Iwaaki of Parasyte fame. And since it’s so insanely good, we launch this project not with just one or two chapters, but five! We owe this remarkable feat to Reiu who is translating this manga in record time. Hopefully our next update will see the completion of volume 1.

Completing our Triple-H-release is Hourou Musuko, whose 26th chapter kicks off the 4th volume.

I wish I had something to show for BSM as well. Alas, due to lack of time I can no longer continue editing this project, which is why we’re now looking for a dedicated editor to help us with the volumes 2-4. Check this thread in our forum for more information.

One other thing: I have been informed that some of you have been using download managers to get files from our http mirrors. Please don’t do that. These softwares tend to open up dozens of connections at the same time, causing a huge server load and generating heavy traffic for the hosters to the point where their servers become unresponsive. This is simply unacceptable. Be warned that if you continue using these tools your IP will be banned by certain hosters for good. Be reasonable and use torrents if you want to download a large number of files at once. Thank you.

Take me to the forum!

To celebrate the launch, we give you a new chapter of Hourou Musuko and Seizon - LifE (yes, it’s been a while ^^; ).

• Girlfriend V4 Ch17
• Kiichi!! V1 Ch3
• Milk Closet V4 Ch20 (End)
• Shigurui V1 Ch4
• SWWEEET V1 Bonus
• What a Wonderful World V2 Ch10-11